[40K] Grey Knights VS Blood Angels

This was the beginning of our new league. I decided to give it a whirl, and after a lot of debating, decided to play the Grey Knights (or "Cheese" as my buddy FunDave calls them). 

I played against a guy I've known since the day I was introduced to gaming. He's new to the league, but has been stopping in to watch for almost a year. Our guys know him, but might not know his idiosyncrasies as well as I do. 

He's an old grognard/neckbeard, one of those guys that takes perverse pleasure in reading, examining, questioning and just generally ingesting games of all kinds. He also discusses games in a strange hybrid of kvetching/arguing that many people could easily view as misanthropy. I've gotten used to it over the years and don't think twice about his rumblings- I sort of hear them on another wavelength. 

Having effectively taken care of customers, I found a table and broke out my dudes, and my friend broke out his. His list was something like this:

Baal pred

2 las plas razorbacks 

2 five man assault squads melta powerfist

and here's what I brought: 

storm raven

4 terminators (troops) with a psilencer 

1 Justicar Tharn 

I was a little absentminded when we were setting up the table, and I sort of missed something important. Take a look. 

Notice anything? (Besides my hand on the right.) Yeah, there's not a lot to see.

We rolled mission and deployment. He won first but held off and kept his guys in reserve, letting me go first. We had to score an objective, and his was behind a ruin. Mine was on behind a bunker to the way left from what you see here. 

I moved forward towards the objective. He waited. I moved forward again.

I actually scooted around the ruin and sat on the objective.  I thought I was in good shape, and I was trying to follow the "keep the guys in the armored box" rule I keep hearing.

Yeah. Then he rolled all 3 reserves on and the one that was flanking came in on the side my bird was on.

The bird got blown up- totally exploded. The guys inside- 3 lived.

My poor, poor raven!

Then my guys ran away because they lost more than 25% of their squad. And at least one of them got blown up by the barrage of shooting he threw at me.

And you know, I never learn. I charged right at those tanks- with just 2 guys.

The roll to hit. This was probably the only thing that made the night not entirely terrible on a game standpoint.

I got completely surrounded. And the psicannon just refused to die. He was pretty crafty. Thawn died - a lot.

Of course the rolls to pen weren't so good. Can't win 'em all, right?

The game came down to 2 Lasplas Razorbacks and a Ball Predator shooting Thawn every time he got up. And then he didn't, and my friend won.

Overall recap: My friend got lucky with his reserve and shooting rolls. I didn't suck as much as I have in the past. I still lost.

About my opponent: I sort of covered this in the bat rep above, but I like him and get along with him fine. I know other people find his tendencies to discuss things to death somewhat annoying. 


What I learned: Trying new stuff is ok. Even if you lose.

In all seriousness, I was trying to apply some things I've watched or heard. I was debating between BT with a LRC and dudes inside or a StormRaven, and you know... I really wanted to play it. It was a birthday gift and I really like it. So I went with GK. I definitely need to read the Codex more thoroughly.

There's next week to try again at 500... I don't know what I'll bring yet.

[40K] IG/BA vs BT/GK

This week's league game was against the team I forgot about- IG &BA. The team is composed of the youngest players in the league, something I really didn't notice until the LO pointed it out.


I was worried about a lot of shooting, and for good reason. We lost, even playing pretty aggressively. My partner summed it up pretty accurately- it was frustrating. Rather than just my snapshot, let's see how it went.

[I absolutely failed to get any sort of idea of their army list. I'm guessing here-

1 Chimera,
1 artillery tank thing
1 Predator (?) with TLLC
1 Vendetta
Dev squad with 4 plasma cannons
Mephiston
IC of unknown stripe (bronze with wings) and jumper crew
IG squad with Demo and melta inside small tank
Drop Pod
Furioso Dreadnaught]

We brought something kinda like: ( I can't completely remember. We made a last minute change from our pre-determined list that might not have been so wise)

EC (Accept any challenge)
5 Terminators w 2 CML and tank hunter
Crusader Squad (9)w LRC (dozer blade on the LRC)
Crusader Squad (5)
Razorback w/ TLLC

Grand Master
Purifier Squad in Rhino
Terminator Squad of GK doom
Librarian

We had Spearhead with Seize Ground, 4 objectives. We finally got first turn and they declined to attempt to seize. (One of my opponents said that in objective games, it's better to go second. I have never found this to be true, but I really don't have a lot of experience.) We deployed across our deployment zone something like this:

Then we use a psychic scout move thing to advance a couple units some more. They put everything in reserves. On our turn,we move some more and then sit tight since there is nothing to shoot at. They can't come in, so turn 2 comes around very quickly.

We mostly sit tight again, waiting for something to do. Of course we move towards objectives, acting in a fairly aggressive fashion since there's really not a reason not to. The drop pod comes in behind my LRC, and out comes Furioso.

The rest of their units fail to come in on turn 2, so it's turn 3. We shoot at Furioso and the pod, do a little more scooting and getting onto objectives, but wait it out again. On turn 3, they STILL don't come in except for the artillery thing whose name I don't know. Of course, I shoot at it with my LRC.

Turn 4. Finally things to shoot at and things to do.  He brings in his Purifiers on a Rhino, as well as move through cover to get better shots and get on objectives. We shoot a lot- and get shot in return. My Termies go down pretty fast despite being in area cover. This was a big victory for them as the CML are a big part of our army. Then the IG blob comes in and takes out a ton of the GK termies. The tide is starting to change...

I missed almost the entirety of turn 5 due to being at the counter with a regular customer. Luckily, I have a great partner that I trust to kill heretics and mutants with much more effectiveness than I can. I came back and I was still alive- which was good news in my book, since his crew was kinda shaky.

Turn 6. My troops from inside the LRC are contesting an objective, but there's a vehicle on it so of course, we assault it to actually HOLD it. His last couple GK Termies are in HtH with Mephiston (uh-oh). I destroy the vehicle and bunker up on the objective, and then his GK are down to one.

After Mephiston wins in HtH with a Grey Knight terminator.

Turn 7- The last of my guys were in assault combat with Mephiston due to his jump move, and well- we got eaten for breakfast. We held on as long as we could, because my LRC was pushing towards the objective- but the IG guys immobilized it and this game was a wrap with them winning 2-0.


What I learned: It wasn't anything I did- I learned something really awesome by watching. My partner's use of cover to keep his guys within 50% or more of cover was amazing. He moved carefully and stretched his Terminators to the absolute maximum of the 2" coherency to get guys in a "conga line" across area terrain to area terrain and still stay "in cover"-it was masterful. In addition, his REMOVAL of GK was brilliant- he was careful to keep 50% or more of the unit in cover at all times- so when he had to take guys off the field, he always took guys that didn't hurt his cover ratio. I would never in a million years think of something like that if I had not seen him do it.



What I need to work on: With both my partner and I fielding small, expensive armies, I need to use everything I have to my advantage and not take silly stuff. A lasgun might not be the best choice against some of our opponents to come.

About my opponents:  I honestly don't mind losing to younger players- as I've said before, my son smokes me pretty often when I (rarely) play Warmachine. They were very pessimistic the first 3 turns- but when the guns started blazing, they got really into it. I enjoy the enthusiasm- they had fun. Their army was pretty tight, and set for Termies- which did not help us a lot. Despite some communication gaps between them, they did well and played a tough game.


I am looking at making a big change to my army... but I haven't decided yet. We'll see what my partner says and go from there...

Blood Angels

This is where I'll put links and information for new Blood Angels players.


WIP.

[40K] Help for a new player callout: BLOOD ANGELS

So I'm not the only new player at the FLGS anymore! There's a new guy, Nick, who is super nice. I need links, links, links and MORE links to send his way for his Blood Angels. He's BRAND NEW- (played 2 games) and could really use some easy to understand strategy, tactics, codex discussion and more for his reading/learning pleasure.

Please help me help another new player! You guys have always come through for me... I want to pass it on.


Be Well,

Lo