GW North American 40K Tournament Rd3

For Rd3, I was matched up vs. a Blood Angels player. His list:

Librarian w/ storm shield
Sanquinary priest
5 x SM terminators (2 th/ss, 3 l-claws)
10 man tac squad (1 lascannon, 1 flamer, sergeant has pf); rhino
10 man assault squad (1 melta, 1 flamer, sergeant has pf; everybody else has bolt pistol and ccw; no jump packs) (embarked on LR)
5 man combat squad; razorback
1 vindicator
1 LR
1 LRC

Mission was annihilation w/ pitched battle deployment

My opponent got first turn. We both used standard deployment patterns accounting for terrain. I just made sure that my forces were concentrated together. I tried to seize initiative but failed.
His opening shot was his SM w/ the lascannon shooting from inside their rhino and he managed to hit, penetrate and destroy one of my LR's right off the bat. Inwardly, I groaned and thought this was not going to be a pretty fight.
True enough, extremely good shooting on his part (coupled w/ ineffective shooting on my part) saw my other LR and my dread destroyed by Turn 3. However, my units had a conversely good assault game. Summarized highlights:
- My GM and retinue destroyed his HQ unit comprised of the librarian, priest and termies, giving me back 3 KP while losing only 2 GKT. He then proceeded to rampage through the assault squad and another tac squad by game end.
- Justicar Armael squad survived the LRC's hurricane bolters and assaulted it w/ his melta bomb, hitting on a 4 and immobilizing it. They weathered another turn of shooting and he managed to destroy it w/ a second melta bomb.
- Justicar Uriel assaulted the LR, again needing a 4, hitting, penetrating and destroying it.
- Justicar Raguiel's squad was able to assault the vindicator (w/c was a Fast vehicle btw, and moved 12" and still fired its d-cannon! ). Despite needing 6's to hit, they scored a couple of pens and knocked out the d-cannon, effectively taking the tank out of the game.

Game reached Turn 7 and I ended up with a 6-5 victory in KP. I was also ahead around 100 VP. It was an awesome game that was pretty exciting till the end. Although I attribute it to my opponent's over the top sportsmanship. After destroying my long range AT units early in the game, he could have just pulled back and shot me till the game ended. Instead, he wanted the game to be more exciting and played more true to fluff since I think BA prefer to get in close w/ their opponents (?). It cost him the game but we both had an awesome afternoon

Nicely done, Rivan. I know for us losing just one GK hurts more than the equivalent model in another army. To lose an LR that early is just downright demoralizing. Way to stick with it and make the bounce back. Nice to go against a player that plays the fluff rather than the win. Very refreshing.

Congrats with the win! It just shows that grey knights on their own can be pretty nasty against vehicles.

Well done!
Blood Angels are definatly a tough opponent to face off against, and I'm glad to hear that you pulled through- and won!
Losing your Land Raiders early on is definatly a hard thing- but it sounds like you did everything right- holding on to make a comeback.

-Cease

Great work! Your Knights showed their armored limos

Just the other game against Guard I saw my LRC explode at the start of turn 2. Failed a cover save and that was it; the footslogging of the GM and his termies saw them whittled to just the GM and his loyal Incinerator buddy. On the bright side, that was all that was needed to destroy Iron Hand Straken and his buffed up squad, and exterminate squad after squad of gunlines. Just goes to show never give up faith!

very tense battle as it seems ... happy you won
loosing LR in turn1 is something that happens ... shit happens
Aubec

Awesome stuff!
You should know that BA's rely on the GK's for news of when their arch daemon nemesis returns to the material plane and would always fight with honour (hopefully )

Sounds great though!