Playing the Grey Knights in 6th Edition

I decided to start this thread concerning lessons learned and general information that I have learned concerning my games of Warhammer 40k with my Grey Knights army. Tragically I am a bit out of practice with this new edition of Warhammer 40k and even more so with list building. When the new Codex came out I basically had just one list for two years. I have recently switched from the list that I had made at the start of 6th edition as well- finding it was a bit weak with the current flyer heavy/ high AP spam that I see a few folks using in the local area.

This thread will contain various battle reports and reflections on games played. My earnest hope is that it will help me to reflect on my games played and gain some insight and advice from those who are much better at the game than I.


I played my first solo game last night down at GrimFoe Games in about three months. The game was against a new player- who has just joined the gaming group (not new player- used to be big in the tournament scene back at the tail end of 5th apparently). He was playing Orks- which centered around two Big Meks with Shockk Attack guns and Lootaz hold up inside two Battle Wagons. He was also fielding 6 Ork Dreadnoughts, a squad of gotz, 30 Boyz- two Trukks with Ard' Boyz inside, 3 buggies with missiles and a four manned mega armored Nobz squad (I do not have his exact list).

I threw this list together that afternoon before heading down to the store to try some new units:

Head Quarters
- Coteaz- Warlord

Elites
- Vindicare Assassin
-7x Purifiers- Justicar with a Daemon Hammer/ 2x Incinerators/ 4x Halberds

Troops
- Inquisitorial Henchmen Squad- 3x Jokero Weaponsmiths/ 2x Crusaders/ 4x Warrior Acolytes with plasma guns
- 10x Grey Knight Terminators- Justicar with a Staff/ 2x Daemon Hammers/ 2x Psycannons/ 7x Halberds/ Psybolt Ammo

Heavy Support
- Dreadnought- 2x Autocannons with Psybolt Ammo
- Dreadnought- 2x Autocannons with Psybolt Ammo
- Dread Knight- Telaporter/ Heavy Incinerator/ Sword
- Land Raider Crusader- Multi-Melta/ Psybolt Ammo

Fortification
-Aegis Defense Line with Lacannon


Summary:

We played Vanguard (diagonal deployment) and the Crusade mission- with five objectives on the table. He deployed on his half- using a hill in the middle of his side of the board to put his two Battle Wagons- with his Mega Nobz right behind to counter attack anything that came at him. He deployed his Grotz and big Boyz squad on the extreme right of his flank- keeping them back to capture the two objectives in his area. His Dreadnoughts were deployed in front of this horde- with his ork buggies right in front soak up more shots.

I deployed in the opposite corner- having my defense line in the corner- surrounding an objective. I kept my Terminators in reserve- in combat squads at a friend's suggestion. I deployed the Dread Knight and one Dreadnought in the center of my board edge- where the Dread Knight could jump out and flame a squad of boyz quickly. I deployed the other Dreadnought behind the Aegis to support the Henchmen & the Land Raider was directly in front of the henchmen to soak up shots/ prevent them being torn up by the Lootaz. The Vindicare took cover in a ruined building opposite of his Big Boyz Squad- with perfect shots on the majority of his armor.


Coteaz Reflection-
The game surprisingly went really well for me at the onset. Coteaz's Spy Network ability let me re-roll to seize the initiative- and I did. This allowed me to have my Vindicare blow up one of his Battle Wagons with the opening shot of the game- killing several Lootaz and putting a wound on a Big Mek. I then opened with with the Jokero weaponsmiths- blowing up the other Battle Wagon- putting a wound on the other Big Mek- and killing even more Lootaz. My Dakka Dreads thinned out a few more Lootaz (only thing in range/ Los)- whilst the other one blew up an Ork Buggy and ripped a hull point and weapon off an other. A pretty awesome first turn for the Grey Knights- and basically what I needed to do. Being able to seize the initiative like that is a huge deal for me- where I need to have the my fairly limited shooting dealing with individual parts of his force. Also making him react to my attacks was a big deal as it put him on the back foot from turn one. Coteaz having a 2+ was really durable throughout the game- surviving a plethora of shots from his army and not giving up his victory point (slay the warlord).

The Lascannon/ Defense line was interesting. My models hiding behind it seemed to die quickly- but I attribute this more some comically bad dice rolling on my part. I'll put it this way- there was an immobilized Trukk dead ahead in front of my Lascannon. It took me three turns of shooting from it...to kill with hull points...yea.

Deep Striking Terminators Reflection-
Horrible. I deep struck both squads- and immediately flubbed every roll possible. I had 12 shots against 12 unarmored orks dead ahead. Awesome right? I immediately rolled 10 ones out of 12 dice rolled. Then to wound I rolled another 1 and wounded a single ork. A 5 plus cover save from a crater? SURE THING. He makes it. 5 terminators fail to kill a single ork with shooting. The other five? Also miss. Every time for TWO ROUNDS. My gypsy curse once again reared its' ugly head.....and the dice sucked. Basically by deep striking the two groups led to each one being weak in the face of the superior ork numbers- and one was assaulted and killed by two Trukk Squads through a combination of bad rolling and overwhelming numbers on his part. The other squad shot from behind the Aegis- and it took them three turns to kill four orks with 3x Storm Bolters and 2x Psycannons....the Orks were not even in cover.....

I'll try deep striking again- but if it doesn't work again- I'll be sticking with foot slogging it....that was over 500 points from my army that was comically misused and ineffective.

Purifiers & Land Raider Crusader Reflection-
My original idea with the LRC was to get it to move in and kill his shooting on turn two/ turn three. I was unsure about the new vehicle assault rules- and as a result I was unwilling to have my breakable unit get out 8 inches away in difficult terrain- weather a turn of shots and probably end up starring down 4 mega nobz he had placed nearby- to counter such a move. Instead I moved the LRC and Purifers to support the Dread Knight. When the two units crashed into the majority of his army on turn 6- it basically disintegrated most of his force. The Purifiers through only shooting and using their flame throwers killed around 15 Ork Boyz. The LRC stood still on Turn seven and killed the other 15 without breaking stride. LRC are awesome- but are a bit more fragile in this edition. Keeping them around 18-12' back is essential to keeping these gun platforms alive for a little while longer (it survived until turn 7).

Also I missed with my Multi-melta and assault cannons for two turns against ork buggies and dreadnoughts...awesome.

DreadKnight Reflection-
I was a little bit too cagey using this unit. I'm so used to it jumping in and dying in two seconds before it can really do anything. Granted this was not an issue this game, as he basically was the one model in my army that really pulled his own weight other than the LRC. I kept him back for three turns before I pushed him up a bit- to FINALLY DEAL WITH THE ORK BUGGIES....with the flame thrower...which did work (except one....the hero buggy). He was then assaulted by three Ork Dreadnoughts- and ripped them to shreds without an issue. He then jumped into his army's midst where he flamed the remaining Lootaz and two Big Meks- killing them all. Grotz assaulted him to tie the unit up- with the grot prod in there- he could be wounded on a 4+ apparently. I killed several grotz- and he flubbed his leadership rolls and promptly fell off of the table. The Dread Knight then assaulted and killed another Ork Dreadnought attempting to assault my Purifiers.

I think if I'm going to continue to use the NDK (which I want to)- he cannot go in at the enemy unsupported. I would either need another DK- or something deep striking or moving up that is another huge threat. He just couldn't deal with the two big threats bearing down on his army at one time- and basically the whole army collapsed.

At the end of turn seven he had:
Half a Squad of Ard' Boyz
4 Mega Nobz- one with a wound

I had:
Dread Knight with 3 Wounds Left
4 Purifiers
Coteaz with a wound remaining- manning the lascannon'
3x Terminators

Results-
The game ended on turn 5- and I had lost- two objectives to one (but I had secured First Blood)
We continued to see what would have happened had we continued- and I would have won it on Turns 6 & 7.

The Ork player was awesome to go up against in a game- and hopefully is going to be a great additional to the gaming group. We made some mistakes throughout the game- but caught them by the end. It was a good first game to play since my 40k playing dry spell since I started the trench board at the store. More importantly we both had a fantastic time- 40k at its' greatest.


I hope to have a better Battle Report with pictures for the next reflection/ post.

As always- thank you for your time,
-Cease

Thanks for the read, what an amazing start to what sounded like a great game.

I agree with brother Fallen, great read! I'd add more input if I weren't using my phone right now One thing worth mentioning right now is that you seem to be a heavy support choice above the FOC allowance in your list tho'

Thank you for your comments, it was a great game- and good introduction back into playing 40k (been a little while lol).

@Tiberius- you would be correct had we been playing below 2000 points. At 2k and above we unlock the double Force Organization Chart- which allowed me to expand my heavy support slots a little bit.

The Dakka Dreads I feel are indispensable in this edition. They can (in theory with my dice rolling) rip apart enemy tanks- especially transports with ease and with 4 str 8 twin-linked shots- they have a good chance to down enemy flyers- especially Storm Ravens and Hell Drakes. I just would really appreciate if Ork Buggies stopped killing my dreads so easily

Great read Cease.

On the double FOC thing, I think you have to have the mandatory HQ/TROOPS requirements as well. So technically, you should have had 2 HQs and 4 TROOPS minimum.

Rivan wrote:Great read Cease.

On the double FOC thing, I think you have to have the mandatory HQ/TROOPS requirements as well. So technically, you should have had 2 HQs and 4 TROOPS minimum.

Eeck! Your right! My version of army builder didn't spit out an error on me and I assumed it was correct (and in my incorrect interpretation of the rules).....

I will purge my AB of the heretic line of code that has sunder my honor so. My next game will be using a slightly more "legal" list.

Thank you guys for the heads up- and for informing an otherwise uniformed player.

-Cease

Ah, yes, it was because of the point raised by Rivan that I assumed it was single FOC. Wasn't quite sure of the points value since I skimmed through the list. Looking forward to updates, am getting back into the hobby myself after 3 years. It'll be interesting to read about your experiences and compare them to my own.

Thank you Triberius. A local friend of mine did something similar with his orks- and it seemed to help him out a bit with his playing/ helped out our local Ork community (filty greenskins!).

A big benefit that I had in 5th edition was that I played in a very small escalation league with some of my classmates. So I ended up learning a specific play style/ build. My old 1850 list was twenty GKSS- 10x GKTS, a level 3 Librarian, 2x Dakka Dreads and a Vindicare Assassin (I think I had a SR in there too). I had a bit of success at the start of 6th with the list- but recent army builds and improved tactics have seen my GK gun line cast aside in most cases.

A good friend of mine and I played in a team tournament yesterday- which involved the fielding of exactly 300 orks. I learned two big things during the event. The first big lesson that I came away with was that I tend to roll dice on average if I roll enough of them. For example- during the various shooting phases I would roll them in batches of ten. One group would have a plethora of ones- then the next a ton of 6s'. If I rolled enough dice- eventually things equaled out.

The second thing that I learned was the FLGS was dropping down to 1850pts from the original 2k for the singles tournaments. This is most awesome- as it'll hopefully lead to more games finishing up either before the time is called or games reaching turn 4 and beyond.

I built two lists for the end of the month tournament- I hope to be able to play test at least one of these lists this coming Monday evening.

List one- The Inquisition- What a SHOW!
Head Quarters
- Coteaz- Warlord

Elites
- Vindicare Assassin
-10x Purifiers- Justicar with a Nemesis Force Halberd/ 4x Psycannons/ Rest of the squad has Halberds

Troops
- Inquisitorial Henchmen Squad- 3x Jokero Weaponsmiths/ 2x Crusaders/ 4x Warrior Acolytes with plasma guns/ 1x Banisher
- 10x Grey Knight Terminators- Justicar with a Staff/ 2x Daemon Hammers/ 2x Psycannons/ 7x Halberds/ Psybolt Ammo

Heavy Support
- Dread Knight- Telaporter/ Heavy Incinerator/ Sword
- Land Raider Crusader- Multi-Melta/ Psybolt Ammo

Fortification
-Aegis Defense Line with Lacannon

List one- The Inquisition- What a SHOW! Rationale
In fielding this list I will aim to give the shooting in the henchmen squad the Primaris Power for Divination- granting the re-roll of all hits for their shooting in addition to any other powers. With the squad behind the defense line it'll provide me a good dakka unit, and great Anti-air and deepstrike contingent. I hope to have the Dread knight move up- shunting deep into the enemy's deployment zone- causing some big problems for them. As my opponent is attempting to deal with the DK- I'll have the Land Raider Crusader move up and unload the ten Purifiers- to support the DK and deal with any horde units that may pop up to threaten the DK.

I used a slight variant of this before against Orks and the one-two knock out punch with the DK and Purifiers seemed to have a great deal of potential. However, I am concerned as I know that Land Raiders are not the nigh-invincible tanks that they were in the past (I'm still trying to figure out a more effective means with dealing with enemy power klaws and deep striking meltas.

List two- Skip's Revenge
List one- The Inquisition- What a SHOW!
Head Quarters
- Grand Master Mordrack with 5x Ghost Knights- Warlord
- Grey Knights Librarian- Level 3 Psyker

Elites
- Vindicare Assassin

Troops
- 10x Grey Knight Strike Squad- Justicar with a Daemon Hammer/ 2x Psycannons & Psybolt ammo
- 6x Grey Knight Terminators- Justicar with a Staff/ 2x Daemon Hammers/ 1x Psycannons/ Rest with Halberds

Heavy Support
- Dread Knight- Telaporter/ Heavy Incinerator/ Sword
- Grey Knight Dreadnought with 2x Twin-Linked Autocannons and Psybolt Ammo
- Grey Knight Dreadnought with 2x Twin-Linked Autocannons and Psybolt Ammo

List two- Skip's Revenge Rationale
This is a bit of a variation on my original 6th edition list. I have the two Dreadnoughts to deal with flyers and light tanks- as well as the Vindicare (sort of a staple of most of my lists now) to kill big tanks/ pick out special characters. The Librarian can boost the Terminator's squads combat abilities- as well as deepstrike down to help out Mordrak who with any luck will be shooting and assaulting enemy units from turn one on. The Dread Knight then moves up and assists my deepstriking units in turns two or three.

As I stated earlier- I will be testing out one of these two list tomorrow evening hopefully and I will let you all know how I end up doing or any additional changes that I will be looking to make.

-Cease

Ok I got in another game this past evening against the same Ork player that I went up against last week.

I didn't get a copy of his list but he had the following:
2x Big Meks with Shokk attack guns
2x Battlewagons
2x Max groups of Lootaz
1x blob squad of Grotz
2x Groups of 20 boyz- one group shootaz and the other the CC ones
2x Groups of 12 Boyz in the Trukks
3x War Buggies with Missiles
Several Ork Dreads
2x Looted Tanks with the Big Kannon thingie

I took the second list shown above- with Mordak.

I did not take a blow by blow of the entire battle- so I have some summaries and pictures below:

Deployment - I won the roll to go first- and let him deploy his forces first. I liked the ability to react to his deployment- keeping the majority of my forces away from his big squad of Lootaz holding up in the tower. This basically negated a big portion of his shooting from the get go. It also allowed me to concentrate my entire army on one section of his army. I then promptly rolled a six to seize the initiative- Ave Imperator! I get the feeling that with a smaller army- I should try to opt for taking the second turn, to better allow for my army to better react to the enemy's positions.



Unit Performances - I have a few of the stand out units that I saw from the game today:

Mordrak- I love this unit. He deep struck down right behind an objective/ 20 Ork Slugga Boyz and was able to kill a couple of them in shooting (didn't do so hot here)- but was able to clear out nearly another ten in close combat. I did end up loosing all of the Ghost knights- but Mordrak stood firm against 5 orks in the end. I can see some major weaknesses in this unit though- without some better invulnerable saves, especially on Modrack...it leaves him very vulnerable to power fists, hammers and klaws. I feel that the whole unit would have been lost if it wasn't for the Dread Knight coming in and saving the day. Having some type of support to back up Mordrak- or at least capitalize on his efforts in the back is essential to success (a one-two punch).

Before-


After-


DreadKnight- I love this unit. In fact I have an unhealthy love for the DreadKnight at the moment. It killed seven entire units of his army- and tied up the last remnants of his list from doing anything productive. Being able to jump the 30'- basically into the enemy's deployment zone on turn one/ two- is huge. The flame thrower was able to kill an average of 5 orks a turn- and at least four orks a turn with the sword (re-rolls are awesome). Basically deleting ten orks in the assault phase is great- but the unit can get bogged down easily by a horde unit. The DK also is fantastic with dealing with enemy walkers and tanks- with the at initiative str 10 hits. The one model was able to take down several Ork Dreadnoughts and a group of three mega nobz- and few other things- but if it runs into a bigger squad of power klaws things can go south quickly.



I ended up winning the game (it was Dawn of War Deployment/ Big Guns Never Tire). I was able to get the First Blood after Seizing the Initiative- captured one objective, killed the Warlord, took out a few heavy supports and captured an objective. I think I just got really lucky overall- especially when his two Shokk attack guns rolled a ten on their chart and threw themselves directly into the waiting weapons of Grey Knights. That and my dice did not try to actively kill me...which was fantastic.

The Dead Piles:




I'm trying to think of changing up my list against. I liked the strike squads and dreadnoughts- but the strike squads I feel are a bit fragile. There are a few issues with Mordrak too.......


List three- We put armor on your armor
Head Quarters
- Grey Knights Librarian- Level 3 Psyker -Warlord

Elites
- Vindicare Assassin

Troops
- 10x Grey Knight Terminators- Justicar with a Staff/ 2x Daemon Hammers/ 2x Psycannons/ Rest with Halberds
- 7x Grey Knight Terminators- Justicar with a Staff/ 2x Daemon Hammers/ 1x Psycannons/ Rest with Halberds

Heavy Support
- Dread Knight- Telaporter/ Heavy Incinerator/ Sword
- Dread Knight- Telaporter/ Heavy Incinerator/ Sword
- Grey Knight Dreadnought with 2x Twin-Linked Autocannons and Psybolt Ammo

Comes to 1835/1850 points

Tactics- Keep the Terminators back with the Dreadnought- to maximize the 12' psychic protection (enemy psykers have to roll -4 their ldr when attacking the GK's with psykers) as the Dread Knights jump forward and do their thing.


As always thank you for your time,

-Cease

We Grey Knights are the hammers,
we slay the darkness without fear.
Founded in great mystery were we,
Chapter six hundred and sixty six.
Though on Titan we be hidden,
yet our eyes encompass the Galaxy.
No Devil shall elude our gaze,
no Daemon shall avoid its fate.
We shall be the Keepers Immortal,
all secrets shall be our knowledge.
We are the Guardians of Mankind!
-Et Templars Mysteria aux Ordo Malleus

LOL! This might sound pretty silly but I was watching History of the World Part I on TCM and reading this at the same time, I laughed quite a lot with the Inquisition part...

Anyways, I like the idea of Mordrak and Librarian. I'm looking at building an all foot list which may accomodate this combo quite nice.

Oh and thanks or the good read!

Great batrep, and very valuable tacticle information on the Mordrak and NDK combo

I had no idea that you played your games dressed in Blood Angels power armour carying a heavy bolter.

Great report! And also love the BA armor. Good thing you didn't crush your dice (or your models) during the game

lol I will continue to strive to find a funny picture concerning 40k/ playing the game for every new battle report.

Power armor = sweet

I was able to play a few more games using a new Grey Knight list at a local tournament over the weekend, as well as a practice game against a good of friend of mine- Loopy (his general forum name) & his orks.

I tried to make a fun- not really fluff driven list- but something that would be fun to play and wouldn’t be the “auto-win” Grey Knights list…turns out I think I may have stumbled onto something big here….

I took the following list:
List Four- The Skip-Lantic Ocean

Head Quarters
- Grey Knights Librarian- Level 3 Psyker -Warlord
With Psybolt ammo & Warding Staff
Elites
- Vindicare Assassin

Troops
- 10x Grey Knight Terminators- Justicar with a Staff/ 2x Daemon Hammers/ 2x Psycannons/ Rest with Halberds with Psybolt ammo
- 5x Grey Knights- Strike Squad- All with swords and one Psycannon in a Razorback with Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter with Psybolt ammo
- 5x Grey Knights- Strike Squad- All with swords and one Psycannon in a Razorback with Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter with Psybolt ammo

Heavy Support
- Dread Knight- Telaporter/ Heavy Incinerator/ Sword
- Dread Knight- Telaporter/ Heavy Incinerator/ Sword
- Grey Knight Dreadnought with 2x Twin-Linked Autocannons and Psybolt Ammo

1850/1850 points

List Strategy-
Deep Strike Denial: I took the two strike squads to deny my opponents the ability to deepstrike directly in my army's face (and of course to score objectives as need be). I figured that I would need a little bit of breathing room to prevent my Dread Knights from getting taken down by melta and plasma guns being fired up close en mass. I hoped that any deep striking terminators/ demons would be far enough away to allow my terminators/ razorbacks to weaken them through shooting and the DK’s finish them off in assault.

Counter Attack: The biggest lesson that I learned from my earlier games with using a single Dread Knight is that I can use the jump pack ability to get into close combat from cover to about the center of the board (granted if I can get lucky on my assault rolls). I have to keep the DK's in close combat as much as possible- using challenges to keep power fists and klaws from cutting through the DK's +2 save. Counter attacking an enemy's vanguard units and then using my squad of terminators with the Librarian to clean up anything left by the DK's- or weakening larger units with psybolt fire.

Where my DK’s can get in trouble is using my shunt jump, kill a few models and then stand there as the entire army shoots into them, or assaults with multiple units with multiple powerfists/ ap 1 weapons.

Psychic Denial:: I am not 150% certain/ understand what various psychic abilities that the new Chaos demons and Chaos Space Marines have (I have not read their books) so I wanted to make sure that I had a way to help shut down enemy psychic powers on my army. I took the dakka dread for the reinforced aegis ability- which gives a 12’ bubble. In this bubble any enemy psychic powers take a -4 leadership for their psychic tests (most of the time folks will be casting on leadership 6!). It was also a dakka dread…and I love those things…especially against flyers.


Test Game-
The first game I tested out the list with was against Loopy’s Adepticon list. Basically his list was made up of two battlewagons, two dakka jets, Storm Boyz with the HQ dude, the Mad Doc, two groups of lobbaz, some ard’ boyz, a group of grotz and shoota boyz. We played one the Adepticon missions- Big Guns Never Tire- with 5 Objectives and Dawn of War Deployment.



Strategy- I knew going into the game that Loopy is one heck of a 40k player and knows his codex inside and out. I decided to give him the first turn and deployed refused flank against his army- opposite the big unit of shoota boyz. I wanted to use my warp quake ability (with the two strike squads) to keep his Storm Boyz out of range for the assault. My goal was to get him to go mid-field and then use my DK’s to engage one unit as my terminators and weight of mid-ranged fire hopefully obliterated whatever else was in the mid-range.

Outcome- I was successfully in first seizing the initiative against him and then claiming the First Blood by blowing up Mad Doc’s battlewagon (Thank you Vindicare Assassin). I kept everything back for two turns when my warp quake failed (thankfully- no perils!). The Storm Boyz jumped in and killed a razorback. The Terminators were able to deal with them- as the two Dk’s jumped forward. One DK assaulted Mad Doc and his squad while the other assaulted the shoota boyz. Using challenges I was able to kill Mad Doc and run down the Mega Nobz when they failed their leadership (I think we may have gotten this rule wrong- I’m starting to think that challenges don’t affect combat resolution maybe….I think?). The second DK challenged out the knob in the shoota boyz squad and got stuck into assault

The two DK’s through bad rolls on Loopy’s part were successful in killing off the majority of his ork boyz as my terminators moved forward to assault the remainder as they were locked in combat with the DK’s. My remaining razorback and dread laid own a bit of fire onto his other units, weakening them before the assaults. I ended up winning the game, but it could have gone very wrong for me at several key points if his rolls were a bit better.

Lessons- Challenges are lame- but they take away the big weakness DK’s have in close combat- the sergeant with a power fist or axe. The biggest thing I learned walking away from the game was my DK’s have to work with another unit for support. I had them split up at one point and I lost a few wounds on them- and I had to get my terminators to bail one out when it was a bit surrounded by orks. I started to come with the idea of the DK’s charging forward- weakening units and tying up hordes as my Terminators and the rest of my army moved up- and helped to clear the field.

Also I started to realize that this “fun” list may not have been as fun as I was thinking it was...and that I may be a bad person.


Da Tournament-

Game One- Space Wolves
His List- 2 Rune Priests, 3x squads of Grey Hunters? In Rhinos with a variety of weapons (plasma/ what not), , a group of 5 Thunder Wolves- all with storm shields and two squads of long fangs with missile launchers and an aegis defense line with lascannon.

Deployment was Hammer & Anvil/ Game was the Relic.



Summary- His shooting was awesome against my Terminators- which were the focus his rage for several turns. He managed to nearly wipe out the ten manned squad in two turns of shooting from his long fangs. It also didn’t help that I was rolling 1’s 50% of the time with my dice rolls. He charged his Thunder wolves directly into the face of my terminators- getting them stuck in a combat for a turn. He also managed to kill my librarian in a challenge when on two wounds I promptly rolled two ones. I was really having a hard time against his army at the start, and it really looked like I was going to lose it big time from the start. I had my DK’s jump in and finish off the combat- then jumped forward to start dealing with the grey hunter squads left out in the open from exploding Rhinos- which is where things started to go my way a bit more.

I was eventually able to grind down his 30 Grey Hunters through shooting and assaults between the two DK’s and surviving terminators. The Terminators held the relic and used one his destroyed rhinos for cover to hide from the two squads of long fangs. The two DK’s split up again- going after the two squads of Long Fangs at once. One DK was finally taken down by a lucky snap shot on his way into assault while the other casually ripped up a Long Fang squad. The second DK was finally brought down by a lucky hit in assault with the second squad of long fangs.

Result- I ended up getting first blood, slay the warlord and the Relic objective. This netted me 15 out of 20 points for the first round.

Dead piles- At the close of the game he had two long fangs, his aegis and two immobilized rhinos with one hull pt. each left on the board. I lost two Dread Knights, a Razorback, the Librarian, 7x terminators and my Vindicare



Game Two- Space Wolves
His List- 1x Rune Priest, a Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf, 3x squads of long fangs- two with all missile launchers and one with one plasma gun and four lascannons, 2x squads of 5x grey hunters in twin-linked lascannon razorbacks, another squad of 5x grey hunters and two big squads of thunder wolfs with 5 wolfs in each and one thunder hammer/ storm shield in the squad.

Deployment was Vanguard/ Game was Emperor’s will (the new auto-tie mission)

Summary- I let him take the first turn- and deployed hiding primarily behind a ruined cathedral. I waited two turns for his two big squads of Thunder wolves to move forward. I was able to take down the one on my left flank from concentrated shooting, with the other was taken apart by my Dread Knights. My DK’s weathered his shooting, losing almost all of their wounds (darn you lascannons!). In my turn they took apart the rune priest and his squad- before losing one to his next shooting phase, but by then the long fangs and his objective were well within assault range of the remaining DK.

The last DK survived the rest of his shooting to assault the last of his army on the objective- killing off a squad of long fangs and his last scoring unit in two turns. As his army attempted to deal with the DK my Terminators moved up- and killed off another squad of long fangs and nearly wiped the second unit from shooting. Catching his forces in a pincer move- and put a lot of pressure on his remaining units. His biggest mistake was that he didn’t concentrate fire on one target at a time. Instead he tried to shoot at everything at once, but didn’t kill anything as a result. It would have a MUCH different game if he concentrated his shots at my remaining DK.

Result- I ended up scoring my objective, but failed to take his. I also managed to take down his warlord, first blood and line breaker. This scored me a total of 18 /20 points for the round.

Dead piles- I had lost one Dread Knight (my second one only had one wound left!), a razorback and a vindicare assassin. He had two long fang models left.

It was at this point I really started to think that I may have accidently taken a jerk list.



Game Three- Orks…da rematch against Loopy
His List- 2x Weird Boyz, 3x dakka jets, 2x groups of Lootaz, 2x shoota boyz squads of 30 boyz each, 2x squads of Lobbaz, an aegis defense line with comms array, a battlewagon with shootaz and missiles and a squad of mega nobz.

Deployment was Dawn of War/ Game was Purge the Alien (I liked the title!)

Summary- I won the roll and graciously, being a fair and a good opponent allowed Loopy to take the first turn. He set up his army bunched up towards his own table edge and set his aegis defense line (during terrain deployment) along the edge of his deployment zone. This was an awesome strategy on his part- because all of my shooting had to go over that cover. I deployed once again- on the flank- with the two DK’s on the right flank, and the rest of the army just to the left near some ruins.

I then made eye contact with Loopy- informed him that I was going to seize the initiative…rolled the dice. It bounced several times on the table- before finally setting on a………..six. For the fourth game in a row against orks I have stolen the initiative. I’m a jerk.

I immediately had my two DK’s warp shunt 30’ inches just to the side of one of the squads of lootaz. I declared my primary target was the shoota boyz- burning 13 of them, and killing three lootaz caught under the template. The second DK did the same, killing another score of Lootaz and shoota boyz. He didn’t spread out his units because he had the first turn- so instead of killing three or four boyz a flame template; I nearly burned the entire squad. The Lootaz fell back off of the table edge after failing their morale test, but the boyz stayed.

Basically the two DK’s chewed up the flank of his army- killing the mega knobz and one squad of lobbaz in turn two (I had to take down the extra power klaws- because he would have charged them and the other shoota boyz in the next round), then the second squad of shoota boyz in turn three. His poor rolls meant that despite what he threw at the two DK’s- he just couldn’t do anything to bring them down. He did manage to take own down in an assault with the second shoota boyz squad, but by then the Terminators were well within range of their storm bolters and were over the aegis defense line he had placed- with a clear line of site.
The dakka jets were the shooting beasts I figured they would be- but with the armor 2 on the DK’s- they just weathered almost all of the shots. He did manage to take down the two razorbacks with them. Except my dakka dread was on the ball- taking down one flyer in turn four, and putting another few hull points on another. The biggest thing that kills dakka jets though still is a squad of GK’s with psycannons and the re-roll power from divination.



Results- I scored the full 20 points due to the difference in kill points. Loopy did however; kill the most of army during the tournament. He accounted for half of the terminators, both razorbacks, a Dread Knight, the second one had two wounds left, and my vindicare assassin. I feel that the biggest things that got me the win in this game was the seizing of the initiative and my lucky roll to get the charge on his mega knobz. If I hadn’t done those two things- he could have very well shot me off of the table.

Tournament Results- Second place. I missed first place by a single point. I had not played in a singles tournament since the summer- so it was sorta nice to come back in my event- and nearly win it after a few months. I also played three good games- which made the afternoon far more enjoyable than playing rules lawyers/ and what not.

Thoughts- I had a lot of fun at the event and every game I got in involved a lot of laughing/ general shanagins and smack talk. However, I did feel like a bit of a jerk during my last game in particular- which is not something that I like to feel. I took the list to have fun, but because of the match ups that I ended up with (If I played against the DE poison spam list, or one of the two ppl with the 9 oblit/ 2x hell drake list- I would have lost- BIG time). The issue is that the armies I went against just didn't have a good answer for the Dread Knights other than shooting everything they could into them.

The other big issue I feel is that I took a very small army. My opponents didn't kill a lot of it- with most of their armies getting wiped (I never tabled anyone). This was very frustrating, especially against my second round opponent- when ten models cannot take down even one model running around the backfield. I think that I will end up changing up my list again soon- to something not with dual Dread Knights- maybe with just as many GK’s I can get to fit on the table. Something more fun for my opponent (I tend to have a lot more fun personally when the game is either very-very close or I lose- I just want my opponent to leave the table having a good time).


Thoughts on the event- I love the store up north and in the recent few months they have had a concerted effort on getting the tables and terrain painted up for their events (store owner is awesome too). The result this time around was that despite being a smaller store- all 14 players had good tables with nearly finished terrain to play against. Moving to 1850 pts instead of 2k meant that all but one game throughout the entire event finished with time to spare.
However, I still would really like to see mild soft scores (painting/ sportsmanship scores) included in the event. Last time this was attempted to be implemented over the summer folks stormed out of the store swearing they would never play again (they all came back)/ one person literally cried….so I have no idea how this would ever be implemented. I’m just not a fan of seeing the same grey AoBR marines missing bolters counting as Space Wolves. You know- those same models that were once used for GK’s, or BA’s, or regular marines, or SW’s and DA’s in events past.


I’m off to look through my codex and see what things I can take other than Dread Knights now….I hope to be successful in finding something that can both be a bit competitive, but help to give my opponents a better game of 40k (so I don’t feel like a jerk…).