Grandmaster Emrys' First Battle - A Battle Blog Report

As Chris' Ulthwe Eldar army has been growing, I have been scaling my Grey Knights army to fit his maximum points value, approaching the 2,000 point mark. This past weekend we had a battle at 1,900 points. As Chris is just two models away from his full army, I thought that the points level would be a good place to promote my Brother-Captain to a Grandmaster of the Grey Knights. A couple of weeks ago we decided that this series of battle we've been having is actually part of a running narrative, in which the Grey Knights under the command of Brother-Captain Emrys and the Ulthwe Eldar under the command of Farseer Calran Ulthroon would have a running series of escalating battles in the pursuit of Chaos artifacts that would culminate in the final battles (at 2,000 points). By the time of the final battles, Emrys is promoted to a Grandmaster and Calran Ulthroon has called upon Lord Ulthran himself, Eldrad Ulthran, to aid in the fight.

Well this weekend was Grandmaster Emrys' first appearance, and he performed very admirably.

The mission was Omega level Take & Hold. We set up an objective marker in the middle of the board and proceeded to separate our armies according to the tenets of the mission.

I was able to deploy my entire force with the exception of my three Dreadnoughts, and my opponent had to keep his two Wraithlords and Vyper Squadron in reserve.

I deployed my army in two groups:

Group One - Squad Emrys (5 TAGK), Squad Auran (8 PAGK), and Squad Dalan (6 PAGK)

Group Two - Squad Detlin, Squad Sirim, Squad Gormann (8 PAGK each)

Group One deployed to the right of my deployment zone, with Auran and Dalan in the trees and Emrys out in the open, defiantly daring the Xenos scum to bring battle to him.

Group Two deployed to the left of the deployment zone, using the building in that table quarter for cover from the Eldar.

Turn One:

I won first turn and started to move my groups into position. Auran and Dalan moved into a firing position in the woods, Emrys moved into an open area towards the center, between the woods and a building. Squads Detlin, Sirim, and Gormann used the cover of a building to advance on the far side of the table. I opened up on the Eldar Pathfinders in their forward position, reducing their number to three. Unfortunately, the resilient Xenos snipers decided to stick around and cause trouble.

In my opponent's round, he moved up the Warlock unit to support the lone Pathfinder and used his Warp Spiders to secure the objective. Opening up fire on squad Emrys, one brave Terminator fell to the concentrated firepower. Three more Grey Knights died, coming out of squads Gormann and Sirim.

Turns Two - Six, the Short Version:

All three of my Dreadnoughts arrived on Turn 2 and shot up the Pathfinders, their Asssault Cannons were in range of nothing else. One Pathfinder remained, though he ran. The Farseers bunkered down in a building near the objective with the support of the Warp Spiders. Emrys then led a daring assault against the entrenched Warlocks, assaulting into thier cover and slaughtering the Xenos to a man. Auran and Dalan continued cover fire, while on the other side of the board, Detlin, Sirim, and Gormann had taken care of the Dark Reapers (whose Exarch had felled a Dreadnought). They now faced both Wraithlords and a supporting lone Farseer.

The remaining rounds saw the destruction of the Swooping Hawks, the Warp Spiders,a Wraithlord who fell to the Assault Cannon of the remaining Dreadnought, Squad Auran (compliments of the arriving Vypers), and another Dreadnought.

The game ended in a daring gambit by Emrys, as squads Detlin, Sirim, and Gormann broke cover (under the guns of the remaining Wraithlord) to add their weight to the secured objective. In the final round, Emrys felled the two Vypers with Psycannon fire, Detlin and Sirim took out the Wraithlord in combat as Gormann added his weight to the secured objective.

In the end, the Grey Knights losses totaled 2 Dreadnoughts, Squad Auran, and half of squads Detlin and Sirim.

The Eldar losses were heavy, with only the lone Farseer and the Guardians remaining.

The Result: Total Victory for the Order Malleus!!

It was a rousing battle, and the tactics session afterwards was good on both sides. I think Chris is learning what not to do against the Grey Knights, and I look forward to the day when he hands me a bitter defeat.

Until that day, though, may the Emperor protect us all.

D.G.