Tau vs Necrons (3rd ed.) Battle Report

A couple of weeks ago, Brian and I had a Tau versus Necron battle using a campaign mission published on the Bell of Lost Souls website (BOLS). The mission was a Tau versus Necron scenario at 1500 pts each side.

Planet of the Misfit Toys (Tau versus Necrons)
Deployment: Pitched Battle, Night Fight Turn one

Primary: 6 objectives placed 12" apart, 3 per table half. Starting on turn 2, roll a d6 for each unit holding an objective, on a 5 or 6, that unit teleports out with the objective and enters reserves. The objective is claimed and the unit re-enters the battle via deepstrike from reserve.

Secondary: Table Quarters

Tertiary: Kill points (+1 if you kill all enemy HQs)

Necron List:
Lord, orb

2x 5 Destroyers
1x 4 Destroyers
2x10 Warriors
1x 8 Immortals


Tau List
Commander Farsight +2 XV8 Bodyguards (plasma, fusion, targeting array, MT, 2x Shield Drones)

2x XV8 (Plasma, Missile, MT)
2x XV8 (TLMissile, flamer)

2x 7 Firewarrior
2x Devilfish (disruption pod)
1x 8 Firewarrior

3x XV88 (adv stabil, team leader, 2x shield drones)
1x Hammerhead Gunship (Rail, 2x burst, disruption pod, multi-tracker)
1x Sniper Drone Team




Table Setup. Brian setup the table with some serious line of sight blocking in the center. He won the roll to go first and and spread hist Necron force across the board. The objectives were space evenly around the deployment zones (white circles). Meanwhile, I setup my Tau defensively on the right flank with my sacrificial sniper drone team on the left flank. I failed to seize the intiative.

Necron Turn 1. Necrons advance towards the objective using terrain and night fighting to confidently start the objective claiming process.

The destroyers zoom up and stun the center Devilfish. His lord teleports the group of immortals near the sniper drone team and kills them off quickly.

Tau Turn 1. I quickly realize this terrain is going to be a problem and start to shift my forces aggressively towards the middle. I move one Devilfish on the right flank up to go for one of the objetives in his deployment area. My shooting is terrible as the Hammerhead blast scatters way off mark against the lord and immortals.

Necron Turn 2. His warriors are claiming two objectives so he will get to roll at the end of the turn. His destroyers move swiftly up and spray glancing shots all over the Hammerhead stunning it and immobilizing the Devilfish. One of his warrior groups teleports out with an objective.
Tau turn 2. I get the Firewarriors out of the immobilized Devilfish and run them to the center objective. My other group of Firewarriors gets to another. Battlesuits move and and pepper the destroyers with plasma. Broadsides take out some immortals. I teleport out with one objective at the end of the turn.

Necron Turn 3. His warriors come out of reserve and deepstrike right onto an unclaimed objective. Brian misses quite a few WBB rolls for the destroyers, but the remaining shoot up on the Firewarriors that did not teleport out, killing one group. At the end of his turn both of his warrior groups roll 6s and teleport out with two more objectives! Necrons lead 3-1 on the primary mission!

Tau Turn 3. I get a bit desperate and make a mistake running a group of Firewarriors out in the open to claim and objective. I deepstrike in the reserve group and they scatter onto some terrain but suffer no wounds. My battlesuits move up, and shoot at the destroyers. Commander Farsight desperately looks for something to hit with his sword but the Necrons are too fast and stay out of assault range.

Necron Turn 4. Brian tries to deepstrike a group of warrios near one of the objectives but scatters onto the Firewarriors. He then rolls a unit destroyed result on the mishap table! His other group of warriors arrive safely, but are not near the fight for an objective. His destroyers kill the Firewarrios caught in the open that failed their teleport out roll. Meanwhile the Lord has been having a hard time helping WBB rolls on the immortals killed by railgun shots.

Tau Turn 4. Things aren't looking good. The last group of Firewarriors desperately runs to an objective to try and teleport out, but I fail the roll again. Meanwhile, my battlesuits advance to try and take out more destroyers. Farsight still hasn't been able to assault anything as the Necrons scoot and shoot out of range.

Necron Turn 5. Brian is failing a lot of WBB rolls and is running low on destroyers. He tries to teleport his Lord and immortals, but scatters off the table, another mishap! This time the unit goes into reserves, but on turn 5 they might not make it back into the game. His warriors move into an uncontested table quarter.

Tau Turn 5. One hail mary shot from the Hammerhead fails to hit the warrior group. My only chance at that point was phase out, but the LOS terrain was protecting his warriors and his remaining destroyers. The game ends on the bottom of turn 5. Necrons win Primary and Secondary. The Tertiary is undecided as we are not sure how to score his HQ and immortal unit stuck in reserve at games end.

Good game, but I knew I was in trouble taking a fluffy list with Commander Farsight. I should have brought a regular list with Kroot, but I wanted to use my Forge World battlesuit conversion. Too bad I never got into assault! It was not a good idea against a crafty Necron opponent using 14 destroyers! I brought too many railguns expecting to see a Monolith and flamers expecting to see scarabs.