New Year, New Enemy: Introduction and Army Lists
The planet Abrynn had gone dark and silent. 

Standing on the bridge of the battle barge Indra’s Chariot, Raja Khandar Madu saw that though night had fallen across Abrynn’s single continent, no lights gleamed from its cities. Behind her, comm-slaves tried in vain to make audio contact with Governor Evark, the Planetary Defense Force, the Abrynn Multimedia Network, anyone at all. Visual scans relayed images of extensive damage to homes, factories, government offices, power plants, dams, and roads. But of Abrynn’s 14 million inhabitants, there was no sign. 

“It is no use, Raja,” said Great Chaplain Talwar Chakram.

The young, red-haired commander sighed. “We were too late to aid Cadia, and now we are too late to aid Abrynn,” she said. “Would that we had been nearer when we received her distress signals. Prepare an away team to investigate Moorton, the capital city. Let us see if they can learn what happened.”

Before Talwar Chakram could relay the order, Kshatriya Jirbu Ghosh stepped before both women and bowed. “Raja, energy scans have determined that all Imperial infrastructure on the planet’s surface is non-operational. Yet hundreds of small, functional power sources have been detected in and around Moorton. The energy signatures do not match any in our database.”

“They are of alien origin?” asked Talwar Chakram.

“Apparently, memsahib.”

“Yet visual scans have revealed no sign of enemy units,” Khandar Madu said. “Some deviltry is afoot here.”

She stared down at the darkened cities of Abrynn. “Belay the order for an away team,” she said. “Prepare all squads aboard for immediate attack. Petition Tigers Eternal Shiva the Destroyer and Shrendi Vashtar to join us. Have all forces assemble in the launch bays in twenty-nine minutes. We shall go in via drop pods and find out who—or what—has dared raise his hand against the Emperor’s people.” 

Introduction
Every New Year’s Day, my pal Pat and I get together and fight a special 40K battle. Sometimes it’s a “training session” between his Space Wolves and my Marines (like New Year, Old Friends), sometimes it’s part of a campaign. We use this annual opportunity to try out new stuff and fight day-long mega-battles. 

As frequent Jungle visitors know, Pat writes a series called A Thousand Points of Light, where he posts starting army lists for new players. One of the photos in his Necron article in that series has a caption that reads, “Images of Necrons from recovered vid-logs found at the site of the Abyrnn Massacre.” Pat was inspired by that line and suggested that we pick up immediately after the Massacre, with the Fighting Tigers of Veda carrying out a “Planetfall” mission to avenge the slain. 

Necron Army List
It’s fun to be able to put everything you own on the board and use it as a cohesive force. Pat’s list consisted of everything he had in his new army. Following his own advice from the Legionis Tacticum article on ‘bots, Pat has plenty of “Necron” units—Lords, Immortals, Flayed Ones, Warriors, Wraiths, Destroyers, and Heavy Destroyers—as well as a few “non-Necron” units—Scarabs, Tomb Spyders, and the Monolith—to help out. Because of this, his army would not be easy to Phase Out. 

• Lord Baphomet w/ Staff of Light, Veil of Darkness, and Resurrection Orb (200 points)
• Lord Thoth w/ Destroyer Body, Staff of Light, Phase Shifter, and Resurrection Orb (200 points)
• 10 Immortals (280 points)
• 10 Flayed Ones (180 points)
• 15 Necron Warriors (270 points)
• 15 Necron Warriors (270 points)
• 15 Necron Warriors (270 points)
• 15 Necron Warriors (270 points)
• Squadron of 4 Destroyers (200 points)
• Squadron of 4 Destroyers (200 points)
• Swarm of 10 Scarab bases (120 points)
• Monolith (235 points)
• Squadron of 3 Heavy Destroyers (195 points)
• 2 Tomb Spyders (110 points)

Pat’s plan was to cluster his Necrons at one end of the table, establishing a solid firebase. His Lords would stay centrally located so that their Resurrection Orbs would benefit the most Necrons. His Flayed Ones would stay in Reserve, to emerge where and when needed, while Warriors laid down fire and Destroyers/Heavy Destroyers hunted tough targets like Terminators and Dreadnoughts. Scarabs would use their speed to engage units in hand-to-hand, and the Tomb Spyders would follow behind to finish off what the Scarabs caught. The Monolith would serve mostly to move units around the board, and Lord Baphomet’s Veil of Darkness would get him out of sticky situations. 

Fighting Tiger Army List (“101 Dalmatians”)
The previous time that my Marines had fought Necrons, I had stood my ground and relied on heavy weapons. “Planetfall” is ill-suited for that strategy, so in building an army for this battle, I chose units that could shoot well at close range, sustain intense return fire, and get stuck into close combat ASAP.

I also wanted to take advantage of this game’s size and mission parameters to take a few units just for fun:

• Raja Khandar Madu and her bulked-up Command Squad;
• My “tactical” and Assault Terminators; and
• My new “assault” Scout Squad.

• Raja Khandar Madu: Force Commander w/ master-crafted lightning claws, artificer armor, Iron Halo, and Terminator honors (165 points)
• Singh Squad (Command Squad): Veteran Sergeant Lakshman w/ bolt pistol and power fist; Techmarine w/ servo arm, power weapon and bolt pistol; Apothecary w/ bolt pistol and power weapon; Standard Bearer w/ bolt pistol and close combat weapon; two Marines w/ flamers; three Marines w/ bolters (275 points)
• Talwar Chakram: Chaplain w/ crozius arcanum, storm bolter, rosarius, and Terminator armor (100 points)
• Tigers of Indra, Squad 1: Terminator Sergeant w/ storm bolter and power sword; two Terminators w/ storm bolters and power fists; one Terminator w/ assault cannon and power fist; one Terminator w/ heavy flamer and power fist (240 points)
• Tigers of Indra, Squad 2: Assault Terminator Sergeant w/ lighting claws; four Terminators w/ lightning claws (240 points)
• Tigers of Indra, Squad 3: Veteran Sergeant Jirbu Ghosh w/ plasma pistol and close combat weapon; eight Veterans w/ bolt pistols and close combat weapons; one Veteran w/ flamer (228 points)
• Tiger Eternal, Shiva the Destroyer: Dreadnought w/ close combat weapon and built-in heavy flamer, assault cannon, extra armor, and smoke launchers (123 points)
• Tiger Eternal, Shrendi Vashtar: Dreadnought w/ close combat weapon and built-in heavy flamer, multimelta, extra armor, and smoke launchers (133 points)
• Tigers of Rudra, Squad 1: Veteran Sergeant w/ bolter-flamer, power weapon; eight Tactical Marines w/ bolters; one Tactical Marine w/ flamer (196 points)
• Tigers of Rudra, Squad 2: Veteran Sergeant w/ bolter-flamer, power weapon; eight Tactical Marines w/ bolters; one Tactical Marine w/ flamer (196 points)
• Tigers of Rudra, Squad 3: Veteran Sergeant w/ bolter-flamer; eight Tactical Marines w/ bolters; one Tactical Marine w/ melta gun (185 points)
• Tigers of Rudra, Squad 4: Veteran Sergeant w/ bolter-flamer; eight Tactical Marines w/ bolters; one Tactical Marine w/ melta gun (185 points)
• Tigers of Kali, Squad 1: Veteran Sergeant w/ bolt pistol and power weapon; seven Assault Marines w/ bolt pistols and close combat weapons; two Assault Marines w/ plasma pistols and close combat weapons; all w/ jump packs and frag grenades (290 points)
• Tigers of Kali, Squad 2: Veteran Sergeant w/ bolt pistol and power weapon; seven Assault Marines w/ bolt pistols and close combat weapons; two Assault Marines w/ plasma pistols and close combat weapons; all w/ jump packs and frag grenades (290 points)
• Tigers of Puchan, Squad 1: Veteran Scout Sergeant w/ bolter-flamer; nine Scouts w/ bolt pistols and close combat weapons (153 points)

My plan was to negate the Necron’s fearsome firepower by getting as many Marines as possible into hand-to-hand combat on Turn Two. Therefore, and because my forces would be Deep Striking onto the table, I eschewed heavy weapons for most squads, taking flamers, bolter-flamers, heavy flamers, plasma pistols, and melta guns.

I call this list the “101 Dalmatians” list because…well, because it has 101 Space Marines (103 if you count the Dreads). Anyhoo—on to battle!

© Copyright Kenton Kilgore, January 2004
 

Top