Hello everyone, it is I, Gunum! Today I’m continuing the tale of my escapades at the Games Workshop Grand Narrative in Atlanta. If you missed the prelude to this adventure, catch up in my previous post. Today, I will regale you with tales of my games, the battlegrounds, and the grand strategy that unfolded during this epic event.
But first, let us set the stage. As you may know, I brought my Necrons to the fray, but not your run-of-the-mill metal warriors—no, these are my blood-soaked horror Necrons. Imagine a faction that seizes the hearts of their fallen foes to awaken and control new machines. Intrigued? Check out the lore I crafted last year and stay tuned for more in the day two article. Now, onto the action!
**INVASION DAY ONE – No Overlords, One Master:**
As a small part of the Pact of Resistance for now, my role was not entirely clear at the outset. Unlike last year’s well-defined factions and leadership being led by an Eldar Corsair, this time I found myself under the enigmatic leadership of a mysterious seer. Uncertainty around this character loomed, but I had a mission to accomplish. All would be made clear with time, and my deployment for battle was already in hand from the night before. I was to be deployed to the Five-Fold Forge, a setting that seemed like a massive construction zone, one that could produce millions of war-machines. Not foreboding at all.
Before I was able to find my opponent and begin the grim harvest, I first had to figure out how I was going to be playing my first person. There was a unique twist this year that involved pairing through the Emperor’s Tarot—a deck with eleven distinct cards drawn during registration. My card, the Despoiler, depicted an Emperor on a throne with a serpent reaching for spoils. Symbolic and engaging, these cards guided our fates, determining pairings throughout the event. These were placed throughout the event, and you would play against the person who had drawn the same card as you. Fate deciding your matchups, which I found to be incredibly clever.
DAY ONE ARMY THEME: The Penal Legions of Hemocan
My list, adhering to the narrative, featured the likes of Technomancer E’lyc, Tarek the Broken Lord, and M’at, Breaker of Time. It included units like The Eunuchs, The Bloody Masses, and Gunum’s Eye, a Doomstalker, to name a few. A meticulous 2k list, true to my lore, aimed to eschew Overlords and Lychguard in favor of a warrior-centric strategy. I was going to be doing a different list theme every day, and the first day was based around nothing fancy. Just dudes I can throw away.
Day one’s missions narratively seemed focused on establishing a foothold and earning XP for my warrior team, and engaging in infamous missions. No Overlords, no Lychguard—just warriors and a plan. The Five-Fold Forge set the stage for my first game, facing off against Alex from the Pact of Enlightenment.
MY LIST FOR DAY ONE:
**CHARACTERS:**
– Technomancer E’lyc – Hypermaterial Ablator
– Tarek, The Broken Lord – Previous Overlord of Hemocan, transformed after the last campaign.
– M’at, Breaker of Time – A newly awoken Chronomancer aligned with Gunums views.
**BATTLELINE:**
– The Crypteks Shield – 5x Tesla Immortals with M’at
– The Crypteks Sword – 5x Gauss Immortals
– The Enuches- 10x Warriors with Gauss Reapers
– The Bloody Masses – 20x Warriors with Gauss Reapers being assisted by E’lyc
**DEDICATED TRANSPORT:**
– The Enuches Casket – Ghost Ark
**OTHER:**
– Gunums Eye – Doomstalker
– D.O.G – Reanimator (Doing Only Good. He’s my good time boy.)
– The Energy Cells of Hemocan – Canoptek Scarab Swarms
– Dismemberment Specialists Pug and R’ob – Cryptothralls
– The Carrier of Light – Doomsday Ark
– The Crawling Cells – 3x Lokhust Heavy Destroyers with 2x Gauss Destructor, 1x Enmitic Exterminator
– The Collector – Night Scythe
– The Converted – Skorpekh Destroyers x6. The corrupted Lychguard of Tarek, changed to a fitting form.
– The Kings Corrupted Eye – Triarch Stalker. This was a Stalker sent to keep an eye on Gunums weird science from the Silent King. They work for him now.
And that is the list! 2k on the nose, while holding true to my lore the best I could, even in list building. Hemocan no longer has any Overlords, no lords, nor any Lychguard. Though those are some units people find to be a staple in a Necron list, I had a game plan that I wanted to see come true, and that required going all in on warriors and support pieces to keep those warriors going. Day one was about establishing a foothold, lots of XP for my warrior team, and playing into every infamous mission I could.
Also, that sweet, sweet heart count from last year. Mmm. Hearts. Er. “Generators.” I was on the hunt for Space Marine armies, as each Marine has two hearts you see. Round One was where I was able to see the usage of my Despoiler card, and I found it on the very edge of the gaming area, held aloft over a table full of construction ruins. At my table is where I met a gentleman from the Pact of Enlightenment, named Alex.
GAME ONE – Acquired Supplies:
Alex is playing a collection of marines of his own making, very tactical-looking Gladius Strike Force who are a Raven Guard successor. We are playing the “Scattered Supplies” mission from the Crusade pack, and I have to say. This mission seems set up for me.
As we go through the game, trading blows, I quickly realized that claiming objectives was the key to winning this mission, and to do so in such a way that your opponent would have a hard time taking it back. Well, I didn’t take this 20 man block of Necron Warriors not to use them! Early in the game, I move up, pick an objective up with them as well as another with an Immortal Squad. Ideas started to come into my head. As any semi-competitive player knows, looking for ways to maximize points while at the same time restricting your opponents is a key thing to winning any game. I called over the man in charge of the area that we were in, a fellow dressed in black tech-priest garb. The following quick conversation ensued.
“So. If my Necron Warriors pick up this objective, and the unit is conga-lined out 24 inches. You’re telling me if my unit dies, I can then drop it off at the other end of the 24 into my deployment zone?”
“Yes, Warlord. As the unit picks up the objective, not the model.”
“Oh. Well then.”
Long story short, I tabled my opponent on the top of four, with all objectives picked up and on the robot highway to my deployment zone.
Generator collection count:
Space Marines – 37
GAME TWO – Control the Battlefield/Cut off the Head:
Game two I found myself against a horde of Space Wolves in the… Church… Area…. Okay, to be honest, last year this place was a cool idea. It was sold as an underground area that had back-to-back churches that we were all fighting over. The thing was, this area was a primary traffic area to get to a couple of different spots, and it took me out of it. Last year, the church area was in a room with smoke machines and was just small enough that the leader for that room could really allow his booming voice to sound powerful! This year, it was just a bit too open, and I would have preferred to see this location be set in one of the smaller zones in the basement area, instead of the main through way. This could have been the desert area easily instead.
Regardless of my thoughts on the zone and riding high off a power victory in my first game, I was purely focused on the next one. In Crusade, you get points for all the challenging work you put into a mission and those points can be turned into new special rules for your units. I had a game plan right off the bat that would be especially important as the event continued, and that was simply to develop scout on my Warrior brick. To do this, I needed to make sure my Technomancer, my Cryptothralls, and my Warriors themselves all got to 6xp as fast as possible. I did this by using Survival Agenda, picking three units to not die every game. Also, utilizing the “Marked for Greatness” choice at the end of the game to give a chosen unit 3xp as well. The first round saw all those missions complete, but it was time to do it again.
This time, it was against Space Wolves piloted by a gentleman named Garret in a Champions of Russ detachment. Garret was a great opponent who was “cosplaying” in Space Wolf pajamas, and it was a real energy I could get behind. We were playing Dawn of war with a mission I had not really understood at first. Seeing that he was playing close to my perfect narrative matchup, my gameplan became a little cutthroat. Picking the Kill Characters Agenda and the Survival one, I had a clear-cut plan. Kill as many Space Wolves as possible.
Strategically, my opponent’s main plan was about the same as mine. Get Ragnar Blackmane and his best friends into my lines as fast as possible and try using challenges to take my characters out of the units. What was interesting is this table was not too bad for our matchup. He had places to hide his units from my giant guns, and I had a couple of places where I could draw nice fire lines.
Space Wolves in their Saga detachment seems like a difficult play to me, looking in from the outside. They get okay-ish buffs by achieving certain goals, such as taking an objective in my deployment zone or surviving from being massacred after being attacked. He seemed excited to get these missions done so as he pushed, fittingly recklessly into my lines, he would find himself incredibly threatened by my giant blast weapons.
Unfortunately for my opponent, he had not committed enough to my warrior blob. Being under the power of a reanimator and surviving off the back of Crypto thralls, I was able to live through all his attacks and was never in any real danger. Whereas my shooting was relentless and overwhelming, the Doomsday ark and the Doomstalker took quite a toll on his units. Also, akin to last year, my Night Scythe full of Skorpekh was able to deliver them directly into my opponents’ deployment zone like an angry beehive delivering a killer swarm.
In the end, it was another devastating victory for the forces of Hemocan. This was a classic example of what the current Necron codex can do, with its durability being able to bring back handfuls of models and allowing me to stick onto objectives for a long time. A great game, which ended in my opponent having zero models left. Heart claiming mission completed.
Generator collection count:
Space Marines – 148
Space Wolf dogs- 0. They are good boys and were let go.
Closing
That’s all for today, everyone! I have quite a bit on my plate with finals here in front of me, so the slow drip of information will continue. Closing out the first day, I was feeling confident with how my list is playing and now that the games were done, I was able to go check on how the rest of the Goonverse was doing. Garret was killing it with his “Fluffy” Iron Hands list and Rob was doing a killer job being a leader for his team. I had not gotten to know my Battlegroup too well by the end of this first day, but that would all change on the following day.
Next time: My list adjusts to show the escalation of my war as Gunum allows his forces the use of a C’tan shard of the Void Dragon. My Battlegroup #28, the Covenant of the Rising Sun goes to battle as a team!
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