1000 Point Match: Grey Knights vs Tau

A few days ago, I managed to play two games against Tau, the very same person who got me motivated to finish my Salamanders. You can see some more information on this under my 500 Point Salamander thread. After the announcement of having a new codex, I decided to bust out my GK, since they were itching to slay some foul xenos and to kick off the new year. Sadly the first game of the year, which predates this match by two weeks was an utter tactical lose on my part for moving towards an objective when i should have (Always went for the kills - 1 objective to none).

I'll my best to recap what he fielded, but it looked like this:

HQ - Shas'o - 2x Shield Drones, Cyclic Ion Blaster, Missile Pods, multi-weapon upgrade (Fire more then one weapon per turn - All of his battle suits had this upgrade).
Elites - Crisis Battle Suit Team - 1 Battle Suit - 2x Shield Drones, Plasma gun, Missile Pods
Elites - Crisis Battle Suit Team - 1 Battle Suit - 2x Shield Drones, Plasma gun, Missile Pods
Troops - Fire Warrior Team - 10 Fire Warriors - Shas'ui Upgrade - 1x Pulse Carbine, Bonded Knife
Troops - Fire Warrior Team - 8 Fire Warriors - Shas'ui Upgrade - 1x Pulse Carbine, Bonded Knife
Fast - Piranha - 2x Gun Drones - Fusion Blaster, BS4, Flechett Launcher
Heavy - Hammerhead - Smart Missile System, Railgun, BS4, Flechett Launcher
Heavy - Broadside - 2x Shield Drones - BS4

That's everything that he had and used. I could be wrong in some instances, but it was played that way throughout both games.

My list looked like this:

HQ - Brother Captain w/ Retinue - 4x GKTs, 2x Psycannons, Auspex, Hammerhand
Elites - Inquisitor - Master Crafted Psycannon, Emperor's Tarot, Artificer Armor, Melta bombs
Troops - Grey Knights - Artificer Armour, Targeter, Frags, 2x Psycannons
Troops - Grey Knights - Artificer Armour, Targeter, Frags, 2x Psycannons

Yes, what you are seeing is true, I fielded nothing but a full GK Horde (with Inquisitor for an extra Psycannon and Tarot) with SEVEN PSYCANNONS at this point level.

Game 1 - Annihilation - Spearhead

I surprisingly lost the Emperor's Tarot here so he got to deploy first, with the deployment style that he wanted. He set up his broadside on the far side of the table (no terrain was blocking the center of the table) and one squad of Fire Warriors standing in a building close to the center of the field (as close as Spearhead allows). His battle suits were waiting to jump up from a position to counter attack me when i moved up, while both his hammerhead and commander were near his fire warriors. His only other fire warrior squad was camping a few inches away from his broadside. Also, his speeder was deployed near his two battle suit teams.

With such a huge table with lots of big guns with pretty high AP, I played the section of the board that he left me to my advantage that he failed to recognize right away, causing him trouble for the rest of the game. I had a single ruin with 3 levels, both GK squads were deployed in the ruin, one with the inquisitor on the 3rd (well there was a 4th level, but it had enough for 1-2 models at most) and the other on the 2nd floor. I decided to have my HQ hang back in Reserves to wait for a chance to deep strike so i could get a chance at the rear armor of the hammerhead on the turn that they come into play.

Turn One - Tau

He went first, after seeing my deployment, he almost face palmed and grumbled about having to move up to get near me so that I could he would be out in the open. First turn nothing much happened besides having having the gun drones from the speeder join his commander. His suits moved up and he RAN his broadside (Shrouding was too much for him). Though his hammerhead did get lay down its S6 AP4 large blast and missed. The closest fire warriors surprisingly couldn't hit my GK, only because of two inches, which meant my GK could hit them with impunity later on.

Turn One - GK

I decided to unload all my shooting into one of his two crisis battle suit teams since I wanted the plasma out of the away as soon as possible. I left him with one wound and no drones. Other then that, that was my turn.

Turn Two - Tau

The Suits moved closer and his hammerhead changed positions. His Piranha came close enough to use its fusion blaster and succeeded in killing one GK on the 2nd floor. His Suits opened up but fortunately not with rapid fire, and the Commander failed to kill anything (gotta love having the 2+ saves). He landed a hit with the Submunition round from his hammerhead but it knocked off a single knight (could have been worse, but still standing strong, though the 2nd floor was beginning to drop a bit.

Turn Two - GK

My commander came in behind the Hammerhead but scattered out of the way and ended up close enough to have LOS with the broadside and plenty of Fire Warriors. Actually, his hammerhead could see them as well. So I opened up on the one fire warrior squad near the broadside but they stayed and didn't run. The GK squads took out the Piranha and the wounded Battle Suit, scoring two points.

Turn Three - Tau

Shooting was a bit better here for tau, in the end, I lost 1 GKT from concentrated fire from the warriors and lost all but but Justicar in the 2nd Floor GK squad.

Turn Three - GK

I moved the Justicar to the bottom floor where he can't be seen and opened up on the remaining battle suit, whittling him down a bit. My GKT tried to get into assault with the Fire Warriors on the upper floor (After wasting the last two fire warriors from the other squad), but failed the difficult terrain test.

Turn Four - Tau

My opponent was annoyed that I hid the Kill Point from him, but there was nothing he could do about it. So he opened up on the upper floor GK and managed one kill there, and to kill off another GKT. I had some bad rolls here, not as bad as the last one, but still just as so with the odds I had.

Turn Four - GK

At this point I managed to score some glances on the Hammerhead from my GKT by moving them closer, but lost one in the assault against it... the dice gods weren't with me there, but they agreed that the xeno tank must explode in the assault. But I managed to rack up even more kill points. by taking out the gun drones that joined his commander with my uber mini-purgation squad in the ruin.

Turn Five

After this, the game was basically over, he couldn't match me for Kill Points, all he gained was two from my HQ and I had over 6 total. Game could have gone on a bit longer, but it didn't matter, he was in no position to kick me out of my ruin of awesomeness to whip me out. No more skimmers or battle suits that could withstand the full barrage of the GK was left to do much. Those Fire Warriors would have been chewed alive trying to reach them and the Broadside was blinded more often then not through the entire game while trying to see the GK.

Afterthoughts

Had to admit that it was fun running a pure GK foot slogging army with massed psycannons. I enjoyed out I was able to out shoot Tau for the most part and left no big squishy targets for him to destroy in one shot. We both had fun with the match and had some laughs with how I shrewdly hid the Justicar, denying him a kill point.



Game Two - Seize Ground - Dawn of War


Deployment

We left the terrain as is and we placed the 4 objectives for the game. We kept the same sides as before. The Emperor smiled upon the Tarot this time and I got to go first. The was made up of six 2x2 boards, so I placed both of my objectives on my side in the middle of the two far boards, thus claiming my tower once again. He placed his two objectives in the middle of the board across from the tower right outside of a ruined farm house (Due to objective placement rules) and in the middle of the board in the center of his zone.

I placed everything but the Inquisitor in play, which was a bit annoying, and would later cost me a round of shooting, but what could I have done? Both GK squads claimed the two objectives (my other objective was in a smaller ruin on the opposite side and placed my GKT as far forward as possible in the center of the table and on top of the Temple of Skulls (Forgot to mention earlier, but I had such a commanding view of the battle last time that it didn't matter at all).

He placed his two fire warrior units out in the open nearest to my far objective, away from the tower of awesomeness. One had cover, the other didn't. And his commander was deployed as well.

Turn One - GK

I moved my Inquisitor into play, and later ran him. My GK in small ruin managed to see one group of fire warriors and left only 1 standing. And after moving my GKT, they opened up on the other one, leaving 5. Just as a note, these Fire Warriors are his only troops and he didn't really move them out of the corner until the end of the game. And my other GK Squad just twiddled their thumbs. They were left out of the game the entire time. So it was more like 700 point army facing a 1000 point army. Hey, they held down my only other objective, I wasn't going to have them get off because I knew he was going to throw the entire weight of his army into that far corner where no objectives were. If I lost the one, I had another.

Turn One - Tau

He moved everything else he had onto the table and tried to open up on the lone GK squad, who stood strong against the insanity of the torrent of fire. Also Night Fight helped a bit too, but hey, not a single GK fell.

Turn Two - GK

I had my Inquisitor join the GK squad, but that caused them to have counted as moving, but it further increased their chance at surviving. They took some pot shots with their storm bolters at a crisis suit that was close enough, but that was it. Felled one shield drone. My GKT moved up more and fired some shots at the Piranha, not killing it.

Turn Two - Tau

He moved his Piranha closer to the GkT and tried to shoot, but failed. The Broadside as well opened up but failed to wound the GK squad. Matter of fact, lost one GK from the massed shooting here (I love having artificer armor). He moved his 1 fire warrior behind the hammerhead while the others would hide behind the broadside.

Turn Three - GK

I moved the GKT up closer and they managed to rip the Railgun off of the Hammerhead, thus dispelling that threat from the game. My GK would then pelt the suits with massed psycannons and wreck one, leaving it with one wound and no drones.

Turn Three - Tau

He moved his Hammerhead closer to the building and kept up his shooting at the GK there, losing another two from the massed shooting. His Broadside failed to hit anything here, and his Piranha failed to kill a GKT after moving.

Turn Four - GK

The GKT would move closer to the Piranha, immobilizing it and later wreck it though barely. I lost my BC here from trying to cast Hammerhands but failed the cast. 1 Wound HQs suck!!! The Retinue would later consolidate into cover. I managed to destroy the one battle suit for good with my GK squad.

Turn Four - Tau

He had to split his shooting here, but he sent most at the GK squad, especially the big guns. I managed to make the saves again this time around, so none fell there.

Turn Five - GK

He was in no position to win the game with it being turn five and his warriors were more then a couple of turns from crossing deadly ground where 9 psycannon shots would see them dead long before they got close, so I decided to move my GKT from the ruin where the closest objective was and began to close in on him, I took out 3 of one units remaining fire warriors, but that was it aside from killing another Battle suit that turned its back on my Purgation squad.

Turn Five - Tau

My opponent sensing the threat approaching from his flank, moved everything to kill the GKT. He pretty much succeeded in wiping them out here, but a lone GKT survived the torrent of fire pretty pissed...

Turn Six - GK

Game went on, and I managed to get the pissed off GKT into CC with the last noticeable squad of Fire Warriors (The lone fire warrior was still floating about, trying to keep his head down) and sent them off the table. Not what I was hoping for, but it happened. My GK squad took shots at his last Battle Suit destroying it (His Commander was still in the game).

Turn Six - Tau

He surrounded my GKT with his broadside, his commander and hammerhead and fire every weapon he had at it. The Railgun failed to wound once again. The Cyclic Ion Blaster failed to really hurt him, the missiles dealt wounds, but not a single failed armor save. He then did something that was really ballsy, he charged his commander into combat with the GKT. It was a draw, but still, his commander, despite being a foul xeno CHARGED a Grey Knight Terminator, not just any GKT, but one that was pissed.

Turn Seven - GK

I couldn't really shoot or hurt his broadside so I left it alone for the hammerhead instead and failed to do anything. Though I forgot about the one cowardly fire warrior who was ducking for cover... My GKT managed to do nothing to his commander this time and the same for his commander as well.

Turn Seven - Tau

He couldn't really shoot anything and he really wanted to kill the GKT, so he charged his broadside into combat with it. Which worked out perfect for the GKT since he managed to kill both drones and made his own saves. So the Commander jumped off the table even when the broadside was still standing to fight.

It was game there but we wanted to push it a bit further to see what would happen. We did, and the GKT stood tall above the corpse of so many foul xenos.


Afterthought

Not much to think about here, but how epic it was to watch the lone GKT take on so much shooting from Tau and survived to shove his NFW into the faces of the foul xenos. That and it was poor planning on his part to try and push against a unit of GK who were immobile as a rock is to a wave. He was hoping to push them off and claim the objective, but it wasn't such a good plan to do, especially with not having any form of transportation for his Fire Warriors to take. Other then that, we both still had fun with this game.





Thoughts on both games

I just wish that i remembered to have brought my camera to take pictures, and that I'm really hoping that GWS doesn't screw with the psycannon too much and how the GK squads are structured. It's gonna suck having to need to have a full squad just to take two psycannons. Also wishing that Psycannons remain purchasable for Independent characters and HQs in the army. It's such an awesome weapon that I'll be sad if the new codex drastically changes it.

good games... and what a heroe this GKT !!
if the rumours are right ... the psycannon would be a better weapon !
and i hope the IC could have psycannon too ... cause i love this weapon too !!
Aubec

Good report. Just a question, only your Justicar had artificer armor right?

Both of my Justicar's had Artificer Armor along with my Inquisitor. Unfortunately, I can't give the rest of the squad Artificer Armor, as awesome that would be, it would have also resulted in a much smaller army as well.

I deflected so many wounds onto them when I did take some wounds, but they stood strong. Didn't lose a single roll on them at all. Especially the pissed off GKT.

That's cool! I never spent the extra points on artificer armor for my Justicars but w/ the current wound allocation system, may not be a bad idea

Brother Rivan, it was honestly the best use of 45 points that I've seen used in the army. Each model that had the armor took shots that were well used in protecting the other members of the squad. I'd definitely suggest using them while we still can. We may lose this nice piece of wargear for our Justicars with the coming of the new codex.

I'm definitely going to miss the old Codex.

Nice reports. I'd never thought you could stand up to Tau without long-range heavy a/t. But you did. Well done.

Awesome batreps!

Against Tau, it's doable to fight them without the need for anti-vehicle weapons. It's really about deployment and positioning. The Spearhead deployment was a hindrance because i would not have a good chance to destroy the Hammerhead without Deep Striking my GKT.

Other then that, if you can get overlapping fields of fire going, their isn't much to worry about from them. Though it also helps when your pelting them with at LEAST SIX S6 AP4 shots a turn.