#59: 40k Battle Report - Titans Game Two Grey Knights Vs. Sisters of Battle "Superior Sisters"

Coming off the back of an upset game that I probably shouldn't have done as well in, my spirits were high and optimistic leading into round two. And I was matched against the rarest of all armies...

Sisters of Battle. 

I'd never actually played against Sisters, and while I knew they had some aces up their sleeves, I was confident that I could outplay them. Beside Boltguns, they had next to no long ranged firepower. My plan was to gun down units one by one as I marched up the board claiming objectives.

Unfortunately, the lovely ladies across the board had other ideas.

We were playing lengthways on the table, so I only had a 48" wide avenue to stem the tide of Penitent Engines, of which there were nine! Backing them up were a ten-strong bare bones unit of battle sisters and a twenty-strong unit joined by Uriah Jacobus and Saint Celestine! And to lock it all down, he had two Melta-toting Dominion Squads outflanking in their Immolators! 

Now, for most armies, Penitent Engines are not much of a concern. They only have armour 11, the only shooting of note is a pair of Flamers, and they're not very fast. 

But for me, the only guns capable of putting any serious hurt on them were Psycannons. And I did not have enough to drop them all before they hit my lines. Worse yet, I couldn't charge in and smite them in combat because they had something ridiculous like six S10 AP2 attacks EACH! Even my Dreadknights couldn't weather that! So it was going to be an interesting game...

My terminators and Knights deployed at a safe distance, where their guns could still cause some damage, wary of getting too close to the raging death machines. I was going to have to play a keen-edged game to pick up the points needed to claim victory. 

I wasted no time in dropping a unit of Interceptors behind enemy lines in hopes of drawing some Engines away from my valuable units, and in doing so, managed to kill a few sisters (not enough!). 

With few safe locations to deploy, the remaining squads dropped in beside my existing units, determined to create a stalwart Battleline and pick off as many oncoming threats as I could. One squad had to content themselves with Deep Striking into ruins on my back table edge to hold a crucial endgame objective. My shooting was largely ineffective, either being out of range or completely impotentin the form of storm bolters against the armour of Engines... For an army that is designed to cause horrific damage in the first two turns, things were not going well. I'd killed of of three models and none of them were important!

Just when I was concerned that things weren't going as well as I would like, 10 ladies and two tanks showed up on my flank to remind me I had teeth by systematically kicking them out all in one hit. Both showed up turn two, on the same flank, in front of the same Dreadknight. And they torched his face off in a display of infernal firepower that would put our sun to shame. 

In a slightly misguided idea of target priority, I dumped mass firepower into the Saint's unit, which she tanked with ease, until a Psilencer punched a hole in her soul. But the Saint, being the Saint, gave zero cares and stood back up again. The frustration was real...

To make things worse (I know, it gets worse!), I Perilled with Draigo, took a wound, and my Gate of Infinity mishapped and put me in reserve (lucky considering the whole unit could have just materialised inside a concrete wall and died).

The sisters in the backfield (the one with next to no upgrades) killed all my interceptors, demanding a second unit to finish them off, while the Penitents continued their relentless advance up the board, denying access to each objective in a frustratingly effective act of board control. 

As we progressed toward later turns of the game, the Engines started getting to grips with my army. One by one, my squads got eviscerated in a horrific onslaught whirling saws and gore (yeah, things got bloody. Fast.). The Dominion squads continued their impersonation of an apocalyptic solar flare and disintegrated everything in sight. With very few points on the board, and even fewer units, the hope of victory had fast begun to fade. 

Draigo's unit finally returned to the game in time to have no impact whatsoever, while my last Dreadknight crushed a unit of Penitents, but was in turn butchered mercilessly. 

This game was not even close to how I thought it would turn out. I had expected to have at least killed a few more models of my opponents army, but when the smoke and blood-haze had cleared, all that I'd killed was a squad of Sisters and a unit of Penitent Engines. Two measly kill points. 

Needless to say, this was a crushing victory to my opponent. 

Great to see a rare army perform on the table!

What could I have done differently?

Gabriel

 

 

 

#58: 40k Battle Report - Titans Game One "Jaws of the Wolf"

Day one was finally upon us. A crowd of players had decended upon the venue, and were ready to throw dice and chew bubblegum. 

The TO had offered round one grudge matches, and a friends team wasted no time in throwing the gauntlet. It looked like match ups were locked in and I would be facing off against a mental Tau list, but at the last second, my team captain pulled a switch and pitted me against a significantly powerful Deathstar.

It consisted of a formation of Fenris wolves, four iron priests, two wolf guard battle leaders, Sammael, Azrael, and a Sanguinary priest. All in the one unit; it now benefited from Feel No Pain, Hit and Run, and a 4+ Invulnerable save.

The rest of the list consisted of scouts to fill the obligatory troop slots from the allies. 

I knew that I didn't have the hitting power to take the Wolf-star head on; I knew that if I wanted to survive past turn three. I was going to have to play smart!

The wolf brick scouted up, and in their first turn, pushed up even further toward my side of the board. Turn one, my Terminators dropped on the right hand side of the board, and five interceptors arrived in the back corner to clear some unfortunate scouts off an objective. I know that my Terminators wouldn't survive an all out assault from the wolf star, so my left-hand Dreadknight charged into the far left flank of the unit forcing it to pile in and consolidate toward one side of the board (away from Draigo's retinue), while choosing a spot where I was in no danger of being hit by power fists or similar weapons capable of ignoring my 2+ armour. 

Content that I would be able to tie up the unit indefinitely (thanks to being wrapped in wolves, I'd need to kill several before worrying about scary combat characters ruining my day), I began to focus on claiming maelstrom cards and trying to clear out any exposed scouts. I knew that it would be difficult to bleed any kill points from the big unit, but I was happy to sacrifice a combat squad of interceptors for the opportunity to incinerate some scouts for quick points. This is exactly what my 'Ceptors in the back corner did, running onto the objective, then flaming the scouts off said objective. 

Then he Hit & Ran, giving himself the freedom to do so as he pleased. This caught me a little off guard, and resulted in him repositioning, and...

Charging both the Interceptors and Dreadknight with predictable results. I had lost two units already, but had managed to confine the wolf star to one side of the board. For now.

As more and more units arrived from reserve, it became a game of deep striking to claim an objective or kill point (as you can see, the five man squad in the centre of the table managed to drop onto a crucial objective AND cleanse the ruins of some pesky scouts! 

They then got royally stomped into the ground. 

Now, the scenario was a combination of Kill Points, Maelstrom and Eternal War, meaning that, while I was cranking out Maelstrom Points and killing as many units as I was losing, i needed to end the game holding as many objectives numbered 1-4 as I could. Unfortunately for me, 1, 2 and 4 were the yellow tokens all situated under the wolf star. With a footprint as large as its, I was not optimistic. 

As the game progressed into later turns, it became a bit of a stalemate. I held objective 3, but my opponent would simply split characters off to hold the other three vital points on the board, and dominate the final score. 

In a series of unfortunate events, some lucky psychic powers and some truly terrible save rolls, I managed to pull off a huge play! At the end of turn five, my opponent divided his unit in anticipation of end of game. 

I unleashed the full wrath of my remaining guns upon the handful of characters holding the right-most of the three objectives. In a series of unbelievably unlucky rolls, several characters died, opening up the objective for Draigo and his retinue to Gate of Infinity across the table and claim three points at the tail end of turn seven! 

The game ended. After the dust had settled, and the points rallied, it was an 11-9 win to my opponent. This was a great result, as I don't think anyone, least of all the opposing team, was expecting me to pull as many points as I did. It was a hard fought game, and it really made me think, but caution and luck won nine points for my team! Again, in team tournaments, a skin-of-the-teeth loss isn't terrible, because my captain had instructed me to try and be a speed bump for the wolf star and scrape as many points as I could. And I managed to get almost half the points on offer.

Overall, our team lost. Narrowly, but we did lose, putting us into the bottom half of the player pool. But with 4 games still to come, we were optimistic! 

It was a great start to my weekend, and a solid kick-off into competitive 40k again! 

Keep an eye out for more games from the weekend. 

Thanks for reading,

Gabe

#57: Nothing like a good Banishing...

As my love for Sigmar grows, and my Bloodbound sharpen the steel of their axes, a string of events has raised a new (old but refreshed) project to my hobby table. 

With my wife and daughter going away for a weekend with relatives gave me the weekend off with no plans. Then I was invited to play in Titans of War, a three man team tournament that has historically drawn some of the best players in the country to its halls. 

Now, I haven't played much in the way of 40k this year, playing a small 40k tournament with Tau, and a few pick up games here and there...

But not a lot. Not enough.

Leading into this tournament, I was well aware that I'm not likely to do well (half the Aussie Tournament Team are attending, and let's be honest, my skills are simply not of that calibre), so I decided to make the most of the event and play five games and challenge myself to get better at the game. 

This left me with my biggest decision; which army to take to the event. While I briefly entertained the idea of taking Tau or even Orks, I wanted a codex that I was completely comfortable with, as I didn't want to be learning the ins and outs of an army in a time-poor setting like a competitive tournament. With that in mind, my choice was a simple one with only one right answer. 

The mighty Grey Knights!

My list was heavily determined by what I already owned and had built, so it wasn't as crazy as it could have been, but I'm comfortable with the list that I have assembled. 

The interesting thing about team tournaments that I've discovered (this being my first) is that it's not about writing a well-rounded all-comers list that has the ability (but perhaps not the unquestionable competency) to handle any threat. Match-ups are vital to winning and losing, and your list should be designed to do one thing very well! Deathstars will be commonplace, and while Grey Knights possess the building blocks for one of the best Deathstars in the game, I was determined to control the board with speed and mobility. And I think this is reflected in my list. 

Without further ado, let's chat about what's on the roster in this, my most recent project to distract me from all others. 

First off the mark was HQ, and in a Psyker-heavy army such as Grey Knights, it's hard to go past a Librarian. With Mastery Level 3, Terminator Armour as stock and a Warding Staff, he is a serious asset in attaining psychic superiority. Not only that, but combining his equipment with the Aegis, he is denying warp charges on a 3+ re-rolling 1's for all within 12", thanks to his hood. All for 135 points. Bargain.

I opted to go with the Nemesis Strike Force organisation chart, as it only requires a single Troop choice, which I filled with a 10-man Terminator unit. I spent the points on a pair of Daemon Hammers and Psycannons to give myself some added punch in both shooting and combat, while the rest of the squad were equipped with Halberds to make sure they could handle business, even without Hammerhand and other augmenting abilities. 

The last element of my "brick" was the O.G. deathdealer, Draigo himself. This guy is among the toughest and scariest characters in the imperial arsenal, and for good reason. He's got a hefty price tag, but for what you get, he's worth every penny! As an added extra, he comes stock with Gate of Infinity, giving me that vital mobility. 

Speaking of mobility, now that I had a good foundation, it was time to build upward with some hard hitting elements. The first were two full-strength units of Interceptors. These teleporting jump infantry can cause no end of strife if left unchecked, and I planned on sewing carnage wherever they materialised. Each squad sported two hammers, two Incinerators and a ton of Falchions to maximise damage in combat! While I will more often than not combat squad to benefit from not only more Shunts, but also more Warp Charges, I'm not shy of keeping them in big units to conserve kill points or survive a tough match. These units are my fix-it crews. Being able to launch 30" across the board is invaluable, especially considering their Incinerators spell imminent doom for difficult to catch units such as Eldar Jetbikes. And let's not forget Psyk-out Grenades. Got a Daemon problem? Farseer getting you down? These guys have an express delivered head-implosion coming right up!

The last piece of the puzzle are two hulking Dreadknights! These guys aren't impossible to kill, but hot damn, do they take some poor souls with them on the way down! Teleporters, Heavy Psycannon and Hammers (scraping points off the bottom of the barrel on these gents) are pretty standard kit, but I veered away from the obvious choice of Heavy Incinerator for the Gatling Psilencer. This perplexed another Grey Knight player I recently talked to, who had complete faith in Incinerators, but I chose the Psi option for two reasons. 

1: I already have plenty of Incinerators elsewhere in the list, and Torrent is nice but not an obligatory purchase.

2: Force. Gatling Psilencers have Force. From 24" away, I can pump 12 shots into a character or MC (or multiple wound anything, Plague Drones, Spawn etc), and while there is no AP to speak of, one failed save out of twelve shots can spell disastrous doom! I can and have one-shorted Daemon Princes with not a moments hesitation, and have complete faith in these weapons! And let's be honest, these boys are going after the biggest, baddest foes already. I'm resistant to assign them to infantry-torching duty. 

The list is small, but packs a punch! With only 34 models, I'll have to be careful about how I play, but I cannot wait! 

I have played a grand total of one practice game against a very Grav-oriented Marine army, and let's just say, things did not go well. Thanks to a combination of misplaced confidence, bad advice and truly awful rolling, I charged into the teeth of the Lion and got chewed up and spat out without ceremony. It was a tough lesson, but I learnt from it. 

Grey Mnights are an army I want to get really good at! They have a low profile in the game, and you don't see many GK players about the place, but the codex has some really powerful elements! I think with practice, I can become a very adept player with this under appreciated codex! 

I'd love to know your thoughts on my army. I know it's not as bonkers as it could be, but I'm comfortable with throwing the dice on the table. 

Thanks for reading,

Gabe