Slow Grow Week 8 Vs. Renegades and Heretics

This ended bing one of the most fluffy games I have yet played. My opponent used the Renegades and Heretics rules from the Siege of Vraks. Clearly they needed to be show the error of their ways by the Grey Knights before their heretical ways could attract the attention of the denizens of the warp.

My 1000 point list has a total of nine models (my count-as-Draigo model (in my fluff he is a radical Inquisitor who has used all sorts of Warp magik to boost his power - more on that another day), a Librarian, two Dreadknights, and 5 Terminators). My opponent had 108 models, leaving my Grey Knights outnumbered 12/1! My opponent had loads of cultists and a horde of zombies.

The heretic hordes are massing:

The heretics go first, and their Warlord, being a Level 1 Psyker casts Iron Arm using three dice: 466. Oops, perils. Rolls on Perils table: 1 - Dragged into the warp, oh no. Heretics have 4+D6 Leadership. Rolls D6: 5, nice Leadership 9! Rolls leadership: 11 - oh crap - Warlord removed as casualty, and D6 other models suffer S6, AP1 hits. Rolls D6: 6. argh. After to wound roll four further dead, including some key Champion/enforcer models. No doubt the most painful perils I have seen in any game so far.

Also, Slay the Warlord and First Blood to me - ouch:

A tense game follows with neither side having much of an advantage. One Dreadknight is tied down all game by Zombies:

The Turn after this picture was taken...:

That Dreadknight (on two wounds) survives a total of 48 close combat attacks!

The game ends with an 8/7 victory to the Grey Knights. A very close game, and one that showed the tenacity of Zombies...

...still bloody locked on combat...

Slow Grow Week 7 Vs. Eldar

Eldar are definitely slippery little bastards. Their ability to move, shoot and move is really powerful. My own tactical mistakes in this game did not help me either.

The deployment was down the length of the table, as shown here.

The Eldar army is deployed around the two building at the top of the picture (Warpspiders and Swooping Hawks in reserve). My mistake was then to send my army straight down the middle towards the gap between the buildings.

That area around the shrine became a killing ground, especially when the Warpspiders and Swooping hawks were added to the mix. Got tabled and deservedly so. 

Slow Grow Week 6 Vs. Tyranids

For some reason I did not get a lot of pictures from this game, which is shame. It was a hard fought and tight game. In then end my lone Dreadknight was hunting down a single Ripper Swarm base. However, before I could kill it the game ended and I lost on points. The game was a reminder to focus more on points than table'ing my opponent. Sure, I game close to table'ing him, but all it takes is one model left to lose the game.

A picture from a mid game brawl.

Slow Grow Week 5 Vs. Awesome Chaos Noise Marines

In week five of the slow grow (tecnically week 6 but I am currently a week behind so for me game 5) I was up against a fantastically painted and magificantly themed Chaos Space Marine Army.
It pretty quickly decended into a close combat brawl, so again I will just put up some pictures of the action, mainly to show off my opponent's superb models.
Noise Marines dialing in up to 11!!

Then the game. Whilst the Noise Marines were beautiful, it was a list dsigned to look good, rather than maximising power. Hence, the Grey Knighs won - which is a shame as this army deserves to rule!
Set up:

Turn 2:

Turn 3:

Turn 4:

The End:

Next week I will catch up on the week I was abroad. This will be 750p against Nids. Not had a lot of luck against Nids, so we shall see...

Slow Grow Week 4 vs. Space Wolves

My 4th game (the first at 750p) was against Space Wolves. I seem to have managed to delete the pictures from that match, so nothing to upload. This was another defeat.

Slow Grow Game 3 vs. Skitarii

So, I have not kept a detailed log of the last few games (too much else going on). But, I though I would at least keep a picturial record of the games. The last 400p game was against Skitarii, which I lost. Here a few pictures of the action.

Slow Grow Week 2 vs Blood Angels

We are now in week two of the Darksphere Slow Grow. This week the Swiss Paring kicked in, so players who won last week were paired against other winners. Hence, when scores are posted on Sunday we should start to see some people pulling ahead.
This week I played against Iron Hands Successor marines. The mission was Maelstrom Deadlock.
Still on 400p so my list was the same as last week (basic Librarian; basic Strike Squad; Dreadknight with Heavy Incinerator and personal teleporter).
My opponent has a basic Librarian; one squad of Scouts with bolters and a heavy bolter; one squad of Scouts with sniper rifles and cammo cloaks; and a ...:

 Yep, a bloody Storm Raven. This would be interesting.

I rolled Sanctuary and Cleansing Flame for the Librarian; and Daemon Hunter for Warlord trait (clearly the Iron Hand Successors were tainted in some way to have attracted the attention of the Inquisition's daemon killers, but had evidently not gone far enough down the path of damnation for Daemon Hunter to be very useful).

My opponent won the right to set up first and took it. This was the situation at the beginning of Turn 1:

Iron Hands' Stormraven in reserve (obviously). My Librarian in reserve with the Strike Squad.

Not much happens in Iron Hands' turn one. His sniper scouts move forward to claim an objective and take a few pot shots at the Dreadknight which miss.
I then seem to have not taken a picture at the end of my turn one, but I shunt the Dreadknight forward (as per the arrow. My Liberian and Strike Squad come in, scatter slightly, but not too badly (The two blue dots).

In the Psychic Phase the Librarian casts cleaning flame which thins out the Bolter Scouts considerably.
In the shooting phase the remaining Bolter Scouts are killed (First Blood), and the Sniper Scouts whittled down by the Dreadknight's Heavy Incinerator.

Much to my dismay my opponent's Stormraven comes in in Turn 2:
The Storm Raven fires all its missiles at the Dreadknight taking off two wounds. The Iron Hands Liberian casts Psychic Shriek on the Dreadknight, but is denied. At the end of Iron Hands Turn 2 this is the situation:

 In my turn two the Dreadknight takes a few Steps toward the Librarian preparing to meet out some close combat pain. The Grey Knight Librarian and the Strike Squad move forward to get a line on the Sniper Scouts.
In Shooting the Sniper scout squad is wiped out, and the Dread Knight Fails to wound the Iron Hands Librarian. Both my units cast Sanctuary.
In Assault the predictable happens:

Facing six S10, AP2 attacks it does not go well for the Iron Hands Libby...
The rest of the game then ends up in a cat and mouse situation between the Storm Raven and my units - two moments of which are below:

At the end the Storm Raven kills the Dreadknight, but the game ends before the flyer can kill my Librarian and Strike Squad unit.
The final tally is Grey Knights 7; Iron Hands 4. The Iron Hands held a number of objectives at appropriate times, and got a point for killing the Dreadknight. The Grey Knights got First Blood, Kill the Warlord; Line Breaker, a point for casting a Psychic Power, a point for killing a character, and a point for killing a Psyker (which means that the Iron Hands Librarian gave away three points!!)

 

Slow Grow week 1 vs. Iron Hands Successors

After a rather long absence I am back, yay.

The reason for my return is that Iron Father Mike, a veteran of Darksphere has organised another Slow Grow League. This is the second time Mike has organised this, but the first time I had to drop out. This time I am determined to not only complete the Slow Grow, but also to document every game.

The Slow Grow is three games each of 400p; 750p; 1000p and 1500p. 

So, here is Game one 400 Points.

My List:

Grey Knights

Librarian

Strike Squad (5 GKs)

Dread Knight

Opponent's List:

Blood Angels:

Librarian with jump pack

2xTactical Squad with Missile Launcher

Vanguard Jump Squad

The Game was Maelstrom: Deadlock; with Vanguard Strike Deployment.

I got Purge Soul and Gate of Infinity as my Psychic Powers; and First to the Fray Warlord Trait.

Blood Angels won the right to decide who should deploy first, and they decided to go first.

After deployment:

My opponent deployed all his army. I deployed only the Dreadknight. The Strike Squad and Librarian went into reserve (seemed a safe bet as my warlord trait would guarantee first turn arrival).

I then proceeded to steal the initiative!

This was the situation at the end of my Turn 1:

My Dreadknight has Shunted towards the Tac Squad in the top middle of the picture and incinerated two of them to death. The Librarian and the Strike Squad had Deep Strike'd in the open space in the middle. The Grey Knight Librarian used Purge Soul to take a wound off the Blood Angels Liberian. who was then finished off by three Psyk-out Grenades in the shooting phase.

This is the situation at the end of my opponent's Turn 1.

Shooting and close combat took down two members of the Strike Squad. However, three Vanguard also die in close combat. The Tac Squad facing the Dreadknight cause no damage.

At the end of my Turn 2 the table looks like this:

The Dreadknight has stomped all over the Tac Squad (top left). The remaining Vanguard have fallen with no damage to the Strike Squad. However, the Grey Knight Librarian did manage to peril, although got away with just a lost wound. Not seen on this picture the Dreadknight and the Strike Squad Consolidate towards the remaining Tac Squad.

The Tac Squad manage to kill another Strike Squad marine:

In my turn the Strike Squad and the Librarian get into close combat with the Tac Squad. the Dreadknight fails his charge. At the end of the turn the Tac Squad has been reduced to one bolter marine and one missile launcher marine.

 Nothing much happens on the Blood angels turn. He fails to wound and I fail to wound.

In my turn 4 the Dreadknight gets into close combat, with predictable results...:

The game ends with no Blood Angels left and three Grey Knight models left on the table. That is a 100% casualty rate for the Blood Angels and a 57% loss rate for the Grey Knight, A high loss rate all round.

Significant elements of this game were:

- I managed to steal the initiative which had a major impact on the game. It basically meant that the jump Vanguard were pinned in their corner. I.e. pure luck there.

- On three occasions a Blood Angels Krak missile needed a 2+ to wound (and on two occasions autokill), yet rolled a 1! Again, good luck for me.

- Despite being a Maelstrom mission not a single Tactical Objective point was scored. The game ended with 3/0 to the Grey Knights: First Blood; Kill the Warlord; and Line Breaker.