First 7th edition game - DE vs. Grey Knights (1500 pts)

I finally put together my first army list using the 7th edition codex, and played a game vs. a 1500 pt Grey Knights army at my FLGS. This is more of a battle summary than a proper battle report, as I don't remember all of the exact minutiae of the battle.

My army: (1496 pt CAD + Scalpel Squadron Formation)

HQ:
1) Succubus (Archite Glaive, Parasite's Kiss, Animus Vitae, WWP, haywire grenade, Armor of Misery)

TROOPS:
1) Kabalite Warriors x10 (Splinter Cannon, Blaster), Raider (Dark lance, Splinter racks, Night Shield)
2) Kabalite Warriors x10 (Splinter Cannon, Blaster), Raider (Dark lance, Splinter racks, Night Shield)
3) Wyches x9(Hydra Gauntlet, Hekatrix w/ Agonizer and Haywire grenade), Raider (Dark lance, Night Shield)

FAST ATTACK:
1) Razorwing Jet Fighter (Night Shield, Splinter Cannon, Dark lances)
2) Reavers x6 (Heat lance x2, Cluster Caltrops x2)

HEAVY SUPPORT:
1) Ravager (Dark lance x3, Night Shield)

SCALPEL SQUADRON
1) Wracks x5 (liquefier gun), Venom (Splinter Cannon x2)
2) Wracks x5 (liquefier gun), Venom (Splinter Cannon x2)


His Army (1500 pt Nemesis Strike Force Detachment - I don't remember exact squad sizes or compositions, but this is what I do remember)
1) Librarian attached to a unit of Paladins (with an apothecary)
2) Terminator Squad in a land Raider
3) DreadKnight
4) Purgation Squad (4 Psycannons) in a Rhino


MISSION:
Maelstrom of War - Spoils of War
My Warlord Trait: Soulthirst
His Warlord Trait: First into the Fray

SETUP:
My opponent deployed 1st. He placed the purgation squad (inside the rhino) to the far right of the board, his terminators (in the land raider) near the center, and the dreadknight just behind the land raider. He put his Paladins in reserve, which would definitely be arriving via Deep strike on turn 1 due to his warlord trait.

I set up 1 unit of warriors to the far left, along with the bikes, and my ravager to the far right so that it could take potshots at the incoming Purgation squad. My scalpel squadron would be coming in first turn via deepstrike, so my plan was to have them pop in and splinter the Dreadknight to death. I put the wyches (with Succubus attached) in reserve, as well as the 2nd warrior squad, so that I could place them in choice spots depending on the situation. The Razorwing, of course, also went into reserve.

HIGHLIGHTS

1) 3+ jink saved both my bikes and my ravager from getting killed in the first turn. I lost 1 bike to the Paladins, who dropped in next to them. It was one of the cluster caltrop bikes, but considering that my opponent cast force and hammerhand on his paladins every turn, I wasn't planning to assault them. I followed up by flying the bikes out of their line of site in order to secure an objective, and then, for the rest of the game, I popped them out to take shots at the Paladins before jumping back behind a building during the assault phase.

2) One of my venoms misshaped on turn one, but went back into ongoing reserves, so I didn't get *quite* the jump on the Dreadknight that I wanted. However, the wracks were still able to hop out and use a run move to secure an objective.

3) Reserve rolls were very good - the rest of my army came in on turn 2.

4) The Paladins took an ungodly amount of fire with very few losses. By the end of the game,he had only lost one model from the unit, but had wounds on two more. He wasn't quite sure what to with the Paladins after DSing them in. In turn 2, he wrecked one of the warrior raiders, but my warriors just set up a firing line in cover and kept shooting. The bikes were harassing them from the left, and I hit him with my razorwing from the right. He did assault a unit of wracks (disembarked from their venom) and wiped them out, but that still left his Paladins out in the open to be fired upon by everything else in range.

5) I mostly ignored the Land Raider. In turn 2, my ravager managed to get a penetrating hit with crew stunned. My opponent claimed that Power of the Machine spirit allowed him to fire 1 shot at normal BS, though the other shots had to be snap shots. Other people in the store backed this claim. I didn't feel like arguing the point, but it sounds dubious to me. In any case, he tried to shoot my Ravager back and missed.

6) Between the Ravager and 2 Venoms, the dreadknight got pincushioned to death (despite a 4+ invulnerable save via psychic power). Though the dreadknight did manage to punch my ravager to death before the venoms finished it off. It *almost* died from the ravager's explosion (but made its save).

7) The Purgation Squad got whittled down by my second warrior squad and then charged by my wyches/succubus. The Purgation squad had 1 model left, keeping my wyches tied there.. which, in retrospect, was probably a good thing, as the land raider that I had been ignoring drove up and dropped off the terminator squad, which assaulted the wyches. Being stuck in CC probably saved them from being shot to death. I got lucky in the ensuing combat, losing only 3 wyches, and inflicting 2 casualties. I then rolled a 12 on my morale check, which turned out for the best, as the wyches disengaging from combat allowed my warriors to shoot the crap of the terminators in the next turn. All but one of the termies fell under the weight of 20 TL splinters+1 blaster, forcing a morale check. To add insult to injury, the termie failed his morale check, because he was at -2 LD due to still being within 6" of the Succubus in her armour of misery, and had to fall back.

8)While the Purgation Squad was fighting the wyches, their rhino got 'sploded by a raider's dark lance.

9)I forgot to use the animus vitae at any point in this game. D'oh!


We had to end the game at around turn 4, due to the FLGS closing. Final score was:
DE: 7 (linebreaker + 6 pts from tactical objectives)
GK: 4 (first blood + 3 pts from tactical objectives)

By the end of the game, my opponent's remaining models on the table were 1 purgatory, 1 terminator, a land raider (3 HP remaining), and his Paladin Squad (Librarian, 4 Paladins remaining - 2 with wounds). My only casualties consisted of: 1 raider, 1 reaver, 1 squad of wracks, 2 wracks from the other wrack squad, 3 wyches, and a ravager.


So, after this first game, I'm really not sold on the realspace raiders detachment over the CAD. Frankly, if I'm being shot at by anything threatening on turn 1, I'm either highly likely to jink with the Night Shield for a 3+, or I'm in cover already. Either way, the bonus from the realspace raiders detachment seems irrelevant. I was also able to get at least 1 victory point in this game that I would not have been able to score if I had not taken a CAD.

He's right about that Power of the Machine Spirit ruling. its kind of what they are cool for.

I'd prefer the normal Combined Arms Detachment. Objective Secured is just so important. I know I may get shouted down on that point but what else is new?

Are you sure? If that is correct, then Power of the Machine Spirit should allow you to a) fire overwatch at full BS, and b) fire at flyers at full BS without skyfire. Both of these conditions force snapshots. If Power of the Machine Spirit doesn't allow for any of these, then it shouldn't be able to fire at full BS when snapshots are forced due to crew shaken/stunned.

Tanks cant fire overwatch.

And no, they fire at normal BS.  Normal for Skyfire is always 1

Sounds like fun,
Just for future Reference you can't take all of those Artefacts of cruelty on your one HQ. " Only one of each Artefact of cruelty may be taken per army. A model may only take one of the following: (wargear)".

Highzander

Ah woops. Well, that frees up some points. I'm not sure for what though. Maybe enhanced aethersails on raiders? Maybe a shock prow on the warlord/wych raider? Since it's always going to be deepstriking, it seems more likely that I could get some rear armor ramming done with it.

Aeethersails are for the win

Sails, yes