A Day Shrouded in Darkness; Game 2

By TheGraveMind

Dawn of war deployment is always fun for Tyranids. A picture of my fellow Force of Disorder on the table next to mine for Game 2. I was paired up against an all Grey Knights list. The mission was dawn of war deployment, nightfight lasts until a 5+ is rolled at the beginning of each game turn. Selective kill points. Only three units were worth KP, primary was 7KP, secondary was 5KP, and tertiary was 3KP. You had to have your most expensive and your least expensive units as KP units, the last was your choice, and you get to select which of the three are primary, secondary, or tertiary. You didn't/should show your list to your opponent this game, that way they don't know your most/least expensive.


My opponent had three grey knight squads, a Master with terminator retinue, and a terminator squad. That is five units, I had pretty good odds of getting at least one of his kill points. My cheapest was my priest at 105, so I chose the one with my chaplain, as I'd be more cautious with them, and the most models to take away from the priest. My most expensive was double melta assault squad at 225. For my choice, I picked my Dread, seeing has he is embarked half of the time, and is always very survivable. I put the dread as Primary, Priest as secondary and Assault squad as tertiary. I generally sacrifice the melta squad, the dread never dies, and the priest I'll keep back.

 

I won first turn, and then remembered it was Dawn of war, so I couldn't deploy with my priests in the squads, so I held JPs in reserves, and SR and typhoons come in from board edge. He deploys two squads in his back field, the third will walk on, and the termies are deep striking in.

 My Vanguard come in, and assault the smaller squad that walked in this turn. Normal attacks kill one Knight, they kill three of mine, and my powerfist wiffs completely. sigh... Failguard again.

 I tried to deepstrike my double melta squad about 14" away, so I don't get charged, and scatter 5" up, so I end up running 5" backwards. SR turbo boosts up near them.

 The other squad again Deep strikes about 14" away and lands dead on. Typhoons drive up 12" and one fire with krak. Oh look, they have a passive ability called shroud. 3d6 x3 night fighting (Mission nightfight ended before turn 1. haha) Good thing I fail on 3d6 night fight. Typhoons swing-and-a-miss to see.

 Here is my first big mistake, partly because I didn't see the army list beforehand, partly it's been two years since I played against GK. It didn't register that they best thing they have is a S6 heavy bolter and S6 power weapons, and I have an AV 13 Dread, and AV12 flying tank. What I should have done was fly up drop the dread off to assault, and then start opening up with all weapons. Instead I took two turns of turbo boosting and firing assault cannon. Half the time not seeing because I can't roll 3d6x3 night fight, the other times (and all day long) the assault cannon never rends.

 His retinue squad with double psycannons deepstrikes in the back field, and blows up both typhoons. His mass storm bolter squads everywhere else start firing into my assault squads. Putting something like 8-12 wounds on me. Of all the Saves failed, and FNP, the one that dies in the end was the priest from the double melta squad. Phew, not the KP one. During this time, I have to make 7 armor saves, and fail 4.... luckily FNP picked up the slack and I made 3 of those. But I was failing 2/3 of the armor saves I had to make, So I decided to get stuck in fast.

 I hit in with both squads, and the dreadnought the next turn. I bring the priest from the other squad to the side closer to the priestless squad to be within the bubble. The dread also jumps in against the closest squad. Between Reclusiarch, Furiouso, priest, and two power weapon sergeants, I wipe both squads and consolidate over.

 

His Terminator squad deep strikes where my Rec squad had, and peppers them with fire for a few turns. FNP again pulls me through and I ignore them for the most part. His third GK squad fires and assaults into my double melta squad. I'm getting concerned cause they're a KP.

 I have three guys left of that squad, and he has three. I bring my priest near by, and charge in with the dread to save the squad. 4 attacks at I5 S10 and Ws6, I fail 3 of them. And so the squad lives with the GK sergeant alive. I turbo boost my SR up towards the terminator squad, with the intent of next turn firing 4 AP1 missiles, Multi-melta, and useless Assault cannon into them.

He assaults into the Storm raven, and S6 attacks fail to do anything. and Time is called. His KP units were the two terminator squads, and that third squad that my dread failed to finish off. I had about 3 guys left from my assault squad, the dread was fine, and the priest was fine. It's a draw.

A pretty close game, with a few models alive deciding kill points. My powerfist VV fails yet again, my assault cannon on the SR continues to never rend, and I'm disappointing in my Dread in combat a little. If I had thought about it before hand, I could have been far more aggressive. The Dread in combat earlier could have single handedly taken out a squad, even a termie squad. And I had no reason to keep turbo boosting the SR,  I could have been opening fire into the terminators two turns earlier.