Feast of Blades Qualifier: Game #2 Grey Knights vs Orks

Millennium Games hosted a qualifier for the Feast of Blades national invitational this month.  The format would be 2000pt armies with each game having a primary goal (11pts max), secondary (7pts max), and up to 10 bonus points from 5 tactical bonuses and finishing at least 5 turns (28pts possible per game).  15% after that would be painting and 9% sportsmanship.  Each round was only allowed 2 hours.

I decided to take my Grey Knights for a few reasons.  I haven't played them at all since last November when I started my Dark Eldar.  It's a non-comp event so I'm sure every army will have special characters and other things my Nids and DE will struggle against.  The GK are fully (except 1 dread) painted and also have the best chance of playing at least 5 turns in 2 hours.

My list:
Librarian + shrouding, sanctuary, might of titan, quicksilver, warp rift
Hereticus Inquisitor + psyocculum, 1 servo skull
Henchmen (11 + inquisitor here) - 2 plasma cannons, 1 hvy bolter, 2 melta acolytes, 2 naked acolytes, 2 crusaders, 1 assassin, 1 jokaero + chimera w/searchlight
Techmarine + psyko, rad, and defensive grenades
Terminators x5 + psycannon, banner, hammer, stave, halberd
Strike Squad x10 + 2 psycannons, psybolt ammo
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, 2 halberds, hammer + razorback w/psybolt ammo, searchlight
Stormraven + typhoon missiles, lascannons, searchlight
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator
Rifleman + psybolt ammo
Rifleman + psybolt ammo


My second game was against Duncan's orks.  His list:
Ghazkull
Big Mek + kff, burna
Burnas x10
Kommandos x10 + snikrot, 2 burnas
Lootas x14
Meganobz x5 + 2 kombi-scorchas, 2 kombi-rokkits, dedicated battlewagon + rpj, riggers, rolla, armor plates
Boyz x15 + klaw, sluggas, rokkit
Boyz x15 + klaw, shootas, rokkit
Grotz x10
Battlewagon + rpj, rolla, riggers, armor plates
Battlewagon + rpj, rolla, riggers, armor plates
Battlewagon + rpj, rolla, riggers, armor plates

The second mission called for 4 set objectives 18" from the closest long edge and 24" from the closest short edge, creating a 12"x24" rectangle in the middle.  The table was then divided into 5 areas starting with the rectangle in the middle and 4 trapezoids created by drawing lines from table corner to objective.  The primary objective was to control areas, needing 3 or more than your opponent for max points.  Secondary was objectives needing 2 more for max points.  So my elite army is outnumbered about 4 to 1 in an area control/objective mission.  I've got a bad feeling about this, but I've had more practice against wagon orks than any other army so I've got that going for me.

***Some terribly wrong happened while downloading my pics from this event.  For some reason, I had 53 on the memory card, but only 36 ended up in the folder.  It appears the first half of this game was lost forever.***

Duncan wins the roll and elects to go first.  Deployment was pitched battle.

He deploys his 4 loaded wagons in a block dead center with burnas and boyz up front, ghaz and boyz in back.  Lootas were central in terrain.  Grotz were on the left out of sight.

I split my army in half and deploy deep into each corner.  This is to get as many side shots on the wagons as they will have to turn one way or another to get to me.  In my left corner, I put a rifleman, hemchmen, and stormraven.  In my right corner goes the other rifleman, razorback unit, NDK, and strike squad on foot with attached libby.  I choose not to steal the initiative.

Turn #1 Orks.  Wagons all advance 13" mostly up the middle but they split slightly towards each side but remain close enough to stay in kff range.  Lootas wiff.

Turn #1 GK.  Raven advances 6".  NDK shunts up the right flank to about 11" from lootas.  My entire army fires at wagons and I'm able to wreck the lead wagon with the big mek and burnas.  Foot squad guns down a couple burnas.  NDK kills about 8 lootas but they pass morale.

Turn #2 Orks.  Snikrot's kommandos arrive on the left and block the chimera's exit.  One wagon pulls back towards the NDK and unloads shoota boyz.  Ghaz's wagon and slugga wagon both advance towards the right.  Kommandos assault the stationary chimera, wreck it, and kill all henchmen and inquisitor as they can't get out.  Lootas stun the raven.  The shoota boyz fail to wound the NDK and are slightly out of assault range.

Turn #2 GK.  Raven fortitudes off the stun.  Termies jump out and surround the kommandos.  On the right, the razorback squad jumps out and their ride drives up to block a wagon.  NDK jumps up next to the shoota boyz that just disembarked.  All of my anti-tank shooting is blocked by cover or downgraded by armor plates.  Termies wipe out snikrot's unit.  Strike squads wipe out the burnas, leaving the big mek who fails morale and falls back.  NDK burns 7 or so boyz and assaults, killing a few but we lock.

Turn #3 Orks.  Ghaz's wagon rams the razorback but only stuns it.  Ghaz and manz jump out.  The slugga wagon drives around the razorback and unloads on the right near both strike squads.  Big mek continues to fall back.  Lootas stun the raven again.  Orks declaire WAAGGGHH!  Ghaz, meganobz, and slugga boyz multi-assault both strike squads and libby.  I kill 4 meganobz with force weapons and take many casualties.  Libby makes every invuln against ghaz.  The 5 man strike squad falls back off the board, but libby stays locked with 3 knights and the rest of the orks.  NDK fails to finish off his boyz who remained locked due to the waagh.

Turn #3 GK.  Razorback and raven both fortitude off the stuns.  Termies jump back in the raven which moves 12" towards the center of the table.  Dreads also shift forward towards the middle trying to have access to several scoring areas.  Razorback drives around to get rear shots on a wagon.  The raven explodes ghaz's empty wagon and one dread immobilizes the wagon closest to the NDK.  Ghaz and the orks finish off the libby and knights, but I'm able to kill the last meganob. 

Turn #4 Orks.  The slugga's wagon rams the razorback and wrecks it.  Ghaz joins sluggas and they try to chase down a rifleman dread but don't get far enough.  Grot riggers repair the immobile wagon.  Lootas fail to damage the raven.

Turn #4 GK.  NDK goes after lootas and stays close enough to the mek to keep him running.  Rifleman on the right backs away from the orks.

On the left, the raven heads for the grotz that are hiding behind the forest. 

The raven explodes the wagon closest to the NDK.  The NDK assaults lootas but wiffs and we lock.  I'm unable to damage the remaining wagon.

Orks turn #5.  The remaining wagon heads for the dread on the left.

 On the right, ghaz breaks off as the game could end here and he needs to claim an area.  Boyz fail to reach the dread on the right again.  NDK and lootas remained locked.

GK turn #5.  I move the raven over 12" and dump out the termies.

On the right, the dread backs away again.

Combined fire immobilizes the last battlewagon.  Termies kill 4 grotz but they pass morale.  Duncan rolls for the end and we play on.

Orks turn #6.  Ghaz repositions.  Boyz assault the dread on the right but the klaw is out of range to swing so we lock.  NDK finishes off the lootas and heads for grotz.

GK turn #6.  Dread on the left backs up, raven and termies head towards the middle.

My shooting explodes the last wagon.  Dread on the right survives against the klaw nob.  I roll for the end and we continue to turn #7.  NDK finishes off the grotz.

Duncan has 2 units left, ghaz and a few boyz locked with the dread.  Ghaz shuffles around and the nob is unable to kill the dread.

My last turn.  The NDK positions to capture duncan's deployment zone area.  Termies take the middle and spread out for both left objectives.  Raven goes flat out to capture my deployment zone area.  Dread on the left captures that area.

The game ends with me holding 4 areas and 2 objectives.  I earned a couple bonus modifiers for a total score of 25/28.  This would put me in 4th out of 20 and I head to table #2 to play Shaun K who was the captain of our ATC team last year and on USA's ETC team for the past 2 years.

This was a pretty textbook game for how to beat battlewagon orks by splitting forces and getting side shots.  I focused on the burnas first to eliminate their templates/power weapons.  I knew I would lose whatever side ghaz went after and Duncan chose properly going right as the foot unit would be an easy target.  I got lucky in that my most mobile and durable units survived long enough to capture areas.  I was also lucky that the game went 7 turns for me to get everything into position.