Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Gaming evening at the superb local GW shop was unusually quiet with only 5 people in attendance. I played a lovely chap whose name I have inexcusably forgotten due to my advancing years and general lack of paying attention. He normally plays the Howling and Whining sort of marine but he and his girlfriend are sensibly moving towards that finest of codices, the Grey Knights. So he brought a list whose backbone was Purifiers but featured other things too. We played 2000 points so I got to field my favourite paladin list. Hoorah!

My Paladins.

Draigo
Librarian (might of titan, quicksilver, sanctuary, the shrouding, warp rift) - warding stave
5 Paladins - 2 psycannon, stave, hammer, falchions, sword
5 Paladins - 2 psycannon, hammer, 2 falchions, 2 swords
Venerable Dreadnought - assault cannon, psybolts, heavy flamer, psyflame (I will refer to these as 'psycannon' and 'incinerator' throughout)
Venerable Dreadnought - assault cannon, psybolts, heavy flamer, psyflame
Stormraven - TL multi-melta, TL plasma cannon
Stormraven - TL multi-melta, TL plasma cannon

The Purifiers (from memory but I'm pretty sure this is completely accurate)

Crowe - razorback with TL lascannon (yes, I know Crowe can't have his own transport but given my opponents limited models and the fact he was keen to field them all if possible, I thought this was fair enough. If you are so pure as to abhor this illegality, I suggest you apply to admission to the Purifiers themselves. they'll be glad to have you).
5 Paladins - psycannon, banner, 4 swords (he was restricted by what came in the box regarding psycannon)
5 Purifiers - psycannon, stave, 3 halberds, psybolts, rhino, psybolts
5 Purifiers - psycannon, stave, 3 halberds, psybolts, rhino, psybolts
5 Purifiers - psycannon, stave, 3 halberds, psybolts, rhino, psybolts
Venerable Dreadnought - assault cannon, psybolts, heavy flamer, psyflame
Stormraven - TL assault cannon, TL multi-melta, hurricane bolters
Dreadknight - teleporter, greatsword, heavy psilencer, heavy psycannon

Now (whilst a host of unbelievers disagree, and let us remember a man is entitled to his opinions, no matter how ignorant or misguided they may be) I think my paladin list is pretty strong against all comers, and especially so against a rather hotch-potch and undergunned list played by someone who's unfamiliar with his army, so with that in mind I was quite confident. But Grey Knights versus Grey Knights can be tricky because of psyk out grenades and mindstrike missiles.

So we rolled for mission and deployment.

We got spearhead and capture/control. I like Spearhead but detest Capture and Control - I win fewer C&C by far than Seize Ground or Annihilation.

He wins initiative and lets me choose table quarters and go first. Bah! i like to go second and he obviously knows this. An informer has been leaking information. I study my most regular opponent Will, who is lurking nearby watching for signs of guilt but he maintains an expression of such innocence that I have little doubt he is the guilty party.

Oh well, making the best of a bad job, I choose the table quarter opposite that with the least terrain and I reserve everything in two stormraven groups, each with character, dreadnought and squad. I will come on from my board edge. I place my objective in a building just in front of the stormraven base that somehow got left on the table in the picture below.

The Purifiers deploy, holding the stormraven (entering by board edge) and Dreadknight (deepstriking) in reserve. His objective can just be made out by the building corner ahead of his Laserback.



Turn One

Paladins: do nothing. It's turn one and I'm all reserved. So nothing happens except the Purifiers' rhinos slowly rust.

Purifiers: advance. Sorry the picture's a bit blurred but as compensation you do get a nice view of my objective marker in the foreground.



Turn Two

Paladins: roll for reserves and Draigo's Stormraven come on. My plan is to make sure I hold my ojective and that he can't contest, whilst contesting his. hence I don't come on very far and Draigo's men deploy with an eye to block his flanking Rhinos.



As it turns out, I should really have moved up a little further because I end with only one weapon in range of his Rhino, which I destroy.



His purifiers get out to the rear and huddle near the objective. I thought they were meant to be fearless... Annoyingly, the destroyed Rhino affords him excellent cover. Bah!

Purifiers: reserve rolls bring in the Dreadknight. It arrives by deepstrike and scatters into terrain near Draigo's squad and my objective.



Quite honestly, I think this was a huge mistake on Simon's - I remembered his name! - part as with the Librarian likely to come on next turn and my on-table forces nearby, the Dreadknight is a nice fat target. But it was Simon's first time with GK, remember, so don't judge him until you've walked a mile in his shoes - because then, as you know, you'll be a mile away and have his shoes so can judge him as much as you like. Boom, tish! I'm here all week!

Anyway, polished wit aside, his Rhinos move up. One pops smoke. You can tell by the lovely smoke marker that's in front of it. Spend as long as you like admiring it, the report will still be here when you've stopped drooling.



So he shoots the Laserback at the Raven and does nothing and everything else (that's a gatling psilencer, heavy psycannon, psycannon and 2 S5 stormbloters at Draigo's paladins. They take one wound.

he can't assault so...

Turn Three

Paladins: The Librarian's Raven enters. Things look grim for friend Dreadknight. I advance with Draigo's squad and their Venerable Dreadnought. i also zoom Draigo's Raven flat out to shoot Crowe's Laserback.





I shoot at the Dreadknight with the librarian's squad, everything (including mindstrikes) on the Raven and the Venerable's psycannon too. Despite nearly scattering a mindstrike perils of the warp template onto myself, I put two wounds on him thanks to 2 Mindstrike hits and thus 2 perils plus another wound from a psycannon rend. Poor Dready is down to one wound and feeling very lonely.

I assault and psyk out grenades reduce him to Initiative one. With the aid of Hammerhand and Might of Titan, I kill him. The lesson, children, is that however big and scary they look, deep down inside, Dreadknights aren't very dreadful at all.



In other news, I exploded a Rhino.

Purifiers:



As you can see, Simon was taking the loss of his Dreadknight on the chin...



But his Raven came on and he had taken a tip from my previous shooting phase... I draw your attention to the wound markers on Draigo's squad and the missing paladin therein. He mindstruck me! No originality. I mean anyone can win by slavish copying of others tactics - the internet says so. Anyway, Draigo is down to one wound and I lost a paladin. I also too wounds from his shooting.

The astute amongst you will also notice something else is missing... Draigo's Stormraven. it failed its cover save and was exploded by the Laserback. Oh dear. Contrast the body language of my opponent from picture to picture. I think it speaks volumes for how the game was going... from hangdog to rather jaunty...

Turn Four

Paladins: Advance! I move to defend my objective with the Librarian's squad and block his flankers with Draigo's men plus the venerable dreadnought. I am a bit worried by his Raven and its contents - paladins and venerbale dreadnought - but rather more concerned with Crowe eliminating the Librarian. So I scoot my Raven flat out to near his Laserback. I did think about targeting his Raven instead but the chances of knocking it from the sky with a melta shot were rather poor - about 15% in fact, and if he wants to shoot me down with his raven, he'll possibly be moving it to a position where I can Warp Rift it and/or bring all my firepower to bear next turn and he'll only have about a 5% chance of bringing it down anyway thanks to Shrouding and flat out cover save. Well that's what I thought and if you disagree, then that's your perogative but I refer you to my 'ignorant or misguided' comment at the top of the thread...



Purifier squad before shooting:



And after:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/267896-15.html?m=2

Not quite the puree I'd hoped for to be honest.

This, however, was more pleasing:



You can see Crowe gibbering in terror and soiling his power armour just behind the wreck - if he was really fearless, he'd have got out in front, surely. Just propoganda this fearlessness business. Anyway, Paladins don't need a fearless trait to be the best troops in the game (oh yes they are. You know what to do if you disagree...)

Puifiers: Now here, I confess, I think Ben had a bit of a nightmare in his decision making.



He unloaded his remaining Rhino, then moved it to cover the depleted squad, who fell back behind it. I should at this stage say the 'hiding behind Rhinos' trick is often a good one but I thought he'd have been better pressing forward rather than pulling back. It's turn 4 after all. The game could end next turn and he needs to contest my objective to win. Even more surprisingly he unloads his Raven too. He can still flat out it to contest next turn I suppose.



Crowe stops snivelling over his wrecked ride, mans up and moves towards my objective. He'd be a lot closer if he'd not got out behind the Rhino last turn...

Massed shooting from his raven and disembarked units kills one of Draigo's paladins, they fail leadership and strategically reposition themselves 10" nearer my table edge. Normally I'd be somewhat distressed by that but as they'll regroup next turn, they can run to my objective because there's a danger now that Crowe might pull the Librarian's squad off it... I forgot to take a picture of my redeploying paladins. Sorry.

Turn Five

Game could end this turn. I must contest.



Venerable Dreadnought moves upfield.



Raven moves to contest. Other Venerable moves through the crater. you can see Draigo's boys regrouping.

Close up of My contesting Raven:



My shooting kills two of the purifiers on his objective. Becasue of stupid fearlessness, they stay put.

At the moment it's looking very much like I'll win or it'll be a draw. But if Simon can destroy my raven and Crowe can assault and thus pull my Librarian's squad off my objective, Simon will win. The odds are against him. But we shall see...

Purifiers: Crowe moves through cover... poorly. Maybe he's got tangled up in all the bits of exploded Raven that must be lying around. Because he's not an Independent Character he doesn't benefit from 3D6 Move Through Cover. He'll need a 6 to get into assault, if he can make it at all.



There is shooting at my Dreadnought that costs it its close combat weapon. I actually think that happened last turn because this turn his Raven moves Flat Out to behind my raven that's contesting his objective and shoots it down!



Crowe was just too far away to assault.

So, with the score 1-1, we rolled to see if the game continued and it did.

Turn 6

Now I really have to hope we go to turn seven to snatch a win and there is a severe risk that Simon will be able to contest my objective with his Raven or pull the Librarian's squad away with Crowe. I run a dreadnought towards his objective.



I aslo put a wound on Crowe with my shooting which is so forceful it actually moved the buildings about half an inch back!

Draigo's squad ran to near my objective so they're holding it too.

I was surprised when Simon didn't move his Raven to contest but rather melta'd the dreadnought, removing its close combat weapon - a common theme for my venerables is to lose all their limbs in a sort of Pythonesque parody, with them ending up trying to bite the opponet's kneecaps off.



He stuns my other dreadnought and then assaults it with his venerable. Guess what? I lose a limb...



Still 1-1. We roll to see if the game continues. It does!

Turn Seven

The position:



I need to run my dreadnought to contest, but will he make it with a move through cover 2D6 and a D6 run?

I need to shoot down the Raven to stop any chance of it contesting.

I need to kill Crowe. Actually that's a lie. With Draigo's squad in place it doesn't matter if the librarian's gets pulled off the objective. But I want to kill Crowe. I like killing Crowe. But will I be able to?

Win lose and draw are all still possible.

My dreadnought moves and manages 5".

The Librarian's squad fire their psycannon at the raven. I get one glance, which is a 6 and he fails hisn cover save! immobilised becomes destroyed because he went flat out and so it's down!



Run, dreadnought, run!



He makes it into contesting range.



A bit blurry, but you try running in a dreadnought shell with only one arm. You'd be blurry too. Will he hold on? If he can, with Ben now unable to contest my objective, I will win 1-0.

In my assault phase, my other venerable exploded and his venerable consolidated towards his objective and then moved 6" towards my remaining dreadnought.



Notice how I'd placed my paladins so that even had his Raven survived, its base would probably not have been within 3" of my objective. I was quite pleased with that piece of low cunning, even though in the event it was wasted.

The wounded Crowe moves up. Simon wants the moral victory of taking down my Librarian.



Shooting stuns my dreadnought and removes his other arm. Honestly, this happens every bloody game! Both my dreadnoughts end up armless, gnashing their teeth at the foe's kneecaps. Mind you, had he not been venerable, he'd have beem exploded.



Now Simon must assault!

What is missing from the picture below?



That's right, Crowe. The Librarian cried Sanctuary! and Crowe was whipped into the warp before you could say pureed purifier, and serve him right. I was tremendously pleased by that. Honestly, it made the game.

But the moment of truth!

Both his dreadnought and his purifiers make it into contact with my armless dreadnought. Can he survive krak grenades and 3 S10 attacks to win the game for me.

Go, Dreadnought, go!



So at initiative 4 - hey, before I go on, 7 turns and there have only been 2 assaults, that doesn't happen often - anyway, Initiative 4...

His three krak grenades miss.

My armless dreadnought bites the kneecap of one of the Purifiers and, because a dreadnought has flipping big teeth, he dies. Ha ha.

Now the moment of truth. Initiative 1 - because his dreadnought assaulted through terrain.

It rolls to hit. 3 attacks needing 4s.

2 hit.

2s to glance, 3s to penetrate.

2 penetrations.

6 and 5.

reroll because of venerability.

1 and 2!

Dready survives and wins the day for Draigo's bold boys. Those purifiers remaining unpureed return to lick their (presumably ketchupy) wounds and think about their list.

1-0 to the Paladins.

Enjoyably witty so far, keep it up!

Heroic sacifice on drago! (probably not though )

I think Purifiers are better equipped to deal with hordes, so I'm going to give this one to the Paladins.

Thanks everyone. I've lost Draigo to Crowe in one of the two other games I've played against a different purifier list, so I was keen to avoid ending in base contact with him. A

First two turns are up now.

This is a hilariously entertaining report. I cannot wait for Turn 4!

Thanks, nice of you to say so.

Turn four and half of turn five are now up.

Hmm. Looks like he has to use his 'raven to bring down your 'raven (unless he wants to risk just his psycannon shooting at it, so it can't contest his objective (and I think it might be too far to move even flat out to do that anyway. So maybe 4 psycannon plus assault cannon plus multi-melta against the ravbe with a 4+ save. Say 20 S7 and S6 shots, about 15 hit. 2-3 glance, 2-3 penetrate. Add the melta a 1/3 chance of a pen if it hits. If everything goes against it, i think your 'raven will be destroyed.

But Crowe is a long way from being able to assault. I think he needs 6" move plus 5 or 6" assault.

So if it ends turn 5, I'd bet on a draw, I think. Though anything's possible.

Now on turn 7!

Pretty entertaining report so far. Methinks you need an objective sitter so that the rest of your army can go on the offense. Consider a soladin or 1 objective-sitting, tank-busting psyfleman vendread.

Normally in C&C I make dreadnoughts scoring. I forgot this game to use Grand Strategy before we started and I didn't bother asking when I did remember because Simon's list was somewhat less than optimal because of the various restrictions imposed by his models and what comes in the boxed sets.

I am actually goung to have one of the dreadnoughts with TLAC and psybolts but it's not built yet. I also think the other dreadnought will switch to multi-melta.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, i should say, the inspiration for my reports comes from reading jv2's rather more professional ones. So thanks, jv2.

Also, the fate of the game comes down to literally the last few rolls of the dice. If my armless dreadnought survives a combined assault by 3 krak grenades and 3 dreadnought doomfist whacks, I will win. Otherwise, draw.

Good job in that battle report!
I thought the purifiers were going to win because I reckoned all those force weapons will ruin the point of the pallies' 2 wounds!
I guess i was wrong.
Congratz though!

something had to go wrong in your recollection in the battlerep...

Turn 6, you said his raven didn't move (oddly enough you said) and popped a shot at the Vendred. This is consistant with pictures leading from Turn 5 (when he boosted behind your raven) and Turn 6 where it is shown in the same spot as Turn 7.

Either...
1) He didn't move flat out turn 6, wouldn't have gotten a save turn 7, and wouldn't have been destroyed by the glance or...
2) well, IDK. I think he would have had an immobilized raven contesting your objective. I can't tell from the pics that he did anything but sit and shoot Turn 6.

-ignore my stupidity...the raven was at HIS objective...it mattered little that it was immobilized and not destroyed.

Good battle. I think with more experience for your opponent and a little list optimization (swap out the dreadknight and psycannon dread for psyflemans), he may give your army a run for their money next time.

Well written and honestly nice to see something fresh. A lot of debate about GK v GK so this report was much needed and well received.

The IoM must be in trouble if Grey Knights are fighting eachother...Great report!

Thanks all.

I don't think this is the best match up between paladins and purifiers as I think the best purifier build is probably 5 or 6 man squads in razorbacks backed up by as many dreadnoughts as the points allow - the sort of list jv2 generally plays, in fact.

a single dreadknight isn't actually that dangerous and equipping it as a fire platform probably is worse than taking a single dreadnought for that purpose. Putting a teleporter on a fire platform dreadknight rather compounds the problem. And then deepstriking a teleport dreadknight adds to that again.

Really the biggest menaces were the stormraven and Crowe as there weren't enough purifiers to really worry me.

In short, while I'd say I was a decent player with a good list, Ben was in the difficult position of being a decent player playing with a less than optimal list with which he was unfamiliar. So one shouldn't read too much into the result.

Painnen: I think I probably just misremembered exactly what happened when - Wellington once said one might just as well try to write the history of a ball as a battle. So while the circumstance is wrong, the one thing I do remember clearly is that his raven flat outed and was shot down by a psycannon glance with the last of my shooting. I'm just not quite certain if that ws in the turn I have it being in in the report. Sorry.

The IoM must be in trouble if Grey Knights are fighting eachother...Great report!

I fluff wise fix it as some sort of training mission for them. They just happen to use painball rounds and a random machine spirit generated number thingy to gauge what they would be doing to eachother.

That was a close match! Looked quite fun but now I must imagine Dreadnoughts bitting other people's kneecaps

sudojoe wrote:

The IoM must be in trouble if Grey Knights are fighting eachother...Great report!

I fluff wise fix it as some sort of training mission for them. They just happen to use painball rounds and a random machine spirit generated number thingy to gauge what they would be doing to eachother.

They use paintball rounds, or these flash light things called lasguns...

Is that GW Shrewsbury if so i think my templars got slaughered by that army of yours lol

Absolutely fantastic Battle report, please make many more. I love you humor!