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I've decided to give my Crowe-Purifiers a rest. They have one more game against Reece's army before they take a long vacation. For now, I want to try different armies or different GK builds. I've decided to hop along the Draigowing bandwagon...at least for a few games...to see how competitive they actually are. This is not really their debut. I've actually played Draigowing a few times before, though at the time, they were just a part of my army and not the main focus. Then for my Ard Boyz Semi-finals practice games (battle reports here), I actually played 3 games with them. In those practice games, they beat space wolves and tyranids but lost to my Crowe-Purifiers Ard Boyz army.

Today I played against SabrX's new Blood Angels. Basically, he runs an all assault marine army at 2K. For this battle, he borrowed 19 of my TH/SS assault termies to get up to 2500pts. I think this is going to be a good matchup. Deathstar versus deathstar. Jump infantry with force weapons and S5 stormbolters versus FNP jump infantry. Footsloggers versus footsloggers. Ultra-killy versus ultra-resiliency. I'm very much looking forwards to this match.


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2500 Draigowing Grey Knights vs FNP Blood Angels


2500 Grey Knights (My list)


There are a couple of proxies here. I didn't finish building Draigo in time so I am using Lysander to sub for him. I am also missing 1 warding stave so will be using my Grandmaster in his place. Finally, I was short a couple of psycannons so used incinerators as psycannons.


Lord Kaldor Draigo
Librarian - Warding Stave, Might of Titans, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Warp Rift

10x Paladins - 4x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, 1x Hammer, Warding Stave (Draigo here)
10x Paladins - 4x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, 1x Hammer, Warding Stave, Brotherhood Banner (Librarian here)
1x Paladin - Halberd

10x Interceptors - 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo
10x Interceptors - 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo



2500 Blood Angels


You can differentiate his assault squads by the color of their bases.


Librarian - Shield of Sanguinius, Unleash Rage
5x Honour Guards - 2x Meltas

10x TH/SS Assault Terminators
9x TH/SS Assault Terminators
2x Sanguinary Priests - 1x Jump Pack, 1x Terminator Armor

10x Assault Marines - 2x Meltas, Power Fist
10x Assault Marines - 2x Meltas, Power Fist
10x Assault Marines - 2x Meltas, Power Fist
10x Assault Marines - 2x Meltas, Power Fist
10x Assault Marines - 2x Meltas, Power Fist


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Mission: Capture and Control

Deployment: Spearhead

Initiative: Grey Knights


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Coming up, the Pre-game Analysis.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
PRE-GAME ANALYSIS:

Grey Knights:
I think this is going to be a tough matchup for me. While shooting is my forte, he's got a ton of guys, all with FNP. 19 2+ saves and 3++ invuln's and 57 3+ saves...and then 4+ FNP on top of that? Yeesh. I won't be able to shoot them down fast enough. I need to wipe out his terminators through assault. If I can combo-charge 1 unit of terminators at a time with both squads of paladins, I think I can wipe them out. If I go 1-on-1, I'm not so sure. I definitely don't want his terminators to get the charge off. That could be devastating. And I definitely don't want him to get the combo-charge...he will wipe me out by doing so.

Then there's the 55 assault marines I have to contend with. Normal marines I could probably handle. FNP marines? Stormbolters, even S5 ones, starts to look small in comparison. Should've brought 30 interceptors. But right now, my fast guys are way out-numbered. I don't expect them to survive. If my opponent has any sense, he will definitely try to take them out first and keep my paladins busy with his FNP terminators. While I think that I can wipe out 1 squad of assault marines if I shoot and charge them, what concerns me the most is his counter-attack. I don't think I will survive furiously charging assault marines, especially if they team up against me. In addition, he's got 12 meltas, and they could be deadly if he aims them all at my paladins...after he finishes off my interceptors.

In both objectives games, I think blood angels have the advantage. While I could potentially have 9 scoring units after Grand Strategy and combat squadding, he could potentially have 10 scoring units. And while I can shunt, he's actually got better mobility just by the mere fact that his jump guys outnumber me 55 to 20 and his scoring units are much more resilient than mine.

Although both our armies are very limited tactically, I think we both really have to play very strategic games. That is because whoever gets the assault will have the upper hand. And that's what it's going to boil down to. Whoever can get the charges off may well win this game.

--------------------------------------------------------------


Deployment:


My deployment. I use Grand Strategy to make both of my interceptor units scoring. I don't combat squad.


My deployment from my opponent's perspective.


My soladin (single-unit paladin) guards my turtle, er, objective.


SabrX's deployment. He positions his FNP guys so that all of his units are protected.


He only combat squads 1 unit and leaves one of the combat squads guarding his objective in the very far corner. He learned his objective-placing shenanigans at the Jy2 School of Objective-placing Shenanigans. Did I mention that he graduated with honors?


He then tries to steal the initiative and for the first time in a long time, he gets to go first against me. Lucky for me, he has no alpha strike capability and this is an objectives-base game. [Cues evil laugh] Muhahahahaha.... [Ok, stop it]

Uh oh. Better save before something crashes again.


--------------------------------------------------------------


Blood Angels 1

Angels advance, making sure that everyone is in FNP range.


Wider-angle shot of my opponent's movement. Assault terminators don't run. He is weary of my paladins' threat range. Assault marines, on the other hand, do.


Grey Knights 1

I decide to play defensive. I don't want to take him on head-on, at least not before a couple of turns of shooting. My paladins scoot back just a little.


My interceptors move back slightly as well. I move my orange squad (with the orange swords) such that they are screening out my blue squad (with, of course, the blue swords) and behind the ruins for cover.


In my Shooting phase, both interceptors combine to shoot down 5 assault marines. They pass morale. I then focus both units of paladins onto his right terminator squad....and only kill 1! I rend 5-6 times, but he makes every single invulnerable save!


Blood Angels 2

Assault marines continue their advance. They may even be in range to assault this turn!


Assault termies move and then run. Left squad runs a mighty 6"! Uh oh...things are not looking too good.


Overview of BA movement. Boy, what wouldn't I give for triple-vindicators now....


Bolt pistols and a couple of meltas take out 3 interceptors, including both of my psycannons. However, I also remove my closest guy to him, thus taking away his charge.

He's too close. I need to make a decision now.


Grey Knights 2

And my decision is to shunt my interceptors towards his objective. I will most likely lose my interceptors, but I need to draw his assault marines away. If I keep retreating, most likely we will be playing for a BA victory or a draw. I advance and we still may be playing for a draw, but at least it'll be harder for him to win.


Paladins scoot back a little further. I'm trying to stay out of his terminators' threat range yet still be within shooting range of most of his units.


His librarian casts Shield of Sanguinius and perils on snake-eyes (1,1).


My shooting surprises my opponent. Instead of focusing on his deathstars, I focus on his assault squads with IC's attached. 1 unit of paladins open fire on his right, grey squad. I kill his Sanguinary Priest as well as 4 regular assault marines. My other paladins shoot at his left, green squad and kill 4. I fail to take out his librarian.

BTW, did I mention that I killed all 4 of his melta-gunners in those 2 squads? Well, I did.

Both of my interceptor squads then fire at his librarian's unit, and I don't believe I killed a single soul. I fail to rend, and my opponent passes all of his FNP saves.


Blood Angels 3

Terminators advance. Both of them move 6" through difficult terrain. It's going to be close whether his left squad (with Sang. Priest) can get the charge off or not.


Yellow squad advances.


The rest of his jumpers go after my interceptors.


Orange squad goes-to-ground because of meltas (they're going to get charged anyways). He shoots down 3 from orange squad and 2 from blue.


Then it's furious charge time!


I make a huge mistake here. In my nubness, I forget to cast Sanctuary! His assault terminators just barely, and I mean barely, make it into assault. Then my halberd paladin barely, and I mean barely , make it into base with his Sanguinary Priest.


I guess this is as good a stopping point as any for me to take a dinner break. Will continue the report when I get back.


--------------------------------------------------------------



BA librarian casts Unleash Rage. He then hoods both of my attempts at Hammerhand. We both roll poorly in assault, but I roll just a little poorer. I lose combat and he catches both in a sweeping advance. After No Retreat saves I am down to just 1 guy left after having lost about 11 guys in that melee. I think SabrX only lost 1 assault marine.


In the paladin-terminator melee, Draigo fails to cast Hammerhand but the squad does. I kill off 5 terminators and his Sanguinary Priest. In return, he insta-gibs 2 of my nemesis force swords. Yes, 27 S9 attacks on the charge and he only kills 2 of my guys. His terminators would then pass all their no retreat saves.


Grey Knights 3

My librarian's unit goes after his other hamminators.


He casts Warp Rift and 3 hamminators fall into the chasm that opens up beneath them....oh wait, wrong power. Rewind. He casts Warp Rift and 3 hamminators gets sucked into the warp. The rest of my paladin shooting takes out another 2 terminators. Note - he could still allocate shots onto the guys that were removed via Warp Rift.


I would then charge his survivors and kill them to a man.


Draigo's unit wipes out their targets and consolidate.


Finally, he wipes out my last interceptor.

So now I've killed all but 1 terminator and he's killed all my interceptors. I have no way of getting to his objective in time. If 19 FNP terminators can only manage to kill 2 paladins before getting wiped out, I'll be damned if his assault marines can do anything to my paladins, especially considering that I've already killed half of his melta guys. Looks like we're well on our way to a draw.


Blood Angels 4

SabrX moves his blue squad back to his objective....


....and advances the rest of his army. He's pretty much guaranteed the draw. Now he's going to try for the win by contesting my objective. His meltagunner from his yellow squad dies to dangerous terrain when they jump onto the ruins.

Only 2 of his squads are in range to shoot. They fail to even cause a dent in my armor.

In combat, I wipe out his last hamminator and consolidate forwards (but keeping off of terrain).


Grey Knights 4

I advance. Both IC's break off from their squads in order to go after 4 different squads. I don't think my opponent was prepared for that. Here, Driago goes after his yellow squad in the ruins....


....and my librarian goes after his red squad.


1 squad of paladins shoot down 2 of his honour guards (luckily for him, not a single rend) and the other shoots down 4 assault marines from his back, green squad.


My librarian Warp Rifts 2 assault marines to hell (or rather, the Warp).


He would then whiff really badly in combat and do nothing.

Meanwhile, Draigo fails to climb the ruins.


Blood Angels 5

Now my opponent knows that there's just no way in heck he's going to make it to my objective to contest, so he opts to go for the glory....DRAIGGOOOOO!!!!


Shooting does jack. He then furiously charge Draigo....


....only to get routed. He does manage to put 1W on Draigo, but Draigo kills all but 1 and sends 2 squads of assault marines running.

Last but not least, my librarian continues to remain useless in combat. He misses like mad, and the few times he does hit, he fails to wound. I actually make another mistake here. I've been casting Hammerhand, but I forget that I could also cast Might of Titan as well. Anyways, they would stay locked in combat for the rest of the game.


Grey Knights 5

I opt not to wipe out his 2 fleeing units and instead, I advance my paladins. I'm just going to let his assault marines keep on running.


My other paladins assault his assault marines.


Both Draigo and my paladins wipe out their opponents and consolidate.

The game goes on for another turn.


Blood Angels 6

Assault marines continue fleeing.


His guys cower back on his objective. I've never seen marines so scared for their lives before. j.k.


For some reason, we get mixed up with the turns and roll on the top of 6 to see if the game ends. It does.


He's got his objective.



Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Turtle to turtle.




Draw!!!


Aftermath of the battle.

I'm SabrX and jy2's opponent in this battle report. jy2 asked me to provide a pre-game analysis.

Blood Angels

This was my 4th game with my new Blood Angels army. So far I've played 1 game against Orks, 2 games against Daemons, and now 1 game against Grey Knights. I'm familiar to Grey Knight's strengths and weaknesses. I've played against jy2's Grey Knights on numerous occasions. Right from the start, I knew this won't be an easy match. Despite being outnumbered, Grey Knights packs a lot of fire power. Psycannons and Storm Bolters with Psybolt ammunition is arguably the best anti-infantry shooting weapon in 40k.

Fortunately, my army is well equipped to deal with shooting attacks. Blood Angels with FNP is extremely resilient. I also fielded a Librarian with shield of sanguinius to add an extra layer of protection. If anything, I was more afraid of the mass force weapons in jy2's list. Hopefully my 19 Assault Terminators and Sanguinary Priest with weather the jy2's storm bolters and psycannons long enough to make it into assault.

I'm not worried about the Interceptors. Assault Marines with furious charge will strike first and kill many Interceptors before they strike back. What worries me the most are the Paladins. I've played against them twice using other armies. I know what they are capable of. The only way to reliably deal with them is concentrating my Meltaguns and using Assault Terminators to instant kill Paladins.

It's going to be a tough match up. My list has more mobility, but this mission is Capture and Control, making it easier for jy2 to defend his objective. We'll just have to wait and see...

oooo nice one. I'm looking forward to this. I have yet to fight a mostly feel no pain army yet with my gk's.

lost to one with my IG before but that was a different story.

Well, my first thought is GK by a landslide, but since the Paladins dont seem to be diversified and there arent that many halberds. BA does stand a chance.

Only 3 priests for like 70+ dudes? I dunno about this

I count 2 priests...

Red Corsair wrote:I count 2 priests...

Honor Guards comes with one.

I think he may have you here... but from viewing LOTS of your previous batreps, I think with some luck you could win... good luck!
Sqallum

@SabrX:

Thanks for the write-up. I think it's cool for the readers to read about my opponent's observations/thoughts as well.


@thread:

Oops! Forgot about 1 unit in my army list:

1x Paladin - Halberd (Soladin)

Just added it back to the original list.

The report will be out tomorrow. Didn't have the time to write it up today, though I did take the time to upload my photos online.

sudojoe wrote:oooo nice one. I'm looking forward to this. I have yet to fight a mostly feel no pain army yet with my gk's.

lost to one with my IG before but that was a different story.

There's a reason why FNP blood angels and other armies like deathguard (plaguemarines) are so good. They get 2 saves each! SabrX's army is really, really tough. Even though we have force/power weapons, the reason why FNP BA has a good chance against us is that we rely a lot of our offense on shooting, of which their FNP is still very useful. Also, furious charge means that they will strike before our non-halberd guys. Do not take such an army lightly. They are very good.

Jackster wrote:Well, my first thought is GK by a landslide, but since the Paladins dont seem to be diversified and there arent that many halberds. BA does stand a chance.

Originally, my list was diversified. This was without the soladin (single-paladin unit). But then I decided that I needed my 1-man squad to hold objectives so I dropped all 10 of my master-crafted upgrades to purchase him. I may not be fully diversified, but with 20 paladins, I can afford to lose a couple in order to get what I feel is more of a priority.

BTW, I have 4 swords and 4 halberds in each unit, with the banner replacing a sword in one of the units (I think).

Theduke07 wrote:Only 3 priests for like 70+ dudes? I dunno about this

It can be done. My army is small enough that he doesn't have to spread himself too thin.

Terminator priest will take care of his 2 deathstar units. Jump pack priest and honour guard noviate will protect all the assault marines.

He's lucky I don't have any blast weapons....oh wait, I do. I have holocaust....but I totally forget about it in the game, especially when I'm trying to fend off his assault terminators.

Jackster wrote:

Red Corsair wrote:I count 2 priests...

Honor Guards comes with one.

Yup. Melta-guards are a good unit.

Hey JY2, while I got you here in this thread, mind if I ask a non-related question to this battle report?

what is your perferred strat to deal with a bunch of demolisher toting tanks i.e. vanquishers with machine spirit rolling down on your purifier list?

sudojoe wrote:Hey JY2, while I got you here in this thread, mind if I ask a non-related question to this battle report?

what is your perferred strat to deal with a bunch of demolisher toting tanks i.e. vanquishers with machine spirit rolling down on your purifier list?

Against IG, I'd jam my purifiers down their throats. Advance as quickly as possible. Don't bother firing those psycannons or any psybolt razorbacks until they de-mech your troops. Move the full 12". Get close to either 1) their units so that a shot from their tanks is risky as it could scatter towards their own units or 2) close enough to their tanks that next turn, you can disembark, shoot your psycannons and then assault with S10 daemonhammers.

Also, set up your dreads on the extreme flanks to get side shots. Advance forwards if needed. You don't necessarily have to wreck them, just prevent them from shooting (stun/shake).

Honestly, not many people spam leman russes anymore, just like not many people spam land raiders in competitive play. The competitive players run vendettas and manticores+hydras. Against those tanks, your psyflemans are gold. And while the lemans are a nuisance, my #1 priority is always their troops. Get close enough to their troops or transports and his leman russes just cannot fire at you.

BTW, since when do vanquishers have machine spirit?

My money is on the paladins;

BA could crush them if they can combo charge with almost all the army at once, including terminators, but I don't think that will happend since letting them time to walk across the board while in front of about 40 psyammo stormbolters/psycanons is kinda suicidal...

Vanquishers don't have blast templates either...

Yea I would say get close to any shooty army really, but he asked a fairly abstract question since altering your entire strategy to cope with one or two tanks is exactly the mistake I would hope my opponents made, those vets have a worse bite at close range then any heavy tank....

Mmm.... Toss up; FnP won't really effect this game nearly as much as a typical game with all those force weapons. Honestly, for the BA to overcome, I see massive charges of 30+ marines running in and trying to take down the pallies lol.... Draigowings just so beastly in CC

Yea I agree, sanctuary are Quicksilver would have been an awesome choice to bring I10 is crazy... But remember Zid they are not fearless, so if he can pull of a sick charge with those terminators and places his figs well he can march them off ; )

Battle report coming out a little later today.

BTW, thought I'd offer some statistics.


------------------------------------------------------------


How many S5 stormbolters does it take to kill 1 terminator w/FNP?

2/3 hit x 2/3 wound x 1/6 failed save x 1/2 FNP save = 1/27 or

27 S5 stormbolter shots just to kill 1 FNP terminator. That means a whole squad of 10 w/S5 stormbolters wouldn't even kill 1 FNP terminator!!!


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Now for a little bit more useful info - how many FNP terminators will my 10-man paladin squad with 4 pyscannons & 6 S5 stormbolters kill?

First of all, the stormbolters:

12 shots x 2/3 hit x 2/3 wound x 1/6 failed save x 1/2 FNP save = 4/9 or .44 terminators

Then we have the psycannons:

(16 shots x 2/3 hit x 5/6 wound x 5/6 non-rending x 1/6 failed save x 1/2 FNP save) + (16 shots x 2/3 hit x 5/6 wound x 1/6 rending x1/3 failed save) = .62 + .49 = 1.11 terminators

So the total # of terminators killed would be: stormbolters + psycannons = .44 + 1.11 = 1.5 terminators dead

So it will take both of my 10-man paladin squads, or a total of 20 paladins, just to kill 3 FNP terminators each turn!!!

Wowsers!

BTW, since when do vanquishers have machine spirit?

old black templar's codex I was told. Don't actually have it myself.

So it will take both of my 10-man paladin squads, or a total of 20 paladins, just to kill 3 FNP terminators each turn!!!

hrm... that's ya... pretty bad lol. Lack of Ap1-2 is gonna be telling. I just have a bad feeling about this one for our boys in silver.

Almost makes you wish you had that vindicare around

jy2 wrote:Battle report coming out a little later today.

BTW, thought I'd offer some statistics.


------------------------------------------------------------


How many S5 stormbolters does it take to kill 1 terminator w/FNP?

2/3 hit x 2/3 wound x 1/6 failed save x 1/2 FNP save = 1/27 or

27 S5 stormbolter shots just to kill 1 FNP terminator. That means a whole squad of 10 w/S5 stormbolters wouldn't even kill 1 FNP terminator!!!


------------------------------------------------------------

Now for a little bit more useful info - how many FNP terminators will my 10-man paladin squad with 4 pyscannons & 6 S5 stormbolters kill?

First of all, the stormbolters:

12 shots x 2/3 hit x 2/3 wound x 1/6 failed save x 1/2 FNP save = 4/9 or .44 terminators

Then we have the psycannons:

(16 shots x 2/3 hit x 5/6 wound x 5/6 non-rending x 1/6 failed save x 1/2 FNP save) + (16 shots x 2/3 hit x 5/6 wound x 1/6 rending x1/3 failed save) = .62 + .49 = 1.11 terminators

So the total # of terminators killed would be: stormbolters + psycannons = .44 + 1.11 = 1.5 terminators dead

So it will take both of my 10-man paladin squads, or a total of 20 paladins, just to kill 3 FNP terminators each turn!!!

Wowsers!

Like I said; assault will decide this battle... and the termis striking at I1 against 10 pallies with 3+ attacks hitting on 3+ and wounding on 3+.... you can't make THAT many 3++'s

I know this may sound like one of those "dog-ate-my-homework" type of excuses, but f k! Just spent the last 2 hours working on my battle report and then Firefox goes and crashes on me.... hard! It's so bad that even after uninstalling it (several times), rebooting the system (a couple of times) and then re-installing it again (several times), it's still not running.

Sorry folks, but you're going to have to wait just a little longer for the report.

I think the Blood Angels would have a much better chance if the Librarian had Fear the Darkness instead of Shield. The terminators will give the assault marines a 4+ cover, better than the Shield, and Fear the Darkness can start sending GK units running backwards.

Except versus Purifiers, Fear the Darkness is great for BA against GK.

Semi thread hijack: I want to apologise to JY2 for my comments a few weeks back in terms of him posting reports ad hoc. I know how much work it takes to do a BR and get everything done.
I always like reading your reps and wish you luck in the tourneys.

I just like seeing BRs in full but dont stop JY2, sorry mate.

Turn 2 posted. Will continue after dinner.





Automatically Appended Next Post:

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Battle report completed.

sudojoe wrote:old black templar's codex I was told. Don't actually have it myself.

Ah! I believe the vehicle you are talking about is a vindicator, not a vanquisher. In that case, it's easy. They're only AV13. Concentrated psyfleman shooting, backed by psycannons, will easily ruin their day.

Almost makes you wish you had that vindicare around

Yeah, but I didn't really want to do that. To me, that would be tailoring my list to fight his. If I can afford a vindicare, then I'd much rather get a psyfleman instead. They're better against all-comer's.

Zid wrote:
Like I said; assault will decide this battle... and the termis striking at I1 against 10 pallies with 3+ attacks hitting on 3+ and wounding on 3+.... you can't make THAT many 3++'s

Spoken like someone who's got their teeth kicked in by some paladins. j.k.

Totally agreed. Well said.

DarthDiggler wrote:I think the Blood Angels would have a much better chance if the Librarian had Fear the Darkness instead of Shield. The terminators will give the assault marines a 4+ cover, better than the Shield, and Fear the Darkness can start sending GK units running backwards.

Except versus Purifiers, Fear the Darkness is great for BA against GK.

SabrX is still new with his Angels. He'll learn about Fear the Darkness in the future. I actually told him directly that one of my biggest weaknesses is Leadership. But I guess he was just using his all-comer's list.

One of the things about relying on terminators for cover, though, is that they are just too slow. Eventually, the assault marines will outpace their slower teammates.

Also, I think FtD is better when you're spamming librarians. At the minimum, he should get 2 HQ libbies. Otherwise, 1 is not enough, especially considering I have a hood in my army.

Ratius wrote:Semi thread hijack: I want to apologise to JY2 for my comments a few weeks back in terms of him posting reports ad hoc. I know how much work it takes to do a BR and get everything done.
I always like reading your reps and wish you luck in the tourneys.

I just like seeing BRs in full but dont stop JY2, sorry mate.

No prob, mate. All's cool.

Although I usually break up my reports, I try not to make it more than 1 day of posting. If I get too busy, then it may go to 2-3 days, but on average, I'll try to have everything posted within 1-2 days.

Omg why did he not reserve any assault marines, with decent of angels he could have gone after that solodin.... was deep striking not allowed? For that matter he could have deepstruck his terminators on your objective...

Red Corsair wrote:Omg why did he not reserve any assault marines, with decent of angels he could have gone after that solodin.... was deep striking not allowed? For that matter he could have deepstruck his terminators on your objective...

Interceptors with Warp Quake would have ruined that strategy.

Good write up jy2.

Too bad you rolled poorly with your Psycannons. They didn't rend much. As expected, mass Str5 Storm Bolters and Psycannons has less of an impact against 3+ or 2+ and FNP. The deciding factor was assault. Assault Marines beats Interceptors, but Paladins beat Assault Marines and Terminators.

I wasn't sure how my Assault Marines would fair against your Interceptors. I focused too many units on them. In hindsight, I probably should have reserved a unit of Assault Marines in hopes of contesting your objective late game. Shunt isn't effective against an extremely mobile army such as mass Assault Marines.

Paladins are extremely resilient. GK Librarian caught me by surprise with Warp Rift. I didn't think I would fail that many tests! If it weren't for that, assault wouldn't have been so lop-sided.

Draigo is a beast. Even after I focus a lot of attacks against him, he scrapes by receiving only 1 wound and winning combat. IMO Draigo is the best IC in 40k right now. He's a force multiplier and a wrecking ball.

By turn 4, we both knew this game would most likely end in a draw. Towards the end, I played aggressively with my Assault Marines in hopes of contesting your objective, but you ended up decimating most of them. Had this game been Annihilation, you would have probably won. Had it been seize ground, I would have had the advantage with better mobility.

Good game and thanks for letting me borrow your assault terminators.

nicely done both of you guys. Enjoyable as always.

Woops, you are right, I was getting the V named tanks all messed up. Throw in some valkyries, vendetts, and venoms along with vostrian first born! just to be more confusing.

Great report as always, thanks for posting it.

I see why you took the interceptors, but honestly, I think a list of:

Draigo
Librarian w/ stave, 4 powers
10 paladins w/4 psycannon, banner, stave, 2 hammers, 6 halberds, psybolts
10 paladins w/4 psycannon, banner, stave, 2 hammers, 6 halberds, psybolts
10 paladins /2 psycannon, 2 incinerators, 2 hammers, 6 halberds, psybolts

would serve you better. personally I thing 'ravens are better than an all foot paladinlist, but 30 paladins will make most opponents sob (even if they start by laughing). You could combat squad/deepstrike the third squad or GS-outflank it depending on foe and mission. Interceptors are quick but too easy to kill and provide a soft target for stuff that struggles to kill paladins.

Nice to see you splitting off the characters in the late game. hardly anyone expects that and it can tie up squads and/or contest nicely. And the much overlooked Warp Rift seemed to serve you well. I found remembering to cast (and exactly when to cast) the GK psychic powers the hardest part of running my paladin lists.

@SabrX:

Thanks for your after-game thoughts. I will incorporate them into my Post-game Analysis.

Red Corsair wrote:Omg why did he not reserve any assault marines, with decent of angels he could have gone after that solodin.... was deep striking not allowed? For that matter he could have deepstruck his terminators on your objective...

Jackster wrote:

Red Corsair wrote:Omg why did he not reserve any assault marines, with decent of angels he could have gone after that solodin.... was deep striking not allowed? For that matter he could have deepstruck his terminators on your objective...

Interceptors with Warp Quake would have ruined that strategy.

Honestly, that is actually a decent strategy. At first, he was considering doing DoA for most of his army. Then he considered deepstriking just 1 squad of assault marines. In the end he decided not to because he wanted a united force against my army. He also wanted the protection of FNP for all his guys and for the most part, he had it.

Had he threatened to even DoA 1 unit, I would've probably left 1 unit of interceptors behind. That would've made it much harder for me to get to his objective. Or then again, I probably would've just let him DoA and leave 1 unit of terminators behind for him to play with. Who knows. One thing's for sure. I'd most likely have to allocate resources to deal with them.

sudojoe wrote:nicely done both of you guys. Enjoyable as always.

Woops, you are right, I was getting the V named tanks all messed up. Throw in some valkyries, vendetts, and venoms along with vostrian first born! just to be more confusing.

Vank vou very vuch.

Artemo wrote:Great report as always, thanks for posting it.

I see why you took the interceptors, but honestly, I think a list of:

Draigo
Librarian w/ stave, 4 powers
10 paladins w/4 psycannon, banner, stave, 2 hammers, 6 halberds, psybolts
10 paladins w/4 psycannon, banner, stave, 2 hammers, 6 halberds, psybolts
10 paladins /2 psycannon, 2 incinerators, 2 hammers, 6 halberds, psybolts

would serve you better. personally I thing 'ravens are better than an all foot paladinlist, but 30 paladins will make most opponents sob (even if they start by laughing). You could combat squad/deepstrike the third squad or GS-outflank it depending on foe and mission. Interceptors are quick but too easy to kill and provide a soft target for stuff that struggles to kill paladins.

Nice to see you splitting off the characters in the late game. hardly anyone expects that and it can tie up squads and/or contest nicely. And the much overlooked Warp Rift seemed to serve you well. I found remembering to cast (and exactly when to cast) the GK psychic powers the hardest part of running my paladin lists.

I was actually considering running 3 units of paladins. In the end, I decided against it because:

1) That may be too much for my opponent, heck, for most opponents, to handle.

2) Such a list is very unbalanced. While it is super-resilient and super-killy, it is lacking in a lot of stuff. Not that my current list is very balanced, but I like the speed of the interceptors as a complement to the much slower paladins in an all-foot paladin army.

3) I just didn't have enough models. 30 paladins would require a lot of proxying on my part, and I wanted to keep that to a minimum.

Splitting up the IC's is actually a very common tactic that most opponents don't consider until it's too late. You see it a lot especially in hero-hammer space wolves, where you have 3-4 TWC wolf lords with 1 squad of TWC. Once those TWC gets to the enemy deployment zone, everyone splits off.

Warp Rift is a power I like. I don't get to use it much, but when it goes off, it can be devastating.


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Coming up next, my Post-game Analysis.

I GOT IT RIGHT!!!

Nice game jy, great report as ever man. Really good match up too, two really powerful armies. It was good to see them go head-to-head and it was an entertaining read, which I predicted correctly (for once).
Great work as ever guys.

POST-GAME ANALYSIS:

Grey Knights:
I played more cautious and defensive this game than I normally do. That is in part due to my inexperience with paladins. I know that they could be dominating, but I wasn't really sure how they would do against my opponent's army. When unsure of your opponent, I think it's better to play it safe than sorry. The second reason is due to my opponent's army. You almost always need to play defensively against assault terminator-spam, at least until you weaken them substantially. It's almost suicidal to take them head-on, or so I thought. Then it's not just the assault terminators I have to worry about. He's also got 55 FNP, furiously charging assault marines to back them up along with 12 meltas.

So in short, I kind of hurt my chances to win by playing more conservatively. If I had played more aggressively - advancing my paladins instead of retreating them for 2 turns - things might have turned out differently. But that is talking from hindsight. Who knows how my opponent would have changed his strategy had I played more aggressively.

Also, in the future, I will try different tactics with Grand Strategy. One thing I could've tried this game was to outflank my interceptors. I still have a lot of experimentation to do. This whole list was an experimentation. While I like the mobility of the interceptors and I think they complement the slower paladins well, I think my future paladin-GK build will run dreadnoughts and stormravens.


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Blood Angels: (by SabrX)
Good write up jy2.

Too bad you rolled poorly with your Psycannons. They didn't rend much. As expected, mass Str5 Storm Bolters and Psycannons has less of an impact against 3+ or 2+ and FNP. The deciding factor was assault. Assault Marines beats Interceptors, but Paladins beat Assault Marines and Terminators.

I wasn't sure how my Assault Marines would fair against your Interceptors. I focused too many units on them. In hindsight, I probably should have reserved a unit of Assault Marines in hopes of contesting your objective late game. Shunt isn't effective against an extremely mobile army such as mass Assault Marines.

Paladins are extremely resilient. GK Librarian caught me by surprise with Warp Rift. I didn't think I would fail that many tests! If it weren't for that, assault wouldn't have been so lop-sided.

Draigo is a beast. Even after I focus a lot of attacks against him, he scrapes by receiving only 1 wound and winning combat. IMO Draigo is the best IC in 40k right now. He's a force multiplier and a wrecking ball.

By turn 4, we both knew this game would most likely end in a draw. Towards the end, I played aggressively with my Assault Marines in hopes of contesting your objective, but you ended up decimating most of them. Had this game been Annihilation, you would have probably won. Had it been seize ground, I would have had the advantage with better mobility.

Good game and thanks for letting me borrow your assault terminators.