The Imperium is in danger ..

The Necron incursion had begun. The Imperium had pulled troops from sectors across the galaxy as it marshalled its forces to halt the threat. The very future of mankind was at stake.

Adrian and I like to get those lovely 40K troops out from time to time and push them around the table top in games that usually involve lots of laughs, lots of grumbling about the rules system and. . oh yes .. beer. I've commented before that we both became heartily sick and tired of the constant rules/codex updates (we do understand that it is a valid business strategy, we have simply opted not to buy into it figuratively or literally). So some time ago we opted to 'freeze' our 40K games in the 4th edition paradigm. It requires one of two tweaks, but as we never game in the tournament scene it really doesn't matter.

So last night's game was a 'Cleanse' mission played with 1500 points of Imperial Guard (me) versus 1500 points of Necrons (Adrian). The mission has each side set up in diagonally opposite table quarters, with control of table quarters being the underlying objective.

Guard front left, Necrons right rear.

The differing uniform patterns of the Guard squads showed the range of sectors from which the troops had been pulled to face the Necron threat

The Necron right races off towards the right flank sector

It's centre was secured with the occupation of the ruins

The Necron Ark pushed out to take the sector on the Guard left wing.

The IG centre came under heavy fire, with a Heavy Bolter battery becoming an early casualty

The IG left also came under heavy fire

The first round of Guard fire lit up the table but caused little damage. The Leman Russ battle canon was off target and missed the heavy unit controlling the Necron centre

The Necron forces move out from their sector to secure the sector on the IG left flank

The IG right has pushed forward with a veteran squad in a Chimera (a battered Rhino re-purposed for IG use), supported by a unit of Sentinels armed with lascannon. The Sentinels come under fire from the Necorn flyer that has arrived suffering some damage.

The Guard take more casualties in their centre but hold fast, supported by the Leman Russ.

Necrons push over the hill towards the IG right and take fire

as does the Necron right

The Necron flyer pushes past the sentinels, keen to eliminate the Leman Russ 

The Leman Russ brings down the flyer, eliminating a major threat

However more Necron nastiness advances on the IG right, taking some casualties as it does so

And that Necron squad advancing towards the IG right takes even more fire.. these guys keep on getting up though

Heavy Guard fire comes down on the Necron right

Mid game .. the IG are still in their quarter

And the Necrons assault the IG right, wanting to eject them from that table quarter

The Vendetta gunship arrives, carrying with it a squad of Stormtroopers, accompanied by the Company commander and a ministorium priest armed with an eviscerator. These guys are tooled up to party 

The veterans assault the Necron squad, and the Chimera attempts to tank shock the squad.. hmm, that doesn't achieve much

The Vendetta takes out the nasty Necron commander 

A vicious assault is in progress between IG veterans and Necrons

OMG.. a Necron monolith arrives and teleports the reserve Necron squad into the threatened table quarter

The game ended with a Necron victory as they held two table quarters to the IG one. It had been a lot of fun, but took quite a while as we haven't played 40K often enough to get past the constant referrals to the rule book trying to find vague references tucked away in illogical places in the rule book (well, that's how it has seemed to us anyway).

For me, a simpler IG army list is in the offing (as I often forget the special little bits/capabilities that some units bring). The army as fielded used just about everything I have, but there is the capacity to improve things. Taking Heavy Weapons out of the squads and using heavy weapons squads will give greater mobility to the infantry squads without compromising firepower. I am also going to trial a special weapons squad mounted in a Chimera.

We have another game scheduled soon... stay watching.