My Soul Drinkers had their first outing on New Year's Eve.
They took on a rather nasty Necron list:
1 lord
2* 12 warriors
5 flayed ones
5 scarabs with D fields
10 destroyers
First Turn
The game started well with the first turn dice roll going my way.
However this good luck would only last until the end of the movement phase, as my fire power failed to make any real impact at all and to make matters worse everything I did kill got back up anyway.
He then proceeded to knacker my Vindicator's gun and smash half my bikers to dust. (Not a good start.)
Second Turn
With both my rhinos still intact I still had a chance. All my men disembarked and riddled the Necron line with bolter and melta fire. Coupling this with the combined fire from the land speeders, remaining bikes and my other tactical squads Ii began to make a nice dent in the enemy line.
The assault phase also saw my remaining bikers hurtle into combat on an almost suicidal charge against the still mostly intact squad of Necron warriors, managing to do absolutely nothing to the metal misfits; I was expecting some swift revenge that never came. Chris rolled so badly he may as well have been rolling marsh mallows and the combat tied and pinned the poor Necrons in place.
The destroyers and remaining warrior squad made short work of my large squad of 9 marines that had jumped out of the Rhino, leaving none alive. The scarabs then ploughed into one of my plasma squads that must have been armed with bug zapper as they passed their saves and drop kicked a swarm in return. The bike squad also survived yet again unscathed and even managed to run one of em' over
(nice little bonus)
Third Turn
My shooting was rather ineffective, with only 3 storm bolters and the land speeders able to fire not a lot really happened until the combat phase.
Raaa, the remaining melta squad + Chaplin + tech marine joined the fray with the bikers turning the poor abandoned squad of necrons to a neat pile of goo (also saving the bikes). The second plasma squad added their weight to the scarab kicking, reducing them to a single base with the lose of only one marine.
Moving his Destroyers to a safe distance the barrage of fire continued, this time the poor land speeders were the target and with a little help from some machine gun sound effects Chris made sure that they wouldn't be playing any more part in the battle. The bikers also went down to a lone attack bike on 1 wound. The flayed ones erupted from the ground near the Scarab combat which saw the last breaths of life squeezed from the little bugs.
Fourth Turn
The two plasma squads opened up on the flayed ones and they disappeared as fast as they had appeared
other fire power now being reduced to 3 storm bolters (2 from Rhinos, 1 from Vindicator) and a lone attack bike meant that my chances of killing anything at range was limited at best. A hapless destroyer did clock a storm bolter round to the head and regret it though.
The Vindicator finally met it's maker as the Necron fire power riddled it with gauss weapons. The remaining 5 destroyers turned their calculating dead stares to the lone attack bike on one wound, firing a mass volley and engulfing it in a hail of green death. A few seconds later as the smoke began to clear the biker, scorched and toasted, emerged still alive saving no less than 7 wounds.
Fifth Turn
My blessed biker then hurtled forwards towards the Destroyers that had tried to take his life. He needed to pin 'em in combat for 2 combat phases so my command section could reach them and take them out of the game. Not easy, but he survived the first round as he charged in.
The Necrons (now clearly annoyed- even though they didn't show it) opened fire at the command squad to little effect as I passed save after save. More importantly though the attack bike refused to die again and held the Destroyers in place.
Final Turn
My plasma squads moved into range of the Necron warriors and combined with the Rhinos downed enough to take 'em below 50% (more VP's). The command squad finally reached the attack bike again. Hacking and slashing, they destroyed 3 Necrons instantly but the remaining 2 FINALLY decapitated the attack biker and he toppled from his seat covered in glory......and oh yer blood. The Necrons fled however and disappeared from the fight.
In a last desperate attempt to claim some points all the remaining Necrons fire converged on my last melta unit tearing them apart, leaving nothing but the Tech marine and Chaplin alive. The Necron lord then stepped up and sliced my poor Techy in half as the game drew to a close.
The Result
After totalling up the points it came out as a DRAW with Chris scoring only 100 VP's more than Me. Bloody close game and a good test for the army. I was pleased with their overall performance with everything but the Vindicator contributing to the carnage as expected. Let us hope I can pull off a victory in the next one
