Batrep: Grey Knights vs Eldar 1500pts

This game was my first and only practice game before the monthly tournament.  I would be testing our my "Mordrak Shock" list that I've been painting up over the previous 3 weeks.  Kevin accepted my challenge with his Eldar.

Kevin's List:
Eldrad
Avatar
Fire Dragons x5 + wave serpent w/ scatter lasers
Dire Avengers x8 + exarch, blade storm, wave serpent w/ bright lances
Guardians x12 + scatter laser, warlock w/ conceal
War Walkers x3 + eml's
Nightspinner
Dark Reapers x4 + exarch, tempest launcher, crack shot


My List:
Mordrak
Ghost Knights x5 + hammer x1, halberd x1, swords x2, banner
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, razorback w/psybolt ammo
Stormraven + typhoon missiles
Interceptors x5 + mc hammer, halberds x2, psycannon
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter

My list is gimmicky and built to pull off an alpha strike with the grand strategy and teleporter units.  I don't want to win games with it by catching people unprepared, so I make sure to explain to them how the grand strategy works and the capabilities of the teleporter units.

We would be practicing for the tournament and the format was a bit unusual.  Each player would be able to choose their own primary and secondary scoring objectives from kill points, table quarters, and 5 objectives.  I chose kill points and table quarters.  Kevin chose table quarters and kill points.  We rolled for first turn and I took it.  I rolled grand strategy and gave both NDK's scout.  Then we rolled for deployment and got DoW...  I think we screwed that up a bit out of order.  I probably should have known the deployment type before deciding to go first or second and before grand strategy.

So I deploy my razorback squad just on my side of center out of fire dragon threat range.

Kevin deploys Eldrad with the avengers in their serpent on the left flank.

So the game begins with Mordrak and his knights deep striking in.  I don't want to be caught in the open so I drop on the other side of the hill from Eldrad.  Both NDK's and interceptors shunt up.  The stormraven goes flat out and the razorback squad dumps out.

My plan is to pump everything into the serpent, knock Eldrad out of his ride, and force the rest of his army to walk into my arms to save him.  Unfortunately my plan fails.  All of my shooting (it's not much) yields one pen and I only destroy the lances.  I really needed to stun (no spirit stones), immobilize, or destroy it.

Kevin performs a perfect counter deployment bringing his entire army in on the opposite flank.  Eldrad's ride flat-out's away from my units.

That's a lot of ground for me to cover...

And I've already blown all 3 shunts ugh.  NDK's, interceptors, and razorback squad all move 12" towards the eldar army.  The stormraven goes flat-out in front of Mordrak's unit for a cover save and to pick them up next turn.

The stormraven and interceptors fire on Eldrad's ride again and only shake it.  Interceptors assault the wave serpent and the closest NDK fails to roll a 5 on 3d6 to reach it.  The justicar with mc hammer wiffs.

The eldar shuffle around a bit.  Eldrad's shaken ride goes flat-out again away from my units.  The fire dragon's ride goes flat-out towards my table edge (table quarter).

The war walkers pen my stormraven several times, I fail several cover saves, and it explodes.  Now my terminators are stuck on foot for the game.  On top of that, the strike squad inside is pinned and in dangerous terrain from the night spinner.  The dark reapers kill all interceptors except the psycannon.

So at the top of turn 3, I move both NDK's towards him again and dump out the razorback squad.  Mordrak's unit moves and runs, but my dice rolls are sad.

All my shooting is ineffective.  The central NDK assaults Eldrad's ride, gets one hit, one pen, and it's only a stun.

Kevin brings up the avatar but it will be out of range one more turn.  The fire dragons come up and out to burn the lead NDK.

The fire dragons and a few other units fire on the central NDK and do 3 wounds.  The reapers kill 2 more from the pinned strike squad.  Something also sniped out one strike knight from the razorback squad, putting me out of coherency and forcing me to move and lose shots next turn.

Fire dragons decide to assault the NDK as it only has 1 wound left and they will strike first, but the plan backfires and he smashes 3 and the other 2 die to no retreat thanks to the avatar.

Here I make another mistake and send the wounded NDK after the guardians.  The healthy NDK goes up to punch eldrad's ride. 

Mordrak's unit continues to slog across the field.  The razorback squad shuffles.  The interceptor with psycannon stays stationary for max shots.

I put 6 psycannon shots into the fire dragon serpent and fail to rend.  The razorback is able to kill 2 reapers.  NDK's assault guardians and Eldrad's ride.

I succeed in exploding the wave serpent finally, but the guardians sucker punch the other NDK before he can swing.

Eldrad breaks off from the avengers and heads for the last NDK with the avatar.  The dragon's serpent goes flat-out into my table quarter.

The avengers blade storm the razorback squad and wipe them out.  My dice this game were not happy with me if you haven't noticed yet.

He also knocks the squad that was in the stormraven down to 1 knight.  The night spinner puts a wound on Mordrak and the unit in dangerous terrain.  Eldrad and the avatar assault the NDK and cause 2 wounds.  I swing on Eldrad but he passes all his invulns.

Now the top of turn 5, I'm losing on kill points but winning table quarters for now.  I march the terminators forward and lose one to terrain.  The interceptor jumps out of the reaper's LoS.  The last strike knight heads for the empty razorback.

I fire every single unit into the dire avengers and wipe them out.  The NDK survives another round against Eldrad and the avatar, but also fails to get past Eldrad's invuln.

The eldar shuffle around a bit more.

Combined fire kills the last interceptor, last strike knight, and one more ghost knight.  My NDK also falls in assault.  We roll for the end and the game continues.

I only have 2 units left so they reposition.  Mordrak's unit heads for the dragon's serpent and the razorback lines up on the walkers.  I land 3 hits on them but fail to pen.  Mordrak wrecks the wave serpent.  Right now, I have 2 table quarters to his 1.

The avatar moves and runs for the adjacent table quarter.  The walkers explode the razorback.  Combined fire kills one more ghost knight and puts another wound on Mordrak.  We roll for the end and again, the game continues.

I jump my terminators behind the hill.

The avatar moves and runs, making it 1"into the adjacent table quarter.  The night spinner goes flat out into the table quarter Mordrak is holding.

The game ends with Kevin holding table quarters 2-1 and kill points in his favor 7-4.

Well, I totally misplayed this one right from the beginning and it cost me.  If we would have rolled deployment before I chose to go first, I would have chosen to go 2nd in DoW.  I blew all my shunts turn 1 over committing to one flank and failing to demech Eldrad.  Kevin's counter deployment was perfect and he continued to outplay me for the rest of the game.

Despite all of that, I was still pleased with this game.  I learned exactly how not to play this list and despite the bad start, I was able to inflict respectable damage.  NDK's continue to be my favorite unit in the codex.  I love MC's so much I use them in all 3 of my armies.  NDK's have the potential to be the best MC's in the game if used properly.

Anyways, I learned a lot about my list in this game that isn't apparent on paper.  Stay tuned for the upcoming 3 tournament reports to see if that learning paid off.