2000 GK vs IG

 So, played IG, 2000 points.  Game was Big Guns Never Tire, with Dawn of War Deployment - 5 objectives.

I was playing my fast Army with some AA added in (after the Chaos Debacle).  I had 3 units of 10 Strike Squads (2 Hammers, 2 Psycannons, Halberd justifier, and Psybolt Ammo), 1 Intercept Squad (1 Hammer, 2 Psycannons, Halberd justifier, and Psybolt Ammo), 2 Dread Knights (teleporter and heavy incinerator), 1 Stormraven, 1 Psyrifleman Dread, Ordo Malleus in terminator armor with psycannon.

My opponent played something like 2 Leman Rus Executioners with multi-melta sponsons, 3 units of 2 vendettas, 2 Chimeras with veterans (I think there were 2 plasmas, a melta, and a Las Cannon in each), 1 Squad of 2 Basilisks.  A command Squad of some kind (with the guy that lets them +1 to reserve roll), and a named character in the Leman Russ.

I combat squaded all the Strike Squads and put them in reserve (Which I later realized was illegal, as I forgot about the half-army thing).  In the future, if I want 6 combat squads, I'll put 2 of the combat squads, with the inquisitor, in a raven, and then drop them off on the way in).

Turn 1 - Night Fighting - Grey Knights - I ended up with 3 objectives - I placed one in the back (with my Psyrifleman on it), and 2 along the river (close to the middle, so my 24" weapons can do something).  I teleported each dreadknight toward a Leman Russ, and the interceptors into the crater in the middle of the enemy deployment zone.  One dread knight managed to break a chimera with his incinerator and a lucky shot, the explosion killed 5 guard, and the rest were pinned down in the crater it left.
Turn 1 - Night Fighting - IG - The IG manage to kill the dread knight on the left - after using every other weapon in range, a lucky snap-shot with a las cannon on the move put the final wound on it.  The other tank rolled around and managed to put 2 wounds on the dread.  The artillery fired at my interceptors, but because of huge scatters, only killed 2 guys.

Score: GK 1 (First Blood), IG 1 (Killed Heavy)

Grey Knight Turn 1, after moving. My objectives are the dice shown (2 along the river, and 1 right behind the Dreadnought.  Both of his objectives are behind the ruined towers (1 behind each - and they were both skyfire - mine were worthless, 1 was a bomb that killed 1 marine, the others were also insignificant)

Turn 2 - GK - All but 2 of my combat squads came in, as well as my Storm Raven, which flies toward the Leman Russ on the left flank.  My Dread Knight goes after my Basilisks (destroying 1 and stunning the other), and my interceptors go after the Leman Russ with the character, and Hammer it to death.  I deep strike one squad near the crater of the chimera, and almost scatter off the board (had it been a 10 man squad they wouldn't have made it), but they manage to kill the IG hiding in the crater before they can shoot my dread knight.  1 Squad also landed near each of my objectives, and one landed near the left Leman Russ on the left (hoping for a lucky psycannon shot). 

Turn 2 - IG - Only 1 of his Vendetta Squadrons came in (he only needed a 2), and fired at my Stormraven.  He got 3 hits, but no penetrating shots.  His Leman Russ killed the Strike Squad that landed in the crater.  He got out of the other Chimera to fire at the Stormraven (he stretched the unit out so that he could claim the skyfire bonus from the objective, but since he had to move, he was snap shooting anyway that turn, and missed

Score - GK 2 (Killed Heavy), IG 1

Turn 2 Right Flank, GK before Assault

Turn 2 Right Flank GK before assault

Turn 3 - GK - Other units came in, dropped them both on right flank (so the vendettas already on couldn't get to them, and to claim his right objective - they both scattered way backwards though, so between that and the river, they would end about 1 turn short of making it his objective).  My Stormraven flew off the board, as I couldn't move 18" and still hit anything.  I moved toward my objectives (I didn't land right on them last turn).  My Psyrifleman got 4 hits with the autocannons, and between that and the psycannons, took down both vendettas.  The Interceptors mover toward the other Leman Russ, and take out the chimera with a psycannon on the move.  The DreadKnight finishes off the last basilisk.

Turn 3 - IG - Only 1 squad of Vendettas made it on again, and they managed to kill my PsyrifleDread (despite his 3+ cover save - I guess I did have 1 good objective, + 1 to cover).  He shoots some interceptors, trying to do enough wounds to take out the hammer, but he falls 1 short, and the hammer survives.

Score - GK 9 (Killed Heavy and 2 objectives), IG 5 (Killed another Heavy and 1 objective)

Turn 4 - GK - My interceptors shoots the veterans, killing enough that they are no longer on the objective.  My Storm Raven comes is, and stuns one of the vendettas, but the Assault Cannon doesn't do anything (wish I had 25 points for Psybolt on that, but it's a lot of points to upgrade 1 weapon).  I shoot a lot of psycannons at his vendettas, and destroy 1 of them, and glance the other one 2 times.  my Dread Knight incinerates 4 of the 5 remaining veterans, and the survivor runs of the board. 

Turn 4 - IG - His other flyers come on, and shoot at my stormraven, velocity locking it at full speed.  His other vendetta kills a few marines in the river.  I don't remember what his LR did, it might have been stunned or something, it may have killed some strike squad guys who were moving toward his left objective.

Score - GK 9, IG 2 (lost objective)

Turn 5 - Interceptors killed Leman Russ, Strike Squads run toward enemy objectives (but I think they both fell about 1-2" short of being within 3".  I shoot at the vendettas, and take one of them down (which had his company command squad - killing about 9 of them, the survivor failed his leaderhip and ran off the board - I think).  Stormraven flew off the board

Turn 5 IG - Vendettas killed some guys, 1 unit flew off the board.

Game ended.

Score - GK 10-11 (line breaker, probably slay the warlord, but wasn't tracking it), IG 2

GK Turn 4

He had some bad rolls early on, and I had some good rolls early on, but over all I am happy with this list.  Besides the mistake of having too much in reserve, which will be solved by putting 3 "units" in the stormraven, I may have deployed badly.  I have been setting up my dread knights so that they teleport after the biggest 2 threats.  The problem is that, although I have gotten lucky, I am undermining my whole strategy of delivering a crippling blow because both times, the enemy had enough fire power within range of each dread knight to kill both of them before the charge. I should be deploying them together that way, even though I will only get 1 priority target, I am rendering at least part of his firepower inert (In his whole army, he probably has the fire power to kill 2 Dreads in 1 turn, but maybe not on 1 side of the board.

The interceptors were great.  They took some fire power off my dreads, and they killed both Leman Russes.

Strike Squads, as always (except that time they charged a demon), delivered.

The Psyrifle Dread had a few really good rolls against enemy aircraft, and provided enough of a threat that he took 6 las cannon shots that might have pushed a squad off an objective, so I can't complain (it also might have been the dread, and not the interceptors, that killed the second chimera).

Stormraven - The melta provided a threat, and it survived, which meant it took a lot of airborn firepower off my troops (so even if it only shot down 1 plane, it kept the enemy planes occupied).  To make it really shine against enemy air, I need to find 25 points, so that I can give the assault cannon str 7, but again, 25 points for 4 shots that aren't going to be on the board every turn might be a little too much.

2000 Fast Jump Army to 3 Dread Knight Army

So, after the last tournament, I wanted to take the concept of 2 teleporting dread knights, and turn it up.  So I made the following list:

1 Ordo Malleus Inquisitor with termie armor and psycannon

3 GKSS (10 Man, 2 psycannon, 2 hammers, justifier with halberd, psybolt ammo)

2 GK Interceptors (10 man, 2 psycannon, 2 hammers, justifer with halberd, psybolt ammo

2 Dread Knights (Heavy Incinerators, personal teleporters)

Although this army got tabled on turn 6, I think that was more to playing errors.  Against chaos, especially with heldrakes, I think combat squadding is a mistake (now).  Additionally, he bubble wrapped his units with cultists, which was good idea, but I probably could have (should have) ignored them, since the 5+ cover save doesn't matter against chaos.  This list has the ability to put so many units in the enemy's face on turn 1, that he is playing catch up the rest of the game.  It didn't work out this time, because I was afraid of the counter charge, but it turns out that the characters (with deamon weapons) are the only real threats - getting charged by any of the cultist marines turned out to not be a big deal - considering we have so may AP 3 power weapons.

If I had taken this army to the tournament, I think I would have won (instead of taking second), but after my last game, my chaos friend is looking at 2 Daemon Princes, and at least 2 Heldrakes, whereas 1 of each tore this army apart, so I want to keep the same theme, but add some anti-air, and maybe beef up my Daemon Prince Protection a little, without losing the "in your face" aggressiveness.

First, the interceptor squads - I like them, and they did well, but they are 325 points each, and I need to free up points for air defense, so I cut both of those and the servo skull, giving me 655 points.

I buy 2 Storm Ravens, equipped with TL MM and TL Assault Cannons.  This Leaves me with 245 Points.

I buy another Dread Knight (with Heavy Incinerator and Teleporter), to up my Daemon Protection and to help cover the hole left by the 2 intercept squads I lost.  This leaves me with 10 points.  I am thinking that I want to be able to boost my reserve rolls, so I want to make my inquisitor a Psyker.  This puts me 20 points in the hole, which I cover by dropping Psybolt ammo on 1 squad (the squad the Inquisitor is going to).

I could take Coteaz instead, which would give me re-rolls, the ability to use, we've been expecting you, and a chance to re-roll for steal the initiative - but being able to control when my stuff comes in might be more valuable, as I can push my troops back, or make sure that my flyers come in after his....

I will look into it more, but right now I am looking at:

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Psyker with Termie armor and psycannon
3 10 Man Strike Squads (2 hammers each, 1 halberd justifier each, 2 psycannons each, and 2 of the units
       have psybolt ammo)
2 Stormravens (TL MM and TL Assault Cannons)
3 Dread Knights with Heavy incinerators and Personal teleporters

Good anti-air, good durability / disruption with Dread Knights, and 3-6 decent scoring units, that can deep strike in.

Power of Chaos

I just played a 2000 game with DK against Chaos.  Although I was winning, I ended up being tables on turn 6.  We both thought that the Demon Prince of Nurgle had FNP and +1 Toughness, so He would have died the first time my DK punched him (so I might not have been tabled), but this isn't about that, because it doesn't change the fact that one demon prince and one heldrake destroyed 5-6 units of marines by themselves.  This is about building lists that can deal with that kind of power.

Since this isn't a battle report, I'm not going to go turn by turn, but just the general themes.  By the end turn 2 (I went first), we both thought the game was over - I had 2 optional KP in relic, and I had decimated most of his units, but my opponent wanted to keep playing, to test out the other units (the lord on the bike rolled horribly, and died to DK, which probably shouldn't have happened.)

When his demon came in on turn 2 and flew to my backfield, I thought, no problem.  I shot it, and did a wound, and made it crash, then I charged it with a terminator inquisitor and a 5 man strike squad - not the killiest thing in the game, but lots of demonbane weapons... that never got to go.  He had the black mace and, being a monstrous creature, had slam (ap 2).  This means that at initiative 8, he did 11 AP 2 wounds, wiping out the squad.  On his turn, the demon wiped out another squad, and then got tied up with both my dreadknights for the rest of the game (which would have killed him the first turn had we realized he was T 5).

So - what to do about Demon Princes, who can kill whole squads of power armor (and maybe even terminator armor) in one turn?  We only have 1 model with a Storm Shield, although even he is probably not making 11 saves.  They don't have grenades, so the best thing to do is going to be make them charge you through cover, then your demon bane weapons have a chance of doing their job.  Maybe psycotroke grenades need to make a come back.  Dread Knights are skill good against them - if they survive long enough to attack, but if they fly, they can make can make it difficult for the Dread Knight to catch them in melee.  Full size units (no combat squads) might also make sure I get a chance to take a swing at the demon.

The Heldrake - I knew when I first read the codex that these were going to be game changers, I see no reason not to take 3 of these, but at least 2, in any competitive army.  Granted, I was combat squaded, in order to have more units able to go for the objective, and most combat squads had been whittled down to 2 or 3 guys, but the heldrake killed 3 combat squads in 4 turns.  Until there is a faq, apparently torrent flamer doesn't have an arc of fire although this made absolutely no difference in our game - with only 3 guys, its hard to spread them out so that all 3 won't fit under a template, and then it's wound on 2, no armor or cover save.  Other than having more anti air - keeping units of 10 will help against the flamer - but that is still only 1 heldrake, and I'm going to take at least 2 in any Chaos list I make, so I am almost going to HAVE to take something other than psycannons and a prayer to shoot down enemy aircraft.

We are more than a match for cultist marines, and cultists - so just need to think of a way to keep air defense alive - thinking a bastion and crusaders....

Dreadknight

So, I've gotten some games in with the Dreadknight.  Prior to 6th edition, no one would take these, because they felt that the Psyrifle Dread was a better use of the slot.  While the Psyrifle Dread is still good, and one of best air defense Grey Knights have, the Dreadknight has been a game changer for me in every game I've taken them.

Bell of Lost Souls made a list of things your Army needs to be able to deal with in 6th, it has to be able to score, deal with light mech spam, deal with hordes, deal with heavy infantry, counter flyers, counter death starts, and counter heavy vehicles.  These are the roles I am assessing the Dreadknight for.

Scoring - Only with the help of a Grand Master.  As a scoring unit, they are hard to get cover for, and only have 4 wounds.  While they might be durable at end game (where a lot of big weapons have been destroyed), most of the time I would rather have 5-10 models that can go to ground if need be.

Light Mech Spam - Good.  Str 10, with smash, makes them reliable anti-mech (should be able to kill 1 a turn fairly reliably.  If given the Heavy Psycannon or the Heavy Incinerator, can also pop light mech at range.

Hordes - Decent, better with incinerator upgrade.  The incinerator can take out a lot of hordes, and ignores cover.  The Dread Knights toughness is high enough that most hordes are going to need 6's to wound (unless poison).  Additionally, as a character, the DK can issue a challenge and likely take out the leader of the horde (the one most likely to have a weapon that can hurt it).  Still only 4 attacks, so while it can hold up a horde, it will take the DK a long time to smash through a horde in melee - but with a personal teleporter and a Heavy Incinerator...

Heavy Inf - Good.  AP 2, str 10, will crush most heavy infantry, except terminators with storm shields and hammers, and special melee characters.

Counter flyer - Weak.  If the DK takes a gatling psilencer, and manages to get behind a flyer (with rear armor 10) the DK can provide some AA threat (with 12 S 4 shots), but not a good plan

Counter Deathstar - Decent.  It really depends on the death star, lots of low AP, High strength hits, especially coupled with decent invuln saves, are going to give the DK problems.  Chaos lords, who go before init 4 with AP 2 weapons, characters with eternal warrior, etc will give DK problems.  But if the DK goes faster, and the character does not have eternal warrior, the DK has a decent chance.

Heavy Vehicles - Good - Taking a personal teleporter makes sure you get there, but once you are there, you should no problem using smash (which is only costing you 1 attack because according to the faq, you halve your attacks before applying modifiers - so you start with 3, go to 2 for smash (round up), +1 for charge, + 1 for 2 power fist or powerfist and sword) to put 2-3 glances / penetrating on armor 13-14.

While you can take a Dk without teleporter, especially since they can deep strike, I use them as my main anti-tank.  Their mission is to put pressure, on turn 1, on anything that is threat to my marines (AP 3 templates, massed fire from lootas, etc).  Then I go for anything that my Psycannons are going to have trouble with (land raiders, monoliths, etc), then I go for whatever else.

Equipping the Dread Knight:
Personal Teleporter:  As I have said, to put hard pressure on tanks and artillery early, you need a personal teleporter - but by the time you take 2 of them, you could have almost bought a 3rd Dread.  While you could use them as counter charge unit, and run them alongside you infantry, maybe with a heavy psycannon, I think there are cheaper ways to get psycannons.  The ability to teleport next to your  enemy on turn 1, especially with 2 of these, pretty much destroys the enemy's plan, and forces him to fight on your terms.  The Dread Knight can teleport, so you can put turn 2 pressure on his stuff (and maybe knowing that you could deep strike into his deployment zone will mess him up just as much).

Heavy Psycannon: Not bad in that it gives you a str 7 rending large template.  While this could be devastating, it could scatter, and against small units / single vehicles, it is less effective than a normal psycannon.  Not a bad choice, but I don't think the best.

Heavy Incinerator - This is the best.  Not only is this the cheapest ranged weapons, but it never misses, it ignores cover, and is almost as powerful as the Psycannon (except for the occasional rend).

Gatling Psilencer - Mostly No.  12 Str 4 shots that always wound deamons on a 4.  Str 6 and 7 also generally wounds demons on 4.  It can be effective as a second gun, against hordes, but it is AP -, so you figure, on average, after misses and saves (5+ armor or cover), you are looking at killing 1-2 xenos a turn).  This is the only weapon DK can use to hit enemy aircraft, if it has rear armor 10, and if the DK can get behind it.

2 Power fists - Extra attack, S 10, free.  This is how I do it.

Power fist + Sword - Still get an extra attack, and Str 10, and get to re-roll to hit, to wound and armor penetrate - for 25 points.  This is a pretty good deal, and the sword looks cool, but usually if I have 25 points, I'll give a unit Psybolt ammo instead.

Power fist + hammer - NO.  You are still S 10, but you lose an attack for concussive, which doesn't do anything against vehicles anymore, and anything that is going to survive a S 10 hit is probably already going at initiative 1.

I like running 2 of these, with incinerators and teleporters.   On turn 1, they can clear a battlement, clear an aegis defense line, position themselves to take out artillery, flame lootas.  Be careful not to teleport right next to his counter charge unit, or his plasma spam unit (unless you think you can flamer them down in 1 attack), but the enemy will almost have to reverse some of his aggressive units, to deal with these.

1500 Tournament, Game 3

So, last game of the tournament Saturday.  I played against Chaos, with IG allies (from forgeworld list - Elysian Air, or something like that).  The game was d3+1 objectives, +1 point for each enemy troop destroyed, and all the normal secondary objectives.   The Deployment was short table ends (Hammer and Anvil?)

He had an
IG company command squad,
1 unit of veterans in a Valkyrie (dedicated transport for his army)
The Nurgle Lord that makes cultists into Zombies,
2 units of 5 terminators,
1 unit of 2 oblits
1 unit of 10 zombies
1 unit of 10 Plague Marines.

He deployed first, and Coteaz helped me steal the initiative again, and there was night fighting.

I think this guy was a good player - he knew the rules, and things went smoother than I would expect for a new player, but his list had absolutely no synergy.

One turn 1 - I jumped my Dreads up and killed his Zombies, and moved 3 of my transports up 12" (2 of the objectives were on his side, and only one on my side (which I defended with aegis line and icaraus las cannon, 5 purifiers, and coteaz, and 2 chimeras).  My las cannon took out the AR12 bunker his oblits were in.

One his turn 1, he shot some stuff, but didn't really do any damage.

Score - Me 2 (1 troop + first blood), Chaos 0

Turn 2 - I assaulted his Plague marines (they were on one of his objectives - he had no one on his other objective, I think his plan was to keep 1, and to take mine).  It takes 4 full rounds of combat, but my dread knight eventually kills them.  My other Dread Knight helped flame the plague marines, but doesn't charge, because he is going after the oblits next turn.  One of my Chimeras killed 2 of his Company Command Squad, and break them.

One his turn 2, his command squad rallies, and his lord and 5 terminators come in.  They land behind Coteaz, and with Purifiers and "We've been expecting You", I kill 2 Terminators before they get to shoot.  He still has enough fire power to kill coteaz (I failed LoS on Plasmagun), who was in the back of the formation.
Score - Me 2, Chaos 1 (kill the warlord)

Turn 3 - I move my purifiers to the other side of the wall (abandoning the gun) and shoot.  I continue to move my Chimeras toward the middle of the board.

On this Turn 3, his other terminators come in, and kill the purifiers.  His lord splits off and charges a Chimera, while the other 2 surviving terminator charges the other Chimera.  His Lord doesn't make it.  The Jakero weaponsmiths use heavy flamers, killing 1 terminator before becoming immobilized.
His flyer came on, and did nothing.

Score - Me 2, Chaos 1

Turn 4 - His flyer was in the way of my Chimeras, so I stood there and shot it.  My Dreadknight jumped over and killed his Oblits (this might have happened on turn 3), but I don't remember what he did for a round.

On his turn he moved his flyer near my objective (I am guessing so that he can unload them into the objective on turn 5.  My other Dread Knight finally finishes off the plague marines.  I can't remember what his terminators did, but I know he didn't kill any vehicles.  I think we was making a box to protect his veterans around the objective.

Me 3, Chaos 1

Turn 5 - I jump one Dread knight toward his command squad (who was still hiding in the ruins from turn 1), and the other used teleport back to my home objective.  I dropped troops on both objectives in his area.  I shoot down his plane, and my Dread burns down his last troop choice.

I am now up 11 (First blood, 3 troops, 2 objectives, and line breaker) to 2 (line breaker - though we both forgot to calculate line breaker at the time), and he resigns.

Again, Dreadknights ruled enemy backfield.  Thinking about it more, I still think this is a newer player.  Although he know the rules, and the game went smoothly (and he knew more about forgeworld stuff than I did), he made some basic mistakes.  Trading both of his objectives for my 1 objective was a bad move (he could have dropped a termie squad on one of his own objectives, instead of both on mine).  He tooled out his Company Command Squad with plasma and medpacks, and another option, and then, after the first round, kept them out of sight of everything, for the rest of the game.

Coteaz helped me steal the initiative twice in 3 games, but I don't think he is going to be in the next list I try (he lacks the mobility required)

The Aegis line and Icarus Las cannon didn't make a big difference in any of the games - the one game the enemy brought a flyer, he knocked me off the gun before the flyer came in.

The chimeras with 4 acolyte warriors and 2 weaponsmiths did very well.  The Las cannon killed stuff from far away, and then used heavy flamers when the vehicle got charged.  They held objective fine - I really have no complaint against them.  The only thing is, I have played all vehicles against heavy melee, and had my opponents gotten close (and ignored the dreadknights), I don't think I could have stopped him from tearing through my troops - although, to be fair, what in my book is going to stand against 20 beserkers lead by Kharn? It was great against the enemies I played, but against Nob Bikers, I might have been in serious trouble, of course it worked, and last time I changed a list that worked after a tournament, I got crushed the next tournament (Although "crushed" means going from 1st to 4th place :) )

1500 Point Tournament, Game 2

So second game of the tournament, I played Tau.  The game was .. Emperor's Gift? (I don't have my book atm, but it was 2 objectives), with all the normal bonus points, as well as 1 additional point for each killed troop and HQ choice (dedicated transports were ruled troop upgrades, not troop choices - good call in my opinion).  I think there was night fighting on the first turn.

I don't remember his list, but he had:
Shae, with some heavy suit body gaurds and cowboy (they both had 2 weapons, and they could all
  fire at different targets. (I don't have Tau book, and have only played them 2-3 times in last 5 years,
  so this will probably be off)
2 Hammer Heads with railguns and missile pods
3 Transports, with 3 units of fire warriors.

I had same list as before. 

This time I went first without stealing the initiative, and he deployed to strong side me - keeping his suits in reserve.

Turn 1 - I jumped both Dread Knights over and flamed his transports - doing a few glancing hits.  I started rushing my Chimeras toward him - there was a big piece of LOS blocking terrain in middle, I sent 2 around front (into his LOS, and 3 around back, directly toward the objective.  This wasn't really a strategy, as much as taking the most direct route, based on deployment.  Nothing major, except it blew his strategy - his entire army spent the rest of the game in that corner 2x2 corner of the board (except the suits, which landed just outside that box, and then jumped into it)

His turn 1, he unloaded all of his fire warriors, and attacked my Dreads.  The only thing he didn't shoot at my Dreads were the railguns, which he used to pop a Chimera for first blood.

Score: Me 3 (objective), Tau 1

Turn 2 - I made 2 mistakes this turn.  I moved one of my dreads to be able to charge the hammer head, then I used the other one to flame his troops.  I completely outsmarted myself however, because I lined up to charge a unit, and then used the heavy incinerator to burn the other 2 (thinking I didn't want to burn the close unit, because I wanted to be able to charge - which I couldn't do after shooting 2 other units instead (one of them did break and run of the board).  When I realized my mistake, I was so flustered that I also forgot to charge the Hammer Head.

On his turn 2, his suits come down, and he with his firepower, he killed the Dread Knight that was threatening his Hammer heads, killed an Inquisitor warband, and put 2 wounds on the other Dread.

Score: Me 4, Tau 2.

Turn 3 - I jumped toward his Hammerhead with my other Dread but, looking at an 11" charge, I flamed another unit of fire warriors off the board.

On his turn, he destroyed another Chimera, and my Dread Knight

Score Me 5, Tau 2

Turn 4 - By now, 3 of my Chimeras are almost at his objective, but not much happens

On his turn, he moves his fire warriors onto the objective, blows up a chimera, and kills a warband

Score: Me 5, Tau 6

Turn 5 - I unload all 3 surviving warbands - but only 1 of them is withing range of the objective.  I also killed his last unit of firewarriors, so that I am on both objectives uncontested.

On his turn, he blows up a Chimera (since it is close to all of the warbands, he is hoping the explosion will do damage - it does some, but not alot).  He did manage to kill the warband on his objective, however - making the final score 7 for me (line breaker), and 4 for Tau.

Again, the Dread Knights did well.  I think his problem was target priority, and maybe only having 3 troops.  Marines can get away with it - sometimes, but if you only have 3 troops, that aren't marines, and you unload them from their transports on turn 1, I think you are setting yourself up for a hard fight.  I am liking the mobility of transports supporting Dread Knights, so instead of using my Paladins at 2000 points, I am thinking about keeping the mobility.  If I can win the maneuverability and shooting games, and do decently in hand to hand (and each model does have a force weapon), I think I should do pretty well.

1500 Point Tournament - Game 1

So, played in a 1500 point tournament this weekend.  I got second - I actually played the guy who won, and tied him - but he won the tie breaker (total overall VP) by 1.  Overall, I played 3 really good games.  I did not got with my Paladin list, because I didn't think I could make it work at 1500 points, so I went with:
Coteaz
5 Inquistor warbands (2 Jakero, 4 acolyte warriors (one unit had 3) and Chimera)
2 Dread Knights with Teleporters and 2 power fists
1 5 man purifier (2 Psycannons, 2 halberds)
Aegis defense line with Icarus Las Cannon

I didn't take pictures - First game was Purge the Alien with Hammer and Anvil, night fighting on turn 1 (and all games are 5 turns).
The Guy I played was orcs and chaos - he is the one who won the tournament, and the 2000 point tournament last month
He had:
unit of 15 lootas
an Ork with a big gun (don't remember the name, but he had to roll 2d6 str, and if he got doubles, bad stuff        
          happened.  That guy was in a unit of Grots
Karn and big unit of beserkers
Dark Aspostle and big unit of cultists.

He went first, but I stole the initiative.  I jumped both dread knights, flamed the cultists, and killed a lot of them, but they are fearless - I actually spent too much time on these guys I think, I should have burned them once, and then jump over and take out the lootas and grots.  Everything else in my army shot his 5 devastators, and killed them - giving me first blood and 2 KP

The Dread Knights did their job though, it reversed his whole momentum of his army.  He moved his berserkers toward the Dread Knights, I think his big gun killed 3 purifiers, and maybe put a wound of a dread knight.
Me - 2, Enemy - 0

Turn 2
I misplayed the dread knights here, I moved one toward the cultist, and 1 toward the Beserkers (I thought I would win a challenge against his lord).  I killed enough with the flamers that I needed a 9 inch charge for both units, and I failed both charges.
He fired on my dreads, and did some wounds on both of them, and then charged one of dreads with his beserkers.  I issued the challenge, and got slaughtered, I severely underestimated Kharn.
Me - 2, Enemy 1

Turn 3
I started moving up the chimeras up to his deployment zone.  I got up to his cultists, I figured, and lined up on his Apostilary - by now there were 3 cultists, so if I put myself out of charge range, it wouldn't matter, because there would be nothing to charge.  I flamed, and he LOS all of them (I think he should have took them with his 3+ save on the Apostilary, but instead I burned 5 more guys and then charged.  I won the challenge, and killed the Apostilary, but they made their save.
On his turn, he brought his beserkers over and helped out the cultists, killing the other Dread Knight.  His lootas and Ork boss pop a Chimera.
Me -3, Enemy - 3

Turn 4 - I can't see the cultist (he is blocking them with the Beserkers), so I moved right up to the ruins, and killed a few lootas.
He leaves left his beserkers screening the cultist, and had a really bad turn of shooting, failing to do anything major.

Turn 5 -
I know this is the last turn, and that it is close, so I unload everyone from the Chimeras (to make sure I get line breaker, and I flame his lootas. I have some bad shooting (I should have been able to move the lootas with 4 heavy flamers, and I did kill 5, bringing him to 8, and he rolled a 8 on his leadership - if I had killed 1 more...), he has some bad shooting, and fired everything in his army at 1 warband, but in the end his grots (who he hadn't bothered shooting the rest of the game) managed to kill the last 2 Jakero in a squad - The game ended 4-4.

I was really happy with the Dread Knights.  By the time he killed them, the rest of my Army was in his deployment zone, and his melee guys didn't have time to get across the board.  I should have killed the lootas, and maybe the grots (and the Boss with a gun, and then cleared the cultists - saving the 30 man fearless group for later).  The rest of my army did ok, but the Dreads definitely carried the Army.
Also, I learned that the Dreads are not instant character killers, I need to be more aware of the what initiative and AP I'll be facing.

Paladin Configuration

I am pretty happy with my list, but I am thinking that I can tweak my Paladin squad a little bit. I was looking for some feedback on a couple of ideas (all of the paladin configurations fill the same roll, but for reference, my base army is Draigo + Paladins (10 Paladins, 4 master crafted psycannons, apothecary), 2 GKSS (SGT with Halberd, 2 hammers, 2 psycannons, psybolt), and 2 Dread Knights (teleporters and Heavy incinerators).

I am thinking that 10 Paladins have been effective as they are but, since they are 1000 of my 2000 points, I want to give them a little more versatility.

I have come up with 4 ideas that will make them better, and maybe more versatile.

1. Drop a Paladin and master craft on psycannons. Use those points to buy a Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in terminator armor, with a psycannon, and psyker 1 (to give myself the reroll to hit power).
Gain - Same number of bodies, twin linked shooting, can still deep strike squad if I need to
Loss- 1 less psycannon, can't combat squad (not that I plan on it)

2. Drop Paladin and Master Craft on Psycannons, get coteaz
Gain: Get 2 psyker powers (1 will be re-roll to hit), ability to re-roll steal initiative, and "I've been
expecting you."
Loss: 2 Psycannons, can't combat squad, can't deep-strike

3. Drop Apothecary, master crafting on psycannons, and a hammer (from a GKSS), and get the same Ordo Mallues Inquisitor
Gain: 5 Psycannons (twin-linked), deep strike, combat squad
Loss: Feel no Pain

4. Drop Apothecary, master crafting on psycannons, and a hammer (from a GKSS), and get Coteaz
Gain:still have 4 Psycannons (Twin linked), can still combat squad, steal initiative, and "I've been expecting you."
Loss: No deep strike, no feel no pain.

I am thinking number 3 might be over-kill (I honestly haven't had a problem shooting things to death as is, but I am thinking that a psyker with divination will give me an anti-air boost).

I think all 5 of these configurations are pretty solid, and am looking for input from other people.

I guess, a 6th option, of I am considering Coteaz, is to take a normal inquisitor, without terminator armor.  A Ordo Inquisitor psyker (with 1 power) is 55 points.  If I don't buy terminator armor, I could buy psycotroke grenades and the plasma syphon, and still some points to upgrade weapons - although cool, not sure the grenades are worth it, since my Paladins haven't seen melee yet, although I haven't really played a melee centric army yet either.

GK vs IG - 2000 points

Using the same GK army as last battle report, I faced IG.  We rolled big guns never tire and vanguard, but since we had just played vanguard, and setting it up is such a hassle, we re-rolled and got short table edges.  This was a good test for my army, because I had a lot of distance to cover, against an army that severely out ranged me (a situation I struggled with when I played IG in 5th).

The IG had:
Bastion with quad gun
Company command squad (with astropath and the the one that subtracts 1 from my reserve roll), and las
    cannon and meltagun
2 Basilisks (1 squad)
2 Leman Russ - Str 10, AP 1 gun (not squaded)
3 squads of 2 Vendettas
1 Chimera with Vets (3 melta guns)
1 Squad of Vets with Las Cannon (probably melta, but they never got to shoot) - on the battlements
Marbo

There were 3 objectives, and he got to place 2 of them, so he placed one in each of his corners, and put a Leman Russ on 1, and his basilisks on the other.  I placed mine in a ruins that blocked line of site from his side of the board (so he would have to move some ground forces in to flush them out).  I put my other 3 combat squads in reserve, and  put my Paladins in the middle.

He had turn 1, and it was night fighting.  Using Grand Tactics, I a dread knight to some ruins for cover close to his basilisks, but I got too close to the edge of the ruins - so at least half of army could see me clearly.  Because he lined up so far back, and it was night, they only thing he could shoot at was the scouted DK.  It took 2 wounds.  On my turn, I moved up my Paladins (trying to hug some mid-field cover - which turned out to be a mistake the way I did it).  I used my 30" teleport on both DK, 1 toward the basilisk, one toward the LR on the objective (the other LR was behind the basilisk, next to the chimera).  Since I knew I wasn't going to be able to charge, I jumped toward the heavies, but also so that I was within 12 of the bastions.  2 Heavy Incinerators destroyed the quad gun, and killed all but 1 veteran, who failed his leadership and jumped off the battlement (and died).  Giving me first blood.
Score: GK 4 (1 objective + Fist Blood), IG 6 (2 objectives)

On turn 2 he brought all his guys in (his warlord roll gave him a re-roll for reserves, and he was coming in on 2+ because of the astropath).  His flyers all lined up on my Paladins, and Marbo landed right behind them.  My mistake in using cover, was that it was front cover, and Draigo was in the front, so the vedettas focused fire on the Paladins not in cover (which means I couldn't use Draigo's SS or Eternal warrior.  I made some good saves, and he rolled four 1's to wound out of 5 hits from 1 squadron, so I lost 4-5 Paladins.  He fired almost everything else he had into the dread knight threatening the basilisks, and killed it.

My Paladins moved up and fired at this flyers, but maybe glanced one. 2 of my strike squads came in, so I dropped 1 in the back to shoot Marbo, and 1 near the Basilisks, since I the DK had been killed, and I really wanted to knock them out (since it was the only thing that could push me off my objective without him moving ground forces in - and he didn't have enough ground forces to do that).  My surviving Dread Knight killed a Leman Russ.  I also moved Draigo, so that he was out of cover, and 2 Paladins into cover.  This was another mistake, because the 2 paladins in cover were closer to 4 of the vendettas than Draigo, and the 5+ cover was no better than their Invuln save anyway.
Score: GK 5 (+1 for killing a heavy), IG 4 (lost an objective, killed a heavy)

Turn 3 - He vendettas killed the 2 Paladins I put in cover, and put a few wounds on Draigo.  His Artillery hit my objective holders, and got 6 hits, but they went to ground, and only 3 of them died.  He killed my Strike Squad that was threatening the Basilisks, and everything that was left went after my dread, who took 2 more wounds.
My last strike squad failed to come in again.  My Dread knight jumped over and killed his other Leman Russ.  My Paladins moved up.  The SS that went after Marbo moved toward my objective - since I was not going to be able to shut down his artillery, I wanted some more bodies on it.
Score: GK 6 (+1 for killing another heavy), IG 4.

Turn 4.  He shot my Paladins down to 3, one of his vendetta squads fired on the SS going to support my objective (since I had to run across the open street, I had no cover, and lost 5 guys).  His artillery missed my 2 guys on the objective, both templates scattering more than 5 inches.  He got out of his Chimera to shoot at my Dread Knight, but some bad rolls and some good saves saw my DK survive with 1 wound still left. (He actually got out of the Chimera last turn, I think to get shots on my SS, so that they wouldn't get cover, but his Chimera still would).  He ran 2 of his vendetta squads into reserve.
I jumped my DK over to assault his Basilisk.  Since they are right up against the wall, he says I can't charge them, because they can't fit in base.  I am fine with that (although in retrospect, I think that if you can move through walls, you can assault through walls, if both the attacker and defender are within 1" of the wall), so I flame his veteran squad, and kill a lot of them, they break and run off the table.  My last SS comes in, and I gamble big, deep striking on the objective the LR had been covering.  I am Deep Striking into cover, between a wall (although I could have been on both sides of the wall) and a LR, and less than 4" from the table edge.  I get a hit, and then run - claiming the objective.  I also manage to glance one of the basilisks with my paladins, making it unable to shoot (since it can't snap shot a template weapon)
Score: GK 9 (+3 for Objective), IG 4.

Turn 5.  His vendetta squads come back on and kill Draigo, and 1 of my paladins.  His 1 artillery shot misses.  He finished off my Dread Knight.
I don't do anything significant, but we roll and the game ends.
Score GK 10 (+1 for line breaker), IG 6 (+2 for killing a heavy and a warlord)
This game was close, because had my deep strike gamble not paid off, we would have tied at 6.

Lessons.
This game reinforced the usefulness of jump pack on dread knight.  The ability to threaten things that can threaten my Paladins on turn 1 is very useful.  They are also durable enough to take a decent amount of fire, as long as I am moderately careful with placement.  The only problem with being there on turn 1, is that they are there alone.  I think they would be a nice compliment to Mordrak - but that would be a different army.

Paladins. When playing short edges, I might be better off deep striking these guys, although maybe not, as without their presence on the board, all of the vendetta would have fired on my DK, and probably had destroyed them, so even though they didn't do much, walking the long walk, they did make it so that my DK could do a lot.  I will have to think about it, and it will also depend on how the enemy sets up.

Strike Squad still doing fine.  Deep Striking, durable objective holders, that can do enough damage that they are dangerous to ignore.  What's not to like?

Turn 5 - Lone Paladin facing 4 Vendettas (the other 2 finished of the DK)

Strike Squad that won the game.  I deep striked onto the white triangle, and then ran to my current position.  We moved it, but the LR was just off the bottom of the picture.

GK vs Necron, 2000 points

Played a game against my normal Necron opponent.  It was 2000 points, Big Guns Never Tire, Vanguard Deployment.  This is the first time I have played Grey Knights since 6th edition, and I wanted to try Paladins (which I have never used before).  My list was:
Draigo
10 Paladins with Apothecary, 4 Master Crafted Psycannons, 3 hammers, 2 swords, every one else had a Halberd.
2 units of Strike Squads (10 Men) with 2 Psycannons, 2 Hammers, Justicar with Halberd and psybolt ammo
2 Dread Knights, with Teleporters and Heavy Incinerators.

The Necrons (from memory) had
Immotek
Necron Over Lord
6 Crypteks (4 with Abyssal Staffs, 2 with timestop?(lets you re-roll 1 die every phase)
3 units of warriors (I think 20, 10 and 10)
A Bastion with Quad Gun
2 Flyer Transports
2 Flyers with Death Ray
2 units of Death Marks

I combat squaded the Strike Squads, and put them in Deep Strike.  Necrons had a unit of 20 warriors, with the overlord, and a re-roll cryptek on the ground, and a unit of 10 troops with immotek on the battlements of the bastion.  (Later he remembered his other unit of troops and walked them onto the board).  He also had the Deathmarks in the flying transports, each squad with 2 crypteks with Abyssal Staffs)

I didn't take pictures of every turn; the first two pictures are the set up.

 I scouted my Paladins up (using my Grand Strategy).  It was dark automatically because of Immotek, and his shooting did not do any damage.  I charged up, and teleported both Dread Knights forward and flamed stuff - unfortunately, his overlords with the closest models to both dread knights, so while I got a total of 10 wounds, only 1 of them cleared the 2+ Armor Save.

Turn 2, still night - his lightning doesn't kill anything.  I knew what was coming, so I had spread out my Paladins.  Both of this transports come in, and they drop next to my paladins.  After marking my Paladins with the Deathmarks, he hits my Paladins with the Abyssal Staffs.  Previously, this move had decimated my death starts (Str 8, AP 1 template that targets leadership, but wounds on 2 because of death mark).  Because I was spread out, he got about 3 knights per template, so a total of 6 hits for each of the 2 units).  Draigo took 5 on his Storm Shield, and passed them all.  I lost 1 Paladin on the other side.  I was encouraged, since this could have been the death blow to my small army.
On my turn 2, I deep strike 3 of my combat squads in, which do some shooting, but don't make a huge impact.  My Paladins are set up to charge both units of death marks, but I shoot 1 squad, and obliterate it, so I can't charge.  I charged on of my dread knights into his unit of 20 Necons, and challenge, which he accepts with his overlord.  His cheering section let him re-roll a failed save, and neither of us inflict a would the first round of combat.

Turn 3.  His other death ray comes in, and I let him line up 4 paladins, 3 of which die because of instant death.  On the melee challenge, I inflict 3 wounds, and he fails 1, and the re-reroll.  This causes him to lose by 2, and he fails - and his 20 man warrior squad runs of the table.  My other Dread attacked the Bastion, although I am not sure why I bothered (failed to damage it anyway).  My other combat squad drops in, and hits his transport twice - once with rending, he decides to evade.  My Paladins shoot his other death marks to death.

Turn 4, He comes out of the tower with immotek and warriors, and flys 3 of his flyers off the board (they were out of targets on that side of the board.

I move my dread knight to intercept those coming out of the tower. Between the shooting of a heavy incinerator and the squad that dropped into his corner, I killed 5 warrior before immotek could start blocking
bullets, but Immotecks squad broke, and carried him with them off the board.

Turn 5, nothing special, some shooting, his last squad took the last wound of my dread knight.  I tried to move my SS pictured above to the objective in those ruins, but couldn't make it.  In the end, I had 2 objectives, first blood, warlord, 1 killed heavy and line breaker.  He had 1 objective, kill the warlord, 2 killed heavies.

This might be hard to follow, because I was really tired when I wrote most of it, and it was 2 days later, so I may not have accounted for every death, but the general idea is there.

As far as what learned:
Draigo is a machine, and the Paladins are a rock.  I was worried about putting so many points into one unit, but they took a lot of punishment, and put out so much fire power that they can't be ignored.  I was a little concerned about their lack of speed, but when playing long table edges, giving them scout lets them start shooting on turn 1 (and their shooting was devastating).  I could't test their melee, because they shot everything off the board before charging (this makes me think that maybe I could lower the squad size, and take some more support, but not yet)

The Dread Knights.  I have 3, so I seriously considered taking all 3, and leaving off the Personal Teleporters.   I think for now I am going to keep them.  Being able to get way into enemy deployment zone on turn 1 is great.  I was able to provide threats to take pressure off my Paladins.  Also, when my Strike Squads came in deep, a lot of his shooting resources were tied up (Although this didn't stop him from using his 4 flyers to take out almost 2 squads.  The dreads were my primary anti-tank (rending psycannons is the back up), but based on my attacks on the building, I am still going to struggle with land raiders and other 14 all around vehicles.

The Strike Squads.  I can't really complain.  They took out 1 flyer, they held 2 objectives, and helped shoot a unit off the board.  Being able to deep strike is great.  In 5 man squads, they have decent firepower (especially with psybolt ammo), but they are still marines, and 5 of them get shot up pretty badly in the open.

Expansion of Blog, not a Betrayal

Before this blog, before 6th edition, I had started a Grey Knights Blog.  I had been playing 40k for 3-4 years, and when Grey Knights came out, I loved the idea of Space Paladins, I also love the Inquisition and how, in in effort to protect humanity from monsters, are very close to being monsters themselves.

I had bought boxes and boxes of Grey Knights, it was going to be my first army that I built from scratch - no ebay, not pre-painted models, etc.  I was going to do everything exactly how I wanted.  That didn't work out perfectly, but I did enjoy playing Grey Knights.  So why did I make a Blood Angel blog instead?

When 6th came out, the reason I picked BA over Grey Knights for my 6th edition blog was because of this: http://descentofangel.blogspot.com/2012/08/come-long-way.html 

I Also just like Blood Angels, the first 40K book I read was about Blood Angels, and it was awesome (I don't remember the name, but it was the one where Chaos makes a Blood Angel think he is The Sanguinary reborn, and starts a civil war within the chapter.  As you can see, I had a lot more models that could be converted to Blood Angels than I did for Grey Knights.  At the last tournament, I found out that my local area now has 2-3 other BA characters, and no Grey Knights, so I am going to break my Grey Knights back out.

I am excited, because they are still all unpainted, and I am going to try some new things, like dry brushing and washing.

That being said, I am still going to collect, write about, and use Blood Angels also, but I am going to start including Grey Knights in my blog.  I will also likely eventually include Chaos and Eldar, as I have some of each of those as well.

After the Tournament

Well, I took the Army from the last post to the local 2000+ Purge the Alien tournament.  I got 4th (out of 9) place.  I didn't take pictures, and I'm not going to do any battle reports, but I wanted to post some thoughts and lessons learned.

The list rocked against slow armies.  All foot armies (which is what I expected to face) got torn apart.  Against fast armies, there were 2 major weaknesses:

1. Lack of counter charge - in several games, I didn't lose any vehicles to shooting, but they (everything except the land raiders) got torn apart in hand to hand, and even using blocking, and channeling terrain very proficiently, I couldn't stop some armies from getting to me on turn 2.

2. Range - Knowing I was going to be weak against melee, I was happy to see 2 of the missions with long table edges.  The problem was that I didn't have the range to take advantage of the extra distance - I still had to line up right on the edge of deployment zone to be able to shoot (the one time I didn't, I lost a land raider to a lucky las cannon shot that I was playing catch up the whole game - I didn't).  Granted, my opponent rolled more than his share of 6s, but the effectiveness of his cyclone missile launchers is making me eye my tactical marines again (they did as much damage to my land raider as my las cannons did to his land raider).

So, the Leman Russes did very well, but not well enough to stop hard, fast units from getting to me.  The executioner was an all-star however, in every game.  I don't know if I am going to keep them, because I feel I need more range, but the battle cannons are only AP 3 (which defeats the reason I took them LR in the first place).  Also, they NEED some strong melee unit nearby, although even then, there are so many ways to get melta and and power fists really close, really fast (Drop Pods, demolition packs dropping out of vendettas, bikes, etc).

Thoughts on Purge the Alien List - 2000

So, I was thinking about the my most recent game, where I was practicing for the 2k (1999+1) purge the alien list.  I had trouble against who I thought was going to be my biggest competition, and we discussed our lists, and what we expected other people to bring.  I had 3 ideas, that a lot of my strategy was based on:
1.  Since I was taking assault flyers (Storm Ravens), I would get the charge, and my assault unit would be protected until that happened.
2.  My Storm Ravens would take out any big threats (Land Raiders, Las Plas, Etc), and then I would be able to focus those MM and AC on enemy Terminator Types
3. My DC with 3 power axes would cut through any Terminators, and my DC Dreads would take care of any Marine Types.

Well, even though I got to go second, his flyers didn't come in until turn 4, which means I couldn't stay embarked.  I had to Skies of Blood everything, to make sure they didn't die if the enemy air came in and blew my out of the sky.  This means I didn't get the charge, and I got shot up a lot before getting charged.

2 Multi Meltas is not enough to guarantee a Land Raider kill in 1 turn (or 3 turns apparently), which means I need another way to deal with terminators (although in hind site, 2 MM is only going to take out 2 Termies a turn, so I am really depending on my DC)

If my DC does not get the charge, they are not going to crush terminators, especially if those terminators have storm shields. (I would win against 5 termies on the charge, in 3 rounds of combat, but they I would be combat ineffective.)

The two people I am most concerned about in the upcoming tournament (of the 5 who showed up last month) are going to play DA with IG, and Space Wolves (probably with IG).  Since both of these people used to be in my normal play group, I have a pretty good idea what to expect.  The DA is going to bring a list similar to what he did - 3 Terminator squads (2 claws and 3 hammer+shields), at least 2 vendettas, probably a Land Raider.  The rest is up the in the air.  The Space Wolf is probably going to bring a big Wolf Cavalry unit, probably with a lot of Storm Shields.

So, if I can't count on going second, and getting first shots at enemy flyers, then I can't leave my stuff in the Storm Ravens, and if I have to eject from Storm Raven, I can't guarantee first charge, which means my DC won't crush terminators.  I am going to be facing storm shields.  To face Storm Shields, I really need weight of fire, but I don't want an all infantry army, especially since the game is going to be purge the alien.  Against terminators or Cavalry with Storm Shields (which at least 3 of the armies will bring - Chaos has a unit too), Mephiston and DC dreads are not going to pull their weight.

So for fun, I am thinking of the following list.  This is not set in stone, if Storm Ravens can't guarantee me the charge, then I can get 2 Vendettas for the same price as 1 Storm Raven, and actually gain some fire power.  If I am not taking the Storm Ravens, I am not taking the DC Dread (because I don't see them successfully running across the board.):

Unit 1: Land Raider with Librarian (Shield of Sanguinas power - +5 Cover save within 6") and 5 Assault Marines.

Unit 2: Land Raider with TL MM and 5 Assault Marines

Unit 3: Vindicator Tank

Unit 4-5: Whirl Winds 

Unit 6: 2 Vendettas (1 with Company Command Squad, 1 with veterans)

Unit 7: 2 Leman Russ Demolishers and 1 Leman Russ Executioner (with plasma cannon sponsons)

That's 12 kill points that are largely immune to small arms fire, and puts out
1 TL MM shot
10 TL Las Cannon shots
6 Heavy Bolter Shots
3 Str 10 AP 1 Large Templates
2 Str 5, AP 4 Large Templates
7 Str 7, AP 2 Small Templates.

The trick would be maneuvering to keep the front armor 14 facing the the biggest threats, while staying in the 6" cover bubble, without losing any shots.  I think this list is tough, and has fire power that is equally effective against terminators, marines and hordes, with enough big hits that even 3++ will be scared.  The weaknesses are that they will be susceptible to blast weapons (bunched up for mutual cover).  The Land Raiders are the only things that can't move and fire everything at full ballistic skill, but they are probably going to have to move the most, to make sure their armor 14 is protecting the soft sides of everything else.

Just a thought I'm kicking around.  I know vehicles aren't as durable as they used to be, but I don't feel that really applies to Armor 14.  

2000 Dark Angels v Blood Angels

So I played Lord High Commander (LHC) from my follower list (the only one there right now :) ).  We both plan on going to the 2000 Purge the Alien Tournament at the end of the month, so we decided to test our new armies against each other.

I had:

Mephiston and DC Dread in a Storm Raven

10 man DC (with 3 axes) and DC Dread in Storm Raven

2 Land Raiders (with MM), and 2 10-men assault squads

He had:

Belial

3 squads of 5 Terminators

1 Dev Squad (2 ML, 2 LC)

1 Vet Squad (with 3 plasma guns)

1 Company Command Squad with autocannon an Master of the Ordinance.

1 Land Raider.

I won the roll, and had him go first, and did not try to steal initiative.

Set Up

He placed the Dev Squad in the ruins on the far right, a Land Raider with a Terminator Squad, a Terminator Squad in the ruins, the Company Command Squad is in the building like ruins, and then a Vet Squad on the far left in a Crater.  I put my 2 Land Raiders behind the rock, to give my cover from most of his AT firepower.

After bottom of 1st (After my move phase)

 Turn 1 - DA.  The rock shielded my Land Raiders against most of his fire.  He got 1 shot from a Dev Las Cannon, 1 shot from LR Las Cannon, and 1 hit with his Master of Ord (but no penetrating hits).  I started mt trend of 1's and 2's.  I fired all Land Raider shots into the Command Squad, and got a hit with 2 Las Cannons, 1 MM, and 3 Heavy bolters, and the command squad made its 2 cover saves (because I rolled a 1 to hit with the MM and both Las Cannons, and one of the HB shots).  I do move my LR back a little, to give it more cover from the flanks.

Bottom of Turn 2 (after my move phase)

Turn 2 - DA.  He fails all of his reserve rolls (which kind of defeated my plan to go second, because I didn't want 6 TL-Las Cannons downing my flyer.  He fired some stuff at my Land Raiders, and missed with Master of the Ordinance.  Only 1 of my Storm Ravens came in and, not wanting to take a chance on the Vendettas coming in, I dropped off the DC and the Dread with Skies of Blood (both with minimal scatter, since I could only roll ones, which is what I rolled and re-rolled for the TL-Melta from the Storm Raven to the Land Raider.  I shoot some everything else into the Dev Squad, and kill a missile launcher.

Top of Turn 3, after his movement phase

Turn 3 - DA.  Belial came in, but his Vedettas still didn't come in.  Belial's unit kills a DC, and the Land Raider gets a LC shot off, and explodes the DC Dread, which clears the way for the Terminators to charge the DC.  The DC did OK, killing 2 Terminators, but without the charge, they are not the terminator killers I wanted them to me (additionally all my math-hammering didn't account for Storm Shields, which have me thinking that I am going to have to do something different, because I don't have the weight of fire to force lots of saves, so I either need to make each shot count, or... I don't know, because I don't want to redo my whole army.)  My 2nd Storm Raven comes in, and rolls a 2 and 1 for the MM shot, my other SR hovers, and rolls a 2 and a 2 on the MM shot.  (I decide to take a chance, and not Skies of Blood this time).

Bottom of Turn 3, After my Move

Turn 4 - DA.  His Vendettas come in and blow up a Storm Raven.  Mephiston takes a wound, and the DC Dread gets immobilized (which leaves it destroyed - wasn't going to rock against the Terminators anyway.  The Death Company gets finished off, and the Terminators consolidate toward my Land Raiders, and the other 2 squads of Terminators move toward the hovering Storm Raven.  My MM finally hits the Land Raider, but rolls a 1 and 3 for penetration.  Mephiston jumps behind the Land Raider, and finally kills the Land Raider (too little too late, but it gives me my first kill point).  My Land Raider shoots into the Company Command Squad, and cause them to run off the table.

End of his Turn 5

 Turn 5 - DA.  He charges the Land Raider and the Storm Raven.  The Storm Raven goes down, and the Land Raider takes a few glancing blows.  I unload both of my land raiders, and they each kill a squad of veterans (I forgot in turn 4, he used his grav shoot to drop off some veterans to shoot at my Storm Ravens, but he missed with all of them).  

Turn 6 - DA.  Belail and his squad charge.  He accepts the challenge with his SGT, and my SGT is the only one who survived (Belail killed everyone else).  He ran, and they terminators couldn't follow.  In the end, I had line-breaker, but lost like 6 to 9, but it was never very close.

Thoughts - I thought about Terminators when making this list, but not Storm Shields.  It would take a radical change to create a weight of fire, but how many plasma shots is it going to take to overcome storm shields?  Even in melee, they are going to be hard to kill.  Maybe adding resilience to my own units instead....

NEW FAQ

The new FAQ is out for 6th edition - one of which effects my list for the better.

Q: Do units that are transported in a vehicle that MUST start in
reserve count towards the number of units that can be placed in
Reserves? For example, must I count the units in a Drop Pod or
Valkyrie towards the 50% of units I can place in Reserves? (p124)
A: No.

Valkyries are the same as Storm Ravens, in terms of not being dedicated transports.  This means that anything in the Storm Raven does not have to "balanced" by something on the board, which means I do not have to combat squad my ASM in Purge the Alien Games (but I still can for scoring games).

It also looks like the removed the "character" rule from Paladins and Nobs, unless they are the leader of a unit (so no more crazy wound allocation)

The also further clarified the rule for multi-saves, making it more clear that the wounds have to allocated when assigned, which is after the save in same save units, and before the save in different save units (pretty much how everyone was playing it anyway).

2000 BA / Purge the Alien

So, I've given some thought to my recent losses.  Since I am again building / updating for the 2000 purge the alien tournament, I had 4 goals when designing this list
1. Low kill points - goal around 10
2. Able to kill, and kill fast
3. Make a list that only BA could make
4. Make a list that would have a chance against either of the armies that recently crushed me (AP 2-3 template shooting tanks and instant death necron flyers.

Since, as I have already said, nothing I bring, even Corbula, would survive the onslaught of STR 8, AP 1-3 weapons I faced, I have to put my troops vehicles.  What can BA do that no one else can?  Take Land Raiders as Dedicated Transports, so I take 2 of these, loaded with naked assault marines.

This gives me two hard, long range units (the terminators in last tourny list were tough, but still fell to lucky small arms fire, ambush plasma units, and AP weapons.  I don't need troops for Purge the alien, but I am going to combat squad each of these units, so if I do want to put them on an objective, they will alive when they get there.  (I realize that Combat squading is not great for Purge, but since dedicated transports and their units count as 1 unit, I needed to split the squads so that I have 4 units on the table, so that the rest of my army can come in on reserve.

My DC and 2 DC dread rocked last time, so I am going to take them again.  The Stormravens did well, so I am keeping them.  The assault terminators did well too, but I needed extra points for the land raiders, so I didn't have enough points left for an assault termie squad and a HQ, if only I had a HQ unit that could cut through marines as easily as a terminator squad...enter Mephiston.  As a side bonus, this knocks off a kill point, which is good, because the combat squads and the transports are actually raising my number of kill points.

Still, if I could find 2 more units that cost a total of 180 points and are more survivable / killable than the 10 extra assault marines, I would take it (although I still won't be able to get my KP below 12 as long as I have dedicated transports)

So that is
Mephisto + DC Dread in a Storm Raven
10 DC with 3 axes and a DC Dread in a Storm Raven
1 Squad of ASM in a Landraider (Combat Squaded)
1 Squad of ASM in a Landrainder (Combat Squaded)

2000 BA vs Necrons

Same opponent, but this time his necron army.  I took the same list, but dropped 1 extra marine from each dev squad, to buy my sternguard a drop pod (I didn't bring my drop pod, and my opponent didn't have one, so the part of the drop pod will be played by a cherry pepsi can (the only reason I had the extra marines were to add resiliency in purge the alien).

The Necros had 

Imotekh

1 Necron Overlord

10 crypek

2 5-man deathmarks

1 18 -man warrior squad

2 5-man warrior squads

2 Night Scythes (for the deathmarks)

2 doom scythes

1 Bastion with a quad gun

Turn 1

Necron - it is night fighting because of Imotekh, and his lightning hits one squad, but they make all of their armor saves.

 

BA - My drop Pod comes down, with the combat squaded sternguard in.  They land right next to the bastion, and I fail all of my armor saves (he used to intercept quad gun to kill 3 sterngaurd from one of the squads, including both of that squads combi-meltas.  My other meltas did the job though, and collapsed the building.  This is probably one of my biggest mistakes in the game.  I was used to the IG tower pounding my with las cannons, but there was a 5 man squad on top of the bastion, and no one inside.  I should have ignored the tower and concentrated on the troops.

Turn 2 - this is the first picture, as I forgot to take a picture of the set up, although not much moved.  I left a squad on each objective, and then tried to march the other 2 over the contest or claim another objective.  Maybe I am playing too bold, I am definitely playing too bold for this list.

Necrons - His Doom Scythe flies over to the las cannon and pretty much wipes out that squad - since I wasn't right up against the wall, I didn't really have cover from that high up and that close.  I did get a hit first, and a penetrating hit, but I only shook him, which he shrugged off with his living armor.  He dropped off a deathmark squad, and marked the full Combat squad of sterngaurd, and then his 2 abyssal staffs  fried all of them.

BA - Marched across the board.  Didn't have a focused plan really, except to hold my objectives and march over and take him off of his.  I thought I had enough shooting to do it - night fighting kept me from bringing a lot of that power to bear though, and lots of area cover.  My assault squad dropped down near his objective with 5 guys and Imotekh.

 

End of Turn 2

 Turn 3
Necron - Another Doom Scythe comes and kills some stuff, some more death-marks drop down and melt  stuff (with 2 more Abyssal Staffs).  He shot at, and then assaulted the assault marines with his 5 man squad, + Imotekh and 2 crypteks, and I win by 1 (this was my chance to win - right on his edge of the board, if they would have broke, I would have had warlord and another objective.

BA - This time I lose the melee by one, and I break and run.

Turn 4 -
Necron - He shoots my assault squad to pieces with his abyssal staffs, and removes my last chance to contest.   His fliers tear up stuff (as long as the fact that I something like 8 failed armor saves in a row, but that isn't why I lost, it just caused me to lose faster.

BA - He has first blood and warlord (we decided the building didn't count for first blood, since it is technically terrain).  Night fighting finally ends, but I don't have enough firepower to push past the cover saves and kill him.

Turn 5 - His night scythe and doomscythe kill one of my objective holding tactical squads, and I surrender.

Thoughts - Again, I got crushed.  Again, I think I might just have too many scoring units, because mine are being wiped off the board faster than I can wipe his off the board (and he has a lot fewer than me).  While I made some mistakes in the game, I think my problem started in list building.  The things that killed me (doom scythes, Demolishers, abyssal staffs, are all STR 8+, AP 1, so they would have torn through terminators, FNP, and anything else, so I am not sure.  If I can't generate more fire power, and I can't be more resilient (enough), then maybe I can control the maneuver area (and control where the enemy can apply his firepower).  My opponent asked what about my list made Blood Angels better than Ultra Marines, and it was a good question.  I could have built this exact list with the Ultra Marine Codex (the devs would have cost a little more, but I could have paid from them by not taking the extra bodies).  The point is, by using the blood angel codex, I am giving up options from the vanilla codex, so I if I am not getting something in exchange for those sacrifices, that I am not doing it right.  It's too late right now to really explore my options, but I will be going back to the drawing board to find the balance between troops and awesome killing power.

2000 BA vs IG

So, played 2000 points against IG.  I was experimenting with a list to beat my last tournament list (because I expect a lot of lists to be similar to it next month).  I thought lots of troops, with lots of plasma cannons would rock anything, and having lots of scoring units would be a bonus - this was not the case today.

BA:
2 Tactical Squads with Plasma Cannon and Plasma Guns
2 Tactical Squads with Multi Melta and Flamer
1 Jump Squad with 2 Flamers
1 Sterngaurd with 4 combi melta and 2 Plasma Cannons
2 squads of Devs with missile launchers and 3 extra guys
1 squad of las cannon devs with 3 extra guys
an Aegis Defense Line with icarus las cannon (manned by las cannon squad and librarian)
IG
2 Basilisks in Squads
2 LR Demolishers
1 Chimera with Vets and a las cannon
1 Bastion with vets on top (with las cannon) and company command squad with reserve guy insude
3 squads of 2 vendettas.

Set Up

Game Relic - Vanguard Set Up : The LR are behind the bastion, the Basilisks are in the crater in the back corner. We decided after the set up, that I my pieces should all be connected, which is why it changes in future pictures.

Turn 1
BA was night fighting - I glanced the building with 2 las cannons

IG - I was out of range of everything except the Basilisk, which killed most of a tactical squad (I went to ground with them, but still lost 7)

End of My Turn 2

Turn 2
BA - I moved everything toward the relic.  I had a lot of anti tank, but not a lot of armor 14 anti tank.  I was counting on the las cannons, which didn't have much of a shot, and the 2 MM in the squads, which had to march close to use it.  I forgot to roll for my reserves, so assault squad stays.  Since I knew I didn't have the AT I needed, my plan was to rush the objective, and drag it back to where I had cover, and where his tanks had to come to me.  I hit the tower hard with the las cannon, and kill all but 3 of the command squad.

IG - His 3 units of flyers come in - he only needed a 2+ because of the command squad guy.  I didn't take a picture of it, but almost everyone of my squads was "gone to ground."  I thought I'd just wait for the planes to pass, so I was going to sacrifice a turn (it didn't work, because the planes managed to stay on several turns).  My Las Cannon hit a Vendetta, and took off one of his weapons.

Start of his turn 2

End of My Turn 2

 Turn 3
BA - Still trying to grab the relic and drag it back, but 2 basilisks that ignore cover and armor, and 2 Demolishers are tearing me up.  I roll for my Assault troops, but roll a 1, and then roll 1 again for DoA.

IG - Continue pounding me.  It occurs to me by now that my tactic isn't going to work, but I need to get close to use my anti tank anyway, so either way I have to push the middle, or just hide and go for the tie, but where is the fun in that?

Turn 4
BA - Jump marines come in - they are armed with flamers, because I thought I had enough AT, and wanted to beef up my anti-horde.  They hid the ground and run, getting as close as possible to the LR (I have the krak grenades, and am hoping that I am too close for him to shoot - I know his weapons don't have minimum range, but I was hoping that some templates would scatter into his own forces, or that he would have to move too car to shoot his ordinance weapons)

IG - My plan failed, and he slaughtered the assault marines, giving him first blood.

End of my Turn 4

The Assault Squad, right before it is "demolished"

 Turn 5
BA - This whole report, I listed my turn first, but I realize now that I went second, so everything is skewed by half a turn.  He blew most of the rest of guys off the board, I had 1 tactical squad make a run for the objective, but they were too far away.

Turn 6 - We got a turn 6, but I tried to run my squad, and then ran, and was still 6 inches away from the objective - so there was no way to pick it up, and I was down first blood and warlord, so we ended it.

End of game, my final tactical squad was alive, but i removed them before I was reminded to take a picture

Thoughts on the game.  Well, I made the list thinking lots of troops with heavy weapons would be enough.  I moved away from my tournament because it had no scoring units (I thought about running it anyway, and just making sure I won on secondaries, after killing all enemy troops, but decided that would too bold).  Obviously the more troops you have, the more firepower you lose, but I haven't found the balance yet.  My opponent from this game usually takes 2, but he plays to not lose more than to win (although he won this game without ever holding an objective - he did try to move for the objective on turn 4, after most of my stuff was gone, but he got immobilized on his cover)

Brother Corbulo

So, I have use Brother Corbulo for a few games, and  I have a few thoughts.  Brother Corbulo is worth the points, as long as you use him correctly.  Although he is a decent character for challenges, as long as he is not against a PF type weapon, he main strength is keeping other units alive.  In a recent tournament,  Corbulo absorbed 12 plasma wounds that would have otherwise went into a terminator squad (so 5 termies died, instead of all 10).

Cost -
     While he is worth the points, especially when keeping strong units alive, remember that he is adding 105 points, and a kill point to that unit, so if you are not careful you will be putting more eggs into the same basket.

Mobility -
     He has no inherent mobility, so you are going to either want to put him in a vehicle, or put him with a unit strong enough to survive on foot (like terminators).  If he is going to spend more than 2 turns in a vehicle, you are probably better off with a cheaper Sanguinary Priest - if you are not using his 2+ FNP, you are wasting 55 points.  While I have used him successfully with terminators, another good use for him would probably be with a group of Sterngaurd, in a turn 1 Drop Pod assault.  He will significantly prolong the life of the Sterngard unit, as long as you can position him right.

Positioning -
     The hardest part about getting you point's worth from Corbulo is positioning.  Up close, it is easy to make sure he is the closest model to the enemy, but from across the board, it is very difficult, especially if your unit is trying to get cover from a wall (while not giving the enemy a cover save from the same wall).  If he is the closest to the enemy's middle, he probably won't be the closest to shots coming from the table edges.  One way to deal with this is to put the unit close to a table edge, to limit which directions shots can come from (so it is easier to block those directions, although this also limits your unit's threat radius). 
     With terminators, you have another option, which I discovered accidentally.  A unit with 10 terminators and Corbulo is probably a safe place to put your warlord.  This unit would have 3 characters (counting the SGT), so the idea is to position Corbulo where the firepower is most likely to come from, and place your warlord and SGT so that they would be the closest target from other directions - this will allow them to bounce wounds to Corbulo from 2 additional directions (as long as they stay withing 6").

2000 BA vs DA + IG

So, this was the 3rd, and final game of the tournament Saturday.  Again, I didn't have any pictures, so I am using Vassal to illustrate.  Like all of the games at the tournament, it was 2000 points purge the alien.  I won the roll, but I didn't see anything that was a serious long range threat to me, so I let him go first (to get the drop on his Valkyrie).  This is from memory, and the game was pretty short, so the score and the order of events might be slightly off, and the pictures might not sync completely with the text (because I did the story and the pictures separately)

My list is the same as the last one:
Stormraven with Assault Termies and DC Dread
Stormraven with 10 DC (7 bolters, 3 axes + pistols) and DC Dread
1 Whirlwind
An Epistolary Librarian, 10 Terminators (with 2 CML) and Corbulo.

DA + IG List:
3 DA Tactical Squads (MM and plasma?)
1 Devastator Squad (3 Missile launchers and 1 las cannon)
Logan with 5 terminators

IG Allies:
Marbo
Valkyrie
Company Command Squad
Platoon Command Squad
30 Man Infantry Blob (With, I think, 3 autocannons)

Set Up

Turn 1 - Even though it was night fighting, he had some terrible rolls, so the whirlwind and the CML from my terminators killed 7 of 10 of the closest tactical squad, including the MM.  His devastators managed to kill 1 terminator.

Score:  BA - 0 / DA - 0
_________________________________________________________________________________

End of Turn 1

Turn 2 DA - Marbo comes in behind my Whirlwind, and scores a hit with his det charge, but rolls 1 and a 2, so he only gets a glancing blow.  (Marbo would have probably done alot more damage to my terminators, but he was going for first blood.  Also, my terminator squad, with librarian and corbulo really didn't do anything this game - besides killing Marbo, so it probably wouldn't have mattered).  His death wing fails to come in, but his Valkyrie comes in.


Turn 2 BA - Both Stormravens come in, one flyies up to his Valkyrie and wrecks it with the MM;  Seven of the 10 IG burn up in the crash.
The other Stormraven, loaded with DC, comes on near his devastator team (I figured "bring it down" and 3 autocannons was more of a threat that a marine Devastator Squad).
I also move my librarian to the end of my terminator squad, thinking about breaking him off to kill Marbo next turn.  I move my Whirlwind, so that Marbo doesn't auto hit it, and shoot at Company Command Squad.

Score: BA - 2 (Inc First Blood) / DA - 0
_________________________________________________________________________________

Turn 2 

Turn 3 DA - Marbo killed the Whirlwind with a melta bomb.  His terminators fail their reserve roll again.  He shoots some stuff, including a melta at my stormraven, but fails to damage it.

Turn 3 BA - Not wanting to mess up any of my charges, I decide that my entire terminator squad has nothing better to shoot at than Marbo, so I leave the Librarian with the squad, and gun him down.  One DC Dread finishes off the Valkyrie passengers, and the assault terminators attack a squad of tacticals (he was moving them toward the Stormraven to shoot it, and to support the terminators that failed to arrive).  My other DC Dread killed the devastator squad, and my DC assaulted the remaining tactical squad.  My Terminators kill 1 of the tacticals in the squad of 3, and they break again and run off the board.

Score: BA - 5 / DA - 1
_________________________________________________________________________________

Turn 3

Turn 4 DA - His terminators try to come down near my assault terminators, in order to support the tactical squad, but a teleporting mishap places them behind the wall over by the IG blog.  At this point, he has lost the game, as it is very unlikely that they will get into the action before the end of the game.  Some melee plays out, both of his remaining tactical squads break and run.

Turn 4 BA - I assault his tactical squads again, killing both of them.  The DC dread that killed the Valkyrie crew assaults the IG blog, and kills several of them, and I believe they fled of the board.

Score: BA - 8 / DA - 1
_________________________________________________________________________________

Turn 4

Turn 5 - His terminators roll a 2 for difficult terrain, so they don't get anywhere, and I finish up the assaults (if any were still going)

He decides there is no need to roll for a 6th turn, and concedes the game.

Final Score:  BA - 8 / DA -1

_________________________________________________________________________________

End of Game