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| What do you mean it's not got Skyfire‽ |
Well, this was the second outing for my Grey Knights since 6th ed hit, against the same opponent with the same list. Knights vs Deldar as stated in the title (naturally) First off a couple of notes: 1) I apologise for the quality of the pictures. It's not a great camera and if I zoomed in at all it would have gone blurry (at least that's the excuse I'm sticking with) 2) The pictures are all of the ends of each game turn, not player 3) The Stormraven is missing one of it's multimeltas because I lost it earlier in the day. Go me. Repairs are being made 4) I was using a trimmed down version of a relatively effective Knight list whilst my opponent (who plays very rarely) was using everything he'd collected, so was limited in his options.
Onto the action:
Army Lists
Brotherhood Champion 'Ezra'
5x Paladins - Sword, Psycannon, Hammer, Halberd, Halberd Psycannon
6x Termies -5x Halberd, 1x Hammer, Psycannon
10x Strike Squad - Justicar with Hammer, 2x Psycannon
Stormraven -Multimelta, Hurricane bolters
Dreadknight -Great Sword, Heavy Psycannon
Dreadnought - TL Lascannon, Missile Launcher
Archon - Power Weapon, Soultrap
Haemonculus
10x Trueborn- 2xShredders, 2x Dark Lances, 1x Blaster, 1x Blast Pistol
5x Incubi - Klaivex with Onslaught
10x Kabalites- Dark Lance
10x Kabalites
5x Wracks -Liquifier
5x Wracks -Liquifier
5x Scourges - 1x Blaster, 1x Blast Pistol, 1x Dark Lance
5x Hellions -Stun Claw
Razorwing - 4x (that 2+ poisened missile)
Talos
It's 'The Emperor's Will' mission with 'Dawn of War' deployment. Nightfight is up. Ezra gets Intimidating Presence, Archon gets Tenacity. Point of interest is that in 3 games Ezra has rolled Intimidating presence every time. It must be his special thing...I'm referring to him as Ezra from now on not just because it's his name but because it saves me tying BroChamp every time. Yes I know I'm lazy.
Deployment
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| Right flank |
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| Left flank |
Pic 2: Trueborn behind Incubi, plain Kabalites with Archon, Wracks.
I deployed on my left, Dread out furthest, then DK, my SS combat squaded and hid at the back to try and not be shot off the board. I hid 5 them behind the Pals and the Termie squad (containing Ezra the Bro Champ). My objective is alone off to my right because there was no cover and a substantial portion of enemies across from it.
His objective is revealed as a Skyfire granting thing but he his DL kabalites are nowhere near so he can't use it against my Thunderbird when it comes in.
Turn 1
He basically moves up wholesale. His Hellions fly 1 into the forest on my right which turns out to be carnivorous. Strangely he's saved from the d3 S5 hits because the one guy in the forest flies into a tree and dies.
His shooting succeeds in the Hellions killing 2 Termies (including my Psycannon due to poor positioning). The rest of it patters off my Paladins. The Talos runs into the forest and thankfully the Scourges do nothing to the termies.
My turn, I advance my Termies up to hit the Scourges, my Paladins and DK move on his objective and the dread wanders forward incase I need it later. The SS's stay still to make the most of the Psycannons, I have enough turns to get to my objective. In the shooting phase the right hand SS takes out 3 of the 4 remaining Hellions and my whole left flank opens up on the Trueborn who lose 6 of their number. That's a lot of AP2 gone and a bit of the pressure off. Both units pass their Morale checks.
I'd held fire with the Termies to make sure I got into assault with the Scourges. Their overwatch kills one Termie going in and when attempting to hammerhand I double 1, perils, and lose my Justicar. Other than that combat goes well, Ezra duels the unit champ and wins, the rest are wiped out by the Termies who consolidate forwards 1" I think
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| Ezra and the Termies on the right flank |
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| Left flank, the dwindled trueborn still behind the Incubi and the Kabalites are now on the objective and so have feel no pain |
Turn 2
First off, his Razorwing comes in. This isn't too bad as I can now, potentially, bring on the Thunderbird in my turn and take it out, rather than the other way round. It goes straight for my Pals, who I think have him a little nervous. The right hand Kabalites back away from the Termies, the Talos and last Hellion scoot forward onto my objective (another skyfire one). The Incubi come for the Pals also and both wracks advance, the right ones on my Termies and the left ones around the ruin. Remaining Kabalites sit tight.
The shooting phase results in the Razorwing DL-ing one paladin and scoring 1 more wound on them with a missile, the Kabalites on that side take 1 wound off another Paladin and the Trueborn DL away one of the DK's wounds. The wracks both fail to make an impact, with I think AP5 and 6 rolled on the Liquifiers. The Termies take a Kabalite Squad's fire on the chin losing none and the Talos Heat Lance's one of my right-most SS.
The Rightmost Wracks brave overwatch and attack my 2 Termies and Ezra. Again, Ezra duels and wins, causing the only casualty of the fight. As becomes a recurring theme of the game my opponent fails his Morale check and pegs it. I consolidate 4" towards the back Kabalities in case I feel lucky next turn. On the other side of the battlefield the Incubi hit the Paladins with all the force of a wet tissue, lose 4 and flee. They consolidate 3" forwards also.
My turn: The Thunderbird comes in. Of course, I send it after the Razorwing to take out it's competition. I stick the Paladins and DK near the big Kabalites and Trueborn. The SS's sit tight for psycannons again and I conga the Termies between the Talos and back Kabalite squad to go for what survives. The Dread moves to bring heavy weapons against the Talos.
Shooting brings nothing from the Thunderbird as the Razorwing masterfully evades everything, but the Dread and both SS's combine fire to take down the Talos.
I send the Termies and Ezra into the back Kabalites in the assault phase. The hammer is overwatched to death but Ezra slices the Haemonculus in a duel and his Termis buddy kills a full 3 guys. The Dark Eldar fluff attacks and run away. The Paladins kill one measly Trueborn in assault but with no wounds caused against them the Trueborn (naturally) fail morale and flee the board.
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| two grey Knights, two fleeing Deldar units and the last Hellion the only things left on this flank |
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| The ninja-like Razorwing and dwindling Deldar flank |
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| The Archon in the ruins. Wracks are under the wing |
There's little left on the board now and out of the fleeing Wracks, Kabalites and Incubi only the Kabalites manage to rally. They move back towards the Termies for some vengeance! The Razorwing, twists and heads for my objective as it could get no good lines of sight with it's speed.
Shooting sees 1 W being done to the Pals by the Archon's squad and the other Deldar fail to kill anything. The left-most Wracks attack the DK and wound it once. It squashes 2 but surprisingly they hold!
It's about time to go for objectives so the right SS goes for mine and the Thunderbird gives chase to the Razorwing. Shooting sees the Razorwing run out of luck and crash into open ground. The SS's take down the last Hellion (after he survives a TL lascannon and Krak missile without needing cover!) and 3 Kabalites from the right-hand squad. They run. Again. Ouch.
With shooting and assault the Pals massacre the Archon's unit (the Archon himself challenging my Hammer Paladin, missing and getting pummelled into the ground). They head back towards the DK as they can't capture the objective. The DK himself is trapped in combat with no wounds caused on either side.
It is at this point my opponent concedes as he only has 1 fleeing Klaivex, 3 fleeing Wracks and the ones fighting the DK remaining.
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| Right flank and objective (the Termie and Ezra are just out of sight at the top) |
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| Left flank and the little that's left |
Thoughts
First off I had the advantage of him being purely foot based. Stormbolters and Psycannons seem to eat exposed Deldar and there really should have been more terrain for him to hide in. That being said, his aggressive strategy played into my hands as it brought his units into range much quicker. The Scourges at least should probably have held back to shoot from a distance, instead of just becoming punch bags for the Terminators. The Razorwing also could have benefitted from leaving the battlefield and coming back on to target the Thunderbird, but at that point I think he was worried about taking anything else away from the small amount of guys that were left. The Archon wasn't kitted out for combat, but he did provide Feel no pain to the whole squad, which was effective.
Of my units I'm especially pleased with the Terminators, they soaked up a lot of firepower and still had one left at the end. The Paladins did as well as expected after most of the DL's had gone but the DK didn't really get to show off it's stuff this game. The Wracks were quite a good match for it, now that they still get Feel no Pain against it's attacks. Again hats off to the Thunderbird, I'm beginning to think it's necessary to deal with enemy fliers but I'll trial without it just to see.
Just to sum up I'm really enjoying 6th ed so far actually. It seems to hang together pretty well.
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