Tournament Results: Round 1 vs. Necrons

Mission: modified NOVA mission. 4 objectives, one in each table quarter. We both chose the "score as you go" option. You score at the beginning of the turn: +1 point for holding two points, +1 for having more than your opponent, +2 for having 2 more than your opponent. Scoring started turn 2.
We also secretly selected our secondary objectives. I chose 1st Blood, Linebreaker, and marked his Ghost Ark for death. He chose Linebreaker, marked my Kroot for death, and an objective that required him to kill all my Troop choices. Each secondary was worth 2 points.

Deployment: Dawn of War

Night Fight: No

First Turn: Necrons

Warlord Traits: My warlord was WS5 from the FSE traits, and Imhotek got to choose his each turn.

Disclaimer: The diagrams may not always match up exactly with the pictures. Things get forgotten or moved around in the mind. Just take it in stride and keep reading. It is also difficult to show both the regular movement and the "thrust" movement for jetpacks and jetbikes. That is why you will sometimes see units moving out of turn.

He spread out with his harvest, immortals, ghost ark on the left and his "deathstar" near the center and the tomb blades on the right.
I countered by putting my Kroot and some Heatwaves on one objective to slow down his wraiths and scarabs. I put the Y'vahra opposite the only vehicle on the board. My Deathrains+Kingfisher, Riptide, and Fusion Blades Commander (FBC)+Drones all deployed on the right. 

The Necrons advanced as quickly as possible. The Spyder hung back a bit, keeping out of sight and the Immortals stayed on their home objective.
The tomb blades didn't kill anything this turn. The Ghost ark and the warriors inside targeted my Kroot. My Kroot went to ground and suffered no casualties. 

The wraiths would be hitting me next turn but I didn't have anywhere near enough firepower to bring them down, so my best bet would be to try and hold them up as long as possible. I kept my Kroot in the defense line on the objective with the two Heatwaves nearby to control the objective and act as the second line of defense.
My Y'vahra immediately jetted up behind the Ghost Ark, poised to tear it a new one. My other units shuffled around to make sure they had line of sight to the Tomb Blades.
The Y'vahra torched the Ghost Ark but unfortunately failed to kill any of the warriors inside. The Ion weapon stripped two hull points but failed to kill the vehicle! Thankfully, I did land a Penetrating hit so it was AV11 for the rest of the game. My Deathrains killed two of the Tomb Blades and my Kroot got a lucky wound on one of the Wraiths. The Riptide failed to destroy the Ghost Ark due to Jink as well.
I jumped my units back a bit and jumped my Y'vahra deeper into enemy territory. (see next diagram)

He scored a point for holding his two home objectives. His Spyder failed to spawn any scarabs, but did not suffer a wound either. His Night Scythe arrived so he flew it 36" over to my objective and unloaded all the warriors right in front of my Deathrains. The Wraiths moved up for their charge, the scarabs moved up to engage my Y'vahra. The Ghost Ark, cruised right up to my defense line. He was going to disembark but was unaware that you can't move more than 6" if you are going to disembark, so he kept his warriors inside. The lychstar and tomb blades moved forward, abandoning their objective to go for the kill. The Spyder also started moving up alongside the building, still hugging cover.
The Ghost Ark and passengers shot at the Kroot and I failed 3 of my 3+ saves. The Kroot did not flee though. The Tomb blades fired at the marker drones+FBC and killed all but one drone and the FBC (who was now down to two wounds). The newly arrived warriors unloaded buckets of Gauss dice into my Deathrains but my Kingfisher took it all and only lost one wound (ha!). This would have been a great time to use the Neuroweb System Jammer, but I forgot (as always) that I even had it.
The scarabs charged my Y'vahra, losing one base to Overwatch, and tying me up in combat. The Wraiths charged in and killed everything in range, leaving only 2 Kroot way out of position. We got so caught up trying to figure out if we were still locked in combat that I forgot to test leadership (which I definitely would have failed). If the Kroot failed their morale check (needed a 3) and got swept (Initiative 5 vs. Initiative 3) he would have denied me 1st blood by wiping out my Kroot early (he hadn't chosen that option as a secondary objective).

I had been stupid and moved my Heatwaves away from my home objective, hoping to avoid a multi-charge and counter the approaching warriors. If I'd left it alone I would have got a VP this turn. All of my reserves arrived, except for the Cloudbursts. I dropped one Sunforge on the objective he'd just vacated and dropped the other three around his Immortals. I Nova charged my Riptide's secondary weapon and used the Y'vahra's nova ability to jump clean out of combat with the scarabs. I granted my Deathrains Furious Charge with the PEN.
I moved my Heatwaves up to get range on the Ghost Ark, moved the Riptide within 18" of the ark, and my FBC moved straight for the Tomb Blades. My Firewarriors moved and ran straight up the field, making for the objective swarming with Wraiths.
The Heatwaves cooked two of the Necron warriors alive in their transport (So glad I finally got to use No Escape) then my Riptide and a Sunforge that was in range finally managed to blow up the Ghost Ark. My Deathrains shot up the warriors, killing some but I don't remember how many. My Remoras forced the Night Scythe to jink but only stripped one hull point from it. One Sunforge missed the immortals, but his friend killed two. The immortals failed their leadership and fled a little bit. The third Sunforge targeted the scarabs and killed one base.
My FBC and Drone charged his Tomb blades, losing the last Drone to overwatch. My Deathrains charged the Warriors. The FBC killed one Tomb Blade and suffered no wounds, then the Tomb Blades failed their morale check and my FBC ran them down. The Deathrains killed some more warriors but they passed their morale check with flying colors. The Wraiths finished off my poor Kroot.
I managed to jump one of my Sunforges within contest range of the objective held by the immortals, but unfortunately this was one of my Tau Empire suits so it did not have Obsec.

He did not score any points this turn, since he controlled no objectives and was only contesting one. His Spyder was out of range of the Wraiths but it spawned an extra scarab base. The Lychstar moved up, preparing to charge into the Deathrain+Warriors combat. The Wraiths prepared to charge my Fire Warriors. The scarabs moved to protect the backfield and the Spyder continued around the building.
The warriors from the ghost ark fired at my Heatwave but only managed to inflict one wound. The Immortals regrouped but failed to kill anything. The Night Scythe, failed to damage my Remoras.
The Warriors charged my Heatwave (Relentless!) The Wraiths charged into my fire warriors, taking a single wound in Overwatch. The Scarabs charged my suit that was contesting his objective and killed him easily. The wraiths killed all my Fire Warriors and consolidated back over the objective. The warriors failed to wound my Heatwave (good armour save rolling on my part) and the Heatwave killed one warrior with a superb kick to the face. The necron stayed down and my Heatwave promptly swept the rest of the squad. Who sucks in close combat now! Yes, I know it's against Necrons; just let me have this one! To top it all off, the Lychguard failed their 5" charge! 

I had put my Heatwaves out of position to torch the warriors in the Ark, so I still only controlled one objective which scored me nothing (I may have actually scored 1 point here, or perhaps my sunforge landed off target and I did not hold his home objective. I can't remember). My Cloudbursts failed to come on, but my Y'vahra did. My Riptide Nova charged its thrusters and I used the PEN to grant the Deathrain unit Stubborn. Due to the way Ongoing Reserves is worded, I had to bring the Y'vahra on normally instead of Deep Striking. I used the 24" thrust to get right back into the fight, hopping over the wraiths and going for the backfield objectives. The Heatwaves positioned themselves to contest the objective again. My FBC continued moving around the buildings and my Sunforges all moved in to contest the objective controlled by Immortals and Scarabs. The Remoras dropped into hover mode so that they could get a shot at the Canoptek Spyder.
The Y'vahra torched the scarabs leaving one base on the table. Fun Fact: since the weapon was instant death to the Scarabs, it did not inflict double wounds, which is why one survived. The Sunforges targeted the Scarabs and killed the last base. The Riptide put a wound on the Spyder and the Remoras put another wound on it, but couldn't quite put it down. One heatwave torched the Wraiths but couldn't wound anything, and the other one ran in order to get closer to my opponent's backfield objective.
The Deathrain/Warriors combat ended locked. My Sunforges jumped onto his objective. The Heatwave got in range as well. My Riptide thrusted 12" to act as a road block between my monat suits and his wraiths.

Necrons Turn 4

His Lychguard prepared to charge again, his Wraiths and Spyder got into position to charge my Riptide (I have no idea why).
The immortals wounded one of my Sunforges and the Night Scythe caused a penetrating hit on one of my Remoras (again, I am not sure why he didn't target my Heatwave controlling my home objective).
The Lychguard and necron characters charged into combat and the Lord challenged my Shas'O to mortal combat. My Shas'O powered up his Onager gauntlet and punched him dead on the spot.

Onager Gauntlet?

Then everyone else hit. Now that my Shas'O wasn't in a challenge, he took most of the hits and was dropped to his last wound. The combat ended in a draw: 2 wounds each.
The Wraiths and Spyder charged my Riptide, wounding it twice. I passed my leadership: needed a 7 to pass and I rolled a 6.

Finally, my MSU spam was paying off and I scored some points for controlling more objectives than my opponent. I thought that I controlled at least 3 of them, which would get me 3 points this round. Looking back, either I shorted myself on the score (possible, I was running the tourney so I was pretty scatterbrained) or I made a mistake somewhere...Either way, my official score for the round was 3 primary VP's.
My cloudbursts failed to arrive AGAIN. We were almost out of time so we basically skipped my turn. Scoring was done at the beginning of every turn and I'd already scored all my secondary objectives so it didn't matter now.

I had marked his Ghost Ark for death and he had marked my Kroot, so we both scored that secondary. I scored First Blood but if we had been paying attention I would have failed this one. We also both scored Line Breaker.

I'm making a mistake somewhere in my recollection, because I only remember him scoring a single VP on turn 2, but the final score was 2 VP for him. This is what happens when you forget to bring your phone and take actual pictures!

Necrons: Marked For Death(Kroot), Linebreaker,  2 primary objectives. 6 VP

Tau: First Blood, Marked for Death(Ghost Ark), Linebreaker. 3 primary objectives. 9 VP

We were fairly evenly matched throughout the game but he made a bad selection with one of his secondary objectives (one that requires you to kill Every enemy Troop choice). I was controlling the tempo of the objective game, but I had trouble thinking far enough ahead to capitalize on it. I pulled ahead when I controlled 3 objectives, but only in the final turn.
My overall plan of using small expendable units to tie up his wraiths seemed to work out OK. I got some lucky breaks with the close combats but I also failed every reserve roll for my Cloudbursts so I was playing approximately 150 points short. I am sure that, in the hands of a more experienced and patient player, I would have had a much harder time in this game.
We ran out of time pretty early in the game, and I was in a good position to score another 3 VP's in the 5th turn, but time is part of the game in a tourney. Oh well.

My stalling tactics worked, but only thanks to some bad luck and tactical errors on his part. I also failed to capitalize on my advantages for the majority of the game. Since most of my units were Obsec and none of his were, I had a distinct advantage over him. However, I kept forgetting that scoring happens at the Beginning of my turn and I put myself out of position a couple times, failing to anticipate that certain of my units would be dead by the time it came around to my turn.

The mission was new to me, but had I done a better job of keeping Obsec units near objectives I could easily have scored another 2 points even with only 3 rounds to score in. I also could have done a better job denying him objectives.

Necrons are tough. I knew that going in and purposefully avoided targeting the big units with invulnerable saves. I was grateful for the close combat capabilities of my army, as close combat was the only area I could make some headway against the Necrons.

I was pleased with the game, as I had managed a win against a very powerful codex, and it was my first game against the new codex too!