Chaos Marines vs Grey Knights
First off, this was a very close game, and was the second game working with the new Chaos Space Marines. The first game is not really worth discussing too much, as it CSM's were very much wiped out. So understand first off, that the games here are very much putting the CSM codex up against a very hard list. The purpose of course is to kill the learning curve, and get right down to the CSM codex.
The game's mission was Relic. So in the center we had a relic that must be recovered and the rest of the victory points for the game are very much centered on secondary objectives. The board was set up using the alternating terrain system in the rulebook. It came out very unusually balanced and open, which suited both lists that were about to take the field.
On the Chaos Marine side of things we are looking at an Abbadon list, with two heldrakes, lots of Chosen Marines loaded with plasma, 3 Havocs, some Chaos Spawn, and some cultist units. There are some proxies (on both sides) as the oblits you see in the video are actually the chaos spawn. The empty juggernaut you see in the video is also a Chaos Lord on a juggernaut and daemon weapon.
On the Grey Knight side of things I am not going to go into much detail, as it is a list I am personally building (there are quite a few proxies the grey knight side). It is a Coteaz list, and the rest well, I will let the video show.
To start off, the Chaos Marines did roll a six to seize the initiative, however with Coteaz I made him re-roll that, and of course he did not succeed. The very first round of the game was very much Grey Knights moving forward 6" and unleashing a torrent of firepower into the Chaos Marine side of things. Several heavy weapons in the Havocs died, alongside every transport (one was immobilized the rest destroyed). So heavy casualties at the top of 1, with only two vehicles suffering wrecks on the return fire.
Getting right down to it, the Storm Raven came in and obliterated its points worth almost immediately at the top of 2, gunning down most of the Chaos Spawn, and later in round 3 wiping out a Havoc Squad.
Of particular note, two of the three Havocs were set up with 2 Autocannons and Two flakk upgraded Missile launchers. These two units were very flexible and worth the 145pts they cost.
The Heldrakes were fantastic. They of course were set up with flamers, and wrecked havoc on the Grey Knight side of things. There really is very few places to hide from these things. Those flamers are nasty. Not to mention that on their flyby going into round 4, one was shot down and its wreckage wiped out two full grey knight warrior acolyte squads, and damaged two separate vehicles.
In the end, it was very tough for the Grey Knights to grab the relic, and only during the top of 5 did they get the chance to grab it. There was always someone there to prevent the Grey Knights from taking it, and in the end, Abbadon assaulted the center of the board and took out the unit holding the objective.
The final Score was 1-0 Grey Knights for getting first blood.
If we had been doing kill points, it would of been GK 15 CSM 16
Victory points wise, about 3-400 pts of Chaos was left on the board, and about 5-600 pts of Grey Knights.
Looking back, I really liked the two Havoc Squad layouts, the third was a full autocannon squad. Abaddon was particulary nasty with his Black Crusader Warlord trait, although I do not think it was used to its full effectiveness. It sure saves a lot of plasma gunners.
In the end though, it was the Heldrakes that won mvp of that battle. They were scary to be up against, and with anything short of a terminator 2+ save, there is not much to do but hide in your transport when those dragons are coming your way.
