+ 'Stealer / 'Cron / Ultra' Death +

Alpha Legion & Da Deffwing & Tau vs. Necrons & Genestealers & Ultramarines [5300] - First game after a month of holidays and traveling on the weekends, and another team slugfest. My standard 1500 point AL list, a brand new 2500 point "Deffwing" (Orky Deathwing) army and about 1300 points in Tau; up against 2250 points of Necrons (no monolith, but with 10 pariahs), 1750 points of Genestealers - *vomit* - and about 1300 in Ultras. We played on two 6x4 tables put side by side, for an 8x6 looong walk to the enemy ...

With so many squads of scuttling 'stealers, and so far to the 'crons and the marines, the first few turns were largely dedicated to killing bugs and trying to have something alive to fight the other 3850 points worth of stuff across the table. The infiltrated Tau stealthsuits bit it first turn to the 'stealers, followed by retaliation fire by the Tau that killed the Brood Lord and friends in the next round. My scout cultists, who were hanging around with the stealthsuits, died next to the two bug squads that ate the Tau, followed by my 10-CSM squad the next round! Thankfully though the 10-CSM squad died to a man - they had taken Destroyer fire for a couple turns now - which left the 2 'stealer squads open for a lot of return fire. This finally cleared up the most pressing infestation and let us focus on the rest of the table ...

Chaos Highlights - Dread fire frenzied in turn one and two! Which equaled dead genestealers to 4x plasma and one dead allied mega-armored ork to 4x heavy flamers! Havoks kraked 'stealers and an Ultra command rhino, then a squad of attak bikes to finish up. The 8-CSM squad hopped out of their ride and cooked some 'nid that had killed the 10-CSM squad before, and their über-rhino did little but survive an Ultra lascannon. The assassin cultists, who now had to summon both demonette squads, infiltrated and then pushed up the far left flank, accompanied by the speed lord and backed up by Tau guns. With the help of a devilfish that blocked Necron warrior fire, the cultists slammed out girls in turn two and three, which backed up the lord in assaulting 16 Necron warriors & the 10 pariahs. Chaos once again had to pull out after turn 3 - I had a club to go to in Philly that night - but my lord & ladies managed to take those 26 necrons down to 5 warriors & 3 pariahs, and would have easily finished them off as by then I had the lord with 2 wounds left and a fresh squad of 5-6 girls in there. From there it would have been a shot right into more warriors, easy kills for my crew ...

Deffwing Highlights - After losing the land raider crusader to a first turn lascannon shot and having the second land raider immobilized by a genestealer charge second turn, things looked a bit grim for the boyz in mega-armor at the beginning. A weak first deep strike - 5 termies w/ assault cannon - didn't help the fact that there was 24-36" to go to get those assault termies into the thick of things, and the Master of Sanctity and bodyguard were hammered pretty badly by enemy fire. Turn 3 saw all the remaining terminator squads deep strike though, with all 3 landing in the enemy deployment zone and focusing fire on annihilating 16 necron warriors on the turn they dropped. Since Chaos pulled out after that turn I haven't the foggiest what carnage went down, but 15 shooty termies in the enemy backfield and 5 in front should have done some bad things - and that's not counting the 5 assault termies grinding through a massive destroyer block on the left side of the board.

Tau Highlights - Uh, he missed a lot with his hammerhead? Seriously though, he saved our butts early on, clearing his side of the board of genestealers (even if he was only facing the Brood Lord, retinue and one other bug squad o_O), throwing fire where he could and blocking for my cultists' advance. His Shas'o also got stuck in with 6 'stealers and held them up for 4 combat rounds (and counting), taking only 1 wound and actually pounding a few apart in return. His 2/4+ saves were really earning their keep, and then he had The Bomb if the bugs ever did kill him. Ninja power!

No idea of the end outcome. Things looked bad for us early in the game, and their was quite a bit to go when I pulled out. Hypothetically, if Chaos hadn't left the building I think we could have done it, but losing 1200 points of killing power was probably too much for my allies to handle.

Painting: Dread is DONE. Scout test model tonight.