Local escalation league... 32 players!

And my army is going to be Grey Knights! I played this league in the summer when it was about twenty players and it was a blast. I played my daemonkin (I'm not a heretic, I swear) army and finished a little under the middle of the league. This time around with so many players it is being broken up in to two divisions - that way the top players play the top players and the bottom players play the bottom players. I'm hoping to finish near the top of the lower division. Here's the league schedule:

Schedule:
Round #1: 1250 pts Jan 4th-17th
Round #2: 1500 pts Jan 18th-31st
Round #3: 1500 pts Feb 1st-14th
Round #4: 1750 pts Feb 15th-28th
Round #5: 1850 pts Feb 29th thru Mar 13th
Round #6: 2000 pts Mar 14th-27th*
Round #7: 2500 pts Mar 28th thru April 10th**
*unlocks the use of one LOW or unit with ranged D weapons
**unlocks unlimited use of LOW and ranged D weapons

It's 3 points a win, 1 point per loss and 2 for a draw. He throws in a special twist each round, allowing you to earn extra points. This round we could play a game before the league started and earn a league point. And during the first round the twist is Make A New Friend... Then Destroy Them! Which means you get a game in against someone you've never played before, and you get points just as it were a normal league game.

I took the early bird special and played against my friend Mike, who plays Necrons. Here's my list:

Nemesis Strike Force
Librarian with staff, liber, master crafted combi melta and ML3
6 Paladins with 2 psycannons, apothecary, bro banner, hammer, two halberds and a sword
5 terminators 1 psycannon, hammer and rest halberds
2 dreadknights, incinerator, teleporter, psycannon and one has a hammer

14 models at 1250 points.

Mike took a decurion (surprise, surprise!) but I can't remember his exact army list. I know he had a monolith, ghost ark, night scythe, hunters from hyperspace and couple units of warriors/immortals. Anyway, we played to a draw at the end of turn 4. The store was closing so we couldn't finish it out, but I'm happy with a draw as I struggle to defeat the decurion. He managed to kill a unit of terminators, but I don't think he put any more wounds on my army. I did lose the librarian (and the win) because of perils, so he got slay the warlord to get to a tie. It was a good warmup round for me because round 1 a drew...... Necrons! Another Necron army.

I used the same list, but this guy refuses to play the decurion. He hates the cookie cutter armies and despises the fact that everyone's necron army looks the same. Can't say I blame him. He brought three units of warriors, ghost ark, annihilation barge, hunters from hyperspace w/cryptek, an overlord and a unit of immortals and a night scythe. A ton similarities to the list I played the bonus pregame against.

We play the Maelstrom mission 4, which is the one where you cannot discard "seize objective X" cards and can score your opponents "seize objective X" cards. He wins first turn and I fail to seize. Not a big deal as his cards require him to kill me. Librarian and paladins come in automatically thanks to First to the Fray. I make the roll for the rest of my army and everything comes in turn 1. I drop the two dreadknights by some ruins with a squad of warriors and an objective. The terminators scatter back toward my board edge so they are kind of in no man's land. The librarian comes in between a unit of warriors and the annihilation barge. The hunters from hyperspace come in and attack one of the dreadknights. He rolls what looks like a million sixes. I take the saves and lose 3 wounds on the dreadknight before the psychic phase even starts. Psychic phase I get cleansing flame off from my librarian, but he rolls a mediocre "4" on hits. Destroys no warriors but does glance the barge. Disappointed with the result but oh well. I gate them away because they're in rapid fire range of both warrior units and deep strike them into the mid field surrounded by ruins. I cast sanctuary on both dreadknights to avoid a repeat of that first sniper volley I took. Psychic phase is a success though as I cast 3 powers and score d3 victory points from one of my 3 cards. I fire both dreadknights and the terminator squad at the hunters from hyperspace and am able to knock them down to two models. The Libby and Paladins fire away at the front of the annihilation barge and are able to score a penetrating hit. It destroys a gun leaving only the heavy gauss cannon. Turn ends with me rolling a 5 on my d3 roll, giving me a good lead to start the game.

Turn 2 he brings in his flyer and disembarks the immortals right in front of the paladin squad. Moves his ghost ark to flank that squad, and turns his annihilation barge around to face it. The warriors on that side of the table move into range. He throws everything he has at the paladin unit. I take a ton of saves, and roll about 7 1's. I make 2 FNP rolls. Two paladins dead, but with good positioning the paladins only had halberds and storm bolters. All the heavy hitters in that unit are still alive. He's having a tough go of it and scores no cards round 2 either. For me though the cards are kind. I get the "secure objective" that my terminators are within a movement phase of achieving. I also needs to destroy a unit in the assault phase. My terms grab the objective they are near and then fire at the remaining two hunters, destroying the unit. MY dreadknight with full wounds hops over to the ruins that hold the objective and unit of warriors and gives them the flamer/psycannon treatment, then makes his charge into squad. He kills 3, then takes out the rest in a sweeping advance. The wounded dreadknight hops over next to the immortals and overlord as the paladin squad moves toe to toe with them. Once again the librarian casts cleansing flame. I roll 5 hits - a mediocre amount of hits but I make those hits count. One six on the annihilation barge, taking it's last hull point. Two 6's on the flyer, leaving it with one. Doesn't damage the immortals but that's okay because I also get off Force and Hammerhand in the psychic phase. My opponent uses a relic that forces me to snapfire at the immortal unit and overlord so I do no damage there. But I declare charges and survive overwatch. The paladins are eager to get in as I roll a twelve. The dreadknight can't stand the thought of being left out as I roll an eleven for him. The slaughter starts with the overlord cowering in a corner, not man (or machine) enough to accept my challenge. The dreadknight hits five times. The dreadknight wounds five times. My opponent fails the 6+ reanimate and they stay dead. The paladins do the rest, killing every last remaining immortal but leaving the overlord untouched. He fails morale but the dreadknight can't catch him. I score two more points and this turn could not have gone better for the Grey Knights.

My opponent sees the writing on the wall and sucks his overlord into the flyer and leaves the table's airspace. He spends this turn trying to score a d3 victory point by killing my warlord, the librarian. He's able to take out my bro banner but that's it. Even worse for him, he drew the "secure objective" card of the objective that was now occupied by my warriors-killing dreadknight. I respond by killing the unit of warriors that are in the open using both dreadknights flamers and psycannons. The paladins gate behind the ghost ark, but fails to get off cleansing flame. I pop the combi-melta, using the master crafted to reroll the miss. It hits the second time and pens. My opponent declined his jink save and the ghost ark explodes! Two warriors die in the explosion. Terminators shoot at what's left killing one. No assaults can be made and I score my opponents objective and another one of my own.

It's dire for my opponent. He brings his flyer back in and drops his overlord on an objective close to a dreadnight and the paladins. He scores the objective but it unable to hurt my army in his shooting phase. I decide I'm going to try to clear the board. The paladins and dreadknight move next to the overlord. Cleansing flame goes off and I score eleven hits! The flyer goes down. The overlord loses two wounds. I shunt the full health dreadknight that was holding the objective in the ruins. He moves the thirty inches across teh board next to the now ghost-arkless warriors. And incinerator, psycannon and bad reanimation rolls doom the unit and they are gone. The paladins and dreadknight charge the remaining model. He stands no chance and is pulverized by a dreadknight-powered powerfist. I'm able to score another d3 for killing the warlord and roll a six. We tally up the objectives and it's landslide for the Grey Knights 12-1.

He was a great opponent and I'd love to play against him again. I felt bad when everything kind of went my way, but that's how the game goes sometimes. I got a much needed win against an army I struggle against. Without the decurion they are just tough - not unkillable. I've scheduled a game against the league's only Ork player for this round's bonus game next weekend. I haven't played orks in years so I am really looking forward to it.

Nice batrep... Happy for the fun you had and for your win !
I really have to look at the Decurion rules i guess !
Aubec

I had the game against the orks this morning.... I got slaughtered. I had the warlord trait that gives you an extra psychic power, so i had everything from sanctic except for vortex since ranged d is disallowed currently. I deployed everything but the terminator squad. I should have reserved the paladins turn one and brought them in to cleansing flame then gate away turn 1, but i started them on the board. Used gate to get into cf rangeof the two bikes squads, but scattered just outside of range. So after my shooting phase the paladins were sitting ducks for those units. They charged turn 1 ans killed them to the man. At that point I was down to three units and my opponent apent the rest of the game grabbing objectives. I was able to whittle him down to the point he had a wagon and a unit of nobs left when the game ended after turn 7. I had a dreadknight with 1 wound left. But I got slaughtered in points 20 to 5. That rookie mistake turn 1 hurt me and I couldn't recover after that.

After round 1 I should have a total of 5 league points out of 7. Not too bad, should put me in the top half for round 2.

After round 1 I should have a total of 5 league points out of 7. Not too bad, should put me in the top half for round 2.

my opponent this week was guard. The only change in my list was to add another libby with the curaise (sp?) of sacrifice and a couple extra terminators in that unit. I came ready to play, don't want to start a losing streak. Unfortunately, he had a culexus assassin that had different plans. He had a ton of flyers, some wyverns, some deep striking melta veterans and two of those walker dudes they have, plus about three regular infantry units.

It was a disaster from the beginning and never got better. We were playing maelstrom #2 which is the one where you generate cards based on how many objectives you hold. He gets first turn so I null deploy. He infiltrates the culexus close to my board edge. He grabs a few objectives, cashes ina card and that's his turn. I roll for reserves and get in a solitary dreadknight. Sucks, but thats the risk you run with null deploy and only four units. He scatters poorly and ends up behind some ruins. I take shots at the assassin and only deal one wound because I'm hitting on sixes.

His second turn he brings in his flyers, moves a little bit and shoots at the dreadknight who takes two wounds. My go I get everyone in. The libby with paladins does not have cleansing flame so I drop them midfield on the side about 24" away from culexes. The libby with the armour has cleansing flame so I'm aggressive and place him within range of 4 guard units.... and scatter directly into one of those units. That unit is delayed and goes back in reserves. The other dreadknight also scatters, but does not mishap. He's on the board opposite the paladins next to the other dreaknight. I shoot everything at the assassin. Does nothing, and I control no objectives.

He drops the melta veterans behind the pallies, direct hit. Moves the culexes within 12 inch of the paladin unit and kills one with his antipsyker shooting. The meltas take another. My turn three i try to place the terminator unit within cf range of all of his flyers but just out of range of that dastardly assassin... mishap again. This time they are misplaced and he places them an inch away from the assassin. So I forego my psychic phase since he takes 8 of my warp charge. I shoot everything at him. Pop both libby's combi-meltas, both dreadknights flame him and hit him with the psycannon. The few hits I manage to get fail to wound or bounce off his invulnerable save.

Writing is on the wall at this point... turn 4 he's able to kill off the paladins and one of his own plasma guardsman, then the wounded dreadknight. I once again shoot what I have left at the assassin and get nothing yet again. The assassin murders the terminators.

I decide I don't want to go an entire game without killing something so I turn the dreadknight on the walker. Can't even get a glance in shooting, so I charge him fully confident in the ability of my dreadknight to pop this little av12 walker. This confidence is misplaced. I whiff on 3 of my attacks. The two that hit I got one Pentrating hit... and it immobilizes. He then charges the dreadknight, gets a 6 to wound and kills him.

End of the game I had inflicted two wounds on his assassin and taken a hull point from the walker. The only model he removed from play was a guardsman that killed himself. Talk about a deflating defeat. I'd say I got beat like a rented mule, but I don't know that a rented mule has ever been beat that badly. Literally the worst loss I've ever had. I've had games where I killed more of my own army than my opponents because of scatter or gets hot or perils... but never have I failed to inflict a single casualty. Total embarrassment.

I was hoping to get that assassin off the board in turn 1 or two with shooting before he got in range to do damage. I just don't have the guns to do it. With my bad scatter I just never had the chance to even aim at any of his other units. If I played it again I guess I'd have put everything in his backfield and did as much damage as I could before the assassin was able to get in range. Still would have lost but not by such an abysmal margin.

sorry for this disaster !
will be better next time !
Aubec

The game was the maelstrom mission where you start with 6 objectives then generate one less card each turn. He went first and was able to score 4 cards. I gated librarian and purifiers right into the middle of his blob. Puris failed cleansing flame, then the librarian successfully cast it. Took 6 or seven cultists out of three units, but that's about all the damage i could do. Killed my own plasma servitor with gets hot and the shooty warband didnt do much else. Next turn he took a flyer over to them and killed them to man. He also shot up the puris and librarian, then charged with typhus and his blob. He was able to kill every purifier, but the librarian stayed alive. He scored another four objectives. My turn I disembarked the choppy cultists, and cast hammerhamd and sanctuary with stern. Used gate of infinity to get my librarian out of combat and landed him next to the terminators that came in this round. He failed cleansing flame. The choppy warband and stern charged typhus put a ton of wounds on him but he was able to save or fnp most of them. Sanctuary and rerolling saves war hymns worked like a champ though, I only took one wound. I'm not able to achieve many objectives. His turn he shoots up my terminators and kills the libby and scores another four objectives. I can't get out of combat with typhus. I don't have much keft on the field so I charge a blob with the terminators. He kills one in overwatch, then the two remaining during melee. I take one cultists with me. Finally kill typhus in my turn, but it's a hollow victory as that unit is now at the mercy of his shooting phase. He is able to kill the unit off. Game ends after turn 6 and all I have keft is my land raider with one hull point. Score is a lopsided 25 to 6, and all I can do is hang my head in shame.

Chaos won this time ...
GK will win next time !
Aubec

For the next round I had two matches at 1750. One against nids and the next against daemonkin. I used the same list against both since I played the games back to back. Here's what I brought:

NSF:
Stern
Librarian, liber, ml3
5 terminators, halberds and psilencer
2 dreads, heavy psycannon and psilencer, hammer, teleporter

CAD:
Librarian, ml3, cuirass
5 terminators, halberds, psilencer
5 terminators, halberds, psilencer
Dreadknight, incin, psycannon, hammer, teleporter

Getting frustrated now as I can't get a win.

The game against the nids was a good back and forth affair. He brought a ton of flyrants, two mawlocs, the big guy that basically shoots plasma, and a bunch of the mines. It was maelstrom mission six, so you start with 6 and work your way down each round. Round 1 he was able to achieve 4 objectives, I was able to score none. It was like a boxing match, just slugging it out with each other. Psilencers worked like a charm, taking out one flyrant that was gliding to grab an objective, another taking out the plasma-beast in one of the later rounds. The psychic phase was fun because he had even more psychic dice than me. So instead of simply trying to get off the maximum amount of powers, I'm trying to fake him out so he chucks his deny dice at a power that's not essential to my strategy. On the flip side, trying to divine his psychic strategy so I can use my denial dice effectively. The psychic phase can be quite a battle when both bring a lot fo warp charge to the fight. Cleansing flame helped me ground and kill another flyrant, and badly damaged the warlord flyrant. Was able to grab a couple objectives midgame, but not enough to cacth up. Low scoring slug fest ended with a loss to the monster bugs 9 - 7.

Game against daemonkin played out almost the exact same. Mission 6, and I draw 6 cards I am unable to achieve round 1. He draws 5 that he can score. This army does so well against daemons, it's absurd. I made sure to never forget a single preferred enemy, banishment or daemonbane attack as I never get to play daemons. My opponent brought a soul grinder, two blood slaughterers, maulerfiend, unit of crushers with lord on juggy wielding goredrinker, two cultists, heldrake and a minimum gorepack. Not a bad list and I had to figure out a way to deal with the av13 before they got into combat with my army. And I dealt with them in the stupidest way possible - pure luck. Highlights include immobilizing one slaughterer with the heavy psycannon, taking two hull points from a maulerfiend in combat and watching him lose the last when rolling a 1 for daemonforge, and immobilizing the soul grinder in overwatch. That's three 6's in a row with the same dice. By turn 3 I had cleared the field to the point I could start grabbing objectives. Psilencers and forceweapons just annihilated his units. He summoned two units of dogs and a skull cannon, and still only had the heldrake on the table at the end of the game. I lost a dreadknight in combat, a librarian to perils and a couple random terminators. It came down to how we rollee the d3 tactical objectives at the end, him having one roll and me having 3. He rolled the full 3 points for his one card and I rolled 4 points total for my 3. Game ends in a 12-12 tie. Can't get a win.

Okay, here is what I rolled with

Draigo
Libby, hammer, combi-melta, book
Termies x 6, all hammers, psycannon
Strike squad, hammer on justicar
3 dreadknights, teleporter,sword, psycannons
stormraven
Vindicare Assassin

My opponent brought the suppression force which is 3 whirlwinds, two land speeders (first time I've faced this formation), a stormwing and the imperial knight formation that gives them overwatch, counteratteck, +1 ion shielding and objective secured.

He also rolled outflank for his warlord trait and decided to reserve all 3 knights. I had first turn and he only had the suppression force on the board. I figure I would try and table him turn 1. Unsporting perhaps, but I really need a win. Draigo is with the termies and libby. Strike squad is on an objective in my deployment zone and the vindicare is in the top floor of some ruins overlooking the entire battlefield.

Turn 1 I shunt all 3 dreadknights next to his whirlwinds while Draigo and co. gate behind them. I cleansing flame and shoot the whirlwinds all to hell, but I am only able to remove one hull point from the landspeeders. I score an objective. He can't do much as his land speeders jinked.

Turn 2 I finish off the land speeders and gate Draigo and Co back to an objective in my deployment zone. I score two more objectives, one of which is a d3. My opponent rolls his reserves and gets everything in. Two knights outflank next to Draigo, the third goes next to the strike squad. The flyers come in and shoot at the dreadknights, who save like a boss losing only two wounds on one model. One knight shoots a gatling cannon at Draigo's squad, who save like chumps - 1's galore. I lose two terminators, Draigo is down to 2 wounds and the libby down to 1. The strike squad is chopped down by another gatling cannon, leaving only the justicar. He fails to score any objectives though.

Turn 3 my stormraven comes in and shoots at the enemy storm raven, failing every armor penetration roll. I move the justicar within range of the objective his squad was camping. This is when I find out his knights are objective secured, leaving him with only one option - suicide attack. The suicide attack goes about as well as you can imagine, the justicar getting D weaponed to death before he gets his chance to swing his hammer. Draigo moves to attack the knight that just decimated his squad.... they survive overwatch and make the charge. Draigo takes two hullpoints, then he and another terminator lose their lives to a D weapon attack (Draigo failing his sanctuaried 2++). The remaining termies and libby finish off the knight, and then lose the rest of the terminators to stomp attacks. The dreadknights grab objectives and take harmless shots at flyers. I'm able to score a couple more objectives. He retaliates against my libby and shoots him off the board. The assassin is the next to go. Dreadknights hold strong against the flyer attacks. He scores and objective or two.

Turn 4 my cards turn on me. I think I'm able to score one, jumping dreadknights to whatever objective their 12" move will reach while missing more snap shots at his flyers. My opponent begins to come back toward his deployment zone but is unable to do any damage.

Turn 5 I draw the "kill a unit in assault" and "d3 if his warlord dies" cards. Tough assignments, but give it my best. The rest of my cards are on the other side of the board. I figure I'll go for it and jump two dreads next to his Imperial Knight warlord. The stormraven drops to hover behind his warlord. I throw everything I have at him and take two hull points. I charge the two dreadknights. 10 attacks, 5 hits and two glancing hits to show for it. He murks one dreadknight. Stomps the other but this one is not going away. For some reason he decides to stay in combat with the dreadknight. He also ignores my now hovering flyer and tries to take out my dreadknight in the ruins, but is unable to. Next round of assault I score two more glances and KABOOM goes his warlord. My dreadknight gets murked by the D weapon at the same time.

Turn 6 I fly my stormraven next to his and take a couple shots at it. I score another card plus the d3 for taking out his warlord. I'm in survival mode at this point, I think we're close in cards but I have two secondary objectives plus a couple d3 rolls if I can just hang on. He throws everything at the dreadknight but this guy hangs on with one wound. Somehow I'd survived and the game ends. We tally up the objectives and I roll well on my d3 for once! 15-10 victory. Sweet, sweet victory. So nice to get back on the winning side of things.


Those Knights are tough, and the flyers even more so. We lack the anti-tank and the anti-flyer and this guy brought them both. Had it gone another turn I would have been tabled. I really think he hurt himself outflanking the knights and giving me board control for my first two turns. With 12" movement there's not much on the board a knight can't reach if it wants to and if you're going to outflank use one or two, but not all three. My cards were good the first three turns, then turned on me after that. But still allowed me to get a lead that he never was able to make up.


I've had a good variety of opponents so far this league. No chance of playing the space wolf guy next round so I'm kind of hoping I draw the other Grey Knight player.
Next weekend is the league apoc game, which i'm trying to play on the chaos side of (I actually have chaos superheavies I can bring). Then the next round is 2k points, which unlocks the use of ranged D weapons and lords of war. I'm thinking of bringing a nemesis strike force and the assassin formation to see how well that works.