Battle Report: The Necropolis Campaign, Part Three

The Necropolis Campaign, Part Three
The Battle of Favonia, Part TwoThe Necropolis, a massive Necron vessel, had begun a rampage throughout the Arcadia Sector. The Imperial Navy amassed all the ships they could and moved to intercept the Necropolis and its accompanying fleet. They would make their stand on the edge of the Favonia system. The battle was too early to call, with the Imperials doing some damage to the Necron fleet, but the Imperials were suffering substantial losses as well.

Click here to see part one of the battle report.

Turn 4
The Dauntless Light Cruiser Constellation, set ablaze by the Necron Tombship, got some revenge, as after drifting closer to the Tombship, her plasma drives overloaded and she suddenly exploded. The Tombship was rocked by the nearby explosion, damaging its inertialess drive.

The fires aboard the Dominator Class Cruiser Warrior went out, but the vessel drifted onward, dead in space.

The Elnath failed its command check to Lock On to the Tombship.

The Apocalypse Class Battleship Repulse fired one broadside on the Silver Scythe, damaging it and disrupting its Power Flow. It fired the other broadside on the Jackals, which lost one ship despite Bracing for Impact.

The Mars Class Battlecruiser Aetolia, in the thick of it, fired all of its weapons systems at varied targets, but failed to damage any, except for the nova cannon shot against the Necropolis, which scored a single hit. The last Firestorm, the Gemini, damaged the Necropolis with its lance, and then combined its fire with the Swords and Cobra Squadron 1, and between them they delivered another point of damage to the Necropolis.

The capital ships Arcadia, Capella, Adhara, Procyon, and Elnath fired a 21-lance salvo against the Tombship, two shots of which got through to damage the ship, also rendering its port weapons unable to fire. Their combined weapons batteries inflicted a further point of damage.

In the ordnance phase, bombers from the carrier Prometheus killed one Khopesh and a Dirge.

The Vulture and the Shroud continued their wide maneuver, and had now moved behind the Imperial fleet, almost in position to strike. This flanking manuever had so far kept the two vessels out of the fight, but their imminent arrival might make the difference.

The Necropolis again fired its Soul Harvester, hitting the Repulse and delivering two points of hull damage. It then lay about with its multiple weapons systems, striking all within range. The Lightning Arc destroyed two Cobras, the Aglaja and the Pales, a pair of Swords, the Sinope and Triton, and the Firestorm Gemini. The Gauss Particle Whip lashed out and damaged the Repulse, crippling her. Finally, it teleported hundreds of Necron Warriors onto the decks of the destroyer Nemesis via its portal. Such was the fury of the onslaught that the Nemesis simply...vanished.

The Tombship and Silver Scythe combined their fire on the Repulse, hitting it three more times. Finally the Tombship repaired its port weapons systems.

Turn 5
The Prometheus attempted to Reload Ordnance but failed its command check.

The Repulse fired its lances on the Silver Scythe, disrupting its power flow and preventing it from firing. The Aetolia and two surviving Cobras fired on the Tombship to no effect.

The Elnath fired its broadside lances on the nearby Jackals, destroying one, while the Arcadia destroyed another.

The Procyon, Capella, and Thunder Child fired their broadsides all at the Tombship, which weathered all of the fire without any shots penetrating its armor.

The Thunder Child fired its lances ahead at the Necropolis, but failed to damage it. The Mimosa and the last surviving Sword Class Frigate, the Nereid, fired their weapons batteries on the Necropolis, delivering one hit.The last Khopesh (lower right) prepares to ram the Elnath, (red-trimmed black cruiser, second from lower right)The last Khopesh rammed into the stern of the Elnath, destroying itself and inflicting two hits to the Gothic Cruiser.

The Shroud and the Vulture had finally moved into attack position, and attack they did, concentrating their fire on the Repulse. Between them they knocked the Repulse's shields down and inflicted two hits. The Tombship's lightning arc inflicted two more. Still, the Repulse held on.

The Necropolis now had a plethora of targets to fire upon. The Gauss Particle Whip lashed the Elnath, but the ship emerged unscathed. One lightning arc downed a shield on the Aetolia, while another hit the Thunder Child, downing its shields and delivering two hits to its hull.

The Silver Scythe spent the turn repairing its damaged weapons systems.The Repulse and the Aetolia pass by the Tombship, making for the NecropolisTurn 6
The Prometheus reloaded its ordnance and prepared for another strike.

The Repulse fired its starboard lances on the Tombship, damaging it once. The Cobras fired on the Jackal, which Braced For Impact. This protected it from the Cobras' fire, but not from the starboard broadside of the Elnath, which destroyed it.

The Necropolis, detecting that it was about to sustain a massive lance barrage, Braced for Impact. The Elnath, Arcadia, Capella, Thunder Child, Aetolia, and Procyon unleashed a total of 24 lance shots at the Necropolis, hitting with fourteen and causing four more damage points to it. The shots damaged its Inertialess Drive, and the hits sustained crippled the vessel. Weapons batteries from the Aetolia, Mimosa, Procyon, and Capella delivered a further two damaging hits.The Necropolis receives a torrent of fire from the Imperial capital shipsThe Vulture, finally in firing position closed up behind the Aetolia and fired. The Aetolia Braced, but despite this her shields were downed and she suffered two hits, including one that damaged her prow armament. Fire from the Necropolis inflicted a further damage point, but the Necropolis, crippled and braced, could not offer much firepower to the fight.

The Silver Scythe moved towards the Scutum and the Prometheus, firing on the Scutum, downing its shields and inflicting two damage points.

Turn 7
The Capella locked its weapon systems on the Necropolis, but the rest of the fleet failed their command checks and no other special orders were given.

Preparing for another massive barrage, the Necropolis attempted to Brace for Impact, but with its leadership decreased due to critical hits, it failed the check. The Repulse fired a broadside and its dorsal batteries, but the Necropolis' armor held. The Thunder Child damaged it once with its prow lances, damaging the ship's inertialess drive again. The Aetolia and Procyon each delivered a hit with their weapon batteries. The Capella then fired and damaged the ship's Command Core, and finally the Arcadia inflicted one more hit. The Necropolis had taken a massive pounding, and only had two hits left.

The Repulse fired its port lances at the Shroud, which was already crippled from damage sustained in a previous battle, and the ship quickly exploded under the weight of fire. The Tombship was caught in the explosion and suffered a hit.

The Silver Scythe focused all of its fire on the Scutum, which was defending the Prometheus. The Scythe smashed the ship hard, downing its shields and delivering five hits, destroying its shield generators. As the crew desperately tried to get the damage under control, the Necropolis fired and finished the ship off, rendering the Scutum a drifting hulk.

The Vulture concentrated its fire on the Aetolia, damaging it three times. The Vulture's attack was followed up by the Tombship, which slammed the Mars Class Battlecruiser, hitting it twice more. The damage overloaded the ship's plasma drive, causing the Aetolia to explode in a fireball. The Necropolis barely escaped the blast.
The Aetolia (just under the Necropolis) explodes
Finally, some bomber waves from the Prometheus reached the Tombship, but they were all driven off or shot down by the Tombship's formidable turret defenses.
The Imperial fleet swarms the Necropolis, pouring all of their fire into itTurn 8
The Necropolis failed to Brace for Impact again, and with all the Imperial ships surrounding it, it seemed clear that its end was near. The Repulse delivered a single hit with its lances, and then the Thunder Child and the Arcadia fired their lances simultaneously, pushing the Necropolis over the edge into destruction. The ship continued to drift, but then the rest of the Imperial fleet continued to pour fire into the ship, causing it to explode in a ball of light.

Once the light faded, the area was filled with debris. The Necron Tombship, Silver Scythe, and Vulture had used the confusion to escape into deep space. Scanning the area, the Imperial ships found no more evidence of the Necron threat, and quickly began to reform their fleet and begin rescuing survivors from the many wrecked ships. The Necron threat had been destroyed, for now...

Imperial Navy Debriefing
Darkwing: My plan to take out the escorts first worked, but I don't think I deserve too many laurels for the victory. Badelaire played into my hands from the first turn, by keeping the Necropolis back and moving the rest of his fleet right into my guns. Also the wide flanking maneuver he performed with the Shroud and the Vulture just kept them out of most of the battle. The sheer number of capital ships at my disposal made my fleet a very tough nut to crack. I also have the dice to thank, because I rolled a lot of criticals on the Necron ships. Necrons are good at repairing damage, but I whittled down their leadership values as the battle went on. In the end, I think that my fleet had the staying power this time to simply overwhelm the Necron forces, giving me the opportunity to pound the Necropolis into submission. My fleet will need some time to recover from this fight, but I imagine I haven't seen the last of the Necrons.

Necron Debriefing
Badelaire: Well, it was a long and bloody engagement. I didn't do that well in the beginning of the fight, but whenever I could bring some heavy firepower to bear, it was telling. Not having shields, even though my armor is great and my Brace For Impact is stellar, means if I take hits, the ships start getting chewed up. Being able to do 2-3 hits to a ship and still not doing damage can be frustrating, but them's the breaks. I did notice about 2/3rds of the way through the game that I was forgetting the Particle Whip rule that allows rolls of 6 to ignore shields - I can't remember if that had any effect or not, but it just goes to show that sometimes having too many "cool rules" means you just forget them and put yourself at a disadvantage.

All in all, the battle was a blast. While the Necropolis finally died out, I was able to destroy all but one of Darkwing's escorts and a fair number of capital ships. In the end though, numbers won out, and the Necropolis died like a bear pulled down by a pack of wolves. A very fitting end to an awesome campaign.