Local tourney 2000pts - GK vs BA

Now that I've finished building my new GK army, I signed up for a house league at my LGS to get honed up for GT's I plan to attend next year. It's a 6-week tourney set at 2000pts. All missions and deployment are random. There is also a painting competition but armies will only be judged on the last week. So this gives me time to get my army painted

Last night was actually Week #2 so I still have a make-up game for Week #1 (hopefully this weekend). For last night's game, I was paired against Blood Angels. His list:

HQ - Librarian dread w/ force sword, Wings of Sanguinus, Blood Lance, drop pod
HQ - Chaplain
TR - 5 man squad, melta gun, drop pod
TR - 5 man squad, melt gun, drop pod
TR - 10 man death company, drop pod
TR - Death company dread, drop pod
TR - Death company dread, drop pod
EL - Furioso dread, drop pod
EL - Furioso dread, drop pod
HS - Dread, drop pod
HS - Dread, drop pod
HS - Dread, drop pod

8 dreads and 11 drop pods! Pretty daunting list and impressive looking on the table.



Since I had no idea what army I was going to play, I had prepared a relatively basic "vs. all-comers" list:

HQ - GM w/ staff, rad, psychostroke, 1 skull
EL - 10 Purifiers w/ 2 psycannons, 2 hammers, 6 halberds, Rhino
TR - 10 GKSS w/ 2 psycannons, 1 hammer, psybolts, RB w/ TWLLC
TR - 7 GKT w/ incinerator/halberd, 2 hammers, 3 halberds, banner
FA - 8 GKIS w/ inicinerator, 1 hammer, psybolts
HS - LRC w/ MM
HS - Psyfleman dread
HS - Psyfleman dread

We rolled for mission and deployment and came up with Kill Points and Pitched battle. At this point, I couldn't help but smile because he had 23 KP vs my 10 KP. Didn't want to get overconfident but I knew I had fairly big advantage. He won the roll-off and let me go first.

I deployed my units in 2 tight groups: LRC w/ HQ & GKT, Rhino w/ purifiers, RB & Interceptors in the middle behind a building. The 2 dreads w/ the Strike squad were behind the tall building on my left flank.


His first wave landed evenly spread near his deployment zone, keeping beyond the range of my warp quake.


I'm not going to do a turn by turn account as this was a fairly straight up match. With warp quake keeping him from landing in my face, all I had to do was shoot his units or drop pods down as they advanced. However, I also wanted to test out my units and see how they fared vs. walkers so I did initiate some assaults. Some highlights:

- Warp quake rules! The first 2 KP scored was courtesy of a drop pod scattering within WQ range and getting destroyed
- It was my first encounter w/ BA so I wasn't keen on the death company's (including DC dread) Rage special rule. Next time, I'll make sure to dictate where these crazy things go by making sure there's another unit they can go after, like my LRC After demolishing a regular dread in CC, my HQ squad got tangled up w/ a DC dread w/ blood talons. Those things are really nasty :afraid: Basically, in 1 turn of assault, it shredded my 7 GKT's due to the extra attacks for unsaved wounds. If only I had a staff w/ my squad, I would've only lost 1 or 2 and then my hammers would probably have smashed it to bits.
- Needless to say, in such a target rich environment, my psyflemen dreads rocked!
- My LRC was probably blessed by the emperor because all melta shots aimed at it either missed or failed to pen. More surprisingly, my MM never missed a single shot!

I won the game 7 to 5. It was a very enjoyable game and kudos to my opponent for playing a very themed army. He said he just loves dreads so he tries to field as many of them as possible.

Wow, nice BA army. And congrats for the win. Worthy of being remembered in the Hall of Heroes!

Nice stuff, that is a daunting list, although its low troop numbers is quite a hamstring along with the higher KP's. (Keep in mind DC aren't scoring)
Only 2 scoring units at 2k and being such weak ones he really needs annihilation, which is possible (those blood talons are nasty) but not likely.

What was the dread loadouts?

+1 with brother Zealadin
too few troops and too many KP for the BA
happy you both enjoyed the game ... those BA full dread army would have me freaked a little at first sight !!
Aubec

I have to admit I've actually thought about doing a full or almost full Death Company army.
The rage rule makes it a hard one though.

Wow great work, SO many Dreads

@Zealadin: the regular dreads have the standard MM and DCCW w/ SB. The DC dreads have the blood talons . The furioso's have a melta gun and magma grapple as well as that thing that shoots flame template x2 and is S6 AP- rending

Congrats on the win. It's refreshing to see a guy play an army he likes the look and theme of even if it has glaring weaknesses. Don't see that much anymore especially at tournaments.

Thanks Brothers!

Well, my make up game is confirmed for tomorrow and I'll be up against the nasty Dark Eldar! I'd appreciate any advice from those who've faced them before.

Wish me luck!

Good luck!

Watch out for those dark lances

be careful with the cerasts too !!
Aubec

I'm actually working on a DE army at the moment Rivan (always loved Eldar, and the models are amazing).
Any idea what you are facing?

DE are both quite powerful, but at the same time extremely fragile.
If your list has 2-3 Psyfleman Dreads you'll already be a step ahead, as DE are mainly 18-36" although they have good movement as well.

Splinter cannons are also deadly, particularly with 36" range and the volume of shots. They don't destroy marine squads, but they whittle them away effectively, and you get 2 on a Venom which is a very popular choice as a mech min/max army theme.

Dark lances are relatively rare in comparison to last edition, you can cram them in but your list will suffer majorly. The most common carrier is trueborn, who can take 2 and Ravagers, which have 3.

Generally speaking a Psyfleman should kill a DE vehicle a turn. If you are in cover with not many vehicles then the ravagers are less of a worry. If you have lots of vehicles, particularly LR's you'll need to take them out.

Wyches have a 4++ which means they are a real pain for GK's since your NFWs aren't better than normal CC weapons.
They don't hit hard however, and will struggle versus 2+ save due to losing combat.

Beast squads are resilient but won't kill much without 6 razorwing flocks, big weakness is generally leadership. Once the Beast Masters are dead the beasts themselves have terrible Ld and can easily run.

Incubi are pretty deadly and are probably one of the biggest things to watch out for.
Keep in mind they are higher WS than normal GKs with PW's at S4. With halberds you hit at the same time but you want to win combat.

Also try and avoid allowing DE units to get pain tokens from killing your units, they get FNP with 1, FC with 2, and Fearless with 3.
FNP is less of an issue with GK due to lots of S6+ shooting, and NFW's all around.
FC however really helps DE kill marines.

Its generally a matter of demeching the eldar players most dangerous units as quickly as possible and getting into 24" (and staying there) range so your stormbolters can rip his/her army apart.

Honestly PsyC are the nastiest thing on the planet vs DE. They can outrange them but lose most of their shooting ability to do so. In range they go down like flies.

Thanks Brothers! And thanks for the detailed lay out Zeal