BR9: The Black Buzzards VS GK Razorspam - 1500pts

Unfortunately my game against Tzeentch Daemons got postponed. Instead you get more Grey Knights!

The armies:

Black Buzzards (DE)

HQ
Archon, shadow field, venom blade
Succubus, venom blade

TROOPS
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator, night shield, sail
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator, night shield, sail
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator, night shield, sail

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

Grey Knights (GK)

HQ
Inquisitor, psyker (prescience), power armour
3 Henchmen, bolters
Razorback, twinlinked heavy bolter, psybolts, search light

TROOPS
5 Grey Knights, psycannon
Razorback, twinlinked heavy bolter, psybolts, search light
5 Grey Knights, psycannon
Razorback, twinlinked heavy bolter, psybolts, search light
5 Grey Knights, psycannon
Razorback, twinlinked heavy bolter, psybolts, search light
5 Grey Knights, psycannon
Razorback, twinlinked heavy bolter, psybolts, search light
5 Grey Knights, psycannon
Razorback, twinlinked heavy bolter, psybolts, search light
5 Grey Knights, psycannon
Razorback, twinlinked heavy bolter, psybolts, search light

HEAVY SUPPORT
Psyfleman Dread
Psyfleman Dread
Psyfleman Dread

The scenario:
The mission was Crusade using dawn of war deployment. Night fight on the first turn. Warlord powers: Dust of a Thousand Worlds (all friendly units within 12" of the warlord have move through cover), my opponent rolled: Divide and Conquer (-1 to reserve rolls) . I won the roll off and decided to go second. For combat drugs I rolled Grave Lotus (+1S). There where five objective (represented by the shields).

Deployment:
My opponent deployed centrally to cover the board and secured the three objective he had positioned in the middle of the board.

I managed to just about hid everything out of line of sight.


Turn 1(GK):
The grey knights moved forward, securing the objectives.


Turn 1(DE):
I moved all my forces to threaten the left flank.


Turn 2 (GK):
The three dreads and three of the razorbacks destroyed two of the raiders and wrecked the archon's raider. The archon and his squad disembarked into the forest. Three razorbacks and a squad of grey knigths fired into the bottom wych squad leaving only the succubus standing (4+ cover save from the wreckage). One of the Grey knights fired into the two wyhces at the top killing them. The other Grey Knights behind the rhino wall and a razorback fired into the archons wyches but didn't kill any (4+ cover save from forest and PGL). The inquisitor who had cast prescience and his squad fired into the reavers killing one.


Turn 2 (DE):
The reavers destroyed two razorbacks and a psyfleman, the three resulting explosions killed seven grey knights (26 S3 hits!), earning one of the reaver gangs a pain token! The archon and his wyches charged the remaining three grey knights, overwatch failed to do anything. The archon killed all three before the wyches even go to fight! Earning his unit a pain token. The wyches then consolidated into/behind the wreckages of the razorbacks. The lone succubus charged through the reavers at the grey knights, overwatch failing to stop her. She challenged the justicar, killing him before he got to strike (venom blades on a roll!).



Turn 3 (GK):
All five remaining razorbacks fired at the archon and his wyches, the wyches went to ground giving them a 2+ cover save (wreckage 4+, area terrain +2 to cover saves when going to grond), no wyches died. The dreadnoughts fired at the reavers with the pain token (S8 ignoring FNP) killing 3 of them. The inquisotors squad who could only see the wyches through the gap in the razorbacks fired at them, again failing to kill a single one (go 2+ cover save!). The two remaining grey knight squads got out of their transports and fired at one of the reaver squads killing four. The succubus killed a grey knight, the knights cast hammer hand, but failed to hurt her.



Turn 3 (DE):
The FNP reavers shot and charged the inquisitors squad, killing four and only losing a reaver in return (the knights hold). One of the reaver gangs took out a dreadnought. The last reaver gang moved into rapid fire range of one of the grey knight squads and killed four. The succubus fails to kill any grey knights and they fail to hurt her in return.




Turn 4 (GK):
Four of the razorbacks fired at the smaller reaver gang killing them. The other razorback, psyflemen dread, grey knights and acolytes fire at the large unengaged squad of reavers killing three. The succubus killed another grey knight. The reavers killed the last grey knight leaving the inquisitor alone, he failed to hurt the reavers.



Turn 4 (DE):
The reavers turbo boosted over the lone grey knight killing him, and earning a pain token and hiding behind a rock out of sight. The succubus killed another grey knight and again she did not get hit in return. The reavers inflicted two wounds on the inquisitor, despite prescience he still fails to hurt them.



Turn 5 (GK):
Everything shoots at the wyches, killing a single wych (as they were the only target). The succubus killed the last grey knight and consolidated towards the acolytes. The reavers killed the inquisitor.



Turn 5 (DE):
One reaver gang destroyed the last dreadnought and with it's assault move ensured I had line breaker. The other reaver gang killed four grey knights with shooting and use their assault move to contest. The succubus charged the acolytes killing them all.



Turn 6 (GK):
The game doesn't end, and the five razorbacks kill one of the reaver gangs.


Turn 6 (DE):
The last surviving reaver squad shot the last grey knight killing him. The succubus hid behind cover, and the game ended. The Black Buzzards manage to eke out a victory.



DE 5 (one objectives, kill the warlord, line breaker) GK 1 (First Blood)

Conclusion

I lost three raiders, a reaver and 18 wyches in one turn, taking into account 3-5+ cover saves that was really terrifying. I honestly thought the game was over at that point. The 4+ wreckage from exploding vehicles really saved me that game, not to mention +2 to cover saves for going to ground in area terrain. The exploding vehicle rules also really helped against the boxed up grey knights as those S3 hits all added up (not that they were needed as I believe my archon would have otherwised handled them reasonably well). Heatlances were amazingly reliable, they are just fantastic AT. Venom blades performed well across the board. I think that one turn shooting the wyches in cover with the razorbacks cost my opponent the game. The reavers shooting was great against exposed marines and they did well in assault. The succubus also did a great job. All in all a very close game, I wouldn't fancy my chances against that list a second time.

Hope you enjoyed the report!

That was a nasty list you were facing, it's great to see that you could beat them.
That was very close and I really enjoyed the report.

I hope I never have to face a list like that! Great job.

Wow! That's a crazy fight! Well done again.

I think that I will post a link to this report every time someone asks how to beat GK's After reading your opponent's list at the beginning of the report, I was not optimistic about the end result. Well-played sir!

Thanks everyone.

Evil Space Elves wrote:

I think that I will post a link to this report every time someone asks how to beat GK's After reading your opponent's list at the beginning of the report, I was not optimistic about the end result. Well-played sir!

Thanks! I'm not sure I could pull it off again though. I thought focusing all my forces on one of his flanks would be good to minimise his shooting, unfortunately psyheavybolters can easily cover most of the board with their 36" range. On the bright side attacking his flank meant that once I had that objective he would have to fight through the remains of my army to contest it. The other big thing is vehicles can't contest any more, and troops can't score from inside transports, as much as this can hurt some DE lists it really helps against all the mech spam lists out there.

Finally the fact that when a vehicle explodes you can choose to replace it with a wreckage or a crater:

Quote :

The vehicle is removed and replaced with scattered wreckage (area terrain) or a crater roughly the same size as the vehicle (if you have one). - BRB page 74 under Explodes!

And wreckage give 4+ cover saves:

Quote :

Wreckage and rubble are area terrain. If a model is in cover behind wreckage or rubble, it has a 4+ cover save. - BRB page 105 under Wreckage / Rubble

Combined with area terrain giving +2 to cover saves when you go to ground:

Quote :

Models that go to ground in area terrain receive +2 to their cover save, rather the +1. - BRB page 91 under Area Terrain

Really helps our fragile scoring units. Just posted the rules as I think they are important for all DE players to know.

I friggin love your reaver list. I have been following your threads for a while now. Love the way you do it, and the tactical management of the forces that you use is fantastic. You have inspred me to build my other 3 bikes and run a unit of 9.

Skari wrote:

I friggin love your reaver list. I have been following your threads for a while now. Love the way you do it, and the tactical management of the forces that you use is fantastic. You have inspred me to build my other 3 bikes and run a unit of 9.

Thanks! I'm a massive fan of your video reports (although I only discovered them a few months ago ). I got the idea of using venom blades on archons and experimenting with other warlord table than strategic from your them (looking forward to the next one). I really need to get that necron pyramid you used in the game against the guard player, that was DE strategic genius at its best!

As for reavers, if I remember correctly you have quite an aggressive list, in which case a unit of 9 reavers should work fine, especially seeing as you are already using six it should be an easy transition.

I also find the lack of ravagers refreshing.

Skari wrote:

I also find the lack of ravagers refreshing.

There's a story behind that! I was never a fan of ravagers (as amazing as they are), even in the old dex. I also made the mistake of buying 18 reavers at the release of the new codex, so I couldn't afford to buy ravagers for a while, in the end I just got used to not running them. Still haven't got round to buying any.

Wow that was a tough game.

I like how you have showcased the army against a great variety of opponents. It would help if you numbered the reports in the series so that we can see the development of the army list over time and the subtle changes to the units from game to game.

Skari wrote:

I like how you have showcased the army against a great variety of opponents. It would help if you numbered the reports in the series so that we can see the development of the army list over time and the subtle changes to the units from game to game.

Great Idea, I originally had them numbered when they were in my signature, but it has since bean changed.

I can do nothing else but chime in with the rest.

Thát was an intense battle report! I was at the edge of my seat while reading it. This was nót a friendly match mate. He threw a nasty nasty cheese i-net list at you! But it frickin' didn't matter! You beat him! Well played! Plus the way he placed the objectives. Nasty tourney player. Am I right?

I dó need to argue about the rules about 'scattered wreckage' though. Why would anyone choose to place a crater (5+ coversave) over a 4+ coversave? IMHO 'scattered wreckage' and 'crater' are both area terrain which confers a 5+ coversave and only refers to aesthetics rather than ingame effects. The "Wreckage/rubble" you are refering to is about when a vehicle got the "wrecked" result rather than "explode" result. The word "behind" in the sentence you quoted yourself tipped me off. 'Cause for area terrain you'd say "in".

Other than that, awesome stuff bro! I hope I'm not paying too much for my Agonisers (since you do well with Venom Blades) and I hope I incorperated enough Dark Lances (10) into my list, because I don't have Heatlances like you (which are awesome I agree). My Wyches all do have Haywires though.

tlronin wrote:

I can do nothing else but chime in with the rest.
Thát was an intense battle report! I was at the edge of my seat while reading it. This was nót a friendly match mate. He threw a nasty nasty cheese i-net list at you! But it frickin' didn't matter! You beat him! Well played! Plus the way he placed the objectives. Nasty tourney player. Am I right?

Glad you enjoyed it! The player was a friend actually, a good player though, and we are a competitive lot (as much as my list doesn't look it). His list was pretty brutal before (6 razorbacks and Stelek inspired), but Shadows Revenge and I spent some time in the TDC chat trying to fit an extra razorback in there for fun. As for objective deployment it was an odd number of objective and he got to place three out of the two (the three middle ones). I just put the others out of the way so they would effectively be out of the game. With only three troops choices, I really had to make sure I was taking objective from him.

tlronin wrote:

I dó need to argue about the rules about 'scattered wreckage' though. Why would anyone choose to place a crater (5+ coversave) over a 4+ coversave? IMHO 'scattered wreckage' and 'crater' are both area terrain which confers a 5+ coversave and only refers to aesthetics rather than ingame effects. The "Wreckage/rubble" you are refering to is about when a vehicle got the "wrecked" result rather than "explode" result. The word "behind" in the sentence you quoted yourself tipped me off. 'Cause for area terrain you'd say "in".

I agree, it is odd and you may be right. Either way it seems to be something most of our club is using (not my discovery, I think it was an ork player who found it).

I probably would have tanked as much as I could on the archon if it had been 3+ cover, or just relied on keeping my archon alive to secure the win. More reavers would have survived, more razorbacks would have died, it would have played out a bit differently, but I think I would have pulled through by that point his offensive had been blunted and he was on the back foot. Seeing as vehicles can't get line breaker as long as I would have kept my archon alive the win would have been within reach.

tlronin wrote:

Other than that, awesome stuff bro! I hope I'm not paying too much for my Agonisers (since you do well with Venom Blades) and I hope I incorperated enough Dark Lances (10) into my list, because I don't have Heatlances like you (which are awesome I agree). My Wyches all do have Haywires though.

Haywire really shines this edition. Agonisers are still great, I just like venom blades because then I don't feel bad if I don't commit to melee.

As usual thanks for the feedback and kind words.

Mushkilla wrote:

tlronin wrote:

I can do nothing else but chime in with the rest.
Thát was an intense battle report! I was at the edge of my seat while reading it. This was nót a friendly match mate. He threw a nasty nasty cheese i-net list at you! But it frickin' didn't matter! You beat him! Well played! Plus the way he placed the objectives. Nasty tourney player. Am I right?

Glad you enjoyed it! The player was a friend actually, a good player though, and we are a competitive lot (as much as my list doesn't look it). His list was pretty brutal before (6 razorbacks and Stelek inspired), but Shadows Revenge and I spent some time in the TDC chat trying to fit an extra razorback in there for fun. As for objective deployment it was an odd number of objective and he got to place three out of the two (the three middle ones). I just put the others out of the way so they would effectively be out of the game. With only three troops choices, I really had to make sure I was taking objective from him.

Well I figured he probably won roll off so he could place 3. But notice how he also placed them more in the middle so when he secured them it would've been harder for you to get line breaker. Don't know if this was a conscience decision? If so, smart man! Well as long as everybody is up to the same challenge then it's all cool.

Mushkilla wrote:

tlronin wrote:

I dó need to argue about the rules about 'scattered wreckage' though. Why would anyone choose to place a crater (5+ coversave) over a 4+ coversave? IMHO 'scattered wreckage' and 'crater' are both area terrain which confers a 5+ coversave and only refers to aesthetics rather than ingame effects. The "Wreckage/rubble" you are refering to is about when a vehicle got the "wrecked" result rather than "explode" result. The word "behind" in the sentence you quoted yourself tipped me off. 'Cause for area terrain you'd say "in".

I agree, it is odd and you may be right. Either way it seems to be something most of our club is using (not my discovery, I think it was an ork player who found it).

I probably would have tanked as much as I could on the archon if it had been 3+ cover, or just relied on keeping my archon alive to secure the win. More reavers would have survived, more razorbacks would have died, it would have played out a bit differently, but I think I would have pulled through by that point his offensive had been blunted and he was on the back foot. Seeing as vehicles can't get line breaker as long as I would have kept my archon alive the win would have been within reach.

Your club is wrong about these rules.

Agreed with the rest though. 3+ coversave it still fine. It would've theoratically played out a bit differently like you said, but i think the netto endresult would've been the same.

Mushkilla wrote:

tlronin wrote:

Other than that, awesome stuff bro! I hope I'm not paying too much for my Agonisers (since you do well with Venom Blades) and I hope I incorperated enough Dark Lances (10) into my list, because I don't have Heatlances like you (which are awesome I agree). My Wyches all do have Haywires though.

Haywire really shines this edition. Agonisers are still great, I just like venom blades because then I don't feel bad if I don't commit to melee.

As usual thanks for the feedback and kind words.

No problem. Thank YOU for these bat reps and keep'm coming!

tlronin wrote:

Well I figured he probably won roll off so he could place 3. But notice how he also placed them more in the middle so when he secured them it would've been harder for you to get line breaker. Don't know if this was a conscience decision? If so, smart man! Well as long as everybody is up to the same challenge then it's all cool.

I didn't think about that (clever ). I'm not sure he did either, I think it was just a side effect of GKs wanting to secure the mid field and sit there and kill everything with righteous bolter fire.

tlronin wrote:

Your club is wrong about these rules.

Agreed with the rest though. 3+ coversave it still fine. It would've theoratically played out a bit differently like you said, but i think the netto endresult would've been the same.

I think it would have been 2-1, he would have had a tough choice, between kill my only scoring unit or kill the reaver threat, a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. Of course you never know how these things play out.

I see that you, or someone else, has linked to your battle report on YTTH. Nice to see Stelek and his merry bunch of sycophants are their usual helpful and pleasant selves!

Count Adhemar wrote:

I see that you, or someone else, has linked to your battle report on YTTH. Nice to see Stelek and his merry bunch of sycophants are their usual helpful and pleasant selves!

No idea how that go there! I was wondering how it got over 600+ views in 24 hours.

Funny guy.

What is YTTH? Never heard of it.

Edit: Indeed, véry diplomatic reply. Nice job.

Nice reply on YTTH Mushkilla, I'd never heard of the site before but have taken an instant dislike to Stelek and his attitude of "The only way to win is with marines." I couldn't be as diplomatic as you, so have refrained from posting on there!

I can't stand the guy but I don't see the point of registering on someone's blog to tell them that they're a moron. It's his blog and he can say what he wants.

Stelek is very provocative, but at the end of the day he is a sound strategist and I take any quality criticism I can get.

Mushkilla wrote:

Stelek is very provocative, but at the end of the day he is a sound strategist and I take any quality criticism I can get.

He's a decent player but he's incredibly rude and unbelievably arrogant. I'd love to buy him for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth

stelek has always been at the fringe. Right next to ass. He has a good strategic mind, i have to agree with some of the things he says, but most of the time I do find he is just as bad as some of the things he bashed by being blind... Although I like that your batrep made it on there! Keep up the reps. I might do a jetbike feature on the skaredcast channel.

On another note, would you like to write a tactica article for the blog? PM it to me if you would like.

I've just grabbed 6 reavers for £18.63 on eBay, so quite pleased with that. Gives me 9 in total now and I should get another 9 in a month or so.