Carnage! Or something close. Four-way Batrep 1000pts

At Hobbytown there were four of us who were ready to game, and rather than pair off we decided to be foolish and go for a free-for-all game.  I remembered some of the basics for the old Carnage mission so we went with that.  1000pts each, my Scythiak vs. Tau vs. Necrons vs. Squats (running as Dark Angels).  One central objective, and the army with the closest unengaged model to the center at the end of the game wins.


I had the two regular two-squad platoons, missile launchers, heavy bolters, mortars, one sentinel, five Ogryn, primaris psyker and a rough rider squad.  Deployment above - we originally did a 12" cube, but upped it to 15" as the Tau player and I simply could not cram into the 12".  In retrospect we should have adjusted the deployment zones further, as we played on an 8x4 surface, and the players along the long edges from each other were too far apart.  12" in and 36" across would have been better.

 
If I'm in the "south" corner of the map, the Tau were in the "east".  Owen recently acquired these guys from Aaron, which may account for my frequently mixing up their names that day.  Sorry fellas, I know that's annoying!  He had a blinged-out commander, three missile pod/burst cannon suits, two fire warrior squads, a hammerhead and three sniper drone teams (controllers here represented by Vespid).

Chaz's Necrons in the "north".  Two squads of Warriors, blinged lord, Nightbringer, and a single Wraith.

Owen's Aaron's Squatwing army.  The Russ (later replaced by a newly-purchased Lee) is standing in for a Land Raider Crusader, with a librarian and combat squad inside.  Another combat squad outside, a sentinel as a Dreadnought, and a Ravenbeardwing squad with attached Chaplain.

I ended up going first, and surged forward.  Mortars killed two fire warriors.

Squat Angels move out, dread plasma cannon fells a single Necron.

Tau move around, trying to get sniper teams into good firing positions.  Hammerhead blows up part of one squad, which promptly falls back.  I blew a large number of morale and regroup checks during this game - squad moves up, gets shot, runs away.  Rinse and repeat.

The Squats and Necrons harass each other a bit, with Nightbringer and the Wraith flying over to try to do some damage.

Rough Riders and Ogryn continue to move towards the middle, weapon teams start laying down fire, infantry squads continue to move up and get mowed down.  The platoon squads weren't doing much to the Tau, but they did keep him focused back on that corner instead of the objective.  He kept moving the sniper teams but didn't move the suits or hammerhead much - if he could do the opposite he would end up doing much better I think.

Lee replaces Russ as Land Raider (got it?).  Bikers move towards the Scythiak, Dread battles wraith behind the rock, killing it.  Nightbringer later moves over and fights the Dread, exploding it in another turn.

Rough Riders make the charge on the bikers, wiping out the squad, and chaplain takes a fearless wound.  Two riders go down in the process.  The next combat round the chaplain wipes the squad.

More selling blood for time against the Tau.  Missile launchers insta-kill some suits.

The much thinned Scythiak ranks.  Three or four of the squads seen are either falling back or recently rallied (often after failing at least one rally).

Papa JJ charges the Tau commander, and yet again proves what a useless upgrade the powerfist is for a platoon commander.  Tau leader casually cuts him down before he can swing, but it was a brave attempt.

Ogryn close to the prize, but others approach as well.  The Tau manage to pin the Ogryn, slowing them down.

Ogryn climb to the top while Necrons and Squat Angels continue to fight each other while coming closer.

Squats manage to climb to the top and tie up the Ogryn in combat.  The game ends, with the Necrons having the closest unengaged unity by an inch - the Tau had tried to move some Fire Warriors up, but their Run roll was only 1"...2" and they would have tied, 3+ and they would have won.

Close game, fun if tiring.