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.

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.

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)