Grey Knights versus Deathwing: 1500 Points. Again.

This write up was also done before the tournament I played in Liverpool. Again, I didn't post it as I didn't want people to see the list I was using.

So, we played two games in preparation for the tournament. I carried on playing the same list:  

HQ

‘Leor Kypri’ Ordo Xenos Inquisitor w/ combi-melta, bolt pistol, power armour and psychotroke grenades 

‘Krise, Lord of Thorpe’ Librarian w/ Sanctuary, Quicksilver, Shrouding, and Might of the Titans. 

Elite

‘The Vernon Brigade’ (Motto: ‘We’re with the ape.’) Inquisitorial Henchmen: 3 Servitors w/ multi-melta, three warrior acolytes, mystic and Jokaero Weaponsmith.

Dedicated Transport: Chimera w/ heavy bolter and multi-laser 

Troops

‘Brother Hamley’s Parade Unit’ 10 Terminators w/ psybolt ammunition, 2 w/ psycannon (and sword), 2 w/ daemon hammer, 2 w/ halberds and 4 w/ swords. 

‘Sharn Donagh’s Squad’ 6 man strike squad, w/ warding staff for the Justicar and psycannon

Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ psybolt ammunition and dozer blade 

‘Adriar Leesh’s Squad’ 6 man strike squad w/ psycannon 

Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ psybolt ammunition

Heavy Support

‘Brother Mack’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition, and two autocannons.

‘Brother Sando’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition and two autocannons. 

Dave, meanwhile, changed his list slightly, swapping out the assault cannons on the dreadnoughts for a plasma cannon. He ended up with:

Belial

Interrogator-Chaplain in Terminator armour. Combi-melta

Dreadnought, plasma  cannon, heavy flamer.

Dreadnought, plasma cannon.

Deathwing squad, cyclone missile launcher.

Deathwing squad, cyclone missile launcher.

Landraider crusader.

Landraider crusader.

We set up as follows, rolling Annihilation and Spearhead.

Deployment


I won the roll off and, this time, decided to go first. I placed the Chimeras and Razorbacks side by side. Worried that the Dark Angels might seize the initiative, I placed the Psydreads behind the ruin wall (so you can't see them.) I stuck my terminators in reserve, ready to deep strike in. Dave settled on placing his Land Raiders opposite, loaded up with his termies rather than Deathwing assaulting. It was fairly clear that this would be a straight up slog fest in the centre of the map.

Good.

Turn One


I raced my dreadnought through the ruin wall, although the other one failed to make enough distance to clear the ruin wall. The tanks zoom forward onto the hill, and pop smoke. A quick turn, but hopefully effective.

The Dark Angels stay put, with the Dreadnoughts moving around behind them a little. The Land Raiders, sensing the melta danger, open up on the Chimera. There's no effect, and everything bounces off or it makes the (shrouded) cover save at 3+. The Dreadnought fires its plasma cannon, but wildly scatters. The other one has manoeuvred  itself behind a treeline and can't see me to shoot.

Turn Three


My terminators, guided by the mystic in the Chimera, teleport in right in front of the tank line. The PAGK disembark their razorbacks. One dreadnought immobilises a Land raider, whilst the terminators psycannon off the melta. The Razorbacks shoot the Dark Angel dreadnought on the right, so it can't shoot next turn.

Over to Dave. His Land Raider moves over the minefield (no explosion, my bad luck...) Belial and his unit of terminators get out, and the Chaplain and his unit do likewise. The Dreadnought previously caught behind the treeline makes its way through the forest.

Right, now down to the horrible business of shooting. The dreads let rip with plasma, killing two of my terminators. The Land Raider follows up but, after a LOT of dice rolling, I save every shot. The other Land Raider follows suit. The melta hits! This is quite a change for Dave! It kills two more swordsmen. The Deathwing fire, to no effect, whilst Belial's unit fire, but on the rightmost unit of PAGK, inflicting a single wound and killing one.

Over to assaults. My librarian throws up his Sanctuary, so on the charge the Chaplain's unit loses one man as they charge the terminators and Belial's loses two as they multi-assault the PAGK unit and the razorback. My terminators die in droves, and another four drop dead whilst I only take one with me. They flee back towards the hill, whilst Dave decides to consolidate his Chaplain and remaining men back towards the Land Raiders. Belial takes all of the PAGK. They inflict a wound, force weapon it and kill him.  The other termies manage to take down two more men, with the warding staff saving another. As its a draw, there's no morale roll.

KILL POINTS: The Pure Grey Knights 1; the heretical Dark Angels 0.

Turn Three


My men shuffle around a bit. One of my Psydreads immobilises the Dark Angel Dreadnought on the far right, whilst the other one wrecks the Dreadnought in the woods. Everything else starts firing. The Chimera wounds the Chaplain and kills the cyclone launcher terminator with its bolter and multi-laser whilst the Psyback wounds the Chaplain as well. Meanwhile the meltas inside the Chimera fire on the Land Raider. PHOOM! I replace it with a large crater as it's melted into a blob. The Pyscannon from the terminators shakes the other Land Raider.

So we move to the assault phase. The Dark Angel terminators roll particularly poorly, and inflict only one wound which the warding staff saves. It's a draw. Over to the Dark Angels.

KILL POINTS: The Pure Grey Knights 3; the heretical Dark Angels 0.

The Chaplain and the other terminator decide to cut their loses and get inside the shaken, immobilised Land Raider. The immobilised dreadnought on the far right plasmas a unit of PAGK, getting two of the buggers and forcing them to retreat.The immobilised Land Raider kills the Psycannon terminator which AGAIN causes them to flee backwards. COWARDS! (Actually, this was just doing me a favour and moving them out of harm's way and away from the enemy by such a distance that they could easily regroup.)

Now it's time for that assault again. I manage to take down another Storm Shield wielding Terminator, whilst they do nothing to my guys because of that lovely little warding staff.

Turn Four


Right, I decide to try out Might of the Titan and so move the Chimera forwards. The damn thing scuppers itself on the crater edge, so everyone disembarks ready to charge next turn. All my guys open up fire on everything they can see, although they only manage to blow off the plasma cannon on that immobilised dreadnought. It's making me WORK for my kill point.

Over to the assault. I manage to take out another Storm Shield, but in return he finally manages to sneak one past the invulnerable save on my warding staff, killing the Justicar.



Now to Dave and his Angels. He fires at the henchmen with his Land Raider. They get a superb save behind that tank, so he only manages to kill two servitors and an acolyte, and does a wound to the Librarian. We then swap to the assault phase. There's just my guy and his terminator. Wiping blood off of his helmet, my man swings and pounds the remaining terminator into the ground. I win!

KILL POINTS: The Pure Grey Knights 4; the heretical Dark Angels 0.

Turn Five

I autocannon and psycannon the remaining dreadnought to pieces, whilst the henchmen move in on the Land Raider. The Inquisitor and the Librarian break off and head through the crater. So, and this is funny, the Librarian uses Might of the Titan on the henchmen (which goes fine) and the Inquisitor. Which rolls double 6's and suicides him. So that's Dave's first kill point there... They bash in on the side, but after 12 blows and 5 hits, they only manage to knock off the assault cannon. I probably should've just sat in the Chimera and blasted the bugger...

In retaliation, the Chaplain and the terminator get out. The Land Raider shoots, hitting the lone terminator on the other side of the battlefield to no effect. The Chaplain then shoots the henchmen, and kills an acolyte. Poor guy. He had a family. And a daughter named Millie. AND THEN THE FASCIST SPACE MARINE KILLED HIM! I hope you feel guilty Dave, I HOPE YOU FEEL GUILTY. They then charge on in against the henchmen and dual assault the inquisitor. 

My psychotroke grenades do nothing (oh, and did I mention my Jokaero rolled a 6 followed by a 6 and a 1 for his weapon engineering roll for a fat load of sweet FA?) No wounds come in on the terminators. The Chaplain comes back with three hits. He rolls three 1s for wounding. Nah mind... The Inquisitor gets mashed to pieces by the power glove, though, and this causes the henchmen to flee, swiftly followed by the Chaplain and his boys.

We roll for game end, though, and he won't have a chance to catch them as the game comes to a finish.

KILL POINTS: The Pure Grey Knights 5; the heretical Dark Angels 2.

Here's some game end shots:

Here's my henchmen charging across the crater, followed by the rampaging Chaplain who, in a fit of spite, is trying to kill the monkey and his lawyer mates (I think they must be lawyers from the suits they're wearing...)

Grey Knights versus Deathwing: 1500 points

This write up was done before the tournament I played in Liverpool. Obviously I didn't post it as I didn't want people to see the list I was using.

So, in warming up for the tournament in Liverpool I got my mate Dave to pay a visit with his Deathwing. Playing at 1500 points, I was playing:

HQ

‘Leor Kypri’ Ordo Xenos Inquisitor w/ combi-melta, bolt pistol, power armour and psychotroke grenades 

‘Krise, Lord of Thorpe’ Librarian w/ Sanctuary, Quicksilver, Shrouding, and Might of the Titans. 

Elite

‘The Vernon Brigade’ (Motto: ‘We’re with the ape.’) Inquisitorial Henchmen: 3 Servitors w/ multi-melta, three warrior acolytes, mystic and Jokaero Weaponsmith.

Dedicated Transport: Chimera w/ heavy bolter and multi-laser 

Troops

‘Brother Hamley’s Parade Unit’ 10 Terminators w/ psybolt ammunition, 2 w/ psycannon (and sword), 2 w/ daemon hammer, 2 w/ halberds and 4 w/ swords. 

‘Sharn Donagh’s Squad’ 6 man strike squad, w/ warding staff for the Justicar and psycannon

Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ psybolt ammunition and dozer blade 

‘Adriar Leesh’s Squad’ 6 man strike squad w/ psycannon 

Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ psybolt ammunition

Heavy Support

‘Brother Mack’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition, and two autocannons.

‘Brother Sando’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition and two autocannons. 

Dave was playing:

Belial

Interrogator-Chaplain in Terminator armour. Combi-melta

Dreadnought, assault cannon, heavy flamer.

Dreadnought, assault cannon.

Deathwing squad, cyclone missile launcher.

Deathwing squad, cyclone missile launcher.

Landraider crusader.

Landraider crusader.

Set Up

We got Dawn of War and Seize Ground, with three objectives. Here's the set up of the table before deployment:

I won the toss, and decided Dave could go first. In retrospect, as I ended up with the wrong table edge, this was a bad idea. Dave decided his Deathwing would all walk on except for the Termies, which would Deathwing Assault. I went for no deployment at all, and just walked everyone on. My Jokaero gets the benefit of an extra save for everyone in the unit (fat lot of good that'll do me!)

Turn One


The Chaplain Deathwing assaults in right near the objective on my left hand side. The Land Raiders and dreadnoughts come on, but obviously have nothing to shoot at as of yet.



I settle on coming on on the far edge, thinking that it's best to keep the Deathwing at range and pick them off at a distance. Downside: I'm a far way away from the two objectives on the other side of the table, and a fair distance away from the objective on the hill. I scan the horizon but, failing my night fighting rolls, cannot see any targets to shoot.



Turn Two


Ooo... daylight.

Belial deep strikes in on my side of the ruin, again with a perfect hit. The Lanrd Raider moves up a tad, and the dreadnoughts come over, with a bit of running going on. The other termie unit with the Chaplain advances on the objective, also giving them a bead on my force.

At this stage it occurs to me that I should've popped smoke. Too late though. The multi-melta from the raider is machine spirited but misses. I'm not as lucky with the barrage of fire from the slower moving, higher firing remaining dreadnought, which fires everything, and hits, onto the Chimera. The melta bounces, but the assault cannon rips hell out of the engine, immobilising the tank. The terminators open fire with their missile launchers onto my Psydreadfilemen, but all to no effect.

All my guys disembark. This is far too early for such shennigans - I should be driving towards the bloody objectives! Nevermind. I settle on blasting away at Belial with the Inquisitorial henchmen, inflicting a fair bit of damage: Belial takes the Librarian's bolter in the face for a single wound, whilst two other terminators are melted to death by the weapon fire from the Servitors. Brother Mack and Brother Sando, my Psydreadriflemen, open up on the Land Raider. It takes out the multi-melta and the assault cannon from one. The terminators blow the multi-melta off of the other one. Good shooting fellas!

 Turn Three


The Dark Angel dreadnoughts shuffle around near the back. The Land Raider on the hill pivots and races to the corner of the bill, whilst Belial retreats back onto it. The other terminators (not pictured) advance around slightly on the other side of the fence. One dread pops smoke, whilst the Land Raiders fire. Brother Mack takes the flak, but to no effect. The other Land Raider fires on the Chimera again. Again, to no effect.

My terminators closest to the left flank (that's on the right hand side of the picture below) move towards the Chaplain's unit behind the fence, and I decide to send both dreadnoughts on in to follow them up. They all fire, with the psycannon rending with two shots and managing to take out a Thunder Shield. The Psydreads open fire with their autocannons, and take out another Thunder Shield.

Back to the other side of the field of battle, the razorbacks move up with one racing through the forest. Some PAGK open fire on Belial's unit, getting one of them, whilst the servitors and Jokaero follow up with melta fire, and the Librarian's bolter. Again the bolter wounds Belial, and the melta fire takes down another figure. The razorback follows up, to no effect, but the remaining terminator unit finishes them off.

And here's the other side of the field of battle, with the Chaplain's unit looking across the fence at my side of the battlefield.

Turn Four


Again, the Dark Angel dreadnoughts shuffle around near the back. Both Land Raiders retreat from the hill for the time being, with one of them popping smoke. The chaplain's terminator unit retreats onto the objective that they're on. In the shooting phase, the Dark Angel dreadnought opens fire on my vehicles. Again, I realise I should've used smoke. Too late! The dreadnought blows the heavy bolter off of the razorback that's just gone Duke of Hazzard style through the forest. Cursing myself for not smoking it into safety, we press on.

Over to me. My left flank advance continues, with the terminators making their way to the objective with the Psydreadfilemen. My inquisitor leaps out of the Chimera and races for the hill, blindly - but safely - making his way across the minefield, whilst  the Librarian leaps out and joins up with the terminator unit. Everything advances forwards, with one unit of PAGK leaping into a razorback as I realise it's turn four and I'm not sat on any objectives. They charge forwards.



One Psydreadrifleman immobilises one of the Dark Angels Dreadnoughts, whilst the psycannon fire it comes under only manage to take off an extra weapon. The terminators on the left manage to wound the Chaplain, whilst the other Psydread blows away the Thunder Shield and, joyfully, instant killing the Chaplain.

Turn Five


The Land Raider that retreated last turn pivots and charges towards the other side of the table, where it picks up the remains of the Chaplain's unit. Meanwhile, on the other hill where my tanks are camped out, Dave's dreadnought moves on up to contest the objective, whilst the other land raider - which is currently blocking the immobilised dreadnought's line of fire - reverses back. That dreadnought then opens fire on the razorback, but to no effect. The other one assaults, but - as my vehicles moved at high speed - it's too no effect.

The Land Raider that's just picked up the terminators fires on the left flank force, killing one of my terminators.

Over to me. I shuffle my tanks around on the hillside, and my terminators advance up, psycannoning the arm off of the contesting dreadnought, and shaking it. The jokaero switches to lascannon, and fires alongside the melta. No effect. The Inquisitor keeps running across that minefield, taking a wound from a stray explosive, whips out his combi-melta and sears red hot melta fire into the dreadnought, reducing its other weapon to a puddle of metallic mud. Almost sobbing at how much fire this damn thing is soaking up, my Psydread lights it up with its autocannon, managing - thank the Emperor! - to finish it off. My remaining Dreadnought fires on his remaining dreadnought, blowing up that as well.

Turn Six


The die comes up in Dave's favour and we press on to another turn. His Land Raider moves in to contest whilst he drops off his terminators on the other side of it, blocking any line of fire to them. Git. The Raider fires its Hurricane bolter into my guys, but I save all four wounds. Go terminator armour, go!



The other Land Raider moves on up to contest as best it can, but it just isn't close enough. In spite, Dave fires on my Inquisitor to no effect as the bolt rounds bounce off of his power armour.



Over to me. My psycannons and dreadnought lay fire into the furthest away Land Raider, shaking it. Bonus - no more contesting of that hill!

 The left hand flank terminators assault with their demon hammer on the Land Raider on their side, which is in their way. They bounce off.

Turn Seven


Dave's luck fails him and rather than the game ending, and it being a draw, we play on. With little alternative, the terminators get into their Land Raider again and draw back slightly. If he'd stayed outside, my assault would've got me close enough to contest. It fires at the terminators, wiping out two of them but leaving two more. I ineffectually charge the Land Raider, to no avail. But it's enough to win me the game. One objective is empty, another is contested and the one on the hill is all mine.

Here's the end of game shot:

Here's those terminators on the left flank fending off the Land Raider, with two cowering Dark Angels sat in it.

And here's the other hill, with my terminators claiming the objective whilst the stunned land raider sits down at the bottom. (Or is it shaken? Whichever meant he can't move.)

Conclusion


Dave summed it up: he should've sat back and I'd probably have had a harder time. That sounds about right.

The Psallot Doxat of the Second Brotherhood: My Tournament List

Right, my Grey Knight army is all painted: I give you, the Imperial Psallot Doxat of the Second Brotherhood. I'm particularly happy with it. It's the list I used for the tournament and the pre-games I played against Dave's Deathwing (the battle reps of which I'll post in a bit.)

1500 points.

HQ

‘Leor Kypri’ Ordo Xenos Inquisitor w/ combi-melta, bolt pistol, power armour and psychotroke grenades 

‘Krise, Lord of Thorpe’ Librarian w/ Sanctuary, Quicksilver, Shrouding, and Might of the Titans. 

Elite

‘The Vernon Brigade’ (Motto: ‘We’re with the ape.’) Inquisitorial Henchmen: 3 Servitors w/ multi-melta, three warrior acolytes, mystic and Jokaero Weaponsmith.

Dedicated Transport: Chimera w/ heavy bolter and multi-laser

Troops

‘Brother Hamley’s Parade Unit’ 10 Terminators w/ psybolt ammunition, 2 w/ psycannon (and sword), 2 w/ daemon hammer, 2 w/ halberds and 4 w/ swords. 

‘Sharn Donagh’s Squad’ 6 man strike squad, w/ warding staff for the Justicar and psycannon 

Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ psybolt ammunition and dozer blade 

‘Adriar Leesh’s Squad’ 6 man strike squad w/ psycannon

Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ psybolt ammunition  

Heavy Support

‘Brother Mack’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition, and two autocannons. 

‘Brother Sando’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition and two autocannons. 

Here's a long shot of the entire army (this isn't all my figures, just the ones I've stuck in my most current army list - in particular I've dropped the Vindicare Assassin, which is a shame as she turned out quite well.)

So the army is led by an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, Leor Kypri, pictured below with his warband (The Vernon Brigade, whose motto is 'We're with the ape.')

So the men in suits are the warrior acolytes. I liked the idea of the Inquisitor heading into the local canteen and saying 'You, you and you - you're with me.' and then just leading the poor sods onto the battlefield. They've got pistols. And a briefcase. I think 'Briefcase' should be a 1 point close combat weapon... There's also the Mystic, painted in 1950s 'woman in sci fi film' style. For the inquisitorial warband I took the opportunity to go out and buy some non-GW figures. Those guys were from the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang range (http://www.artizandesigns.com/list.php?man=9&page=1). The Jokaero, pictured just at the back, is obviously straight from GW. I've seen space monkeys on sale, so I kinda regret not buying them and using them as warrior acolytes instead. If I ever become bored, I'll write a Jokaero Fandex and populate it with converted futuristic lizardmen and Jokaero monkeymen. It'll be ace. So ace, I might stick that on the 'to do' list.

The other figures are MERCS figures (http://store.mercsminis.com/collections/mercs-miniatures). I saw them at Essen, back in October, where Steve from the York branch of Travelling Man was introducing me to the game over a plate of unappetising salad (lesson: Germans think if you're a vegetarian you both hate food, and yourself.) The figures are actually quite nice - the Inquisitor has worked out very well in my opinion. The remaining figures I decided would make good, multi-melta wielding servitors. They worked out poorly but this was because of my paint job. I was going for a brass feel about them, and it turned out to be ugly as heck. But, well, they're painted now and I'm in no rush to strip them.

Next up are:

The 10 man strong terminator squad ('Brother Hamley's Parade Unit') led by Krise, Lord of Thorpe, the librarian. Not much to say, although they are very pretty.



I might need to buy a better camera as the photos aren't entirely in focus...

OK, I'm *very* proud of Brother Mack and Brother Sando, my Psydreadriflemen. I scratchbuilt three of the autocannon arms from foamboard, card and plastic rods (they would be the ones that aren't farthest left.) Using magnets to hold them in place they afix nicely, and pop off quite easily when disabled. The arm on the Venerable dreadnought was poorly balanced, so I built a banner for it (the paperclip that holds it aloft doubles for holding the arm in place.)



The banner is just tissue paper soaked in PVA. It's fragile, and I might need to replace it with something stronger and more permanent, but it'll do for now. I might do a brief 'how to' guide on how to make the arms given that I haven't seen one on the internet. They don't look amazing, but do look fairly good at the 2' distance (which, frankly, goes for my whole painting technique - looking better at closer than 36" is basically pointless as far as I'm concerned, especially as my shaky painty hands don't discharge the responsibility  for anything more.)

 Finally, the vehicles - two Psyrazorbacks and a Chimera.

  

That blade is removable and mangetised. I might replace it with the dozer blade that comes with the Chimera kit instead (although I need to hold something over to scavenge for making objectives.)

 And, of course, what army is complete without at least some PAGK:

As you can see, I painted the Knights themselves with black skin. It was semi-effective. At the end of the day I can see why so many people make their men Caucasian - the lighter skin tone contrasts more with the base colours and stands out better. It's like an acrylic racist conspiracy. But they've not worked out too badly here, though they might need some drybrushing.

Okay, over to the army make-up and why I selected what I did.

HQ

‘Leor Kypri’ Ordo Xenos Inquisitor w/ combi-melta, bolt pistol, power armour and psychotroke grenades

‘Krise, Lord of Thorpe’ Librarian w/ Sanctuary, Quicksilver, Shrouding and Might of the Titans.

So the inquisitor is there mainly because I like toys. And psychotroke grenades are cool toys. I've given him a combi-melta to give an extra anti-tank option. The Librarian has become the lynchpin of the force, equipped with Shrouding (obviously!), and Might of the Titans for, yet more, anti-vehicle action. It was a toss up between Quicksilver and Warp Rift. Having played a few games, and never having used Warp Rift, I opted for Quicksilver. 

Elite

‘The Vernon Brigade’ (Motto: ‘We’re with the ape.’) Inquisitorial Henchmen: 3 Servitors w/ multi-melta, four warrior acolytes, mystic and Jokaero Weaponsmith.
Dedicated Transport: Chimera w/ heavy bolter and multi-laser

So these guys initially started off as a tiny unit. I bought them to get access to the Chimera, in which I planned to stick the Vindicare assassin. But some calculations showed me that, actually, the assassin - which at best can get but a single roll on the damage chart per turn - was crap. I stand by that decision, and I think multi-meltas are more versatile. I plan to stick the Inquisitor with them in Chimera until they get close at which point he breaks off - even then they still get a turn of firing in, as the Inquisitor only needs to be near them at the start of the turn for them to negate having to roll to act. The Jokaero was irresistible.  

Troops
‘Brother Hamley’s Parade Unit’ 10 Terminators w/ psybolt ammunition, 2 w/ psycannon, 2 w/ daemon hammer, 2 w/ halberds and 4 w/ swords.

Pyscannons - no brainer. Daemon Hammers? If anything, I need more of them but I didn't initially model enough hammers. Those babies are great at cracking into vehicles. The psybolt ammo is well worth the points when taking them in a unit of 10. Obviously I intend to combat squad them into two units of 5 on most occasions. The halberds are a small add on, and I intend to stick both halberds in the same combat squad - it gives just that little, tiny extra bit if versatility in close combat. Similarly, I bought the mystic so that I can charge the vehicles forward at 12" and then they teleport in on the second turn with an extra 6" gain. I'll do this mainly against LR heavy forces (where the attrition on the terminators could be a pain, and where I need the terminators as I need their Might of Titans in order to get into the LRs) and Dark Eldar (where Dark Lance fire will likely blow away a fair few terminators if they walked in, and where small arms fire when they deep strike in will be enough to blow away a few skiffs.) Let's see how well that plan goes in action, given that every other time I've predicted that X, Y and Z would happen given the list I had that plan went totally tits up.

‘Sharn Donagh’s Squad’ 6 man strike squad, w/ warding staff for the Justicar and psycannon
Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ psybolt ammunition and dozer blade

‘Adriar Leesh’s Squad’ 6 man strike squad w/ psycannon
Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ psybolt ammunition

Standard load out. Those psyrazorbacks are ace man. They *chew* through Dark Eldar in a dreamlike manner, making a mockery of their FNP. It's just ace. I intend to flank the chimera with both razorbacks. I imagine that a block of three vehicles can't move across terrain without hitting something that's difficult, so the dozerbladed razorback is going to be deployed such that it's that vehicle that has to pass through the terrain and the other doesn't (that's five points saved.) Similarly, I'm hoping one warding staff will do, and I'll just work hard to ensure that the unit with the staff is close to where they need to be when that time comes.

Heavy Support

‘Brother Mack’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition, two autocannons.
‘Brother Sando’ Psydreadrifle: Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammunition and two autocannons.

Man, GW just pissed over their own rules system by allowing these guys in. So S8 shots at 48"? Anti vehicle and anti infantry (they *chew* through ork nobz; it's all kinds of funny.) I nearly dropped the assassin in favour of these guys, but decided against it as it'd be a bit of a dick move to load up on Dreadnoughts. They stand at the back, behind the block of three vehicles and blow up enemy vehicles, maybe locking some units into close combat.

LWA 1st Easter Tournament: Part Two

ROUND FOUR

Some Chaos Space Marines against Ultramarines:

Some more shots of Noel's gorgeously converted chaos space marines:

My Game


So this was the dreaded match up of me versus Mal and his Eldar, which I've failed to  beat within the last 12 months with the exception of a small handful of beginner games we played when we didn't know the rules.

Round four was kill points on a pitched battle set up. I scored a table with a reasonably  good amount of terrain and a bisecting river which would prove to be deeply problematic. Mal got to go first. Knowing about Eldarad's sneaky redeploy I set up in the dead centre knowing that any alternative would either split my force into two halves (bad) or on the opposite quarter (worse than bad) and I couldn't reserve everything without losing a few turns of shooting which would be bad in a game like this. I probably should've deep struck the terminators, and - as Mal said afterwards - I could probably have got away with splitting them into two units of five.

He was going first, so I couldn't pop smoke on the first turn. I set up with the 10 man squad weaving in front of the vehicles to give them a cover save with five of them weaved behind one razorback so my termie squad received a cover save themselves.

And here's a shot of my foe's forces:

He was going first. He wrecked a Dreadrifleman, and immobilised the razorback. This was actually quite bad as it meant that my weaving pattern stopped my terminators advancing effectively.



I had intended to move the razorback covering them forward, then move the men out of the way of the remaining Chimera and the remaining razorback. With the first part of that plan screwed, I either had to turn  the remaining Razorback and Chimera to the right and advance in a line I wasn't intending, or waste a move rearranging my termies so the vehicles could advance forwards which - when I was desperate to get them within 24" - would've been a bad idea (at least, that's what I thought at the time. Given what the termies ended up doing, I shoulve' re-evaluated that bit.) In retrospect I should've just stuck them at the front and if Mal shot them instead of my vehicles, all the better. I moved the vehicles right and advanced the termies.

I did manage a lucky blast at the Dragon Serpent, immobilising it. As it was moving flat out for that cover save, it smashed into the ground.

The rest of the game went slowly for me. The 10 man terminator squad got caught crossing the river. I wasn't willing to send them through the stream itself in case I lost them to dangerous terrain tests and in an effort to get my Psycannons into range as fast as possible (so I wasn't willing to take the difficult terrain tests.) Also probably a mistake. The Chimera I decided to smash through the central ruin in an effort to get my psychic hood within 24" of Eldarad as fast as possible. Having made every vehicle-difficult terrain test in the tournament so far, Mal was overjoyed when I reduced my Chimera to a steaming pile of junk. I deposited the inquisitorial henchmen squad on the other side of the wall, at least.

Getting close, and with little differential on kill points, things started getting hairy. Eldard hopped out, and ran to Mind War my Librarian for the easy kill point. I hooded the bastard.

I then weighed up how hard he'd be to kill with his rerollable invulnerable save. I started trying to do a mathshammer on it in my head. I needed to know his wounds. 3. That's a lot. I needed to know his toughness. When Mal said 4 I remembered that ole instant kill rule... Blasting Eldard with everything I had, the meltas from the Inquisitorial unit I just dropped off blew him away. You've got no idea how happy I was. The end of the game was a selection of nail biting moments and game end rolls, and a tricky rules discussion about whether the Avatar had Eternal Warrior on the grounds that all demons have it. (Answer: apparently not for apparently not all demons have Eternal Warrior.) So I forced sworded him to death. One unit of PAGK got Bladestormed to death. The Howling Banshees charged another. I sent out my Librarian and Inquisitor to help, fighting them back. But this left them out on their own, not as part of a unit. So they were single models that could conceivably be instant killed and turn into kill points. By AMAZING fluke they survived a round of incoming fire and then I wiped out the fleeing Howling Banshee.

The game ended on turn 7 as a win for me (we didn't bother playing through the end of the turn, settling for a win when that lone Banshee pictured above got melta'd to death.) Never been so lucky.

ROUND FIVE

Seriously, these chaos space marines are just beautiful:

My Game


5 objectives with a spearhead deployment. I was against the Tau. I got the first go, so steamed my tanks forward and popped smoke for my Shrouded 3+ cover save. I then managed to finish off his big tank with autocannon fire, taking out the railgun. Unfortunately, I only took a single picture:

Here I am, mid game, with a unit of PAGK charging towards the objective. They'd later hide in a hut and pop their heads out on the final turn to be blown away by plasma fire. I tried charging the Crysis suits with my termies. BAD IDEA! The combined autocannon and plasma fire blew one unit away, took out the Chimera and churned by henchmen squad to death. And it took me the entire game to take out his Broadsides. I knew throughout that it was going badly: it was objectives, and I needed to be shooting his vehicles. But they were in reserve and so I couldn't target them. I also tried charging the Kroot, which turned out to also be a bad idea. They wiped out my PAGK. Defending five objectives proved too difficult with only one squad of men remaining... And even at that stage I nearly forgot to shoot a gun drone that was about to zoom in and contest the final objective. That'd have been embarrassing.

In short, it was a harsh learning experience. But, heh, that was why I decided to field my Grey Knights, to see how they worked against a variety of armies and get a chance of play some Codexes I'd never seen before. Next time, I'll have to be more cunning and probably find a way to avoid, rather than kill, his Crysis suits and Broadsides. And, basically, play more objective games so I get used to planning ahead.

THE RESULT


4 wins and one loss. Leo, with his Tau, had the same run (Mal was third with his Eldar.) The rules dictated that a tie was resolved by a painting contest where everyone just openly voted on the figures. I came away with 5 to 3.

So here I am with my cup (that'd be Leo with the Tau in the background):

And here is the cup:

WHAT I LEARNT


I was very lucky throughout. I continually, and throughout, made errors in deployment. And I could've done with placing my objectives in a better place - in that final game I needed three objectives right next to one another so I could easily defend them, and I could've made it that way. But, basically, deployment was the main issue, and I need to bear in mind how far my troops can actually move. Especially once their vehicles have been blown up. I think I might be Deep Striking my termies in basically every game. With the mystic it's not so dangerous, and it opens up possibilities if the game is going poorly for me on turn 3 or 4 and I need to hurl a unit ahead to claim an objective. Alternatively, having not used Quicksilver I might swap it for Summoning so I can teleport my units to where my Chimera is (as my Librarian will be in it, and the mystic can guide the termies!) I also didn't use psychotroke grenades much (when the Inquisitor was on his tod, it made sense having him do some assault support, but as is he won't leave the servitors as they'll seize up and take out my melta, and he's a 3 wound independent character with no invulnerable save so whenever he fights the power weapon targets him, kills him, and then I often lose morale tests having lost at least 3 wounds from the fight. The guy's a tire around my neck in an assault, so the grenades have to go.) I did, however, roll through terrain all the time with my vehicles, so I'll be swapping the grenades for more dozer blades and a warp stabilisation field so I can summon the razorbacks from the back. I'm also thinking of dropping a PAGK to give me 20 points to buy master crafted demon hammers for my librarian, and that kinda thing. I think those extra add ons might make a difference, whereas it'll never make a difference that I have 6 men in a squad rather than 5...

A good time was had. Shame we didn't take a shot of everyone (or of people in the pub! D'oh!) Probably do another tournament at Christmas.