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500 Points of Grey Knights vs. Tau

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500 Points of Grey Knights vs. Tau Empty 500 Points of Grey Knights vs. Tau

Post by Ceasarian Mon Jul 27, 2009 12:58 am

The following is an account of a 500 pt game I had against Tau.
*This was partially a teaching game, where I was attempting to educate the Tau player further in how to play 40k, however this was his fourth game- so I told him that the gloves were coming off Shocked (In other words I’m not going to throw him a unit, but I’ll still remind him to shoot a specific weapon, or to move a unit if he forgets).
Tau List:
Shas'o Commander with Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Shield Generator, and a multi-tracker (132pts)
Fire Warrior squad, with 7x Fire Warriors, With one upgraded Shas'ui, shield drone, bonding knife, and EMP grenades (103pts)
Fire Warrior squad, with 7x Fire Warriors, With one upgraded Shas'ui, shield drone, bonding knife, and EMP grenades (103pts)
Hammerhead gunship, with Railgun, and smart missile systems (160pts)
Total is 498/500pts
Tau Strategy: Because of the GK rule- the shrouding I have to get in close with the enemy before I can unload the most of my firepower on them. The idea is to deploy spread out, and then move into cover on either side of the board. The knights will have to split up to take me on, and then assault into cover. Hopefully by hammerhead and commander can take out any terminators and enough PAGK before they close into my lines. By splitting up into two seconds, I hope to split his forces, and if he takes out one section- I'll have another section ready to unload some firepower on him. I'll keep the tank back, as the Knights can only hope to destroy it in close combat, and this way I maximize the firepower from it (have the commander, and the tank each supporting a different half of the army- if one half dies, then the other will be able to carry on, and wipe out the Grey Knights. Furthermore, I didn’t make this list, the GK player did- but in past games against him, and others using this list/ these models it’s proven to be most effective, giving me one win, one massacre, and one previous loss- certainly not bad stats for any army.
Grey Knight List:
Brother Captain with a PsyCannon (86pts)
7x Grey Knights, including one Justicar, with melta bombs and krak grenades (207pts)
7x Grey Knights including one Justicar with melta bombs and krak grenades (207pts)
Total is 500/500pts
Grey Knight Strategy: I had started using this second list (see my Ork Battle report for the 500pt list I usually use), only a few games ago- and the results have been mixed. In games where I’ve had to split my forces I’ve either been able to win by a hair, or been wiped out- Grey Knights and low points just don’t seem to mix. I didn’t have any unit to draw his fire with (the ST’s), so I decided to try to keep everything in one big clump, but if the Tau divided themselves- then I would split my forces as well, hopefully getting both sides into close combat ASAP, with hopefully my storm bolters ripping up the fire warrior squads/ that darn commander. I made both of the army lists for this game, and painted both lol- always an odd thing when this happens. Neither list is a pushover however, I’ve won once before the Tau, narrowly- and lost again them in a 3 person free for all before, so it’s not going to be an easy game in the least.
Deployment- Dice rolled Annihilation, and it was concurred that all of the ruins on the board would count as 4+ cover saves, and be treated as difficult terrain if anyone was to attempt to go over it. I deployed my Grey Knights in the center of the board, not knowing which way if any the enemy was going to shift, and the Tau player spread his forces along the table edge, with one group spread thin in the center, and the other clumped on the flank. My first impression was that he was going to D up in that one corner, and use the tank on the other flank to shoot at the GK’s as I moved them into position. I also had the first turn-so he would be reacting to me.
500 Points of Grey Knights vs. Tau Deplyoment1

Turn One-
GK-In the first turn I moved everything up, finding that my storm bolters were still a bit out of range. I sent out a series of shots with my Psycannon, killing a Fire Warrior, and a shield drone from the squad that was in the center of the board (not all too bad for the one weapon that was in range I figured).
Tau-Moving both fire warrior squads as fast I could, and instead of running stayed put- reasoning that it was better not to get to terribly close to the advancing Grey Knights, or rolled amazing ones for their run. However, the Hammerhead- the only unit that could actually spot the Knights opened up with its’ railgun, which instantly incinerated the Grey Knight Brother Captain (determined to be a headshot).
500 Points of Grey Knights vs. Tau TurnOne-1

Turn Two-
GK-Annoyed but not surprised at the loss of the terminator (I’ve had rotten luck for the past few games lol), I had the two PAGK squads move forward again, but this time they were well within range of the Tau lines. One squad opened up on the fire warriors taking cover, and supported by the Hammerhead tank, killing one. The other squad fired on the Tau commander, inflicting one wound. This wasn’t a great shooting phase, especially for storm bolters. I also began to split the two squads around the center terrain piece- I would go after each part of the Tau force, and hopefully take them down at the same time.
Tau- Continued to fire with the hammerhead at the approaching squad, killing one. The fire from the fire warriors was either ineffective, or just failed to punch through the power armor of the GK’s. The second squad lost one after the plasma hit and wounded a knight- however the fusion blaster was off its’ mark and missed (perhaps the Tau commander shouldn’t hang out at the bar before a game). Down to two squads of 6 PAGK and their justicar. The strategy of splitting apart seems to be working well, but it seems that the GK player is more aggressively going after the Hammerhead group- the easiest solution is to move the commander into position to take down some additional PAGK’s, the hammerhead is the crux of the plan, and it’s firepower is greatly needed.
500 Points of Grey Knights vs. Tau TurnTwo-1

Turn Three-
GK- I attempt to maneuver the two squads into a better position/ cover from the low AP weapons. One of the PAGK squads opens up, and finally the storm bolters do their job- ripping the squad of fire warriors supporting the hammerhead to shreds- the unit then begins to fall back, but their bonding knife may save them from fleeing off the board. The second squad of PAGK opens up again on the commander wounding the commander again, leaving two wounds on the model- but this unit has to be dealt with quickly, as it can effectively wipe out half of a squad of PAGK’s in a single shooting phase- not a good prospect indeed. I am just within assault distance from the commander with the center group of knights, and I take it- even though it takes me away from the other group of fire warriors- the commander has to be dealt with, and is quickly wiped out by the marauding Grey Knights.
Tau- Well that wasn’t good- commander and one group of fire warriors down… only way to pull this off now is for the hammerhead to start really blowing holes in some knights, and better accuracy from the fire warriors would be nice too. Fire from the Hammer head takes out another knight, but the fire from the fire warrior squad takes out two more grey knights. One squad is down to four, and another down to five- prospects are certainly looking a little better. Oh, and incase if anyone was wondering- that group of fire warriors that was falling back? Yea snake eyes- they went right off the board…COWARDS!
500 Points of Grey Knights vs. Tau TurnFour-1

Turn Four-
GK- I begin to move in with the Grey Knights in front of the hammerhead, they’re not doing much good sitting behind cover getting shot at- if I can get in close enough to use the their high strength and melta bombs I can knock that damned tank out. The other group of GK’s shoot, and then move into close combat with the remaining group of fire warriors, but only kill one…odd, but the Tau fail to do anything in return. Things are starting to look my way, if I can just kill that damned tank.
Tau- Yikes the Tau nearly won a round of close combat against GK’s…that would be one for the record books. Hopefully that squad can keep up it’s rather strange winning streak, and the tank can actually kill some Grey Knights?
500 Points of Grey Knights vs. Tau TurnFive-1

Turn Five-
GK- With the close combat won on one flank, it was now time to go mop up the last Tau unit. I start to move the PAGK that had just won the combat, but they’ll be another turn or two before they can get close to the tank, and that’s if it doesn’t move…the other group of PAGK moves into close combat with the tank, and rip off its’ missile system- well it’s halfway dead now lol.
Tau- This is not good, the missile system is down…well time to gun the engine and hope that a few GK’s foolishly step out in front of the tank. The hammerhead tank shocks the assaulting GK’s and one of the regular GK’s steps out in front, before being ingloriously crushed under the moving behemoth. Moving only 9’, the rail gun spins around and opens up killing another Grey knight- just one left, the Justicar.
500 Points of Grey Knights vs. Tau TurnSix-1

Turn Six- Is rolled, and we continue to play- I want that damned tank…
GK- The Justicar moves in, places a melta bomb on one of the vent surfaces of the tank- and it explodes in a massive blast. Grey Knights have wiped out the enemy- winning the game.
Grey Knight Afterthoughts- A well played game. Like I stated earlier- another teaching game, but this time with the glove summarily taken off, even though I won I still lost a good portion of my army. The decision to split up was an incredibly risky one, and one that could of backfired considerably if my rolls had been worse, and the other players’ were a bit better. If I had to do it again, I would of stacked one flank, and then moved up, with the Brother Captain sneaking in behind the PAGK- getting that all important cover save. Tanks are really hard to knock out for Grey Knights, especially in lower point games, where it’s hard to gain access to Land Raiders, and Dread’s.
Tau Afterthoughts- It was a pretty good game. I was a little nervous since I was informed that the battle report would be posted on some website…hmm…perhaps I’ll get to see it at some point. I still am behind my decision to split up, but my biggest mistake was not sticking to this plan, and attempting to move my commander in to assist the other group. Another thing I should of done was move the two squads further apart, and deployed them closer to where I wanted them to go in the long run. It was a good learning game, I mean I was still reminded a few times to move, or to shoot a given weapon, but it happens. I think with Tau I just have to move around in a position where even if he gets one squad, I still have another one that can pour on some fire power without having to worry about getting assaulted for another turn or two- a technique I’m still learning.

As always I hoped that you all enjoyed this Battle Report as much as I had playing the game/ writing it- and were hoping to expand the game from 500 to 1000 to 1500 soon as well as showing some other battle reports from the gaming group. Any comments/ criticisms/ suggestions are always welcome.
-Cease (Grey knight Player), & Da Lootaz (Tau Player)
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Post by Zealadin Mon Jul 27, 2009 1:19 am

Awesome battle, and batrep, thanks for posting it, you certainly did well at that points level, I would find facing Tau at 500 points pretty frightening as we are pretty constricted for choices at that point level!
Was the round with the Tau not doing anything near the end your opponent forgetting his firing phase?
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Post by NemesisForce Mon Jul 27, 2009 9:10 am

Always a pleasure to read batreps as we get so few here. Very well done. I really like the insight from both players. And pics to boot! Congrats on the win. You might want to think of sticking your B-C with a squad so he can't be insta-killed by shooting. Just wondering why you have both melta bombs and krak grenades since you can only use one or the other? You may as well give your Justicars frags and targeters instead of the kg's.
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Post by SandMarauder Mon Jul 27, 2009 10:04 am

NemesisForce wrote:Always a pleasure to read batreps as we get so few here. Very well done. I really like the insight from both players. And pics to boot! Congrats on the win. You might want to think of sticking your B-C with a squad so he can't be insta-killed by shooting. Just wondering why you have both melta bombs and krak grenades since you can only use one or the other? You may as well give your Justicars frags and targeters instead of the kg's.

sorry to hijack, but had a question for NF. Can the BC be part of the squad or just place in the squad. I thought and I may be wrong that he can't be singled out if he has a retinue (terminators)?

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Post by Ceasarian Mon Jul 27, 2009 10:59 am

Thank you all so far for the comments/ suggestions.
To Zealadin: My opponent did not forget his shooting phase towards the end, the railgun did it's job blowing up another GK, and his missile systems were destroyed ^)- This helped out a bit. He didn't really forget a ton of stuff during the game itself, and I reminded him in the several cases- which seemed to be a big help.
To NF: Yea...I sorta forgot about that idea- one I REALLY should of taken advantage of. Alas I completely forgot about putting the terminator in a squad until it was already to late lol. I'll have to keep this mind for the next game I play. As for the grenades I remember having 4 points to spend...on two squads and looked at the armory at like 2am and saw HEY 2pts per squad so I took it lol. Your right however, standard grenades and a targeter would be much more effective- and I will change my list to reflect this- thanks for the suggestion.
To Sand: I'm not NF- but I think I can help you out there. You can have your stand alone BC, or GM join up with another squad of GK's. However, the HQ will count as an IC in regards to the 5th ed Rule book- and can be singled out in close combat, but not in ranged shooting. If you were to take a retinue as specified within our codex- then as long as another terminator lives the GM or BC cannot be targeted in either shooting, or within close combat.

Also the reason for posting such Battle Reports in the first place is because there are so few for Grey Knights. I have yet to see, or hear of a single White Dwarf showing a battle report with GK's in it- I've seen sisters used as Auxillaries in an apoc game- but never GK's. No This is why I try to get both individuals' statements concerning the game before hand- and write it up in the same fashion that White Dwarf used to do their battle reports back in the older editions (before they used to take one picture for turns 1-3 (I hate that lol!).



-Cease
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Post by NemesisForce Mon Jul 27, 2009 11:28 pm

*sigh* Yes, those older WD batreps were well worth the read. Now they cram 3 to 4 battles into the same amount of pages they used to devote to just one.
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Post by Rivan Tue Jul 28, 2009 8:52 pm

Very nice batrep and was an enjoyable read. Congrats on the win...I second what Zeal mentioned about a 500 point GK army...it's really tough to play.
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