Army Breakdowns
Grey Knights
HQ - Grey Knights Librarian
Elites - Mortis Pattern Autocannon Dreadnoughts x2
Troops - 10 man Strike Squads x3, 5 man Terminator Squad
Heavy Support - Stormraven Gunship
Salamanders Space Marines
HQ - Vulkan He'Stan
Elites - 5 man Assualt Terminator Squad w/ thunderhammers
Troops - 10 man Tactical squads w/various special/heavy weapons x5
Heavy Support - Thunderfire Cannon
Scenario
Big Guns Never Tire
Objectives - 5
The Game
So starting the game, not too much happened for me on the first turn, i deployed first and also went first as my opponent failed to seize. unfortunately i had to use my first turn trying to get onto objectives and getting some heavier guns into position. That was pretty much most of my turn. When my opponent Jon went with his grey knights it was mostly a first round volley of punishing bolter, and psycannon fire, which had a devastating effect on my terminator squad and Vulkan. Im not that familiar with all the psychic abilities as i tend to avoid using librarians with my salamanders, but my terminator squad had been hit with the re-roll all successful saves spell by his GK Librarian prior to his shooting. The psycannon shooting proved to be the killer for my terminators as he hit and wounded with all but one of his shots. I ended up losing all of them and Vulkan on that first turn, giving him 2 extra objective points right out of the gate.
Turn 2 didn't really go too much better for me; I tried to bring a plasma cannon onto some of the strike squads and of course, when i fired, my model decided to incinerate himself instead of killing enemies and so that was the end of that. - This is exactly why i tend to shun the use of any plasma weapons when possible as that stuff ALWAYS happens to me with them - I did however manage to blast his terminator squad with a nice barrage from the Thunderfire cannon, which due to some poor rolling left him with only 1 terminator and a now wounded librarian. The rest of my squads were now on positions on 3 objectives, while he was sitting on two, but was already up by 1 point because of getting first blood and slay the warlord earlier. Jon's second turn was much like the first; lots of shooting across more squads this time now that the terminators were gone. Also, his Stormraven showed up, but really just took some potshots at my Thunderfire Cannons Techmarine and they didn't do anything.He moved his librarian out of the terminator unit and joined him with one of the Strike Squads instead. A lot of the fire he put onto my tactical squads was focused on the central objective, trying to sweep them off of it, but it didn't work too well, as i lost only two models to his shooting and passed the Morale check for it.
Turn 3 i was at good range with my short guns such as Plasma Guns and Melta guns, but sadly, the melta weapons missed, or failed to wound this round, and while i was able to take out 3 or 4 models from the Strike Squads, i lost yet another plasma model to overheating. The heavy weapons teams i had sitting on two of my objectives didn't manage to hit the stormraven, which was really all they could see well to shoot. Stuck in a quandary with so many combat squads and being against Grey knights, i couldn't really decide whether to risk assaulting into terrain with a few squads to try and contest his objectives, or to sit where I was and try shooting at them a bit longer. I opted for the latter, but only because the former seemed just like a quicker way for me to lose models. Jon's 3rd turn was his worst. He was set on removing my Thunderfire Cannon from play, and so used all of his Stormravens shooting on it. Somehow, my techmarine managed to make 12 armor saves and did not die, much to his dismay and my own amusement. He didnt do much shooting other than with the psycannon Strike Team and the Dreadnoughts, but none killed more than a model in my units, which still held. He attempted charging one of my combat squads with a Strike Squad, but he rolled very poorly on his hits, and even worse on the wounds with the first set of attacks. I killed one Grey Knight, and then his hammer-wielding model swung, killing two of mine, but the unit held in combat. At this point one flank was stuck due to the Close combat with a Strike Squad, and the other was down to about 50% strength from plasma overheats and a few bad armor saves.
Turn 4 was pretty much my last ditch effort to try and do anything. I opted to continue shooting and try to move the squads off the objectives rather than risk a slapping contest against Grey Knights which i was likely sure to lose. I managed to melt the last remaining terminator with a plasma shot, and kill another Strike Team model with some massed bolter fire, but the unit did not flee. I also bombarded his Librarian-led Strike Team, hoping i could get some lucky wounds on him, but he managed to sacrifice two more Strike Team models to mitigate the wounds to him. Last, i tried to assault with another combat squad led by a veteran sergeant to support the other unit stuck in combat, but somehow managed to roll double ones and fail the ridiculously short charge distance....However, Jon's Grey Knights again whiffed in assault, losing another one to my plucky tactical marines. Two more of mine then died to more swings of the Thunder Hammer he had in the unit. On Jon's turn, he was content to again sit and continue to blast away with the dreads and the psycannons, since he knew at this point i had to press him for a win. My tactical squad holding the central objective was now reduced to just the sergeant after another devastating volley from the psycannon units killed 5 more of them. He survived 2 wounds from one of the dreadnoughts also. Frustrated by his last attempt to kill my Techmarine and Thunderfire Cannon, Jon put his Stormraven into hover mode to avoid overshooting the target and again unloaded shots into them. He almost survived again. but failed 1 save out of the 9 he took. Oh well, still pretty nice odds to beat i guess. With that out of the picture my options were even more limited at this point. The rest of his units didnt kill any of my tactical squad models this turn as i managed to roll good on my armor saves, but i did still lose one model in the close combat.
Turn 5 was basically a formality at this point. With one flank well secured by the combat, i was not able to push anything through to one objective. at best all i could hope for was a tie, but even that was a long shot. After analyzing my options we both decided to call the game, as there was really nothing i could have done at that point. That unfortunate first turn of losing all of my terminators and my Warlord really are what did me in. I managed to hold my objectives for the entire game, but i was still down by a point due to those extra objective points. I still had a good amount of scoring left on the table, but really i had run out of time to get them to his objectives. All in all i was pretty satisfied with how the list i used played, especially as it was more of a just for fun list than a competitive thing. It didn't really do too bad. I think though, that after a year and a bit of having used 6th edition, i am inclined to drop my trusted Thunder Hammer Terminators for something perhaps a bit more versatile. I like the options that the Thunderfire Cannon gave me a lot, and will probably try to adopt this into more lists in future. As for all the tactical units, I think I will stick with the same 2 or 3 that i usually tend to field, rather than any of the ones with plasma. Really tired of my luck with plasma at this point.
All in all it was a fun game and a nice way to end the year for my 40k gaming at least. :) I hope everyone enjoys their day/night. Happy New Years to all :)
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