Since the Grey Knight Codex came out Gerry has been chomping at the bit ready to play against a Daemon army so this past Wednesday I got a group of friends together and we played a 2 on 2 game, Daemons Vs. Grey Knights. We each had 1250 points and we tailored our lists knowing what the other players were bringing.
Battle Report
Deployment
Both teams were aware of the Warp Quake power which makes and Deep strikers within 12″ take a deep strike mishap. This is ridiculously powerful against an army like Daemons so the roll to see who would deploy first (and get first turn) would be very important. Sadly, Jeff and Gerry won the roll to go first they were smart to set up first. The game was already off to a bad start.
Turn 1
Jeff and Gerry used Warp Quake and moved forward to make most of the board very dangerous. We chose to deepstrike as far away from the Librarian as possible as we knew he had some nasty powers. Neither of us got our preferred force but we did have some pretty darn lucky deep strike rolls, several of which were only millimeters away from going off the board. My Great Unclean One (GUO) came in and flamed the squad holding the objective only killing two models.
Turn 2
The Grey Knights reserves come and in and they deploy the Interceptor squad near our objective to give the small 5 man squad of Plaguebearers a run for their money. Castellan Crowe charged my GUO and failed to wound. I swing back and deal two wounds which is enough to kill him. Jeff uses the psychic power Heroic Sacrifice, rolled to hit, and took my GUO out for the game. Ouch! That Heroic Sacrifice is nasty, especially against daemons with the reroll.
On the Deamon’s turn Ku’gath and a squad of Plaguebearers come in. Mike’s Bloodthirster and Blood Crushers come in. Mike’s first Bloodthirster is within range to charge and kills 3 from the interceptor squad.
Turn 3
Mike gangs up on the last interceptors with both Bloodthirsters and wipes them out. The plague bearers hold our objective and we could very easily contest theirs.
A squad of Blood Crushers assault the Storm Raven and immobilize it but they will not enjoy the victory for long…
Turn 4
A Grey Knight Strike Squad disembarks and shoots down one of the Bloodthirsters. Our home objective is not looking as secure.
The Grey Knights hop out of the Storm Raven and wipe out the Blood Crusher squad. There isn’t too much in the game that can eliminate a Blood Crusher squad in one phase, especially only taking a few casualties back. The falchions help tremendously.
The remaining Bloodthirster takes revenge out on the Strike squad by assaulting, killing four of them, and send the rest of the running. The second squad of Crushers Assault the Storm Raven in hopes of getting closer to some Grey Knight squads.
My Daemon Prince comes in and despite covering all 8 members of the squad holding the objective with his Breath of Chaos power he only kills two of them.
Turn 5
The fleeing squad of GKs continues to flee. Gerry positions one of his rhinos close to our objective. Not close enough to contest this turn but close enough to make us think about what to do with it. Gerry deploys his flamer thrower squad in an attempt to kill the Blood Crushers and after some dismal shooting they mop up the crushers in CC. The rest of the Grey Knights light up my Daemon Prince and knocks off 3 out of the 4 wounds he has. Uh-oh. One more failed armor roll and he is going back to the warp.
Mike’s Daemon Prince comes in. Mike charges the rhino with his Bloodthirster and despite have WS 10 there was not one dent in the rhino after he was done swinging. Ku’gath summons a Nurgling base and finishes off the flamer thrower squad that killed the Crushers. My Daemon Prince finished off Jeff’s Strike squad which was camping on the objective. One less obstacle on the Daemons path to victory!
Had the game ended here we would have won one objective to zero. But… onto turn 6.
Turn 6
The Terminator squad and Librarian are just out of assault range. They must have been tired from their hike.
On the other side of the board the Grey Knights have totally block our home objective with Rhinos. The Bloodthirster & Daemon Prince are having a hard time doing anything to them.
Ku’gath drops another Nurgling base. He also tries to shoot at the Termie squad in hopes of killing a few and maybe even making them run away. It was a long shot but worth it.
The Nurgle Daemon Prince wipes out the last of Jeff’s falchion squad and hovers near the objective with a squad of plaguebearers.
Had the game ended here we would have drawn with one objective each.
Turn 7
The Termies and Librarian are finally in range for assault after walking across the entire board. They obliterate the plaguebearers.
Ku’gath drops one last Nurgling base. He once again shoots at the termie squad in an attempt to make them take a couple casualties and flee. As per usual he totally misses.
I have nothing with the exception of two nurgling bases within 3″ of the objective. But those Nurgling bases are sufficient to contest the objective.
The game ends in a draw with both of us contesting each others objectives.
Conclusion
What a fun game! I’m glad Mike and I weren’t totally wiped off the board but it sure was a hard game. The Grey Knights are brutal in assault and the shooting is much better than ours as well. So as a Daemon player what on earth are you supposed to do?
Mike and I had really good luck with our deep strikes (not one mishap all game). Gerry’s Vindicare Assassin literally didn’t affect game, he shot four times and either failed to wound or Mike made his invulnerable saves. The Warp Quake power was just devastating and made deployment very tough for both of the Daemon players. Jeff’s HQ that used the heroic sacrifice was totally worth his points, it works so well against daemon monstrous creatures. The blood crushers failed to impress. Both squads were assaulted and wiped out in one turn with usually only one or two wounds back on the squad. Mike and I learned that you need the charge with blood crushers.
I didn’t roll one hit on the scatter die all game, not with my deep strikes nor with my template from Ku’gath. Ugh.
Blessing of the Blood God is necessary against Grey Knights, it gives Daemons a huge edge in CC. You just need to get into CC without being blasted by all of their high strength weaponry.
Grey Knights with Halbers and Falchions are stronger than I expected. I have never seen a squad of Bloodcrushers go down so fast.
I think if the Grey Knights tweaked their lists there is nothing Mike and I could have done to win. Take out the assassin, thrown in an extra libby or two and we are kaput. Tactics wise play to your strengths: stay in your rhino and blast them till your transport breaks. We only managed to kill once vehicle all game!
