Imperial Guardsmen Vs. Grey Knights

[Pontain]

Good afternoon, members of the B&C. I would like to provide, for your scrutiny, a battle report. This is my Grey Knights vs. a friend's Imperial Guardsmen.

 

In the Armies of the Imperium forum, I have posted my army list - "St. Elmo's Fire", which is essentially Draigo, a Librarian, 2x5 Paladin squads, 1x10 man Purifier squad, a Venerable Dreadnought, and two Land Raider Crusaiders.

 

The Guardsmen brought Creed, Kell, Pask, the two members who provide +1/-1 to reserves rolls, two chimeras, two vendettas, and enough melta veterans and heavy weapons to slag a small city. There were also two Ordnance Barrage tanks hidden in the corners behind terrain (the S8 AP3 one)

 

Anyway:

Objectives (3)

Dawn of War deployment

 

The terrain was scattered pretty densely. There were ruins left side midfield on my table edge, with an open firing lane farther to the left. In the center was a long cavern type construction, then to the right was a bit of area terrain. LoS blocking outcroppings peppered the field, tall enough to give cover to our large flying craft.

 

I win initiative, and have him go first. He deploys sparsely, holding the two vendetta's and a chimera in reserves, and letting the bulk of his force walk on. I hold everything off the board for the turn 1 advance. I do not seize initiative.

 

Turn 1:

 

Imperial Guard – held two Vendetta Gunships in reserve, along with one Chimera, to outflank. With nothing on the board to fire at, he passes turn.

 

Grey Knights – both Land Raiders move onto the board in a column, between a wall and a building, while the Storm Raven overboosts 17 inches along my left side of the board. The tanks and 'Raven fire upon one squad of Guardsmen, causing them to break and fall back.

 

Objectives – IG(1) / GK(0)

Kill Points – IG(0) / GK(0)

 

Turn 2:

 

Imperial Guard – His fleeing unit falls back and is destroyed by table edge. All (!) of his outflanking units arrive on my stacked side – all armed to the teeth with Melta and Lascannon. They disembark, one via grav-chute, all bristling with meltaguns, and open fire... to nearly no effect. The Multi-Melta guns on the Stormraven and one Land raider is blown off, and everything is shaken. 10 meltagun shots, 12 Lascannon shots, ordinance barrage, and Pask all shooting failed to do more than that.

 

Grey Knights – Fortitude restores functionality to all my vehicles. Everything disembarks their transports. Everything opens fire, reducing his outflanking force to two shaken Vendettas.

 

Objectives – IG(1) / GK(0)

Kill Points – IG(0) / GK(5)

 

Turn 3:

 

Imperial Guard – Both Vendettas flee the scene, far out of range or LoS of any of my weaponry. He succeeds in slaying three Purifiers with Barrage weapons, wounding Pontain once, and destroying my Storm Raven. He also forces the Librarian to go to ground.

 

Grey Knights – The loss of the Storm Raven is aggravating, as is the cowering Librarian. Everything moves forward, and torches another two units, causing them to break and fall back. The first group of Paladins claims an objective.

 

Objectives – IG(1) +contesting center / GK (1)

Kill Points – IG(1) / GK(5)

 

Turn 4:

 

Imperial Guard – The two fleeing squads hit the table edge and are destroyed. Both Vendettas return, shooting and wounding Draigo, slaying one Paladin from the other unit, and Barrage weapons slay another six Purifiers. The rear most Land Raider is immobilized. The Librarian also keels over and dies to the flamer from one of the barrage weapons moving into range.

 

Grey Knights – Draigo's paladin squad moves to contest the center objective. Everything opens fire on what it can see, immobilizing the rear most Vendetta, and causing another unit of Guardsmen to fall back.

 

Objectives – IG(1) + contesting center / GK(1) + contesting center

Kill Points – IG(2) / GK(7)

 

Turn 5:

 

Imperial Guard – Much of his army is in shambles. His turn consists of opening fire on what he can see, immobilizing and taking the multi-melta from the dreadnought, dealing a second wound to Draigo, and shooting/assaulting the other Paladin squad with a few Guardsmen to no effect, other than causing his dudes to fall back again.

 

Grey Knights – I make a last bid to clear off the center objective; but none of my men have decent LoS to front enough firepower to down the Valkyrie or move the troop on the right objective.

 

The game ends on Turn 5

Objectives – DRAW 1:1

Kill Points – GK Victory 2:7

 

=][=Lessons Learned=][=

In Dawn of War deployment, remember to use smoke launchers vs. outflanking melta-spam armies. While I didn't lose a single tank to that 'alpha-ish' turn two blast of power, the dice gods won't always be in my favor.

 

Hey, the Storm Raven has guns too! On my second turn, I failed to have it shoot a single gun with my flying castle, despite it only moving 12 inches and with clear lanes of fire to choice units of Guardsmen. Especially disappointing since I purchased Hurricane Bolters for it.

 

Most Notable Kill – the ordnance tank thingy rolling forward and BBQ-ing my poor Librarian with a flamer.

Most Depressing Phase – IG shooting turn two. I never saw so many Melta-guns set to stun instead of kill.

 

My Favorite Model – The Venerable Dreadnought – did everything I asked it to do, to the best of its abilities. I expected it to be dead quickly, but Venerable saved its life a number of occasions, and it BBQ'd a decent number of Guard hides.

 

Well, thanks for reading - a lot of terrain details and movement phases are left out. I might take a photo of our table and post it up, but it mostly consists of some old D&D 3d&2d terrain, some packing foam, and some boxes cut to look like buildings - as well as a few Citadel bits of terrain, like the statue dude, and the administratum.

[NuclearMessiah]

The Guardsmen brought Creed, Kell, Pask, the two members who provide +1/-1 to reserves rolls, two chimeras, two vendettas, and enough melta veterans and heavy weapons to slag a small city. There were also two Ordnance Barrage tanks hidden in the corners behind terrain (the S8 AP3 one)

 

 

List seemed to work well, I don't have much to add as I haven't played my GK yet, but did you opponent bring 2 astropaths or 2 Officers of the fleet or 1 of each? I only ask cause if it is 2 of the same their abilities dont stack.

[Pontain]

Ah! One officer of the fleet, and one astropath is what he brought. I can't ever remember the names of the specific units he brings.