Battle Analysis

Last night I had my first test game for the new codex. As I was using stand ins I didn't take any photos and so this post is going to be less a battle report and more an analysis of how each of the units fared.

I gave a brief run down of my list and intended tactics here.

The mission was Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment. Happily I got first turn.



Grey Knights slowly worked their way across the board, taking heavy loses. But destroying everything in their wake. The Game ended at the end of turn 5, with a Grey Knight Rhino with a Justicar and Psycannon marine inside sitting about 6" away from the enemy objective. There were 6 Blood Angels left on the objective, and 5 in a nearby Rhino (and an immobilised, weaponless Razorback sitting somewhere). The Grey Knights had a Rhino with 2 men in ready to jump on the objective, a Callidus assassin within Charge range of the BA squad holding the objective, 5 Grey Knights in a Rhino on our objective, a Vindicare in a Rhino out of range of any targets and 2 Psyflemen dreads near our objective (one with one arm).

So another turn and we can be fairly certain the enemy objective would have at least been contested. Not bad for a first game.

You may have noticed there none of my HQs were left at the end of the game. The unit I was most looking forward to using was the Librarian with his array of utility powers. Sadly he rolled a double 6 for his first power (shrouding) and double 1 for his second power (summoning), killing himself off at the beginning of the second turn. Yay. This is extremely unusual and means I couldn't really rate his performance in the game.

The purifiers gave up their transport to the Vindicare (more on him later). Then they waited patiently to be summoned by the librarian, which they were in turn 2 (poor libby), they promptly ripped the turret off a nearby razorback with their psycannons. In the Blood Angel's turn 2 their reserves turned up and a death company dread hit into the Purifiers and wiped them out in a single phase without breaking a sweat... none of them got to attack back. Ouchy. I admit that this was a severe lack of foresight on my part and I paid for it dearly. Again, another unit I was looking forward to, wiped out. I'm starting to like the idea of combat squading Purifiers.

Now back to the vindicare. I sacrificed a turn of shooting to get him in a Rhino and zoom him forward into the best firing position I could find. The trick with the Vindicare is picking your shots, and due to the terrain and my enemy's use of blocking vehicles, his choice of shots was limited. In the game immobilised 2 vehicles (inc. an enemy Stormraven), failed to wound with a hellfire round (2+ to wound) and striped the invulnerable save off of the Death Company Chaplain. Not an impressive game, but that was thanks to some unlucky rolling and a limited selection of targets.

The Callidus assassin. Now here is a fun unit. She turned up turn 2, killing 2 Devastators as she arrived, then shreding the mind of a third (the last two were taken out by a psyfleman in the next turn). She then spent turns 4 and 5 advancing on the objective. In turn 5 she was in range of the DC Chaplain, who she managed to roll a 6 to wound against with her neural shredder, and with a lack of invulnerable safe (thanks to the Vindicare) was insta-killed, prompted he saved a bolter wound with her 6+ FNP, and dodged a lascannon blast with her 4++ save. She didn't do a huge amount of damage, but earned back her points and was extremely fun to use, not least for the psychological effect on my opponent. She is best used in a Mordrak list I feel, with scouting teleporting dreadknights, as all these other targets in their deployment give the callidus some extra survivability as one small model doesn't warrant as much attention. Having said that, she still has her uses in a GK mid-field army, taking out those hard to reach devastators, lootas, broadsides, reapers that can annoy us so much! Definitely my unit of the match for fun.

The two Psyflemen Dreadnoughts, no questioning these were by far the most effective units. Between them they wrecked something like, 2 Baal Predators, 1 Rhino, 1 Stormraven, 1 DC Dreadnought, 2 devastators and a couple of other standard marines. They cut a bloody path from turn 1. Simply good; and at 135 a pop, take at least 2 at all times.

The dreadknight was also a fun unit. As I learnt time and time again throughout the game, always take the Greatsword. It allows re-rolls To Hit, To Wound and To Penetrate. Which, with only 3 base attacks, is absolutely crucial for this unit, and save me so many times in this one game alone. If taking Mordrak, you simply should take a personal teleporter. Yes  they're expensive, but getting into combat in turn 1 is extremely nice, and soul crushing for your opponent (usually). Not to mention it saves you at least 1 turn of taking fire before you get into effective range. None of it's ranged weapons are overly useful against marines, but I like the heavy incinerator on it, the hellhound firing rules means you can potentially hit 2 units that you want to and still charge the single unit you want with careful template placement. Plus the template will be the best against hoards, which this unit will otherwise struggle with.

Mordrak. Well, he is good. 3 Ghost knights died with very bad saving rolls in turn 1. and the librarian copped it beginning of my turn 2. Leaving Mordrak somewhat exposed. He still did well, taking almost 2 whole 5-man tactical squads by himself, before getting gang-raped by lots of power weapon wielding Death Company (over 25 wounds on him and one Ghost Knight before they even got to hit back, you ain't coming back from that!). So, if he had more support (i.e. if the libby hadn't been a panzy) he might have done alot better. I rate him good.

All that's left now I believe is the standard Grey Knight Strike Squads. I like these units. Very versatile, with a mix of decent mid-range shooting and good ability in combat they worked well. one 9-man unit charged a full DC unit led by a Chaplain (or reclusiarch, whatever he's called) drew combat the first turn, second turn the GK squad was wiped out, as were the death company (leaving only the Chaplain standing). Not bad against a dedicated assault unit (admittedly it would had been very different if they had received the charge, but you should never let that happen against death company anyway). They need to be used carefully though, as you have very few of them and they're your precious, scoring units.

All in all a good first game, got me used to some on the new things (Always remember hammer hand dammit!) And to work out which units I like the best. But that was a 2500 points game, and I barely managed to fit in all the units I wanted to play with. Now to figure out what I want to take in a 1750 army...