Battle Report: Grey Knights vs. All Dreadnought Blood Angels

[Ninjoe42]

Heya folks! So I'll preface this by saying that I'm a very new collector to 40k and don't have many models at all. No vehicles, no dreadknights, no transports, nuffin. So it was pure infantry by necessity and not choice, that being said here we go!

 

Playing with 100 PL

 

My Knights;

 

Brotherhood Champion

 

Castellan Crowe

 

Voldus

 

2 5 man Paladin squads with 1 hammer, no special guns

 

2 5 man Interceptor squads with 1 hammer, no special guns

 

1 Purgator squad with 4 Psilencers

 

Allies;

 

1 Custodian Guard Squad, 2 with Guardian Spears, 3 with Storm Shields

 

DELETED 5 Eversor Assassins cause I needed to fill 20 PL at the end and didn't have enough models

 

 

I'm realizing that this probably isn't thoroughly battleforged. Unless maybe I took a TON of allied detachments? Maybe? Idk the rules for how you would take assassins in an allied detachment. But if you're still interested read on!

 

 

Blood Angels;

 

3 Drop pods (the pattern that transports dreads)

 

2 Dreadnought Librarians with force spears

 

2 Dreads with 4 autocannons

 

A DELETED bunch of other dreadnoughts with combinations of twin lascannons & Dread CCW with Heavy Flamers. I can't remember how many but it was the standard loadout.

 

 

Mission: Deadlocked

Deployment Style: Corners

 

 

So we've got a very cluttered board, half forest terrain and half city. Blood Angels get to choose the map and deployment type. We start deploying and I've got the 5 Eversores to put into 'Deep Strike' so he ends up getting first turn. On the board are my Interceptors (with GoI), Purgators (far away in cover), my Custodes, 1 Assassin, Brother Champ, and Crowe. Everyone is hiding. All other units in Deep Strike

 

Turn 1

 

BA: 8 autocannons fire on my Interceptor squad and reduce them to 2. Autocannons. Another 2 autocannons fire on my other interceptor squad removing 2. Autocannons. Rest of his turn is moving to grab the objectives he generated.

 

GK: Move to secure objectives. Brotherchamp moves alone up toward a dread&pod holding nearby objective. I hope his hammer hand will give him the edge against the Dread. Discussion ensues as to whether or not the pod blocks line of sight. Discussion ensues as to whether the pod block charging. Drop pods are still dumb...DEEPSTRIKE EVERYONE!!! Assassins all over the board, Paladins popping up near objectives, Voldus appears on highground near the middle of the map.

      Psychic Phase: Voldus with his Leadership 10 (+1 warlord trait) casts Purge Soul on the dreadnought threatening the Brother Champ. POP! Well not total pop, mostly popped. Smites from Voldus and Brotherchamp finish it off. Purgators GoI onto the highground with Voldus. I am intrigued by how the Psilencers will do. Interceptor squad with only 1 casualty shunts near an objective and dreadnought, other Interceptor squad with 2 remaining hide in back lines holding objective.

 

     Shooting Phase: Ok here's the fun bit. Most of the shooting does little pecks or dings here and there, remember I've only got storm bolters besides the Purgators. BUT...the Purgators open up on his HQ Dreadnought Librarian! Voldus gives them reroll 1's. 24 shots rerolling 1s is no laughing matter. Wounding on 5's, HQ has 3+. HQ gets :cussing PLASTERED! Did a few wounds, but the d3 roll of damage cranks it up to a total death. Psilencer Purgators...interesting.

 

     Charging: only the 4 man interceptor squad makes it into combat. Do a couple wounds then get wrecked down to 2 with D CCW. 

 

...

.......

 

Ok this is gonna take too long and be too wordy. So suffice to say Paladins prove to be excellent objective holders, especially when the Objective is in cover! Purgators GoI to a better spot and Voldus follows them on the next turn. GoI avoids the Heavy Weapon limitation so they can shoot without penalty, and they wreck FACE. Not sure how it'd do against something with more than 8 wounds...but they did a good job.

 

Custodes, Voldus, Brotherchamp, and Crowe never see combat. Purgators make a 24inch ':cuss YOU' bubble that the dreads wont enter, giving me center control hard. Assassins do some OK damage, but surprisingly aren't that damaging to dreads, their 3d6 charge helps make some big moves and tie up shooty units though.

 

Game was called 11 to 7 for the Grey Knights, with only 1 dread left on the table. Casualties for the Grey Knights were 7 Interceptors, 3 Paladins, and 3 Assassins

 

Take Aways

 

Psilencers may be worth taking in big groups. I don't think 1 psilencer is gonna do the trick, but reroll buffed they hurt. Just a couple of d3s on a multiwound high toughness model is enough to wreck its day

 

Force Swords are great. You're wounding on 5's usually, but the -3 AP and d3 wounds per hit can make a difference. Every one of those has the AP and damage of a powerfist. Hammers are great for the guaranteed 3 damage, but 2 sword wounds can easily result in 3 each and avoid the -1 to hit

 

Paladins in cover are a bitch to get rid of

 

Purge Soul with buffed Voldus isn't a half bad idea assuming you have a valid target. There's a lot of IFs before it pays off, but it can pay off really hard.

 

Eversor's probably shine better against hoards, but weren't awful. Is there a way to take multiple assassins now? Or are you obligated to take only 1 due to allies? I guess I could have had SEVERAL allied detachments and just lose all my command points? I only used 1 all game anyways

 

Lemme know if you have any questions!

Didn't realize there was a cuss filter, my bad

Edited July 19, 2017 by Valerian
Don't try to dodge the swear filter with substitute words.

[Holier Than Thou]

Cool report. One thing, Gate of Infinity doesn't avoid the -1 to shoot heavy weapons. I'm using a Psilencer Purgation Squad too, has been amazing in some games and pretty useless in some.

[Ninjoe42]

Are you sure? I thought I heard people in youtube battle reports saying that GoI specifically doesn't count as moving, not in the same way that Deep Striking does.

 

I'll double check the rulebook, but I thought it said you just remove them from the table, then set them up in a different spot. Or something like that

[Holier Than Thou]

Are you sure? I thought I heard people in youtube battle reports saying that GoI specifically doesn't count as moving, not in the same way that Deep Striking does.

I'll double check the rulebook, but I thought it said you just remove them from the table, then set them up in a different spot. Or something like that

Afraid so. It's in the Reinforcements sidebar on the page with the Movement Phase, it states units that are set up mid-way through a turn count as having moved in their movement phase. Gate of Infinity lets you remove a unit and set it up somewhere else.

[Ninjoe42]

It says, "Units that arrive as reinforcements count as having moved in their movement phase"

 

I submit for RAW consideration that GoI is not arriving as reinforcements, and is a seperate circumstance not covered by this rule and heavy weapons!

 

Thoughts?

[Ninjoe42]

I ALSO submit that the Heavy weapon descriptor says "If a model weapon moved in its preceeding Movement phase"

 

A GoI purgator squad is not arriving by reinforcements, neither did it move IN its preceeding movement phase

[Adeptus]

It's a legitimately grey area, but in general if it feels kinda like a loophole, then it probably is and I think this feels a lot like a loophole.

[Valerian]

There is no such thing as Allied Detachments anymore. You should read up on creating battleforged armies, starting on page 240 of The Rules.

[Brother Captain Sirus]

On the subject of GoI and heavy weapons we had a similar discussion in one of the other gk threads and it seems to be a grey area so the question was submitted to gw in the hope of an faq clarification.

 

Otherwise its a very good batrep, and sounds like the knights of titan are well worth there points. I'm using mine for the first time in 8th tonight, so hopefully i will be blessed with similar success.

[Ninjoe42]

Thanks Sirius! Good to know a FAQ request was submitted. I'll hope it come out in GK's favor, makes Purgators kinda nasty!

 

Good luck tonight! Let us know how it goes!

[Deadnaughty]

You can fit your whole army in 2 Vanguard detachments

 

You have 3 HQ's, 1 Troop, 6 Elites, 1 Fast attack and 1 Heavy support

 

a Vanguard is 1-2 HQ, 3-6 Elites, 0-3 Troops, 0-2 Fast attack and 0-3 Heavy support.

All units in an army and detachment must share a keyword. But they all have <Imperium> so nothing to worry about.

[Brother Captain Sirus]

Can only hope it goes our way and thank you, may be a tough one against orks though.

[Valerian]

You can fit your whole army in 2 Vanguard detachments

 

You have 3 HQ's, 1 Troop, 6 Elites, 1 Fast attack and 1 Heavy support

 

a Vanguard is 1-2 HQ, 3-6 Elites, 0-3 Troops, 0-2 Fast attack and 0-3 Heavy support.

All units in an army and detachment must share a keyword. But they all have <Imperium> so nothing to worry about.

And organizing your forces like this would give you a total of five Command Points (including the three free ones everyone gets) to spend on Stratagems during the game.

[Ninjoe42]

Can only hope it goes our way and thank you, may be a tough one against orks though.

As i understand it the secret to taking orks right now is 'stick and move'. They tend to go all Green Tide and move their whole force in one direction, so just give them something to chase and pick up objective points if you can, no need to slug it out!

[Brother Captain Sirus]

Last nights game went well, won 8-2 vp. My opponent called it at the end of turn 3, as i had claimed both objectives and all he had left was some lootas, a weirdboy, and three killa kans.

 

Overall we have some good units and some average units, brotherhood ancient, purgation squad with psilencers and a LR Crusader were definately some of the best last night, the Ancient armed with falchion killed the not-warlord-warboss in cc, purgation squad took chunks from boyz units as the d3 damage crippled the pain boyz usefulness, and the Crusader, it wiped out a unit of Flash Gitz in one shooting phase.

 

The Strike, Terminators, Interceptor and Dreadknight were all average. They did alright but nothing special, Dreadknight only made useful when it crush a painboy with overkill to deny his warlord fnp.