Grey knight (Thousand Sons) battle reports from UK Throne of Skulls tournament

[isotope99]

I was at the UK Spring Throne of Skulls Tournament today (day 1) with my Thousand Son Grey Knights. The tournament uses 1,500 points & standard missions. No special rules or force selection limitations.

My army is as follows:

Grand master with Rad Grenades and Incinerator
7 Purifiers with 6 halberds and a master crafted daemon hammer (that I keep forgetting to reroll)
Storm Raven with lascannons and multi meltas
5 man terminator squad with 4 halberds, incinerator and MC daemon hammer (that I also forgot today)
10 man strike squad with 2 psycannons & Rhino
Dreadnought with plasma cannon
Psyrifle dread
Dreadknight with heavy incinerator


http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/Ksons_grey_knight_army.jpg

Battle 1: WIN
Vs Tau Annihilation – Dawn of War


Crisis suits (plasma and missiles)
Pathfinders and devilfish
Small tau squad
2 big kroot bubble wrap squads
A couple of piranhas with Fusion guns
A suicide fusion gun suit
2 hammerheads with ion cannon, Rail gun and smart missiles
2 broadsides


The mission favoured me as my army gives up only 9 KPs to his 12 and the dawn of war reduced first turn fire. Tau are not the strongest codex right now but every shot counts against a small army.
His tactic was a classic retreat into the corner whilst shooting as much as possible and delaying assaults with expendable kroot.

Turn 1-2 (KPs 1-1)

Early exchanges of fire did relatively little on either side. My dreadknight outflanked with grand strategy and blew up a devilfish and the Tau shot down my Rhino and a few strike squad members. My storm raven’s flat out save kept it alive through turn 2 with only a weapon destroyed.

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/game1turn2.jpg

Turns 3-4 (KPs 5-5)

By the end of Turn 4 things were looking a bit shaky. My dreads were killed by rail gun fire and the dreadknight had been shot up by crisis suit plasma. My strike squad had been blown off the board and the remaining Tau were castled up in the corner. I had killed a fair few Tau with my purifiers killing a squad of kroot fire warriors and pathfinders and my dreadknight bagging a couple of easy kill points.

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/game1turn4.jpg

Turn 5 (KPs 6-5)

The tau spent all of their shooting killing my terminators and failed to dent the purifier squad which rolled well for both cover and difficult terrain, killing the last kroot squad which should have fled instead of fulfilling its bubble wrap role, but things were still finely balanced at the end of turn 5.

Turn 6 (KPs 9-5)

The Tau finally ran out of places to run in turn 6 and my remaining terminators caught up with the crisis suit and commander getting me the 2 KPs I had been chasing all game. The grand master and purifiers finished the broadsides getting me the win.

Turn 7 (KPs 9-6)

The remaining hammerheads killed the terminators but couldn’t get enough KPs out of my army to catch up.

Conclusion

Tau are nasty against grey knights as their suits can outrange psycannons and have the AP to really hurt most infantry. My storm raven performed very well and outflanking my dreadknight was a valuable distraction. A different mission could have hurt me but I lucked out with dawn of war and kill points.

Man of the match: The purifiers for fluking all of their armour and cover saves in turn 5 allowing them to roll up the Tau infantry. The Storm raven and dreadknight also performed well.

[isotope99]

Battle 2: DRAW

The organisers appear to have set up game 2 so we were all facing our opposite numbers with same team so I was up against another grey knight army a lot like mine.

Vs Grey Knights Seize ground (*3), pitched battle


Crowe
2 big purifier squad with psycannons and Rhinos
Terminators with psycannon, halberds and daemon hammer in a Land raider redeemer
Small strike squad for objective holding
Dreadnought with psycannon (assault cannon with psybolts)


This was a bit of a bloodbath and over very quickly as both sides were toting power weapons. My intention was to draw his squads in and then counter attack with my storm raven and terminators but they arrived too early and had to get into combat sooner than I would have liked.

Turns 1-2

I deployed my strike squad and dreadknight near my objective and he put all of his tanks clustered around his. Early shooting favoured me as I destroyed the dread and immobilised a Rhino with my psyrifle dread and perforated crowe with my strike squad. Unfortunately my plan to bait the land raider and terminators with my own terminator squad backfired as the squad was wiped out for no loss by the enemy. The dreadknight and strike squad eventually got rid of the land raider and terminators but at a higher cost than I wanted.

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/game2turn2.jpg

Turns 3-4

Apart from taking revenge on the terminators, the main events of the midgame were a combat between my grand master, dreadnought and purifiers against a big squad of enemy purifiers.
Again, I was eventually victorious but at a heavy cost losing all of my scoring troops (thanks to grand strategy).

Turns 5-6

My strike squad deployed from their rhino in an attempt to pinch both objectives near me but this was thwarted by shooting from the last purifier squad which also took out my grand master. My plan to tank shock the enemy off their objective (or at least contest it) also went south, after I repeatedly fluffed my fortitude tests and ending up stunned for even longer. Also, the Storm raven is not a tank!

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/game2turn5.jpg

Conclusion

The game ended up in a bloody draw with both home objectives securely held and not enough scoring troops to take the middle. GK vs GK isn't all that much fun IMHO.

Man of the match: My strike squad killed off Crowe, some terminators and almost got me two objectives. My grand master also did well (Rad grenades are very useful) thanks to his 3++ save, but loses out for fluffing his saves and dying to storm bolter shots at the end.

[isotope99]

Battle 3: WIN
Capture and Control, Spearhead

The organiser cycled all three missions and deployments so we got to play one of each.

Vs Chaos Marines (thousand Sons) Pre heresy loyalists versus post heresy heretics


Daemon prince with wings and warptime/bolt
2 Thousand Sons squads in a godhammer land raider and a rhino
2 Obliterators
3 Chaos dreadnoughts (1. Las/missile 2. Plasma 3. Close combat)


Another list that looks a little shaky on paper but was actually pretty well matched against grey knights with plentiful AP2/3 and invulnerable saves.

Turn 1-2

My strike squad and dreadnought deployed on my objective with a dreadknight guard behind a building. The rest stayed in reserve. The shooty guys hit the enemy dreads but were not very effective due to some poor damage rolls. My terminators showed up early and were hit hard by lascannon and plasma fire from the obliterators and land raider. Crucially, my daemon hammer guy was able to ID the oblits in combat thanks to strength 10 from hammerhand.

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/game3turn2.jpg


Turns 3-4

My storm raven and its usual contents intercepted the Rhino squad and daemon prince heading for my objective blowing up the Rhino and easily killing the DP. Unfortunately I rolled low for their consolidate move and couldn’t get them into cover. The resulting AP 3 fire wiped out the squad leaving only the grand master however, it did pull the other thousand sons squad out of their land raider. The end of Turn 4 looked very much like a draw was on the cards.

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/game3turn4.jpg

Turns 5-6

Mutual destruction of the dreads and my dreadknight secured my own objective, whilst my plasma dreadnought and strike squad neutralised the middle sons’ squad.
My storm raven put in some epic shooting whilst the enemy lascannons were distracted trying to ID my now solo Grand master (which they eventually did). The mindstrike missiles making use of their ability to perils the sorceror and hit lots of model by rolling three hits on the scatter. By the end of turn 6, I had killed the last enemy scoring model guaranteeing me the win.

Conclusion:
My opponents have generally been prioritising other threats with their heavy weaponry rather than the storm raven, which has give it opportunity to drop off its contents in the right place and also inflict significant damage with shooting (str 4 defensive missiles are also nice as it can move 12” and fire all guns but the assault cannons would have been a better choice).

Man of the match: the Storm Raven killed a whole squad of thousand sons almost single handed and bought me the win.

End of day 1: I am two wins and a draw, which is pretty good going, but I am concerned about my low model count. I played a practice game against mech guard at the end of the day and it was not pretty, as I watched my army blown away by heavy weapon fire in short order.

[Atrocity]

Loving the conversions. Hope you keep getting decent draws and can make a run at it!

[Grailkeeper]

Do you have any more pics or details on your objectives?
They seem pretty big, do you ever use them to block LOS?

[JxKxR]

Good Job Isotope99! Your army looks great on the table.

[Lucian Kain]

Nice Keep up the good work.What have you got in mind for the Guard List?

[Brotherjames]

I wish all reports were this nice!

[Denzark]

What is the triangular thing?

[Archon]

Nice battle report und very nice army - execept the pyramid, wich seems to be your count as rhino. PH TS have rhinos also - so why this thingy? I thougt it be a pod, but it has to be the mentioned rhino.


Battle 3: WIN

Better write the result at the end of the post:cool:

[isotope99]

These last two will be a bit shorter as:
a) I am tired
b) They reordered the tables based on day 1 results and I was joint ninth (or thereabouts out of 100 odd) so had to concentrate harder, though not hard enough as it turns out.

Battle 4: Seize ground *4, dawn of war
Vs Smurf marines


Master with relic blade
Honour guard in razorback
3 tac squads with las/plas mix and two Rhinos
2 land speeder squadrons (2* tornado, 1*MM)
MM attack bike
Dread with assault and autocannon


Turns 1-2

I deployed first hoping that the dawn of war rules + cover save would protect my Raven as in game 1.

Unfortunately, I forgot about searchlights which allowed the night fighting rules to be ignored. It still survived almost an entire armies worth of shooting but the master eventually nailed it with a lucky orbital bombardment.

By all rights my left flank should have collapsed in turn 2 but some lucky saves kept my purifiers around although the dread was melta’d to death easily.

On the right not much happened, some shooting from my dread immobilised the tactical squad Rhino on the far right but not much else. My dreadknight spent most of the opening turns struggling in terrain as I took scoring rather than scout (maybe a mistake in retrospect but it did keep the marines out of the middle for a while).

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/DSC02320.JPG

Turns 3-4

My purifiers managed to get into combat with the dreadnought on the left protecting them from fire.

My terminators and dreadknight hid as best they could behind the only serious LOS blocking terrain I could find hoping to jump the objectives late on.

On the right my strike squad failed their pinning test when their rhino exploded and but the psyrifle dread bullseyed both tornadoes (in retrospect the razorback might have been a better target but I thought I’d get more time to shoot it).

Unfortunately I couldn’t open it up in time for the strike squad to shoot the honour guard dooming them so they switched their last round of fire to the tac squad on the right killing a few but not enough. They were duely wiped out in turn 4 taking some of the honour guard with them.

The tac squad on the right continued to advance towards objective 4.

Turn 5

Despite a serious mauling, I had a chance of victory in turn 5.

My dreadknight jumped onto one of the objectives and my purifiers used hammerhand to finally finish off the dread and consolidate back as a shield to cut off the tac squad (the Rhino was death or gloried when it tried to tank shock the objective). Unfortunately I didn’t have enough bodies to prevent the attack bike contesting.

My terminators moved in to claim objective 2 on the left but the tac squad hiding at the back got the run roll of 4 they needed to just get to 3” away and contest.

On the right the opposite happened as my eagerness to finish the assault on the dread caused me to forget the run roll on my own dread and left him just under 1” short.
http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/DSC02321.JPG

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/DSC02322.JPG


No turn 6 meant I couldn’t shake the enemy off the objectives and the game was over.

Result (My objectives 0 (2 contested), enemy objectives 1 Loss)

Conclusion: I could moan about my luck/stupidity in the final turn but my opponent deserved the win as he carefully circled my guys like sharks picking them off and it was only some very lucky rolls in turns 2-4 that kept my purifiers around until the final turn (my bad damage rolls working for me for once).

Man of the match: My grand master was great at soaking the low AP shots on his squad and made lots of jammy saves, so he gets the prize.

[isotope99]

Battle 5: Annihilation, pitched battle
Vs mech guard


3 russes (demolisher and 2 regular)
2 melta vet chimera squads
Melta chimera command squad
2 vendettas with plasma vets


Sorry, only one photo of this as I was distracted by trying to claw my way back up the leader board from being knocked back to table 17.

Having been blown away in my practice game from bad reserve rolls I decided to deploy quite a bit on the board opposite the enemy chimeras in a refused flank in the right corner with the outflanking dreadknight and terminators to hold the left. I was pinning a lot of hope on the scouting dreadknight.

Turn 1-2 (KPs 1-2)

Early fire disabled my storm raven but crucially did not kill it and blew out my Rhino causing me to fail a second pinning test in a row on the strike squad.

I managed to kill a vendetta that outflanked behind my dreadnought to overkill its rear armour and was summarily bashed in by purifiers (at last I remembered my master crafting on the daemon hammer to get the 6 I needed).

Turns 3-4 (KPs 3-4)

Despite my psychic communion powers my dreadknight stubbornly refused to come on and save me.

My terminators arrived on the left blowing up a valkyrie before succumbing to massed demolisher and plasma fire.

On the plus side, the rapidly shrinking forces hiding in the corner tempted the chimera squads forward to try and finish me off killing my strike squad and most of the purifiers (but once again not all).

I sprang the first stage of my trap at this point (which is an overly generous description). My storm raven had lost both primary weapons and been immobilised in the opening salvo but the missiles were still available allowing me to grab a cheap kill point from the command squad in the open.

My other kill point cam from finishing off the plasma vets from the vendetta.

Turn 5 (KPs 5-5)

The second stage of my trap came in turn 5. The dreadknight came on behind the chimera squads killing one squad with the incinerator (finished off by my purifiers) and stunning the chimera. My storm raven was destroyed by enemy ordnance after reminding my opponent that it was not completely out of the fight revealing the dreadnought that had been hiding inside all game.

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/DSC02330.JPG

Turn 6 (KPs 7-5)

Some epic saving from my dreadknight allowed him to shrug off all the hits from the russes and remaining melta vets before killing the infantry in return and the purifiers bashed in the stunned chimera before it could get away, pulling me ahead on KPs.

Turn 7 (KPs 8-5)

The last chimeras tried to ram my dreadnought in order to catch up on points but could only immobilise it. The dreadknight finished one more tank to win me the game, as my remaining purifiers cowered behind a tree.

Conclusion:

I have to thank my opponent for making this a fun game as he could probably have just sat back behind a wall of tanks and shelled me all game, pausing only to mass AP1/2 my dreadknight. My army is just not equipped with enough AT to take on guard.

Man of the match: Despite taking his sweet time in arriving, my dreadknight got three kill points when he did show up and finally made use of his heavy incinerator. The purifiers also continued to have the devil’s luck with rolling cover saves.

And now for some shameless self promotion

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/575/DSC02333.JPG

Final results: 3 Wins, 1 draw, 1 loss
I was very pleased to win the best army prize and very surprised to get best grey knights player.

Overall winner were Sisters as one player managed to get the top tables whilst the other struggled. The winner is decided based on the highest variance from the army's average score if that makes any sense. As a device for finding the best player, I am not sure about it but as a device for encouraging a spread of armies, including the older ones, it seemed to work well.

[Bousie]

Hey bro. I am the mech guard player you faced. I agree, I could have just gone ahead and sat behind my wall like a c***. But why? I love the progression of a game where you just advance. My friends are very critical of this, they say I lose games because of this. I probably do to be honest. Just wish I had killed that dreadknight! Needed more meltaguns....

So that is why I am going to try and so a more offensive army for the Winter GT. ANGRIER THAN SIN!

I really loved your army too, I am glad you won Best Army. Hope to see you again :P

[davel]

Any chance of a photo of your entire army laid out?

love the way you have laid out your report

Dave l

[wolflold]

Wow thats actually a prety cool army! Can you post some (more) detailed pictures?

[isotope99]

Any chance of a photo of your entire army laid out?

love the way you have laid out your report

Dave l


Wow thats actually a prety cool army! Can you post some (more) detailed pictures?

I'll direct you to my original construction thread rather that reproducing all the pics here

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=11823

Unfortunately, the best pic of the whole army I could get is on page 1.

[Denied]

Congratulations on the wins and I must say I am very impressed with the look of your models over all. Creative and artistic all around.