BR5: The Black Buzzards VS GK Psybolts - 1000pts

Here I am again with an other 1000pt battle report.

The armies:

Black Buzzards (DE)

HQ
Succubus, venom blade, haywire grenade

TROOPS
5 wyches, hekatrix, venom blade
Raider, lance, NS
6 wyches, hekatrix, venom blade
Raider, lance, NS
6 wyches, hekatrix, venom blade
Raider, lance, NS

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade


Grey Knights (GK)

HQ
Xenos Inquisitor, rad grenades, psyker (Divination)
Xenos Inquisitor, rad grenades, psyker (Divination)

TROOPS
10 Grey knights, 2 Psycannon, Psybolt ammo
10 Grey knights, 2 Psycannon, Psybolt ammo

HEAVY SUPPORT
Rifleman Dread, 2x TL Autocannon, Psybolt ammo
Rifleman Dread, 2x TL Autocannon, Psybolt ammo
Rifleman Dread, 2x TL Autocannon, Psybolt ammo

Notes: Two prescience psykers makes this a beastly list that can put out 32 S5 B4 twinlinked shots and 20 S8 BS4 twinlinked shots. I swear this is shootier the Tau! If you manage to get past the shooting and the overwatch they have power weapons that can re-roll to hit in close combat at S5 and grenades that give you -1T. Not too many feet on the ground though.

The scenario:
The mission was Crusade with three objectives (the shield markers) using Dawn of War deployment. Night fight on first turn. Warlord powers: I got Master of The Ambush (Yay re-roll outflank), my opponent got Dust of a Thousand Worlds (move through cover). I won the roll off and decided to go second. For combat drugs I got Serpentine (+1WS). My opponent got prescience(re-roll all failed to hits) and perfect timing (psyker's unit has ignore cover).

Deployment:
My opponent deploys centrally near the two objective.

I deploy my raiders out of sight as best I can.



Turn 1(GK):
The GK move forward to secure the two objectives. They can't see anything so don't shoot.


Turn 1(DE):
I move my raiders to the right flank out of line of sight.


Turn 2 (GK):
The GK secure the two objectives and set up in cover. They still can't see anything so don't shoot.


Turn 2 (DE):
One gang of reavers come on and hide out of sight. The raiders turbo so that they end up 19" away from the GK squad, this means they will have to move to shoot with their psycannons reducing their effectiveness.


Turn 3 (GK):
The left squad of GK casts prescience on the other squad (so that they can re-roll to hit), the right squad casts perfect timing (so that they ignore cover) and they absolutely wreck the raider on the flank. It explodes leaving only 2 wyches alive (who pass their pinning test). A psyfleman dread wrecks another raider though it doesn't explode and the wyches emergency disembark 3" away from it). The two other dreads shoot at the last raider (carrying the succubus), it passes 6 cover saves out of 7 only to explode to a single penetrating hit, leaving the succubus, a hekatrix and a wych in a crater (they pass their pinnin g test). At this point I think I might be reporting my first loss with my jetbike heavy list. Things are looking worse then bad.


Turn 3 (DE):
The second gang of reavers comes on and turbo boosts the right grey knight squad with some fantastic rolling they manage to kill six including a psycannon (go removing models from the back)! The Succubus and her remaining comrades run and cover a total of 11" (re-rolling the run move is handy with fleet). The other reavers bladevane the left squad killing three GKs. The squad of six wyches advance and kill a GK with a lucky grenade. The unit of two wyches moves and charges needing to charge 10" the GK decide not to overwatch them as they will most likely not make it. They make it . The remaining squad of six wyches charges in without getting overwatched as the GK are already locked in combat. The wyches kill one GK and despite re-rolling to hit and wounding on 2+(hammerhand, rad grenades, presience) the GK kill only one wych (go dodge).


Turn 4 (GK):
The left squad of GKs cast prescience on themselves and obliterate 6 reavers, leaving only three heat lances (they pass their leadership test). Two of the dreads target the reavers only managing to kill 1. The last dread targets the succubus' squad killing one wych (they pass their leadership test). The wyches kill another GK in assault, the GK fail to kill any wyches, but they hold.



Turn 4 (DE):
One of the reaver gangs take out a dread with two pens and a glance, the other reaver gang explodes another dread with a single pen. The succubus takes a hull point off the dreadnought with a haywire grenade and then charges along with her hekatrix (squad of 2 ftw!). They dodge the autocannon overwatch. What's this the unit has equal numbers of models with different weapon skills so you use the highest? (WS9), they are only hit on 5+! The succubus uses a haywire grenade and inflicts one wound, the dreadnought fights back, gets one hit, but then fails to wound. The justicar rolls a double 1 for hammerhand and gets eaten by the warp (SLURP!), leaving the inquisitor to fight the wyches. The wyches inflict two wounds, but the inquisitor holds.



Turn 5 (GK):
The left squad of GKs cast prescience on themselves and obliterate another 6 reavers, leaving only three heat lances (deja vu). The succubus finishes off the dread and consolidates towards the remaining GKs. The wyches cut down the GK inquisitor (warlord) and consolidate onto the objective.



Turn 5 (DE):
The reavers heatlances kill 4 GKs including the psycannons. Overwatch fails to kill any reavers as they charge. the succubus throws a grenade to no avail and then charges in. The reavers inflict six hammer of wrath hits that fail to do anything. The succubus issues a challenges which is accepted by the justicar who is promptly cut down. The hekatrix kills a GK. The reavers kill another GK leaving the inquisitor standing, very alone (he fails to kill anything). He holds, and the game ends. The DE have one objective and have killed the enemy warlord. The GK have first blood. DE Victory!

DE 4 (1 objective, kill the warlord) GK 1 (first blood)



Conclusion

That was a really close game! Very intense. Divination is a scary discipline, with a great primaris power, prescience lasting from your movement phase to your next movement phase means you get to re-roll shooting, close combat and overwatch. Psibolt grey knights are even more impressive this edition with the boosts from divination, overwatch and hull points. Rifleman dreads are just as effective as ever against raiders. Wyches don't like exploding transports, but on the other hand when a transport is wrecked things are not that bad. Fleet is amazing it makes wyches charge impressive distances reliably, and re-rolling the run dice makes them cover distances on foot quickly when they need to. Plasma grenades a nice bonus and are fun to resolve (come on throwing grenades is cool ). Even a single haywire grenade is great, making short work of a walker and most likely coming out of combat at the end of your opponents turn (one HP shouting, and then one HP in each round of assault). Night shields are useful, but not really needed on assault units. All in all a lot learn't.

Hope you enjoyed the report!

We always enjoy your reports, Mushkilla. Thanks again for yet another great installment!

Was it a mistake going out of cover with the raider before the Reavers arrived? I was surprised you didn't just stay back in cover for another turn (as they couldn't see you anyway), and then head straight at them once the reavers arrived.

I'm also wondering; would it have been beneficial starting with the reavers on the board? Since you had Night Fight running and ample cover, I mean.

Setomidor wrote:

We always enjoy your reports, Mushkilla. Thanks again for yet another great installment!

Was it a mistake going out of cover with the raider before the Reavers arrived? I was surprised you didn't just stay back in cover for another turn (as they couldn't see you anyway), and then head straight at them once the reavers arrived.

I'm also wondering; would it have been beneficial starting with the reavers on the board? Since you had Night Fight running and ample cover, I mean.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Yes it was the mistake that almost cost me the game, I should have waited for the reavers for better target saturation. I think I just got edgy waiting another turn and jumped the gun, looking back at it now it looks like a careless mistake.

As for reavers on the board it would have worked considering night fight, I think I was overly concerned about what the three riflemen dreads could do to them even with a 2+ cover save.

I think If I played this match again I would have started with everything on the board like you suggested and just jumped on him turn 2.

All in all I think not having played GK in 6th yet I was making poor judgements by overestimating there capabilities when deploying my army and underestimating it when moving those raiders. Either way it was a load of fun. I think the thing I learn't from this game is not to give up even when things look really bad. Also with DE don't switch to defensive play when you are on the back foot. Keep the aggression and the pressure on. I thought about running my succubus to cover (behind the rocks in my deployment zone) not to risk loosing her, however in the end she killed a dreadnought and helped secure victory.

On the finer details:

Did you miss the caltrops? Or did you not miss them when you got 3 heatlances to play with?

You thoughts on wyches - you luckily bumped up to 3 squads but they are barely surviving, no?

How about venom blades? Are you missing any AP3 capability or is the venom blade torrenting just fine?

The succubus has its first kill and a victory point to boot!

Thoughts on the list? Are you going to change it more?

Thank you for posting this report, it's given some insight on the use of the succubus and the large squads of reavers I hadn't quite considered before

Seshiru wrote:

Thank you for posting this report, it's given some insight on the use of the succubus and the large squads of reavers I hadn't quite considered before

Thanks, glad you found it useful.

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

Did you miss the caltrops? Or did you not miss them when you got 3 heatlances to play with?

If I had the clatrops I could have taken out one of those 10 man GK squads a turn, which would have made the game easy. However I'm trying to get wyches to work and that means reavers getting into assault and using their lances, I want my army to work together, not depend too much on any single unit. I think caltrops are more suited to shooty DE as stuff is less likely to be locked in combat (say if you run warriors instead of wyches).

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

You thoughts on wyches - you luckily bumped up to 3 squads but they are barely surviving, no?

I think that was mainly down to my own carelessness and failing to coordinate the reavers with the wyches properly, meaning there was not enough target saturation (as Setomidor pointed out).

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

How about venom blades? Are you missing any AP3 capability or is the venom blade torrenting just fine?

Great, they seem to do just fine, sometimes you get a bad roll, but that happens just as often with agonisers. They are cheaper and more flexible (important when running small wych squads).

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

Thoughts on the list? Are you going to change it more?

I'm still toying between venoms and raiders, my next game will be with a slightly tweaked list. The reavers are most likely going to stay as is. I'm happy with the venom blade succubus (cheap and effective at 70-75pts). I do think I will be running haywire wyches though. I am torn with wych squad sizes as MSU is flexible but less efficient in terms of pain tokens (bigger units means more models benefit when you get a pain token) on the other hand bigger units means it hurts more when transports explode.

Mushkilla wrote:

If I had the clatrops I could have taken out one of those 10 man GK squads a turn, which would have made the game easy.

Whoa!

Do I sense a soft spot for the weed race?

Careful Mushkilla, let's not give our fellow archons any notion you are "soft" in any way - I think you were merely playing with your food.

Yes, the reserve idea in your list made it difficult to coordinate with the units starting on the table - I'd be curious to see how bridge that "hiccup" in your plans.

As always, top notch battle reports from my favorite player. Keep it up, love the reaver lists.

TradWarden wrote:

As always, top notch battle reports from my favorite player. Keep it up, love the reaver lists.

Thanks, I hope I can keep the reports entertaining!

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

Whoa!

Do I sense a soft spot for the weed race?

Careful Mushkilla, let's not give our fellow archons any notion you are "soft" in any way - I think you were merely playing with your food.

Yes, the reserve idea in your list made it difficult to coordinate with the units starting on the table - I'd be curious to see how bridge that "hiccup" in your plans.

Just because caltrops are devastating against infantry does not make choosing not to use them "soft", if anything anti-grave mines are quite skilless and indiscriminate compared to the art of the blade. After all what's the point in an Olympiad without any entertainment?

Not only are caltrops expensive, they can lead to overkill against MSU armies and they can be ineffective against mechanised armies. However what bothers me the most is that they push you toward using reavers in a specific way. You feel they are wasted if you don't bladevane, sometimes you want to screen units with your reavers, or block transport exits, tank overwatch, tie up shooty units or risk them to increase target saturation. Other times you need to play passively and that's when they feel the most wasted, whether it's a turn getting into position or just avoiding unfavourable odds. The other thing is vulnerability to precision shot, barrage weapons and snipers (IG snipers with "fire on my target" can take out a lot of points), again I feel it pushes too many eggs in one basket syndrome on a unit that is already expensive.

I need to learn to play with the reavers on the board as well as off, I have had very little practice with that and it's something I need to look into. My biased towards starting in reserve was quite detrimental in this game.

Question mate, what program did u use to make ur battle report map?

He's using Battle Chronicler

Thanks Setomidor, Will look it up.

Ahhhh very inspiring every time to see somebody use a DE list like I envisioned it too (just the idea, the battle prowess is all yours).

Will think about your issue on the cluster caltrops...

EDIT: question, I just put one cluster caltrop on each of my 5 strong reaver squads. Would you consider it a waste not to use them each turn as wel if it is just 20 points on 5 models instead of 60 points on 9???

Chaeril wrote:

EDIT: question, I just put one cluster caltrop on each of my 5 strong reaver squads. Would you consider it a waste not to use them each turn as wel if it is just 20 points on 5 models instead of 60 points on 9???

Sorry, I didn't see this edit, so a bit of a late answer.

No idea, It means they still have some punch as they take casualties which is a good thing. But then again I would never really run squads that are not a multiple of 3. Honestly give it a go and see how it works out.