In the end, I played with another friend, who brought Grey Knights and Imperial Guard. He had a scary list, with a Guard Battalion of Creed, a Company Commander and three infantry squads, a Spearhead detachment of a Tank Commander with Hammer of Sunderance (after spending a point to make it the Emperor's Fist Armored Company), a Leman Russ main battle tank, a Leman Russ Executioner tank and 3 squads of 3 mortars each. They were backed up by a Grey Knights Vanguard detachment comprising of a Grand Master in Dreadnknight, Castellan Crowe, 2 Strike squads, 2 Purifier squads, a Venerable Dreadnought and a Stormraven.
Facing against that was my Imperial Knights and Imperial Guard. As usual I had my Knight Lancer with Landstrider and...damn it, I had Helm of the Nameless Warrior and I completely forgot about the +1 to WS the entire game...never mind. A Knight Gallant with Knight Seneshal and Paragon Gauntlet and my Knight Crusader. This time I brought an Armiger Helverin along with the 3 Titanic Knights, and my Imperial Guard Battalion consisted of only a single Tank Commander in a Leman Russ Executioner tank, a Company Commander with plasma pistol, and 3 infantry squads with a plasma gun each. Could be worse, but I like my plasma Draconian Guard. Rounding that off was a Culexus Assassin from Operative Requisition Sanctioned.
We rolled and got the Four Pillars. I got to deploy first, my opponent failed to seize the Initiative and the game was a go!
Turn 1
My opponent spend 2 Command Points on Prepared Positions to give all his guys cover, and it made a lot of difference, especially for the tanks. Tank Commander put 6 wounds on the enemy Leman Russ Executioner tank, while his lascannon struck the opposing Tank Commander...only for him to roll his cover save. My Knight Lancer basically fluffed his arc lance shots, whoops, while my Knight Gallant advanced, so couldn't shoot. The Knight Crusader did most of the work, killing an entire infantry squad with the Avenger Gatling cannon and heavy stubbers, killed a single mortar team (the rest made their cover saves), and his rapid-fire battle cannon did 4 wounds to the Tank Commander. The Armiger Helverin did absolutely nothing, failing to wound any of the Leman Russ tanks. First Strike to me, and I managed to get 4 objectives by moving my infantry squads forward to capture, while my Knight Lancer stepped on one. Then my Knight Gallant used Full Tilt to charge into the infantry squad, as did my Knight Lancer, and just one of them was enough to wipe them out, and they both consolidated into the Leman Russ Executioner tank. Well, that works too.
My opponent had his tank fall back, his last infantry squad moved up to secure the objective from my Knight as troops, and his three mortars wiped out both my infantry squads on the objectives, and between them and the heavy bolters, they left 2 men in each of the 2 infantry squads. The 3rd infantry squad was in cover and I think I lost about 3 of them. I'll take that. The tanks fired upon my Knights, as did the Stormraven, and I think the poor Knight Lancer was left with about 14 wounds left while the Knight Gallant had...I believe 20 or so wounds, because I used Rotate Ion Shields for him. I can't remember. The Stormraven ate a mortal wound from overheating its plasma cannon. But my 2 infantry squads with 2 men each, as expected, failed morale and ran away. Ouch. So we were even on objectives, and neither of us got a point for the Four Pillars. My opponent did get First Strike as well, so we were even on victory points. Yay? Oh...unfortunately, my opponent charged my Knight Lancer and Gallant with the infantry squad, and they failed to wound either, and ended up getting stomped to oblivion. But he managed to contest the objective with his Leman Russ tanks, so I think that's why I didn't get it. Don't forget, Leman Russ tanks in a Spearhead Detachment have Objective Secured!
Turn 2
After losing my infantry squads on both objectives, I had my Armiger move to one, while my Culexus Assassin Deep Struck on another of the objective. The Knights moved up closer to the Leman Russ tanks. I can't remember what happened after that, but I think I spent a Command Point on Skyreaper Protocols and did about 3 or so damage, so it only took 4. Ugh! My Armiger Helverin was really...pretty bad for this game. On the other hand, my Tank Commander shot the wounded Leman Russ Executioner, and it was his turn to eat a mortal wound from supercharged plasma. Meanwhile my Knight Crusader killed the wounded mortar squad, finished off the Leman Russ Executioner (who had about 2 wounds left) with his Avenger Gatling cannon and injured the Tank Commander with the rapid-fire battle cannon, leaving him with 6 wounds, leaving just 2 heavy weapons squads. The Knight Lancer failed to do anything with his arc lance, but he charged the Tank Commander and killed him, but took 3 damage from overwatch to bring him down to 11 wounds. The Knight Gallant also charged the Company Commander and last Leman Russ tank, and splitting the attacks - 5 to the Leman Russ tank and 2 to the Company Commander, he killed both of them, but failed to throw the tank with his Paragon Gauntlet. Still a pretty good round of shooting and combat, I would say. Now I had all 4 Objectives, but obviously it remained to be seen if I could hold onto all of them until the end of the battle round. Oh, the tank commander exploded and dealt a mortal wound to my Knight Lancer (who now had 10 wounds left), Knight Gallant and one of the mortar squads.
My opponent disembarked his Purifer squads and Venerable Dreadnought and Castellan Crowe from the Stormraven before it felt away to tackle my Knight Crusader, having dropped to hover mode. A single Strike squad deep struck 9" away from my Culexus Assassin (the fools!), while the Grand Master in Dreadknight appeared 9" away from my Knight Crusader and Tank Commander. Psychic phase was devastating as Purifers did D6 mortal wounds with their Smite, and the Knight Gallant was brought down to 16 or so wounds, I think. Or more. The shooting was less effective and he survived. The mortar squads opened fire and wiped out my final infantry squad. Ouch. Then the second Purifier squad did about 4 wounds to my Armiger Helverin, and Crowe also did another 5 wounds, bringing him down to 3 wounds eventually (either that or he did 4 mortal wounds and I failed a save or two from the shooting). Then they charged into him, but didn't actually hurt him. I can't remember but the Grandmaster in Dreadknight and Stormraven fired on both my Tank Commander and Knight Crusader, and after was all said and done (he failed Vortex of Doom but managed to get Sanctuary off), the Tank Commander had only 3 wounds left and I think the Knight Crusader had 14. Ouch. The Dreadknight Grand Master failed his charge and ate 2 damage from my Knight Crusader's overwatch with the Avenger Gatling cannon, as did the Strike squad who charged at my Culexus Assassin after dealing only 1 wound to him from their shooting, and one guy died from overwatch. The Purifer squads were not as unlucky, and both they and the Venerable Dreadnought piled in and smashed my Knight Gallant - the Venerable Dreadnought dealing 9 damage, bringing my Knight Gallant down to 7 wounds. I paid 2 Command Points for Counteroffensive and obliterated the Venerable Dreadnought in return, but once again failed to throw him with the Paragon Gauntlet. The Purifer Squad didn't do any damage to him, though, surprisingly enough, so...whoops?
At this point both my opponent and I controlled a single Objective each with the Purifier squads contesting and claiming the objective from my Armiger and the Objective from my Knight Gallant while my Culexus Assassin and Tank Commander and Company Commander sat on two objectives. Neither of us got any Victory Points this turn.
Turn 3
With the scary Dreadknight right in front of my tank and Knight Crusader, I moved the Knight up while leaving the Tank Commander stationary and the Armiger locked in combat with the Purifiers. The Knight Gallant retreated, and then the Knight Lancer moved around to stare at the remaining mortar squads. His shooting, as usual, was pretty bad and I think I only killed one or two squads, leaving just one mortar team in one squad, while the Knight Crusader and Knight Gallant's Ironstorm missile pods merely took out one team in the other squad (the Knight Gallant was hitting on 4+ now or something). The Tank Commander fired and managed to score quite a few hits on the hovering Stormraven, bringing the gunship down to just 4 wounds. I think. Maybe less, because I also fired upon it with my Knight Crusader's rapid-fire battle cannon, but I must have completely fluffed his shots and did absolutely no damage to it, or the total damage between the two did 6 wounds. Which was bad. The Avenger Gatling cannon and heavy flamer did about 4 or so damage? I can't remember. He had taken 6 or so wounds by now. I then charged him and the Stormraven, but failed to kill the Stormraven, leaving it with just one wound despite House Griffith's Titanic Feet. On the other hand, I managed to stomp the poor Dreadknight down to 4 wounds, dealing about 8 in total (so perhaps 2 or so from Titanic Feet). His 3++ invulnerable save was incredible. The Dreadknight struck back but failed to wound for some reason. On the other side of the table, the Knight Lancer charged and killed one mortar squad and Creed, earning me Slay the Warlord. Then he consolidated into the last mortar squad. The Knight Gallant, despite having only 7 wounds, managed to wipe out the Purifer Squad that had smite him. The Culexus Assassin killed another one or two Strike squad dudes with his animus something...but I wanted the objective, so I had him stay where he was. The Armiger and Strike squad continued to hit each other, but neither of them did anything.
My opponent left the Dreadknight locked in combat, and he...failed Sanctuary this time. I think he used Vortex of Doom...and failed as well. I can't remember. Or he did only 1 mortal wound and my Knight Crusader only had 13 wounds left? Yeah, that sounds about right. The Purifers killed the Armiger with Smite, and settled upon the Objective. The second Strike squad Deep Struck near my Knight Gallant, and a combination of shooting from them and the Purifiers, who used Psybolt ammunition, brought the Knight Gallant down to just one wound. He was almost dead. Ouch. Then the Stormraven moved next to my Tank Commander and Company Commander, but with 1 wound left, was hitting on 5+s, so he did absolutely nothing to my Tank Commander, but he did 3 wounds with his hurricane bolters on my Company Commander, who barely survived. Ouch. The Strike squad then charged my Knight Gallant...and failed. Meanwhile the 2 members charged my Culexus Assassin, and I failed to kill any this turn. They failed to hit him, and I failed to kill them because he only has 4 attacks and wounds on a 4+, so...not that good. They had Objective Secured, so they secured that objective, and the Purifier got their objective, while my Knight Gallant and Tank Commander and Company Commander secured me 2 objectives, so it was once again a draw. No victory points for either of us. Oh, before I get ahead of myself...after the Strike squad charged my Culexus Assassin and attacked him, I spent another 2 Command Points (probably the last 2) for my Knight Crusader to stomp on the Dreadknight with his Titanic Feet, and I finally killed him, dealing exactly the 4 wounds I needed to take those last wounds off him. Phew! The mortar squad did absolutely nothing to the titanic Knight Lancer, who proceeded to stomp all of them to death with his Titanic Feet, killing all the mortar squads. Yes!
Turn 4
It was now turn 4 and neither of us were high on victory points, surprisingly enough. I still had First Strike and Slay the Warlord, and my opponent had First Strike, so it was 2-1, and a very even game in terms of Objectives and Victory Points. With the Dreadknight dead, my Knight Crusader moved upward to contest the objective with the Purifiers and Castellan Crowe. My Knight Lancer moved away from the dead mortar squads and Creed's corpse toward the final Strike squad, while my Culexus Assassin stayed where he was. The Tank Commander finally succeeded in killing the Stormraven with his plasma and stuff...only for my opponent to roll a 6, and then the Stormraven crashed and burned, dealing exactly 3 mortal wounds to my Tank Commander and killing him, as well as the Company Commander who was sitting on the same objective as him. OUCH! Sweet revenge for my friend! I joked that after the Stormraven got shot down, the pilot decided to crash his Stormraven into the tank for revenge, and that was probably what happened! On the other hand, my Knight Crusader killed the Purifer squads with his Avenger Gatling cannon and rapid-fire battle cannon while his Ironstorm missiles killed 1 Strike squad dude. The Knight Gallant was hitting on 5+s, so he didn't hit or kill anything with his Ironstorm missiles, but surprisingly enough my Knight Lancer killed one dude with his shock blast. The Knight Crusader then charged Castellan Crowe and stomped him to death with his Titanic Feet despite the latter's 4++ invulnerable save. The Knight Lancer also killed the 3 surviving Strike squad dudes with Titanic Feet, and the 2 Strike squad guys on the other side of the table failed to hit the Culexus Assassin. This time, he actually wounded them both, and they both died. Whoops!
...yeah, and my opponent was tabled. He literally had no more models left on the table. I had killed every single one of them. Meanwhile I only had 4 models left on the table myself, a single Knight Gallant with 1 wound left, a Knight Lancer with 10 wounds left, and a Knight Crusader with 13 wounds left. Oh, and the Culexus Assassin with 4 wounds left. I controlled 3 out of 4 objectives, which would get me one point, probably get Linebreaker thanks to my Knight Lancer and Knight Gallant...and my opponent had no more units, so the game ended there and then. Even with Acceptable Casualties, he would be behind on points without any way of scoring them, so the game had to end there. The Imperial Knights won - just barely!
After that, we discussed how his Grey Knights could have done better. He should have taken Paladins instead of Purifiers, especially since their Nemesis Daemon Hammers hit like a freight truck, being Strength 8 and wounding on 4+ (3+ with Hammerhand), and at AP -3 I would be struggling to make my armor saves for my Knights in close combat (except the Lancer, but...yeah). We're going to try again on Saturday and see if his new list of 3 squads of 3 Paladins would work better against my Knights!
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