Ard Boyz Preliminary Round 1 Match
Chaos Daemons (Benjamin) vs Grey Knights (Alex)
Objective: This mission uses Annihilation, with the Traitor being worth 5 KPs. The Traitor is an Independent Character with a provided stat line.
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Length of game: Random
Special Rules: Infiltrate, Deep Strike, Outflank, Reserves, Night Fight, Seize the Initiative
Battle point modifiers:
+1 If you kill the Traitor
+1 If you kill an enemy HQ
+1 If you control more pieces of terrain than your opponent
+3 If you get the traitor you are controlling into your opponents deployment zone
Initial thoughts: Really, I woke up to fight my first battle against Grey Knights? And each side here would suffer the Traitor to live??
I've been reading the Grey Knight codex, so I know what's poop-my-pants scary vs flashy-scary. Let's take a look at this list, best I can remember it...
Librarian, Terminator armor
Grey Knights, Razorback w/ TL Las
Grey Knights, Razorback w/ TL Las
Grey Knight Terminators w/ Falchions
Land Raider Redeemer
Paladins w/ Halberds
Land Raider
Dreadknight w/ Nemesis Greatsword
Oh, I think I that can be handled. Except for the Dreadknight. He will be a problem.
Deployment
I win the roll off and force him to deploy in the open. I don't want him cowering behind those bastions.
He lines up everything as far up as he can. He places the Traitor in the unpainted Razorback.
Turn 1
I place the GK-Traitor in reserve. I get my preferred wave and drop like its hot.
Fateweaver
Chopstar
x2 Soul Grinder
Bloodletters w/ Icon
Nurglings
Because of the GK-Traitor, I think I'm allowed to drop 8 units in one wave. I don't know. My opponent doesn't object. It happened, and it happened early in the morning. In retrospect, doesn't change the outcome in the slightest.
Where's Fateweaver? The winds of chaos took him on a small journey. I needed to take another picture.
As if Kairos fears the space outside the known universe!
I run forward, with nothing to fear. Except the Dreadknight.
He pushes up his Land Raiders. He shoots the Chopstar to negligible effect. I get the feeling I'm walking into a trap. I bite.
Oh, we both accidentally disregarded Night Fight. Like I said, early morning. 11 AM. Moving on.
Turn 2
The Traitor comes in and attaches to the Nurgling squad. That is according to my plan.
I also get a squad of Fiends and a Bloodletter squad. Kairos moves into support range. I push up with my Soul Grinders, who are my best chance of cracking the Land Raiders. The Redeemer is exploded by the black/blue Soul Grinder.
The Dreadknight gets hung up in terrain. His Paladins telegraph their desire to charge my Chopstar next turn. Both Grey Knight squads get out of the Razorbacks, open fire on the Chopstar and assault in. With the Traitor. Chop!
With his Librarian and Terminators with Falchions, he shoots off a Dreadnought arm and charges in. This after we did the math to determine he cannot hurt my Soul Grinder in close combat. Now I have no idea what's going on.
Turn 3
Second squad of Fiends, third squad of Bloodletters, third Soul Grinder, the Screamers, everything is now in by Turn 3. I'm moving the Bloodletters to control terrain pieces. My opponent insists this is not important.
I come to realize, despite the mission packet being in front of him, Alex hasn't really read it or understood it. I try to point this out, but I can't belabor the point. If he doesn't want help, I can't help him. The answer can be settled at game's end. For now, I'm going to kill as many Grey Knights as daemonically possible.
The Paladins are loosed upon the Chopstar. They swing, do wounds and I roll saves.... Do I get Fateweaver's re-roll?
Yes! By the tiniest of margins.
Turn 4
The Screamers are aiming to target the Land Raider. I cross the Fiend squads such that one multi-assaults the Paladins and the Land Raider, while the second squad also piles into the Paladins. The Paladins still get to swing first, by Fateweaver's re-rolls doom the Paladins to a death of power weapons, rending and skull taking. I consolidate away from the Dreadknight.
Notice Skulltaker's position relative to the Dreadknight.
Alex pushes his Dreadknight into assault with the Chopstar. And here's where I learn something crucial. Skulltaker has an ability called “Skulls for the Skull Throne!” It allows him to rend on 4+ and those wounds inflict instant death. It's not a daemonic gift, and so can't be countered by Dark Excommunication. Skulltaker makes his invulnerable saves against the DKs attacks and counters by taking the Dreadknight's skull with wound rolls of 1, 2 and 4.
Turn 5 & 6
From here on out, pictures aren't necessary. I try and fail to damage a retreating Land Raider for 2 turns. The Soul Grinder is still pounding away on the Librarian and the Terminators, to minimal effect.
Game Over!
We tally up kill points. I kill the Traitor target and all but 3 units. Alex kills zero Daemon units. Compared to the paper match up, this is shocking. This is also a portend of how Grey Knights would fare on the day, 3 of 14 players, none of whom crack the top-half.
Alex was there to put models on the table. I was there to take them off. The original odd couple! Alex was a good sport throughout the match as we had some interesting conversation on the painting/conversion side of the hobby.
Alex would need improvement across the board, but improvement is possible. The two areas I'd start with are the biggest ones: list-building and deployment.
List-building
Multiple weapons for wound allocation purposes alone are often worth the points, nevermind the utility and flexibility. TL Las Razorbacks are over-priced.
Deployment
The Traitor should have been deployed in the Land Raider, even if that meant shunting out the Librarian. I feel everything else should have made a circle of death to protect the Traitor.
There are still tactics and strategies to analyze in a steamroll match like this, and lessons to take away. By not panicking (and I almost did), I put myself in a position to succeed. I had plans and executed them. The time and energy reading other codices does pay off. Finally and most importantly, no amount of Dark Excommunication can deny Skulltaker. Chop!
Oh, I avoided running the Traitor across the board, because of the Dreadknight's personal teleporter. That's an important point. I could have made a run for it, but I didn't want to give Alex reason at any point to drop in my backline.
So two solid matches! But 8th place? What happened? I'll tell you next.
