It's finally happened- I got my wife to play something other than her Sisters! For years I've tried to convince her to try a different army as this provides perspective that can help with her normal force. After all, it's hard to consider the uniqueness and power of a single army when you never experience another.
She chose the Necrons... of course she did! We planned for an Incursion game (1,000 points) so that she only had to learn the stats and rules for a couple of units. And we know that I'm a fan of the smaller games, even if I never get to play them. After a quick review, she built her army list and I was proud. Just based off the 'what looks cool' rule, her choices were rather good. Tons of choppy-choppy on a small board? How did she know!?!
I decided that the War in Heaven had to get its due, plus the new Eldar codex came out. With the retirement of my T'au due to overperforming, it was time to give the next xenos in line their go at battle. I chose my old theme of Iyanden-style with a little support from Reapers. Tons of guns versus blades for days!
I don't remember the name of the mission as I don't have practice with the Incursion scenarios, but I do remember that there were six objective markers. The shocking part, to me, was the size of the board. At half the size of a standard 2,000 point game, there seemed to be very little room to maneuver on this board size. This made terrain even more important as one good round of shooting could result in an army being wiped out. Block that line-of-sight to have a game.
The game started with the Necrons clanking forward and the Eldar shuffling up or taking shots downrange. Unfortunately, it resulted in the Immortals suffering and little in trade from the space elves...
Round 2 was absolutely brutal as these two ancient enemies unleashed their powers. The Necrons had long forgotten how adept the Eldar are at reading their movements and committed just to see their enemies respond perfectly. With pinpoint accuracy, Immortals and Destroyers were immediately annihilated from shuriken and wraithcannon. After the fusillade, the ghosts charged in and chopped down the survivors. Even the Necron warlord found himself facing a massive Wraithlord!
While the Eldar were ruthlessly effective with their shooting, the Necrons weren't going to be defeated by their foe so easily. Trading robot for pointy-ear, Immortals and Scarabs swarmed Guardians and eventually pushed through to steal the objective. The Necrons paid dearly on that side, but objective points matter.
Meanwhile, the Destroyer Lord laughed mechanically as the Wraithlord struggled to get through his phase-shifting shield, only to gleefully dice up the construct and begin to move toward the Guardians standing on the other objective. Shuriken storm from those Guardians ended the warlord, but it was still sweet to chop down the big baddie in front of them.
In a last-ditch effort, the surviving Necrons camped their characters on their objective points and sent the Wraiths forward. Their last protocol was to hunt down the glowing leaders of the Eldar and so they stalked the ruins until they found and killed the Spiritseer leading the ghosts. With the loss of most of the ghost units and now their commander, the Eldar decided to quit the battlefield and minimize losses...
The game ended with an Eldar victory by points, but it was just great putting the new Eldar on the tabletop AND seeing my wife try out a new army. She noted that it wasn't as difficult as she thought it would be and she found it easy to remember the rules and stats. The entire game just became more accessible to her, and that perspective change is something I was hoping for. While she didn't get to really take advantage of the Necrons' abilities, she enjoyed playing a different army and actually likes the cute robot guys. Of course.
I found the Eldar to be awesome! While an Incursion game isn't exactly scaled properly, it was still really cool to feel those new abilities. Battle Focus is pretty strong, especially on those Guardians that spent 2 command points every round to shoot and dance around. But the real surprise to me was the Wraithguard. Their longer range and devastating guns make their offensive output ridiculous, and then you add the 3 wounds, toughness 6, and 2+ armor save (with Protect from the Spiritseer) and a FnP (with Fortune from the Farseer). Add some Battle Focus from the warlord and those units can be oppressive. They may be dead, but they aren't useless!
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