Grey Knights vs Raven Guard at 1000 points.

Another fun game, quick too when you only play 1,000 points and elite armies.  Apologies for just one crappy photo. I Completely forgot until too late.

The Grey knights

Inquisitor with rad and psychotroke grenades.

Venerable Dreadnought with Assault Cannon and psybolt ammo.

6-man Purifier squad with 2 psycannons, 3 halberds, and a master-crafted daemon hammer.

5-man terminator squad with daemon hammer, halberds, psycannon, sword.

10-man Strike Squad with 2 psycannons, 3 halberds, justicar with master crafted falchions.

The Ravenguard.

Chaplain

10 Assault Marines, sgt with power fist and storm shield

10 Scouts loaded for close combat

10 more scouts loaded for close combat

5 more scouts loaded for close combat, riding in a Scout Landspeeder

An Ironclad dreadnought in a drop pod.

Game type was Seize ground with 5 objectives, deployment in the corners.  I won the roll off and elected to go second.

Grey Knights vs Bike Marines at 1000 points

Had time for a quick game today, despite arriving later.  I'd changed my Grey Knight list just to try some different units and was against Dave's Silver Skull bikers.  Only a couple of photos, we were trying to play quickly, and my grey knights aren't painted yet so not much to show off.

My army
Inquisitor with rad and psychotroke grenades.
Venerable Dreadnought with Assault Cannon and psybolt ammo.
6-man Purifier squad with 2 psycannons, 3 halberds, and a master-crafted daemon hammer.
5-man terminator squad with hammer, halberds, psycannon, sword.
10-man Strike Squad with 2 psycannons, 3 halberds, justicar with master crafted falchions.

His army.
Captain on bike with relic blade, digital weapons.
Command squad full of storm shields and lightning claws and power fists plus an apothecary
6-man bike squad with flamer and multimelta attack bike.
10-man bike squad with flamer, melta gun and multimelta attack bike.

Capture and Control, Dawn of War, I'm player 1.

GK turn 1.
The strike squad with the inquisitor set up in terrain next to one objective.  The terminators set up in terrain across the board from the other objective.  The dreadnought and purifiers come on and run straight for the center.

SS turn 1.
Everyone rolls on and head across the board.  Good rolls mean the terrain has barely any affect.  Only a bit of shooting in range but it is enough to put some wounds on the strike squad.  The inquisitor takes one for the team.

GK turn 2.
The dreadnought and purifiers move up.  There is only a limited amount of shooting in range from the termies and dreadnought and it does nothing.

SS turn 2.
They all roll forward and 2 squads open fire on the strike squad, killing a couple of knights.  The small bike squad open fire on the dreadnought but do nothing.

GK Turn 3.
The strike squad pumps a lot of fire into the big bike squad.  After some poor to hit rolls they kill just one bike.  Pretty weak for 24 dice rolled to hit.  The dread, terminators and purifiers drop shots onto the small bike squad killing three including the attack bike.

SS Turn 3.
The big bike squad and command squad are almost on the strike squad.  Bolter fire drops another couple of knights before the bikes engage.  The psychtroke grenades help keep the combat going my reducing the Steel Skulls to 1 attack each.  Doesn't matter too much as the strike squad do pretty badly and just kill 1 bike while being reduced to 2 guys and the inquisitor killed.  They hold.  The bike squad that got shot up pulls away to try and get some cover from the purifiers and dreadnought.

GK Turn 4.
The dreadnought opens fire on the remaining bikes on the small squad.  Between the assault cannon and storm bolter they are wiped out.  The terminators and purifiers look over at the objective, look at the fight going on and decide they'd rather be in the fight.  The close combat with the strike squad ends, predictably, with them being wiped without doing any more damage.  For a 10 man squad with HQ they really did very little.  Plus, the bikes are now sitting on my objective.

SS Turn 4.
The remaining bike squad, command squad, and captain are now all in the open.  Low rolls for movement out of terrain limits them and they decide to head towards the terminators, opening fire with bolt guns.  5 bolter wounds.  3 ones rolled for saves.  Yeah pretty shitty.  At least the command squad didn't do much shooting.  One of the downed terminators was Justicar Thawn.  The command squad then multi assaults the dreadnought and two remaining terminators.  The terminators and dreadnought get 7 power weapon hits, 3 of which only need a 2 to wound.  And, a lot more 1s later that turns into 1 wound with the captain saves.  The remaining terminators die but the dread survives. Not by best turn of rolling.

GK Turn 5.
Thawn gets up, really annoyed now.  He dives back into combat with the command squad and puts a wound on the captain before being knocked down again.  The purifiers move up and shoot at the big bike squad, but get nothing.

SS Turn 5.
The command squad and captain attack the dreadnought.  The captain does nothing, but the power fist manages to immobilize and stun it.  At this stage immobilize is acceptable so I don't ask for a venerable re-roll.  The big bike squad take shots at the purifiers and one falls to their fire.


GK Turn 6.
Thawn gets up, tis but a flesh wound.  He decides he's a bit low on ammo and runs off towards the objective, making it there with a decent difficult terrain roll.  The purifiers move up to assault the captain and command squad.  They put a wound on the captain and reduce the command squad to one bike.  The dreadnought misses but is tagged by the power fist that fortunately just stuns again.

SS Turn 6.
The Captain manages to kill one more Purifier while the power fist guy and the dreadnought just wave at each other.  The bike squad hit Thawn with bolter fire although he is hidden from some of the squad.  They manage to get a few wounds on him and up comes another 1.

GK Turn 7.
Thawn doesn't come back so I've lost that objective and the game.  The purifiers finally bring down the captain and reduce the command squad to one guy with his faithful storm shield (he probably made 7 or 8 saves by Daves estimation.).  The dread misses.

SS Turn 7.
The big bike squad stays where it is on the objective.  The last command squad guy is finally flattened by the purifiers.  All that is left on the table is his 1 bike squad, almost at full strength with 7 guys left, and my dreadnought and purifiers.

So in all, fun game.  I don't think I really screwed anything up but made one possibly poor choice, I should have held either the terminators or strike squad back and deep striked them on to the other objective.  Instead I'd held everyone together to try and bring a lot of fire power to the middle of the board.  Dave countered by bringing everyone in further down so he could pound the strike squad without too much return fire to start with.  I'd never played against bikes before.  Toughness 5, fast movement, and relentless twin linked bolters mean they can put out a lot of hurt.  Turn 4 was what really hurt me.  Failing 3 of 5 2+ saves and then watching as my assault failed badly was a big swing for just two sets of rolling right near each other.  Otherwise it would have been closer as I'd have had a few terminators left to bring the fight to the attack bikes and at least contest the objective.

MWC Posts - Grey Knight Minis

I've written a few articles on the Grey Knight minis as I succumbed to newcodexitis and decided to build a GK force.  Well that and as I have an IG army and with the Knights being elite and therefore low in numbers it would be easy to do.

We have the following posts available for your reading pleasure.

A cheap and easy Rifleman dreadnought conversion.
http://miniaturewargameconversions.blogspot.com/2011/04/rogue-trader-rifleman-dreadnought.html

First impressions on the new Grey Knight sets.
http://miniaturewargameconversions.blogspot.com/2011/04/rogue-trader-grey-knight-models-first.html

How to cheaply bulk out your Grey Knight forces with the combat squad set.
http://miniaturewargameconversions.blogspot.com/2011/04/rogue-trader-cheap-knights.html

Miniature Wargame Conversions - Posts update

First MWC Post

I wanted to start cross linking my MWC posts to this blog so it keeps busy.  Here's my first post back in April.

Grey Knights - Second battle

Had another game with the knights.  Another 1,000 pointer and I played the same list as I didn't have time to change anything and add in the new models I picked up.

Playing against blood angels with a reclusiarch and 2 sanguinary priests supporting 3 10-man assault squads.

Capture and control, pitched battle, I had turn 1.  Turn 1 didn't make much difference as Justin plays this as a full reserve army.

So, turn 1, Grey Knights hang out, exchange stories.

Turn 1 Blood Angels, descending I guess.

Turn 2, Grey Knights throw out some warp quake, mill around a bit.

Turn 2 Blood Angels, still descending.

Turn 3 Grey Knights.  Warp Quake, and OMGWTFBBQ, where are the bad guys?

Turn 3 Blood Angels.  Thud, all three squads land.  A good distance away because of the warp quake.  All come in safe and run forward.  Fortunately, being a bit late means they were in too much of a hurry to get their nerd rage ability going.

Turn 4 Grey Knights.  Realized I was forgetting to roll for the Paladin, at least he arrives but too late to be an extra hazard for the opponent.  OK Cool, lots of targets, open fire.  The rifle dread with its 2 twin linked, Strength 8 autocannons of doom, and a total of 2 Psycannons and 13 storm bolters are all in range, 34 shots.  And they kill one dude.  Sensibly, they all back up a bit.

Turn 4 Blood Angels.  All the squads jump forwards.  The first squad open fire with bolt pistols on the interceptors near them and kill one guy.  I take out the one closest to them.  Now they are out of assault range.  The other squads watch this and leave off the shooting.

Turn 5 Grey Knights.  OK lads, lets stop them getting the assault.  All the weapons open fire.  This time an incinerator, 3 psycannons (1 as heavy, 2 as assault), 17 storm bolters, 1 heavy incinerator, the rifle dread, and a bolt pistol.  Forty seven shots plus a total of 7 more hits from the 2 incinerators.  I killed 3 guys.  What the hell.  But anyway, we are in assault range, pile in guys.  Five Interceptors with one halberd on the justicar against 10 blood angels with Sanguinary Priest.  We win 3 kills to 2 but they hold.  Five strike squad with swords and the Inquisitor against 10 man assault squad with Reclusiarch.  Didn't realize the IC had to be in base to base to count.  OK, rule learned, now will I remember.  Killed 1 each, combat tied.  Five Interceptors with halberds against 10 blood angels with Sanguinary Priest.  We win 3 kills to 2 but they also hold.

Oh, and the Paladin is now over hanging out by their objective.  And, I completely forgot hammer hand.  Will I remember next turn?  It would have got me a few more wounds as well.

Turn 5 Blood Angels.  Nothing but assaults.  Knights lose a guy on the left but hold.  Knight lose all but the Inquisitor and justicar in the middle but hold.  Knights lose a couple of guys on the right but hold.

At this stage I'm winning one held, one contested.  But, turn 6 does arrive.

Turn 6 Grey knights.  The dreadnought doesn't have much to do so just positions for a better shot later.  If I was paying any attention I would have realized he had nothing that could hurt in and would have had it tar pit a unit.  Bad move on my part.  I'm also lax on moving my dreadknight and move it forward so it can assault.  I only move it a few inches as its more than close enough.  The Paladin moves back towards the fight so he'll have something possibly to do.  Assault phase, here comes the dreadknight to help out the interceptors.  Except I had stupidly miss judged, should have moved the full 6", now he can't reach assault.  The interceptors on the left get wiped but take all but the priest with them.  The strike squad in the middle is down to just the inquisitor who holds, the interceptors on the right get wiped but take another couple of guys with them.

And yeah, forgot hammer hand again.  Idiot.

Turn 6 Blood Angels.  The sanguinary priest joins up with the reclusiarch and 3 others to kill the inquisitor.  The assault squad on the right try and jump past the dreadknight to get to the objective.  The strike squad defending it is about 4 inches away and in difficult terrain and they come up short.

I'm still winning one held, one contested.  But, turn 7 also arrives.

Turn 7 Grey Knights.  The Rifle Dread, paladin, dreadknight, and last strike squad all have  clear shots.  So we have the two TL autocannons, 5 stormbolters, and a psycannon in heavy for 18 shots, and a heavy incinerator tagging 5 guys.  I kill 2 with storm bolters and 1 with the incinerator.

Again, I should have been moving the dread in to fight, I also should have moved the strike squad off to assault.  Bad planning.  The dreadknight assaults, only manages to kill 1 and takes a wound.

Turn 7 Blood Angels.  The dreadknight and assault squad carry on fighting.  It kills 1 and takes a wound.  The other remaining squad jump in to assault getting a good enough roll to make it into difficult terrain.  With the initiative bonuses of their furious charge and some really good rolling, the strike squad are wiped out by just the power weapons on the priest and reclusiarch.  Which means at the very end of the game he has one objective and I have none.

So, why did I lose.  Aside from really crap shooting.  I should have made better use of the dreadnought and brought it out to fight.  I should have remembered hammerhand.  I shouldn't have been so relaxed on movement.  And, I should have taken control on the last turn and pulled my knights off to assault, giving me a much more even fight.

Hmm, lets go back and add up the amount of shooting.  12 S8 AP4 shots, 20 S7 AP4 shots, 70 S4 AP5 shots and S6 flamer shots tagging 12 guys.  And I managed to kill I think 7 guys by shooting.  I wonder what mathhammer says I should have got.  Two squads had feel no pain, but the S8 shots punch through that.  Heavy shots, should have had 25 hits, 21 wounds, 7 failed saves with another 1 saved by feel no pain.  The storm bolters should give 46 hits, 23 wounds, 8 failed saves and another 3 saved by feel no pain.  The incinerators should have generated 10 wounds, 5 failed saves, another 2 saved by feel no pain.  So averages say I get 13 when I only in fact got 7.  In a small game that's enough difference to mean the special characters survived when they otherwise may have died and made things a little easier near the end.  When even averages say only 1 in 10 shots is going to kill it lets you know how tough these guys are.

Dreadknight close combat dosen't look good either.  It killed 2 guys.  7 attacks should have given me 4.  Guess I need to roll my dice a bunch more, they have a few bad roles to get rid of. 

And, all that being said, it was still a fun game against a great opponent.  Plus my kids were running around and they enjoyed watching all the multitude of games going on.  Also a big thank you to Justin who let one of my kids raid his bits box.  Now I owe him.  :)