1000pt New GK Batrep vs. Chaos

[Aidoneus]

Well, played my first game today with the new updated rules for Daemonhunters. It was 1000pts vs my friend TJ.

 

My list:

Brother-Captain: Psycannon, Tele Homer

-3 GKTs: Psycannon, 1x TH/SS

;)

7 PAGKs: 2 Psycannons

7 PAGKs: 2 Psycannons

:P

Dread: Lascannon, Missile

Dread: Multi-Melta

-Drop Pod:

 

His list:

Sorcerer: Slaanesh, Wings, Meltabombs, Doombolt

^_^

Dread: Multi-Melta, Extra Armour

:huh:

10 Marines: Flamer, Plasma Gun, Champion (Fist)

-Rhino: Extra Armour, Dozer Blade

8 Plague Marines: 2 Flamers, Champion (Fist)

-Rhino: Extra Armour, Dozer Blade

8 Havocs: 2 Heavy Bolters, 2 Autocannons

 

We set up terrain as a sort of sparse city, which you can see here. We rolled and got Capture and Control with a Spearhead deployment. TJ won the right to go first, which I didn't challenge.

 

TJ chose the bottom-left corner, putting his objective on the second level of that ruin, and his havocs on the top level. Everything else he kept in reserve. I put my objective on the top of my building in the top-right corner, with one squad of PAGKs up there with it, and the hellfire dread behind. Everything else was deep-striking.

 

Deployment

 

Turn 1

 

TJ tries to shoot my PAGKs, but doesn't roll high enough for shrouding (it's extremely unlikely he could, but nothing else was even in 48" range).

 

My terminators come down first, landing out in front of his building. They use their re-roll on the deep strike to keep from scattering 10" away and to the left, instead landing just in front of the building. My hellfire dread peaks out from behind the building, but fails to kill anything with his lascannon. The PAGKs move to the corner of the building closest to TJ. The termies open up on the havocs, but only manage to kill 1.

 

Turn 1 End

 

Turn 2

 

As TJ rolls for reserves, I breath a deep sigh of relief: none of them come on! TJ's havocs give the termies all they've got, but after rolling 8 saves, only the regular termie dies.

 

On my turn, the second squad of PAGKs makes it in, but the dreadnought stays in reserve, which is fine with me. The PAGKs use the BC's teleport homer to come down just north of them, within psycannon range of the havocs. The termies move up to the second floor of the building, meaning they can't shoot the havocs, but hopefully can make it the last 3" to assault them. My hellfire dread advances out of cover. The PAGKs open up on the havocs, causing a fantastic 10 wounds! 2 bolter marines, 1 heavy bolter, and 1 autocannon fall. The hellfire dread lends a hand, and kills off the last bolter model. My GKTs roll a 5 for charge distance and make it up to the last two havocs. They make their 1 save from the havocs hitting first, and then easily crush the chaos filth! Consolidation brings them all up to the third floor (one was 1 level down during the move and assault).

 

So far so good. Before his reserves came in, I killed everything that started on the board, and am in a very aggressive position in his building. At this point, it's safe to say I've got him on the defensive, although the game is far from over.

 

Turn 2 End

 

Turn 3

 

Well, all good things must come to an end. All of TJ's reserves except the Plague Marines come on from his board edge. The dreadnought comes in from TJ's far left corner, eyeing my PAGKs through the corner of the building. His marines drive 12" on and disembark within flamer range of the PAGKs. And lastly, the Slaaneshi lord jumps clear over the building, landing just in front and easily within assault range of my PAGKs. Clearly, TJ wants to eliminate my scoring unit near his objective.

 

During his shooting, TJ slowly whittles down my PAGKs. I take out the psycannons and a regular PAGK first, to his marines' fire. The dreadnought shoots PAGKs, but I make my cover save. Then, when his sorcerer causes another two wounds, I stop to ponder. My justicar is the closest model to his sorcerer (the first three models were even closer before they died), and that 6" charge distance is looking a lot less certain. With a great amount of trepidation, I take the chance and remove my justicar and the next-closest PAGK, hoping to deny the sorcerer the charge, which is all that's left in his turn. We bring out the tape measure, and it takes us a little while to get an accurate measure, but my gamble paid off as the sorcerer was about 1/16th of an inch out of range! whew!

 

My dreadnought shows up, and tries to deep strike between the sorcerer and his dreadnought. I scatter back to the left, which actually lets my dread get out to shoot his dreadnought in the back. My GKTs move down to the second floor, eyeing those Scoring marines outside. The two PAGK, who obviously aren't going to survive the battle, decide to go help the GKTs at least deny TJ a scoring unit as well. My hellfire dread continues to advance. The PAGKs in my own building barely have range to his Rhino, and manage to rip off its storm bolter. My MM dreadnought rips the multi-melta off of his dread, meaning next turn he's clearly going to charge me, and we both start planning their mutual annihilation. My hellfire dreadnought shoots his sorcerer, and manages to wound, but he makes his 5++ and survives. My GKTs and two remaining PAGKs both shoot his marines, killing 2 and 1 respectively.

 

In the assault phase, both my GKTs and PAGKs charged his marines. At initiative 4, he failed to kill any PAGK, and they killed 2 chaos scum. The GKTs also lose none, and they kill all but the power fist champion. The champ, who is in base with my PAGK, kills one of them, and then dies to my thunder hammer. Victory: Grey Knights. The lone PAGK consolidates an inch (yeah!) and the GKTs go 5" back up to the second floor of the building.

 

This turn I did exactly what I needed to: kill his Scoring unit completely. He is now playing for the draw, and almost certainly will just re-enforce his own building, meaning my objective is safe. Of course, my forces in his zone are diminishing, so I'm not sure I can hold on long enough to contest. But at worst, I've got a draw. Not bad so far.

 

Turn 3 End

 

Turn 4

 

TJ's Plague marines finally showed up, and just as I anticipated came in to try to re-take his own objective. They came in on the right-hand side of the building, just behind his other rhino, and disembarked, set up to flame GKTs. The sorcerer walked up to the second floor, set to charge into the termies. His dreadnought, in a spectacular display of fail, rolled a Fire Frenzy, and spent the turn shooting his storm bolter meaninglessly at my dreadnought. During his shooting phase, his plague marines and sorcerer each took down one terminator, leaving only the brother-captain alive (with the one, sad little PAGK watching from below). TJ's sorcerer charged my BC, but to my amazement (and his horror) failed to wound a single time! My brother-captain, incensed at having his bodyguard shot down, dealt two wounds to the sorcerer, who then lost his last wound in combat resolution. I'll tell ya, that humble BC has just been cleaning up in combat this game! He consolidates back down to the first level.

 

During my turn, my BC comes out and, as it happens, joins the last PAGK. My hellfire dread moves to get unobscured LoS to his Plague marines, and my other dread moves directly behind TJ's dreadnought. Sadly, my hellfire dreadnought fails to kill a plague marine (the lascannon fails to wound, and he makes FNP from the missile launcher). My home-base PAGKs again fire at his marine's rhino (it's the only thing in range), and this time immobilize it. My dreadnought shoots point-blank into the back of his dread with its multi-melta, and easily pens, but only manages to immobilize it. Oh well, there's always close combat. The dread charges in, hitting twice, but spectacularly rolls two 2s, only glancing the chaos dread. A 3 and a 4 mean virtually nothing has happened. Naturally, in return, his dreadnought pens me once and rolls a 5. Oh well. Meanwhile, my BC and PAGK charge his Plague Marines. The PAGK neither kills anything nor dies. My BC kills two Plague marines, but dies to the power fist champion. One more plague marine dies in resolution, and the remaining 5 swarm around my poor, poor PAGK.

 

At this point, my objective is absolutely safe, but it looks like he'll be able to easily re-take his own, meaning a draw. I have to kill all 5 Plague Marines to win the game, because I have nothing left to contest his objective.

 

Turn 4 End

 

Turn 5

With his dreadnought stunned and nothing to shoot his rhino at, TJ goes straight to assault. My PAGK doesn't wound anything, and falls to regular attacks. The Plague Marines consolidate into the first floor of the building. We're not sure if they're within 3" of the objective yet.

 

My home-base PAGKs only have range on Rhinos, so they shoot the Plague Marines' rhino, ripping off its storm bolter and immobilizing it, just like the other rhino. My hellfire Dread kills one plague marine.

 

We roll, and the game goes on.

 

Turn 5 End

 

Turn 6

 

Bottom line, nothing happens. The plague marines move to where they definitely control the objective, I fail to kill any more, the game ends.

 

 

Overall, I'm very pleased with the way the new rules work. The ability to deep-strike my PAGKs and Dreadnought made me able to take the initiative and play aggressively, virtually ensuring from the get-go that my own objective would never be threatened. This forced TJ to use all his resources defensively. In the end, forward troops couldn't withstand his entire army, so I wasn't able to contest his objective. But throughout the game I felt in-control, and was never afraid of even having to fight to avoid a loss.

 

The rules-changes worked smoothly, and other than deep-striking didn't change the way my knights played. Of course, the deep-striking reminded me of 4th edition when I used to love taking FA GK squads, so I'm extremely happy to have that tool back at my disposal.

 

I'll leave it there for now. What do you think? Do you like the way the new rules seem to work? Do you have any comments about my list and/or tactics specifically? Feel free to post any and all comments.

[Reclusiarch Darius]

and he makes FNP from the missile launcher

 

He can't do this, because the krak missile has S8, while his Plague Marines are T4 (for Instant-Death purposes). Therefore, FNP can't be made against it.

 

 

I'm liking the way the army plays, given your changes. It doesn't appear to be over-powered (CSM list wasn't that great and it still held it's own against you), and the ability to bring in PAGK via Deepstrike and still hold objectives is a great tool.

 

When you expand to 1,500pts, I'll be interested to see how the army functions.

[FunkyEntropy]

Do you feel like the extra PAGK, which I assume you bought from the points saved from the point reduction to psycannons, made a quantifiable difference to the game?

 

It seems like the new rules work well (esp Deep Strike). Glad things turned out that way.

[Aidoneus]

and he makes FNP from the missile launcher

He can't do this, because the krak missile has S8, while his Plague Marines are T4 (for Instant-Death purposes). Therefore, FNP can't be made against it.

Oh hey, it is 4(5). I thought they did away with that. Oh well, didn't make a difference in this game. Good to know for the future though.

 

I'm liking the way the army plays, given your changes. It doesn't appear to be over-powered (CSM list wasn't that great and it still held it's own against you), and the ability to bring in PAGK via Deepstrike and still hold objectives is a great tool.

Power-wise, it's a little better, but not a lot. The deep-striking was the obvious biggest difference, but at 1000pts I didn't have any room for anything but basic troops, which meant no fun bells and whistles to try out. The CSM wasn't as abusive as some, but it wasn't bad. Couple of solid Troops choices, a character-hunter HQ, dakka havocs, and with the very few points left, an anti-tank dread. We never play tourney-quality lists anyway, so good doesn't mean abusive. Anyway, TJ's a good player, and given the position I put him in I think he did what he had to do, and managed to pull out the draw.

 

Do you feel like the extra PAGK, which I assume you bought from the points saved from the point reduction to psycannons, made a quantifiable difference to the game?

I didn't convert an old list; I made a new one from scratch. So I don't think I could say what I did with any "extra points." I do like being able to squeeze a lot into a list, even if it's just a couple more models, or a couple more psycannons, depending on how you look at it. Again, not a big difference at all, just a nice little boost.

[Venerable Rhadamanthus]

Well, played my first game today with the new updated rules for Daemonhunters. It was 1000pts vs my friend TJ.

 

 

Turn 1

 

TJ tries to shoot my PAGKs, but doesn't roll high enough for shrouding (it's extremely unlikely he could, but nothing else was even in 48" range).

 

My terminators come down first, landing out in front of his building. They use their re-roll on the deep strike to keep from scattering 10" away and to the left, instead landing just in front of the building. My hellfire dread peaks out from behind the building, but fails to kill anything with his lascannon. The PAGKs move to the corner of the building closest to TJ. The termies open up on the havocs, but only manage to kill 1.

 

Turn 1 End

 

 

I have to ask...how did your GKT's come in on turn one? You can't come in from reserves till turn 2.

[Aidoneus]

I have to ask...how did your GKT's come in on turn one? You can't come in from reserves till turn 2.

It's part of our project. You can see the rule here, under Teleport Assault.

 

Or... I suppose I could just quote it here:

Teleport Assault: (added according to post #98)

At the beginning of your first turn, you must choose half of your deep-striking Grey Knights squads (rounding up) to make a 'Teleport Assault.'. Units making a teleport assault arrive on the player's first turn. The arrival of the remaining units is rolled for as normal.

[Venerable Rhadamanthus]

Ahh...basically like the drop pod assault rules. I did a quick scan, but missed that. Thanks.

 

Hmm...the idea is interesting...the only problem I see is that anyone else has to pay 35pts on top of the unit cost to get that. You are giving them all Deep Strike AND Drop Pod Assault rules for free? I agree with all GK's having Deep Striking. I'm not too sure they should have the DPA rules for free as well.

 

My $.02. The point may be settled...but coming in late I felt I still had to comment.