Grey Knigts vs. Salamanders

[Chengar Qordath]

So fought a pair of 1000 point matches against a friend's Vulkan lists, mostly to get a feel for the new codex and figure out how things worked.

 

Round 1

 

My list:

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor with Terminator Armor and a Psycannon

Callidus Assassin

10 man Strike Squad with 8 Halberds, 2 psycannons and a Rhino

5 Man Terminator Squad with 3 Halberds and an Incinerator

Land Raider Crusader with a Multi-melta

 

His List

Vulkan He'stan

Tac Squad with Multi-melta and Flamer x2

Legion of the Damned with Multi-melta and Flamer

Land Speeder with HF/MM x2

Dreadnought with HF/MM

 

An extremely close victory for my Knights where quite a bit of the victory was due to the vagaries of the dice. He managed to get both of his Land Speeders into multi-melta range on turn 2, only to miss with both shots (and when they're twin-linked thanks to Vulkan, that's an accomplishment). My Crusader downed both speeders next turn (Multi-melta'd one, Assault-cannoned the other) and that was his best chance to down my Raider and stop my GKT Squad. My GKTs managed to shred one of his tac squads, and then his Legion came in and managed to immobilize the Raider with a less-unlucky melta shot. Next turn my GKTs charged, only to get tarpitted for most of the game against the Legion's 3+ Invulnerable saves. Meanwhile, my Callidus proved that rumors of her uselessness in the new Codex are greatly exaggerated by popping in on the other tac squad (which contained Vulkan) and managing to kill 7 models between her DS attacks and Shredder, then kill Vulkan in the assault phase with her Phase sword. The Rhino Squad had the weakest performance of the game, losing its transport to the dread, and then getting assaulted by it and tarpitted. Game ended with my GKTs still tied up with one surviving Legion marine, 2 Strike Marines tarpitted with the Dread, and my Callidus and Raider sitting around with not much to do. Game was Annihilation so I won 5KP to 2

 

Lessons learned

GKT are still awesome

The Callidus Assassin is still awesome

Watch out for Dreads and their ability to tarpit

 

Round 2

 

My list

Grey Knight Librarian with Might, Quicksilver, Vortex

10 man Strike Squad with Psybolts

5 Man Terminator Squad with 3 Halberds, Incinerator

2 Stormravens

 

His list

Vulkan

Tac Squad with Multi-melta and Flamer x2

Legion of the Damned with Multi-melta and Flamer

Land Speeder with HF/MM x2

Land Speeder Typhoon

 

GK Stormravens are scary when they deep strike. Mindstrike missiles are defensive weapons, so all four can be fired on the turn you DS in, on top of the two primary weapons (one standard + POTMS). My opponent tried to avoid getting ambushed by counter-reserving a lot of his army, but he had first turn and I got lucky and failed both of my reserve rolls on turn 2, so most of his army was on the field by the time I arrived. 2 POTMS-ed assault cannons neutralized his HF/MM Speeders (one dead, one with both weapons destroyed), while the Heavy Bolters and Missiles shredded a Tac squad and his Legion squad. Then my Grey Knights disembarked and added in their firepower, and my Librarian was in Vortex range of the one remaining Tac squad and the shot landed perfectly on-target. By turn's end, he had one Typhoon, one weaponless speeder, Vulkan, three tactical marines, and two legion marines (neither of whom had a heavy/special weapon) left. He conceded on turn 4.

 

Lessons learned:

Mr. Stormraven, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

Footslogging lists are very vulnerable to alpha strikes.

 

Overall, I think the new GK Dex looks very strong; with psybolt-ammo equipped . I do wish my opponent had better luck on his die rolls in the second game though; while my alpha strike was nasty, his rolling was so bad that it effectively tabled him in a single turn of shooting, which left something of a bitter taste in my mouth since it was supposed to be a friendly game.

[nurglez]

I'm looking forward to fighting grey knights, one of my regular opponents used to play and will pick them up again as soon as the new codex comes out.

 

Briefly played against a squad of grey knight palladins and they were nasty, nice to hear the caladius is useful, all the hype has been about the vindicare.

 

Nice short battle reports, and well written, hate it when 1 person has very bad luck, but thats part of the game heh.

[Wolfbiter]

Thanks for posting this. I'm looking at starting with a few 1,000 point games, so reading your report will be helpful in considering how I want to build my own army.

 

BTW, my good friend and most frequent 40K opponent fields the Legion of the Damned; I'm encouraged to hear that your GKs defeated them! :)