This is the second part of the Grey Knight Exorcises. The last game was also the last of the 5th Edition game we would pay. For the first 6th Edition, we used the same lists and the same table setup to see if we find any profound differences in how our armies will play.
This game took some time to play as we were getting accustomed to the new rules. We often spent time going back to the book even when we thought we knew rules. It is not safe to assume much because we still remember 4th Edition rules from time to time that were changed before.
We made mistakes. Of this I am sure. Considering how many times we stopped and cought a slipup, I wonder how many passed us by with out being seen. It is going to take a few more games to get comfortable with the reule set but so far, I like how they play.
The forces for this game are identical to the last and uses the exact same Force Organization for both Grey Knights and the Sisters of Battle.
I don't know what happened to the format for this post but it is giving me fits trying to correct it. Eventually I had to settle for "close enogh" and let it go.
I don't know what happened to the format for this post but it is giving me fits trying to correct it. Eventually I had to settle for "close enogh" and let it go.
Pre-game
We rolled for our Warlords' traits. The Grey Knights made their Interceptors Scoring while the Sisters of Battle could redeploy 1 unit up to 3d6 inches.
The Mission
The Grey Knights set up first and deployed the Inquisitorial forces on top of their Bastion. Interceptors along with the Autocannon Dreadnought deployed near the Bastion, behind the walls for cover. Placement of the Servoskulls protected his Dreadnought from my Scouting Dominions.
The Sisters of Battle deployed the Retributor squad inside their Bastion. One Battle Sister Squad deployed in the trees wile the other two deployed by the Bastion. One Dominion squad went on the table across from the Dreadnought while the other went into reserves in order to Outflank, Exorcists took their places on either side. The battle Conclave and the Repentia joined the Dominion on the side of the board across from the Dreadnought. This side was overloaded by Grey Knights and I intended to counter that, trusting the Battle Sister troops that would be held back to hold the other side from the Grey Knight forces not yet on the table. The center would be a challenge for most troops to get across but jump troops could do so quickly; they would just have trust in their armor to protect them from dangerous terrain results. Saint Celestine and the Seraphim set up in the center just behind the hill.
As a quick note, the Repentia no longer need to juggle Line of Sight in order to embark. Rage has been changed to grant +2 Attacks on the Assault and nothing else. Rage longer has the forced movement rules.
The Dominion Scouts were able to redeploy forward 2" before getting to close to the servoskulls. Once that was done it was time see what point value the objectives had. We flipped over the markers to find a 3 by the Sororitas' Bastion and the 4 was in their woods. The other three was in the Grey Knights' woods and a 2 next to their Bastion. The remaining 2 and the 1 were by the hill. The Sisters failed to seize initiative and the Grey Knights kept the first turn. One final pre-game roll was made to determine that the first turn would not be Night Fighting.
Turn 1
The Inquisitorial Psykers tried to drop a Strength 8 blast on top of the Dominion's Immolator but scattered wide. The Interceptors were on target with their psycannon but only managed a glance. The Dreadnought's Autocannon finished off the Immolator with two penetrating hits. The tank did not explode but with all Hull Points gone it became a smoking wreak forcing the Dominions inside to disembark. They took the opportunity to move as far forward as possible hoping to get in melta range on their turn. With the destruction of the Immolater, the grey Knights claimed the Firstblood Victory Point.
With the Retributors out of range for any target, the 1st turn shooting relied on the Exorcists and they performed well. The Exorcist in the woods fired 5 missiles at the Dreadnought scoring 4 hits. After cover saves, two missiles penetrated the walker. AP1 missiles roll at +2 on the damage chart so even after re-rolling for damage it was no surprise when the Dreadnought exploded. The remaining Exorcist fired at the Inquisitorial henchmen on top of the tower and managed to inflict a single casualty.Turn 2
The Grey Knight Storm Raven zoomed in from reserves and headed straight for the hill. The Interceptors moved back behind the Bastion so that their cannon could fire with exposing the rest of the squad to return fire. The Storm Raven open up with all weapons on the Seraphim squad causing heavy losses. The Interceptors fired at Saint Celestine but missed with the psycannon. However bolter fire managed to give her a single wound. 
The Sister responded by inching closer. The Outflanking squad did not come in so they had to wait for another turn. The Seraphim moved up past the the fortified walls at the top of the hill while Saint Celestine moved as close as possible towards the Bastion and even ran instead of shooting on her turn. Jocobus disembarked with the Battle Conclave and moved closer to the enemy. In the back, the Battle Sisters held there positions for another turn leaving the shooting to the Heavy support. The Exorcist by the Bastion fired at the zooming Storm Raven and again got 5 missiles off. Hitting on a 6, it managed to penetrate and destroy the flyer's Multi-Melta. The Retributors made their Faith test and fired at the Storm Raven with Heavy Bolter. Out of 15 shots, 4 hit the zooming vehicle and one of those managed to Rend and thus caused another penetrating hit; the Rending hit did no real damage but it did reduce the Storm Raven to a single
Turn 3
The final Grey Knight terminator squad came in from reserve by Deep Strike. They landed between the Storm Raven and the Bastion near the approaching Battle Conclave. The Strom Raven dropped into hover mode so the passengers could disembark. Draigo and the Paladins landed at the base of the hill and the final Dreadnought filled in the wall of metal between the Paladins and the terminators. The Interceptors moved out from their position behind the Bastion and took cover behind the terminators. Grey Knight shooting managed to wreak the Repentia's Rhino as well as taking out a single Crusader from the Conclave. The Seraphim lost two more from the Paladin shooting and were cut down shortly after in hand to hand combat. Conditions were crowded around the Bastion, hill and walls so that the Dreadnought was not able to get into a good position to take on Battle Conclave.
When the Repentia assaulted the Dreadnought, Snapfire from the walker was turned aside by invulnerable saves and Feel No Pain. . In close combat, the Repentia's Faith let them be sure of getting at least one attack even if they died, but it turned out that this would not be necessary. The Dreadnought's attacks were avoided or failed to wound while the Repentia (with 4 attacks each and rolling 2 dice for penetration) cut the walker's Hull Points away with many more to spare.
The Battle Conclave did not make it through the enemy Snapfire as well. Bolter fire from the terminators killed 1 Crusader and 1 Assassin as they charged. In hand to hand, the Death Cult Assassins used their axes and went at Initiative 1. The Grey Knights managed to kill the last two Crusaders and another Asassin who proved to be remarkably resilient thanks in no small part to Feel No Pain. The extra Strength from the axes allowed the surviving Conclave members to cause more wounds that they normally manage while the AP2 meant that those wounds could only be saved by the terminator's invulnerable saves. When the fight was over, Jacobus and 4 Death Cult Assassins were all that remained from either side.
Turn 4
We rolled for night at the start of the turn but it remained daylight.
The Interceptors moved as fast as possible away from the Conclave and towards the 3 point objective in the trees where the Dominions had come on. As expected, Draigo and the Paladins fired on the Repentia and then cut the last few down in the following Assault. They wisely chose to consolidate as close to the hill as possible to avoid fire coming from the Exorcists.
Saint Celestine flew down from the Bastion in pursuit of the Interceptors. She managed to run an additional 6" which put her roughly 8" away from the Knights. When she declared her assault, the snapfire from the Interceptors cut her down before she could move in.
The Battle Conclave's Rhino was operational and moved closer towards them but the few remaining members would have to wait before they could embark.
One Exorcist had Line of Sight to one of the Paladins and managed to kill him. The advancing Dominions in their Immolator (who stayed in the tank and just within 3" of the objective marker) managed to put another wound on Draigo.
Turn 5
On turn 5 we forgot to roll for Night Fighting. This is something we will have to keep up with better.
Draigo was in the center of the board walking while hugging the hill to block line of sight. With no one in range to charge he would have to wait on the table. The Interceptors moved up closer to the Dominions and fired on the Immolator getting a penetrating hit that exploded the tank. Snapfire did nothing to slow the Grey Knights from their Assault so the small squad of Dominions was entirely lost in close combat. This also left the Interceptors (made troops by the Warlord's trait) in sole possession of the 3 point objective.
Saint Celestine did not revive for turn 5. The Battle Conclave embarked in their transport but with no real objective in mind other than “don’t get shot while in the open.” One of the Sororitas Exorcists could see the Interceptors in the trees but the cover protected them from all wounds. The other could just see Draigo and managed to put the final wounds on him. One sole Paladin was left on the board and I was sure he would be easy to finish off later.
Battle Sisters continued with their plans to capture objectives. The immobile Rhino's troops disembarked onto the objective beside them near the Bastion. The Battle Sisters in the tress also disembarked but remained in the trees covering that objective. The third squad managed to make it out to the middle line of the board on this turn. At that time I was sure the game was going to be a sweep. I was sure I could table the Grey Knights in one more turn The die roll, however, said it was the end of the game.
End Game
So we are wrapping up and the Grey Knight player is saying he is not going to play Draigo-wing again (at least not against Sisters of Battle) when we start counting up points. Saint Celestine was still down so he got Kill the Warlord point. He had Firstblood as well and the 3 point objective held by the Interceptors. Add in Victory Points for the full units he destroyed and he had quite a few points. With the Scouring mission, Fast Attack units are worth an additional point. Once we got everything added up ... it was a draw. So much for me thinking it was going to be a sweep! The Grey Knights had 6 models on the table but managed to kill all the key units.
What Worked:
Axes! Equipping one power axe and one power sword on the Death Cult Assassins was a great idea. Too bad it wasn't mine. It was, in fact, the Grey Knight player I just faced that told me how to equip the Assassins in order to face either Terminators or Marines with the single entry.
Exorcists were hot again this game. AP1 in the new system is getting harder to come by and having d6 Strength 8 AP1 missiles is more valuable than ever.
Repentia! Those 5 ladies with "chainfists" opened a Venerable Dreadnought, exploding it and doing double the hull points worth of penetrating hits before I even finished rolling. It was glorious!
What Didn't:
Seraphim in the open. Again. If I am going to keep using them as a distraction unit I need to cut down the number of Seraphim in the squad and spend those points elsewhere.
Troops in hiding. I should have started moving the Battle Sisters to cover objectives on turn 3. I think part of this is also tied to not keeping up with the points. Put another way, I was not paying attention to all of the Mission Objectives, only the markers on the table.
Glad to hear they could stand up to the GK even in 6th edition. I would have guessed the new psychic powers would have made more a difference and maybe it would have if the perils hadn't come into play. I'm sad to hear the Seraphim did not do better. I was hoping they would be a long strong in 6th edition.
ReplyDeleteAwesome tip for the Death Cult! That is sure to make a huge difference in games.
Do you think you held back Celestine too long? I would have lead with her as her resurrection can deny both first blood and warlord points which could have won you the game. Using her early to inflict some damage and odds are she'll come back before the end and deny two points to your opponent.
I really wish the Penitent Engine's were not heavy support with rather elites. They are probably very playable now without rage forcing them to march all over the board but exorcists are more critical now then ever.
Are you going to be adding in an ally to the Sisters in future? If so who are you thinking of including as allies?
I'm thinking about Deep Striking the Seraphim in next time. It has a different sort of risk but jumping across the board in the open is hurting them.
ReplyDeleteRight now I am thinking I won't be using allies for and sort of competative gaming but I may in the future. I do want to try a game with Dark Angels for allies. Belial, a squad of terminators and a Ravenwing Assault squad would give me a few options I don't have with a pure Sisters of Battle list. However, before that my next addition will most likely be an Ageis Defense Line for the anti-air weapons.
I don't know for sure. I'm getting an itch to play more fluffy, narative games and less optimized list games.
I’m going the other way, and beginning to lean more on penitent engines than Exorcists. I’ve dropped both Exo’s from my current list and its been coping fine. I just can’t justify the expenses on a one weapon vehicle which has the potential to act as a super expensive marine with a missile launcher any turn you roll low. I’m seeing them as a bonus, and they’re making their way into my lists only at over 2k points where I can take double FoC (I always place with 2 HQ and 4 troops anyway, so there is no adjusting my normal list to gain advantage of the dual FoC at 2k and beyond).
ReplyDeleteSure the +2 damage roll is nice, but its just too many dice rolls involved. D6 for shots, then to hit, then to pen, then cover/jink saves, then damage chart. Too random to be relied on as anti-tank. Where do you get the additional Antitank from? Answer : everywhere! In the form of Krak grenades. Sisters have benefitted from grenades more than anyone, IMHO. Why? Well, we WANT to be in 12”. That’s our sweet spot. Melta, rapid fire, flamers. Everything we have wants to be in 12” range. If we are in the sweet spot, this means we can (theoretically) charge our target with the new random charge length. Krak grenades, now they reliably kill everything short of Land Raiders and Monoliths, but lets face it, your Exo’s aren’t touching those either.
In my last game, 17 battle sisters with Jacobus managed to go through a Deff Dread, 20 orks, a battle wagon and three Kans. In two turns!! Fair enough, this was walkers who were actually coming at me, but we don’t exactly lack for ways to bother the back line vehicles either. Flanking Dommo’s in Immo’s can wreck a couple a turn. Loosing faith with your Seraphim? Give them inferno pistols and go tank hunting. Don’t forget you can throw one grenade per unit now too, so 5 x Serras, 2 x inferno pistols comes in at 140, but you’re getting five shots which can break armour per turn, and you can rape face in combat with any surviving vehicles using your Kraks Grenades. Seraphim really do excel at this.
I’ve given up on Heavy Bolter Retributors too, in favour of heavy flamers. These ladies bag you, on average, 30 hits per turn of firing against a 7 – 10 man unit. That’s an average of 5 rends per volley, makes them a nightmare to charge, and lets you get the boltgun armed sisters in on the fight as well. These skulking about in a rhino, with the obligatory conclave, a couple of Penitents and some Repentia if you have the points really, REALLY but people off coming close to your main line of sisters holding the midfield. I’ve found most opponents tend to want to sit back and try and eliminate these threats before advancing on your troops, but this hesitation all too often allows me to position my units into favourable positions uncontested, and get my Seraphim and Dominions in from reserves and cut off the main armoured threats. Then its just keep rapid firing until they stop moving and send the crazy bitches and the big stompa’s into anything that gets too close. Even if they don’t hang back and come headlong into your main battle line, well, just have a look at what one unit did to the Orks!
This reply has gone off topic, my bad. Ultimately, what I’m saying is stuff the backfield. Get rid of our only two backfield units and build them into your main line to sit in midfield. This stops units being picked off, and forces the enemy to deal with the sisters as a whole, which is where we excel. Plus its much more cinematic charging headlong into a battle tank than shooting randomly at it for three turns from 4 foot away!
Rau