Local Tourney 2000pts: GK vs Deathwing

Played the 3rd week's game last night and I was matched up vs. Deathwing. This was probably the toughest game I've had so far during this tourney. The outcome of the game literally came down to the last dice rolls. I only have a few pics because my camera died halfway through (apologize for that). I'll just give brief highlights of each turn so as not to make this too lengthy

His list:

Belial
Chaplain in TDA
6 x termies (1 apothecary w/ TH/SS, 1 TH/SS, 4 LCs. One of them had a CML)
5 x termies (regular termies w/ PF and SB, one also had a CML)
5 x termies (all TH/SS, one CML)
5 x termies (all TH/SS, one CML)
5 x termies (all TH/SS, one CML)
3 x Land speeders w/ TML & MM
1 x LRC w/ MM and SB

My list:

GM w/ staff, incinerator, rad, psychostroke
10 Purifiers w/ 2 psycannons, 2 hammers, 6 halberds; Rhino
10 GKSS w/ 2 psycannons, 1 hammer, psybolts; RB w/ TWLLC
7 GKT w/ 1 incinerator/halberd, 2 hammers, 3 halberds, 1 banner
8 GKIS w/ 1 incinerator, 1 hammer, psybolts
2 Psyfleman dreads
1 LRC w/ MM

Mission: KP (primary), Objectives (secondary), Quarters (tertiary).
Deployment: Spearhead
He won the roll-off and decided to take first turn.

Pre-game thoughts: Statistically, this was an extremely hard match up. He can unload up to 16 S8 shots at 48", easily outshooting me. In protracted combat, his 2+/3++ saves will prevail over my softer units despite my higher initiative. He has 11 KP to give while I have 10 so pretty even there. It might very well come down to secondary or tertiary missions.

With that in mind, I used GS to make 3 units scoring: purifiers, interceptors and 1 dread. My goal was to obviously knock out the easy KP points first (land speeders) and then hopefully use concentrated fire to force him to take as many armor saves as possible.

Deployment as shown:


He puts everything on the table and I keep the purifiers, GKSS and interceptors in reserve.

1st Turn
He advances and unloads his missiles that were within range and promptly destroys my RB despite cover. He also scores a couple of shaken results on my LRC and 1 dread.
I shrug off all the shaken results and retaliate by destroying 1 speeder. KP 1 - 1

2nd Turn
He continues to advance and unloads missiles again (and melta shots at the LRC although not within 12"), stunning my dread and immobilizing my LRC.
None of my reserves come in. I shrug off all stun/shaken and fire back and manage to destroy 1 melta off a LS and immobilize the other one. KP 1 -1

3rd Turn
He continues his barrage and score pens vs my dreads but I make cover saves and takes the assault cannon out of my LRC.

My GKSS deep strikes in and lands in terrain in his upper right corner but I lose none to dangerous terrain tests. Purifiers come in from my board edge. I manage to destroy all remaining weapons on the speeders and also kill 1 termie. KP 1 - 1

4th Turn
He advances his LRC closer as well as a termie squad but his deathstar squad did not disembark yet. He also turbo-boosts the mobile speeder away to deny the KP. His shooting fail miserably and does nothing.
My Interceptors come in and shunts to within incinerator range of the speeder that boosted away. My HQ and GKT disembark. My rhino moves a few inches and disembarks my purifiers (*moving the rhino was my biggest tactical mistake of the game*). I immobilize his LRC w/ my MM and kill another termie.

I then multi-assault his LRC (auto-hits) as well as the speeder and explodes the LRC (go S10 hammer! ) and wrecks the speeder. The purifiers weren't able to assault the termie squad because of my rhino's movement KP 3 - 1

5th Turn

His HQ squad and termie squad assaults my HQ squad. Rad grenades goes into effect but for the first time since using psychostroke, I roll a 1 for effects. I kill 5 from the HQ squad (including all the lightning claws thank goodness) and 1 termie from the other squad. He also kills 6 GKT for tied combat.
My interceptors fail to knock out the speeder and it turbo boosts away again. My purifiers join the assault but his remarkable saves fend off everything. My GM gets hit by 4 TH but he deflects all w/ his staff. The GKT also makes his invul save but he kills 3 purifiers so I lose combat. Purifiers make their Fearless saves while GM makes the leadership test. KP 3 -1 (I was so hoping the game would end)

We roll and we continue all the way to Turn 6 & 7.

The assault continues and eventually his 3++ saves outlast me. I manage to kill his Chaplain and whittle the termie squad to 1 model but he knocks out the last GKT as well as the purifier squad and my GM falls back off the board (KP 4 -3). However, I manage to snipe the last speeder w/ my dread and the Interceptors wipe out a regular termie squad. My dread also gets lucky and knocks out the last termie from the big assault. My GKSS and interceptors get wiped out in return (KP 7 - 6)
In Turn 7's assault, both his and mine, my dread (contemptor model) survives vs. 2 TH/SS termies. The last rolls for the game were 3 hits on my contemptor and he rolls a 1, a 2 and a 3 for penetration. GKs win 7 - 6

Post-game:
-Needless to say, I got very lucky this game. Made several mistakes that hurt me (including forgetting to fire my hurricane bolters for a couple of turns).
-He actually controlled more objectives so if my dread fell, he would have won by secondary mission.
-The staff on the GM really came in handy vs. all those TH hits

WOW!
What an awesome clash of the elites!
I know that some brothers make lists of shots, powers, etc... that they check each turn so they don't forget to use things.
Perhaps that will help in future.

Well fought overall brother! I think that luck has less to do with it than you claim. Don't be shy about your skill

What is your standing overall now?
Who is next up for a butt Kicking?
And because most things happen in threes....... Here is the third question:
When will we start to see some paint on this most triumphant army of yours?

P.S:
I love the fact that GM Rivan's Staff can be seen from orbit in the last pic!!! LOL

Thanks Brother C
- I'm currently 3-0 in three weeks.
- Not sure how many others (if any) have the same record so I'm not sure who I'm going to be matched up with next week. I know there's a nurgle daemon player, a couple of IG players, a Tau player, a BT player, and a couple of DE and Necron players.
There are also 2 other GK players. One runs dual SR and the other one runs dual NDK.
- I'm hoping to start painting this weekend but I'm also enrolled in a business class for my MBA so that's keeping me busy as well.

DAEMONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!
That will be exciting! And unfortunately not that common.

good batrep and happy for your win
Aubec

Well done and what a close call that was. Nice to pull those victories from match-ups you may think you won't win. I've played DW twice (with old GK's) and both were classic slug-fests as well.

Congrats on the win! Keep it up!

Sweet battle rep Rivan!!

Good to hear GK are kicking but!

Thanks Brothers. One funny thing I forgot to mention in the batrep was for 2 turns, Belial and another termie were doing all they could to destroy my immobilized LRC with THs. Even with auto-hits, they couldn't do it

Rivan wrote:Thanks Brothers. One funny thing I forgot to mention in the batrep was for 2 turns, Belial and another termie were doing all they could to destroy my immobilized LRC with THs. Even with auto-hits, they couldn't do it

That is funny!
I was picturing how this would look if it was in a movie! The DA's super guy and one of his elite soldiers smacking a big tank that can't move and doing nothing