Last night my buddy Vault and I took the short drive from our city up to Fort Collins, CO. We went up there to go hang with the great group of gamers there and to 'keep up foreign relations,' as goose would put it (top gun) lol. Anyhow, I thought we would get a quick game in, laugh a lot with the guys, and head home. What I didn't expect is that I was going to be playing a drag out slugfest against, arguably, one of the best players in the state.
This was one of those games that could have very easily been the top table at any tournament. If any of you know Xaereth you will know that he is a very solid player and a well respected member of the blogoshpere. If you don't know him go check out his blog LINKAGE. Xaereth is an excellent player, he was this years Champion of the Feast of Blades Tournament. I believe he placed 7th at WargamesCon last year and is also a regular contributor to Jawaballs' Blog. Needless to say, when we set up to play I knew it was going to be a great game.
*NOTE: X is also doing a battle report on his blog with pictures instead of video...Go check it out, follow the link above to go to his blog "Delusions of Grandeur,"
YOUTUBE VIDEO!
Pre game thoughts:
- When X and I had decided we would play he was first going to play with his Chaos Marines. He then asked me if I wanted him to play his Wolf Star list or his Chaos Marines. I knew the Wolfstar had a dread reputation because it was the very same list he had won Feast of Blades with, but the list I had brought was my WargamesCon list. As such I didn't want to play against him with a list he hadn't played in 2 years... I wanted his "A" game and he was happy to bring it. Almost the second after he said he was going to play his wolfstar I regretted it, lol. This was do or die for this Grey Knight build... If I could stand up to the Wolfstar of Xaereth then I knew this list was good enough to bring to WargamesCon. From an elemental style of list I knew he was a strong water list. Though the Wolfstar can fool you, it is only the first wave in a set of waves that is the whole list... As such I had to play more of an Earth game and let his water splash against my rocks... Which I knew meant using the Land Raider and cover as much as possible. My list is also a water list and as such it was hard to switch to Earth, but in the end it worked out. Also, I knew this game was going to come down to the deathstars facing eachother down... My only choice was when and where. ADVANTAGE: NONE
- Terrain Thoughts:
As you can see on the video, the terrain was really really sparse... It was a perfect shooting gallery for his Long Fangs. There wasn't one piece of LOS blocking terrain on the field...All in all the terrain was crappy, this would benefit him with the longer range. I couldn't move without getting shot my the Long fangs, and my range wasn't long enough to answer back. ADVANTAGE: WOLVES
- Mission thoughts:
We rolled "Capture and Control," and "Dawn of War." I particularly don't like Either of these mission types, but it was what we rolled. Night fight was going to hurt me bad, since I couldn't shoot anything till it was already moving at me full bore, at least his long fangs would miss a turn of shooting. With Capture and Control I thought we were looking at a draw-fest. I deployed my objective in the center right of my table edge 12" away from the board edge. He deployed his objective about 24-30" in front and to the left of mine. Deploying that aggressively I knew he was going to play water style and hop to contest my objective with his ThunderWolves and capture his with his grey hunters. Even more reason to play earth. ADVANTAGE: NONE
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| Xaereth's Army |
* My grandmaster rolled a "4" and gave my Paladins and 1 strike squad Counter Assault.
- Deployment:
I won first turn and he chose to not seize the objective. I did not deploy at all and he only deployed his 'Saga of the Bear'- Lord.
GK Turn 1 Thoughts: Everything came on and as I expected night fight nerfed me... I didn't get one shot off on the Bear Lord... Well, that sucked!
SW Turn 1 Thoughts: Smartly he came on and moved his Long fangs to the edge of the cover and then ran in...tricksy! His turn one was as boring as mine.
Turn 1 Objectives: GK-1 SW-0
GK Turn 2: I castled up, taking more of a "Earth," Stance... Everything was either in cover or smoked and within 6" of my Land Raider. Time to hunker down! My shooting was abysmal that turn as well, whoever said Psiflemen are good against AV 11 needs to meet my dice that turn.
SW turn 2: He moved his Wolfstar closer and I knew that this next turn I had to charge him. The damn things have fleet and assault 12"! Nothing really much to mention here, except I wish I had spread out my strike squads on the hill a little more. When he was hitting with frags it caused 2 hits on one squad and 3 on the other... oh well.
Turn 2 Objectives: GK- 1 SW- 0
GK Turn 3: This was the game changer! I knew it was do or die time and that the deathstars were going head to head. I was right on with judging the distance, but I wasn't right on when guessing how much damage my psycannons would do to his Wolfstar. Once they lost the guys he promptly failed his check and even though he had a majesty Lord he chose not to reroll it. In all honesty, I would have done the same thing, it was a good idea to flee and then rally to come in and charge me later... However, on his roll he ran straight off the table! The force wasn't with X tonight.
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| His cool scroll work |
SW Turn 3: We both knew that the game was over, but it is always worth it to play it through. When he unloaded 30 Grey Hunters in front of my pallies I knew I was toast too. It wasn't long until both Deathstars were off the table. I guess that is what happens when you have two good players facing off. now it was a battle not of Deathstar v Deathstar but Tiefighter v X-wing.
Turn 3 Objectives: GK -1 SW - 0
GK Turn 4: mostly the game was secure my objective and not die... Failing one charge didn't help in this end as it left one combat squad fighting alone...not good odds. As I expected they flubbed and I stood there shaking my head.
SW turn 4: my squad that assaulted in died and the squad that failed the charge lost everyone but one guy... Stupid frag missles, I couldn't make a 3+ to save my life.
Turn 4 Objectives: GK-1 SW-0
GK Turn 5: This last GK then jumped in the LR which made it scoring, now all I had to do was get to his objective, and there was only one melta on the board...I could do this! I moved around with the LR and flamed the Grey hunters that included the priest. All my other guns targeted that squad, knowing that they were the most likley to contest his objective. All my shooting proved to finish the squad.
SW turn 5: his last melta unloaded and attempted to shoot/assault the Raider. Apparently he forgot ammo and the melta failed to do anything. With a stab in the dark he charged with the fist. It did nothing (needing 6's to hit). In shooting he made my 5 man squad on my objective run off the table! damn frag missles!!!
Turn 5 objectives: GK-2 SW-0
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| Grey Knights take the win! |
GK turn 6: The Raider does what it does best and flames two separate squads (Machine spirit FTW). This effectivly gives me the secure win
SW turn 6: his ML all fire at my second dread, which explodes it and we call the game there.
Turn 6 Objectives: GK-2 SW-0
VICTORY GREY KNIGHTS!!!
Post game thoughts:
I really really enjoyed my game against X. He is by far one of the best opponents I have ever played and a really spotty turn of luck saw the game shift dramatically. He was great about it and didn't lose his cool at all (I would have thrown dice!). I really look forward to playing him again so he can exact his revenge!
Thoughts/Comments/ Insider trading?
DUKE
You guys should have played it out as if you got the assault on the wolfstar. I would be curious how that would work out.
ReplyDeleteBasically he almost beat a full size GK army 800pts down. Not a good sign for your list IMO. It pains me to suggest the usual internet fair, but really, it does make sense. Rhinos with large, safe, 2 psycannon toting squads, no razor back pushovers. Paladins are great, but I don't like the LR. Too costly. I think against long fangs, I would deep strike them. Take out a LF squad, and with halberds in hand, wait for a thundercharge. Without the LR, you could have another psydread, and fill up your squads.
Ummm... Thanks for the insult, but I think you missed the point. He didn't "almost beat me 800 points down," I killed his star too easily which put mine in a craptastic position. They wouldn't have been in that position if he didn't have them, as you hint at...
ReplyDeleteSeriously, walking 5 man paladin squads... Don't make me laugh. maybe that works in one off games when you k is the List your playing against but not in a tourney build where they will get slaughtered by long range firepower in almost every game.
I do however agree that it is better to run full 10 man strike squads than combat squaded razors... But at that point it is almost always better to run a crowe list.
In an
HAHA, unfortunately I was the TIE in this situation- fighting without a shield or missiles vs. ships with both of those things.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fun game :)
And good report! Always interesting reading the other guy's take on the battle! Glad we had the opportunity to play!
Um, one slight disagreement: Turn 5, I'm fairly certain that it was actually a draw if we finished it. The 'stab in the dark' assault on the Land Raider was actually a way to contest my own objective- I would have spread my guys out or run otherwise. I was easily within 3" of it after the assault. I had also killed enough of the strikes that the one guy left wasn't within 3" to hold it, which meant we would have drawn. Irrelevant perhaps, since it continued, but I want people to know I would have gotten the draw if it had ended on 5 :-p
I agree that it wasn't like I 'almost won despite being 800 points down', though I will say that it forced me to *dramatically* shift my game plan, and commit troops to places I had no desire for them to go- they essentially were to be saved for later. The Grey Hunters would have shot up the Land Raider FIRST, and not disembarked from their rhinos, and if the Wolfstar had died to the Paladins on the first round of combat (possible though not really likely), I would have used Jaws + 15 missiles on them, and let them come try to kill my rhinos with their remnants.
As it was, I likely still should have tried to kill the Raider with the still-embarked Grey Hunters, used Jaws like I said. Ah well, hindsight, etc.
For those of you who are curious, Duke shot me up, causing 10 total wounds. I failed the first 8 (including some Runic Armor 2+ saves).
The terrain WAS crappy, and I agree not very great. Sorry for that- it seems that the other bigger terrain from that box was already being used. Next time we'll get better terrain and see if the Long Fangs can refrain from shooting what they wanted- it usually doesn't matter a whole heckofalot for them, but it might have mattered this game. Mainly I wanted a good view of both objectives...
As Duke already said, footslogging small Pally squads are ridiculously bad in this context. Deepstriking a 6-man squad to shoot a squad of longfangs would have a) not killed the entire longfang squad (not even close) and b) allowed me to ignore them the rest of the game, and just let me go take his objective from him with the wolfstar, uncontested by anything that was very relevant. Just thought I'd throw that in there.
All this being said, I don't want to take anything away from Duke- he took what the game had to offer, and didn't let up on me. I've lost the Wolfstar before in a similar fashion and still tabled my opponent. Duke didn't let that happen, and did everything necessary for the victory. It was a fun game, and the most competitive against the new GK's I've had yet.
As for revenge, I look forward to the opportunity :)
Soon I'll have the Dark Eldar done, and we'll see how many of my skimmers your Psyflemen can take down in 6 turns- it'll be a turkeyshoot for sure :-p
REMATCH !!!
ReplyDeleteG
I never did measure those turn 5 guys... As you say though if we had it would have come down to inches, and a likely draw.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to seeing your bat rep... It's always fun to see the other guys perspective.
No worries on the terrain... I actually though it was all part of your master plan! ;) lol.
The dark eldar game sounds like fun! I could use some practice against them. If it is the list I think it is then I'm sure it will be deadly.
Duke
Didn't mean to insult you man, just that I think you should look critically at your list.
ReplyDeleteObviously your Paladins were exposed, but that could happen in a game for a variety of reasons, so I wouldn't look at that as an unusual situation when you only have one LR.
Footslogging/DS paladins are hardly ideal, but you have to look at how hampered your list is with the LR. Keeping the LR is fine, I just don't think the rest of the list works with it.
I agree with larger squads starting to point heavily towards Crowe list. Personally that is what my list is, I can't stand the thought of my GKs sucking in assault anymore.
If you are building a tourney list, it needs to be able to handle 3 long fang, 4+ GH lists. It's the template of mech spam, and currently, this battle proved your list may need work. I look foward to the rematch. It should be interesting.
And please keep in mind, I want you to crush Space Wolves. No, crush isn't good enough, I want you to send any SW army to eBay because you beat them so bad.
ReplyDeleteI'm a long time GK player that when I play SWs, I generally ignore missions and just try and completely punish them. I love the SW book for it's power, and nothing feels better than annihilating them. And I think X has one of the better SW out there. He has a good foundation of the typical spam elements, but adds the gutsy wolfstar. My style of player.
For sure, if I played SW I would have almost the exact same list as X... I like the style of that list a lot.
ReplyDeleteHere is my thought on GK sucking in assault...get over it ;) GK just simply aren't an assault army. Just a quick look at the models tells us that they are more of a close support army, not an assault army. (compare to blood angels models)
I'm working on a list tweak that I'll post up soon, the thing is I don't have enough te to make big changes. Eventually I'll move to a Crowe list but I don't have time to get them done before WargamesCon. Plus I have some extreme plans for the modeling part of the army :)
You've painted your Grey knights really nicely, especially the blades on the force weapons :D
ReplyDeleteThanks fhe conpliment rhyd. I'm going to do a post soon on how to paint those power weapons... I've already taken the pictures, just need to write the article.
ReplyDeleteDuke
my god i hate this blog so much. YOU ARE NOT AWESOME.
ReplyDelete@ Anon: Cool, and YES I AM.
ReplyDelete