June Tournament Game #1: Grey Knights vs Necrons 1500pts

 The June tournament at Millennium Games was a 1500pt event with comp penalties for duplicated units, transports, and special characters.  I had decided to build my Mordrak Shock list before the comp penalties were announced so I decided to stick with it.  Each mission allowed players to choose their primary and secondary scoring conditions from kill points, table quarters (vp's), and 5 objectives.  Primaries could only be chosen once, secondaries could be used twice.

My first pairing was against Dean's necrons.  When they announced the pairings, I let out an audible sigh and the guys laughed.  It wasn't because I don't like playing Dean, he's a great opponent.  It's because wraiths and mindshackle scarabs can be so annoying.  Sorry Dean!

Dean's List (approx):
Overlord + scythe, mindshackle scarabs, command barge
Royal Court - 2 lance-teks w/1 solar pulse, 1 veil-tek, 1 lord + orb, scythe, mindshackle scarabs
Triarch Stalker + heat ray
Deathmarks x5 (veil-tek here)
Warriors x5 (lance-tek here) + ghost ark
Warriors x5 (lance-tek here) + ghost ark
Immortals x10 (orb lord here) + tesla
Wraiths x5 + whips x2, pistol x1
Annihilation Barge


My List:
Mordrak
Ghost Knights x5 + hammer x1, halberd x1, swords x2, banner
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, razorback w/psybolt ammo
Stormraven + typhoon missiles
Interceptors x5 + mc hammer, halberds x2, psycannon
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter

***Note: My list is gimmicky and built to pull off an alpha strike with the grand strategy and teleporter units.  I don't want to win games with it by catching people unprepared, so I make sure to explain to them how the grand strategy works and the capabilities of the teleporter units as well as all of Mordrak's special rules.***

So with 5 av13 vehicles, wraiths, and 2 mindschackle units, this list could be a big challenge to my army.  Dean won the roll and elected to go second.  I believe he chose objectives for his primary and table quarters for his secondary.  I chose kill points and table quarters.  Deployment was pitched battle.

I chose scout for my grand strategy and gave it to one NDK.   I deploy the scouting NDK centrally with the razorback squad and interceptors behind cover.  The other NDK went on the right side and the stormraven on the left.  Mordrak would be deep striking with his ghost knights.

Dean castled up using ruins to cover the immortals and wraiths and ghost arks to shield his other vehicles.  I scout the one NDK towards his arks and the game begins.

Mordrak's unit deep strikes on the right side of his formation, away from the wraiths.  The scouting (finished base) NDK jumps up 12" and the other NDK shunts up to shield Mordrak's unit.

In my backfield, the interceptors move up 12" as do both vehicles, dumping out their units to fire all psycannons.

Every single psycannon and stormraven shot is ineffective against the av13 wall.  The scouting NDK assaults the front ghost ark and explodes it killing 2 warriors.

Dean shifts his last ghost ark back 6" to make room for the overlord to sweep the scouting NDK (1 wound) and jump out to assault the shunted NDK.  Wraiths move up to assault and the other vehicles shuffle for shots.

 Dean's shooting almost entirely fails with 2 lances, tons of tesla and gauss only causing 1 wound to the shunted NDK, 1 to Mordrak, and 1 ghost knight.  The wraiths cause 1 wound to their NDK and he causes 1 back (failed force).  The shunted NDK uses daemonic excommunication as we were playing it that mindhackle scarabs could activate force.  He also passes his mindshackle test, causes 2 wounds to the overlord, and takes 1 back.  I'm really surprised all my units survived both shooting and assault phases, but Dean's dice were rolling below average and mine were above so far.

I pull Mordrak's unit out of the ruin but get a poor terrain roll.  Razorback and stormraven move up a bit.

All of my shooting combined explodes the triarch stalker and immobilizes the command barge.  I assault Mordrak's unit into the overlord (primary with banner) and multi onto the wraiths.
 

Everything works out well with the mindshackles targeting the brotherhood banner, the shunted NDK finishing the overlord (also fails everliving), and the scouted NDK surviving the wraith attacks again.  However, Dean saves at least 8 instant death saves and the ghost knights pile in.  The shunted dreadknight cannot reach the remaining assault with 6" and consolidates 1".

The deathmarks arrive and veil behind the razorback squad and mark it for death.

Immortals move up and the remaining ark and annihilation barge shift for shots.

Dean's homefield shooting fails again with everything combined only dealing 1 wound to the unengaged NDK.  The deathmarks with the veil-tek flamer wipe out the razorback strike squad.  Immortals wipe out the interceptor squad with tesla (I failed more 3+ saves than I passed here).  In assault, the NDK survives the wraiths yet again and wipes them out with the help of the ghost knights.

I send Mordrak's unit towards the immortals, the scouted NDK after the annihilation barge, and the shunted NDK after the ghost ark.

My last strike squad moves back to engage the deathmarks.

The stormraven drops 6 frag templates on the immortals and causes zero casualties after RP rolls.  Ghost knights assault immortals, NDK's assault the annihilation barge and ghost ark.

The scouted NDK explodes the annihilation barge but the shunted NDK fails to hurt the ghost ark.  Mordrak perils on hammerhand and I lose one ghost knight to minshackle scarabs.  I kill a couple immortals but we lock and the minsdhackle lord moves onto Mordrak.  In my backfield, I assault the deathmarks, kill a couple, and we lock.

Pic are getting blurry and a few were totally unusable so I apologize.  We were gaming on a corner table and the lighting is the worst in the room.

Dean has the immobile command barge left, ghost ark with warriors, warrior + cryptek on foot, and immortals who are engaged.  He tries to drop the NDKs again (each has 1 wound left) but either fails to wound or I pass my saves.  I kill a couple more immortals and lose another ghost knight.  In the backfield, my strike squad finishes off the deathmarks.

Now the top of 5, I move the NDK's to save Mordrak.

The stormraven goes flat out into the bottom right table quarter.  The shunted NDK wipes out the last warrior and cryptek on foot.  The scouted NDK jumps into the immortals and breaks them with Mordrak.  I fail to sweep and they run but stay on the board.

Dean's last unit of warriors (in the ruin next to the ghost ark) try to shoot down the closest NDK and the lance misses again.

We roll for the end and the game continues.

One NDK moves to escort the broken immortals off the table.  Mordrak moves on the immobile command barge and the NDK on the right moves to assault the warriors in the ruin.

My dice finally smite me as Mordrak assaults the command barge, perils on hammerhand (1 wound left), dies and takes the remaining ghost knights with him.  The last necron warrior unit is also wiped out in assault by the NDK.

At this point we call the game as there's only an immobile command barge left.  I have kill points 10-3 and table quarters 4-0.

This battle was interesting but a bit lopsided due to the dice.  We both rolled averages overall I bet, but my low rolls always came up for mindshackle tests when that was good and high rolls came up on invulns for my NDK's.  One of the tricks to beating this list is also deploying outside 30" of my scouting units if I deploy first.  Overall, I couldn't have asked for much more this game as just about everything went my way except Mordrak's suicide, but I shouldn't have tried hammerhand with 1 wound left.

Next game is against Astorath BA with a stormraven and land raider.