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So I'm getting ready for the NWG tournament at the end of the month and last Wednesday at the club I continued to practice my list among the countless hours of painting, getting a game in against Blood Angels. For anyone that is curious, the tournament is 1999pts ForgeWorld freindly, however the latter detail is irrelevant for this game.

I've been trying to get Draigo into my list as I felt in previous games that Strikes alone were on a shaky slope as my only scoring units, and getting that status to my Paladins could be huge in fixing that issue. I worked out a list with him in it, as you can see below.

Lord Kaldor Draigo

Inquisitor Torquemada Coteaz


5x Paladins
1x MC Halberd, 2x Swords, 2x Hammers + MC Psycannons

10x Strikes
2x Psycannons, 1x Hammer, in Transport 1

9x Strikes
1x Psycannon, 1x Hammer, in Transport 2


Stormraven
TL Multi-Melta, Searchlight

Stormraven
TL Multi-Melta, Searchlight


Dreadknight
Heavy Incinerator, Greatsword

Dreadknight
Heavy Incinerator, Greatsword


Transport 1: Rhino with Searchlight
Transport 2: Rhino with Searchlight

My opponent Tony was trying out a new list as well for the given points value with some brand new elements he had never used before.

Astorath the Grim


Chaplian
Jump Pack

5x Terminators
2x Lightning Claws, 3x TH/SS


5x Death Company
1x Power Fist, 1x Power Weapon, 1x Infernus Pistol, in Transport 1

10x Assault Marines
2x Meltaguns, Sergeant with Power Fist and Storm Shield

10x Assault Marines
2x Meltaguns, Sergeant with Power Axe and Combi-Melta, in Transport 2


5x Bikes
1x Meltagun, 1x Plasma Gun, Sergeant with Power Weapon, Attack Bike with Heavy Bolter


Dreadnought
Assault Cannon

Vindicator
Storm Bolter, Hunter Killer Missile

Storm Raven
Typhoon Missile Launcher, TL Lascannon, Extra Armour


Transport 1: Razorback with Storm Bolter
Transport 2: Rhino

Astorath was always a pain in the ass and this game would prove no different, however passive the annoyance may have been. The Bikes were something I was interested in seeing perform as I am in the middle of building a White Scars army myself. I knew however that when the battle began the Vindicator had to go down as it had given me no end of headaches in the past.

Rolling for mission and deployment we got Big Guns Never Tire with a Hammer and Anvil deployment (again). The table had a mass of ruined buildings and craters pretty evenly distributed across the battlefield, with some ruins off to one side. We rolled up 3 objectives and chose not to play mysterious, as these are not being used at the tournament (actually the tournament isn't even using rulebook scenarios, but we couldn't be arsed playing anything else).

Rolling for Psychic Powers (both on Divination) Coteaz got Perfect Timing and Scion's Gaze, the latter of which he switched out for Prescience. Tony won the roll-off for placing objectives and deploying first. Draigo rolled the warlord trait that allows him and his unit to re-rolls 1's to hit when shooting at an enemy within 3" of an objective, and Astorath got Counter Attack. Tony's objectives were both placed in his deployment in the East while I put mine behind a ruined building in my own. Tony put the Terminators in his Raven, which was of course in reserve, and the rest deployed, with the Vindicator hiding incase I seized and the rest lined up to advance, confident that my mid-ranged firepower couldn't touch them turn 1. Draigo has gotten 3 units for Grand Strategy BTW, so both Dreadknights and a combat squad of Strikes in a Rhino were Outflanking. He himself and his Paladins deployed spread out in a crater far forward on the southern board edge, while Coteaz and the rest of the Strikes holed up in the ruins with the objective.



Remember when I said Astorath is annoying? Well thanks to him, every unit capable got the Red Thirst in this game. I chose not to sieze, and we began.


Turn 1

Tony advanced aggresively,making sure his Vindicator would be able to shoot at my Paladins, who were taking a gamble being deployed. The Vindicator was the only thing that shot, and managed to kill one Paladin while Draigo then tanked the rest of the damage. The Bikes turbo-boosted to get in closer.



My turn was to be simple; advance and kill the Vindicator. Coteaz cast Prescience on the Paladins to fire things up, and they then advanced and blew up the Vindicator with re-rollable Psycannon fire. The second combat squad also embarked a Rhino and moved out, popping smoke.




Turn 2

Tony rolled for reserves and the Raven came in. It flew full speed right up the centre of the board, zooming of course. The rest of its army continued its advance from the previous turn. The Bikes started the shooting phase by opening up and killing 4 of the Strikes in the ruin. The Razorback then opened up and did a wound to Coteaz, which was followed by another wound from the Rhino. The Storm Raven and Dreadnought through all their fire into the Paladins, but only managed to wound a Sword once.



Draigo cast Psychic Communion to make sure my reserves hit this turn, but it proved unnecessary and they all showed up on higher numbers anyway. One Dreadknight moved on to tackle the Bikes, while the other approached an objective behind the Dread. The Strikes came on opposite to him, rolling on in their Rhino. On the other side of the board both Ravens zoomed on, 1 going nose-to-nose with the opposing Raven while the other moved the minimum 18 so as to keep options open next turn. Draigo and the Paladins continued their advance, taking some refuge around the ruins while the other Rhino strafed the southern board edge.

Shooting was payback time for Coteaz' unit, and they opened fire with Prescience guiding them; they managed to wipe out 3 Bikes with the Dreadknight taking another 1. Both Storm Ravens fired both main guns into the enemy Raven and a missile each at the Assault Marines, doing 2 Hull Points of damage to the Raven, forcing it to try and evade, and killed one Marine. The Paladins tried to finish off the Bikes but failed to bypass their saves, and the other Dreadknight failed to hurt the Dreadnought with an Incinerator shot to the back. Both Rhinos went flat-out.




Turn 3

The Assault Terminators got out of the Raven and prepared to charge Draigo. The Raven backed away, dropping to hover mode. Astorath led his men back to tackle the Strikes moving on their home objective and the Dreadnought moved back also to counter the Dreadknight. The Bikes and Rhino moved into mid-field, while the Death Company Razorback went north toward the Dreadknight.

Shooting proved useless with the Grey Knights' armour holding up. The Assault Terminator then launched an assault on Draigo's unit, surprising them by wounding Draigo and taking no damage in return. Elsewhere Astorath and co' made a very long charge into the Rhino and blew it up.



Coteaz put up Prescience on his unit again at the start of the turn. Raven number 2 was able to stay at zooming speed and approach the enemy Raven thanks to its positioning last tunr, but Raven number 1 was caught and had to drop to hover mode. The Dreadknights advanced, as did the Rhino. The Strikes stayed still on the Eastern flank, and gunned down 4 Assault Marines. Cteaz directed his unit to fire upon the Bikes, finishing them off, while the Dreadknight on that side failed to damage the Razorback with his Incinerator. Raven number 2 fired everything at the enemy Raven but Tony passed all his jink saves, forcing Raven number 1 to split fire; this however was successful at it downed the BA Raven, and Immobolized the Razorback.

The Dreadknight tried to charge the Dreadnought, and in an unlucky turn of events, took two wounds to Overwatch, and failed the charge. In the Terminator fight, one of the Paladins fell, but so did a Lightning Claw Terminator.




Turn 4

Seeing the Grey Knight Stormraven drop its altitude, the Assault Marine disembarked their Rhino in order to shoot it. The Rhino then moved off. The Dread stayed trained on the Knight, while Astorath circled his prey. In a pretty spectacular turn for the Blood Angels, the Assault Marines blew up the Stormraven, the Dreadnought took the last two wounds from the Dreadknight, and the Razorback wounded the other Dreadknight. Astorath and co' then followed up by wiping the Strikes and consolidating to the objective. The Terminator fight didn't go so well however as the other Claw was taken down



Without many options, Raven number 2 moved on Astorath. The Strikes in the south moved up in their Rhino and got out onto the objective. The remaining Dreadknight also advanced. The Storm Raven and the Rhino shot together and took out 4 Assault Marines. Coteaz also led his Psycannon gunner in taking out the BA Rhino. In combat, Draigo and co' killed their first TH/SS, while the Dreadknight charged the Assault Marines on foot, and killed 5 of them, though they held because of Fearless.




Turn 5

The Blood Angels had little left to move, with only the Dreadnought advancing. He shot at the Strikes, killing none, but forcing them to ground (we forgot about Night Fighting). He then charged but failed to make it. Elsewhere, the Razorback fired and killed Coteaz. In combat, Draigo continued to get the upper hand, killing another TH/SS, bringing the squad down to its last (albeit Fearless) man. The Dreadknight did the same.



The Grey Knight turn was just as simple, with only the Stormraven and Rhino moving, the former dropping to hover to get shots at Astorath's units, and the latter to block the Dreadnought. Shooting really didn't do much, dropping only a single Assault Marine. Combat was no different as Draigo fought a stalemate, and the Dreadknight had only model to kill, albeit he was then free and rolled a 6 for consolidate, moving toward Draigo to try break this stalemate.



We then got a by-stander to roll, and the game ended.


Conclusions

Totting up the scores, I had two objectives, First Blood, Linebreaker, and had killed 2 of his heavies, while Tony had taken one objective and killed one of my heavies. A 10-4 victory to the Grey Knights.

Looking back at the game, we both agreed on one thing that stood out; there was no true MVPs in this match as both armies seemed to weigh in all of their cards fully in order to achieve in this game. As such I was very happy with the list's balanced and synergy, and I think it should do well at NWG so as long as I play it right. Draigo tanks all, and I'm loving him so far, albeit his unit had its potential wasted in that game when the TH/SS came in and held them up for 3 turns until the end. Outflank is definitely something I'm liking more and more. I am happy also to try and deploy the Paladins more often, albeit only in good or mediocre match-ups; they took a gamble here and it paid off, but they won't always be so lucky.

So anyway, it is great to finally tie a list down that I like (and good thing too; this game was two days before list pre-submission). I definitely hope to get some more games in over the coming weeks until the tournament (September 1st-2nd), and will post progress as I go.

Thanks for reading, comments welcome.

Nicely done. Is that the new vassal? I really like the arrows, makes it easy to follow what did what. How do you enable those?

A couple of suggestions, if I may, to refine your list. But if your list is already set in stone, then that's fine.

Add 1 more striker + psycannon to your 9-man squad.

Then give both units psybolt ammo. There's nothing quite like S5-stormbolter spam with Prescience.

To pay for it, drop both greatswords on your dreaknights. Doomfists are good now as they give you S10 and +1A.

You can also drop 1 rhino if you have to. There's not much difference between 2 rhinos and 1 rhino. Worst case scenario, you can mount the 2nd strikers in a raven if you have to.

Good luck!

nice new vassle, I think I should update my one

Good battle report and a nice list. good luck for NWG.

@sudojoe and Marthike; it isn't Vassal, it's Battle Chroniclar

@jy2; I find the Greatswords better than the Fists, as the re-rolls make him more reliable. He get's 1 extra kill on average with the Sword, and against most enemies, the S10 is unnecessary (even for instant-death he can Force Weapon). And if he really needs S10 for whatever reason, he can still Smash with re-rolls from the Sword. As for the Rhinos, with only one if it is destroyed then I have a struggle getting to objectives; the second gives redundancy. Don't get me wrong, they are good suggestions, and I would much rather have the extra Psycannon and the Psybolt Ammo, but I find the other items much more important. Oh, and the list submission date has passed, so I can't change it now.

If you read my blog in my sig you'll see a much more in-depth analysis of how this list came to be.

 Godless-Mimicry wrote:
@sudojoe and Marthike; it isn't Vassal, it's Battle Chroniclar

@jy2; I find the Greatswords better than the Fists, as the re-rolls make him more reliable. He get's 1 extra kill on average with the Sword, and against most enemies, the S10 is unnecessary (even for instant-death he can Force Weapon). And if he really needs S10 for whatever reason, he can still Smash with re-rolls from the Sword. As for the Rhinos, with only one if it is destroyed then I have a struggle getting to objectives; the second gives redundancy. Don't get me wrong, they are good suggestions, and I would much rather have the extra Psycannon and the Psybolt Ammo, but I find the other items much more important.

If you read my blog in my sig you'll see a much more in-depth analysis of how this list came to be.

No prob. I guess we all have different priorities as to what is important.

I see striker shooting as much more important than dreadknight assault. With dreadknight assault, you are looking at Turns 3 or 4 (or maybe even turn 5) because he is so slow on foot.

Whereas S5-stormbolters can potentially be useful starting on Turn 1. The probability of you relying on their shooting for offense is much higher than the probability of those dreadknights making it through prolonged combat (assuming they don't get tarpitted by certain units).

Then if you add Coteaz and Prescience to S5-stormbolter-spam (and potentially Grand Strategy to re-roll 1's to wound), their shooting becomes just downright nasty.

As for rhinos, whether 1 rhino or 2, both are going to get destroyed very quickly. Better to combat squad and use Psychic Communion to deepstrike those strikers onto an objective or your opponent's deployment zone for Linebreaker and also to force your opponent to split his units (or have them deepstrike out of the raven on the turn it comes in).


But if you like your list the way it is (or can no longer change it), then that's fine. Just trying to offer maybe a slightly different alternative.


BTW, nicely painted models on your blog.

Dreadknights won't always Outflank, so not always a turn 3 charge, but mostly they will, and I see your point, and a good one too; I will try it out at some stage. But do remember the game can go on a long time. Plus, the way the army plays, the Strikes are usually out of range in turn 1; their priority really is to survive and capture objectives, with the heavy lifting being left to the big boys.

Regarding Rhinos, so far in my games, I have never lost both, simply because when you have 2 Storm Ravens, 2 Dreadknights, Draigo, Paladins, and 2 Rhinos in your face, the Rhinos are not the things you are going shoot at. And as for Deep Striking, Iearned a long time ago not to do it unless a unit really needs it; it is dodgy, and especially in this case, as (a) I lose the potential of Warp Quake, and (b) keeping the Strikes in reserve often leaves the heavy hitters like the Dreadknights forced to deploy and walk 6" a turn across the board. Sometimes this is ok, but having t option is more important.

I definitely like Psybolts a lot though, so will try the non-fist variation after the tournament and see if it holds up.