Tourney results - PICS UP!

[Angelofblades]

Another wonderful monthly tourney at a local game store.

I had intended to run my Dark Eldar, but the friend who had the army forgot to bring them... So I had another friend choose an army for me to play, and he choose the GK list, in case he had to play me, since he was playing Eldar

I came in 3rd this time, not bad for what I faced, will post pics and BR's later.

So the armies I faced in order:

Dark Eldar
Necrons
Eldar

[Angelofblades]

So here's the list I ended up playing at the tourney

GKGM
Psychostroke Grenades
MC- Sword
Digital Weapons

Libby
sword, 3 powers (shrouding, might of titan, sanctuary)

5 Paladins
2 psycannons, 3 halberds, 1 sword, 1 hammer

10 GKT's
2 psycannons, 6 halberds, 2 swords ,2 hammers

10 GKT's
2 psycannons, 6 halberds, 2 swords ,2 hammers

Psyfleman Dread

Psyfleman Dread


Overall, it did fantastic imho. I was able to pull a minor loss against my worse case scenario opponent, who I ended up facing, and just about rolled the other two opponents.



A pic of the empty battlefield



Here are the missions for all the games. They forgot to put on deployment. Game 1 - Dawn of War, Game 2 - Spearhead, Game 3 - Pitched Battle.

Dark Eldar List:

3 Haemonc
1 Liquifier Gun

3 blasterborns
Venom
Ns, Xcan

3 blasterborns
Venom
Ns, Xcan

8 Wyches
Agoniser, Shardnet, Haywire grenades
Raider
NS, FF, GT, AS

8 Wyches
Agoniser, Shardnet, Haywire grenades
Raider
NS, FF, GT, AS

8 Wyches
Agoniser, Shardnet, Haywire grenades
Raider
NS, FF, GT, AS

3 Wracks
Venom
NS, Xcan

3 Wracks
Venom
NS, Xcan

5 Warriors
Blaster
Venom
NS, Xcan

Ravager
NS, FF

Ravager
NS, FF

Ravager
NS, FF

My opponent wins the toss to go first, and let's me go first. I roll for Grand Strategy and pick Scouts, his roll for drugs is a 1 (extra die roll for Run). Note: This is the same guy I played for my round 2 game last month.

Note about terrain. All terrain features are area terrain, this means even the hills provide a 4+ cover save for infantry on it. Terrain features like the towers I was hiding behind are impassable.


Deployment:


I deploy the 20 terminators in the center of the board, with the libby, hugging cover and give them Scout. The GKGM and Pallies are in reserve DS. Dreads walk onto the board. He deploys nothing and puts the Wrack into reserve, walking onto the board.



My Scout move + Turn 1 move + run, get's me to his board edge with the 20 termies hugging the hill, the dreads covereach flank, move + run. The Deldar vehicles weren't really there, just no extra table space to put his models.






This then forces my opponent to move precisely as I had planned. He split up his forces and moved down each flank, getting some nice Aether sail rolls on his Raiders. He has the empty Venoms ( Wrack transports) hang back and fire on the termies, to no effect. He power's down the flanks at top speed, with the exception of the Ravagers, that each try to get a bead on the dreads. On the left flank he has 2 raiders, 2 venoms (1 blastborns and 1 warrior) and a ravager, on the right flank he has 2 ravagers, 1 raider and the other blastborn in venom. He is able to stun the dread covering my left flank.

Here's my Turn 2 movements in response to his turn 1 effects.

The stunned dread clears itself, the termies move out and the GKGM and pallies refuse to enter play. In the shooting phase, the left flank dread blows up the venom carrying the blastborns, who are then shot to death by the terminators. While the dread on my right flank scores 4 penetrating results on a ravager...which he saves all of them to flicker fileds...great...







Wracks enter play, move and run behind cover, ready to grab objectives. My opponent, then comes swinging around the corners to grab the dreads with the Raiders, dumping the wyches into the terrain. He sets up additional firing shots from the ravagers and remaining blastborns to take a bead on the dreads. The venoms unload in the termies some more, taking out one from the left, and one from the right. He wrecks the dread covering the right flank and stuns the one on the left flank, subsequently charging it with the wyches. Combat sees the dread immobilized and weapon loss but still there.




Turn 3:

Still no sign of the GKGM and pallies. Termies on the left flank start back tracking back to the dread, and the termies on the right flank do the same. Termies on the left flank (with libby) take out the ravager there, while the termies on the right fire at a ravager causing a stun an weapon destroyed. Combat between the beleaguered dread and the wyches see a wych die, and no damage against the dread. Wyches stick around for another round.

He moves his remaining raiders onto my board edge, basically we start swapping table edges. Venom fire becomes more telling stacks wounds, but that terminator armor holds, until dark light weaponry is brought to bear. Most of the dark light weaponry he has left is focused on the right flank, killing 4 more terminators off that squad. Morale check passed. This combat turn sees the dreadnought finally brought down (another weapon destroyed and immobilized result). They wyches conslidate to get within range of the raider to re-embark next round.







Turn 4:

The GKGM and paladins finally show up, but I had to think about placement for a moment. I was rapidly loosing the right flank, but the left flank was holding well with the libby and squad. Do I reinforce the right flank or smash through on the left? I decided to reinforce the right flank. GKGM and paladin's drop in front of the remaining terminators. The termies with the libby on the left flank move to get in range against the Raiders to take them down. Shooting phase sees on raider on the left flank taken down (weapon destroyed and immobilized), while the remaining termies on the right flank finish off the stricken ravager, and the paladin with GKGM take out the venom the last set of blast borns are in, unfortunately, the explosion doesn't see any of them wounded, they pass the pinning.

The Dark eldar shuffle along my table edge some more, wyches embark a raider. The wracks sieze the opportunity to grab the objectives on their side of the board. Darklight weapon focuses on the paladins taking down 3 of them, while the Venoms focus on the 5 remaining termies on the right flank, killing all of them. The termies on the left flank suffer one more casualty.






Turn 5:

The GKGM and 2 remaining pallies move towards the 3 blastborns in cover. I detatch the libby from the termy squad and have him move + run back to the objective to contest against 3 wracks. I figure that 1 libby vs 3 wracks = 3 dead wracks. The remaining termies fire at another Raider, exploding it. The GKGM and 2 pallies charge the blastborns killing them at I6, and consolidate into terrain for cover saves against the remaining darklight weapons.

The Deldar respond in kind. The wyches on the left flank get out their stricken vehicle. The haemoculous get out as well and move to surround the remaining terminators. He surrounds the termies with wyches, the 2 haemonc, and a unit of warriors. The liquifier gun off one of the Haemonc rolls Ap1, and kills 3 terminators (5 hits), additional spliter fire and a single blaster kill another terminator. Termies hold. Up near the librarian, the Wracks move to intercept, although not entirely sure of their chances, they decide to hold off charging the libby. On the right flank, the paladins pass their cover saves against the Ravager, however the GKGM eats it against splinter cannon fire from the venoms. Paladins hold. The wyches on the left flank charge the remaining terminators. Terminator armor holds against thier attacks and the agonizer is fended off against by force swords. Wyches loose the combat by 1 but hold this round.





Random Game length, we go on to turn 6:

The paladins move to intercept the Ravager, the lone librarian moves up to the wracks. The paladins fire at the Ravager, immobilizing it and causeing 1 weapon destroyed (prow). Paladins charge, librarian charges. Wracks die a painful death at S6. The paladins fail at wrecking the vehicle. The termies vs wyches, sees the termies win combat big, wyches fail morale, and run. I'm in termy armor so can't sweep.

The remaining dark eldar move to surround the termies on the left flank. They all go down to mass venom fire, another liquifier shot (AP 6 this time), warriors, and a single blaster. The 1 Paladin falls to the point blank shot from the ravager.




Game ends, no Turn 7.

My rolls went to crap at the end. The late coming reserve roll hurt alot. Over all a really fun game against this opponent. He ended up with primary and secondary, but because he couldn't table me, I was still able to take the secondary (KP's)

Nexst up

GK vs Necrons!

[PyroSikTh]

Good to see what Mechrons look like on the table, aesthetically. Pity they weren't painted.

[Arlins]

Nice one AoB , thanks for taking the time to post all this
look forward to the necron debrief

[Angelofblades]

Round 2

GK vs Necrons.

To tell the truth, I had been waiting for an opportunity like this. How would this list do against Necrons. Well here's how it went.

Necron list:

Overlord
Warscythe
Command Barge

Overlord
Warscythe
Command Barge

Court 1
4 Crypteks
Harp of dissonance
Lance
Solar pulse
Termor Stave

Court 2
4 Crypteks
Harp of dissonance
Lance
Solar pulse
Termor Stave

2 x Triarch Stalkers

6 man warrior squad
Ghost Ark

6 man warrior squad
Ghost Ark

6 man warrior squad
Ghost Ark

Annhilation Barge

Annhilation Barge

Annhilation Barge

So what we're looking at here is an AV 13 wall with tricks.

I won the toss to go first. I get 3 units for the grand strategy and choose to make the paladins and both dreads scoring




So here's deployment. I stack around the building and on the hill. Paladins take center. GKGM is on right, libby on left, but close enough to provide buffs (shrouding). One dread in ruins top level, another closer by, behind hill. As you can see, he builds his parking lot. The Wall, I like to call it. Command barges in front, annihilation barges in the back. He does deploy a single wawrrior unit with crypteks in the ruins in his deployment zone, on an objective marker. Stalkes behind the ark wall, but placed between spaces so they can move out.

And so we beging the game with my opponent stealing the initiative from me....

Turn 1 movement

Not a whole lot of movement from the necron line. It shuffles a bit forwards and ot the side. Arks move 6" so as to fire. Command barges move 13" in front of the arks. As you can see he stacks it so everything get a 4+ cover save. His shooting phase barely scratches terminator battle plate. He let's loose a tremor stave at the libby's terminator squad...slightly futile, since they were in terrain to begin with...



GK Turn 1

The terminators check their gear as they press forwards ( I rolled 6's for difficult terrain movement), and cover their eyes as a flaring bright light momentarily dulls their vision. The dreadnoughts attempt to correct their systems, but to no avail, they are not able to correct it in time to gain a bead on any target. However, the terminators far a whole lot better. The GKGM's squad spies a ghost ark, shredding it with accurate and in range fire power (go go psycannons!), meanwhile, the Libby's squad spy a zippng command barge, also shredding it with psycannons (4 pens btw). Sending the overlord careening out, but passing it's pinning check.



Necron Turn 2.

The wall readjusts to let the stalkers out. The last command barge zooms over the center terrain to get 3 kills on the GKGM's termies. There is an annihilation barge coming round the top of the battlefield, gaining LOS on the GKGM's squad. The Necron shooting starts with the stalkers taking aim against the libby's squad. They make 4 melta wounds, but thanks to the librarian (shrouding), not a single terminator falls (3+ cover save). Similarly the arks erupt, but their shots aren't enough to get through terminator battle plate. The annihilation barges unleash their torrent of tesla shots, and it too is defeated by terminator plate! (1 termy dies from GKGM's squad). He fires a harp shot at the dread, but it does nothing. More tremor staving, not killing termies, but putting them in terrain...(paladins and libby's squad)

GK Turn 2.

(My opponent doesn't call his second solar pulse even though I remind him, he refuses to pop it)
The knights push up, the libby's squad moving to allow the paladins to take the lead. The dread behind the hill moves to get better LoS. The GKGM and his squad move to intercept the command barge that just zipped past. The Paladins take down another Ghost ark, while the libby's squad manages pen (stun) the remaining ghost ark. The dread near the hills spies the zipping overlord and brings the command barge down and overlord get out (passess pinning). The other dread on the wall, makes range to an annhilation barge, annihilating it. The GKGM and his squad are set up for the charge, and take it against the downed lord. The GKGM casts hammerhand and psychostroke grenades roll a 2. The I6 Halberds hit first, cause 2 wounds and activate their FW's to end the combat. The consolidation (a 6), sees the GKGM and termies head back to the center terrain. However the Overlord get's back up and flees towards the right.



Necron Turn 3:

The de-meched warrior squads start splitting off. One squad heads towards the hill on their table edge, while the other heads down to the xenos ruins with an objective marker in it, along with an errant overlord. The Annihilation barges on the left flank back up, while the one up top moves to around the hill. Stalkers kinda just sit there. He starts to focus on the libby's squad a bit more, taking down 2 termies (failed armor saves, not cover saves), Shrouding is having a profound effect on my opponent. I can see it in his face. More tremor staving, on same squads another harp shot at the dread with no effect. His tesla cannon shots are what took down the 2 termies. He manage to get a couple good 6's in there for about 6 wounds iirc. Another 2 termies from the GKGM's squad, fall to the other Tesla cannon. Morale checks passed. Paladins take 2 wounds from the arc from the libby's squad when they got hit from the annihilation barge.



GK Turn 3

Paladins move into the ruins, libby's squad stays on hill. The dread on the ground (the one that kept getting hit by the harp) moves to remove the harp's LOS. It backs up towards objective marker. GKGM and his squad move to intercept the warriors up on the hill. Shooting phase sees the last ghost ark removed, and one stalked weaponless. The dread on the wall open up on the other annihilation barge on the left flank obliterating it. The GKGM and squad assault the warriors on the hill, cutting them all down and stamping out the remains, none of them get back up. They consolidate (5") towards the errant lord hiding near an objective on the right side of the table.



Necron turn 4.

The warriors that just got blown out their ghost ark move up to contest center objective, with the weaponless stalker behind them. The annihilation barge at the top of the table moves for point blank shot at the GKGM and his termies. Overlord on the right jumps into trees, overlord on the left runs to hide behind xeno ruins, the warriors behind him follow suit. The other stalker moves to stand behind it's damaged counterpart. The dread on the ground gets hit by another harp, this time it works and lost a weapon to a lance





GK Turn 4:

With another necron unit close enough to break in combat, the Paladins rush out of the terrain. The libby's squad move in to the area where the paladins just were, and the GKGM with squad continues their march towards the lone overlord. The GKGM and squad open up on the lone lord, 3 rends put him down for good. Dread on wall fires on last annihilation, getting a penetrate and weapon destroyed. The libbies squad's psycannons open up on the stalker that's taken no damage and put it down. Pallies charge the warrior squad, and put it down, 1 cryptek gets back up, they consolidate towards the other warrior unit sitting on an objective in his deployment zone.







At around this point, my opponent calls it.

[The Dark Pwner]

YAY for grey knights.

[edmundblack]

Woo, GKs ftw!

Though I must say that I heartily dissapprove of the AV13 wall. Considering how long those damned things are, that's just purely abusive. Par for the course in Tournies though I guess. Not that it helped much.

[Angelofblades]

To be honest, I was not impressed by the strength of the Necron codex. To me, it seemes to have alot of utility, but very little in the way of straight up, honest direct damage. It relies very heavily on all these tricks to make it through a game, which may work against some things, but should it come up against a rock, it just gets squashed.

I used to hold a healthy respect for Necron armies, only because they could bring an honest fight to the table, straight up rock em and sock em, dragged out fight, and they could take a beating, now it pulls out tricks and they have NO strategical value to them.

Like let's take for example, Descent of Angels from BA. That rule has strategical value to it. It allows for a double melta unit to come in, DS and pop a tank or 2 if you're feeling up to it.

Or let's take GK, GKGM Grand Strategy, that rule has strategical value to it.

I see no strategical value in what any of the Crypteks bring to the table, and the court is a focal point of many, many army lists. The Stalker, now that has value, overlords on command barges have value but are used incorrectly.

I mean if the AV 13 wall, or the Difficult/ Dangerous terrain gimmick, is an indication of what to expect from Necron armies, I pity the codex. Gimmicks don't hold up when it has to face unyielding steel.

Now, I will admit, that my GK list, is not a typical GK list one finds, but still, I expected better out of the necron codex.

[yWizePapaSmurfy]

To be honest, I was not impressed by the strength of the Necron codex. To me, it seemes to have alot of utility, but very little in the way of straight up, honest direct damage. It relies very heavily on all these tricks to make it through a game, which may work against some things, but should it come up against a rock, it just gets squashed.

I used to hold a healthy respect for Necron armies, only because they could bring an honest fight to the table, straight up rock em and sock em, dragged out fight, and they could take a beating, now it pulls out tricks and they have NO strategical value to them.

Like let's take for example, Descent of Angels from BA. That rule has strategical value to it. It allows for a double melta unit to come in, DS and pop a tank or 2 if you're feeling up to it.

Or let's take GK, GKGM Grand Strategy, that rule has strategical value to it.

I see no strategical value in what any of the Crypteks bring to the table, and the court is a focal point of many, many army lists. The Stalker, now that has value, overlords on command barges have value but are used incorrectly.

I mean if the AV 13 wall, or the Difficult/ Dangerous terrain gimmick, is an indication of what to expect from Necron armies, I pity the codex. Gimmicks don't hold up when it has to face unyielding steel.

Now, I will admit, that my GK list, is not a typical GK list one finds, but still, I expected better out of the necron codex.

Overlords on Barges = Melta teams to me, unless they're very lucky with Cover Saves to me they're losing value. I mean, to do damage you need to CC or hop over your opponent, both BAD ideas.

I think the list was just ran poorly, though. it wouldn't hurt to start dismounted and get Lance shots in where-ever possible. This is not because your list is atypical GK Terminator horde (Which I think is stronger than the usual mix of GK-hooplah) but the Necron army operates well dismounted, just like GK. Maybe because he took Warriors more than Immortals.

That said let's reinforce: the amass of 2+ Saves bothers many Cron lists

I don't think the Necrons rely on "gimmicks" to be effective and Crypteks add all-important Anti-Tank shots to units. It's like using a ASM unit without Melta or a GK unit without a Psycannon. Other things like the Tremorstaves and Solar Pulses help defend vs certain aspects of the enemy army.

The AV 13 Wall is a tactic, I see it used a lot, I don't see it as weak or cheesy. It's what 'Crons can do that no one else can do. What's wrong with this?

People are pulling the wrong kinds of tricks you've seen I think I do a lotta silly things in my personal list (which isn't nearly as "optimized" as his) and it has yet to fail me seriously:

"Silly flamer" keeping a select enemy unit iffy about what to do in a game.
Lot's of Strength 7 is a "gimmick"?
Having a scoring HQ that makes units Relentess when he joins them is "gimmicky"? The only gimmicky part to me is his close combat weapon.
Str 8 shots available to make into a missile battery (Like all Marines/GK/IG have available to them) is "gimmicky"?
I can go on but I am very interested to start another thread to see why you really think the Crons are weak because I'm not convinced so far. Players you play against aren't enough and players I play against enough because we're getting polar opposite results, so tactica and comparisons would be the best way I think.

[Angelofblades]

I didn't say that I thought the AV 13 wall was cheesy. I have no issue with it, and he played it correctly to begin with, just that I put it to the test and under a constant stream of fire it didn't hold. I have nothing against the S7 supply of shots either.

My main issue is with this focus on crypteks > army. The amount of points I see lists spending on crypteks almost rivals, if not exceeds the amount of points spent on troops.

Also him having immortals over warriors would have made very little difference in my game, I rarely shot at the warriors, instead there was more combat against warriors than there was shooting. Also IIRC, Immortals don't get access to Ghost Arks, thus it would defeat the purpose of the AV 13 wall, wouldnt it?

[yWizePapaSmurfy]

Don't think so, lose a few Ghost Arks and getting Night Scythes (abite no model currently, holding that way back) isn't terribly bad.

I do see Courts spent more than Troops, but not too often, I mainly see Lances/Pulses that's it. If they're doing anything else, in my eyes, it's a gimmick, but the Harp can see use if they lack tools to deal with AV 14. But, I can't blame someone for taking a "Devestator" unit of pure lances sitting somewhere, possibly aboard a Ghost Ark, is that's what you're seeing?

[Angelofblades]

Slightly, they're taking advantage of a harp with lances aboard an ark. Harp hits first, then lances away, since ES take effect prior to penetration, lower AV then roll to pen. Problem with that, is that I'll devote some fire to that ark and shake it, to force the unit to disembark and change their LoS views if they want to shoot.

I think the other problem is that I need to stop playing my GK. I do love the army, there isn't another pure Terminator army that can do what this does. I need to go back to my deldar...

[yWizePapaSmurfy]

Problem with that, is that I'll devote some fire to that ark and shake it, to force the unit to disembark and change their LoS views if they want to shoot.

Pardon, Living Metal much? And harming AV 13 is cakewalk, I'm sure...

[Stalker21]

Necron list:

Overlord
Warscythe
Command Barge

Overlord
Warscythe
Command Barge

Court 1
4 Crypteks
Harp of dissonance
Lance
Solar pulse
Termor Stave

Court 2
4 Crypteks
Harp of dissonance
Lance
Solar pulse
Termor Stave

2 x Triarch Stalkers

6 man warrior squad
Ghost Ark

6 man warrior squad
Ghost Ark

6 man warrior squad
Ghost Ark

Annhilation Barge

Annhilation Barge

Annhilation Barge

Personally, I think the list he used was a little weak, but that may just be my opinion. He spread out his Cryptek utility too much. The Necron codex relies upon synergy to work truly effectively. I think he spent too much on vehicles, as well. While I understand this was the focal point of his strategy (The AV 13 Wall), it weakened his ability to really deal some damage. He had no viable CC, either counter-charge or primary-charge, too few 'boots on the ground', and relied too heavily on his AV 13. In my own experience, AV 13 will fail you when you need it to stand firm.

But again, this is all just my own opinion.

[PyroSikTh]

He had no viable CC, either counter-charge or primary-charge, too few 'boots on the ground', and relied too heavily on his AV 13.

Gotta be this. In my test game against EB on Monday, I found that Necrons really do need a close combat unit, desperately. They're extremely shooty at mid-range, but mid-range isn't enough to keep the assaults away, at which point you need your close combat units.

18 Warriors isn't enough troops at any point level in my opinion.

The entire list feels like it was built to squeeze in as many vehicles as possible. It's a good strategy having loads of AV13 as it's really tough, but it's not a good idea to focus on it so much you neglect Troops and Close Combat units.

[commandojimbob]

Nice list AoB - like it loads and congrats on the 3rd position - DE will always be the tough one .

I really dont like that Necron list - YOU NEED MORE TROOPS ! I am starting to see that as a theme with Necrons and I am not liking it. Necrons do need CC units and we have one of the best - Wraiths !

[yWizePapaSmurfy]

Either more Troops or Trazyn I kid I kid. Definitely would consider dropping to 5 man Warriors and the Tremor Crypteks to get Immortals of some kind. Getting out and providing target saturation seems better and better since Troops probably won't be shot at anyways and though the Tremors *could* help in this matchup, against a Mech army it's really just an annoyance.

[Angelofblades]

Oh, so the armies that placed:

1st place - Blood Angels
2nd place - Grey Knights
3rd Place - Grey Knights

[The Dark Pwner]

1st place - Blood Angels
2nd place - Grey Knights
3rd Place - Grey Knights

Who knew...

[SaganGree]

He forgot to mention that 4th was GK as well....