The Armchair General, Himself

The Armchair General Rides Again?
Every so often, I take a look at a battle report and think to myself that I could have done something much better than one or the other player did. (Sometimes this happens to my own battle reports.) If I think that there's something important to be learned (by myself or by other people) then I'll write up an "Armchair General" version of the battle report. Often it is easier to see a good solution from the distance of time or when you aren't the one under the gun. By practicing or pointing out these potential better solutions, it should make them easier to derive, even under the pressure of a game. That said, I'd like to take a look at my most recent game with DeathWing.

So, if you've been playing along at home, I got smashed pretty hard last week. It wasn't Scott's fault or that he had a super-hard list, I just played like a chump. I decided to take a shot at an Armchair-General style redo of the game. I'll try to play a smarter game and see how it goes. The deployment and his first turn will be the same, but I'll make changes from my first turn on.

Since this was only a virtual game, I obviously don't have any pictures for you. I'll leave up the deployment picture, so you can keep the board setup fresh in your mind, but the rest I'll have to leave up to your imagination.

Game: 1315pts. Seize Ground (4 objectives) with Spearhead deployment.

Necrons
Scott had a Lord with Veil, The Deceiver, 2 squads of 13 Necrons, a squadron of 5 Destroyers and two separate Heavy Destroyers.

DeathWing
130 Belial w/Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield

160 Venerable Dreadnaught: Assault Cannon, SB/DCCW, Extra Armor

250 DeathWing Terminator Squad: SB/Powersword, AC/Pfist, SB/Chainfist, 2xSB/Pfist
245 DeathWing Terminator Squad: SB/Powersword, AC/Pfist, 3xSB/Pfist

265 LandRaider, Extra Armor
265 LandRaider, Extra Armor

1315 pts

Deployment

I circled the locations of the objectives for clarity.

Deployment
Scott won the roll to go first, so he picked a quarter and started setting up. He placed everything in a close phalanx behind some trees near his "home" objective.

I placed everything as close to the center as possible, with my first LandRaider just inches away from my home objective and facing toward another one, while the other LandRaider, my Dreadnaught and Belial all crouched in cover on the other side of the building.

After we had finished placing, the Deceiver moved the Destroyer squadron off to his left, bringing it into Line of Sight of my first LandRaider. Scott asked if I wanted to Seize The Initiative, but I wanted to see what he would do, so I declined.

Turn 1
N: 2 Necron Heavy Destroyers shoot at a LandRaider and manage to Immobilize it. Deceiver moves up behind the central building.

DW: I disembark the Terms from the immobilized LandRaider. They combine fire with the LandRaider to kill one Heavy Destroyer. The mobile LandRaider moves around the building and drives straight for the Necron Warriors and the Lord. The Dreadnaught and Belial move a little sideways to get a better line of sight on the lead Warrior squad. The LandRaider's Machine spirit combines it's fire with the Dreadnaught and Belial against the lead squad of Necron Warriors, but they cause no damage.

Commentary: This is probably what I should have done, let's see if it pans out.

Turn 2
N: The dead Heavy Destroyer gets back up. All the Destroyers fire at the dismounted squad, killing 2. The Necron Lord Veils a squad behind the immobilized LandRaider. The Deceiver assaults the mobile LandRaider, failing to hit it. The remaining Necron Warrior squad fires at the LandRaider bearing down on them, managing to shake it.

DW: The dismounted squad moves forward to claim the objective in front of them and combines their fire with the immobile LandRaider to kill both Heavy Destroyers. The Mobile LandRaider careens forward, drops it's assault ramp and sends the squad into assault with the Necron Warrior squad. They receive no casualties and cut down 9 Necron Warriors, forcing them to fall back. Belial and the Dreadnaught move back toward the veiled squad, gunning down 1 Warrior.

Commentary: Definitely causing a lot more casualties here, but The Deceiver is still bearing down on my large squad and there are plenty of Destroyers and that other squad to cause havoc.

Turn 3
N: The veiled squad moves up and rapid-fires into the mobile LandRaider, destroying it. The Destroyers fire into the first squad, killing one more. The Deceiver chases down the mobile LandRaider, immobilizing it. The injured Necron squad runs off the board edge.

DW: The immobilized LandRaider joins both squads in firing into the Destroyers, killing 3 of them. Belial and the Dreadnaught continue moving toward the veiled squad, gunning down 3 of the Warriors. The large squad moves toward the small squad (and away from The Deceiver.)

commentary: Well, I'm definitely doing better at this point in the game, but I'm certainly not out of the woods, yet. Necrons left on the board: 15 (phase-out is 9)

Turn 4
N: 1 Destroyer and 1 Warrior get back up. The Lord and veiled squad rapid-fire into the Dreadnaught, doing no damage despite their Gauss weaponry. The remaining Destroyers move further from the full squad and continue firing into the small squad, causing no damage. The Deceiver thrashes the LandRaider, destroying all it's weapons, but not completely destroying the vehicle.

DW: The small squad moves toward the veiled squad and combines it's fire with the large squad against the Destroyers, killing them off. The large squad continues to move toward the objective that had been held by the small squad. Belial and the Dreadnaught fire into the Necron Warriors and charge them, killing 6 and receving 1 Wound to Belial. The Necrons phase out.

commentary: Wow. Big difference! Those close combats really swayed the results in my favor really quickly. By avoiding The Deceiver, I was able to make much better use of my army.

What a difference a little thinking makes!
By choosing to avoid the massive close combat nightmare, I was able to better make use of my units' mobility and firepower. Although I lost both LandRaiders (one of them was not technically destroyed, but it was immobile and ungunned, so it was effectively destroyed) both of my Terminator squads (my scoring units) were still around (though one was dangerously low.) I also still had Belial and the Dreadnaught to lend their firepower, mobility and contesting ability to the mix. Some people scoff at mobility, but the second Terminator squad managed to move across the board and halfway back in 4 turns. Another turn could've gotten me to 2 separate objectives if the game had continued.

All it took to change the results was a bit of thinking. When used correctly, this army can really work wonders. I think what tripped me up is the style of the army. Most armies have to have their units work together, even using the whole army as a single piece (My Tyranids often functioned best this way.) Each unit in this army is designed to function on it's own. They have solid ranged firepower (that can be used on the move) in conjunction with superior assault capability and fantastic armor. Each squad is an army of it's own, and they work best when they _don't_ have to work together. This allows each squad to make the best choice for itself.

So how do I work this?
Okay, so I know that my army has great capabilities and needs to be used separately, rather than together. How do I make sure not to make more bone-headed moves? Well, keeping this game in mind should help. Also, I plan to remind myself to keep them separate and keep the objective in mind by using cheat-sheets. Sort of. I had originally planned to keep better notes for my batreps by using separate notecards for each turn. I am going to add to this by writing the objective down at the top of each card and writing down each unit separately. That way I'll be able to look to the top of the card each turn to remind myself of the objective and I'll write down what each unit did on each turn, which should keep me mindful of them being best used separately. I'll let you know how it works.

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