Eldar vs Grey Knights battle report

[Karhedron]

I had a fun game against my friend Adrian's Grey Knights yesterday. We both haven't had much opportunity to play this year so it was a chance for both of us to try the shiny new toys we had received in Psychic Awakening. I brought my Craftworld Eldar and Adrian his Grey Knights. It was a 1500 point game using the Ascension mission from CA19 using the Seach and Destroy deployment (table quarters). There were 3 objectives placed along the diagonal separating our deployment zones. Our lists were roughly as follows:

 

Eldar: "Expert Crafters" and "Masters of Concealment"

Battalion +5CPs

 

HQ Spiritseer Warlord (Seer of the Shifting Vector) Jinx/Protect

HQ Farseer, Doom, Fortune

 

Troops 6 Rangers

Troops 8 Dire Avengers

Troops 10 Dire Avengers

 

Transport Wave Serpent: Twin shuricannons, twin shuripult

 

Flyer: Hemlock Wraithfighter Jinx/Protect

 

Spearhead +1CP

 

HQ Autarch Skyrunner, Laserlance, Shimmerplume Helm

 

Heavy Wraithlord 2 Brightlances, Glaive

Heavy 3 Dark Reapers, Exarch with AML and Fast Shot

Heavy 3 Dark Reapers, Exarch with AML and Fast Shot

Heavy Fire Prism

Heavy Fire Prism

 

Grey Knights (from memory)

Battalion +5CPs

 

HQ Grand Master Nemesis Dreadknight, Sword Warlord

HQ Draigo

 

Elite Apothecary

Elite 7 GK Terminators, Psycannon

Elite 7 GK Terminators, Psycannon

Elite Venerable Dreadnought, Twin lascannons, twin autocannons

Elite Venerable Dreadnought, 2 twin autocannons

 

Troops 6 GKs Psycannon

Troops 6 GKs Psycannon

Troops 6 GKs Psilencer

 

Heavy Nemesis Dreadknight Hammer

 

Adrian won the dice-off and opted to go first, deploying the bulk of his forces in a large ruin near the front of his deployment zone. He put his Dreadknights in reserve and put a couple of squads behind a tower facing the objective on my right flank.

 

I deployed me heavy units in 2 small ruins in the middle of my deployment zone with the characters spread amongst them to buff accordingly. I spent a CP to put the large squad of Avengers in webway. I put the smaller squad in the Wave Serpent as close to the central objective as possible. I deployed the hemlock facing the Objective on my right flank and infiltrated the Rangers on top of the objective on my left flank. This was out of LOS of Adrian's deployment zone meaning if he wanted to shift them, he would have to send one of his Reserve units or use Gate of Infinity to teleportb across which would mean they would not be threatening my fire base.

 

I lost the roll to sieze so with a final handshake, the game began.

 

 

Turn 1

 

Grey Knights

 

Adrian declared the "Tide of Convergence" to make the most of the first shooting phase. Adrian moved his Ven Dread with lascannon to take aim at the Fire Prism on my left flank but kept most of his infantry stationary.

 

In his psychic phase, he cast Astral aim on the rifleman Dread and used Gate of Infinity to teleport one of his Terminator squads close to the Rangers but annoyingly out of LOS of most of my firebase.

 

In his shooting phase, his Terminators opened up on the Rangers so I used Lightning Fast reflexes on them. In spite of their various buffs for being in cover, only 2 survived to hold the Objective. After some careful thought, I played Insane Bravery on them to try and keep hold of the Objective. The Dreadnoughts opened up on my Fire Prism but due to mediocre rolling on Adrian's part and a lucky 6 saving me from a lascannon hit, they only managed to take off 4 wounds so it could still fire at full effect in my turn. The rest of Adrian's infantry were out of range.

 

Adrian declared a charge from his Termintors against the surviving Rangers. I was not too worried as the earlier casualties meant they were 10" away. Adrian promptly rolled an 11 and slaughtered them before consolidating onto the Objective. Adrian scored 1 point for that Objective and 1 for First Strike.

 

Grey Knights 2 : Eldar 0

 

Eldar

 

My Wave Serpent Advanced and managed to get within scoring range of the central Objective. The Hemlock flew over my right flank to target the PA Grey Knights who were moving towards that objective. The rest of my army simply lined up to fire at the Terminators and exposed Dreadnought.

 

Between poor casting rolls on my part and a Deny on Adrian's my psychic phase was a complete dud. Clearly I would have to deal with these upstart Mon-keigh the old fashioned way.

 

Fortunately my firing phase was much more successful. Boosted by rerolls from the Autarch and my trait, I managed to destroy the Terminators on the left Objctive and the lascannon Dreadnought. The Hemlock managed to kill 4 of the PA GKs in one squad but the survivor predictably passed his morale check without a problem.

 

I scored a point for the central Objective and 1 for First Strike.

 

Grey Knights 2 : Eldar 2

 

 

Turn 2

 

Grey Knights

 

Adrian teleported both Nemesis Dreadknights onto the Objective on my right flank, close to the Hemlock.

 

In the Psychic phase, he used Gate of Infinity to move one of the PA GK squads up to support them. He also used smite from assorted units to chip 3 wounds off the Hemlock. Once again he cast Astral Aim on the rifleman Dreadnought.

 

In the firing phase, the Hemlock was torn from the sky in a hail or Incinerator and Psycannon fire with the PA GKs delivering the coup-de-grace with their bolters. Fortunately the Wave Serpents field proved a match for the Dreadnought's autocannons and it only lost a single wound.

 

Adrian scored a point for the Objective on my right flank.

 

Grey Knights 3 : Eldar 2

 

Eldar

 

The Dire Avengers in the Wave Serpent disembarked to hold the central objective. The Wave Serpent Advanced again and manged to just get in range to claim the objective on my left flank. My fire base largely remained stationary and targetted the recently appeared Dreadknights.

 

With both my psykers out of range of offensive powers, I satisfied myself with casting Fortune on the damaged Fire Prism.

 

In the firing phase, I managed to kill the Grand Master Dreadknight and badly damage the normal one although it took all my firepower.

 

I scored 2 points for the central and left-hand objectives and 1 for Slay the Warlord.

 

Grey Knights 3 : Eldar 5

 

 

Turn 3

 

Grey Knights

 

Adrian largely kept his forces in place to try and maximise his firepower.

 

In the psychic phase he once again cast Astral Aim on the Dread and used Gate of Infinity to teleport his last squad of Terminators right into the centre of my firebase. He wasn't going to go down without a fight!

 

In the shooting phase, the Dreadnought and Dreadknight took a heavy toll on the Avengers holding the central objective. With just 3 survivors, I was forced to spend my last 2 CPs on Insane Bravery to keep the Objective under my control. Fortunately my firebase fared better. Despite an absolute hail of firepower from the Terminators, some lucky saving throws meant only a single Dark Reaper died.

 

I held my breath in the close combat phase as Adrian declared from the Terminators against the nearest Fire Prism. Fortunately, even with a CP reroll, he only manged an 8 and the Terminators were left staring down a lot of gun barrels.

 

Once again Adrian scored a point for the Objective on my right flank.

 

Grey Knights 4 : Eldar 5

 

 

Eldar

 

My movement phase was fairly quiet as most of my shooty units had targets and I held 2 out of 3 Objectives. My last squad of Avengers emerged from the webway near the wounded Dreadknight.

 

I finally managed to get a decent psychic phase. After luring out Adrian's only deny with a Smite from the Farseer, I cast Jinx and Doom on the Terminators in my deployment zone.

 

In the shooting phase, my Reapers and Prisms obliterated the Terminators while the Wraithlord and Dire Avengers finished off the Dreadknight.

 

Once again I scored 2 points for the Objectives I held. At this point Adrian conceded as the bulk of my army was intact while he was down to a Dreadnought, Draigo, an Apothecary and a few PA GKs

 

Grey Knights 4 : Eldar 7

 

Summary

 

That went pretty well on the whole. I think Adrian's reliance on Gate of Infinity for mobility hampered him as it limited him to redeploying just one unit per turn. I think if he had put both Terminator squads in Reserve, he could have hit me a lot harder on T2 and saved GOI for moving around the PA GKs. Also, in hindsight I think he would have been better served by the Tide of Shadows, at least initially. While Tide of Convergence did allow him to casually swat down the Hemlock, I think the defensive tide would have served him better given my general ranged firepower superiority. However it was his first game with the new toys in PA4 so I think there was a definite learning curve there. I am sure it won't be so easy next time.

 

On my own side, it was one of those rare battles where things mostly went according to plan. Although I love my Hemlock, I think a Crimson Hunter Exarch would have been better in this game as it would not have needed to get so close to all that short-ranged firepower. Also it would have given me something to hunt down that rifleman Dreadnought with its annoying ability to shoot round corners.

 

Between Astral Aim and units teleporting into close range, I got practically no benefit from Masters of Concealment in this game. However Expert Crafters proved to be an even bigger boost than I was expecting. Combined with my Autarch's reroll bubble, my Heavy units were taking a fearsome toll on the enemy without any need for stratagems or psychic support. I didn't even need to use Linked Fire on my Prisms which meant my CPs lasted longer than usual too. If you run your heavies as MSU, Expert Crafters is almost like playing your shooting phase on easy mode. I will definitely be using this trait again.