I somehow found the time to get a game in this weekend at the LGS, and it was against a Dark Eldar list. I must admit I am worried about GK vs. DE, because they have a good 24" range on my army and they can beat me in close combat if they are allowed to pick their battles.
I was using my Crowe List 2.0.
My opponent's list was roughly as follows...
Malus (some chick who made it so that the unit she joins is immune to psychic powers, and allowed her to redeploy d3 units. I hadn't seen her played before so I'm not sure.)
2x 20x Kabalite Warriors with 2x Dark Lance
3x Reavers with Heat Lance
3x Reavers with Heat Lance
10x Wyches with Agonizer in Raider
10x Wyches with Agonizer in Raider
9x Incubi in Raider
3x Ravagers
We rolled Seize Ground and Pitched Battle. He took first deployment/turn, and deployed like so...
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| Dark Eldar Deployment |
I then deployed like so...
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| Grey Knights Deployment. Everything will have cover Turn 1. |
As luck would have it, I seized the initiative and took turn 1. This was huge for me, as you might have guessed.
Grey Knights Turn 1
I moved my Rhinos and Razors forward and the lead Rhinos popped smoke.
My shooting was decent. I immobilized a Raider carrying Wyches, which would keep them out of my hair and I exploded a Ravager. It's always nice to take 3 Dark Lances off the table before they can shoot. I also killed one of the Reaver squads.
Good first turn.
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| End Grey Knights turn 1 |
Dark Eldar Turn 1
He moved his flotilla around to get shots on things but otherwise stayed on his half of the board.
His shooting exploded a Psyfleman, wrecked a second Psyfleman, shook a Rhino, and destroyed the Storm Bolter on another Rhino. Can't say that I expected it to go better than that for me. Losing two dreads early sucks, but I expected to lose a lot more.
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| End Dark Eldar Turn 1 |
GK Turn 2
I advanced my right Rhinos to midfield and kept the Razors sitting on my objective. My left Rhino advanced to midfield but within striking distance of the center objective. Dreads positioned for shots.
My shooting killed the other 3 Reavers, shook the Incubi's Raider, and destroyed his second Ravager. Not the best shooting phase but decent enough.
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| End GK 2 |
DE Turn 2
He moved his Incubi Raider closer to my lines and had the Wyche's behind it.
His shooting shook two Rhinos and wrecked my last Psyfleman.
I was happy at this point that two turns of shooting were through and I wasn't de-meched. I lose my support Dreads, but still being meched when he had Wyches and Incubi was a good thing!
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| End DE 2 |
GK 3
One of my Rhinos got Fortitude off, but the other Periled and was shook again. I moved around the one that was still shook would have a cover save.
My shooting killed the last Ravager, and shook his Incubi Raider. Doesn't sound like a lot, but getting rid of his Ravagers without being de-meched made my day.
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| End GK 3 |
DE 3
His shooting immbolized one of my Razorbacks, exploded a Rhino and shook the left Rhino. I put down the crater template and deployed my Purifiers in it. My plan was to hunker down in the crater using it as a firebase, so the Incubi would have to assault into cover and I could fillet them.
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| End DE 3 |
GK 4
My shooting phase went well. I exploded his Incubi Raider, and then torrented the Incubi with Psy-stormbolters which wiped the squad. All he had left from that unit by the end was the Malus chick with 2 wounds on her.
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| End GK 4. Notice the Raider Crater and lack of alive Incubi |
DE 4
He moved his Raider with Wyches up, disembarked them, and fleeted towards my disembarked Purifiers. Malus joined the unit, and they rolled their terrain rolls and assaulted. His shooting wrecked my left Rhino, the troops disembarked behind it in cover within 3" of the midfield objective. He exploded another Rhino and I lost 4 Purifiers! They remaining 6 of them deployed in the crater.
In the assault phase, Malus prevented me from Cleansing them, so I hammer handed. I rolled snake eyes, so I lost a dude but at least got the power off. He unleashed a boat load of attacks and when all was said and done, I lost 3 guys. My attackes killed Malus and 3 other Wyches. We drew combat and were locked in. I was happy, as I figured I would wipe them next turn with what we had left.
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| End DE 4 |
GK 5
My shooting killed half of one of his 20 man squads, an immobilized and weapon destroyed the Wyche's former Raider.
In combat, I finished off the Wyches and consolidated towards the objective, but I was about an inch away. Still, I controlled 2 objectives, and there was no way he could contest either of them. And I was about an inch away from controlling the 3rd objective if the game was to continue to turn 6.
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| End GK 5 |
DE 5
He disembarked the Wyches who were stranded in the immobilized Raider in his back field and fleeted them towards the objective, claiming it.
He shot 4 Dark Lances and a handful of Splinter Rifles that were in range at my Purifiers in his backfield, but could only kill 1 thanks to the crater giving cover.
At the end of the turn, we rolled... a 1. Game over.
Final tally: GK 2 Objectives, DE 1. Had it gone another turn it would certainly have been 3 to 1.
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So all in all, a great game for my list against a tough match up. Seizing the initiative was ofcourse monumentally good, but the fact that I remained meched up for as long as I did was the real thing that won me the game as I got in places where he couldn't shoot me from over 24" and play keep away. He was forced to come to me if he wanted to win, and it required him to face the full shooting of my army.
For a soft army like DE, you don't want to trade short/midrange fire with GK. Ideally, you want to de-mech GK early and from afar, and then assault like a scapel wiping out isolated units and controlling the board. Part of my ability to do that was seizing, but my deployment was so that even had he gone first he wouldn't have done significantly more damage, in all probability.
MVP of the match were the de-meched Purifier squad. They shot a large squad of deadly Incubi right off the board and killed a large unit of Wyches and IC in close combat. And had enough bodies left to potentially secure an objective. You can't ask a unit to do much more than that.
Thoughts? Comments?
Nice report, I am a bit confused on how you could move your rhinos that you had infront of your razorbacks. did you drive them forward then pivot them or how? Why i ask is that a vehicle pivot on the spot but since your razorbacks is in the way you cant turn your rhinos. Other than that i really enjoy reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteWhat turn are you referencing? On the first turn there was enough space between for me to pivot and then move forward.
ReplyDeleteGreat report fella - good pictures as well.
ReplyDeleteI take it Crowe was busy at the back of the field trying to put his dreads back together again.
I do like the new list - the bigger/smaller squads seem a lot more manageable in their tasks - 20 to take midfield / forward positions - 15 to sit and/or support/help out.
Looking forward to more reports matey.
Nice report my friend :)
ReplyDeleteHis list wasn't terrible, but it seemed like he had a lot of points invested in squads that were somewhat lackluster. People wonder why I think Wyches are a bad choice, and you did a good job of showcasing that. They're supposed to be 'resilient' against Power weapons but at the end of the day, it's only a 4+ save, lol. The big warrior squads were essentially 2 Dark Lances for 230 points. Thats 460 points for 4 Dark Lances? No thanks...
I was surprised how much damage his shooting did to you, actually. 2 dreads in a single turn after a ravager was downed is pretty good rolling- I would expect 1 dead, but certainly not 2.
As to how they have 24" on you with ranged attacks, how exactly do you mean? If you mean that they can move 12" then shoot 36" then I guess that's technically true, but remember that Dark Lances are only 36", more's the pity :(
Overall looks like a good game, I'd like to have seen how it went if you didn't steal the initiative :)
@Bully: you're right. Crowe didn't do too much this game. I should have ran him headlong into the Wyche squad at the far side of the board to maybe contest with them if he didnt get shot up first. But when he came on from reserves early on it wasn't apparent that would be beneficial.
ReplyDelete@Xaereth: I agreed with the big warrior squads. That was actually the advice I gave him. I told him to break them down to 4x10 if he was going to keep them on foot for the increased versatility. But obviously putting them in Raiders is better.
As far as Wyches go, his had FNP thanks to Drugs, and if I didn't have power weapons he would have been winning those combats.
Also, you're right about the damage he was able to do. I don't think he glanced very much, most every hit was a penetrating hit, and at least against the dreadnoughts he didn't roll any damage results that weren't 5 or 6's.
ReplyDelete