Escalation vs. Necrons

This was my first experiment with Escalation or 40k with super heavies.

A word on escalation/ stronghold assault rules in case you dont know by now there are several unique rules that change the game. but the most important of these are Void shields, and str D weapons.

Void shields act as a 12" av 12 bubble which can be taken for every fortification and an option of 3 for a void shield generator. the generator itself is an av 13 building. One shield  bubble disappears with a pen or a glance, and a disabled shield can be regen'd on a 5+. It also may absorb a single str D shot.

Str D weapon can be found on some models and doesn't allow saves of any kind including invul saves. it has special interactions with super heavy models depending on the result of the vehicle damage table roll meaning that it may take away as many as D6 + 6 HP with a single shot with rolling a 6.



my list
Azreal in Land raider
librarian on bike

deathwing termies assault cannon
deathwing termies asssault cannon
ravenwing bikers
ravenwing bikers
demi tact squad in thunderhawk

Black knights
Darkshroud
Nephillim

void shield gen with 3 shields
Thunderhawk with D-laser


his
zandrek
destroyer lord with warscythe

immortals
warriors in n. scythe
warriors in n. scythe
warriors in n. scythe

scarabs
wraiths

annihil barge
annihil barge

C'tan with (flamer of D - real name unknown) and  6d6 krak missle ability
Pylon

mission was emperors will plus relic

my void shield gen looks suspiciously like a jar of mayonaise.

The evil forces of the necrons

deployment strategy

so the ctan is a huge threat its flamer is the apoc flamer and its str D plus Ctan has the ability to shoot 6d6 krak missles per turn, is toughness 9 str 9. and has 6 wounds. i tried to deploy defensively with the whirlwind, devs, and godhammer are protected by the void shields.
i know he'll just try to objective grab with his troops on the final turn. so i tried to build a list that could handle flyers. before starting he informed me that the pylon is str  D 3 interceptor skyfire and AV 14 with 6 HP. my plan was to aggresively deepstrike both termies and try to destroy the void shields and kill troops. the raven wing would? was not sure. Maybe pepper the wraiths, distract, and harass the troops.

necron shooting decimates the void shield and wraiths move up. scarabs approach from the flank. no more mayonaise jar.

n1 - against 3 str D and 6d6 krak the crons destroy the void shields and generator like paper mache.

Termies drop in. one lands on target next to the pylon the other scatters back 11 inches.

The raven wing could not do anything in this battle so i figured i would try to tempt the ctan into trying to kll them.

the bikes whittle down the scarabs and get stuck in.

da1 - unsure what to do i try to excute my plan one set of termies scatters back. the raven wing advance along the flank bu tcant do much versus the ctan. the other bikes go for the scarabs.

pylon elimintates 3 terminators from the scattered group

two scythes enter and the combined fire power with the Ctan which can shoot multipl targets, results in the wrecking of the whirlwind and the death of all the devastators.

Zandrek applies his counter tactics to the ravenwing, taking away hit and run.

ctan wipes out the second ravenwing squad.

ravenwing wipe out the last scarab but only consolidate 2". 

wraiths and the destroyer lord make short work of the terminators.

n2 - decimation by the firepower of the necrons eilimates multiple targets and puts me on the back foot. But I still have my thunderhawk en route.

Thunderhawk and Nephillim arrive but the interceptor shots all hit the thunderhawk and on the damage table my opponent rolls a six. meaning 6 plus d6 HP removed. AKA instant death. the thunderhawk explodes and 2 marines inside survive the crash. Damn you Zandrek!

The nephilim looks to punish the cron air firing las and missles at the nearest sycthe. 1 glance and 2 pens one of which is the lascannon, but the damn thing evades them all! the Pilot waves a jeering mechanical hand.

with the void shield still up i fire desperately trying to get 3 glances with the las cannons on the godhammer and the assault cannons on the terminators. hoping to get the av 12 bubbles down before the black knights charge. no such luck. rad grenades hit but it doesnt matter. no plasma hits any wraiths. and I cant charge cause i just arrived from reserve.

da2- wah- wah. ho hum i just lost the game basically. kind of a bummer cause there is almost no way that i will survive this and i wanted to see how the thunderhawk would do. In other news zandreks squad were at least partially within the bubble of the void shield so we counted them as recieving protection of all the bubble (because that meant i would die faster and i wanted this over as fast as possible at this point.) the resulting charge meant all the bikes were killed minus the librarian who challenged zandrek but did no wounds.

the crons drop their warriors, and they haywire grenade the Land raider. the ctan approaches. 

scythes target the nephilim and blow it up.

zandy finishes off the librarian. wraiths eat the black knights.

warriors assault azreal who emerged from the landraider. he kills the cryptek in a challenge but the cryptek gets back up.

zandy after doing his dance of joy, and the total humiliation of his enemies.

wraiths are picking bits of black knight out of their teeth.

n3 - um ouch. necrons beat me comprehensively in every facet of the game on that turn. The necrons are just rolling downhill at this point.at some point they kill the remains of the thunderhawk tactical squad.

this game was conceded. at this point my opponent has only lost his scarabs. talk about pathetic.

da3 game conceded. know when your beaten kids.

Well I tried to put a brave face on it and take it all in stride but that game left me very dissapointed. i will say that i never lost my cool which is good. 0/3 versus necrons. I will admit i took a couple of fluffy choices while my opponent took only teeth and knives. I still have never beaten him. even if i had survived with the thunder hawk im not sure how much help it would have been. i think that it would have been a different game but once again necrons give me the finger.

A few thoughts
1.) Escalation makes it hard to field expensive models. the more points that are bound up in a model the easier the D weapon can erase it. this means if your using marines it requires the use of rhinos. tact squads in rhinos absorb the same as a void shield and protect that squad a little longer.

2.) Choice of super heavy - thunderhawk might be feasible but damn against necrons using the pylon it is painful. and the chance of rolling a 6 on the damage table vs a super heavy is pretty high when you've got 3 shots at it. that being said if i had survived theres a very high likely hood i would have killed that pylon since after interceping, it cant shoot the next turn giving me 2 turns to fire D cannon on it. then i would have had my way with the flyers and had air superiority. but even then they can still glance AV 12 on the front and side (PS why is a thunderhawk rear armor 10!). that being said a Titan walker would be able to fire from the first turn and have more hull points. Emperor forgive me but my faith was shaken by that game.
3.) What tactics could be employed to beat the opposition? Well it probably takes a more experienced mind than mine, but requires a streamlining of the list. The ctan is toughness nine but only has a 3+ save. It would seem that long distance las cannons and missles would be best. perhaps along with support from black knights. and rad grenade. the AV 14 Pylon defended by wraiths and zandrek is a different matter. I think assault focused terminators would be a good start this would allow them to get close and harass. Maces by DWK may produce 6 pens at strength 10 if they were all still alive.

Strategy wise i probably should have tried to play the objectives more. But i am certainly open to tactical advice.