Adepticon 2012, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 2 vs. Team Aquila [18+]

Hurr durr, Skarvald, you're taking forever with these battle reports!

*sigh* But.. but.. writing about losing to Grey Knights is not fun to write about OR even read.. ;_;

OH, GET ON WITH IT!

Fine. 
After suffering defeat at the hands of Team Handsome's Draigowing Grey Kniggits it was time to face the music once again and this time the playlist featured the din of Storm Ravens and the sound of silence. Kind of like.. the silence lingering on the battlefield after most of your army has been extinguished by force weapons, you know? Oh, who am I kidding? You've faced Grey Knights, you surely, surely know.

Partnered with what some of the more ignorant members of the Imperium call the best Adeptus Astartes of them all, I (alongside my Vince and Blake who were facing a similar fate) was once again destined to clash with the knights in shining armor, this time commandeered stellarly by the members of...

Team Aquila

Team Aquila brought a whole different kind of beat stick! NO Paladins this time and NO Henchmen, at least on our table. Oh, oh, oh, oh and NO Psyflemen Dreadnoughts. Sounds pretty decent so far, right?
Justice and I were facing two almost identical lists with two fully kitted-out 10-man squads of Purifiers in Rhinos (?), two Storm Ravens with Grey Knight Terminators, one with a (I think) an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor in Terminator Armor aaaaaaand a non-flying shooty Dreadknight. The Purifiers were scoring because of Castellan Schmoe Crowe. Huzzah for Fearless troops choices that can quite literally out-shoot and out-melee everything.

Why can't my Thunderwolves count as Troops choices again? Instead we got Fenrisian Wolves as Troops... that's can't even score.

Alright, perhaps I'm being too passive aggressive here. Team Aquila was actually quite nice. They were kind enough to provide us with some pretty cool shot glasses with the Aquila symbol on it and as newbie shot glasses collector I couldn't say no to that. I almost refused the shot of Jägermeister though... but then the Eastern European in me objected and I slammed the alcoholic tar like a total alpha, but not before I yelled "FOR RUSS AND THE ALLFATHER" for all to hear. People turned around. I don't think they were too amused. Skarvald did not care.
Today was a good day to die. 

Mission #2 was Road to Nowhere!
The table is divided into two equal diagonal deployment zones and the Primary objective was controlling the most Quarters. But just like last year, there was a twist. In order to control a Quarter a Coalition needed to have a Scoring unit from each player's list on it, though a Command Token made it possible for its carrier to score by itself. Secondary objective was Annihilation and some extra points were awarded for HQ's in the opponent's deployment zone, etc. etc..

This mission, like all Adepticon missions was tough for people with less Troops choices. As we all know, Troops and Scoring Units in 5th edition are KING, but this "Road to Nowhere!" scenario was especially punishing to Coalition with uneven number of troops, especially in our situation. My list had only one Troops choice and Justice had three Rhinos with 10-man Tactical Squads with Power Weapon Sergeants, a flamer and a Multi-melta. At most we could control two Quarters at a time and only if one of Justice's squads had a Command Token on it, which is what we did, really.

Team Aquila had 4 tough Scoring units, two of which had the Command Tokens, so they could control 3 Quarters, which was a pain.

The game began. I'm not really sure who had the first turn - team Aquila, I believer.
They deployed all of their dudes in some pretty scarce terrain and we were lucky to have a big-ass building in our deployment zone in which we "bunkered" down, managing to hide one Rhino each behind the building and I was able to deploy my Long Fangs up high in a spot that was hard to assault even for Paladins in a Storm Raven and high enough to give cover and LoS-blockage from other shooting.. Thunderwolves were also out of line of sight. Two of Justice's Rhinos were in reserve with his Assault Terminators + Libby in Deep Strike.

Turn 1
On their turn, Team Aquila moved forward and there was almost no shooting. Their Storm Ravens moved on our flanks and it was clear that they were trying "The Pincer". Their vehicles (Rhinos) moved forward in some cover and the Dreadknight was in the middle, providing a very tempting target for my Thunderwolves, who were pretty much the only thing that could do some harm to it in close combat. There were no way I was going to waste my Long Fangs shooting it with TWO Storm Ravens on the table. No, sir.

The Rhinos moved just enough for my Living Lightning to be able to target something, but it really didn't do anything. The Thunderwolves moved towards the Dreadknight, fully aware of the trap, but I just had to commit to it. I got a decent run as well. The Long Fangs managed to pop the Storm Raven on our right flank and the explosion PINNED THE TERMINATORS. Alright.. not a bad start. Not a bad start at all. And then.. the Thunderwolves... missed their charge... by.. 0.5''. Thankfully that mean that the Dreadknight wasn't going to be able to charge them.

I will Instant Death ALL your IC's
WiiIiIiIiiIIiith aaaa... HERRING!

Turn 2
Crowe moved to the center of the table, behind a Rhino filled with Purifiers. Clearly he was going to stay out of LoS and then on the last turn he was going to commit to whatever Quarter we were controlling just to be a douche, haha. Hey, that was a good tactic..
Can't remember too much what moved where, but I remember my Thunderwolves getting shot and losing enough guys for a Morale Check, which they failed. That was actually good, though, since they were not needed in the open any more and their 3d6'' fleeing movement got them far away from the death trap.


On our Turn 2 the Thunderwolves regrouped automatically and got their 3''+6'' movement + d6'' Fleet Run move behind the building and prepared to support whatever needed to be supported. Both of Justice's Rhinos came from reserves and one of them (the one with the Command Token) moved flat out on our most distant right flank, hoofing it for the top right Quarter of the table. Long Fangs popped the second Storm Raven as well! Woot! Not sure what else happened.

The Rest of the Game  

Vince.. deploying some.. terrain.

I'm not going to torture you with a turn-by-turn-by-turn coverage. Basically the Grey Knights shot the crap out of our vehicles. Terminators were undefeated by my Thunderwolves because of Halberds and Brotherhood Banners, the Dreadknight was naughty and ate my Rune Priest who couldn't wound and Force Weapon him in like.. 3 rounds of close combat to save his life (literally!), Long Fangs had nothing to shoot at that was in LoS so they just sat in their building contesting the Quarter indefinitely since there was nothing that could see them or reach them for an assault by the end of turn 7. Two rapid firing and burninating squads of Space Marines couldn't take down 5 Terminators (ouch!) and were then purged by said Terminators and Purifiers.



Not even the Assault Terminators and Librarian could offer their condolences on time, because they too died in assault. We almost managed to get a Quarter but like 2 Fearless Purifiers with a Command Token managed to steal it from us, so none of managed to get the Primary, so that was a Draw. Team Aquila managed to the get the Secondary and to be honest.. I don't think we got any points from the rest of the thingies, resulting in a..

LOSS

Needless to say all four of us were VERY tired of facing Grey Knights. Tired enough that we agreed that if any of the other teams were an All Grey Knights team we were just going to "scoop" and just play against each other.  Even Vince, who has been playing Grey Knights/Daemon Hunters since before Matt Ward's abomination was sick and annoyed with the amount of Grey Knights at Adepticon this year.

It's me being cool! Look! I'm molesting a Daemonette WHILE getting my Captain Morgan on!

Vince's Slaaneshi Prostate Apothecary Check-up

The Good News? The game was over fast. We had like.. an hour to do whatever we wanted to, so Vince and I went and got some food and got a few adult beverages. Here I'm going to mention that we were also drinking a few beers during the game, but not enough to impair our judgements. Just you wait, the next battle reports will prove it.