The mission was straight Kill Points/Dawn of War from the 5th edition rulebook (we both had 21 kill points) and David Teoh made sure to help Vince's general strategy out to make the game a bit more enjoyable :). Hopefully Vince learned something!
Deployment & Turn 1
I won roll-off and decided to go first and deployed (via Turn 1 move on) in a split flank formation. Most of my Razorbacks were spread pretty evenly but I loaded one side with two Dreadnoughts away from my Razorbacks with the Terminators + Coteaz + Inquisitor on the other side. This encouraged Vince to deploy on my right side as he came on to keep the Terminators away from the game as much as possible whilst also pushing the Dreadnoughts into a corner where they could be PK'd to death. His Kanz ran up what was essentially the centre of the board (or my left-ish flank) and would be looking for good run rolls to put them into a position where if I engage the Orks in midfield, they will counter-charge and smack me around. The board was set and it only took like 30 minutes!
Grey Knight Turn 2
Vince has more effective units than me. Whilst we both have the same number of Kill Points, my small Acolyte squads aren't super durable or punchy though when working together can put out a nice amount of shots. His Ork Boyz are a lot more punchy and durable in comparison. This means Vince really wants to get up and close to me quickly and bash away at my tanks to reveal the goodies inside. I obviously want to keep shooting and have my tank durability ensure my army maintains cohesiveness. I have excellent shooting in regards to taking down everything in his army and since I've split my Psyfledread deployment, I'm getting side shots on the Battlewagons as well.
So first order of business is moving into range. With decent Waaagh! rolls, Vince is going to be in charge range of me if I want to be able to shoot his army (13" move, 2.9" disembark, 6" charge = 21.9" so he needs a 3+ on his fleet roll if I'm just on the cusp of my shooting range). This means I'm going to be taking some mass S4 and Nob PKlaws on the chin... solution? Stay as close to that 24" line as possible and ensure Coteaz's Sanctuary bubble will reach everything in charge range. Any to charge rolls of less than 5/6 will likely result in fails (unless he Fleets 6") and Orks will die on the way in. With that in mind the GKT unit moves and runs towards the centre of my two flanks whilst the right one moves up in to the 24" band to shoot at Trukks with the Dreadnoughts moving behind them. The left flank moves closer towards the middle to also bring their guns to bear whilst the Psyfledread sets up side shots on the Battlewagon.
And with that, it's time to shoot. I want to try and stop the Battlewagons if I can but more importantly is stopping the front line of Trukks as well - stay away from me so I can have more time to move around please. The end result is a damaged buggy and four of the five Trukks not moving next turn. Good result.
Orks Turn 2
I have a major shooting advantage over Vince's list - I just have too many targets which are too hard to suppress. I also am mobile enough to engage him whilst moving away so Vince needs to pin me in place. The problem is with most of his Trukks gone, he now has to contend with terrain for his foot units, good fleet rolls from the Waaaaagh! and Sanctuary (which not only causes difficult terrain checks but dangerous). Losing the Trukks means he loses and extra 9" off his assault move - yikes.
Luckily the Battlewagons are still there so they trundle up and drop out a Boyz unit with two more squads joining them with good terrain and fleet rolls (two of the three have Power Klaw Nobs). Some average terrain rolls and they should be in range to smack my tanks around who moved 6". The rest of the army moves up to support this push - the Kanz move through the middle and run, the Buggies move around for best shots possible and the Boyz at the back change transports where necessary for next turn.
Shooting does jack all so we head to assault where all three Boyz squads make it! Drat. Some excellent rolls to hit later and all three Razorbacks are destroyed - two wrecked and one expodes. The explosion + Sanctuary causes some damage but not much. Luckily none of the squads flee leaving them out of support range from the rest of the army.
Grey Knights Turn 3
Whilst the Orks are over-extended in relation to the Big Mek/Kanz/etc, the Battlewagons are still an obvious threat and if I move up to engage the Orks fully, I'm going to get hammered by them and the buggies and the kanz and the other Boyz. I need to avoid that. The other issue is, my army is based on lots of firepower on lots of little units but my littlest units (the Acolytes) aren't that great at this and rather rely on their Razorbacks to provide pewpew. Well I just lost three of them. Whilst I certainly can deal with the Orks sitting in front of me, I also need to deal with what's coming for me next turn which splits my firepower.
With that in mind, the Psyfledreads look to open up on the side armor of the Battlewagons - I need to stop them coming for me. My Razorbacks all move 6" again to shoot and not be sitting ducks in combat whilst the 2nd Purifier squad hops out on the single Dreadnought side. This gives more bites at the apple against the side armor of the right Battlewagon if the Dreadnought fails. The Purifiers on the right climb atop the Wrecks looking to engage the Orks below them whilst the unpinned Acolytes retreat to do some bolter double tapping. The GKT squad moves laterally towards the engagement in front of my once operational tanks to smack some Orks around.
With that, shooting opens up and my first two psyfledreads do a number on the Battlewagons and explode both. The remaining Dread fails to damage the now mobile Trukk whilst the Psybacks kill off the Big Mek cowering in the crater of a Battlewagon. The disembarked Purifiers drop the damaged buggy whilst the rest of my shooting kills a few Orks. In the assault phase the GKT finishes off the squad closet to them and consolidates away from the Ork army whilst the Purifiers wisely assault one squad...and fail to Cleansing Flame. They manage to kill several Orks regardless but lose two of their number in reply and the fight goes on.
Orks Turn 3
That was a hurtful turn for the Orks in losing both of their Battlewagons - the Kanz really need to get up and support the rest of the army pronto. A Boyz squad with the final PK Nob jumps on the now operational Trukk and zooms up to where their buddies are engaged with the Purifiers (the others have gone to ground) to provide more pressure to my lines. The Kanz move up and run again being well in range next turn for some charges whilst the buggies try and plink a vehicle but fail horribly.
In combat we see the Purifiers wiped out after they failed Cleansing Flame again and the Orks consolidate into the Wreck of the Razorback.
Grey Knights Turn 4
Having blunted the Ork offensive for Turn 3 we know that Turn 4 is our last turn unfortunately. Regardless, the Kanz are getting too close so it’s time for me to back away at full speed to ensure I can move laterally if the game did go on (and preserving Kill Points since the game isn’t going on). On the right flank the Terminators move up to multi-engage the Boyz left there whilst the rest of my firepower looks to shoot down the Trukk and Boyz outside to clear my lines of troublesome units and gain as many KP as possible.
Shooting sees the Trukk go boom but a lucky ramshackle roll sees the Orks placed further into my line where they can threaten my Dreads. Oh well – they are unlikely to kill it and I need to get easier KP than them currently. The rest of my army is able to drop a Kan and most of the Boyz outside their Trukks. The GKT finish these off in combat and we move to the final turn.
Orks Turn 4
Since we know this is the last turn, everything moves up aggressively to try and gain as many KP as possible. The two Kanz squads out of range of shooting don’t run but shoot with their Grotzookas and shake a transport despite getting 6 hits! The other Kanz squad shoots an Acolyte squad to death whilst the lead-most Kanz look to charge through Sanctuary at a Razorback after moving 6” through terrain. The Orks from the newly destroyed Trukk are eyeing the Acolytes and Dreadnoughts but a poor terrain roll sees them stuck engaging just one Dreadnought.
The rest of the shooting does diddly all as the rockets fail to hit or pen whilst the Ork dakka doesn’t phase the Terminators. In combat the Kanz explode the RBack to get another KP whilst the Boyz fail to damage the Dreadnought. The game ends here with a 10 to 6 KP advantage since I accidently killed my Inquisitor by taking a S6 wound on him (when there were Terminators who could take the saves).
Conclusion
The game ending on Turn 4 did change how things happened but I think my army was still in a good position – it was predicated on how many Kanz I could have shot down next turn and how I moved my army. There were still 5 psycannons, 2 psybacks and 2 psyflemen capable of engaging them with shooting (and many of them without cover) as well as the potential of S10 hammers in close combat. If I was able to drop three-four I probably would have been in a good spot as Vince would have a hard time gaining any KP from me with them gone.
By blunting his attack in Turn 3, Vince lost a lot of momentum and wasn’t able to build on his successful combats of Turn 2. Despite not having a lot of units available with which to combat the Orks, the GKT with halberds + Purifiers with Cleansing Flame (despite it failing) are scary enough to small Boyz squads and without the Kanz support for a couple of turns, I was able to clear my lines (mostly) and setup for them in later turns. If the game had been pitched battle where the Kanz were deployed 12” further up, I would have needed to deploy and play differently.
All in all was a great game and I hope Vince learned something from David who helped a lot! Was good to play against them both really :P. Maybe next year Vince!
