Warpcon 2012 Game 4 - Draigowing Grey Knights

Long Fangs v Paladins: They're a bit close though.

So after my loss the day before in Game 3 (link) I was pitted against the obligatory Grey Knights (they're always floating about near the top tables nowadays) ably commanded by Sylvan. It was a Draigowing list that I had seen him playtest against Angry Merl's Daemons so I had an idea of what was in it and thus, how to handle it.

I was hoping for first turn so that I could pound his army from a distance from the get-go but it was not to be as he put me in the corner with the least terrain, which wasn't that much of a hindrance as my army was mostly infantry and cover wouldn't be of much benefit until later in the game when Psycannons closed the distance and started rending. Sylvan set up pretty much as I'd expected: put Draigo and co as far forward as possible with the scoring Dreads (2 of them) set up near objectives further back to support their advance. So I responded as best I could: fire support far away and my Troops choices largely in reserve to get the jump on objectives later in the game.



Here is a photo from around turn 4 or 5 but it gives you an idea of how the terrain was set up - there was an objective in the centre of the board and another in each quarter.

Where Sylvan's hand is, you can just make out a Dread base (where one of the scoring Dreads was placed) while the rest of the army deployed behind that big terrain piece in the centre. I plonked the Fangs down on my left near but not on the table edge with 2 of the squads pushed toward the half-way line so that if they fled they wouldn't run off the board (they have a habit of doing that...)

Deployment: Spearhead
Primary: Seize Ground (5 Objectives)
Secondary: Kill Points

The GK list was:
Draigo
Libby with Shrounding, Halberd, Stuff
10 Paladins with 4 Psycannons, 2 Hammers, Halberds and a Stave
10 Terminators as above
1 Solo Paladin with Hammer
3 x Dakka Dreads

Against this army I was never going to win on Kill Points but I reckoned I could keep it close while I sneaked the objectives so I opted to reserve three of my mounted squads and deploy two Hunter units and the Fangs to make the most of their mobility and guns respectively while the unit with the Cyclone Wolf Guard deployed and was tasked with moving to grab an objective on my far left. The Rhino was hidden behind the graveyard with a squad beside it ready to move around turn 3 to grab/contest objectives.

Turns 1 & 2
The GK ran at me with the Dreads providing covering fire. A few guys died but nothing was wiped out while the GK's spread out and and made to cover objectives as best they could, with the Solodin Deep Striking deep in my half of the board, and then jogging onto a marker.

I had 2 units of GH show up and with a unit of 5 Paladins near the objective on my near-right I figured I try to get rid of them and move toward the far side of the board and pull the units out of the centre and spread them out so I could deal with them singly rather than as a group. I noticed that 3 of the unit was in cover and one of those was within 12" of the board edge so I opted to Tank Shock that model and force him off the terrain to put 3 of the unit in the open, so that when my GH disembarked and fired their meltas the unit would go from a 4+ save to a 5+ and with meltas inflciting ID my shooting would be doubly effective.

In the photo above the orange dice marks where my tank is and where the Paladin stood before being driven back by the Rhino's Tank Shock move, so there was a wedge of Rhinos (a) cockblocking assaults; (b) blocking LOS to Psycannons and; (c) providing cover to anything that could see them. My shooting was ridiculously good as I managed to kill 2 Paladins outright before 2 more fell over to a storm of small-arms fire with the lone survivor (on 1 wound) wisely choosing to fall back, but not far enough to regroup the following turn. That was unexpected to say the least and took the pressure off the GH, leaving them facing the Solodin (you can just make him out in the photo if you look closely enough: maybe I should give a prize for it if someone finds it themselves?).

Anyway, the Long Fangs had a pew-pew Lazors firefight with the Dreads but despite penning relatively consistently I rolled poorly on the damage table. Consistently. I suppose you can't have everything.

Turns 3 & 4
The major downside to this was that the GH were packed really closely together and Sylvan took advantage of this by dropping Holocaust with the fleeing Pally and the Solodin, killing a load of them and causing one unit to run away, which thankfully was the one that the Solodin had shot at so he couldn't assault that turn. That could only mean more Paladin/meltagun bukkake.

Unfortunately Sylvan had closed the distance with my Fangs (although he had left the GH squads there alone) and the Psycannons & Storm Bolters were beginning to take their toll reducing the numbers of all 3 squads to just one or two per unit. Now while they were firing back they were still performing poorly, only blowing weapons off the Dreads at best.

At least the Razors showed up in Turn 3 and I was able to get side armour shots on the Dreads but again little happened (shaken etc) and those poxy Dreads would be able to return fire keeping the pressure up. By turn 4 the Terminators were firmly holding the centre with the Libby and Dread (all Shrouded of course) while the Paladins were making shit of my Fangs in combat which freed up the Dreads to start pounding on my Rhinos & GH which wasn't pretty.

The Rune Priest & the Scouts finally showed up in turn 4 with the latter bagging a Dread in the enemy half and the former parking themselves on the near-right objective reinforcing the units of GH already there.

Yes, you can see Draigo on the left of the pic as he desperately sprints towards the objective full of Grey Hunters. The reason you see that Rhino in the middle of the board with no smoke up is because I was using it to (a) attract fire and (b) keep that lone Paladin running so that he couldn't move onto the objective on my right or worse, take the one on the far right near the Scouts. I did some more movement (toward objectives) and shooting (try to silence the Dreads to get KP) but that was all I could do at that stage.

Turns 5 & 6
In his final turns Sylvan's Paladins on my left took the objective near my board edge while his Terminators, Draigo & Libby had the centre. This left a scoring Dread near one on my right which had to die and Draigo sprinting to contest the objective with my Rune Priest on it. The Long Fangs were wiped out by thankfully I still had 5 of my Grey Hunter units in action, but not for long.

Cutting a long story short, Draigo devoured a squad of GH in combat but didn't roll high enough to get into range to contest although he did dodge Jaws when it was fired at him (he rolled a 6 but it was cocked and the re-roll was a 5) and I was able to force him back away from my objective in the end with Tank Shocks. The Cyclone Wolf Guard finally managed to do what the incompetent Long Fangs couldn't and bagged a Dread (the other scoring one) while the GH in the Rhino on my left took an objective despite having their Rhino blown up.

Meanwhile the Grey Hunters near the centre made a desperate dash for the objective on turn 5 but the game continued and they were chewed up and spat out by the Terminators in the assault phase in Turn 6. Thankfully, I still had a functioning Rhino (the one that the Rune Priest had arrived in) and the plucky engine that could decided to Tank Shock onto an objective. As expected the Pallys passed their Morale test but had to give ground to the vehicle which was now contesting. I was praying for the game to end and someone must have been listening because Sylvan rolled a 1 and the game ended with me way behind on Kill Points (there was never going to be any doubt about that) but in possession of 2 objectives to the GK's solitary 1 and netting me 11 points to Sylvan's 9.

Ramming Rhinos down throats like a pornstar.