Duel Con and Alan Campbell

By Spaguatyrine




I met an awesome up and coming player at The Midwest Massacre in Kansas City, MO.  Alan had such an impact on my playing experience I am changing my primary living army list......



Alan plays necrons and showed me something that I had never really thought of.  That being said he sent me an email where he won 1st place at Duel Con 2012 and has committed to coming to the Indy Open GT 2013 in March. 

Here is his battle report.  He used an unusual ally with the necrons I hadn't thought about......Orks!

I highlighted in Red and underlined some similar thoughts I have when I play opponents.  Nice tools to have in your gun!

In going to Duel Con I read the mission packet and so designed a list that I felt would best be able to try and maximize the potential of winning 2 of 3. The three missions that are in the Bay Area Open format is Emperor's Will, Crusade, and Purge the Alien. Also in the BAO format there is three additional points that can be won which was First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Linebreaker. My list was the
following:

HQ
Destroyer Lord w/ weave, MSS, Tachyon Arrow TROOPS
3x5 Warriors w/ Night Scythes
FAST
2x5 Wraiths w/ 1 Whip Coil
HEAVY
Doom Scythe
ALLIES
Big Mek w/ 30 Shoota Boyz w/ 3 Big Shootaz Aegis Defense Line

My tactics was to was the ADL and the Ork Boyz to sit on the back objective and thereby at least tying one objective. I was going to use the Tachyon Arrow on the Lord to try and grab First Blood. It worked once but I still think it was a good idea. I was going to use the Wraiths as hard hitting units plus they have a lot of staying power. I was going to use the Warriors in Night Scythes as late game objective grabbers. The Doom Scythe was used to take out vehicles and soften up Death Stars.

At Duel Con there was about 30 players. There was about five Necron Flyer lists. During the tournament I only fought one other Necron player where I did talk to a person that played almost all of them.

My first opponent was a Dark Eldar player. I was able to to win on Kill Point. He killed a Night Scythe so I took the chance to move the Ork Boyz up to grab the midfield objectives while using the Warrior squad to take my Emperor's Will objective. I scored on Purge the Alien, Emperor's Will, First Blood, Line Breaker, and Slay the Warlord.

My second opponent was a GK Draigowing + Corteaz. He marched his Draigowing towards my Orks. He finally got across the field to engage my Orks. I basically just ignored his Draigowing except the first turn my flyers came on. I tried to flank the unit thereby forcing wounds on the Paladins and ignore Draigo. The rest of my army wiped out everything except for his Draigo and a squad of Purifiers. His Draigowing did mostly wipe out my Orks, but over all it was meant to be a distraction. I won on Emperor's Will, Purge the Alien, Crusade and Line Breaker.

My third opponent scared me. It was an IG blob with a FW Vulture w/ a Punisher cannon, Demolisher, and a Hades Breaching Drill. It had an ADL w/ a Quad gun. This game came down to a series of feints. In the middle of the board was a large building that I was able to use to great effect with my Wraiths making him to be cautious in moving forward because of the threat bubble. The Hades Breaching Drill didn't do much. The Vulture was a big threat and he was able to threaten my Wraiths to good effect. When my flyers came on I was finally able to shoot it down. I won that game on Purge the Alien, Crusade and First Blood.

My fourth opponent was the first and only other Necron player I played against. It was the most cautious on both sides where it mostly resembled two fighters slowly circling each other with an occasional jab. There was a lot of measuring to be over 30 inches which is the outside of most Necron shooting. Once again when it got down towards the end of game I did some last minute objective grabbing and strategic assaulting with my Wraiths to pin troops done. I won that game with Purge the Alien, Emperor's Will, Crusade, and Line Breaker.

My fifth opponent was a Dark Eldar player. His list was:
Baron
Haemonculus
4 Blasterborn in Venom
3 Trueborn w/ 2 Dark Lances in Venom
3 Trueborn w/ 2 Splinter Cannons in Raider
3x5 Warriors w/ 1 Blaster in Venom
13 Hellions
3 Ravagers

His Baron was his Warlord and he rolled the ability to Outflank so he took his Helions and Baron and choose to Outflank which was a major factor in which way the game went. This was my toughest fight and my slimmest win in regards to point spread. It was basically a 6 to 5 win in my favor. Brian, the DE, choose to go first and surged forward with his list. He tried really hard to dakka down my Wraith squad but my Wraiths were able to weather the storm with only two losses in one squad and three in the other. This allowed me to surge forward and assault one of his Venom's and giving me First Blood which ended up winning the game for me. On the second turn he came in on my flank with the Baron and all his Helions and assaulted my Orks holding my back objective. We both completely forgot that you can't charge on the turn you come in from reserve and so that would have really changed the game. The mission that gave the most points was Purge the Alien, so when my flyers came on I focused on killing his vehicles.
He managed to finally kill all my Orcs as well as my Wraiths and Destroyer Lord. On turn five, I went ahead and once again did last minute objective grabs. Unfortunately it went to turn six and he was able to neutralize some of my squads as five man Warrior squads aren't great. At the end of turn six the game ended and I barely won with Purge the Alien, First Blood, and Line Breaker.

I had a great time. The prize was most of the cost of Adepticon paid plus gift certificates to Battle Foam and Blue Table Painting. All five opponents were great and friendly. I had a wonderful time and was really surprised I ended up winning. One of the things that I learned and used to great effectiveness in the tournament is that even when things look like they are going against you is to focus in on the mission objectives and to not lose focus. In some of the games I could tell when my opponents would lose their focus and I tried to exploit it when possible,

Alan
SEE YOU IN MARCH ALAN!!