grey knights vs tau 2k

[treadhead]

Ok heres the story just finished playing a 2k match against a mates tau force on my city board with the regular rules, fun was had :D

 

We played seize ground/spearhead with 3 objectives his list went something like this

ethereal with 9 honour guard + drones with devilfish = HQ1 & DF3

shaso and retinue of 2 with plasma, missiles and shields + drones =HQ2

6 stealth suits with 2 fusion blasters + drones =ISS (infiltrating)

3 crisis suits with burst cannons, plasma and shields + drones =C

2 X 10 fire warriors + drones with devilfishes

2 broadsides no drones ;) =bs

hammer head with ion cannon and burst cannons =HH

all vechiles had a pair of seeker missiles

 

my list

G' K' G' Master icon of the just thunder hammer and a psy-cannon with 7 strong retinue + psy-cannon mounted in a land raider crusader

2 X 10 strong grey knights troops choices with a pair of psy cannons apiece, justicars had refractor fields

6 strong teleport attack with 2 incinerators (in reserve)

dreadnaught with twin linked lascannon, power fist and an incinerator = D1

dreadnaught psy-cannon, power fist and an incinerator =D2

 

heres the deployment map forgive the crudity its late lol

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/deploymentmap.jpg

table is 6 X 4, small buildings are 8 x 8 large are 8x16

objectives are the blue circles 1 and 3 are in ruined buildings and the 2nd is the statue itself

 

turn 1

i won the roll for first turn and took advantage of it to take the 1st and 2nd objectives

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/turn1objective2.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/turn1objective1.jpg

the twin linked lascannon dread closed in on the stealth team, firing took out all of the stealth teams drones and 2 of the team itself then charged the others killing 2 more who passed their break test with annoying ease

while his psycannon equipped brother moved to get a line of fire towards the center of the table, the land raider crusader moved to the edge of the tank traps and shot the hammerhead with its multi-melta immobilising it

 

now for the taus turn

he deployed 2/3s of the infantry from their devilfish's, the ethereal and honour guard moved into the cover of the building containing objective 3 and the fire warriors from the first devilfish formed up behind it in the street, meanwhile his shaso and retinue moved into firing position on the L'R'crusader, 6 missiles fired, 3 hits, nothing even glanced it, suddenly a seeker missle plunged down from the heavens and smudged the paint a little.

in the assault phase he moved the rest of the stealth team into combat with the twin las dreadnaught and moved the shaso back out of the line of fire

and the dread killed another stealth suit

 

turn 2 to come next

[treadhead]

turn 1 addendum forgot to add the broadsides both missing the LRC reroll and one hits and bounces off

turn 2

the grand master and his retinue disembarked from their transport and advanced towards objective 3, and the psycannon armed dread drew a line of fire on the first fire warriors squad, meanwhile in orbit the warp was calm enough for the teleport attack to strike wasting no time they deepstriked in to assist the terminators in cleansing the building of tau with their incinerators killing 6 fire warriors and both of the ethereals shield drones

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/turn2objective3.jpg

behind them the multi melta gunner picked out the immobilised hammer head for his 2nd shot of the match and missed, the psycannon dreadnaught fired on the first fire warrior squad killing 1

assault phase was next and the grey knights moved into the building to flush out the last of the honour guard and the taus ethereal and while the twin las dread finished off the stealth team and consolidated towards the main tau force the grand master and his retinue proceeded to demonstrate the correct usage of a nemesis force weapon massacring the tau inside the building then having a prayer meeting on the objective

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/turn2objective3a.jpg

note teleport attack guys shouldnt be in this shot as they were out on the street at the time but we missed this during the pic phase lol

 

ethereal dead = tau unit by unit break test fail leg it, pass prefered enemy for the game, the crisis team failed and just stopped short of the board edge

as did the broadside team but both of the fire warrior squads and his shaso pass, the first fire warrior squad moves into assault range of the twin lascannon dread while the hammerheads ion cannon pops a shot at him first (bounces off) after which the fire warriors charged in, the dreadnaught swings and misses with both attacks leaving himself vunerable to the emp grenades carried by the tau which results in him being shaken.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/turn3firewarriorscharge.jpg

 

a this point we called the game due to lack of time with 2 out of 3 objectives held and a prayer meeting going on at the 3rd + no grey knight casualties so far id call that a win :D

and the final pic of the game so you can see more of the board mostly lol

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/gameover.jpg

 

pretty fun game next time out its eldar vs ordo xenos 2.5 at 4500 pts muahahahahaha

[JEFF4i]

Pretty sweet man! Suffer not the work of xeno filth!

[Reclusiarch Darius]

ethereal with 9 honour guard + drones with devilfish = HQ1 & DF3

shaso and retinue of 2 with plasma, missiles and shields + drones =HQ2

6 stealth suits with 2 fusion blasters + drones =ISS (infiltrating)

3 crisis suits with burst cannons, plasma and shields + drones =C

2 X 10 fire warriors + drones with devilfishes

2 broadsides no drones ohmy.gif =bs

hammer head with ion cannon and burst cannons =HH

all vechiles had a pair of seeker missiles

 

Wow...thats a ingeniously craptastic Tau list. He pretty much made every mistake possible with a Tau army list, plus a new one I've never seen before; taking no markerlights but giving every vehicle a pair of seeker missiles :huh: . He does realise he needs markerlights to fire them, right? They are not like Imperial HK missiles.

 

my list

G' K' G' Master icon of the just thunder hammer and a psy-cannon with 7 strong retinue + psy-cannon mounted in a land raider crusader

2 X 10 strong grey knights troops choices with a pair of psy cannons apiece, justicars had refractor fields

6 strong teleport attack with 2 incinerators (in reserve)

dreadnaught with twin linked lascannon, power fist and an incinerator = D1

dreadnaught psy-cannon, power fist and an incinerator =D2

 

Your's needs a fair bit of work too. At least you've got the right general idea, just needs a few tweaks to be perfect ;)

 

Grandmaster should always have his NFW; never give it up. It's a S6 force weapon that 'removes wounds', thus anything is fair game for his brain-frying power. I like to give him a power weapon for that +1A, I leave psycannon sniping to the PAGK squads. I also don't usually take more than 3-4 in the retinue, and for the squad weapon I give them an incinerator (fits their assault build more closely). Crusader is nice, but remember it's not a dedicated transport, so it eats up a Heavy slot but you do get to cart around other units in it.

 

Drop the teleport attack squad, use the points from that and the extra Terminators to make a third PAGK squad, modifed as per below.

 

Your Troops are pretty much what they should be, drop the refracter fields though (they're overpriced for what they do and unecessary). I would give the Justicar's targeters though, that helps a lot with your Shooting phase. Depending on points, you might be able to fit in another dual psycannon squad, might have to drop them all to 8-strong though. But overall you've got the right idea; bulk up the squad size and arm them with psycannons.

 

Make both Dreadnoughts Hellfire-pattern; twin-lascannon+missile launcher. Like pretty much every Dreadnought in existence (except the Furiso or the Iron-clad), they are much better as a fire support platform than in close-combat. 2 attacks in CC suck, but a twin-lascannon and a krak missile are much better for your purposes (considering the only other anti-tank you possess is that pintle multi-melta on the Crusader).

the twin linked lascannon dread closed in on the stealth team, firing took out all of the stealth teams drones and 2 of the team itself then charged the others killing 2 more who passed their break test with annoying ease

 

I take it he Infiltrated close to try and melta him 1st turn, and didn't make use of their shiny new Outflank ability? Awesome. Did you remember to roll for his Stealth fields?

 

the land raider crusader moved to the edge of the tank traps and shot the hammerhead with its multi-melta immobilising it

 

Sorry, he deployed his Hammerhead 36" away from your Crusader? :mellow:

meanwhile his shaso and retinue moved into firing position on the L'R'crusader, 6 missiles fired, 3 hits, nothing even glanced it, suddenly a seeker missle plunged down from the heavens and smudged the paint a little.

 

:rolleyes: Er, ok, what was he smoking? Cos his MP's are only S7, they can't hurt AV14 in any way. Also, that seeker missile requires a markerlight to be fired, it's not a HK missile.

 

turn 1 addendum forgot to add the broadsides both missing the LRC reroll and one hits and bounces off

 

:lol: I've had this happen to me as well. It's amazing how often railguns either miss or fail to do anything, and intensely frustrating if you play Tau. BTW, if you buy smoke launchers and pop them, the worst he can do is glance, so that makes his railguns even more ineffectual.

 

turn 2

the grand master and his retinue disembarked from their transport and advanced towards objective 3, and the psycannon armed dread drew a line of fire on the first fire warriors squad, meanwhile in orbit the warp was calm enough for the teleport attack to strike wasting no time they deepstriked in to assist the terminators in cleansing the building of tau with their incinerators killing 6 fire warriors and both of the ethereals shield drones

 

Good work bringing them on on time and in the right position. However, I think you would've fared better by just taking the incinerator on the GKT's and taking the squad as Troops with psycannons. The teleport incinerator squad is great when it works, but scatter could have easily messed this up for you.

 

the crisis team failed and just stopped short of the board edge

 

Lucky him, mine usually run off the table in one go. Crisis are great but when they fail a Leadership tests and run away I feel like crying with frustration... <_<

 

 

Overall, I'd say you won this because you played well and concentrated on cleaning out the objectives, he lost because;

 

A; He deployed terribly and didn't concentrate on eliminating your Troops

B; His railguns epically failed against the Crusader, and Tau in CC are dead

C; Really bad army list

 

Should be interesting to see how you'll fair against Eldar. Keep those psycannons handy, their Farseers and Autarchs really hate them ;).

[treadhead]

cheers for the input (and for reminding me i forgot to mention some of the tau wargear lol) he did have marker lights and marker drones just cant recall in which squads :P

as for my list its more of a fun army not a competetive one, the grand master i just kitbashed together for the first game with the army but he actually does ok in games so he'll be staying as he is

 

as for the teleport attack squads i use two 10 strong squads with a pair of incinerators in both mostly for the havoc they cause, while the dreads are used more as linebackers for my troops usually and dont get into h-2-h too often (the stealths had to be charged or it would have got a face full of fusion blaster the turn after)

 

the stealth suits we actually forgot to roll for the holo field thingie but we also weren't rolling for the shrouding that turn so it balanced out, the land raider

and hammer head started off around 26" apart but i moved forwards on turn 1

 

onto the termies i use 2 squads in the full list the first 8 strong (the retinue) and the other 5 strong with an incinerator

 

as for the missile attack on the landraider we were both smoking the same thing, he didnt check the str before firing it and i didn't think of it lol

[Reclusiarch Darius]

cheers for the input (and for reminding me i forgot to mention some of the tau wargear lol) he did have marker lights and marker drones just cant recall in which squads tongue.gif

 

No problem. Be sure to check he goes through the whole process of firing a markerlight, getting a hit and then using the counter. Remember, they are Heavy 1 (althought not really a weapon persay), so unless it's a marker drone in a Crisis/Stealth team or vehicle-mounted (ie Skyray), he has to sit still to fire them. Also, they only have 36" range, and for seeker missiles they can launch from anywhere (no LOS required) but direction of fire still determines which AV value you roll against.

 

as for my list its more of a fun army not a competetive one, the grand master i just kitbashed together for the first game with the army but he actually does ok in games so he'll be staying as he is

 

Nonetheless, I would stress that you give drop the thunderhammer. You can just 'count-as' a NFW, seeing as you've already got him modelled as carrying a TH. If you do still want a bit of S8 bitch-slapping take the TH+SS combo on 1-2 in the retinue. Half the reason you pay for the Grandmaster is to get his S6 force weapon, if you don't want that demote him to a Brother-Captain (the I5 is wasted if you are hitting at I1).

 

as for the teleport attack squads i use two 10 strong squads with a pair of incinerators in both mostly for the havoc they cause, while the dreads are used more as linebackers for my troops usually and dont get into h-2-h too often (the stealths had to be charged or it would have got a face full of fusion blaster the turn after)

 

The problem that arises is that if he wipes out your 2 Troops choices, you've lost the game (in all but Annihilation). Pure GK armies always suffer from a lack of staying power (due to low model count), and it's really hard to get a good number of scoring units into the list. Thats why I recommend you take them as Troops with psycannons.

BTW, the second Dreadnought can't actually buy a psycannon (are you just 'count-as' and taking an AC? ). In this game, the DCCW helped out (because you really had to assault those Stealths, otherwise they would have turned him to scrap), but in general I never enter combat, and just take the missile launcher instead.

the stealth suits we actually forgot to roll for the holo field thingie but we also weren't rolling for the shrouding that turn so it balanced out,

 

Well, at such close-range it's unlikely they would've worked, but you should still roll for them. As for Shrouding, I always forget as well, I'm getting to the point where I need to write it down and stickytape it to my arm :P . Not a big deal, but yeah, next game don't forget, it sometimes saves you (at 36" I've seen it work, it nearly always fails at 24" though, so in this game it might not have made much difference).

 

the land raider

and hammer head started off around 26" apart but i moved forwards on turn 1

 

-_- (Sigh) He put a unit with a 72" range main gun 26" away from a Landraider with a multi-melta? You probably didn't even need Machine Spirit to shoot it, you could've just moved 6" and still got him.

 

onto the termies i use 2 squads in the full list the first 8 strong (the retinue) and the other 5 strong with an incinerator

 

Yeah, not much to add on what I already said. I would caution spending that many points on GKT's; they are awesome, but they cannot claim objectives for you. With 3-4 dual psycannon PAGK squads however, you will probably be able to hold at least your home objective and be a good position to contest the others.

 

as for the missile attack on the landraider we were both smoking the same thing, he didnt check the str before firing it and i didn't think of it lol

 

Again, like with Shrouding you just need to remember the steps. I forget stuff like this as well, I just roll then half-remember how it should go after we've rolled for damage. So, when shooting, always insist on the following (it keeps you both honest);

 

1. Check LOS

2. Check range

3. Roll to hit

4. Roll to wound/armour penetration (check Strength and AP at this step)

5. Make saves/roll for vehicle damage

6. Remove models/resolve damage results

 

Tau missile pods are essentially reaper autocannons (same statline, just not twin-linked, although we can twin-link them if we want). Don't forget to remind him next time ;) .