Battle Report: 1,500 pts vs Necrons

This was the biggest battle I've yet played with my Adeptus Mechanicus, pulling them all together for a 1,500 pt game- once again using Codex: Space Wolves. I was playing against Deke, a GW Oxford staff member. He's got a Necron army, and for this game we were road-testing some unofficial Oxford house rules for the Necrons. The main changes were that Gauss weapons were Rending but a bit more short-ranged, Lords were WS & BS 5, and Wraiths had Power Weapons. Plus there were points increases and so on, but that gives you the basic idea!

MISSION
The game was a simple kill point one, deploying in opposite table quarters. The board was quite heavily covered in ruined urban terrain, so there was lots of cover saves but not too much blocking LoS.

ARMIES & DEPLOYMENT
The Necrons had the Deceiver (needed for fluff purposes in the campaign), a Lord w/ Res Orb, 2 big squads of Warriors, 2 x 3 Destroyers, 3 Wraiths, 3 Heavy Destroyers.

I had:
Rune Priest
2 Iron Priests (each with 2 Heavy Bolter servitors, 1 normal servitor)
10 Grey Hunters + 1 Wolf Guard (2 plasma, power fist on Wolf Guard)
10 Grey Hunters + 1 Wolf Guard (2 melta, power weapon on Wolf Guard)
2 x 5 Grey Hunters + 1 Wolf Guard in Razorbacks (each with a melta, power fist on Wolf Guard, and a heavy bolter on the tank)
3 x 6 Long Fangs (each with 1 Lascannon and a mix of Heavy Bolters and Missile Launchers).

The table was pretty much split into 2 sections. My left flank was inside a ruined cathedral. It contained 2 Long Fangs, 1 Iron Priest, 1 Razorback + Grey Hunters and 1 Footslogging Grey Hunters + Rune Priest against the Deceiver, the Wraiths and both squads of Destroyers.

My right flank outside the cathedral had 1 Long Fangs, 1 Iron Priest, 1 Razorback and 1 Footsloggers vs his Lord, Heavy Destroyers and both Warrior squads.

BATTLE
The battle inside the cathedral on the left flank initially went well. My Razorback bombed forwards, providing cover to the Footsloggers & Rune Priest advancing behind. In shooting we destroyed a Destroyer squad, and managed to get a couple of wounds off the Deceiver.
But then the other Destroyers took out the Razorback, and the Deceiver ate the squad insided. Next the Deceiver got into combat with the Footsloggers & Rune Priest, and this quickly turned into a tar pit. He killed the Rune Priest before I could Force Weapon him, then slowly worked his way through the Footsloggers who couldn't do anything to hurt him in return. Eventually he killed them all, but it took all the game.
The 2 Long Fang squads and Iron Priest blew up a Destroyer, and then 1 Long Fang squad was torn to shreds by Destroyer fire combined with a Wraith attack. Ouch. In revenge the surviving Fangs & Iron Priest shot up the Wraiths. Then they were charged by the Destroyers, and that became a big static combat that went on for ages until I finally killed the buggers.

On the right flank, my Iron Priest and Long Fangs blew up the 3 Heavy Destroyers. Meanwhile the Razorback Hunters and Footslogging Hunters advanced towards the 2 squads of Warriors & Lord, and much shooting took place. The new rending Gauss weapons ate both my Grey Hunter squads very comprehensively, whilst my shooting kept being foiled by the dreaded combination of "We'll Be Back" and the Res Orb.

So at the end of the game I'd killed 2 Destroyer squads, the Wraiths and the Heavy Destroyers. He'd killed 4 Grey Hunter squads, 1 Razorback, my Rune Priest, and 1 Long Fang squad. So another defeat for the Mechanicus, but not such a bad defeat as my recent tablings- I still had some squads alive (2 Long Fangs, 2 Iron Priests)!

LESSONS LEARNT
I'd never remembered to use my smoke launchers before. They were great, must remember to use them more often.

The Necron playtest rules were possibly a little powerful. 18 pts for "We'll Be Back" plus Rending is nastier than Marines. We're not sure how to improve matters. Make Warriors 20 pts? Or make them Slow & Purposeful?