Hey everybody. So I was originally hoping to get a rematch with my friend Nick and an updated list he might have for me to face, but he had committed to playing against someone else. Instead I made a new friend named Josh whom I had seen at Dogs of War in the past.
He responded to my post looking for a game on Facebook and we agreed to a match. He wanted to test out his Grey Knights and thought it would be a good chance to see how well my Psykers could deal with the Might of Titan (spoiler - it was a bit rough). My list was the same as my previous game. Off the top of my head, this was what he brought:
Nemesis Strike Force
HQ - Grand Master in Terminator Armor, Psilencer, Falchions, ML2
HQ - Librarian in Terminator Armor, Nemesis Force Stave, ML3
Troop - 5x Grey Knight Terminators with Falchions and 1x Psycannon
Elite - 5x man Purifier Squad with 5x Nemesis Daemonhammers
Fast Attack - 5x man Interceptor Squad with an Incinerator
Heavy Support -Nemesis Dreadknight with 2x Fists, Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon
"Add Ons" (I can't remember who they belonged to...)
HQ - Techmarine with a Nemesis Daemonhammer
HQ - Techmarine with a Nemesis Daemonhammer
Fast Attack - Razorback with TL Lascannon
Heavy Support - Land Raider Crusader with Multi-Melta
Josh's strategy would be to deploy the characters all with the Terminator Squad and ultimately to try and go toe to toe with my Command Squad. Already I have forgotten exactly what Warlord trait he rolled but it didn't have much of an impact on the game. He rolled on Divination, Santic Daemonology, and Telepathy hoping for Invisibility and a few other key abilities. Ultimately he was unable to get the powers he went after.
I rolled on the Space Marine table and got Storm of Fire and rolled for Night Attacker (?) on the Strategic Table. Again, my Psychic powers proved to be next to worthless (in this situation). I rolled on Librarius Powers and got Psychic Fortress and Null Zone on my axe librarian. My right handed sword Librarian also rolled on Librarius and got Fury of the Ancients and Null Zone. In all honesty, I wanted Null Zone but trying to cast on a ML3 Librarian with a Warding Staff meant he would deny on a 3+ roll. Not ideal. I gave up and rolled on Telepathy with my final Librarian (LH Sword) and got Dominate and Terrify. Terrify at least potentially opened up the possibility for Psychic Shriek shenanigans. I rolled on Divination with my Inquisitor and scored Precognition. Meh.
There could be worse rolls but for a second straight game I rolled less than ideal powers. I suppose my hesitance to keep rolling on the same table (knowing the odds of getting the same power) proved to be a bit of a hinderance.
We rolled up the BeakyCon6 sample missions and got
Mission 3...just like before. We rolled off and had a remarkable run where we both rolled a 2, 3, and 4 before I finally won on the 4th roll. I opted to deploy first and go first. I decided to Infiltrate my 3 Scout Squads and my Assassin depending on his deployment. I knew he would Deep Strike quite a few things with the option to Deep Strike Turn 1. I deployed with two Tactical Squads (Lascannons) to my right side, my Devastators (and Inquisitor) behind some ruins in the middle along with my Command Squad. I opted to deploy a single Tactical Squad on my left side with a sword Librarian joining my Grav Bike Squad.
He deployed defensively to match (putting his Purifiers in the Land Raider) and the Interceptor Squad opposite my 2 Lascannon Tactical Squads. His Lascannon Razorback and Dreadknight deployed opposite my Grav Bikes and Flamer Tactical Squad. Everything was set...until it wasn't. Josh seized on me! While I would claim that it changed the way I infiltrated, it honestly didn't. I deployed two Scout Squads in a tower to the right and my Assassin and Bolter Scouts on my left to support the bikes. I thought it would be easy pickings with my Command Squad dispatching his Terminator squad.
Not so fast my friend!
Turn 1
The mission has a special rule where a dice roll can affect the dice roll for reserves. But despite rolling a negative modifier Josh rolled a 5 and brought his entire Terminator and character squad right in the middle of the board. He shunted his Interceptor Squad up towards my Snipers on the middle level and simply pushed everything else up. During the Psychic Phase, Josh started strong by rolling Forewarning (4+ Invulnerable Save on his Terminator Squad), Prescience, and Force. Force immediately worried me as I knew it would deny me my 2+ or 3+ FNP on the command squad. I believe his Warlord rolled Perils on his Prescience and rolled a 2 and "forgot" Force. No big deal. He then went big and tried throwing Terrify on my Command Squad. I threw all my dice at his 3 successes and failed to deny. He followed up with Psychic Shriek and on Leadership 9 rolled an 11 (2 wounds my Captain easily tanked).
In the shooting phase Josh managed to take out a considerable amount of my Sniper Scouts and put a few pot shots on my Tactical Squads (causing a couple of wounds). But the big deal was when Josh brought the Dreadknight around to engage my Culexus Assassin. He caused a single wound in the shooting phase and I wasn't sure if he fully grasped how strong my Culexus could be. Maybe it was me who put too much faith in him.
In the subsequent assault phase the Dreadknight charged my Assassin and I thought that he would be able to make quick work of the Monstrous Creature. Well...I guess I was wrong. Sure I could hit on 3's and would only get hit on 5's. But wounding on 6's would prove to be troublesome. Unfortunately for me I came up with a 3, 5, and 5 to wound on my 3 hits. Mr. Dreadknight was much luckier. On his turn to attack he rolled 2 hits and rolled a 1 and a squish on my Assassin. I rolled a 3 to save. Good night!
On my turn I tried to basically re-position my Command Squad so that I could avoid a charge from the Terminator Squad in Round 2. I cast Psychic Fortress on Command Squad (looking for Adamantium Will) and then foolishly attempted to cast Null Zone on the Terminator Squad. Nope! In the shooting phase I turbo-boosted further away and thought that my Grav Squad could take out the Nemesis Dreadknight out in the open. 9 shots. 5 hits. 3 wounds. 1 save. Doh! I suddenly realized I had let my Bike squad out to dry. I guess I needed to get within 18" to shoot Grav regardless but it was too little too late. I put a few wounds on the Interceptor Squad but otherwise did nothing else.
Turn 2
I think at this point Josh slowed down a bit and should've pressed his advantage. I only had a few Tactical Squads hanging out in the back and he could maul all my backfield while I tip toed around his Force enabled squad. The highlight of his turn came when the Purifiers exited the Land Raider and proceeded to Cleansing Flame the dickens out of my 2 scout squads with 10 hits on each squad. He managed to put a wound on my Librarian joined to the Grav Bike Squad and took out the sergeant as well. But the biggest event was that Josh failed to cast Force with his Terminator Squad. He threw only 4 dice at it (getting 2 successes) and I threw all my dice at denying that power and managed to stop it with 2 sixes. This was the opening I needed.
In Assault the Dreadknight bowled into CC with my Grav Bike Squad and he had 2 failed assaults (his Terminators into my Devastators and his Interceptor squad into a Tactical Squad with 2 remaining Marines).
On my turn I saw an opening. First I opted to clean up the Interceptor Squad in my deployment zone. I then pushed my Command Squad forward and readied myself for the glorious combat that would ensue. I only managed to get Psychic Fortress up again and had some dice to throw at Force. I popped my Warlord Trait giving me Rending for a Turn and I opened up with 16 Twin Linked Bolter shots on his Terminators. I managed to clear out 2 of the stock Terminators. I then charged his Terminator Squad and challenged with my Captain. He smartly accepted with a Techmarine and combat was on. I did manage to kill a single guy with my hammer of wrath attacks, but otherwise combat was a huge pillow fight. Josh made all his 4+ Invulnerable Saves and my Captain whiffed gloriously and only got 2 hits and 1 wound on the opening round on his Techmarine. womp womp!
The Dreadknight started the slow process of basically killing off a single bike per turn.
Turn 3
The slow and steady grind continued. With most things sitting behind LOS blocking and having bad angles, Josh did his best to try and prep for the inevitable combat in the middle. He realized (after the match) that this was probably one of the bigger mistakes he may have made. He cast Hammer Hand on his Terminator Squad (no big deal) but prepped his Purifiers with Force (after I denied it on his main squad again) to charge into the melee. He should have probably fallen back and captured an objective to have a shot at winning the primary but thought he might be able to help deny me my FNP saves and turn the tide. After all, I only have 2 guys with Storm Shields.
He cleaned up my Devastator Squad and the attached Inquisitor. Most of the action came during the close combat phase.
In CC my captain finally managed to take out his Tech Marine but not before causing a strength 10 wound that forced my captain to drop down to 2 wounds (and lose the +1 to FNP). Despite charging in with his Purifiers, the rest of my squad was able to take the Purifier squad down to a single man. With only 1 extra hammer joining the fray, my command squad managed to tank the wounds (though I did lose one Power Fist in the process). He lost combat by 6 and lost his leadership roll. But since I caught him, ATSKNF allowed him to stick in combat. Though he had survived, Josh was down to a Librarian, his Warlord, and two Falchion wielding Terminators. Again, his Dreadknight managed to get me down to a single Librarian in combat.
On my turn I activated Force and Psychic Fortress. I re-arranged my 2 tactical squads but otherwise was unable to do anything else. In close combat my Captain challenged and he accepted with his Librarian. I was impressed at how well he was able to tank (my dice rolls definitely helped).
I found in general that I rolled well defensively but poorly offensively in this game. My captain succeeded in doubling out the Librarian (though he did save all but 1 wound) and while I lost my other Power Fist, I was able to clean up the other 2 Terminators leaving only his Warlord to fend with the rest of my Command Squad.
His Dreadknight finally finished off my Librarian letting him push forward and most likely getting the chance to roast my Tactical Squad that was out in the open.
Turn 4
Turn 4 was a bit more interesting than I thought it would be. Mind you...we thought it was Turn 5 (we had lost track of the turn counter) so we thought it would potentially be the last turn.
With very little left, Josh thought he had put the Land Raider in a position to shoot at my Tactical Squad but ultimately fell short by a few inches. He maneuvered his Dreadknight so that he could Incinerate my Tactical Squad and then finish off the rest with his Psycannon. Unfortunately, bad rolling lead to only a single dead Tactical Marine and created a 5 inch gap between him and the squad. A charge that he could easily make...had he not rolled a 4. Predictably, I was able to finish off his Warlord with the last round of combat (only just though). I still had Force Weapons active and he got hit with 2 Power Fist attacks and 2 Power Axe attacks. All 4 wounded. All 4 would cause instant death. He rolled and got a 5, 4, 4, and a 3. I consolidated and prepared for what might be the final round.
On my turn I separated the 2 Librarians out to go after the Dreadknight (as they were too far from the Razorback). They could've maybe Turbo-boosted but I thought I could Psychic Shriek the Dreadknight to death. My Tactical Squad got near the Dreadknight and captured the Objective. My remaining Scout Squad (mostly unable to do anything the entire game) moved down the ruins and after running got within 3 inches of the Razorback to contest the objective. I charged my Command Squad into the Land Raider thinking the Meltabomb would make quick work of the massive tank. Unfortunately, while I did hit I rolled double 1's which meant no penetrating hit. Only my Captain could cause any damage. He rolled 5 attacks, 4 hits, and then a 6, 6, 6, 2! hah...he came within 1 Hull Point of taking out the Land Raider!
With it getting late we decided to call the game (though I rolled and got a 3 meaning the game would've ended had it been Turn 5 as we had originally believed). Josh thought that at this point playing one more turn would result with a decisive victory for me.
Primary Objective 1 - The Scouring - Iron Hands win (5 points)
Iron Hands held 3 objectives
Grey Knights held 0 objectives
Primary Objective 2 - Kill Points - Grey Knights win (5 points)
Iron Hands had 6 kill points
Grey Knights had 9 kill points
Secondary Objective - Headhunter - Tie
Iron Hands failed to kill the Land Raider
Grey Knights failed to kill the Command Squad
Tertiary Objectives
Last Laugh - Iron Hands slayed the GK Warlord last (1 point)
King of the Hill - Iron Hands Captain was near the middle objective (1 point)
Gut 'em - Iron Hands killed Terminator Squad (1 point)
Overall it was an Iron Hands win, 8 VP to 5 VP. The game was actually very close. I think the Kill Points Mission could've been closer if I scored the 2 Techmarines as well, but still fell short by 1 point. The game was an interesting lesson in the Psychic phase. I learned that going up against a ML3 Psyker with Adamantium Will is asking for trouble. While I'm far from a pro, I think that I finally have a fairly good feel regarding how many dice I need to throw to get powers to succeed.
I've also now come to really question how I play my Scouts. I always think I scout them to a position where they will remain safe but sadly they just become the first targets for my opponents. I also was a bit too willy nilly with my Culexus. While his abilities are quite formidable he is not invincible. In just about every game simple flamers or volume of attacks have managed to take him out. Without a Drop Pod or a vehicle to serve as his transportation, I fear that he simply isn't effective enough to use.
Errr, I should clarify...I don't think my skill level is where it needs to be to fully utilize him. While my plan was perhaps initially solid, my placement near the edge caused problems.
Already my mind has begun to think of a new list to take in place of this one. Getting Coteaz would be amazingly good but I don't know if I will be able to spare the points to do so.
The game against Josh was a ton of fun. I still worry about mass daemons and lists with flyer spam. I'm getting close to crunch time. I think the core of the list will remain the same. I'm going to try and take better pictures.
