MATCHUP:

Faction: Chaos Daemons

Detachment: Shadow Legion

VS

Faction: Necrons

Detachment: Starshatter Arsenal

MISSION:

Primary: Scorched Earth

Terrain: GW Terrain Layout 3

Twist: None

RESULT:

80 – 69 Win for Necrons

OVERALL TAKEAWAYS:

• Overall game
  • Disclaimer – this was played prior to the September 2025 MFM Points Update
  • This outcome was more a result of Daemons losing the game than Necrons winning it.  The mission encouraged a patient game type and the game featured two armies that really wanted to castle up and punish the opponent when they over extended.  Daemons over extended first.
  • Daemons was down close to 1K points in models by the end of Round 2.  They fought to keep it close but ultimately the Round 2 mistakes proved too costly for them
• Daemons
  • I really enjoy this detachment but find the list that I play can be very “boom or bust” (see below “Magnus of the Game”).  It is essentially another way to play CSM with a lot of Daemon allies and I really dig it.  I’m also a big time Be’lakor fan.
  • In theory, Daemons wanted to win this game by castling up behind Be’lakor’s 18 inch Lone Operative bubble and spamming the Necrons with Lascannon shots and a charging Fade-Thirster until they blinked, while using the AC/DC units and Great Unclean One to board control the midfield.
  • In reality, the Daemons played the Fade-Thirster and 1 squad of AC/DC’s way too aggressively.  This allowed the Necrons to pin down the both with a squad of Wraiths and then wipe them both out in Round 2 with a combination of Doomsday Ark shooting and The Silent King in melee. 
  • Key Combos:
    • Fade-Thirster = Bloodthirster + Fade to Darkness Enhancement + Channeled Wrath and/or Rapid Ingress.  The idea here is to advance and charge him into a target, obliterate it, and then disappear into Strategic Reserves, only to Rapid Ingress and do it again.
    • Accursed Cultists / Dark Commune (AC/DC’s) + Leaping Shadows + Dark Rituals ability to potentially enable a Turn 1 9 inch Scout move into Advance & Charge to jail your opponent.
  • Key Stratagems
    • Channeled Wrath and Rapid Ingress (see above)
    • Binding Shadows to move 1 Daemons and/or 1 CSM units from unit into Strategic Reserves at the end of the Fight Phase.  Late game “uppy downy” Cultists are one of my favorites.
• Necrons
  • This usually is not one of my favorite ways to play Necrons as I find the game play a bit too reactive for my tastes.  In this game though, it probably performed the best that I have seen it and I really got to enjoy its ability to punish the mistakes of an overaggressive opponent.
  • The list really wants to play with 2 big castles, one Doomsday Ark with The Silent King and Hexmark Destroyer and the other paired with the Catacomb Command Barge, and then 2 big tarpit units in the Wraith / Technomancer bricks.
  • The idea behind the list is to dominate primary with the Wraiths and then to use the Doomsday Arks to punish the opponent if they sit back.  The Silent King can then serve as a late game piece or Distraction Carnifex, depending on the matchup (he was a late game piece in this one).
  • Key Combos:
    • The Silent King or Doomsday Arks + Chronoshift + Dimensional Tunnels to auto advance 6 inches through terrain.
    • Doomsday Arks + The Silent King’s Phaeron of the Stars ability or Dread Majesty Aura for rerolls of 1 to Hit and Wound and/or Merciless Reclamation for +1 to Wound against Monsters/Vehicles.
    • The Silent King + Chrono-impedance Fields aura from the Hexmark + Unyielding Forms (-1 to Wound if opponents’ strength exceeds your Toughness) and/or Reactive Reposition to move up to D6 inches after being shot
  • Key Stratagems
    • See above combos.  
    • Chronoshift for auto 6 inch advance – I used it almost every Round.

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE NEXT TIME:

• Daemons
  • Play more patiently
• Necrons
  • Protect my scoring units (Lokhust Destroyer, Tomb Blades, Flayed Ones) better.  This could easily have been a 100 point game for the Necrons if they had kept half of those units past Round 2 to keep up on Secondaries.

MVP of the GAME:Technomancer + Wraiths.  One of the bricks pinned down the Fade-Thirster so that The Silent King could shoot him to death and then killed a wounded AC/DC brick in melee next turn.

MAGNUS OF THE GAME: Tie between the Fade-Thirster and the Havocs.  The Fade-Thirster simply cannot allow himself to get pinned down and killed in Round 2.  That was a bad Rapid Ingress by me.  The Havocs completely whiffed on all shooting and ended up doing more damage to themselves via failed Dark Pacts than to any of the Necrons.

LISTS:

Chaos Daemons

Shadow Legion

Strike Force (2,000 Points)

CHARACTERS

Be’lakor (375 Points)

  • Warlord

  • 1x Betraying Shades

  • 1x The Blade of Shadows

Bloodthirster (335 Points)

  • 1x Great axe of Khorne

  • 1x Hellfire breath

  • Enhancements: Fade to Darkness

Great Unclean One (250 Points)

  • 1x Bilesword

  • 1x Plague flail

  • 1x Putrid vomit

BATTLELINE

Nurglings (40 Points)

  • 3x Nurgling Swarm

     ◦ 3x Diseased claws and teeth

ALLIED UNITS

Accursed Cultists (195 Points)

  • 10x Mutant

     ◦ 10x Blasphemous appendages

  • 6x Torment

     ◦ 6x Hideous mutations

Accursed Cultists (195 Points)

  • 10x Mutant

     ◦ 10x Blasphemous appendages

  • 6x Torment

     ◦ 6x Hideous mutations

Cultist Mob (50 Points)

  • 1x Cultist Champion

     ◦ 1x Autopistol

     ◦ 1x Brutal assault weapon

  • 9x Chaos Cultist

     ◦ 9x Autopistol

     ◦ 9x Brutal assault weapon

Cultist Mob (50 Points)

  • 1x Cultist Champion

     ◦ 1x Autopistol

     ◦ 1x Brutal assault weapon

  • 9x Chaos Cultist

     ◦ 9x Autopistol

     ◦ 9x Brutal assault weapon

Cultist Mob (50 Points)

  • 1x Cultist Champion

     ◦ 1x Autopistol

     ◦ 1x Brutal assault weapon

  • 9x Chaos Cultist

     ◦ 9x Autopistol

     ◦ 9x Brutal assault weapon

Dark Commune (105 Points)

  • 1x Cult Demagogue

     ◦ 1x Autopistol

     ◦ 1x Commune stave

     ◦ Enhancements: Leaping Shadows

  • 1x Mindwitch

     ◦ 1x Close combat weapon

     ◦ 1x Warp Curse

  • 1x Iconarch

     ◦ 1x Autopistol

     ◦ 1x Chaos Icon

     ◦ 1x Close combat weapon

  • 2x Blessed Blade

     ◦ 2x Commune blade

Dark Commune (100 Points)

  • 1x Cult Demagogue

     ◦ 1x Autopistol

     ◦ 1x Commune stave

     ◦ Enhancements: Mantle of Gloom (Aura)

  • 1x Mindwitch

     ◦ 1x Close combat weapon

     ◦ 1x Warp Curse

  • 1x Iconarch

     ◦ 1x Autopistol

     ◦ 1x Chaos Icon

     ◦ 1x Close combat weapon

  • 2x Blessed Blade

     ◦ 2x Commune blade

Havocs (125 Points)

  • 1x Havoc Champion

     ◦ 1x Meltagun

     ◦ 1x Power fist

  • 4x Havoc

     ◦ 4x Close combat weapon

     ◦ 4x Havoc lascannon

Havocs (125 Points)

  • 1x Havoc Champion

     ◦ 1x Meltagun

     ◦ 1x Power fist

  • 4x Havoc

     ◦ 4x Close combat weapon

     ◦ 4x Havoc lascannon

Necrons

Starshatter Arsenal

Strike Force (2,000 Points)

CHARACTERS

Catacomb Command Barge (150 Points)

  • 1x Gauss cannon

  • 1x Staff of light

  • Enhancements: Dread Majesty (Aura)

Hexmark Destroyer (100 Points)

  • 1x Close combat weapon

  • 1x Enmitic disintegrator pistols

  • Enhancements: Chrono-impedance Fields

Technomancer (90 Points)

  • 1x Staff of light

  • Enhancements: Demanding Leader

Technomancer (80 Points)

  • 1x Staff of light

The Silent King (420 Points)

  • 1x Szarekh

     • Warlord

     ◦ 1x Sceptre of Eternal Glory

     ◦ 1x Staff of Stars

     ◦ 1x Weapons of the Final Triarch

  • 2x Triarchal Menhir

     ◦ 2x Annihilator beam

     ◦ 2x Armoured bulk

OTHER DATASHEETS

Canoptek Wraiths (220 Points)

  • 6x Canoptek Wraith

     ◦ 6x Particle caster

     ◦ 6x Vicious claws

Canoptek Wraiths (220 Points)

  • 6x Canoptek Wraith

     ◦ 6x Particle caster

     ◦ 6x Vicious claws

Doomsday Ark (200 Points)

  • 1x Armoured bulk

  • 1x Doomsday cannon

  • 2x Gauss flayer array

Doomsday Ark (200 Points)

  • 1x Armoured bulk

  • 1x Doomsday cannon

  • 2x Gauss flayer array

Flayed Ones (60 Points)

  • 5x Flayed One

     ◦ 5x Flayer claws

Flayed Ones (60 Points)

  • 5x Flayed One

     ◦ 5x Flayer claws

Lokhust Destroyers (40 Points)

  • 1x Close combat weapon

  • 1x Gauss cannon

Ophydian Destroyers (80 Points)

  • 3x Ophydian Destroyer

     ◦ 3x Ophydian hyperphase weapons

Tomb Blades (75 Points)

  • 3x Tomb Blade

     ◦ 3x Close combat weapon

     ◦ 3x Shadowloom

     ◦ 3x Twin tesla carbine