Bank Holiday Games Day - Game 1, Warhammer 40k

As I have said previously my friend who has been working in the States came back to the UK to be demobbed before heading to work in Australia. Richard is responsible for me getting back into WH40k, he is also responsible for me getting into moderns back in the 1990's, along with WAB and Warhammer. More recent years he nudged me into Flames of War, Warhammer Historical WW1, and Dead Mans hand (The latter by just giving me some figures he had painted).

Mr Friend Richard, with my other friend Scott in the back ground

He has also Kick started several off my armies including my Grey Knights, 1914 French and the dreaded  Cowboys (Grrr). We have enjoyed playing in the past playing Moderns, Twilight 2000. Flames of War and many, many ,many more games.

He's been busy on a whistle stop tour of relatives and friends and took the time out to spend some time on the bank holiday Monday with me in the games shed. So we started with a small 500 point Warhammer 40k game with the new Rules that had just come out, followed by Jugular and then a 1500 point 40k.

Our first game was the 500 point 40k and Richard used his Imperial Guard from the new Codex and I used my Grey Knights.

Imperial Guard 500points
HQ - CO with Power fist, Veteran with Banner and 3 Veterans with hotshot rifles.
Two 10 man Squads each 1 Sergent (Las Pistol and Close Combat Weapon), 1 Flamer, 1 Plasma Gun, 7 veterans with Hotshot Rifles.
1 Commisar

Grey Knights 500points
Imperial Inquisitor
Chimera

1 henchmen squad with 2 Servitors with Heavy Bolters and 4 Dudes with Bolters and Power armour
2 Grey Knight squads each 4 knights and 1 Pyscannon
2 Paladins

This worried me a little as I had quite a sizable force facing Richards 2 squads. I kept wondering what he had up his sleeves, It turned out that they were a form of poor man Marines, AP3 weapons which fired twice and 4+ saving throws.

General view of the table

 We set the table up as above and then placed the objectives. I hid my Grey knights, one squad behind a wood and another in some ruins as I knew that if Richards Guard got to shoot them they would have no saving throws due to his AP3 weapons. I chanced the Chimera in the open mounting the Inquisitor and his retinue, so that the servitors could fire their heavy bolters from the rear hatched. My Paladins were held in reserve so that they could deep strike in.  Richard set up in the corner of the board behind the hills with one squad in the ruins.

At this point we made a slight mistake in the issuing of the psychic powers, The errata came out after we played the game the way we did. Each Grey knight squad received two random powers, and I felt this went against what the narratives of the army told you about the Grey Knights.

Grey Knights looking at hiding in the woods.

 My Grey Knights above are poised to take objective number 1 which happened to be my first objective card objective. I really liked the way the game now uses random objective cards which allows you to stack up those objective points. Your oppo may well blast you back to the stone age but if you achieved your objectives you could still win.

Inquisitor Chimera

 My Chimera caused a few casualties amongst the Guard hiding in the ruins, and the return fire from the Guards Plasma gun was a 1/4 of an inch out of range, The next two turns saw the chimera take 2 hits but both failed to penetrate.

Imperial guard hiding behind the hills

 The Guard in the corner skulking decided to move out and take a few objectives, which left them open to attack from my Chimera, I couldn't decide whether to finish off the squad in teh ruins or go after the one in the open, I chose the latter.

Paladins Teleport in

 With a flash my Paladins arrived and pored bolter rounds into the command squad and nothing happened, The Guards turn to face the new threat and the Paladins shrug off most of the volley fire but take one wound.

Imperial Guard try some Hot shot death.

Above the Paladins look a bit surrounded. The command squad charges the Paladins and in the resulting melee and wiped out (I forgot to take more pictures), The Chimera deposits the Henchmen who start to whittle down the Guard squad, eventually only 2 men were left and they failed their moral test.

My squad that was hiding behind the wood, had moved through the wood to then move across the open to take another objective, the Guards in the ruins had been almost wiped out and  they too headed towards the same objective, flaming my squad they kill one knight before being mowed down by a psychic power that cause 6 wounds. The ruins was now held by the Commissar who succumbed to several Psycannon hits. And there endeth the first game. a GK victory 7 - 5.

two more game reports to come