Winchester Tournament: Game 3- World Eaters vs Grey Knights

My army consisted of:

Dan's army consisted of:

Brotherhood Champion

Castellan Crowe

Grand Master- Sigil of Excellence

10 Strike Squad- 2 Psycannons

5 Strike Squad

5 Strike Squad

5 Inceptor Squad

Nemesis Dreadknight

10 Paladins- Paladin Ancient, 4 Psycannons

10 Purifier Squad

A lot of tough bodies and potent mobility in the army. World Eaters can struggle with mass 2+ armour saves, and the ability to keep away from my units the teleports and Mist strat could make this a tough one. 

The terrain was laid out as shown below:

In his first turn, Dan drew Cleanse and Extend Battle Lines, a good draw. I took Advance and Charge and FNP on my blessings. 

The Strike Squads moved up on the centre objectives, a Dreadknight moving up to support them. The Terminators broke cover on the left, moving towards the enemy lines. Dan did Cleanse on both the objectives. 

The Terminators and Dreadknight opened fire on the Rhino, taking 6 wounds from it. At the end of a quick turn, Dan scored Cleanse and Extend for 10 points. 

In my first turn, I drew Area Denial and Capture Enemy Outpost. I move up much of my army, aiming to take out the forward deployed units. The Master of Executions and Berzerkers moved up towards the Terminators. Dan used Mists to remove them from the table. The Rhino moved up to take the centre objective. 

In the charge phase, Angron and the Berzerkers charged one Strike Squad, while the Eightbound and Exalted charged another and the Dreadknight. 

The World Eaters were able to kill the units they were engaged with, taking out some potent threats to my army. The Eightbound killed the Strike Squad, allowing the Exalted Eightbound to pile in to the Dreadknight and slay it with their high strength profile. 

I scored Area Denial and discarded Capture Enemy Outpost. Dan picked up his teleport units to bring them back next turn. 

VICTORY POINTS:

Grey Knights- 20

World Eaters- 15

Dan drew Secure No Man's Land and Assassinate. I got FNP and Fight on Death for my blessings. 

The Grand Master and big Strike Squad moved up on the centre. Crowe and the Purifiers teleported onto the bottom objective, while the Paladins teleported to my backlines with the 3" deep strike strat, along with a unit of Inceptors.

The shooting phase, the Inceptors fired at the spawn, then moved onto the top objective to score Secure NML. The Paladins fired at the Jackals and Berzerkers, killing 5 of the Jackals and wiping out the Berzerkers. 

In the middle, shooting killed two of the Eightbound and only one Exalted after some terrible rolling. 

In the charge phase, the Grand Master assaulted the Eightbound, while the Strike Squad charged the Eightbound and Exalted. 

VICTORY POINTS:

Grey Knights- 30

World Eaters- 30

Dan drew Capture Enemy Outpost and Area Denial, scoring 10 on the Primary.

The Grand Master passed his test to fall back, moving away from Angron. The Terminators landed near the Exalted on the home objective. 

In the shooting phase, the firepower killed two Exalted, while the Paladins took Angron down to 4 wounds. The Paladins then charged the Exalted, killing two of them. The attacks back killed one of the Paladins. 

At the end of his turn, Dan discarded his two secondaries. 

In my turn, I drew Cleanse and No Prisoners, and got 15 on the primary. I decided to draw out the overwatch of the Purifiers with the Jackals to keep Angron safe. Dan took the bait and wiped out the Jackals with their flamers. Angron then moved up on the objective, and Dan used Mists to take them off the board. The lone Exalted fell back from the Paladins. I cleansed with the Rhino and Berzerkers.  

In the charge phase, Angron and the Eightbound charged the Grand Master, finally killing him. He exploded, but failed to kill anything. I scored Cleanse and No Prisoners for 2 points. 

Dan got Defend Stronghold and Investigate Signals. I got Advance and charge and FNP on my blessings. 

The Paladins moved around the ruins to target the last of the Exalted, while the Purifiers landed near the spawn using the 3" deep strike, next to the World Eaters' home objective. 

In the shooting phase, the Purifiers killed the Jackals and one spawn. The Paladins fired at the Eightbound, killing the last of the squad. They then charged the lone Exalted on the objective and easily killed him. Dan discarded Investigate Signals. 

In my turn, I drew Investigate Signals and Secure NML. I went to move the spawn to the top corner, but Dan overwatched with the purifiers, killing him. I used the strat to sticky the objective on the death of the spawn. I then used the strat to advance the Berzerkers towards the Paladins, but Dan used his CP to pick them up with Mists. Angron and Lord Invocatus moved towards their closest corners to carry out signals.

There were no charges, so I scored Secure and Signals for 4 points. 

In his final turn, Dan drew Overwhelming Force and Teleport Homers. The Paladins landed on the top objective, while the Purifiers took my home objective and did Homers. 

The Paladins fired at the Rhino and lone Exalted, killing the Exalted. I used the strat to sticky the objective he was on. The Paladins failed a charge on the Rhino. 

He scored 3 for Force and 5 on homers. 

In my turn, I drew Teleport Homers and Tempting target, which was the one with the Paladins. The Berzkers moved up on the Grey Knights' home objective and did Homers. I used the CP to auto-pass battleshock on Angron and moved him up on the other objective. 

That ended the game, getting me 15 on the primary and 5 for homers. 

A win for the World Eaters. 

Thanks to Dan for a fun game, it was a rough one for the Grey Knights. Speaking after, Dan said he underestimated the damage output of the army, which is why he was deployed so far forward in his first turn. This was a mistake, as I was able to pick up the strike squads and a Dreadknight on my first turn for no loss. These were valuable resources he probably could have used later in the game. 

I also might have weathered the charge of the Berzerkers and MOE with the Paladins. If Dan saved the CP to use True Silver armour rather than mists, I think the Paladins would have survived the Berzerkers and MOE to strike back and wipe them out. With -1AP, I would have struggled to get through the 2+ armour save unless I got a lot of devastating wounds with the MoE. 

After the first turn, I think Dan was on the back foot. He was playing a lot more defensively, and I didn't have too much difficulty on grabbing the primary points and going after my secondaries. He was unable to use the higher mobility of the Grey Knights to combat my speed and lower numbers. 

Overall, a good showing for the World Eaters. I played against Tyranids, Death Guard and Grey Knights and managed to get 3 wins. I came 3rd overall out of around 36 players, just losing out to the other undefeated players in victory points. I was very happy with how the army performed, and am looking forward to going to future events with the new points and rules.