Nova Open game #3 Blackmoor vs. Farmpunk

Nova Open Batrep #1

Nova Open Batrep #2

So after beating Stelek I get to go play Garrett (Farmpunk) from the blog Theback40k. I met him the day before when he was one of the judges for the invitational. He was a nice guy and he was playing one of the armies that I have a very hard time dealing with, and that is Grey Knights in Stormravens.

My List

2000 Points of Grey Knights

HQ

Draigo

Librarian w/Warding Stave, Might of Titian, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, The Shrouding

Troops

10 Paladins w/4 Psycannons (1 Master Crafted), 2 Hammers, 4 Halberds (1 Master Crafted), 3 Swords (1 Master Crafted), Brotherhood Banner

6 Grey Knight Strike Squad w/1 Psycannon

Fast Attack

9 Grey Knight Interceptors w/2 Psycannons, Psybolt Ammunition

Justicar w/Master Crafted Demmonhammer

Heavy Support

Dreadnought w/2 Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition

Dreadnought w/2 Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition

Dreadnought w/2 Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition

So there it is…28 Models+ 3 Vehicles

Farmpunk’s List

HQ

Castellan Crowe

Libirarian w/Might of Titan, Shrouding, Sanctuary, Warp Rift

Troops

10 Purifiers w/4 Psycannons, 5 Halberds, Demonhammer

7 Purifiers w/2 Psycannons, 4 Halberds, Demonhammer

5 Purifier w/2 Psycannons, 3 Halberds

Rhino

5 Purifiers w/2 Psycannons, 3 Halberds

Rhino

5 Strikes w/Psycannon

Rhino

Fast Attack

Stormraven Gunship w/TL Assault Cannon, TL Multi-Melta

Stormraven Gunship w/TL Plasma Cannon, TL Multi-Melta

Heavy Support

Dreadnaught w/Multi-melta

Dreadnaught w/2 TW Autocannons, psybolt ammo

This is where I hope my experience pays off. I played at Wargames Con and played a list a lot like this and it crushed me keeping me out of the winner’s bracket. Now I know what to expect and what to look out for. I am still in trouble though even with my experience because Grey Knights in Stormravens are tough for me to deal with. They have a brutal combination of being faster than me so they get to pick their battles, they have psych-out grenades so when they charge I go last, they have a lot of attacks at initiative 6, they have force weapons to nullify my 2 wounds, and they have mindstrike missiles to croak my librarian. 

Mission:

Primary: Kill Points 

Secondary: Table Quarters

Tertiary: Objectives

The good news is that it is my favorite mission…Kill Points!!!

Deployment: Dawn of War

Setup

He starts with a couple of purifiers on the table. One in the center on the hill, the other on a tower on the back right. The rest of his army will come on turn #1.

I keep my whole army in reserve hoping to be able to shoot down his stormravens when my dreadnaughts come on.

Turn #1

Farmpunk Turn #1

He moves on with his whole army.

Blackmoor Turn #1

I walk my dreadnaughts on and they hide behind the LOS blocking building on the left.

Turn #2

Farmpunk Turn #2

He shuffles forward

Blackmoor Turn #2

My paladins are hiding behind the building and my dreadnaughts move out from behind the building and try to shoot down the Stormravens and stun one. My interceptors outflank and move on to the board on the back right. I shoot at the purifiers and kill one of them after doing a lot of wounds.

 

Turn #3

Farmpunk Turn #3

He moves his Stormravens forward getting ready for the assault. He shoots his purifiers back at my Interceptors and kills a bunch of them. That is the story of my life. I do a ton of wounds and they make all of their saves. I take a few wounds and a lot of guys die.

Blackmoor Turn #3

Alright, it is go time! He has 2 Stornravens right in front of my army so I move up my paladins so after I shoot them down I can assault the contents. So after shooting my whole army at them I knock a multi-melta off, and stun the other. Since I can't open them up, I assault the Stormraven and explode it. Great, that is just what I did not want to happen. I am standing in front of him out in the open.

Turn #4

Farmpunk Turn #4

Well, he gets out of his other stormraven and proceeds to shoot me with both squads and does insignificant damage.His mindstike missiles take out my Librarian just like I was afraid of. That is why I wanted to be in assault. He assaults me and the squad and the Dreadnaught gets into assault. His second squad that was in the intact Stormraven has to roll for difficult terrain and he rolls poorly and can only engage The Draigo. Since he has psych-out grenades he gets to go first and for the most part he rolls below average and does not do too much damage. He choose to use Hammerhand instead of the Force weapons. I can understand why, the force weapons is -4 to his leadership due to the Aegis of the dreadnaughts, but he can get off Hammerhand without a problem. Of course the force weapon would be more devastating, but sometimes you have to take what you can get. The squad on Draigo does a lot of wounds, but with a 3+ inv save he only takes 2 wounds. Then I get to attack back and kill a lot of them, and he loses combat, but he is fearless, and does not care.  

Blackmoor Turn #4

I get my Strike Squad on, and shoot at the Purifiers on top of the hill. I start to shoot my dreadnaughts at his rhinos to try to rack up some kill points, the interceptors are winning the shoot out with the purifiers on the back right. The assault ends with force halberds going at each other, but I have one more attack, 2 wounds and an inv save, so that is a combat he is not going to win, especially with Draigo butchering a ton of guys. My demonhammers ended up killing the dreadnaught.

Turn #5

Farmpunk Turn #5

He is running out of stream and he shot his wad. At this point he is trying to hang on and hold objectives. 

Blackmoor Turn #5

Now it is just a mopping up operation for me. I am just killing what can to get kill points.

 I ended up winning by a few KPS.

In conclusion

A lot of my games come down to who wins that big battle with the paladins. A lot of people throw their whole army at them and if they are able to beat them I lose, and if the Paladins win, I win. The problem is that most people can’t beat paladins.

I got very lucky when he rolled poorly for his assault move through difficult terrain and had to only assault the Draigo. That was very bad luck, because Draigo can take a beating from a lot of his guys, but if he was able to get both squads into the Paladins, he would have been able to pour more attacks into them and I could have been in trouble. He also chose to cast Hammerhand instead of using his force weapons which I thought was odd, but maybe he was afraid of the advanced Aegis and not being able to get it off. His other problem was that he has his Purifier unit equipped for both shooting and assault. I can do this with Paladins because they can fill both roles, but when you arm Power Armored Grey Knights with a lot of heavy weapons they lose their force weapons and lose a lot of their assault ability. 

It was a good game, and a tough battle for both of us and I ended up pulling out the win.