Battle Report: Grey Knights vs Salamanders & Eldar

Grey Knights 4th Brotherhood

vs

Salamander Space Marines & Eldar

__________________________________

The battle ground was set, the Grey Knights of the 4th Brotherhood had intercepted a long range communication that the Zenos Eldar were after three ancient artefacts on an isolated imperial world, and a company of Salamander Space Marines garrisoned there were led into believing that the Eldar were allies of convenience. The Grey Knights of the 4th Brotherhood had to stop the Eldar and if that meant fighting the Salamanders as well then so be it. Only one   thing stood in their way. The dice gods!

So here is my first of hopefully many Battle Reports. I will have a separate page to catalogue all of my battles but for now they will be found in the main blog. So without further delay, let the battle commence!

The Armies

Grey Knights: 4th Brotherhood - 2000pts (Dale)

Grand Master Valius
Vindicare Assasin
5 man Terminator Squad
5 man Strike Squad with TL Lascannon Razorback
5 man Strike Squad with TL Lascannon Razorback
Stormraven Gunship
5 man Interceptor Squad
5 man Interceptor Squad
Nemesis Dreadknight
Nemesis Dreadknight

Salamanders & Eldar Allies - 2000pts (Andy)
Vulkan He'stan
Chaplin with Jump pack
Dreadnaught with Multi-melta
Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers
10 man Tactical Squad with Multi-melta & Flamer
10 Man Tactical Squad with Multi-melta & Meltagun
5 man Assault Squad
Stormtalon
Farseer with Runes of Warding & Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Guide, Doom
10 Dire Avengers
5 Dark Reapers
5 Eldar Pathfinders
5 Fire Dragons

The Mission & Battlefield Set Up

I won the roll off and rolled for the Crusade Mission and Hammer and Anvil Deployment. We we set up the terrain for a cinematic feel. 3 Objectives were placed, one in the centre and the other two set equally apart in a diagonal.  

My Warlord Trait was Personal Traits - Master of Defence and Andy also rolled on Personal Traits - Master of Offence. Night fighting was not in effect 1st turn. I rolled for my Grand Masters Grand Strategy for Unyielding Anvil scoring 3, so I chose both Dreadknight's and one Interceptor Closest to me to be scoring units.

Deployment

I won the roll off again and chose to go second. Andy infiltrated his pathfinders onto the top of the building opposite the central objective and I set up the Vindicare Assassin on the far side to hopefully take out his Dreadnaught.

Salamander & Eldar Deployment

Grey Knight Deployment

Turn I

Salamanders: I did not choose to seize the initiative so the Salamanders went first. Andy moved all his army forward and ran them in the shooting phase with most now in the ruins or behind cover, the pathfinders shot down one of my Interceptors. forgot to take a picture of this turn, sorry!

Grey Knights: Strike Squad moved up to claim one objective, both Dreadknight's jumped forward, the one incinerated half the Dire Avenger Squad and subsequently failed the assault range after, the other Dreadknight incinerated half a Tactical Squad one Assault Marine then assaulted the Chaplin and Assault Squad killing two Marines and winning the combat, the Chaplin and Marines failed their moral and ran about 8", the Vindicare shot at the Dreadnaught and took off 1 hull point and the razorback failed to take out the Dreadnaught.

Turn II

Salamanders: Andy rolled for reserves and both his Stormtalon and Assault Terminators came on, he zoomed the Stormtalon up the board at my Dreadknight and the Terminators Deep Strike, scattered nearly but not quite off the board near the Assassin.

The Farseer cast Doom at my Dreadknight meaning any Eldar shooting at it can re-roll to wound, he also cast Guide that effected the Dark Reapers meaning they can re-roll failed to hit (ouch). Dark Reapers shot at the Dreadknight with 10 shot, 8 hit after re-rolls and scored 5 wounds after re-rolls putting the Dreadknight down to 2 wounds. The Dire avengers used the Blade Storm special rule giving them and extra shot this turn but they could not shoot next turn. So 17 shots at the Dreadknight 11 hits with 6 wounds after re-rolls, the dice gods were not with me and the Dreadknight was slain.

The Stormtalon took out another 2 Interceptors luckily passing their moral and his Dreadnaught destroyed one of the Razorbacks (1st Blood) in an epic explosion.

Fire Dragons shot at the second Dreadknight scoring 2 wounds, Multi-melta from the Tactical Squad took another wound, Valkan shot as well but I saved. Valkan then assaulted the Dreadknight but fell short, but I took a wound off of him with the Wall of Death.

Grey Knights: I rolled reserves and the Stormraven zoomed up the board toward the Stormtalon subsequently bowing it to pieces, the last 2 Interceptors jumped in behind the Farseer, shot at him doing nothing then assaulted taking him out, they then consolidated into the Shrine of the Aquila under the Dark Reapers position.
The far Strike Squad shot at the Assault Terminators killing 2, the Assassin also shot but rolled snake eyes (useless), the Terminators failed their moral and ran an impressive 3".
The far Interceptor Squad shot then assaulted the Fire Dragons wiping them out. The remaining Dreadknight doused Vaulkan and the tactical Squad with the Heavy Incinerator, taking out all but Vulkan and 3 Marines then proceeded to assault taking out Valkan (Slay the Warlord) but 3 Marines managed to get away 8". The nearest Strike Squad Moved off the objective further into cover shooting at the Pathfinders killing 2.

Turn III

Salamanders: the Dreadnaught's Multi-melta shot the Dreadknight vaporising it. The 3 Tactical Marines with a Multi-melta took out another Interceptor in the Ruin leaving 1 left passing his moral test. 
The Assault Terminators assaulted the other Interceptor Squad and slaughtered them in brutal combat.
The other Tactical Squad and the Dire Avengers moved out towards the objectives as did the Chaplin and Assault Marines, The Dark Reapers and Pathfinders shot at the Strike Squad near the objective killing all but the Justicar who passed his moral.

Grey knights: With time running out on us, this was going to be the last turn. The Justicar managed to get back onto the objective, the last remaining Interceptor Teleport shunted onto the central objective thankfully not suffering dangerous terrain. The far Strike Squad and vindicare shot the Assault Terminators with the usual results from the Assassin and did nothing.
The Grand master and Terminators disembarked, the Grand master leaving the unit shot and assaulted the Chaplin and Assault Marines. the Terminators shot and assaulted the Tactical Squad killing nearly all of them but somehow they managed to stay put with 3 Marines.
The Stormraven hovered over to the Dreadnaught and destroyed it.
The Chaplin called out a challenge with my Grand Master in an epic duel, but both failed to score a wound! Not much more to say about that?

Battle Analysis

Grey knight Victory, 7 victory points to 1

Grey Knights: (Dale) "Thanks to a quick teleport shunt onto the centre objective and the resilience of my last Justicar I managed to hold 2 objectives at 3pts each and Slay the Warlord for another 1pt. If the game ran to conclusion, my Assassin and whole Strike Squad would have been wiped out and most likely my last Interceptor and Justicar leaving me with only my Grand Master, terminators and Stormraven to deal with the rest of Andy's army. I think it would be fare to say I might have lost the game. My best performing unit was my second Dreadknight, it weathered a lot of fire, dealt a massive amount of damage in both shooting and close combat. And as for the Vindicare Assassin, I have no words"

Salamander & Eldar: (Andy) "Got absolutely wasted in assaults, but the Eldar Dire Avengers Blade Storm worked pretty well with a massive amount of hits with the help of the Farseer's Guide and Doom contributing to taking down the Dreadknight which was good. The re-rolls for the Melta weapons was great for the Salamanders. But I am not sure if I would have won in the long run because of the Grey Knight terminators and Grand Master to go up against."

It was a great game we had, just a shame we could not finish, we were still referring to the rules quite a bit just to confirm some stuff, but generally we had it right to start with.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the first of many battle reports and please do feel free to leave comments or suggestions including all your battle tips.

~ What manner of fool, would deny the Emperor's Will? ~