Battle Missions Tournament Game 2

This game I was up against Cory with his beautifully painted Chaos Daemons. I used the same army as round 1, and Cory had:

Great Unclean One
4 Blood Crushers w/ Icon
5 Fiends of Slaanesh
3 Flamers of Tzeentch
7 Plague Bearers w/ Icon
7 Plague Bearers
5 Plague Bearers
Soul Grinder w/ Battle Cannon thing
Soul Grinder w/ Battle Cannon thing

For the mission, I chose Implacable Advance. It was similar to pitched battle, but with 16" deployment zones and a 16" no-man's-land in the middle. An objective was placed in the centre of each deployment zone and one in the centre of the board. However, in order to capture an objective all you need to do is have a scoring unit on it uncontested at the end of that player's turn. The only way for the opponent to take this objective is to get one of their scoring units on it uncontested. Whoever has the most objectives wins. Also, all non-fearless units gained the Stubborn special rule, which was HUGE for Daemons vs Necrons.

Deployment
I placed my monolith in the centre as forward as possible with the deceiver to the left. Warriors behind them in cover, with scarabs to the right of the warriors. Destroyers were behind the warriors, lined up on my table edge.

I got first turn on a roll of 2+ which I made. I didn't have a choice to give my opponent first turn.

Turn 1
I moved my monolith and Deceiver forward and portalled the warriors through the monolith. They captured the centre objective and then ran to spread out.

For his preferred wave, Cory chose a relatively balanced force: 2 Soul Grinders, flamers, fiends and the 7 plaguebearers with the icon. He got his preferred wave.

One soul grinder landed directly in front of my monolith and warriors, while the other one mishapped and was killed. The fiends were to the right of my monolith, and the plague bearers landed on his objective to secure it. His flamers of tzeentch landed on the left near my warriors on my objective. In shooting, his soul grinder killed four warriors from my front squad and his flamers killed a few warriors from the rear squad. My front warriors failed morale and fell back to be near the other warrior squad.

Turn 2
My warriors that had fallen back regrouped. I moved my scarabs to the left so his fiends would be out of charge range in his turn. I moved the monolith and deceiver forward. The monolith was right on top of the centre objective. My warriors rapid-fired his flamers, killing them. My destroyers and monolith killed a couple of fiends.

From his reserves, only the Great Unclean One came in. It landed right next to the scarabs. He would definitely be in charge range of my warriors next turn. Everything else moved towards my army. His soul grinder assaulted my monolith, immobilizing it.

Turn 3
The deceiver moved towards his soul grinder. My scarabs lined up from my table edge to my monolith, blocking his fiends and GUO from my warriors. I began to move my destroyers toward the left corner of the board. I shot at his GUO and reduced it to three wounds. The Deceiver charged into his soul grinder, immobilizing it and taking off both DCCWs.

From his reserves came his Blood Crushers and his 7 plague bearers. The Crushers land to the left of my warriors, within charge range of the Deceiver. His plague bearers landed to the right of my monolith. The GUO charged into my scarabs, killing all but two. The deceiver left combat from the soul grinder.

Turn 4
My warriors shot at the fiends, killing them. My destroyers, who were now in the left corner, killed one bloodcrusher. The Deceiver charged into the Crushers, killing all but one, while the GUO finishes off my scarabs.

The final plague bearer squad comes in from reserve. They land to the left of my warriors, below the Blood Crushers and Deceiver. The rest of his forces are now within charge distance of my warriors. The GUO charges into my eight-man squad nearest to my table edge, while the 7 plague bearers charge into my six-man warrior squad nearest to the monolith. Both remain locked in combat. The Deceiver finishes off the Blood Crushers.

Turn 5
The deceiver charges into combat with the GUO. He lands three hits, and the GUO has three wounds left, meaning I need to roll 3 2+s  to kill it. I roll, and up pop... THREE ONES! The GUO reduces my warrior squad to two models, but they stay in CC. In the other combat, both sides have lost a couple models.

His other plague bearers which had landed last turn charge into combat with the warriors of the top squad near my monolith. They deal a few wounds but I think three warriors stayed alive. In the other combat, the Deceiver was once again unable to kill the GUO, so the GUO finished off my warriors.

So now it came down to the roll to see if the game goes on or not. If the game ends, I win. If it continues, it's about a 90% chance that Cory will phase me out. We give the dice to the store owner who was passing by. He rolls it, the dice rolls through the air, and comes to rest at the foot of the Soul Grinder. The roll is... a two! Necrons take the victory by the skin of their teeth.

Postgame
This is about as close as games get. I had a blast, and I would have still if I had lost. The mission certainly gave me an advantage over a Daemon army. Anyhoo, it was a great game overall and it's games like this that are why I love 40k. The next game was great too.

Next game: Nathan and his Ultramarines!