Monday, May 9, 2011

40k Battle Report Grey Knights vs. Footdar

Don't laugh.

...

OK laugh.  

Want to see what happens when my GK play a list that is terrible by anyone's definition?  Yeah me neither.  But this was the only game I got the opportunity to get in this weekend.  It was bad.  It was one sided.  We laughed, we cried.

Anyway, the Eldar player is mostly a hobbyist who doesn't play competitively.  The painted portions of his army were simply stunning.  I have to give him props on his painting, if I can't give him props on his list.

I played my Purifier list that you're all familiar with by now.  He played the following cringe-worthy list...

1 Farseer with 4 or 5 Warlocks
Avatar

20x Guardians with Scatter Laser platform
2x6 Pathfinders
1x15 Guardian Jet Bikes

6x Striking Scorpions
6x Wraithguard
1 Falcon
1 Fire Prism
2x6 Dark Reapers

I think his list was illegal due to 4 Heavy Support choices, but it didn't turn out to be a huge deal in the end.

We rolled Seize Ground (3) and Spearhead.  I got to deploy first and I set up like so...

GK Deployment

So I already had 2 of the 3 objectives before moving a model.  He would have to come to me to win, and it wouldn't be pretty to walk towards that much firepower. 

He then set up...

Footdar Deployment

One of his pathfinder units occupied the ruin on the right.  He kept his vehicles, Wraithguard, Scorpions, and jetbikes in reserve.

He failed to Seize so I took my first turn...

GK Turn 1

I moved up a bit, and my lead Rhino and popped smoke  Everyone else moved to get shots.

My Psyflemen put two wounds on his Avatar.  That was about it for shooting.

End GK turn 1.


Footdar Turn 1

He moved his Avatar forward and followed it up with the Seer Council.  Everything else stood still.

His bullshit scatterlaser exploded my Smoked Rhino, killing two Purifiers.  Then the Dark Reapers killed a few more.  Pretty good turn for the footdar shooting.

End Eldar turn 1.  Notice the crater where the Rhino used to be, and 4 missing Purifiers.
GK Turn 2.

This turn went my way, just a bit more.  My demeched Purifiers moved forward, though in retrospect they should have stayed in the crater and traded shots with the Dark Reapers.  Sure, they would lose the battle of attrition eventually, but it would take longer and delay him a bunch.  My back up Rhino moved into the crater, but rolled a 1 and was immobilized, and then rolled another 1 on his dozer blade re-roll.  Fun times.

My shooting was great.  I killed the lame ass Avatar.  And then my other Psyfleman put 4 wounds on his Seer Council.  Which one did he fail of the 4?  Farseer.  Instant Death.  See ya.  On the other side, my Purifiers and Psyfleman shot and killed one of his Dark Reaper units to the last elf.

No assaults so I ended my turn.

End GK turn 2.  Note the missing Avatar and Farseer.
Footdar Turn 2

His reserves all failed to come on, except the Fire Prism.  He brought it on to threaten my left flank.  He moved up the Warlocks.

His Prism wrecked the nearest Rhino.  His other unit of Dark Reapers erased my de-meched Purifiers.  That was about it for his shooting.  I want to emphasize here how few threats he had on the table, not to mention the whole list.

End Eldar Turn 2
GK 3

Crowe comes in from reserve and moves 6" towards his Pathfinders who were near that board edge in the ruins.  Everything else more or else stayed put.

I unloaded a ton of shooting in his Fireprism, but thanks to holofields the best I did was shake it.  After that, I focused my fire on his approaching Seer Council and killed all but 1 Warlock.

In the Assault Phase, Crowe rolled a snake eyes for assaulting into the ruins and his charge failed.  Boo.

End GK 3.
Eldar Turn 3

His reserves failed him again and nothing came on.

He moved the Prism flat out and landed in the center ruin.  He wanted the cover save I guess since it couldnt shoot anyway.  His Destructor-lock moved up.  His Pathfinders tried to run away from Crowe rather than try their luck shooting him.  I would have tried shooting him, personally.

His Destructor-lock killed a Purifier and failed to assault.

Sad panda.

End Eldar Turn 3
GK Turn 4

I moved my melta vendreads around to get coverless meltarange shots on his Prism.  Crowe chased after the Pathfinders.  Everyone else hung in there.

I successfully, melted the Prism.  I killed a Dark Reaper, and shot down the last Warlock.  

In the assault phase, Crowe butchered 3 Pathfinders, they fled and got away.  Pretty much it for that turn.

End Turn 4, view from my left flank.
End turn 4, view from the right.
Eldar Turn 4.

All his reserves turn up except the Wraithguard.

His jet bikes came on the right flank to shoot at Crowe.  The Falcon and Scorpions came on the left, but probably should have come on the right and abandoned the left flank as unwinnable.

His Falcon blew the arm off my melta-dread and immobilized it.  The Dark Reapers failed to hurt Crowe at all.  The bikes Shuriken Cannons didn't hurt him either.  

Another exciting turn for the Eldar.

End Eldar Turn 4
GK Turn 5.

Turns moving quick now.  My right melta dread assaulted the Guardians, Crowe ran for the center.  Everyone on the left took aim at the Falcon and Scorps.  Falcon was wrecked, and Scorps reduced to an Exarch and one dude.  I killed the other Dark Reaper squad with some effective shooting.

His only play at this point was to use the Pathfinders to grab his home objective and try to contest mine in the center with his bikes and pray the game ended.

End GK turn 5 left flank.
End KG turn 5 right flank.
Eldar Turn 5

And he went for it, ran his snipers to the objective claiming it.  My Dread being 1/2" away from contesting it.  His bikes turbo boosted and assault moved to the objective.  They all passed their Dangerous Terrain tests.  He was just close enough to contest.  How pathetic would this be if the game ended in a draw considering how one sided it was.  This goes to show what Timmah said about Adepticon favoring Eldar: if this crap list could pull out a late game objective grab to turn a lopsided loss into a tie, imagine what a good Eldar list with a good general could do.

We rolled...

...a 4.  Game continues.
GK Turn 6

My Purifiers and Crowe charge his jet bikes.  My dread charges his Pathfinders.  Wipe them out, win.

End Game.  Left objective very secure.
End Game.  Those jetbikes got wiped out in the ensuing melee, thus completing the tabling.

So it was an ugly, one-sided game.  I think the results weren't in doubt at all since he had to come to me, and I could both shoot AND fight better than him.  When you have that advantage, it's an uphill battle for your opponent.  In any event he was a good sport, and though he doesn't play competitively, he knew the rules and played decently despite being handcuffed by a battleforce list.  Hopefully next weekend I'll see some tougher opposition to report on.

5 comments:

  1. Wanted to say great job with your blog and I've nominated you for the Stylish Blogger Award.

    http://creativetwilight.com/2011/05/stylish-blogger-award/

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  2. haha, I'm a bit like your opponent there - I try my best in games but truthfully I'm pretty awful at writing lists, it's the hobby side that wins it for me!

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  3. @Thor I haven't been following this Stylish Blogger thing, I'm not sure what the deal is. I appreciate the kudos I'm getting but I dunno what its all about.

    @Rhyd Yeah it was tough, I felt bad for him. Luckily he is a good sport and he doesn't take losing badly.

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  4. yeah, when I am playing a list like this imbalanced, it is tempting to modify my list to make it more even.

    seems like he played his list well for what it is worth. I was a little surprised the jetbikes all died in cc.

    The comment on Eldar being favored in Adepticon is interesting.. since they werent in the top 16 this year, it wasnt enough of a help.

    The battle reports are a fun read, the pictures help me understand how to protect the dreads & Rhinos.

    Question: can you shoot the PsyRifleDreads over the Rhinos without giving cover saves to the target? it is too hard to tell

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  5. Eldar didn't make top 16, but they had the highest average battlepoints of any army.

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