Battle for Salvation Recap

First, I wanted to recap on the BFS then do some short battle reports. I'll be going a bit more in-depth with Stephen in Episode 89.

First, as to the tournament, I thought it was excellent. Bob told me a few times that they had had a couple of hiccups here and there, but as a participant, I didn't notice any of it. The only potential place I noticed a hiccup was that the time table would be a little off here and there, but honestly, I would only notice that just in passing.

The event was great. It was well run. Prize support was spot on. The location was awesome. It was plenty big, near easy access food (a mall food court even!). We actually drove in both Saturday and Sunday as we were staying with Dan (from Ten Inch template) whilst there. The drive wasn't bad either day.

The BFS, in my opinion, was very low stress/key, and it's exactly what you want in a good GT. It was simple to follow and straight forward. I know that some tables around me had some rules disputes, and from what I could tell, they were all resolved with a more than adequate amount of discussion and thought.

The only quibble I can offer to help them improve was on the terrain issue about the center piece not being area as well as the open hills. I think that most players were confused, one way or another, about the terrain announcement. Really, though, I only had the discussion once throughout the day about resolving any confusion.

Note that I am a fairly laid back guy when it comes to events. So, that's where my opinion comes from.

On to games...

Here's the list I settled on. I did take the 2nd Land Raider, even though it hurt my soul, but I made it useful in some occasions. I was glad it got some use before it rots on my shelves, but I will definitely be dropping it in the future.

HQ:

"The Unshakeable Will/The Manslayer" Coteaz - 100

"Smiley, Vanquisher of Armies" The Librarian - 170 (Shrouding, MoT, Warp Rift, Quicksilver)

Elites:

3 x Ven Dreads + Psybolts + Autocannons - (195 ea.)

Troops:

4 x 3 x Warrior Acolytes + Bolters - (66 ea.)

Psybacks + Searchlights

7 x DCA - 105

7 x DCA - 120

1 x Banisher

Heavy:

1 x Dreadnought + Psybolts + Autocannons - 135

2 x Land Raider Redeemers + Psybolts + Multi-Melta - 260

Total: 1999

So, list notes.

For starters, I didn't remember my LRR's even had Psybolts until round 5. A funny story actually. I also forgot I took searchlights. Lastly, the Banisher was really a d-bag move. In retrospect, I would have felt really bad had I played a demon player, and he will be coming out of this list.

Otherwise, the Dread + DCA combo continues to be devastating to many lists. Having now gone through the GT, I will be reverting back to my older style list though with more shooting and a few more DCAs.

Let me go ahead and apologize to my Round 1 opponent whose name I don't recall. :(

Short Battle Reports:

Round 1, and I drew a Space Wolf player playing what I would call the traditional Razorspam Wolves. His list looked something like:

HQ:

Rune Priest

Thunder Lord with Axe + Warrior Born and the trimmings

Elites:

2 x Scout Squads w/ Melta

Wolf Guard to split out

Troops:

5ish or so 5 melta hunters with Backs (mostly las/plas some tl las)

Fast:

Fenrisian screen for the Thunder Lord

Heavy:

3 x Long Fangs with missiles

Right away, going into this, you have to understand I have had about 3 hours of sleep. I'm feeling extremely nauseated and am not looking for the rest of the day. My demeanor is okay, and my opponent was funny. I'm only stating this because I actually felt bad because I was so sluggish he would tell me jokes that would take me entire seconds to process and get. All I want to say is I hope I didn't come off as unfriendly, but the reality was, I felt like I was moving in slow motion. :P

Anyways, this guy had a great stock SW list. He played it to the best of his ability. It was a giant shooting match. As I expected when I took the damnable Land Raiders, I lost one right away. The second got immobilized on Turn 2. Go Land Raiders! Already I'm mad at myself for taking them. :) This will change over time though.

My opponent got first, and we basically traded shots throughout the game. His Wolf scouts both completely whiffed on the turn they came on and gave up free KPs to me via my DCA who were now stuck in the backfield thanks to their ride getting smashed. I slowly started winning the shooting war as I whittled down Long Fangs and killed Razors. Late game, his Wolf Lord made a valiant attempt to come back field but was cut down by DCA. The game wore on, and I eventually just won the attrition war on KPs.

Round 2: Mike Sommerville (SP?)

Anything but Mech Guard... Anything but Mech Guard! DOH... :)

I faced Mike before at NoVA 2010. This was a rematch and we both were playing different armies. Right out of the gate, this was the most fun game of 40K I have played in a long, long time. This was an epic, knockdown, drag out, war which was the proverbial "just a couple dice rolls" from having gone either direction.

His list approximate:

HQ:
CCS plasma I think

Chimera

Elites:

None?

Troops:

One platoon squad in chimeras with meltas

Several melta vets in chimeras

Fast:

2 x Vendettas

1 x Valk (yes really!)

Heavy:

2 x Manticores

1 x LRD

As you can guess with my list, my goal, knock out the Manticores and Vendettas. As this was objectives, I figured if I could do that and still have enough army last to fight, I could just hold back and take objectives. I got first turn! This could happen.

I shot and he cover saved all but one damage result. All I did was stun the LRD. Not looking good for the home team! I had not rushed forward with the LRR (a huge mistake) but instead tried to find cover for shrouding on my movement. I had just moved the Dreads into position to try and space out from Manticore fire and shake/kill vendettas. His Turn, Smiley's LRR goes down to a Manticore, I lose a Dread to melta vets in the Valk, and another dread to the Vendettas. I lose a gun off a Razor. I’m thinking, this isn’t going well!

Decided that I’ve pretty much lost the alpha strike war and that the game is over, in my turn, I just risk it and drive my final LRR up over the middle terrain, and deposit The Manslayer out the front door to assault the LRD. My Dreads take down one Vendetta and one Valk. My LRR takes a crack shot at a Manticore and kills it with the Multi-Melta. I did a lot of damage here, but unless he whiffs horribly, it won’t be enough.

Then, he whiffs horribly. I forgot to mention he had reserved most of his Chimeras which was smart. Had they have come on Coteaz would have been greased as with my other Raider. He failed every reserve roll, and his shooting was entirely ineffective. The game was back on.

Turn 3, the LRR rolls up to his other manticore and small chimera wall. The girls jump out, Coteaz walks over and rejoins, the LRR takes out a Chimera, they will assault into another to kill it. Smiley and his remaining girls take out the small vet squad that was in the Valk and consolidate into cover near an objective. I start moving units to mid to take objectives and the long walk (we were playing Spearhead) commences with my remaining Dreads moving across the board towards another objective. My dread gets another crazy, crack shot off and takes the gun of the remaining Manticore. The Other Vendetta is gone.

His reserve come on. The LRR, Coteaz, and the girls all get cooked. Smiley get shots down to just his lonesome. He starts racing elements forward to be able to contest.

The next few turns are all about position and me trying to use my remaining fire power to stop him from getting into my quarters. The game is foremost quarters, and I need to tie him on this. I get some lucky immobilizes in from both his dice and mine to slow the advance enough to keep my quarters. Now, it becomes about objectives.

It comes to this, he holds one Objective after Smiley bites it finally. I hold one objective in my quarter. He then takes another in his corner. Now, he need to contest the one on my side of the board away from my deployment and mid, at which I have scoring units on both. He will contest the left most with a normal Infantry Platoon that has walked over under fire. He will contest mid with Chimera full of melta vets.

First, I try to get a Dread over to assault the infantry platoon. He whiffs his difficult and won’t make it. I then try to tank shock with a Razor, but he passes his LD test. I then shoot him to force a morale check which he will pass. I explode the Chimera in mid, killing some Vets, but he passes LD. And lastly, I try to assault the remaining vets with my Acolytes there for a glimmer of hope to miraculously win, but he cuts them done. Mike thusly holds 2 to my 1 and takes the win. At this point in the game, neither of us have very much left and it was a very back and forth game. Excellent fun!

Game 3: Alex Fennel’s Deathwing

Game 3 I played against Alex Fennel. He brought his Deathwing.

Approx:

HQ:

Belial

Troops:

6 x Terminators w/ Cyclones + 1 x LC (apothecary squad in there too)

Fast:

1 x Land Speeder

6 x Bikes w/ 2 x Melta + Attack Bike w/ MM

As you can imagine, this was a horrific match-up for Alex. To make it worse, his dice to hit/wound were absolutely abysmal. As to game play, it was very straight forward. I got first turn. I shot him up a little and moved my LRRs forward He had reserved his bikes and Land Speeder (smart move as he knew I would just them right away to get rid of the melta). He fired back with abysmal dice. Turn 2, I whittled some more Termies down, drove up, hopped out, and multi-assaulted Terminators with DCA. It was a slaughter. I did eventually lose some DCA as he put more Terminators into Coteaz’s fight, but Smiley’s girls chopped through Belials Command Squad and another Squad with relative ease. His reserve failed him. They finally came on when he had very little left. We played one more turn where he lost even more Terminators in a horrific roll in a fist fight with 2 Dreads, and I shot up some bikes. We called it as the game was not going to go anywhere in later turns.

Alex is known for being great to play with. He’s a tricky guy too being able to reach deep into a bag of 40K rule shenanigans to pull off great moves. Always a blast to play with and learn from.

Game 4: Jawaballs Blood Angels

So, my next opponent is the famous Chris Dubuque otherwise known as Jawaballs.

Approx:

HQ:
Mephy

Sanguinor

Elites:

Few sang priests

5 x Terminators with Claws/Shields + Land Raider Crusader

Chappy

Troops:

2 x 10 Assault Squads w/ Meltas

2 x Scout Squads, one with snipers and other for CC.

As you can also imagine here, horrific match-up for Jawaballs. We both recognize that right away. He can’t stay away from me because I have a heavy amount of shooting. If he pulls forward, my DCA will eat him. He spends a turn or so just plinking at me knowing that charging will be fruitless, and finally he just say, “hell with it, let’s do this!” and charges. He can’t win at range. So, when the blood and gore settles, Smiley and his girls are Dead, but Coteaz and his girls rule the day. It was a glorious massacre, and we called the game after all the combat finished. Jawaballs was very personable and fun to play with. Bad match-up is bad match-up. The Emperor himself couldn’t have won that one I don’t think.

Game 5: Ryan’s Grey Knights

I had played Ryan before at BFS 2010 at my final game there in the Bronze Bracket. He’s a personable guy to play with, and given some critical dice fail in this game, his ability to not start cursing loudly should be applauded!

Approx:

HQ:

Coteaz

OXI + Rad

Elites:

3 x 5 Purifiers + Psybacks + 2x Psy

Troops:

10 x Terminators + 2 x Psy

5 x 5 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters + psybacks

Heavy:

3 x Dreads w/ Autos

So, Ryan set up mid board as it was Dawn. The primary was KP. At face value, my Dreads beat his Dreads, and if I can take down his Dreads, I’ve basically got open season on easy Razorback KPs. Also, if his Psycannons do not stop my Land Raiders, my DCA will mostly likely just roll over him.

So, it goes like this. He shoots all his Psy at my Land Raiders. They epically whiff. My LRRs drive forward, disgorge DCA and chop up the Terminators, a Purg Squad, Coteaz, and the OXI. From there, it’s basically all over but the crying. We do some more shooting but my DCA and LRRs are pretty much unstoppable wrecking machines as he whiffs a couple more times with Psycannons. Eventually, I have enough KPs that there is no coming back and we call the game.

Game 6: Eric with White Scars

This was against Eric from the White Scars blog. Two things. First, I’m extremely excited to finally get to see one of these White Scars guys in action. I have been wanting to see how they do well with this army because honestly, I don’t get it. Second, I am now absolutely destroyed. I have had no sleep in two days and am literally spacing out as we are playing this game. I actually owe Eric several apologies because I was so spaced out, I was actually frustrating him by forgetting things, doing idiotic things, and a host of other problems. As an example, at one point I specifically remember, he had to about bash me over the head explaining why if I took saves on DCA that I couldn’t kill the Banisher, and it literally took me like half a minute to understand what he was trying to tell me. It did not reflect well on me, and I apologize. I drank a copious amount of coffee after this game because I knew that I couldn’t continue like that. :P I also inadvertently started a rules discussion which I will talk about in a second when all I wanted to do was confirm that I could use the same rule because it was a genius move by Eric.

Approx:

HQ:

Bike Captain + Claws

Pedro

Elite
5 x TH/SS terminators + LRR + Multi Melta

2 x 5 Stern Guard w/ Combi Meltas + Lascanons + Rhinos

Troops:

3 x Bike squads w/ 1 x Melta + Attack Bikes w/ MM

1 x Combat scouts

Heavy:

2 x thunder fires

So, I get first turn. I plink some shooting at him and destroy a Thunder fire and kill a couple Sternguard forcing a morale check. I pull up with my LRRs, flanking the middle LoS blocker as I have been doing in most games, blow smoke, and prepare to Shroud.

Eric pulls up with Bikes, takes down a Dread. At this point, in my stupor, I start thinking about moving Coteaz + Girls away from center to chase down some bikes and scouts he had infiltrated. I’m thinking that maybe I got assault range on those Bikes. I test the move and eyeball the assault range. After a painfully long time, the gears in my brain finally stop turning, I realize it’s a dumb move, reset, and then decide on a better course of action. My thought was, I got 2 Raiders, he’s got 1. If I risk it, don’t blow a dangerous test, and take down his LRR with my Multi-meltas, I’ll probably eat some return fire, lose a Raider myself, but then be able to assault with DCA and lay down the hammer blow to kill all his terminators and bike command. This is basically what happens, and we get embroiled in a big battle in center involving the Terminators, his bike command, a few bikes, and my DCA. The battle lasts for many rounds, but the DCA eventually come out on top. Some more shooting takes place in the meantime, and eventually he gets worn down in attrition. We call the game as proceeding after that wasn’t going to net any new developments.

The inadvertent rules discussion was around his LRR that exploded. His interpretation of the rules was that his Terminators could be placed such that only the smallest fraction of his base would be where the LRR was. We always played that you had to be inside, as completely as possible, the resultant crater. I thought this idea of his was awesome because that meant you could easily get out of terrain for an assault, beautiful for my DCA. So, I checked the rule book, and it looked like he was right. A judge was nearby, and I wanted to confirm it in the FAQs so I just asked to see the FAQs. What a dumb move that was. The judge then wanted to get involved in the discussion, but I had no interest in arguing it. (It was entirely irrelevant to the outcome of the game.) But now, being an idiot, I had just created a rules discussion where none existed. /facepalm. We kept played while judges discussed (because I really didn’t care what they said the answer was for this game).

Anyways, after all that, forgetting a lot Fortitude rolls, a morale check, and Eric having to beat me over the head to explain why my Banisher wouldn’t die if he didn’t take a wound (/facepalm), I needed some coffee BAD. I also want to get another game in with Eric sometime so he doesn’t think I’m a complete idiot. ( Just partial would be fine! )

Game 7: Mike Brandt’s Guard

Anything but Mech Guard… anything but Mech Guard… DOH!

For starters, I am still amazed today at how Mike can manipulate a game of 40K with so much forethought after having played 7 games with little sleep. The only thing keeping me going this game is coffee because I am totally wasted.

Approx:

HQ:

Straken + CCS w/ Melta, Astro, Med Pak, Chimera

Elites:

Marbo

Troops:

Big Al’s Platoon, all Chimera’ed up, with Melta

5 x Melta Vets in Chimeras

Fast:

3 x Vendettas

It’s funny because I think Mike said I was a bad match-up for him. I’m of the exact opposite opinion because I think he is a bad match-up for me. My experiences versus Guard with my list so far are a total mixed bag. The more 12 armor on the board, the harder the game, and this list is completely spammed out on 12 armor. The reason for this is that it’s not easy for my Dreads to reliably stop 12 armor with a Cover Save. I actually do better in most cases versus Guard that carry more points into different kinds of Vehicles. Mike’s list just has piles and piles of sacrificial melta guns that he could hurl at Dreads and my LRRs where I trying to plink shots off of Chimeras to stop it.

He’s looking at this like, WTF Dread-Spam + Side Shots with Razors. So, it’s easy to, I think, see why would we think that about each other.

Any event, I got first turn. Mike surprises me by not putting his Vendettas in reserve. I realize that those are the only thing he’s got to kill my Dreads with so long as I stay away from suicide melta and the edges of the board (to avoid Big Al). So, Turn 1, I resist the urge to scream forward with my LRRs just to die to a fusillade of melta vets and hold them back. Instead, I just want to position myself near mid-board to contest/hold and get ready for later pushes to more objectives. I really give myself terrible odds of winning this game given that he has 8 mech-ed up scoring units to contest and hold with. I start plinking Vendettas and shake 2, wreck 1.

His turn, he moves up with Chimeras around some terrain. One gets stuck. He flat outs his Vendettas again. I plink at them again, shaking one and wrecking one.

At this point, I have to give credit to Eric because I was discussing my woes versus fighting this mech Guard army prior. Eric said one thing that stuck in my mind and that was “shoot the lead Chimera”. If you can immobilize or wreck it, that will force those behind it to get all clogged up and need to roll for terrain. So, my 2 psybacks that I had kept in reserve come on and immobilize the front Chimera. This forces lots of terrain rolls through the game and causes him to have to move around it. Good advice!

At this point, he suicides 2 melta vet squads on my LRRs. One goes down, the other lives miraculously. Thus begins the tale of Coteaz The Manslayer. Not wanting to risk my DCA to being shot up, I just hop Coteaz out to deal with one squad of suicide vets. He does so mercilessly. Smiley’s DCA, being the LRR that bit it, get out and clean up the other melta vets and then consolidate onto the hill mid. I will just leave them there to control the objective. Smiley gets on board the other LRR and moves up slightly still pushing slowly towards an objective but staying in shrouding range of the DCA on the hill.

Big Al comes in much to my relief. Board center is getting crowded. :P He comes in on my left to threaten my Psybacks and take the objective. I figure this objective is basically lost, but I can contain Big Al there with my Dreads. Now, what I want to do is focus on KPs. I figure, all I have to do is hold my right objective, contest mid, and take his left most objective, which he is only threatening with 10 melta vets on foot, and I got this. I actually think I got this won pretty handily at this point because he has no suicide melta vets left to come get my second LRR, and I will be in charge range of those aforementioned melta vets on my next turn to mop up and claim the objective. The reason why I think this is because I think one of his Chimeras is immobilized that apparently isn’t. This Chimera comes over on his turn and disgorges more suicide melta vets. Mike whiffs epically for a 2^nd time, but does one glance. He rolls the “6” to destroy it. Super lucky both for me and him depending on you look at it. Lucky for me he whiffed. Lucky for him he still squeezed in the destroy. If that had not of happened, the game would have been basically over right there. Coteaz, angered at the disruption gets out of the LRR and starts playing Croquet with Guardsmen in this new squad.

So, I still have this 10 man squad near the back objective. I try to shoot it up a little to get it to fall off the board, but he passes. My Dreads are just slowly moving and plinking towards my left most threating to contest that objective. My real goal is just to hold up Big Al in that corner and keep them out of mid. This would force Straken + whatever was left to come mid and keep them out of my other objectives. Again, I want to tie objectives and win KPs which Coteaz is single-handedly winning for me.

I’m missing some turns in here somewhere, but basically, it rolls on to turn 5. All game, Mike surprises me with his crafty plans in all kinds of weird ways that I’m still amazed by. (Especially being as tired as I am I can’t even imagine it). First, he stretches his one melta vet squad out from his corner to mid to claim both objectives. He kills the DCA off the hill with Multi-laser fire and Straken moves in to threaten. He uses Chimeras to block up the corner Al is in to keep my Dreads out from contesting. He tank shocks his Chimera onto my back objective. We roll to end. If it ends here, Mike handily wins on objectives.

It goes on. I needed this extra turn badly. Having this extra turn meant that I could shore up the win for 6 and 7 and reclaim lost ground by Mike’s big push. (Half of which I didn’t even see coming. Mike has an uncanny grasp of movement and situational awareness. It’s very impressive.) So, one Dread moves into contesting range of Big Al’s objective. This is a long shot for me, but I have just a ton of faith in my Ven Dreads to blow off melta shots and keep on kicking. They won’t let me down! I come rolling up with a Razor to contest mid now, but I have a problem. They will just melta it away with Straken’s squad on the Vet squad’s one melta in range if I don’t stop it. So, after much thinking, I send a Ven Dread into the maw of the beast that is Straken. I know my Ven Dread can do it. They never let me down! I need to tie up Strake to prevent his meltas from killing my Razor and hopefully survive the single melta shot. Meantime, my remaining dread is hauling tail towards mid to throw more bodies into contesting. My Ven Dread gets immobilized by Straken but holds the line. I love my Ven Dreads!

Coteaz, still raging, now goes after the Vet squad near the other objective. He pounces on them like an animal and cuts them down. I figure I got this objective easy now till my charging DCA + MoT whiff and don’t kill the contesting chimera. They do stun it though, and I figure I got this on his turn anyways.

Now, Mike is in trouble. Mid is contested. He’s likely going to lose his Chimera, and I got a Ven Dread sitting on Big Al’s objective. He’s now likely going to lose objectives and even if he pulls a tie, lose on KPs. He needs a lot of things to go his way. He starts off by throwing the kitchen sink at my Ven Dread contesting the objective in the corner. My Ven Dread gets immobilized but he holds true! I love my Ven Dreads! He resorts to assaulting with Marbo and melta bombs, but the Ven Dread still holds. He then puts fire into the contesting Razor in mid but doesn’t quite kill it. Straken still does not kill the other Ven Dread, taking off an arm. Coteaz finishes off his next meal, and I get a huge consolidate of 6 inches. It occurs to me that with a that + move + a good difficult terrain assault move, Coteaz could potentially assault into the Vets that are strung out to hold mid and his corner. If it goes to Turn 7, that will be the nail in the coffin. Smiley and the girls take down the Chimera and control the objective.

At this point, they call time. Now, if the game ends, I win on objectives, 2 to 1. The problem is, we never got a time call when it was approaching last turn. In other words, we never got a “last turn” call at the start. So, neither Mike nor I knew the game was about to end. I did not want to end the game like that because it would basically have robbed Mike of the opportunity of an epic comeback. They agreed to let us continue if we both wanted it, and Mike rolled off to move onto Turn 7.

Coteaz rampages up to Board center, makes his assault roll, and snags the Vet Squad dragging them into the Death Maw that is The Manslayer (who is now walking through 40 guardsmen this game if you are keeping count). My other Ven fends off Marbo for another round, while my other Ven there assaults into Big Al’s squad hoping to take him down and contest. Mike is making a game of it yet again (he sees so much of the board it’s scary to me :P) by taking pot shots at my back objective with Chimeras trying to wipe off my Acolytes there. But they survive it.

His turn, comes. Marbo still can’t kill the Ven Dread. Straken polishes off his Ven Dread plus another I forgot to mention I had assault in. Coteaz polishes off the final vet squad. The game ends 2 objectives to 0.

Watching Brandt play really is awesome. You have to struggle just to stay on par with the angles that he comes at you with, with that list. Recommend lots of coffee if you are going into a game against him just so you can try and keep up.

Defeating the Beast: Fighting Grey Knights Article #2

Red Herrings

As I said in the previous article, there are a ton of Red Herrings in the Grey Knight dex that for most armies only serve as a distraction. This does not hold true for certain armies like Orks, Tyranids, Demons, and sometimes Dark Eldar. However, for the mass of Space Marine variant players out there, here’s the list of Red Herrings.

Force Weapons – The fact of the matter is that Strike Squads are weak in Assault. Purifiers are substantially better. The bottom line is, they have Power Weapons and that is what most Marines care about. They are also Strength 5 Power Weapons. This is somewhat concerning to many MEQ players because you want to avoid assault, but how hard is that to do, really? Since Grey Knights die just like any other Marine, you can soften them up substantially before they get to you, and then, they aren’t so bad when they lack attacks. Grey Knights players, just in general, do not build their list around those Force Weapons, even the I6 ones. It’s a consideration, certainly, but not a place where they truly derive power.

Grenades – Once again, just like the Force Weapons, this is an assault based element of the Grey Knights. Grenades for Grey Knights just make already existing Death Stars even more of a Death Star. Usually it’s overkill. This may frustrate you immeasurably with your own Death Star units, but the real power is that Grey Knights are just exceptional at defeating Death Stars, grenades or no. Once again, it’s time to rethink those hammer lists.

Grand Strategy – This is the ability a Grand Master uses to make certain units outflank, scout, score, or what have you. Although you could potentially be tricky with this, you could also roll a 1 and only get to manipulate one unit. More often than not, the GK player is using Grand Strategy only because he took the GM for Grenades OR because he took Draigo/Mordrak. They don’t build their lists around this ability because it’s not very reliable.

Shrouding/Sanctuary – Shrouding is a big issue for some players. However, as a Grey Knight player who uses a Librarian, the upgrade from a 4+ to a 3+ isn’t that substantial. It’s Fortitude (see the 3+ save I get from Fortitude + Cover already) that really pays the bills. You can also hood me or as a Puppy player, Rune Priest me which has to be THE most annoying thing to fight against. The fact is, quit trying to out Mech me with your Marines. You can’t. What you need to be focusing on is denying me cover, not worrying about Shrouding. Or just shutting down Psychic powers. Sanctuary, although annoying, is not usually a game changer. It is if you rely on big Death Stars, which I’ve already told you to stop running.

Warp Quake – Yes, this can be a game changer versus Drop Pod armies, DDMs, Demons, and DoA lists. If the GK player gets first turn. If he doesn’t fail the roll or perils at an inopportune time. Warp Quake is somewhat of a safety blanket for some GK builds. However, with experience, I know that over the course of a game, its usefulness obviously wanes. If your desired army will rely very heavily on Deep Striking, you need to consider its effects, especially if you are slow. (Looking at your Fatecrusher builds). Otherwise, just plan accordingly.

All of the Red Herrings have a commonality in unreliability. Force Weapons aren’t that reliable if you aren’t getting the assault or if you need to Hammerhand. (Or just roll bad!) Grenades are generally overkill and only truly needed against certain units. Warp Quake is only good if you are a heavy deep striker.

Also, some of these, like I said, are bigger deals to certain armies. Warp Quake is certainly a much bigger deal for Demons. Force Weapons are much bigger deal for Tyranids. Sanctuary is much bigger deal for Orks. I will mention these bits for certain armies when I talk about them specifically. For now, let’s move on to the 4 basic types of GK lists.

4 Basic GK List Archetypes

There are 4 basic variations on the Grey Knights list types for one to consider. Ideally, your thoughts on how to best use your army to defeat Grey Knights will address at least some aspects of each of these 4 lists. Three of these lists leverage the power of the GK dex as I described in the last article in one form or another. You should be able to see how some of those elements apply to each of these generic list types.

It’s important to know the archetypes because this will give you a foundation for consideration when looking at how to build your own list. Rather than sitting around going, “THEY COULD BRING ANYTHING!”, you can use these archetypes to help direct your thinking.

Grey Knight MSU

For lack of a better way to describe it, the Grey Knight MSU build places many small Strike Squads, Purifiers, or both generally into Rhinos and/or Psybacks. These lists are also usually backed up in the Heavy Support section by Psybolt Dreadnoughts. Headquarter selections may vary greatly from Librarians, to Grand Masters, to Coteaz, and of course, Crowe. Librarians bring Shrouding and Psychic Defense. Grand Masters can bring Grenades and the Grand Strategy ability to add some scouting, scoring, or outflanking shenanigans. Coteaz bring the sieze reroll and sometimes bring the ability to pack the Troop choice with some cheap acolytes or possibly a Death Cult squad. He also bring Sanctuary and the “I’ve Been Expecting You” rule. Lastly, Crowe allows the MSU Grey Knight builder to use his Purifiers as Troop choices.

Lastly, these MSU squads will generally be equipped with a Demon Hammer and Psycannons.

The typical list looks like this:

HQ:

Crowe, Coteaz, Librarian, or GM

Elites:

2-3 x 5 Purifiers w/ 2 x Psycannons, Demon Hammer + Rhino or Psyback

1-2 Venerable Psybolt Dreads

Troops:

5-6 5 Strike Squads w/ Psycannon, Demon Hammer + Psyback

(Potentially Purifiers here if taking Crowe)

Heavy:

2-3 Psybolt Dreads

The intent of this list is to clearly exercise several of the true Grey Knight strengths listed previously. It packs in Vehicles, maximizing Fortitude and general GK mech dominance, Psybolt Dreads, Duality, and of course, a plethora of anti-tank capability in Hammers and Psycannons.

Primarily, this type of list relies mostly on Duality with a special emphasis on destroying AV 10 – 11 Mech.

This type of list forgoes the strength of being able to take down Death Stars. It doesn’t have much a counter-attack element. Indeed, this list, overall, is decently weak in Assault save for Purifiers heavy lists which may be armed with Halbreds. Still, Halbreds aren’t much of a threat to models with a 3++. Also, in assault, they have no real defense versus a “Horde”, once again unless it’s Purifiers with Cleansing Flame.

Grey Knight Death Stars

Very similar to a lot of Blood Angel builds you might see, Grey Knights have the ability to pack in some Death Stars into Storm Ravens and Land Raiders to come at you. These lists will attempt to generally leverage Librarians, Grenades, Assassins, Purifiers, Dreads, and potentially Terminators. The good news here is that if you are already quite adept at fighting against these kinds of Blood Angel lists, these are functionally the same thing.

Typical List:

HQ:

Librarian (Shrouding, MoT, etc.), Inquisitor w/ Nades, GM w/ Nades, Coteaz, Crowe, Draigo

Elites:

Large Death Cult Squads + Crusaders (maybe troop choice with Coteaz)

1-2 Venerable Dreads w/ Multi Melta + Fist (storm ravens)

1-2 Techmarines w/ Grenades

Troops:

1-4 Small Henchmen Squads for Scoring, Possible Psybacks w/ Coteaz

Possible Death Cult units w/ Coteaz

1-2 Squads of Purifiers as Death Stars w/ Crowe

1-2 Squads of Paladins w/ Draigo as HQ

Fast:

1-2 Storm Ravens (transport Death stars)

Heavy:

1-2 Land Raiders

Psybolt Dreads

The large variation in list types here depends on the type of Death Star the GK player wants to use. Some like Death Cultists with Crusaders. Some like big Purifier squads. Some like Paladin squads or Terminators. They use Grenades on Techmarines, Xenos Inquisitors, or GMs, to bolster their Death Stars.

Basically, the kind of list eschews most of the actual strengths of GKs in favor of just running the plain old rock list that a lot of other codices can do just as well. It adds GK flavor by sprinkling some cheap troops, some Psybolt Dreads, etc. Basically, though, it has the same strengths and weaknesses of any Death Star/Rock List backed up by some ranged shooting.

Nothing really special to consider here above and beyond what you should already be considering in how to deal with rock lists.

To be continued

Defeating the Beast: Fighting Grey Knights

I wanted to start a new series of articles on “how to defeat _____”, and I figured I would start with Grey Knights since that seems to be the talk of the town given how prolific they seem to be.

I’ve already read a few articles on other sites already talking about the best way to defeat Grey Knights. Quite possibly, the common theme and impetus for those articles has been that those authors are tired of hearing whining about “OP Grey Knights!’ and how all the band wagon jumpers are moving to Grey Knights. The theme of some of those articles has been thus, and I think that this detracts somewhat from the conversation as a whole. In fact, Grey Knights ARE a very powerful codex, arguably better than even Space Wolves, and I think that the first step in a discussion about defeating Grey Knights at large is to accept that this is a power codex in the grand scheme. Not only is it highly competitive, it also has a lot of easy to use builds which fit the “every man” of 40K. Further, the Grey Knight codex has a LOT of builds which fit the competitive bill. This means that any discussion pointed at “defeating Grey Knights” needs to also take into consideration all the potential kinds of Grey Knights you might see.

One thing I do want to clear up right here and now, though, is that the Grey Knights dex is not “OP”, “broken”, etc. The Grey Knights dex, in my opinion, is the example of what ALL codices should look like. Extremely viable. Many, many competitive builds, a decent amount of which should be easy to play and accessible by the “every man”. Fun to play. Interesting to think about.

As to the cries of “OP” or “everyone I know is quitting because they can’t stand the Grey Knights!”, these individuals should have already processed this when Demons came out, Orks after that, IG after that, Space Wolves after that, and what I’m sure will be Necrons or Chaos Legions after this. Stop whining about how good the GK dex is and let’s start discussing what you can do to compete with it. (And for Pete’s sake, don’t be that guy who says he only plays for “fun or fluff” and then complains when he can’t win games against a top tier dex. This is counter-productive and will only put you in the wrong mind set.)

On to the discussion.

Grey Knight List Potential and Power

Intelligence is critical to almost any plan. The more you know, the better prepared you will be. To me, it’s useful to first analyze where Grey Knights are actually drawing their power from so that we can understand the best ways to apply that knowledge in taking them down. Also, this part of the discussion is critical because Grey Knights have access to a lot of different, effective builds. So, how to best defeat a Grey Knight army, as I will talk about next, is best defined as how to analyze how your list will do against the varying types of GK builds.

The first key here is to firmly analyze where Grey Knight builds, in general, draw their power. The answer is not “Strike Squads with flippin’ Force Weapons!” or “Festooned with Grenades!” It’s a good bit deeper than that. One thing that makes the GK dex interesting to analyze is the amount of Red Herrings in the dex which serve to distract from where the real power in the dex lies. It is exactly things like Force Weapons and Psyko-brokes that detract from real power and provide a “smoke and mirrors” concept which serves to crush you by forcing you to focus on things that don’t really matter.

It’s things like, “OMG FORCE WEAPONS!” which serve to distract you. It’s almost like, “LOOK AT THE BIRDY!”, while the Dreads, for example, are the things that are actually doing all the damage. So, let’s take a look at where the majority of GK lists actually draw their greatest strengths.

The Psybolt Dreadnought with Autocannons

For many mech players, this unit takes the cake. Recognize that the Psybolt Dread actually puts out more anti-tank fire on average than a 5 man Long Fang pack. The reason is the twin-linking. A Dreadnought has an 89% chance to hit with each shot. A Long Fang as a 66% chance. Using poor man’s statistics, that means 5 Long Fangs hit 3.33 times. (Incidentally, if you are a Space Wolf player, this is why your 5 man squads always seem to always only hit with 3 missiles.) A Psybolt Dreadnought hits with 3.56 shots. Now, this is poor man’s statistics, but the point should be getting across.

Think of it this way. Each Psybolt Dreadnought in a GK army is equivalent to a 5 man Long Fang Pack.

If the GK player brings 6 Dreads, that’s like fighting a Space Wolf player with 6 Long Fang packs. Ouch!

The next thing to realize is that when a Psybolt Dread can reliably put down 4 S8 shots, against AV 10-11 vehicles, he doesn’t care about your cover saves. He will penetrate the vehicle 1-2 times in most cases, regardless of your 4+ save.

Simply put, the morale of this story is, you are a player who likes to run spammy style AV 10-11 (here’s looking at you Deldar, Razor Spam, Rhino Rushers), you need to plan right away for how you will shut the Dreads down and FAST.

Fortitude

It’s more than just annoying as an opponent of Grey Knights. Hey Dark Eldar players, you know how annoying that Flickerfield can be right? Well, look at it this way, every Grey Knight vehicle comes equipped with one. Don’t think so? Mathematically, by effectively ignoring 33% of the damage table, GKs basically receive the equivalent of a 5+ save versus the entire damage chart. And, yes, just like a Flickerfield, this applies to all damage results: CC, shooting, rams, and on.

But wait, there’s more! It’s BETTER than a Flickerfield because unlike a Flickerfield, the GK player gets to take his cover save in addition to his 5+ save. That means, when shooting at a GK vehicle in cover, that vehicle effectively has a 3+ save. (No, I’m not kidding. It really is a 3+ save). Now, factor in shrouding for extra giggles!

To make it worse, GKs barely pay any points for this ability.

So, what does this mean at the end of the day? Well, you could “rage” about it as being ridiculous, and it really kind of is, or, you can integrate this into your plan. First and foremost, this means that GK vehicles are hard to shut down, especially stopping them from shooting.

So, if you are going to play against lists of GK which bring a ton of vehicles, you need to bring some tools you might not have normally brought. Either you pack in a lot more anti-vehicle shots, OR, pack in a lot more AP 1. AP 1 almost negates the Fortitude bonus. Also, you need to consider how you could attack those vehicles while denying them cover saves. Or, could you pack in psychic defense to help shut this down?

It also means that Grey Knights are as good at mech lists as Imperial Guard.

Ranged Anti-Vehicle Fire

Grey Knights are unparalleled in their Ranged Anti-Vehicle Fire as it currently stands in 40K. Bet you thought that was Guard, didn’t you? It could be if I defined “ranged” as any shooting attack. When I say “ranged”, I mean anything 18 inches and higher. Psybolt Dreads, Psybolt Razorbacks, and Psycannons mean that GKs can pack an anti-AV 10-11 shot in EVERY. SINGLE. UNIT. Guard have BS 3 Chimeras with Multi-lasers. GKs have twin-linked Psybolt Razorbacks. No contest.

Unless the GK players are shooting at Guard. Funny how that works?

Save for the occasional rending off a Psycannon and the Psybolt Dreads, GKs really don’t bring a lot to the table that is really effective versus AV 12+ vehicles….. which Mech Guard carry en masse.

What does this mean? This means that in the world of GKs, you need a real plan of what to do with your masses of Razorbacks and Rhinos. Razorspam at face value simply won’t work versus GKs who can sorely outshoot you. Rhino Rushing only works if you can entice the GK player to shoot at something other than Rhinos.

A GK army can easily disable/destroy 5-8 AV 10-11 vehicles IN COVER, a turn depending on what’s in their list, and that’s WITHOUT considering Psycannon units.

The Paladin

A nod to the Paladin builds out there. Paladins are NOT your traditional rock style unit. People want to classify them as such, but they simply aren’t. Why?

Traditional rock units generally sorely lack in the shooting department. Think about it. Assault Terminators. Tyranid Death Stars. Thunder Wolf Cav.

Paladins can pack in storm bolters and 4 Psycannons which always shoot in “heavy” mode. On top of that, they can also fight pretty well in assault. They are not your traditional rock unit and should not be treated as such.

Make some considerations about what your list might do if you run into a 10 man block of Paladins. How will you mitigate them? Ignore them? Kill them?

Anti-Hammer/Counter-Assault

I know, hammer lists are fun. Nothing says fun more than charging 3 Thunder Lords across the board and wrecking face!

Well, actually there is something more fun than that. Counter-charging with a 100 points worth of Death Cult Assassins and a stupid tech marine with Psyko-brokes and kill all 3 Wolf Lords before they get to swing!

Grey Knights EXCEL at destroying Hammer Units. Access to Force Weapons, Hammerhand, Initiative 6, Psyko-brokes, Death Cult Assassins, and other things mean that if Grey Knights have a need to lay down a serious pimp hand, they can get it done. Worse. They can get it done on the cheap.

Likewise, Grey Knights excel at Counter-Assaults. Like Guard, most GK lists are happy to sit back and shoot, letting you get close, and then laying out aforementioned pimp hand. Guard have a pimp hand too, but it is not nearly as strong.

Save for some exceptions which I will discuss in another article, it’s really time to start reconsidering those Hammer lists.

The Purifier/Duality

The last real power of the Grey Knight dex (that I can think of at the moment anyways) is the duality of every unit, best show-cased by the Purifier.

What is Duality? Duality is just a word used to describe a unit’s ability to be both Anti-Armor and Anti-Infantry. Even the lowly Strike Squad can bring a Demon Hammer and a Psycannon to the party while also packing lots of shots with Storm Bolters. Even the Psybolt Razorback can handily take down AV 10-11 vehicles while adding 2-3 reliable wounds to the anti-infantry party.

The Purifier (and even the Paladin) exemplify this kind of Duality. Indeed, the Purifier is probably THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE of the 40K. He can bring Psycannons and Hammers for anti-tank. He brings 2 Attack S 5 Force Weapons. He brings Cleansing Flame for killing hordes. He brings Storm Bolters for anti-infantry. What else do you need?

So, lists which contain a lot of “Grey Knight” units bring a lot of duality to the party. The Grey Knights do not have a straight forward weakness. Their weakness is in their point cost

Conclusion

That’s enough for one huge article. I purposefully did not mention: Psyko-brokes, Warp Quake, Librarians, Grand Masters, and other things which are commonly mentioned. I’ll explain why in another article.