Quick Battle Review, Unit Thoughts, and Reflections

[L30n1d4s]

Got a 2000 point game last night against an Emperor's Children army built around a block of 20 "mega-buffed" Noise Marines (i.e. T5, option to get 5+++ FNP, able to get S5 and Dmg2 on their Sonic Blasters, able to get +1 to Wound via VOTLW, shoot twice per Shooting Phase and, once per battle, re-roll all Wound rolls with the EC unique Relic "Remnant of the Mariviglia").

 

His list had:

 

HQ

-Tooled up melee Daemon Prince (10 x S9 AP-2 Dmg2 attacks on the charge)

-Dark Apostle

-Lord Discordant

 

TR

-20 shooty Noise Marines

-10 close combat Noise Marines (riding in Land Raider)

-10 Cultists

 

EL

-5 Chaos Terminator with Combi-Bolters/Combi Plasma

 

FA

-5 Warp Talons

 

HS

-Chaos Land Raider

 

Flyers

-2 x Heldrakes (Baleflamers)

 

 

 

My list was a Prescient Brethren Battalion as follows:

 

HQ

-"MW Bomb" Librarian with Halberd and combi-Melta (Psychic Epitome WL Trait + Smite/Purifying Flame/Vortex of Doom powers)

-Draigo (had Gate, Sanctuary, and Empyric Amplification powers)

-GMNDK (had Gate, Empyric Amplification powers)

**Wargear: Teleporter, NFW Greatsword, Heavy Psycannon, Gatling Psilencer

****WL Traits: Daemonslayer, Hammer of Righteousness

******Relics/Visions: Foretelling of Locus"(for redeploys of 3 x Core units) and Sigil of Exigence

 

 

TR/Dedicated Transports

-10 Strike Marines (all Halberds)

-5 Strike Marines (all Halberds)

-5 Strike Marines (all Halberds)

-2 x Rhinos

 

EL

-Apothecary with Daemon Hammer (had the Prescient Brethren WL Trait for Psychic Action to gain CP and the "Warp Shaping" power)

-3 x Servitor squads (cheap Action Monkeys/Objective Holders)

 

FA

-10 Interceptors (all Swords, with NDH on Justicar)

-10 Interceptors (all Swords, with NDH on Justicar)

 

HS

-NDK (had Teleporter, NFW Greatsword and Heavy Incinerator)

 

 

 

SUMMARY:

 

I started the game in Tide of Shadows to try and absorb some of his first turn shooting, which actually didn't help much because all his Noise Weapons ignored both Light and Dense Cover... lessoned learned!

 

 

So, opponent got first turn, moved several units around to get on Objectives, dashed the Heldrakes up both flanks, powered up the shooty Noise Marines, and then tried to take out my GMNDK Warlord with his 60 shots of "uber-buffed" Sonic Blasters/Blast Masters.

 

 

Fortunately, I was somewhat expecting this (and kind of even baited it by deploying my Warlord directly in front of him) and used the Sigil of Exigence to bounce out to his flank where none of the Noise Marines could target him. He ended up killing two of my sacrificial Servitor Squads and an empty Rhino and my GMNDK tanked all the shooting from his Land Raider without even losing a wound. He also killed a few Servitors in close combat with a Heldrake and tied up my second Rhino in melee.

 

 

On my turn, I changed to Tide of Celerity to help my charges, my Strike Squad dismounted out of the Rhino the Heldrake had charged, I "shunted" the NDK to within 9" of his Noise Marines, moved up my Interceptors to about 8" from the Noise Marines, and I gated Draigo to his backline. My GMNDK easily killed the Chaos Land Raider with his powered up Psy Weapon shooting (Empyric Amplification and Psychic Onslaught for S9 AP-3 Dmg3 shots are a dousey!) and I then killed most of the melee Noise Marines inside with Stormbolters.

 

 

I caused a few casualties to his Noise Marines with Psychic and Stormbolters, but also suffered casualties because every Noise Marine got to shoot on death (and was still getting full re-rolls to Wound from the "Remnant of the Mariviglia"), so I stopped shooting as much when I realized this and focused on getting into close combat with them (where they could only shoot with their Bolt pistols when they died).

 

 

Unfortunately, despite Tide of Celerity and a CP re-roll, both my NDK and my Interceptors failed their charge on the Shooty Noise Marines, leaving them free to power up and shoot me again next turn. Draigo did make his 9" charge on the Lord Discordant in the backfield and my dismounted Strikes did charge the nearby Heldrake (I had forgotten to cast Hammerhand on them.... another lesson learned!).

 

 

The Strikes killed the Heldrake surprisingly easily, even without any buffs and not even being in the Tide of Convergence. The Lord Discordant them got to interrupt and hit Draigo, since Emperor's Children have the "Always Fights First" ability as their Chapter Tactic and brought him down to 1 wound with all its multiple melee weapons (I had to spend 2 CP on Truesilver Armour for Draigo, otherwise he would definitely not have survived all the high strength attacks he had!). Draigo then hit back and killed the Lord Discordant with his multiple S8 AP-4 Dmg3 attacks and consolidated onto the nearby Objective.

 

 

Turn 2, my opponent forgot to bring in his Terminators and Warp Talons (which would hurt him a good bit), pulled his remaining Heldrake back to deal with Draigo (who was hanging on with 1W left), shuffled his Cultists and Dark Apostle around, dashed his Daemon Prince up to take on my NDK, and repowered up his shooty Noise Marines with all the buffs (except, of course, full re-rolls to Wound, since that Relic could only be used once per game).

 

 

In Shooting, his Heldrake roasted down the 1W Draigo easily but, even double-shooting, his Noise Marines and Cultists were only able to put-out 4W on my GMNDK (even powered up to S5 Dmg2 and +1 to wound from VOTLW... it really hurts them that they have no AP, so the GMDNK got his full 2+ saves). In combat, the Daemon Prince charged my NDK and got him down to 1W (but also bracketed him down to 3A and hitting on 5+s), so my return attacks only did 2W to the Daemon Prince.

 

 

On my Turn 2 I changed to Tide of Convergence, my Interceptors moved up so they could not fail the charge on the Noise Marines, my GMNDK also moved up to charge the Noise Marines as well, my Strike Squad that had killed the Heldrake last turn shuffled forward, and then I brought in all the units from Deep Strike: my Librarian, the two 5 man Strike Squads, and the second 10 man Interceptor squad. My almost dead NDK fell back from the Daemon Prince and lost his final wound to a lucky "6" roll for the Sweeping Advance Strat, while my remaining Rhino moved onto an Objective and my Hammer-wielding Apothecary shuffled forward as well.

 

 

Well, the "MW Bomb" Librarian performed as advertised, easily nuking the Daemon Prince off the table in the Psychic Phase while my massed Storm Bolters and GMNDK shooting was able to knock off the remaining Heldrake and the last remaining melee Noise Marine (I should have taken the "Destroy the Daemon" Secondary, as by this point I had killed 4 x Daemon Vehicles/Monsters). I then successfully charged the Noise Marines with the GMNDK (who easily tanked their Overwatch) and my Interceptor squad, who then proceeded to wipe out the whole squad.

 

 

At this point the last remaining Cultist failed his Morale test (we were both completely out of CP) and all he had remaining was his Dark Apostle and the 5 Warp Talons/5 Terminators in Reserve, so we called the game (I had lost Draigo, the NDK, a Rhino, two squads of Servitors, and a few casualties from one of my Interceptor Squads, so a good chunk of my combat power was still intact).

 

 

Thoughts/Reflections:

 

-My MVP was definitely the GMNDK, who absorbed lots of his shooting/close combat, killed the Land Raider, finished off the second Heldrake, and heavily damaged the Noise Marines all by himself. His durability, mobility, shooting, psychic, and melee make him the "whole package" and he was able to handle every mission I threw at him. He also make excellent use of the Prescient Brethren unique Strat which gives re-rolls of 1s to Hit and 1s to Wound.

 

 

-"Runner up" MVP was actually probably the Servitors... no, I am not joking! For only 30 points a squad, they absorbed the attention of my opponent's shooting turn 1 and gloriously died for the Emperor. One squad even survived with two models the whole game, even after being charged by a Heldrake. They also allowed me to put down meaningless Drops during deployment so I could see where my opponent was putting his forces.

 

 

-"Least Valuable Player" may have been the Apothecary, surprisingly. I had him to give 6+++/revive models (neither of which he did all game), change the Tide with Warp Shaping (which I did two times) and regenerate CPs (which he never did, since he was always casting powers to change the Tide).

 

 

-"Most Decisive Moment" was probably when I used Sigil of Exigence to "shunt" my GMNDK away from his Noise Marine shooty, keeping him alive for later in the game, forcing my opponent to waste all those powered up shots on Servitors and a Rhino, and setting up the GMNDK for a charge on his flank later in the game.

 

 

-In terms of my opponent's army, his Shooty Noise Marines were definitely very powerful, doing significant damage to my army just through their "shoot on death" rule and being tougher than expected (T5 and a 5+++ FNP at times during the game). Runner-up was probably his Lord Discordant, who brought Draigo down to 1W by himself (without any support, and even with Truesilver Armour activated), while the unit that was probably least valuable to him (outside of the two squads he forgot in Reserve, of course) was the Land Raider, which did no damage to my GMNDK in shooting and died itself to one volley of Psi Weapon shooting.

 

 

-My opponent made a few significant mistakes, including not bringing his Reserves in, forgetting his 5+ "Death to the False Emperor" rolls several times, and a couple of other things that might have swung the game in his favor. He also used the "Remnant of Mariviglia" turn 1 and really did not get great value from it, so in the future he might be able to maximize his damage output better by holding it back until he knows he has a target that cannot just "Sigil of Exigence" out of LOS.

 

 

Overall, it was a fun and challenging game, with my opponent being an experienced 40K general who knew how to get a lot of tricks out of his army.

 

 

In terms of what I would do differently in the future, here are some thoughts:

 

1) Number one, I would swap Warp Shaping off my Apothecary so that I can actually use him to regenerate CP (I burned through mine quite quickly, to the point that I had none left by the end of Turn 2). I also might just start the game in Tide of Convergence and stay there, as Tide of Shadows and Tide of Celerity did almost nothing for me the whole game.

 

2) Number two, I would be more careful about making sure to cast the right powers on the right units (i.e. using Smite from a Strike Squad that was about to charge, rather than powering up all their Halberds with Hammerhand is a good example).

 

3) Number three, I would be more careful about throwing Draigo out there by himself, especially when I have an opponent who can interrupt in combat with powerful melee attacks. Perhaps I will move him around with the NDK as his "wingman" in the future.

 

 

In terms of list building, a lot of my army performed well, but I might try and tweak the list to get a Chaplain in (for re-rolls in Melee or for Words of Power to double up MWs in Tide of Convergence). Also might try and free up some points to get an additional Vision, namely "Omen of Incursion" to deal with enemy forces coming in from Reserve, and also "Servant of the Throne" for a one time 3++ on my GMNDK when the enemy really focus attacks on him.

Edited September 8, 2021 by L30n1d4s

[techsoldaten]

Overall, it was a fun and challenging game, with my opponent being an experienced 40K player who knew how to get a lot of tricks out of his army.

 

 

In terms of what I would do differently in the future, here are some thoughts:

 

1) Number one, I would swap Warp Shaping off my Apothecary so that I can actually use him to regenerate CP (I burned through mine quite quickly, to the point that I had none left by the end of Turn 2). I also might just start the game in Tide of Convergence and stay there, as Tide of Shadows and Tide of Celerity did almost nothing for me the whole game.

 

2) Number two, I would be more careful about making sure to cast the right powers on the right units (i.e. using Smite from a Strike Squad that was about to charge, rather than powering up all their Halberds with Hammerhand is a good example).

 

3) Number three, I would be more careful about throwing Draigo out there by himself, especially when I have an opponent who can interrupt in combat with powerful melee attacks. Maybe even a minim

 

 

In terms of list building, a lot of my army performed well, but I might try and tweak the list to get Chaplain in (for re-rolls in Melee or for Words of Power to double up MWs in Tide of Convergence). Also might try and free up some points to get an additional Vision, namely "Omen of Incursion" to deal with enemy forces coming in from Reserve, and also "Servant of the Throne" for a one time 3++ on my GMNDK when the enemy really focus attacks on him.

 

For all the talk about the weaknesses of 8th edition Codexes, players have had a lot of time to learn their rules. Experience brings some advantages.

 

Can you comment about the pace of the game? Don't know if it's just me, by player turns seem to last longer with Grey Knight armies. Wondering how much of this is due to the Codex being new.

[L30n1d4s]

I agree, the game did seem to take longer, and my turns specifically took a while, in part because of double checking things as I went with a new Codex and in part because GKs have so much going on in each phase (i.e. lots of moves/adjustments in the Movement phase, obviously lots going on in the Psychic phase, good amount of Shooting, and a lot of Charges/action in the Fight phase).

[Dosjetka]

Thank you for taking the time to write down and share your experience: as someone who is looking at playing Grey Knights in 9th, the advice is very valuable. :tu:

 

Is there a reason behind your Strikes all having halberds and your Interceptors having all swords (with the exception of the NDH on the Justicar)?

[L30n1d4s]

@Dosjetka,

 

Thanks for the feedback and glad you found it helpful.