Played again against the Nob Biker Army. We played Objectives (2) and Dawn of War.
I had:
Librarian with Warp Rift, Shrouding, Sanctuary, Might of Titans
Coteaz
2 Storm Ravens with MM and Assault Cannons
1 Psydread
1 Standard Dread with spotlight
1 Dread with MM, Heavy Psyflamer, spotlight
2 units of 8 Purifiers (5 halberds, 2 hammer, 1 Psycannon)
6 x Psybacks with 3 Warrior Acolytes each (1 Standard and 2 Meltaguns)
Orcs had 2 units of 5 nob bikers (all armed different), each one led by a boss on a bike, and each one with a medic. He also had 1 unit of 30 hard boyz and 3 units of 10-11 lootas)
Orcs Deployed first, and put one unit of Bikes (1 with leader) on each objective. I started with nothing on the board. I stole initiative thanks to Coteaz.
Turn 1, I Moved both Stormravens flat out to middle of board (near his bikers and 1 of the objectives) (Each raven had a dread and a team of purifiers - the librarian was with one of the purifier squads). I shot a bike, and lit up the Boyz with my search light. Everything in my army fired at the close unit of Bikers, and even though I only killed 1 or 2, every model now had a wound on it.
Orc turn 1, his lootas had to march on, so all he had was a rocket launcher from the bike squad (he had 2, but that was the biker I had destroyed). Shrouding caused his rocket to miss, and he assaulted. Even though I moved flat out, he hit 1 of the stormravens several times (he charged both of them). Then he rolled very poorly (his boss got 3 1's to penetrate armor). In the end, he took off the assault cannon of one of the Stormravens. His other unit of bikes turbo boosted toward my backfield (the other biker boss turbo boosted from off the board and joined them
Turn 2, I unloaded 1 of the stormravens to attack the biker boyz on the middle objective. The other stormraven dropped a dread off in assault range of a group of lootas. Shooting, I did 2 wounds to the unit that turbo-boosted, and killed a few lootas with one of the Ravens (not the unit I was about to assault, because the range was close. I assaulted and wiped out the Bikers (although I lost 3 of them to the boss's power claw before my own hammer took him out), and the dread wiped out the lootas it charged.
The Orks should down the Raven that had dropped its Dread, and some lootas killed a few of the Purifiers that had to bail out. His last unit of bikes charged 3 Razorbacks. Again, because of some bad rolls, he failed to destroy any razorback (he immobilized all 3, and took the weapon off of one).
Turn 3. I Bailed out of the immobilized Razorbacks, and between the meltas and all of the mother shooting, wiped out the bikes (he had really bad rolls for his cover saves)
At this point the Orks knew they were in trouble, and started concentrating all fire on the purifiers and dreadnought that were coming around, a group of lootas managed to take off his flamer. He also managed a lucky hit to shoot down the Stormraven that had gone to pick that team of purifiers up (one of the hardboyz hit it with a missile and "immobilized" it after it moved flat out (and I failed the 3+ cover save the librarian gave me).
Turn 4 - I took middle objective, and started moving everything else at his objective. He shot some stuff with his lootas, killed the closest dread, also picked off a few more purifers.
Turn 5 - I continued to move everything at his objective. I was just out of range of his objective, but we didn't know if there was going to be another turn. Since another turn would have put a dread and maybe a razorback in range of the objective, along with the purfiers, the orks decided to get aggressive, and charge the purifers with the hard boyz. The librarian used sanctuary, and 7 orks died on the charge. Then the purifers used their power and killed another 3. After all the attacks, I had 1 purifier left, so he lost the combat and took additional wounds.
The game ended on turn 5 and because he had taken so many wounds, his hardboys were no longer claiming his objective, so I won.
Overall, I was very pleased with my list. Last week we played this same game, and I almost got tabled by the same army I nearly tabled. In both cases, it was terrible saves that tipped a close fight into a land-slide, so I guess that means that the armies were pretty well matched. (note that pretty much all of the saves were from shooting, because we were both using almost all power weapons in melee)
We only got 1 game in, because some new people stopped by and we chatted with them, arranging some future games. It looks like we are going to start playing some 1500 point games, so I will see if I can adapt my list to 1500, or maybe I'll do a new one, but there will be some 1500 battles.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Been a while, again
I have been trying different lists, using mostly proxies (which is party why there are still no pictures). Although the game is starting to pick back up in my area, most of the players in the area are pretty new, and of the 3 people that are a good challenge, I only play one of them regularly. He generally plays 2 armies, orks (3 squads of 'kans, 3 squads of loots, 2 HQ with force fields (to protect the 'kans) and the rest are all boyz (2-3 units of 30). The other army is IG (2 big tanks - can't remember the names, 2 squads of 3 jets - 3 twin linked las cannons each, 2 devil dogs - in a squadron, 2 flack guns - in a squadron, 3 chimeras - each one has veterans with a las cannon, and maybe one other vehicle I can't think of).
I generally crush the orks, regardless of my list, but the same list against the IG usually escapes being tabled by one or two models, so I have been trying to find something that can handle both armies:
1 Librarian (warp rift, sanctuary, might of titans, and the stealth power)
1 Coteaz
6x Psybacks with 3 Acolytes, 2 Meltaguns
2x Stormravens with MM and Assault Cannons, with 8 purifiers each (5 halberds, 2 hammers, and a psycannon)
2x Dreadnaughts (1 with MM and Heavy psyflamer, 1 with MM and stormbolter)
1x Psyrifleman
Extra points are in searchlights.
The goal is to up my anti-tank power, while retaining the ability to deal with large amounts of weaker enemies. I think this army will do it. Coteaz will ride in a psyback, and the librarian will join one of the purifier squads - to give a 3+ cover save will moving flat out across the field (with the intention of dumping purifiers and dreads on appropriate targets).
I generally crush the orks, regardless of my list, but the same list against the IG usually escapes being tabled by one or two models, so I have been trying to find something that can handle both armies:
1 Librarian (warp rift, sanctuary, might of titans, and the stealth power)
1 Coteaz
6x Psybacks with 3 Acolytes, 2 Meltaguns
2x Stormravens with MM and Assault Cannons, with 8 purifiers each (5 halberds, 2 hammers, and a psycannon)
2x Dreadnaughts (1 with MM and Heavy psyflamer, 1 with MM and stormbolter)
1x Psyrifleman
Extra points are in searchlights.
The goal is to up my anti-tank power, while retaining the ability to deal with large amounts of weaker enemies. I think this army will do it. Coteaz will ride in a psyback, and the librarian will join one of the purifier squads - to give a 3+ cover save will moving flat out across the field (with the intention of dumping purifiers and dreads on appropriate targets).
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Been a while...
It has been a while, and I have played about 4 more more games with a different list (all purifier and dread-knights). Unfortunately, I have just discoved (while trying to tweak my list), that a typo mean I was only paying 4 points per rhino instead of 40, so the list is not good, and I have to go back to the drawing board.
I did learn some things from those games though. 2 of the games were against orcs, with 3 units of lootas, 3 units of 30 shoota, and 3-4 units of cans, and 2 forcefield carrying HQs.
The purifiers destroyed this army every time. I charged all out, killed a bunch of stuff, and got to the objectives. In both games Crowe tied up a unit of 30ish orcs for about 2-4 turns of melee (he lost in the end both times, but it made a big enough hole in his front line for my other units to charge through to the objective.
The purifiers did fine. It only took 2-3 to decimate units of 30 orcs (which is about how many got to melee on average, out of 6, in a rhino).
The dreadknights did ok. I had incinerators, and teleport packs on both of them, and 1 had a sword and 1 had a hammer. They did great agaisnt the 'khans, they did fine against lootas, and the usually died after a turn or 2 against the shoota boyz (because of the hidden power fists) If I had a weak link in my army, I would be looking at these, in terms of damage done, but they also FORCE the enemy to react to them, and they absorb alot of shooting that would otherwise be aimed at rhinos and foot-sloggers. Their flamers did well too, overall I still like them over Psi-riflemen, especially agaisnt orcs.
My Ork enemy, after first contact with purifier power, tried to make walls of orks, so that even if i burned though, it would take too long to reach his objective. This would have worked, but I got smart. He was hoping that I would charge all of my units into his 30-man wall of orks. Instead, I would charge one of my units on the flank (3 of my guys against 20-230 orks). Instead of attacking with 2 units, I waited until his orks moved to consolidate into melee, and then I moved on the other flank though the hole I had created. (This is the same way I used Crowe) This worked especially well, because when my guys used their power to burn his unit, he would usually take people from the side I was trying to go through (because he was still trying to maximize how many of his orks got into HtH)
The same army had a really had time against IG. Granted both times I played IG, it was a spearhead deployment, and the IG played made maximum use of his range advantage (most of my guys were on foor before they got to psycannon range). The first game was KP and I lost. The second time was objectives, and we each held out own objective at the end (but I was getting crushed, had the game lasted 10 turns, I would have had nothing left, and he could have just rolled onto my objective - a unit of 3 planes with 9 TL-cannons tear through rhinos and mech armor with equal ease. 2 Units of them made the other 8 vehicles pretty redundant.
When I work on revising my list (because I was using 200 points too many), I may leave vehicles behind all together. While this is going to open me up to getting shot a lot more, and 18 TL-Lascannon shots a turn is going to suck, being able to DS into enemy lines will make a big difference on spear head deployments.
I did learn some things from those games though. 2 of the games were against orcs, with 3 units of lootas, 3 units of 30 shoota, and 3-4 units of cans, and 2 forcefield carrying HQs.
The purifiers destroyed this army every time. I charged all out, killed a bunch of stuff, and got to the objectives. In both games Crowe tied up a unit of 30ish orcs for about 2-4 turns of melee (he lost in the end both times, but it made a big enough hole in his front line for my other units to charge through to the objective.
The purifiers did fine. It only took 2-3 to decimate units of 30 orcs (which is about how many got to melee on average, out of 6, in a rhino).
The dreadknights did ok. I had incinerators, and teleport packs on both of them, and 1 had a sword and 1 had a hammer. They did great agaisnt the 'khans, they did fine against lootas, and the usually died after a turn or 2 against the shoota boyz (because of the hidden power fists) If I had a weak link in my army, I would be looking at these, in terms of damage done, but they also FORCE the enemy to react to them, and they absorb alot of shooting that would otherwise be aimed at rhinos and foot-sloggers. Their flamers did well too, overall I still like them over Psi-riflemen, especially agaisnt orcs.
My Ork enemy, after first contact with purifier power, tried to make walls of orks, so that even if i burned though, it would take too long to reach his objective. This would have worked, but I got smart. He was hoping that I would charge all of my units into his 30-man wall of orks. Instead, I would charge one of my units on the flank (3 of my guys against 20-230 orks). Instead of attacking with 2 units, I waited until his orks moved to consolidate into melee, and then I moved on the other flank though the hole I had created. (This is the same way I used Crowe) This worked especially well, because when my guys used their power to burn his unit, he would usually take people from the side I was trying to go through (because he was still trying to maximize how many of his orks got into HtH)
The same army had a really had time against IG. Granted both times I played IG, it was a spearhead deployment, and the IG played made maximum use of his range advantage (most of my guys were on foor before they got to psycannon range). The first game was KP and I lost. The second time was objectives, and we each held out own objective at the end (but I was getting crushed, had the game lasted 10 turns, I would have had nothing left, and he could have just rolled onto my objective - a unit of 3 planes with 9 TL-cannons tear through rhinos and mech armor with equal ease. 2 Units of them made the other 8 vehicles pretty redundant.
When I work on revising my list (because I was using 200 points too many), I may leave vehicles behind all together. While this is going to open me up to getting shot a lot more, and 18 TL-Lascannon shots a turn is going to suck, being able to DS into enemy lines will make a big difference on spear head deployments.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Battle Report (List #3 against Orcs) - No Pics
I was playing army list #3 (A Libby, 10 Terminators, 2 GKSS, 2 Ven Psydreads, and 2 Incinerator NDK)
My Opponent was playing Orcs. He had 3 units of 3 'cans (blast template weapon), 2 mechs(don't know if they are standard with forcefield or if he bought them, but each mech had one), 3 units of 30 shoota boys (3 rocket launchers each), and 3 units of 15 lootas.
Game: Sieze Ground (4 objectives)
Deployment: Meeting Engagement (Might not be the name, but it's the 1rst one)
First Turn (He won it, I stole it)
Deployment - Really nothing special, I combat squaded everthing except the terminators, and spread out over two objectives (put the hammer in one squad to move toward objective, and both GKSS psycannons in the other squad to cover the objective). The orcs spread out, but all 3 units of cans were inside forcefields.
Turn 1 - I steal initiative and move everything forward except the 2 units of SS with psycannons. Get a few shots off, take away shooting of a few cans.
On his turn one, his first unit of lootas shoot at one of the NDK (45 shots). He has a few bad rolls, and does about 6 wounds, and I failed 3 of them!
His second unit of cans shoots the same NKD (also 45 shots), and does 12 wounds, and I saved all of them!
Then his last wave of lootas go, and finish off the NKD. He lived though 90 loota shots and few random rockets before going down, I can't really complain.
Turn 2 - I have faced this army before, and I hate cans with forcefields, so I charged my NDK into a unit of them for hand to hand. On the charge, I took the claws off of 2 of the cans, so only 1 could really threaten me. I did some shooting with my psycannons and took out a couple of cans.
On the Orc second turn, he aimed most of his fire at my terminators, killing 2 of them. Two of his units of troops moved toward the midfield melee. He tried to help out his cans with the power clawed nob, but the librarians santuary broke the charge, killing 3 orcs in the process.
Turn 3 - I moved the terminators up, as well as the hammer squads. It took most of my shooting, but I pretty much finished off the cans. My terminators were moving toward his far objective (he had moved all of the troops off the other objective - he only had lootas on it). In CC, I killed 1 of the other cans.
On his turn 3, he did some shooting - and several memebers of the various strike squads. We were pretty close up to this point, but then one of his loota squads killed 3 Strike Squad members of one of the psycannon units. The 2 remaining marines (psycannons), not only failed their leadership check, they then ran 11" (which put them about 1" off the board). This would let a unit of 30 orcs get all the way to my deployement zone unmolested (except for a ven dread with psybolt autocannon). My NDK kills another can, and his nob does 2 wounds on me.
Turn 4 - My terminators fire into the lootas near the objective he is still claiming (I know I am going to lose an objective, so at this point I am hoping he forgets to move troops over to cover the other objective). I kill 12 lootas, but they do not run. In combat I kill his last can, and then he kills my NDK. Here I made another mistake. I moved by NDK dread up block his 30 orc mob, threatening a counter charge if he moves toward my objective (I was hoping he would charge me, which would pull him aways from my objective - I do not know why I did not just charge myself, maybe I was thinking I did not want to give his unit - which was pretty spread out - a free 6" consolidation move toward my side of the board.
On his turn 4, he delcared a Waaah!, and was able to charge the dread and the unit of 3 marines still on the objective. He killed the dread, but one of the marines survived. The unit of orcs that finished my NDK charged 2 more marines near my objective, and killed both of them.
Turn 5 - at this point, I still had about 5 terminators with a libby, 1 ven dread, and 5 marines with a psycannon (and 1 guy locked in melee on an objective with 30 orcs). I moved my termies up, and my libby used warp rift to kill 5 of the scoring orcs on his objective, I killed 4 more with other shooting, and then charged. The orcs that had killed my NDK and unit of 2 marines had consolidated near my other objective, so I charged them with 5 marines and my Ven Dread. He immobilized my ven dread, but I routed the unit. My terminators also won, and forced a leadership check, which he passed (he still had 11 orcs, so they were practically fearless). Also his 30 orcs killed my 1 swordman (only by 2 wounds) and consolidated near my objective. He decided to charge my marines, but did not charge my ven dread. He killed the marines, and consolidated back to claim my other objective (not hard, since his unit was spread out over 12" or so.) My terminators won their fight, and consolidated into range of his objective.
At first we thought it was a tie - he was holding 2 of my objectives (and none of his), but I was contesting one of them with my ven dread - and I was holding 1 of his objectives. Then, as we were about to pick up the pieces, we saw his 3 lootas that were hiding in cover and, accidentally, happened to be within 3" of his objective - lol.
Objective-wise, it was a close game, units on the field though, if the game had gone another turn, I would probably had been wiped out (I had 2 terminators and a immobilized ven dread left - he had 20ish shoota boys and about 30 lootas).
I think the biggest weakness was the ven dreads. The one he killed, he rolled a 6 on the chart, and then re-rolled a 6. The other one also exploded, but he re-rolled the 6 into a 4. I really don't think venerable is worth it on the dreads, but since I wanted 2 of them, and the 2 NKD I spent 3 days putting together, I had to change their FOC. Against normal mech (rhinos), they might have pulled their weights, but at almost 200 points each, they didn't really cut it.
Another thing I may have done wrong was combat squading my GKSS. I went from 3 to 5 scoring units, which is why I did it, but 5 marines didn't really even make a dent in 30 orcs. If I had had units of 10, they mights have held their own a little more (maybe even won combat).
My Opponent was playing Orcs. He had 3 units of 3 'cans (blast template weapon), 2 mechs(don't know if they are standard with forcefield or if he bought them, but each mech had one), 3 units of 30 shoota boys (3 rocket launchers each), and 3 units of 15 lootas.
Game: Sieze Ground (4 objectives)
Deployment: Meeting Engagement (Might not be the name, but it's the 1rst one)
First Turn (He won it, I stole it)
Deployment - Really nothing special, I combat squaded everthing except the terminators, and spread out over two objectives (put the hammer in one squad to move toward objective, and both GKSS psycannons in the other squad to cover the objective). The orcs spread out, but all 3 units of cans were inside forcefields.
Turn 1 - I steal initiative and move everything forward except the 2 units of SS with psycannons. Get a few shots off, take away shooting of a few cans.
On his turn one, his first unit of lootas shoot at one of the NDK (45 shots). He has a few bad rolls, and does about 6 wounds, and I failed 3 of them!
His second unit of cans shoots the same NKD (also 45 shots), and does 12 wounds, and I saved all of them!
Then his last wave of lootas go, and finish off the NKD. He lived though 90 loota shots and few random rockets before going down, I can't really complain.
Turn 2 - I have faced this army before, and I hate cans with forcefields, so I charged my NDK into a unit of them for hand to hand. On the charge, I took the claws off of 2 of the cans, so only 1 could really threaten me. I did some shooting with my psycannons and took out a couple of cans.
On the Orc second turn, he aimed most of his fire at my terminators, killing 2 of them. Two of his units of troops moved toward the midfield melee. He tried to help out his cans with the power clawed nob, but the librarians santuary broke the charge, killing 3 orcs in the process.
Turn 3 - I moved the terminators up, as well as the hammer squads. It took most of my shooting, but I pretty much finished off the cans. My terminators were moving toward his far objective (he had moved all of the troops off the other objective - he only had lootas on it). In CC, I killed 1 of the other cans.
On his turn 3, he did some shooting - and several memebers of the various strike squads. We were pretty close up to this point, but then one of his loota squads killed 3 Strike Squad members of one of the psycannon units. The 2 remaining marines (psycannons), not only failed their leadership check, they then ran 11" (which put them about 1" off the board). This would let a unit of 30 orcs get all the way to my deployement zone unmolested (except for a ven dread with psybolt autocannon). My NDK kills another can, and his nob does 2 wounds on me.
Turn 4 - My terminators fire into the lootas near the objective he is still claiming (I know I am going to lose an objective, so at this point I am hoping he forgets to move troops over to cover the other objective). I kill 12 lootas, but they do not run. In combat I kill his last can, and then he kills my NDK. Here I made another mistake. I moved by NDK dread up block his 30 orc mob, threatening a counter charge if he moves toward my objective (I was hoping he would charge me, which would pull him aways from my objective - I do not know why I did not just charge myself, maybe I was thinking I did not want to give his unit - which was pretty spread out - a free 6" consolidation move toward my side of the board.
On his turn 4, he delcared a Waaah!, and was able to charge the dread and the unit of 3 marines still on the objective. He killed the dread, but one of the marines survived. The unit of orcs that finished my NDK charged 2 more marines near my objective, and killed both of them.
Turn 5 - at this point, I still had about 5 terminators with a libby, 1 ven dread, and 5 marines with a psycannon (and 1 guy locked in melee on an objective with 30 orcs). I moved my termies up, and my libby used warp rift to kill 5 of the scoring orcs on his objective, I killed 4 more with other shooting, and then charged. The orcs that had killed my NDK and unit of 2 marines had consolidated near my other objective, so I charged them with 5 marines and my Ven Dread. He immobilized my ven dread, but I routed the unit. My terminators also won, and forced a leadership check, which he passed (he still had 11 orcs, so they were practically fearless). Also his 30 orcs killed my 1 swordman (only by 2 wounds) and consolidated near my objective. He decided to charge my marines, but did not charge my ven dread. He killed the marines, and consolidated back to claim my other objective (not hard, since his unit was spread out over 12" or so.) My terminators won their fight, and consolidated into range of his objective.
At first we thought it was a tie - he was holding 2 of my objectives (and none of his), but I was contesting one of them with my ven dread - and I was holding 1 of his objectives. Then, as we were about to pick up the pieces, we saw his 3 lootas that were hiding in cover and, accidentally, happened to be within 3" of his objective - lol.
Objective-wise, it was a close game, units on the field though, if the game had gone another turn, I would probably had been wiped out (I had 2 terminators and a immobilized ven dread left - he had 20ish shoota boys and about 30 lootas).
I think the biggest weakness was the ven dreads. The one he killed, he rolled a 6 on the chart, and then re-rolled a 6. The other one also exploded, but he re-rolled the 6 into a 4. I really don't think venerable is worth it on the dreads, but since I wanted 2 of them, and the 2 NKD I spent 3 days putting together, I had to change their FOC. Against normal mech (rhinos), they might have pulled their weights, but at almost 200 points each, they didn't really cut it.
Another thing I may have done wrong was combat squading my GKSS. I went from 3 to 5 scoring units, which is why I did it, but 5 marines didn't really even make a dent in 30 orcs. If I had had units of 10, they mights have held their own a little more (maybe even won combat).
Friday, June 3, 2011
New Army List (List #3 for Battle Rep Purposes)
Well, some stuff came up, so I didn't get to play my game with Mordrak last weekend. In the meantime, I've been looking at the codex, and come up with a new list, which I will probably try next.
Librarian with Sanctuary, Shrouding, Quicksilver, Warp Rift.
10 Terminators with Halberds, 1 hammer, 2 psycannons, psyammo
10 GKSS with 1 hammer and 2 psycannons
10 GKSS with 1 hammer and 2 psycannons
2x Venerable Psydread
2x Dread Knight with personal Teleporter and Heavy Incinerator.
Low KPs, for the KP games, up to 6 scoring units.
The goal of this army was alot of durable firepower. This army will park in the middle of the board, and shoot stuff. The Dread Knights will provide counter charge / tarpitting if needed.
Librarian with Sanctuary, Shrouding, Quicksilver, Warp Rift.
10 Terminators with Halberds, 1 hammer, 2 psycannons, psyammo
10 GKSS with 1 hammer and 2 psycannons
10 GKSS with 1 hammer and 2 psycannons
2x Venerable Psydread
2x Dread Knight with personal Teleporter and Heavy Incinerator.
Low KPs, for the KP games, up to 6 scoring units.
The goal of this army was alot of durable firepower. This army will park in the middle of the board, and shoot stuff. The Dread Knights will provide counter charge / tarpitting if needed.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Battle Report #3 (No Pictures)
Same player as the first 2 games, and same map, but this time he played his IG vehicle army - I used the same army as the first battles. He had 3 squadrons of 2 valkaries (3 lascannons each), 2 Russes with battle cannons, some kind of missile lancher thing (4 missiles, could shoot 1 a turn for d3 missiles), and some chimeras.
Game: 3 onjectives
Deployment: Dawn of War.
Turn 1:
He went first and moved everything on. Determined to deny Mordrak a read armor shot, he bunched everything up into 2 rows. One right behind the other, and moved his planes flat out for the cover save. With nothing to shoot at, there was nothing else he could do.
I moved the assassin into some ruins, and dropped Mordrak into cover on the side of a squadron of planes. 2 ghost knights died on the drop, and the librarian only managed to stun 1 of the planes (with side armor 12, the knights and mordrak could't even scratch it - I had a read shot on one of them, but not the closer one, and rules say you have to use armor rating of closest).
Turn 2:
He fired everything he had at the ghost knights until they were dead - too much fire power too close. His valkaries fired at the sniper, who made 6 cover saves from the lascannons.
My assassin killed one of his valkaries, and one of my GKSS (combat squaded) dropped in - one near each objective on his side of the board (well the was the plan, they both scattered about 8 inches away from the objective). The GKSS that landed in range shot a lascannon off of a valkarie.
Turn 3:
He hit the closest GKSS with a missle launcher and both demolisher cannons, but with scatter and some bad rolls, he only managed to kill 3 of 5. The Valkaries finish off my vindicare.
On my turn, for the second time in a row, I rolled almost all 1s and 2s for my reserves, and he had an astropath, so only 1 dreadknight made it onto the board, he moved toward the tank line, acting as a fire magnet for the next turn (I wish I had remembered they had the shunt move). The GKSS that was hit by the demolisher cannons was pinned, but the other moved into cover near an objective and shot down another Valkarie.
Turn 4:
He fired almost everything at the Dreadknight, but took it down. He forgot about the unit of 2, previouly pinned GKSS, and tried to shoot the demolishers at the other unit, which was out of range.
Another GKSS came in, and split, one dropping in to attack the 2 units of troops that had spilled out of the valkarie, and the other dropping near my objective. My other dreadknight still did not come in, beause of the astropath. I did some shooting, but nothing awsome.
Turn 5:
He fired everything again, and killed alot of GKSS, but I made a few cover saves, and over all did pretty well - although I lost the unit of 2 GKSS that were moving toward the midfield objective. After his turn of shooting was over, he asked if it was really worth continuing. I pointed out that I still had a move left, and I had 2 units withing 6" of 2 objectives (he was not holding any). He had gotten so into blasting me with all of his weapons, that he forgot that he was supposed to be holding obective. He commented that even if he lost, he was decimiating me, but I would have played different in we were not playing for objectives.
I moved 2 units onto objectives, giving myself as much cover as I could. I also, finally, got to move my last dreadknight on, and moved him onto my objective too (he had scoring from Mordrak). I dropped the other 2 combat squads of GKSS near his center objective (but they scattered too far away to claim it. I shot a few of his vehicles, and assaulted his troops with a 5 man squad of GKSS. The hammer guy killed 1, but I rolled all 2s to hit with the sword guys (8 of them), and then failed most of my armor saves (the hammer guy was the only left), then I broke, used ATSKNF, and took another wound. (In that whole melee, I think I only rolled 1 die higher than a 2, and that was a 3 - the hammer guys roll to wound).
Turn 6: There was a turn 6, but by now, 2 of his 3 units of troops were foot slogging, and more than 12" from an objective, and his destoyed vehicles were boxing in his other ones, so rather than go for objectives, he spent the turn shooting. He killed my dread knight, and two squads of GKSS, but in the end I still had 2 objectives to his none.
Game: 3 onjectives
Deployment: Dawn of War.
Turn 1:
He went first and moved everything on. Determined to deny Mordrak a read armor shot, he bunched everything up into 2 rows. One right behind the other, and moved his planes flat out for the cover save. With nothing to shoot at, there was nothing else he could do.
I moved the assassin into some ruins, and dropped Mordrak into cover on the side of a squadron of planes. 2 ghost knights died on the drop, and the librarian only managed to stun 1 of the planes (with side armor 12, the knights and mordrak could't even scratch it - I had a read shot on one of them, but not the closer one, and rules say you have to use armor rating of closest).
Turn 2:
He fired everything he had at the ghost knights until they were dead - too much fire power too close. His valkaries fired at the sniper, who made 6 cover saves from the lascannons.
My assassin killed one of his valkaries, and one of my GKSS (combat squaded) dropped in - one near each objective on his side of the board (well the was the plan, they both scattered about 8 inches away from the objective). The GKSS that landed in range shot a lascannon off of a valkarie.
Turn 3:
He hit the closest GKSS with a missle launcher and both demolisher cannons, but with scatter and some bad rolls, he only managed to kill 3 of 5. The Valkaries finish off my vindicare.
On my turn, for the second time in a row, I rolled almost all 1s and 2s for my reserves, and he had an astropath, so only 1 dreadknight made it onto the board, he moved toward the tank line, acting as a fire magnet for the next turn (I wish I had remembered they had the shunt move). The GKSS that was hit by the demolisher cannons was pinned, but the other moved into cover near an objective and shot down another Valkarie.
Turn 4:
He fired almost everything at the Dreadknight, but took it down. He forgot about the unit of 2, previouly pinned GKSS, and tried to shoot the demolishers at the other unit, which was out of range.
Another GKSS came in, and split, one dropping in to attack the 2 units of troops that had spilled out of the valkarie, and the other dropping near my objective. My other dreadknight still did not come in, beause of the astropath. I did some shooting, but nothing awsome.
Turn 5:
He fired everything again, and killed alot of GKSS, but I made a few cover saves, and over all did pretty well - although I lost the unit of 2 GKSS that were moving toward the midfield objective. After his turn of shooting was over, he asked if it was really worth continuing. I pointed out that I still had a move left, and I had 2 units withing 6" of 2 objectives (he was not holding any). He had gotten so into blasting me with all of his weapons, that he forgot that he was supposed to be holding obective. He commented that even if he lost, he was decimiating me, but I would have played different in we were not playing for objectives.
I moved 2 units onto objectives, giving myself as much cover as I could. I also, finally, got to move my last dreadknight on, and moved him onto my objective too (he had scoring from Mordrak). I dropped the other 2 combat squads of GKSS near his center objective (but they scattered too far away to claim it. I shot a few of his vehicles, and assaulted his troops with a 5 man squad of GKSS. The hammer guy killed 1, but I rolled all 2s to hit with the sword guys (8 of them), and then failed most of my armor saves (the hammer guy was the only left), then I broke, used ATSKNF, and took another wound. (In that whole melee, I think I only rolled 1 die higher than a 2, and that was a 3 - the hammer guys roll to wound).
Turn 6: There was a turn 6, but by now, 2 of his 3 units of troops were foot slogging, and more than 12" from an objective, and his destoyed vehicles were boxing in his other ones, so rather than go for objectives, he spent the turn shooting. He killed my dread knight, and two squads of GKSS, but in the end I still had 2 objectives to his none.
Battle Report #2 (No Pictures)
I played this game right after the game in battle report #1. We both used the same armies.
Game: Anihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War
He deployed the same way as the last game - two tactical squads in the ruins on top of the hill. There was a misunderstanding because he did not declare that his 2 squads of Assault Termies were starting in the landraiders again, I just assumed they were - and he was under the impression that he did not have to decide until he put them on the board (after my first run in this case, because it was dawn of war). I started with everything in reserves.
Turn 1:
I went first, and deepstriked onto the hill top again, and ran my assassin behind a wall. (I didn't put him in the same ruins as last time, because without a nearby objective, I just figured he would stay out of range.
On his turn 1, he walked both of his assault termies onto the hill top and his land raiders at the bottom of the hill. He Turbo-boosted all 3 squadrons of land speeders toward my assassin (3 units of 2). Both of his units assaulted and killed Mordrak's squad, but sanctuary killed one of them on the charge, and then the librarian killed one. So right of the bat, I am down 3 kill points.
Turn 2:
My assassin shot down one of the landspeeder. 1 squad of GKSS came in, as well as 1 Dreadknight. The the GKSS shot down the other landspeeder in the squadron the assassin shot. One of my dreadknights killed another landspeeder in melee.
On his turn, he moved 1 land raider up the hill to pick up his assualt termies (they got half way there). He moved and fired 2 melta's and my assassin, who made the cover save. He fired at my dreadknight with the other landspeeder, and caused 1 wound.
Turn 3:
Figuring my GKSS and assassin could finish of the landspeeders, I jumped my Dreadknight toward the landraider. My other dreadknight came on outflanking (from Mordrak), and closed in on the landspeeders from behind. My shooting glanced some of the landspeeders, but did not destroy an of them. My other GKSS squad came down between the land speeders and the land raider, and shook it (but scattered so that they were right in front of it).
He picked up his assault termies (the one with vulcan and the libby) with one of the landraiders. He turbo-boosted both of his landspeeder squadrons to the top of the hill to protect the points. He used power of the machine spirit on his shaken landraider and killed a few of the GKSS.
Turn 4: With his 2 tac squads, one assault termie squad, and all his landspeeders on top of the hill, all I could go after were the land raiders. (I forgot about my shunt move on the GK, otherwise I might have pulled off a win). My other GKSS came down behind the land raider, but could not penetrate it's armor. I charged with the nearby GKSS and Dreadknight. I forgot that I gave the marines 2 hammers (problem of using proxies, but I am odering them today), so only rolled 1, which did not do anything. On the dreadknight, I forgot that I could use the first instead of the sword, so only got 1 penetrating hit, which immobilized the landraider.
He moved his command squad back down the hill. His land raider fired everything at the GKSS in front of it, and managed to kill the whole squad (I think they took a few lascannon shots from the top of the hill to whittle them down). The rest of his army stayed on the hill.
Turn 5:
My assassin destroyed the land raider carrying the command squad. My other GKSS and dreadknight finished off the other land raider. My other dreadknight was moving toward the land raider (again, forgot about shunt so had a long way to go, so at this point he was between the 2 destroyed land raiders.
His turn, his command squad charged one of my dreadknights, determined to take a KP with me, I focused on his librarian, this time I remembered the fist, and killed him before being chopped into pieces by Vulcan and crew.
There was no turn 6, so I lost 4 to 5.
Game: Anihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War
He deployed the same way as the last game - two tactical squads in the ruins on top of the hill. There was a misunderstanding because he did not declare that his 2 squads of Assault Termies were starting in the landraiders again, I just assumed they were - and he was under the impression that he did not have to decide until he put them on the board (after my first run in this case, because it was dawn of war). I started with everything in reserves.
Turn 1:
I went first, and deepstriked onto the hill top again, and ran my assassin behind a wall. (I didn't put him in the same ruins as last time, because without a nearby objective, I just figured he would stay out of range.
On his turn 1, he walked both of his assault termies onto the hill top and his land raiders at the bottom of the hill. He Turbo-boosted all 3 squadrons of land speeders toward my assassin (3 units of 2). Both of his units assaulted and killed Mordrak's squad, but sanctuary killed one of them on the charge, and then the librarian killed one. So right of the bat, I am down 3 kill points.
Turn 2:
My assassin shot down one of the landspeeder. 1 squad of GKSS came in, as well as 1 Dreadknight. The the GKSS shot down the other landspeeder in the squadron the assassin shot. One of my dreadknights killed another landspeeder in melee.
On his turn, he moved 1 land raider up the hill to pick up his assualt termies (they got half way there). He moved and fired 2 melta's and my assassin, who made the cover save. He fired at my dreadknight with the other landspeeder, and caused 1 wound.
Turn 3:
Figuring my GKSS and assassin could finish of the landspeeders, I jumped my Dreadknight toward the landraider. My other dreadknight came on outflanking (from Mordrak), and closed in on the landspeeders from behind. My shooting glanced some of the landspeeders, but did not destroy an of them. My other GKSS squad came down between the land speeders and the land raider, and shook it (but scattered so that they were right in front of it).
He picked up his assault termies (the one with vulcan and the libby) with one of the landraiders. He turbo-boosted both of his landspeeder squadrons to the top of the hill to protect the points. He used power of the machine spirit on his shaken landraider and killed a few of the GKSS.
Turn 4: With his 2 tac squads, one assault termie squad, and all his landspeeders on top of the hill, all I could go after were the land raiders. (I forgot about my shunt move on the GK, otherwise I might have pulled off a win). My other GKSS came down behind the land raider, but could not penetrate it's armor. I charged with the nearby GKSS and Dreadknight. I forgot that I gave the marines 2 hammers (problem of using proxies, but I am odering them today), so only rolled 1, which did not do anything. On the dreadknight, I forgot that I could use the first instead of the sword, so only got 1 penetrating hit, which immobilized the landraider.
He moved his command squad back down the hill. His land raider fired everything at the GKSS in front of it, and managed to kill the whole squad (I think they took a few lascannon shots from the top of the hill to whittle them down). The rest of his army stayed on the hill.
Turn 5:
My assassin destroyed the land raider carrying the command squad. My other GKSS and dreadknight finished off the other land raider. My other dreadknight was moving toward the land raider (again, forgot about shunt so had a long way to go, so at this point he was between the 2 destroyed land raiders.
His turn, his command squad charged one of my dreadknights, determined to take a KP with me, I focused on his librarian, this time I remembered the fist, and killed him before being chopped into pieces by Vulcan and crew.
There was no turn 6, so I lost 4 to 5.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Battle Report 1 (No Pictures)
This was my first game with the Grey Knights. I was using "Mordrak's Turn 1 Blitz (#1)" Army.
I didn't take picutres (as I was almost all proxy), and I don't remember enough to re-create the battle on vassal.
Game: Capture and Control
Deployment: Dawn of War
Opponent played Salamanders. He had 2 land raiders, 1 with Vulcan, a Libby, and Assault Marines. The other land raider had 5 assault marines. He also had 3 squadrons of 2 landspeeders(Maybe it was 3, so if the points aren't adding up, that's where they were). He also had 2 tactical squads, which I think were armed with melta guns and lascannons.
He put his objective on a hill, on the top of a 3 story ruins, on the far right side of the board. I put mine in the open, in the middle-right of the board.
Turn 1:
He deployed first, and put both tactical squads in the ruins with his objective. (I held everything in reserve). He deployed both of his land raiders in the middle of the board, moving toward my objective. He also moved his landspeeders flat out to contest my objective.
I deepstiked Mordrak's unit on top of the hill and shot some stuff - his libby's hood, about 23" away, stopped any psyker powers going off. I ran my assassin to the 2nd floor of some ruins in the bottom left of the board. I ran both of my Dread Knights down the middle, and destoyed 2 or 3 of his landspeeders.
Turn 2:
He moved his land raiders toward the middle, but because he had moved in right behind cover, he had to back-track to get around it without taking a dangerous terrian roll (he didn't want to have his termies walking so early in the game. He shot both tactical squads at Mordrak's unit, and killed 1-2 ghost knights. @ of his land speeder units fired at my dreads, doing 2 wounds on one of them, and the other fired on my assassin (missed everything).
Two of my GKSS squads came in. I combat squaded 1 and put both squads next to Mordrak. I tried to drop the other 2 combat squads near my objective, but they scattered 9" left, away from the action, but close enough to immoblize a dread. My assassin rolled 2 1's to hit. One of my dread knights went to back up the the assassin, killing another land speeder. Mordrak attacked the Tac squad on the bottom floor of the ruins, routing it, while the 2 GKSS shot up the unit on the top floor. My other dread hopped over and destroyed his other land raider.
Turn 3:
He decided to send a Landraider up to help his tac squads - the hill was acutally more of a cliff, with a winding ramp up, so moving 12", he made it about half way to the ruins. His Tac Squad at Mordrak's unit, but didn't kill anything. his landspeeders put a wound on my unwounded dreadknight. Then his 5 assault terminators assualted the dread - the dread knight killed 1, and made 5 of 6 invulnerable saves at 5+, to tie up combat.
I deepstriked my last 2 combat squads behind the landspeeders and finished them off. Mordrak assaulted up, and cleared out the other tac squad. One of Mordrak's GKSS squads fired its psycannon and destroyed the apporoaching land raider - spilling out 5 Assault termies, vulcan, and a libby.
The other squad fired at vulcan and caused him 1 wound, and killed a terminator. I moved 2 combat squads near my objective. In assault he finished off my dreadknight. My assassin rolled 2 1's again to hit.
Turn 4:
He charged one of Mordrak's combat squad GKSS. I cast sanctuary, and he didn't make it (and lost another assualt termie). He also charged my other Dreadknight, and killed it.
I cast warp rift on Vulcan's squad, killing 2 more assualt termies, and causing them to break and run to the edge of the board.
Turn 5:
Vulcan's squad fired at me 1 more time, then ran off the board (since he was within 6 inches of Mordrad still.
Then, with only 4 assault termies agaisnt an assassin, 6 combat squads of GKSS, and Mordrad and his librarian (and 1-2 ghost knights), my opponent conceeded the game.
I didn't take picutres (as I was almost all proxy), and I don't remember enough to re-create the battle on vassal.
Game: Capture and Control
Deployment: Dawn of War
Opponent played Salamanders. He had 2 land raiders, 1 with Vulcan, a Libby, and Assault Marines. The other land raider had 5 assault marines. He also had 3 squadrons of 2 landspeeders(Maybe it was 3, so if the points aren't adding up, that's where they were). He also had 2 tactical squads, which I think were armed with melta guns and lascannons.
He put his objective on a hill, on the top of a 3 story ruins, on the far right side of the board. I put mine in the open, in the middle-right of the board.
Turn 1:
He deployed first, and put both tactical squads in the ruins with his objective. (I held everything in reserve). He deployed both of his land raiders in the middle of the board, moving toward my objective. He also moved his landspeeders flat out to contest my objective.
I deepstiked Mordrak's unit on top of the hill and shot some stuff - his libby's hood, about 23" away, stopped any psyker powers going off. I ran my assassin to the 2nd floor of some ruins in the bottom left of the board. I ran both of my Dread Knights down the middle, and destoyed 2 or 3 of his landspeeders.
Turn 2:
He moved his land raiders toward the middle, but because he had moved in right behind cover, he had to back-track to get around it without taking a dangerous terrian roll (he didn't want to have his termies walking so early in the game. He shot both tactical squads at Mordrak's unit, and killed 1-2 ghost knights. @ of his land speeder units fired at my dreads, doing 2 wounds on one of them, and the other fired on my assassin (missed everything).
Two of my GKSS squads came in. I combat squaded 1 and put both squads next to Mordrak. I tried to drop the other 2 combat squads near my objective, but they scattered 9" left, away from the action, but close enough to immoblize a dread. My assassin rolled 2 1's to hit. One of my dread knights went to back up the the assassin, killing another land speeder. Mordrak attacked the Tac squad on the bottom floor of the ruins, routing it, while the 2 GKSS shot up the unit on the top floor. My other dread hopped over and destroyed his other land raider.
Turn 3:
He decided to send a Landraider up to help his tac squads - the hill was acutally more of a cliff, with a winding ramp up, so moving 12", he made it about half way to the ruins. His Tac Squad at Mordrak's unit, but didn't kill anything. his landspeeders put a wound on my unwounded dreadknight. Then his 5 assault terminators assualted the dread - the dread knight killed 1, and made 5 of 6 invulnerable saves at 5+, to tie up combat.
I deepstriked my last 2 combat squads behind the landspeeders and finished them off. Mordrak assaulted up, and cleared out the other tac squad. One of Mordrak's GKSS squads fired its psycannon and destroyed the apporoaching land raider - spilling out 5 Assault termies, vulcan, and a libby.
The other squad fired at vulcan and caused him 1 wound, and killed a terminator. I moved 2 combat squads near my objective. In assault he finished off my dreadknight. My assassin rolled 2 1's again to hit.
Turn 4:
He charged one of Mordrak's combat squad GKSS. I cast sanctuary, and he didn't make it (and lost another assualt termie). He also charged my other Dreadknight, and killed it.
I cast warp rift on Vulcan's squad, killing 2 more assualt termies, and causing them to break and run to the edge of the board.
Turn 5:
Vulcan's squad fired at me 1 more time, then ran off the board (since he was within 6 inches of Mordrad still.
Then, with only 4 assault termies agaisnt an assassin, 6 combat squads of GKSS, and Mordrad and his librarian (and 1-2 ghost knights), my opponent conceeded the game.
Mordrak's Turn 1 Blitz (#2)
Based on my first couple of games, this is my new Mordrak list:
GM Mordrak
5 Ghost Knights
Librarian
Teleport Homer
Power: Might of Titan
Power: Shrouding
Power: Sanctuary
Power: Warp Rift
Power: Quicksilver
Staff of Warding
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
1 Daemon Hammers
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
1 Daemon Hammers
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
2 Daemon Hammers
Nemesis Dreadknight
Personal Teleporter
Heavy Incinerator
Nemesis Dreadknight
Personal Teleporter
Heavy Incinerator
Vindicare Assasin
GM Mordrak
5 Ghost Knights
Librarian
Teleport Homer
Power: Might of Titan
Power: Shrouding
Power: Sanctuary
Power: Warp Rift
Power: Quicksilver
Staff of Warding
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
1 Daemon Hammers
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
1 Daemon Hammers
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
2 Daemon Hammers
Nemesis Dreadknight
Personal Teleporter
Heavy Incinerator
Nemesis Dreadknight
Personal Teleporter
Heavy Incinerator
Vindicare Assasin
Assessment of Mordrak
After a few games with him, and some thinking, here is what I got. First, I am taking him with a unit of 5 Ghost Knights at the very least (he can't do anything by himself really, so there is no sense spending the extra points over a normal Grandmaster otherwise. Also I am going to assume taking him with a librarian, because without psycannons or psyammo, there is not alot his unit can do on turn 1 (can't even pop a rhino unless you can actually get behind it). The librarian will at least have warp-rift and sanctuary, and a TP homer, which lets you bring in help.
Strengths - He is a decently equiped GM. By the time you give your Grandmaster a master-crafted daemon hammer, you are only paying 15 points for +1 wound and +1 attack, as well as the ability to deep-strike without error on turn 1. He is not an independant character, so he can not be singled out in melee (although this is meant to be a strength, it is actually a double-edged sword, because it also means that he can be killed by overflow wounds targetted at his unit - instead of forcing your enemy to decide how to split his attacks).
Weaknesses - Can't take psychotroke grenades (which are just cool). Actually I think his biggest weakness is the Ghost Knights themselves. They are the same price as a normal unit of 5 terminators, but cannot take psycannons or psyammo, which make me want to not take them (they are meant to be ablative wounds for Mordrak, but he is not SO awsome that I want to buy him extra wounds at 40 points each). I know they add shooting and melee attacks, so they are not complete ballast, but GKSS can get just as many shots, at higher strength, for half of the cost; if I can only fit 1 terminator squad in the army, I really don't want it to be these guys.
Tactics - My first instinct with Mordrak is to deepstike him as deep as possible and use his unit and the Librarian to do as much damage as possible. This instinct only served me well 1 out of 3 games:
If the enemy leaves an opening (like a unit of troops or artillery way off my itself), feel free to take advantage of it, as long as it is not so far away that you can't make it back to the fight (remember this unit is over 25% of a 2000 point army, and you can't afford to have it not doing anything for 4 turns while you march back from the far table edge).
If it is an objective game, be conservative - don't deepstrike 3 KP all by itself into the middle of the enemy army. The idea is to use Mordrak to cause enough damage that your ENEMY has to play catch up, not the other way around. Just the THREAT of being able to DS behind the enemy will mess with his deployment, you don't have to actually do it unless he makes a big mistake that you can exploit.
I am beginning to thing that the best place to deploy Mordrak's unit is mid-field, on the other side of cover. First, this will increase his chance of survival (he is not getting charged by your opponent's deathstar on turn 1). If you opponent tries to hang back and run a gun line, you can use the librarian to bring the rest of your army directly in at midfield (assuming an all or mostly DS army), so that they can start shooting as soon as they come in. If you opponent advances on you, you can DS some of your army behind his advance. This will let you get rear shots on his advancing elements, or isolate and destroy some of the support elements (forcing him to decide whether to press the advance or to turn around and rescue his fire support - at which time you DS some more units next to Mordrak, and THEY can take read shots on his vehicles).
Strengths - He is a decently equiped GM. By the time you give your Grandmaster a master-crafted daemon hammer, you are only paying 15 points for +1 wound and +1 attack, as well as the ability to deep-strike without error on turn 1. He is not an independant character, so he can not be singled out in melee (although this is meant to be a strength, it is actually a double-edged sword, because it also means that he can be killed by overflow wounds targetted at his unit - instead of forcing your enemy to decide how to split his attacks).
Weaknesses - Can't take psychotroke grenades (which are just cool). Actually I think his biggest weakness is the Ghost Knights themselves. They are the same price as a normal unit of 5 terminators, but cannot take psycannons or psyammo, which make me want to not take them (they are meant to be ablative wounds for Mordrak, but he is not SO awsome that I want to buy him extra wounds at 40 points each). I know they add shooting and melee attacks, so they are not complete ballast, but GKSS can get just as many shots, at higher strength, for half of the cost; if I can only fit 1 terminator squad in the army, I really don't want it to be these guys.
Tactics - My first instinct with Mordrak is to deepstike him as deep as possible and use his unit and the Librarian to do as much damage as possible. This instinct only served me well 1 out of 3 games:
If the enemy leaves an opening (like a unit of troops or artillery way off my itself), feel free to take advantage of it, as long as it is not so far away that you can't make it back to the fight (remember this unit is over 25% of a 2000 point army, and you can't afford to have it not doing anything for 4 turns while you march back from the far table edge).
If it is an objective game, be conservative - don't deepstrike 3 KP all by itself into the middle of the enemy army. The idea is to use Mordrak to cause enough damage that your ENEMY has to play catch up, not the other way around. Just the THREAT of being able to DS behind the enemy will mess with his deployment, you don't have to actually do it unless he makes a big mistake that you can exploit.
I am beginning to thing that the best place to deploy Mordrak's unit is mid-field, on the other side of cover. First, this will increase his chance of survival (he is not getting charged by your opponent's deathstar on turn 1). If you opponent tries to hang back and run a gun line, you can use the librarian to bring the rest of your army directly in at midfield (assuming an all or mostly DS army), so that they can start shooting as soon as they come in. If you opponent advances on you, you can DS some of your army behind his advance. This will let you get rear shots on his advancing elements, or isolate and destroy some of the support elements (forcing him to decide whether to press the advance or to turn around and rescue his fire support - at which time you DS some more units next to Mordrak, and THEY can take read shots on his vehicles).
Monday, May 23, 2011
Mordrak's Turn 1 Blitz (#1)
This is the first army I decided to try. Partly because it involved the easiest proxies (since I only plan in buying one more army for a while, I want to make sure I like it before I spend any cash), and partly because I had some cool modelling ideas for the Ghost Knights.
GM Mordrak
5 Ghost Knights
Librarian
Teleport Homer
Power: Might of Titan
Power: Shrouding
Power: Sanctuary
Power: Warp Rift
Power: Quicksilver
Staff of Warding
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
1 Daemon Hammers
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
2 Daemon Hammers
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
2 Daemon Hammers
Nemesis Dreadknight
Personal Teleporter
Greatsword
Nemesis Dreadknight
Personal Teleporter
Greatsword
Vindicare Assasin
So, this is the first army list I decided to play as a Grey Knight. The focus was first turn destruction. I intended to scout the 2 dreadknights, and between them, Mordrak's crew, and the assassin, do enough damage to the opponent on turn 1 that he would have to struggle to catch up.
I will do some battle reports eventually, probably using vassal (again all proxies right now, so they are not very pretty), and an analysis on each unit seperately, but here I will talk about how they performed in this specific list:
First, in all 3 games that I played this Saturday, we rolled Dawn of War, so my first turn strike did not really pan out.
Mordrak's unit did very well the first game. He teleported in next to isolated troops and opened fire. The librarian guided in 2 combat squads of GKSS, and together those units took and held the opponent's objective while the rest of my army tied up his elite forces. In the next two games however, Mordrak made less of of a difference. Once the opponent knows what he can do, he deploys in a way that minimizes the damage that Mordrak's unit can do, especially without psyammo for his knights. In the second game, anihilation, there was a confusion about the rules that we played through, but I went first, and Mordrak's unit did not rock, and was wiped out. This meant that on turn 2, I was trying to make up a 3 KP deficiet. The 3rd game was against IG vehicles, and although Mordrak did not rock again (and I lost 2 knights deepstriking into cover), he did force the enemy to pack his vehicles really close together, which limited his mobility in a way that helped me later.
GKSS did what they were supposed to do. On the objective games I combat squaded them, on the anihilation games I didn't. They always deepstriked in, and took out troops, valkaries, land raiders (immoblized 2 over 3 games) and land speeders. Sometimes they died, but they took a fair amount of punishment, even in combat squads, and returned fire. I have no complaints about thier performance (except when 5 assualted an IG squad and got wiped out to the man (alot of really bad rolls on my part and really good rolls on his).
Vindicare - he took alot of fire, and survived it, but with an all deepstriking army in Dawn of War (especially if I didn't go first), there was literally nothing else for enemy to shoot at. He destroyed a few vehicles over 3 games, not stellar, not suck.
Dreadknights - Did pretty well. We played where the teleporter added jump infantry, but did not take away monstrous creature. When these guys got to something they did pretty well - even lasted a turn or 2 against assault terminator command squads. They were supposed to provide my army with mobility (since nothing else had it after the initial deepstrike. They did damage, and generally were worth it, but when only 1 got a scouting move, it generally took the other one 2-3 turns of just moving to be able to do something (and they didn't always make it, although a dreadknight charging a squadron of lascannon valkaries meant those valkaries were not shooting their lascannons at my troops). I will probably put a ranged weapon on them from now on, so that can do something other than move for 3 turns.
GM Mordrak
5 Ghost Knights
Librarian
Teleport Homer
Power: Might of Titan
Power: Shrouding
Power: Sanctuary
Power: Warp Rift
Power: Quicksilver
Staff of Warding
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
1 Daemon Hammers
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
2 Daemon Hammers
10 GKSS
2 Psycannon
Psybolt Ammo
2 Daemon Hammers
Nemesis Dreadknight
Personal Teleporter
Greatsword
Nemesis Dreadknight
Personal Teleporter
Greatsword
Vindicare Assasin
So, this is the first army list I decided to play as a Grey Knight. The focus was first turn destruction. I intended to scout the 2 dreadknights, and between them, Mordrak's crew, and the assassin, do enough damage to the opponent on turn 1 that he would have to struggle to catch up.
I will do some battle reports eventually, probably using vassal (again all proxies right now, so they are not very pretty), and an analysis on each unit seperately, but here I will talk about how they performed in this specific list:
First, in all 3 games that I played this Saturday, we rolled Dawn of War, so my first turn strike did not really pan out.
Mordrak's unit did very well the first game. He teleported in next to isolated troops and opened fire. The librarian guided in 2 combat squads of GKSS, and together those units took and held the opponent's objective while the rest of my army tied up his elite forces. In the next two games however, Mordrak made less of of a difference. Once the opponent knows what he can do, he deploys in a way that minimizes the damage that Mordrak's unit can do, especially without psyammo for his knights. In the second game, anihilation, there was a confusion about the rules that we played through, but I went first, and Mordrak's unit did not rock, and was wiped out. This meant that on turn 2, I was trying to make up a 3 KP deficiet. The 3rd game was against IG vehicles, and although Mordrak did not rock again (and I lost 2 knights deepstriking into cover), he did force the enemy to pack his vehicles really close together, which limited his mobility in a way that helped me later.
GKSS did what they were supposed to do. On the objective games I combat squaded them, on the anihilation games I didn't. They always deepstriked in, and took out troops, valkaries, land raiders (immoblized 2 over 3 games) and land speeders. Sometimes they died, but they took a fair amount of punishment, even in combat squads, and returned fire. I have no complaints about thier performance (except when 5 assualted an IG squad and got wiped out to the man (alot of really bad rolls on my part and really good rolls on his).
Vindicare - he took alot of fire, and survived it, but with an all deepstriking army in Dawn of War (especially if I didn't go first), there was literally nothing else for enemy to shoot at. He destroyed a few vehicles over 3 games, not stellar, not suck.
Dreadknights - Did pretty well. We played where the teleporter added jump infantry, but did not take away monstrous creature. When these guys got to something they did pretty well - even lasted a turn or 2 against assault terminator command squads. They were supposed to provide my army with mobility (since nothing else had it after the initial deepstrike. They did damage, and generally were worth it, but when only 1 got a scouting move, it generally took the other one 2-3 turns of just moving to be able to do something (and they didn't always make it, although a dreadknight charging a squadron of lascannon valkaries meant those valkaries were not shooting their lascannons at my troops). I will probably put a ranged weapon on them from now on, so that can do something other than move for 3 turns.
A new Inquisition
I have tried several different armies in my 3 years playing 40k. I started with Necrons, then went to Eldar, the Space Marines, and dabbled with Dark Eldar. Within Space Marines, I have tried several different charpters. The point is I have lots of models that I am not currently using, and am trying to limit myself to just one army from now on (or at least for a year or two).
Why Grey Knights? I am concerned with their high point cost, most of my armies' successes have been from maximizing the number of shots I can pump out in cheap units, but I like their assault/heavy weapons - psycannons and storm bolters are huge, because I can move and shoot. They still get T4 and at least 3+ armor save.
I was torn between Grey Knights and Dark Eldar as my final (for a while) new army, and in the end, what decided me was that I have 10 rhinos and 3 dreadnoughts that I can recycle, whereas for DE I would need to buy ay least 12 new vehicles.
This is going to be a log of my army, hopefully with pictures and battle reports, and things I learn about the army as I play it. I am hoping this helps me commit to my army for a while (I also have terrible alt-itis in MMORPGs), and also give me a place to keep track of things that I learn about GK units, tactics, etc, both for myself and for anyone else playing Grey Knights and Inquisition forces.
Why Grey Knights? I am concerned with their high point cost, most of my armies' successes have been from maximizing the number of shots I can pump out in cheap units, but I like their assault/heavy weapons - psycannons and storm bolters are huge, because I can move and shoot. They still get T4 and at least 3+ armor save.
I was torn between Grey Knights and Dark Eldar as my final (for a while) new army, and in the end, what decided me was that I have 10 rhinos and 3 dreadnoughts that I can recycle, whereas for DE I would need to buy ay least 12 new vehicles.
This is going to be a log of my army, hopefully with pictures and battle reports, and things I learn about the army as I play it. I am hoping this helps me commit to my army for a while (I also have terrible alt-itis in MMORPGs), and also give me a place to keep track of things that I learn about GK units, tactics, etc, both for myself and for anyone else playing Grey Knights and Inquisition forces.
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