Yet another sunday morning grey knights list

So here is another go after talking to a few people at yesterdays first company vets Doubles (which was an excellent event even though the turn out was a little low, I acted as a reserve and ended up playing 2 games both of which were enjoyable even though our list was poor because we made it without knowing what each other was taking) and Darren.

So
HQ - Ordo Xenos Inquisitor
Psyker mastery 1
Rad and Psychotroke grenades
3 Servo Skulls

Elites
1 x Vindicaire
2 x Purifier squads with 7 men, 2 Psycannons 4 Halberds and a Daemon Hammer. One of them has psybolt ammo because I don't know what to use 20 extra points on. Both have mastercrafted weapons because again I don't know what to use the last of my points on. The are obviously running about in Rhinos.

Troops
4 x Strike Squads (5 man) a psycannon 2 Halbards and a Daemon hammer in each. Cruising in razorbacks with psybolt ammo.

Heavy support
Honestly what do you expect?
3 Psyfleman dreads

That takes me to 1749 points
4 scoring units
2 heavy hitting close combat units that can deal equally with MEQ using Hammerhand (especially when coupled with the Inquisitors grenades, hitting on 4's wounding on 2's) and hordes with their cleansing flame.
12 twinlinked strength 8 shots
12 twinlinked strength 6 shots
4 psycannons with the strike squads
4 psycannons with the purifiers
and a vindicaire

Now the big problem I see with this list is lack of dealing with heavy AP however I am led to believe that a psycannon is statistically more likely to damage a land raider than a lascannon, I haven't worked out the maths so I cannot be sure and I also have the vindicaire.

So as normal I welcome your input on this list especially with what to do with the points in the red sections.

... and now for something completely different!

I may have mentioned that I'm starting up a Blood Bowl team to take part in the club's League. I've really got the bug and after taking a bit of a stuffing in my first game I was hooked. The dice looked more favourably on me in game 2 with a narrow loss against our very own Baron's Dwarves, but my Orcs put in a much more bashy performance consigning 3 of the little stunties to the seriously injured bin. Hopefully I'll be getting more games in over the next few weeks and in order to ensure that I look my best I've converted up some players (one notable exception, see if you can spot him!):


Black Orcs


Blitzers


Linemen and Thrower


Re-Rolls and Score Counter

BotCh Day 2 and Lessons Learned

After day 1, I was not hopeful for a significant improvement on day 2 but it was a beautiful morning and I'd had a very good game of Blood Bowl against Darren the night before so I was still feeling a little upbeat. So I jumped gamely into my car determined to give it the good old “college” try.

Game 5 vs. Tau
Spearhead/Seize Ground (5 objectives)

Commander in Crisis Suit w. Positional Relay, Ethereal, 3x Crisis Suit Squads (3) Shield Drones, 3x Fire Warrior Squads (8) w. Devilfish, Kroot Squad (10), 2x Broadsides (2) Shield Drones, Hammerhead w. Railgun.

I'm not totally sure about all the options he took but this is pretty much all of the models he had.

Getting 1st Turn was pretty key for me knowing the Railguns would make mincemeat of my vehicles and the Land Raider in particular I managed to get my guys as far across the table as possible. I was also deep striking my Sang Guard so I could get them close and expose them to as little AP1 and AP2 weaponry as possible. Basically the plan went as described and my scoring elements were able to weather the incoming firepower which was reduced by the amount of shots he directed at the de-meched Termies and the deep striking Sanguinary Guard. While both of my assault units were whittled down in the onslaught they both managed to make contact and do their thing against a notoriously poor combat army.

However because of the positional relay the game had a sting in it's tail with two Devilfish loaded with Fire Warriors and the Kroot making an appearance on turn 5. Fortunately the game went 7 turns or I would have been in real danger of only managing a draw. As it was I was able to take out the last vehicles and squads contesting objectives to win 3-0

Game 6 vs. Blood Angels
Dawn of War/Annihilation

Librarian w. Jump Pack, Terminator Assault Squad (5) 2x THSS, 3x LC in Land Raider Redeemer w. Extra Armour & Multi Melta, Sanguinary Priest (2) 1x Jump Pack, Furioso Dreadnought w. Blood Talons and Extra Armour in Drop Pod, 3x Assault Squad (1) 2x Meltagun & Power Fist, Vanguard Vet Sqaud (10) 4x Power Weapon 1x Power Fist, 2x Storm Shield.

I know I made mistakes here, huge ones that really cost me the game. I castled up in cover in the back right corner of my table edge behind some heavy cover trying to get the best cover for my uinits. This made no difference of course because he was deep striking everything and now I could quite easily become cornered while his Terminators arrived. I also decided to get my Terminators out of my “Land Raider” to wrap round it, to what end I have no idea because all it did was give his Vanguard Vets something to Heroic Intervention against and typically I failed three out of four 3++ saves and another 2+ basically removing them as a threat. Really don't know what I was thinking there, total “brain-fart”. Fortunately my Land Raider survived the initial Melta onslaught and could make good use of it's Flamestorm Cannons on the nicely clumped up Assault Squads. However because I was so pinned in by the terrain and the Vanguard combat I could only really get one squad in my sights.

On the right flank my opponent's Terminator squad was easing it's way though Razorbacks and Assault Squads and I was haemorrhaging Kill Points. We got to a point where I could not come back, my Sanguinary Guard unit again did an excellent job in trying to redress the balance but the eventually fell to the massed Power Weapon attacks of the remaining Vanguard. But his against KP efficient list was I was in a hole I could not dig myself out of and the game was effectively over at the end of turn 4. We didn't count up but it finished somewhere around 8-4.

-----------------

So I ended up 36th out of 48 players on 2 wins and 4 losses which was a fair reflection on how I played. Game 5 was by far my best performance tactically with a simple plan executed well and then a good recovery at the end of the game to fend of his late game reserve surge. Game 4 was won thanks to luck and some poor decisions on the part of my opponent who should have punished me for the mistakes I made but was unlucky not to be able to take advantage when it mattered.

As for the other 4 games, what have I learned? Firstly I do not play the shooting game well, I think my natural play-style is assault and the only thing that's holding me back is available models. At 1000pts I just did not have enough killing power and my game plan was too reliant on the manoeuvrability granted by fragile Razorbacks. If I'm going to play a shooting game at distance with Razorbacks, I need to plan to be stationary, but I think I'll build my list differently in the future!

Secondly I need to keep it simple, I tend to build units for certain jobs and then when I'm faced with an opponent I change the plan which breaks the effectiveness of the unit. I think I need to have the courage of my convictions I had when I built the list in the first place and leave it alone on the table top. Trust it will do its job and change the plan only if it is effectively countered.

Lastly I learned that I love Sanguinary Guard, they were by far my best performing unit on the weekend, as such I intend to build my Blood Angels lists with them in mind in future.

While I didn't have great success this weekend the Tournament was a great one and I will be going again next year if I manage to get a ticket in time. The skill is both in the playing of the game and the building of effective lists at all the point levels and I really like that about it and look forward to next year.

BotCh Day 1 - More Detail

As I've already intimated, this wasn't my finest hour but just because I sucked certainly doesn't mean the tournament did. The level of opposition was top notch and the organisation was superb, everything ran to time and the food was excellent, even extending into the evening with a BBQ and plenty of alcohol and bar games!

On to my experience and I suppose I'll start off with my lists which, I think, were a contributor to my downfall. The Tournament was an escalation format with you playing six games in total, two at 1000pts, two at 1500pts and two at 2000pts and at each point level you had to take the previous list unmodified and add 500pts on top, so here's what I took:

1000pts
HQ
Librarian - 100pts
Shield of Sanguinius, Unleash Rage
ELITE
Sanguinary Priest - 125pts
(2) 1x Jump Pack
TROOP
Assault Squad - 280pts
(10) 2x Meltagun, Sgt w. Lightning Claw; Razorback w. Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasmagun
Assault Squad - 155pts
(5) Razorback w. Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasmagun
HEAVY SUPPORT
Devastator Squad - 220pts
(5) 4x Missile Launcher; Razorback w. Twin Linked Lascannon
Dreadnought - 120pts
2x Twin-Linked Autocannons

1500pts
ELITE
Sanguinary Guard - 250pts
(5) 1x Power Fist, 1x Infernus Pistol, Chapter Banner
TROOP
Assault Squad - 130pts
(5) 1x Flamer, Razorback w. Dozer Blade & Twin-Linked Heavy Flamer
HEAVY SUPPORT
Dreadnought - 120pts
2x Twin Linked Autocannons

2000pts
ELITE
Terminator Assault Squad - 500pts
(5) 5x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield; Land Raider Redeemer w. Extra Armour, Multi-Melta & Pintle-mounter Storm Bolter

On with the games:

Game 1 vs. Space Marines
Spearhead/Annihilation

Librarian, Rifleman Dread x2, Scouts (5), Tac Squad (5) w. LasPlas Razorback, Landraider, AutoLas Predator

What are the odds, first game was against Martin from our club, it's always nice to see a friendly face across the table on the first game of a tournament. Sadly Martin was not in a generous mood and his shooting was far more effective than mine. He took out my mobility early on, and with the Razorbacks went a lot of my long range threat so he just kept backing up protecting his kill points. I lost the game 3-0.

Game 2 vs Space Marines
Pitched Battle/Capture & Control (with third 2pt objective in centre)

Chaplain w. Jump Pack, Tactical Squad (10) Meltagun, Lascannon, Razorback, Tactical Squad (10) Plasmagun, Lascannon, Razorback, Assault Squad (10) Power Fist, Devastator Squad (4) 4x Missile Launcher.

The next game was pure frustration, I was out shot and out assaulted. I couldn't make a single cover save and again my strength 9,8 and 7 shots all bounced harmlessly off AV11 targets. It was obvious I'd got my tactics all wrong here I thought I could hold the centre objective with my 10-man assault squad and fend off his assault squad, using razorbacks to block them from his long-range shooting elements but he very skilfully advanced his assault squad so I couldn't get any real shooting on them and ate his way through my back lines.

Cover saves were not kind to my assault squad in the face of massed las cannon, missile launcher and heavy bolter fire and by the time his two combat squads reached me my assault squad was no match for them resulting in a 3-1 loss.

Game 3 vs Imperial Guard
Dawn of War/Seize Ground

Company Comand Squad w. 3x Meltagun & Chimera, Psyker Battle Squad (6+1) Chimera, Blob Squad w. Commissar, Vet Squad 3x Melta w. Chimera, Vet Squad 3x Melta, Vendetta, Vendetta, Valkyrie, Hydra Flak Tanks (3), Hydra Flak Tanks (3)

After two big losses I was not best pleased to see this lot across the table from me, still I had first turn so there was a chance. I elected to take out the “flyers” first which I actually successfully managed however there was no arguing with the effectiveness of the Flak Batteriesas they ate though squads and vehicles in equal measure. I deep struck my Sang Guard squad in to threaten his left flank figuring that with a 2+ save and feel no pain that they would at least absorb a fair amount of his firepower next turn. Sadly I was mistaken as they all fell to the blob squad's 1st rank fire, 2nd rank fire lasgun fire allowing the rest the Guard firepower to focus wholly on the rest of my army. Needless to say it did not go well. It was actually closer than the previous two games but ended 3-1 against again.

Game 4 vs Space Marines
Pitched Battle/Capture and Control

Captain w. Relic Blade & Plasma Pistol, Terminator Assault Squad (5) 5x THSS, Dreadnought w. TL Lascannon & Missile Launcher, 2x Tactical Squads (10) w. Meltagun & Missile Launcher in Drop Pods, Scout Squad (5) w. Sniper Rifles & Missile Launcher, Scout Squad (5) w. Combat Blades &2x Shotguns, Land Speeders (2) w. Meltagun & Assault Cannon, Attack Bikes (2) Multi-Meltas. Predator w. Autocannon and Heavy Bolters

Despite an absolutely atrocious decision on my part in objective placement and deployment I managed a pretty good win out of this. I got first turn and with my opponent deciding to start only his Pred, Dread and Snipers on the table from the start I was able to wipe them all off the board without too much trouble. When his first pod dropped I realised my mistake in my objective placement because he could drop his Tac Squad in their Pod where they could not be seen by 90% of my army and he was within easy walking distance of my objective with only a 5-man assault squad and their Razorback to defend it. Adding to my problems were his Speeders who moved on quickly on Turn 2 to support the Tacs.

Amazingly my Razorback survived the initial assault and I redeployed my Librarian's squad to support the objective which I managed to hold. In the main assault on his objective my two Rifleman Dreads did the early damage with the Sanguinary Guard making the decisive charge to secure the other objective for another Assault Squad who were following up in support. At last a win 2-0 and the end of day 1

Day 2 and reflection tomorrow.

Jealous of Andy - where next with tournaments

So Andy went to Botch last weekend and I'm still waiting for the reports on day 2 however I am really jealous.

I had a ride up to see him on Saturday and to get a pack of Grey Knights which I have painted one and it looked to be a really great event.

Martin a fellow first company vet had already said it was the best event he went to last year so next year it is certainly on the tournament calender for me.

Next up for me and Grazer is Tim's summer skirmish in August but after that the tournament scene around the midlands (when I say that I mean at Maelstrom) seems to dry up, I wish I'd got a ticket for Throne of Skulls but I couldn't have afforded it this month and they sold out too quickly. Next year we will see another Caledonian open early in the year which was a great event followed by the UK GT.

One tournament I am looking forward to next year is The Jolly Toy's outing in February run by the oxford gaming club. This is going to be a Nova style event.

So that's my tournament plans for the next 8 months as well as trying to win the club championship which I am still top of having played more games than anyone else with 3 wins and a loss and I'm playing Andy in my last game this week.

BotCh Day 1

... I'd rather not talk about it.

Let's just say I went 1-3 and am sitting on 30 pts out of a possible 100. What particularly bugs me is that for game 3, despite losing my first 2 games, I was up against a top level tournament player playing leafblower guard (6 Hydras and 2 Vendettas). Huh? My one win of the day came in game 4 and from the bottom table. I'm not hopeful for day 2!

On the up-side I had a great game of Blood Bowl against TheBaron as part of our club's perpetual league. More of this in the future as I'm getting more than a little cheesed off with my complete ineptitude at 40k. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind loosing it's just that when I don't at least offer some resistance to my opponent It is a little embarassing!

Is this the sort of grey knight list we will see on the tournament scene? Input required

So after talking with a fellow first company vet Martin who also happens to be a tournament regular and one of Darren's main targets to flirt with on Thursday night we got talking about nasty Grey Knight armies and this is what he suggested we would see.

Corteaz leading which clearly gives you Henchmen as troops and allows you to re roll your to seize roll and makes your opponent do the same.

3 Psyfleman Ven Dreads

5 5 man Acolyte squads with three melta guns in psybolt Razorbacks
1 8 man death cult assassin squad in a rhino

3 Psyfleman dreads

Comes to 1750 exactly

With that you have 12 vehicles who all will be rarely stunned and shaken
You have 24 twin linked strength 8 shots
You have 15 twin linked strength 6 shots
You have 15 melta gun shots
6 scoring units
and one semi death star unit who have 24 power weapon attacks I 6.

So what do people think, how would that fair at a tournament and how would you deal with it?