Sorry, no pics. I forgot to charge my phone, but I figured I'd write up a Battle Report anyway.
I played a good player last night who was using Grey Knights for the first time. We are both getting in some practice for the Battle for Stones River tournament in TN in February. The Civil War battle at Stones River, which is the theme for the event, took place in 1863, hence the odd point limit.
His list as I recall:
Inquisitor, 3x Servo-Skulls
10 Terminators, 8 Halbreds, 2 Hammers, 2 Psycannons, Psybolt Ammunition
10 Terminators, 8 Halbreds, 2 Hammers, 2 Psycannons, Psybolt Ammunition
10 Terminators, 8 Halbreds, 2 Hammers, 2 Psycannons, Psybolt Ammunition
Dreadnought, 2x
TL Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition
Dreadnought, 2x
TL Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition
Dreadnought, 2x
TL Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition
My Blood Angels list:
Reclusiarch, Melta Bombs - 135
10x Tactical Marines, Flamer, Missile Launcher, Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Rhino
10x Tactical Marines, Flamer, Missile Launcher, Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Rhino
10x Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Power Fist
7 Death Company, 2 Bolters, 2 Bolt Pistol/
CCWs, 3 Power Weapons
Death Company Dreadnought
Land Speeder, TML,
MM
Land Speeder, TML,
MM
Predator, Lascannon Sponsons
Predator, Lascannon Sponsons
Stormraven Gunship,
TL MM,
TL LC
We decided to play an
ATC tournament mission. There are 3 mission goals each worth 10 points for a possible 30 points. We play capture and control, seize ground with 3 objectives, and kill points...so whoever wins the capture and control wins 10 points, whoever controls more sieze ground objectives gets 10 points, and whoever has more kill points gets 10 points. If we tie on a mission goal, then we split 5 points.
After a series of rolls we ended up with dawn of war deployment, his C&C objective about center in the quadrant on my left, my C&C objective was opposite in the quadrant on my right, and the 3 sieze ground objectives formed a diagonal across the middle of the board so that all the objectives looked like a loose 5-side on a die.
I won the roll to go first, but I made my first mistake of the game here. I was thinking of every possible tactic he could pull on me and how I could counter that. I don't have any psychic defense so I wanted to deny him as many options as possible. I saw that he had servo skulls, and thought he might deepstrike with his terminators to close distance on me. I decided to play against that tactic and passed first turn... If I just would have stopped and thought, then I would have realized that he has no real way of coordinating his list if he decided to reserve it. His
HQ can't deepstrike so he would likely only deepstrike at most two units. I would have been able to spend a couple of turns alpha striking what he did have on the board, remain a loose castle type formation, and then countered his reserves. He likely would have seen all that coming so he would have deployed with everything on the board...which would have allowed me a better plan of attack than what actually happened in the game.
He deployed 2 units of Terminators with the
HQ across the center of the board with the Dreadnoughts walking in on turn 1 and the other unit of Terminators deepstriking. I then said all my units would come in on turn 1...which was my second mistake. I should have taken turn 1, but since I didn't, I should have played my Assault Squad differently. He just told me that all of his Dreadnoughts were walking in from his board edge on turn 1 so I should have deepstruck with my assault squad because they would have had obvious targets. I could have put them in his backfield and forced his Terminators to make targeting decisions.
Grey Knights Turn 1
Movement: He shuffles a little bit with his Terminators to get into cover and take a couple objectives. Two Dreadnoughts come in on my right out of
LoS behind a hill, and the third comes in on my left.
Blood Angels Turn 1
Movement: I have everything move flat out or as far as possible on the right edge of the board.
Shooting: My Stormraven sees his Terminator squad on the right on an objective in cover, and takes one out with the
MM.
Grey Knights Turn 2
Failed reserve roll
Movement: His unit of 9 Terminators try to move away from the Stormraven but don't get too far. The other Terminators start moving to the center, and the Dreadnoughts shuffle away to the left.
Shooting: His Dreadnoughts wreck the Stormraven, and his Terminators stun a Land Speeder.
Blood Angels Turn 2
Movement: My 2 units of Death Company move toward his Terminators in cover. My Rhinos move up to the middle mark of the board with the Assault Marines on their left because of terrain/Stormraven. My working Land Speeder Turbo-Boosts again to get within
LoS and threat range of his Dreadnoughts. The Predators jockey for good firing positions. All of these units are bumping into each other in a tight corridor of space.
Shooting: My Dreadnought fleets to get within a few inches of his Terminators. My Predators take aim at his Terminator squad on the left and take down a couple.
Assault: My Dreadnought makes it into combat and goes simultaneously with his Hammers. He gets off his power to get S10 hammers. His krak grenades fail, and then his hammers immbolize the Dread. I take my 5 attacks, miss 3 hits, and end up only killing 2 Terminators
.
Grey Knights Turn 3
Failed reserve roll
Movement: His Terminator squad takes the objective in the center of the board and makes 50% into cover in some woods. His 2 Dreadnoughts shuffle to the left and his other Dreadnought moves up a bit.
Shooting: It takes both Dreadnoughts on the right to destroy the
MM and shake the Land Speeder. His other Dreadnought gets 2 pens on my Predator but some ruins block both shots. What really hurt were his unit of Terminators shooting up my Assault Squad and getting 10 wounds...I roll 7 1s and 2s
... They pass morale.
Assault: My Dreadnought whiffs on his Terminators
. He casts his psychic power again and explodes the Dreadnought killing a Death Company bolter guy behind him
.
Blood Angels Turn 3
Movement: My Death Company and Assault Squad get right in the face of his Terminators. I position my assault squad to take out at least 1 Hammer and 2 Halbreds from hitting my Death Company and
IC. My two Rhinos move around the big hill on opposite sides so that one is out of
LoS and one is within 24" of the center/other Terminators. My Shaken Land Speeder turbo-boosts back to my Predators and my working Speeder comes in behind my Rhino in the center.
Shooting: My Predators and Land Speeder put more shots into his Terminators and kill a couple.
Assault: I charge his Terminators with my
DC and Assault Squad. My Assault Squad succeeds in pulling 3 Halbreds and a hammer, but he still gets a hammer on my
IC. His Halbreds swing, but only kill 3 Death Company. I swing back with my power weapons and kill off everyone except for the hammer on my
IC. His hammer thumps my Reclusiarch who passes his invulnerable save. His Terminator dies after he fails 6 No Reatreat saves after I catch him in a Sweeping Advance.
Grey Knights Turn 4
His Terminators come in and Deepstrike in the center on his side of the board near my Death Company.
Movement: One Dreadnought comes back to the right within charge distance of my Assault Squad. The other two Dreadnoughts take up firing positions across the center of the board.
Shooting: Between his Dreadnoughts and Terminators, he wrecks the Rhino and Landspeeder in the center. I pass my pinning check.
Assault: He charges my Assault Squad with his Dreadnought and kills 2...I fail my morale...he catches me...and my dice screw me some more as I pass two saves. I wanted my Tactical sergeant to take it out with a combi-melta.
Blood Angels Turn 4
Movement: My Tactical squad in the center is able to hoof it back to my C&C objective. My other Tactical Squad disembarks and gets ready to charge his Dreadnought. My Death Company have to move toward the Dreadnought in
CC.
Shooting: I screwed this up, too. I rolled to run with my Tactical Squad to hunker down around my objective and clear a movement lane for Predator, but then I just stopped thinking and I rolled to run with my Death Company...so no assault with the melta bombs
. At least my predators took aim at his Dreadnoughts and wrecked one.
Assault: My Tactical squad charged his Dreadnought in
CC with my Assault marine and whiffed. They would stay there the rest of the game, but within range of an objective.
Grey Knights Turn 5
Movement: His reserve Terminator squad fans out to grab his C&C objective.
Shooting: He kills the remaining Death Company leaving my Reslusiarch alone.
Assault: *whiff* *whiff* *whiff*
Blood Angels Turn 5
Movement: I move flat out with a Predator to contest the center objective and move my second Predator in position to do it again in case the game went to extra innings. I move my Reclusiarch in a gambit to try to pull his Terminators off his objective.
Shooting: *whiff* *whiff* *whiff*
Assault: My Tactical sergeant can't figure out how to turn on his power fist, and my Reclusiarch charges his Terminators. I pull them off the C&C objective successfully. After he curb stomps the Reclusiarch, he rolls to see if he gets back to his objective. I pulled him so that his closest guy was 7" away from the objective...and he rolls a 4 to get within 3"
I roll a 2 to go on so the game ends there.
He won on Killpoints: 0-10
I won on Sieze Ground: 10-0
and he pulled out the tie on C&C: 5-5
End result: 15-15 draw
Post Mortem:
He thought he should have used combat squads to cover more ground and split his fire. I should have taken first turn and played aggressively. What I learned from this is that while
40K is a game of tactics, sometimes I can get so worried about the tactics that I forget the strategy. Sure he could have deepstruck all of his Terminators, but he didn't have the list/framework to do it effectively. I should have been able to analyze the situation, figure out which tactics were available to him, and then discern which ones were actually worth worrying about. I played against a ghost that game. If I just would have calmed down and played my game, I probably wouldn't have felt that I was on the verge of losing every turn. I was lucky to pull out a draw because I employed inferior tactics and put myself in terribly awkward situations.
