2000 Pts GK vs SW throwdown

Now that we have the codex in hand, Kyrox and I decided to test our proposed GT lists for our upcoming tourney in May. Kyrox's vehicles are still proxied since he's not done building his SW rhinos/razorbacks. And my GK's are still all my old models
His list:

HQ - Wolf Lord w/ thunderwolf, Saga of the Bear, frost blade, wolftail talisman, wolftooth necklace, storm shield
HQ - Rune Priest w/ chooser of the slain, living lightning and JOTWW
EL - 5 x wolfguard ( 4 w/ PF & combi-melta, 1 w/ TDA & cyclone ML)
EL - 5 x wolf scouts (1 melta)
TR - 8 x GH w/ 1 melta, MotW, wolf standard, Rhino
TR - 8 x GH w/ 1 melta, MotW, wolf standard, Rhino
TR - 8 x GH w/ 1 melta, MotW, wolf standard, Rhino
TR - 5 x GH w/ 1 melta, Razorback w/ TWLLC
FA - 4 x thunderwolf cavalry (1 w/ PF, 1 w/ SS, 1 w/ SS & melta bombs, 1 vanilla)
HS - 6 x long fangs (5 ML)
HS - 6 x long fangs (5 ML)

52 infantry, 5 cavalry, 4 tanks, 15 KP

My list:

HQ - GM w/ m-c sword, sb, rad & psychostroke grenades
HQ - Libby w/ sword, sb, 3 skulls, SUM, SHR, MoT, QS, WR, SANC & DE
EL - 5 x Paladins (1 p-cannon/halberd, 1 p-cannon/falchions, 1 warding stave, 1 m-c hammer, 1 banner)
EL - 10 x Purifiers w/ 1 p-cannon, 1 'cinnie, 1 m-c hammer, 2 falchions, 5 halberds, all have psybolts
TR - 10 x GKSS w/ 2 p-cannons, 1 m-c hammer, 7 swords, all have psybolts, Rhino
TR - 5 x GKSS w/ 1 p-cannon, 4 swords
HS - LRC w/ psybolts
HS - LR

32 infantry, 3 tanks, 9 KP

We rolled Annihilation w/ Pitched battle deployment. I won the roll-off and decided to go first. He placed his chooser of the slain while I placed my 3 skulls. I then rolled 2 units for GS and decided to give my Paladins and Purifiers Hammer of Righteousness (re-roll 1's to wound for the whole game).

My deployment: I placed my LR (containing purifiers) and rhino (GKSS) behind some ruins while the LRC is out in the open ready to charge forward. My 5-man GKSS is in reserve and are coming in via DS.

As you can see, my skulls are placed evenly across the board (1 in the ruins where my vehicles are hiding, 1 in the middle terrain & 1 in the farthest terrain up top.
Kyrox deployed his long fangs as well as his TW cavalry w/ lord and kept everybody else in reserve. He also declared that his WG were splitting up to join the GH units.


GK first turn: I sped the LRC 12" toward the long fangs and popped smoke. The LR and rhino looped around the ruins to put some distance from the TWC. LR pops smoke as well.
SW first turn: The TWC moved forward. Before his shooting commenced, I successfully rolled for Shrouding for the LRC. He decided to shoot the LR w/ both squads and did nothing (the rhino was behind the LR and out of LOS).


GK 2nd turn: GM successfully triggered psychic communion however, I rolled a 5 for my
GKSS so they were coming in anyway. I had hoped not to see them till
later They came in near a skull and ran into terrain. The LRC moved 6" and opened fire w/ the S7 asscan and 1 S5 HB sponson, killing 4 long fangs. The LR moved another 12" closer to the center to put more distance from the TWC again and fired the heavy bolter at the same long fang squad and kills 2 more. The rhino pushed 12" too trying to put some distance from the board edge and popped smoke (just in case the scouts come in from my board edge).


SW 2nd turn: All his GH squads came in but not the scouts. Razorback is way back behind the TWC. The rune priest is in the rhino underneath the ruins. The middle rhino pops smoke. The TWC moves a little forward. Before he started shooting, I did Shrouding but his priest blocked it. The last long fang shot the LRC and did nothing. The razorback did nothing to the LRC as well. The other long fang squad shot the rhino, and after I failed a couple of cover saves, immobilized it and destroyed the stormbolter.


GK 3rd turn: The LRC backs up a few inches and shoots the 1 long fang and inflict 5 wounds (1 being a cover save). He goes to ground and makes ALL 5 The LR moved another 12" to get LOS on one of the rhinos, hits it but rolls a 1 to penetrate. The small GKSS fires their psycannon and scores 3 pens but he makes all his cover saves again. The big GKSS squad disembarked and ran towards where all his GH squads and rhinos are.


SW 3rd turn: His scouts don't come in yet. The rhinos speed forward as shown. The left most GH squad closest to the edge disembark and shoot the 5 GKSS in terrain and kill 2. The long fang squad and razorback shoot the LRC and do nothing. The TWC move closer ( I know he's wary since he doesn't want to be within charge range of my HQ squad inside the LRC )


GK 4th turn: The LR move 12" to the closest rhino and the purifiers disembark ready to shoot/assault. The LRC moves a few inches and finally dispatches the last long fang (for the first KP of the game ). Combined fire from the purifiers and the big GKSS squad manages to ONLY immobilize the closest rhino (I say to myself: seriously???) The LR shoots one TWLLC at the razorback but the TWC gave it a cover save which he made, again. Incidentally, all this time, I forgot that I could have been rolling to repair my rhino lol.

For the assault phase, my purifiers surround and charge the rhino. Luckily, I only wrecked it which is what I was hoping for. Only 4 GH + the priest made it out due to no available space for emergency disembarkation The squad fails Ld and falls back 7". So far, GK has 2 KP, SW has 0.


SW 4th turn: Scouts finally come in and come in from my board edge behind the GKSS squad. The priest w/ 4 GH continues to fall back (since they were still within 6 " of my purifier squad) and actually fall off the table. The GH squad that shot my small GKSS squad moved closer, shot them and killed 2 more (however, I made my Ld test). The scouts shot and killed 1 from the big GKSS squad. The long fangs score 3 glancing hits on the LRC and actually immobilizes it (I failed my 3 6+ saves from shrouding). The TWC, seeing their cue, run to within charge range of the rhino. The 2nd GH squad that just disembarked shot and killed 2 from the purifiers squad. The razorback did nothing to the LR. In the assault phase, the scouts assault the GKSS squad and end up locked, the 2nd GH squad assaults the purifier squad and end up locked also. The TWC assault and destroy the rhino. GK - 3 KP, SW - 1 KP

(At this point my camera died, I apologize)
GK 5th turn: My HQ squad disembarked from their immobilized ride and moved 6" toward the TWC, shot them up and put 2 wounds. I gauged I had 6" but I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through difficult terrain but I took the chance anyway. I rolled a 6 AND, was still a few millimeters short The next shooting phase was not going to be pretty.
I wanted to save the last GKSS from the small squad but he couldn't come to within 2" of either the LR or LRC so he decided to go down fighting. I moved him closer to the GH squad that killed his squad, shot and killed 1, assaulted and killed 1 more before he went down. The purifiers and GKSS squad traded blows with their respective opponents and still ended up locked. The LR sped 12" towards the long fangs (and away from any meltas from the GH squad), fired 1 TWLLC but did nothing to the razorback.
GK - 3 KP SW - 2 KP

SW 5th turn: The GH squad that finished off my small GKSS squad moved and shot the LRC but only stunned it. They assaulted it with a PF but did nothing (whew!). The razorback shot and killed the paladin w/ the falchions. The long fangs shot and caused 6 wounds! 1 each for the paladins and my GM and libby. Talk about crucial saves. The GM made it as well as 3 paladins. The libby and the banner failed their 2+ saves! This definitely did not look good for me. His TWC saw their chance and assaulted my weakened HQ unit. After the assault moves were done, I rolled for the psychostroke effects (praying for a 2) and GOT A 2!!!! All my attacks hit automatically and he is limited to 1 attack each! Talk about an awesome turn of events for me After all the attacks were resolved (including making my force kill roll), I wiped out his TWC except for the lord. His PF had 1 chance to take my GM down with hm but the GM promptly made his 3++ save. The wolf lord fell back...right to my LR
GK - 4 KP, SW - 3 KP

Kyrox rolled the dice and game ends (its our tradition that the player who is currently losing by turn 5 rolls the dice )

GK's win by 1

Notes:
- IMHO, rad and psychostroke grenades are like AMEX -- don't leave home without it! Any result other than a 1 really boosts your squads effectivity. Combined w/ rad grenades, its simply awesome.
- I know I have to really get used to all the psychic powers because I forget during the excitement of the battle. What's more, I completely forgot about hammer of righteousness!!! I never used it at all for my purifiers or paladins
- If you can avoid it, GKSS should stick to shooting. Pcannons and psybolts are definitely worth it for them. I was disappointed that my 10 man GKSS wasn't able to finish off 6 freakin' wolf scouts (although I made a lot of bad rolls w/ that particular combat).

Awesome batrep, thanks for that.

Your end notes are particularly important I think, the real strengths of the GK's aren't quite what they seem.

Nice batrep. Too bad the camera died in the latter stages. I know how you feel Rivan. Our bling used to be so limited and simple and now we have so many goodies we forget to use them. In 3 games I played on the weekend I forgot totally about the re-rolls my Brotherhood Champ had until the final combat of the first game. I also totally forgot to use my GM's rad grenades and the master-craft on all my Justicar's daemon hammers the entire tournie. I agree with Zeal, these batreps give a much needed insight on how the new things work.

Well played, and a very clean Batrep! Thats for taking the time to do that for us. I think the first 3-4 games I didn't even bother taking pictures of, cause I knew I would forget something that would swing the tide of battle, and OH BOY did I ever. Game 1, my Grand Master special rules. Game 2 several force weapon rolls. But I am getting better. By this weekend I will have another game or two up. I will post a batrep for you all then.

I have always enjoyed your Bat-Reps. Keep them coming.

P.S. did you make all those Rock/shrub terrain pieces? or did you purchase them? They look amazing and by the looks of it they really break up the LOS on the realm of battle.

Great report, thanks for that! And congrats on the victory!
One question though, how do you feel the purifiers performed in this battle?

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments!

Amidst building my new models, I will definitely get as many games in so I can to practice and get used to all our new rules

@Border: Some of them I got from eBay. But I also bought unpainted ones (like the white piece of terrain) so I can paint it myself.

@DonFer: Honestly, I was a little disappointed. True, after destroying the rhino and forcing the 1st squad off the table, they were assaulted by the 2nd GH squad. However, I still thought they would have done better and wiped out the squad in 2 assault phases. And this is even w/ hammerhand every assault phase.

One thing that I'm going to try to get better at is the positioning of my Libby w/ respect to my other units. Since my libby is pretty mobile inside the LRC, he can move around and bolster specific units within 6" if he has to. If I had been w/in range of the purifiers, I would have cast Sanctuary and the GH would have had to take dangerous terrain tests when they assaulted for example.

Nice battle report, I have been looking forward to seeing how people on this forum would fair with teh new GK's.

After getting in three games with the new book I agree with you- the GK's strengths seem to be firmly placed in shooting.
I am glad that you had used dual raiders- as it was something that I have been looking forward to seeing with the GK's. Did you feel that using the multiple raiders hurt or helped you overall? Furthermore, will you ever be using a SR?

Keep up the great battle reports- I look forward to seeing more!
-Cease

The dual LR's definitely complimented my list in so many ways.
The mobility it gives to my hard-hitting units while able to provide heavy shooting is just unquantifiable. More importantly, it allows my Libby to be mobile enough to bolster other units if needed (not just his own).
I do have to say that one of the LR's should be a godhammer type (at least IMO). I want to have the flexibility of choosing to hang back and shoot if needed (much like what I did against the SW). For this reason, I doubt I'll be using a SR in a GT setting. It's not durable enough for me. It actually forces me to close in and drop my passengers ASAP. I don't mind that per se but I'd rather have the option to do it on my terms

thanks for the battle rep i especially like the list ill have to try it some time as i have the same models to make it and i love 2 LRs