The loss of the sacred Sacarin Battle Tank was a devastating blow to any hope of an Astartes victory.

“Those of the xenos that our Predators do not crush beheanth their armoured tread, we shall strike down ourselves with avenging bolt and righteous blade.”— Brother-Captain Telamon, Crimson Fists Space Marine Chapter

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Continued from Part 2 . . .

Necron Turn Five

On the west flank, the first squad of Terminators are targeted by the combined fire of the Necron Warriors, Immortals, and the Monolith. Three Terminators die, leaving up a single hero left to face increasingly impossible odds.

The second squad of Terminators also prove formidable foes. Despite unrelenting fire from the Triarch Stalker and numerous nearby Necron units, the squad refuses to fall.

But enough, Ioculus decides. Casualties are mounting, and there are few weapons left that even have a chance of destroying the xeno armored might. The fate of the entire First Company is at stake.

Reluctantly, he orders the retreat.

Strategic Analysis

The defeat of the finest troops in the Knights of Altair chapter is a major strategic turning point in the Myopolis Campaign. The First Company was mauled, and the Necrons will be encouraged to press their attack on the the planet’s capital city.

All of this is going to shake the chapter’s confidence to the core. In the fighting on Tolphet, Ioculus was seen as unstoppable. He won every battle against the Necrons and humiliated Agamunzu before his entire dynasty as the xenos were driven from the planet after years of defeating Imperial Guard forces.

On Myopolis, however, it is Agamunzu who has won a decisive victory. If you read A Need for Revenge, you will understand why the Necron overlord will not stop until he crushes Ioculus.

Despite their best efforts, the Astartes’ Terminators cold not fight their way through the xeno energy shields that protected their powerful war machines.

Lessons Learned

In an effort to improve future play, I feel the need to record where I think I went wrong as the Space Marine player (and what I got right as the Necron commander):

• The Space Marine order of battle was all wrong. Although it satisfied the fluff (that the First Company is on Myopolis), my emphasis on elite troops (the Honor Guard, Sternguard, and two units of Terminators) left my force with too little infantry (and firepower). Also, I did not include enough heavy gunnery to deal with four powerful Necron vehicles.

• Ioculus and his Honor Guard, plus their 200-point Stormraven Gunship, was a costly luxury for a 1,500-point army. What’s more, this force was used poorly. The Honor Guard only engaged one enemy unit, and the Stormraven was so busy as a transport that it hardly contributed its powerful weapons to the fight.

• The use of 1st Company veterans wasn’t wrong—just poorly prepared. Even elite infantry wasn’t going to take out a Monolith easily, and I was too timid with the Terminators. Worse, I forget they had Power Fists! I’m an idiot. Their survival to the end of the game proved that they were tough. I should have concentrated the Terminators and Sternguard at one point of the Necron line—and then gone in for the kill.

• The Necron deployment was well planned given the tactical situation. The objective (Relic) was close enough that I could sit back and force the Marines’ drop pods to land in less-than enviable places—while I had multiple units that could bring the Space Marines under fire.

I did not get all of my units firing as often as I should (my units should either move to a better position or shoot), but they fired a lot more than those of the Space Marines. And I had more guns to fire.

• Necron armor is remarkably tough. In this battle, the Necrons had four powerful units on the table, and they were all firing. I had only two tanks on the table, and they arrived late to the battle. So, in terms of gunfire, the Necrons had twice the firepower, and fired twice as often as the Space Marines.

As for the Stormraven, it spent most of the game transporting my Honor Guard, so it hardly mattered.

• The Space Marines committed a fatal error: they attacked piecemeal. My Terminators sat on the defense at first, then charged units that they had no real chance of beating. The Sternguard attacked in an isolated position, without support, and deserved to die. Ioculus and the Honor Guard wiped out one unit efficiently, but only then it realized that it, too, was isolated and unsupported, and it had to withdraw.

In summary, the Necrons deployed well. They were positioned to defend themselves well from the inevitable Space Marine attack, and they were close enough to the objective that they could seize it in a late-game move.  The Space Marines fought like amateurs.

TheGM: In hindsight, I’m not sure the Space Marines should have conceded. Thinking “realistically,” the slaughter of the First Company would be a catastrophic for the campaign, so withdrawing and avoiding unnecessary casualties makes sense.

But, although battles determine the overall narrative of our campaign, I don’t track casualties in a “realistic” manner. Only battlefield results matter.

It’s possible I could have contested the single objective (Relic) at game’s end. Then, if I could prevent the Necrons from getting into my deployment zone (or more likely they might have forgotten to grab that secondary objective), the game would have ended with a contested primary objective, the Space Marines scoring Linebreaker, while the Necrons scoring with First Blood.

Then I would have squeaked by with a draw.

But let’s face it. The Necrons won big.

Now I’m thinking of digging through my old scenario books and finding a scenario for a rearguard action–putting what’s left of my withdrawing Space Marines against the still relatively untouched Necrons. I think it’s a narrative battle that needs to be fought.

Click here to return to Part 1 of the battle report.

Click here to return to Part 2 of the battle report.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.