Memory Lane - The Iron Lords

Librarian Furioso Dreadnought

Honour Guard Standard Bearer

The Iron Lords were a long-time project of mine, i played with them as my main 40k army for about 3 years, going through a combination of guises, from 5th Edition marines through to Blood Angels, i had a lot of success with them and won several Best Painted army trophies with them as well as a 2nd Place Generalship trophy.

The last 40k tournament i visited i used them in their Blood Angels Incarnation, and i had been painting them up until the night before the tournament (believe it or not, a first for me!)  and i didn't really get many practice games in with them, the weird thing was, i realised i didn't really like the army much.



I tend to be a fan of shooty armies, more specifically, i like an army that packs a bit of a punch at range, and then delivers a killing blow in close combat.

With Blood Angels i just never really found my feet, i know they are a great army, i've played against them enough times to fret whenever i see them over the other side of the table, but i decided, for now, they are not for me. 

I tried an army centered around priests as, at the time, i found the whole Feel no Pain thing pretty exciting, but i think i went too gimmicky, i sold out.

my counts-as Gabriel Seth

I went with what people told me was good and not what i really wanted to see on the table, not entirely, the lynchpin of the army was my version of Gabriel Seth, a monster wearing a Hockey Mask with an Eviscerator (shown left) everyone said Gabriel Seth was rubbish, yet when i played games with him, i thought he was awesome, and i had several games where he somehow managed to trash 500 points worth of stuff on his own.

But after taking them to the tournament and performing hideously i thought it was time to chuck them in, i put them up on Ebay and they now belong to a very nice chap in Germany i believe, i enjoyed painting them a lot, and when i started the project the main idea for me was to take an "Official" Chapter (The Iron Lords are one of the featured colour schemes in the Space Marine Codex) and build upon the theme ,

My counts-as Corbulo

I took snippets of information and fleshed them out to whatever was in my liking at the time, It was quite refreshing, not a bog standard "Oh a new codex is out, better try and use it" thing, when Blood Angels came out, i painted up new and obvious models for anything exclusively from the codex, and it was fun to try and think up what they might look like in my colour scheme and what possible background reason i would include them from, My Gabriel Seth for example was "Captain Elderon" of the Assault Company, a grim beast of a marine who's tactical acumen fell second to his martial skill, his combat detachments constantly followed by an extra allocation of Apothecaries to oversee the Assault Marines under his control who followed his blood thirsty lead.

A custom Devastator marine

I have a terrible feeling i will always be a Marine player for 40k, if it doesn't at least have "And They Shall Know no Fear", a 3+ save and a Boltgun, i don't see much use for it in an army.

I also converted up some Oversized Field Mortars for a squad of Devastators (See pic on right) on the battlefield they counted as a squad with 4 missile launchers, but that way i wasn't just taking a squad of 4 missile launchers because they are cheap in a Blood Angels army, i thought of some unique quirk of character i could give the Squad to make them more interesting.  And i worked a treat

Veteran Sergeant

Also, i would be entirely remiss not to mention the fact that i had an Iron Lords thread over on Warseer that i attempted to update regularly, a lot of people would comment and give me feedback (Astraeos wherever you are, your steadfast advice was always appreciated, as well as many others.)

I think online in the gaming community there is a lot of potential to be either a "Watcher" sifting through threads and articles to gain inspiration but that is all and "Trolls" (well we all know what those are, in both senses of the word) but those people that commented on my progress were very helpful, so if you are looking to gain an extra bit of "oomph" with some painting i would definitely recommend taking pictures of your models, no matter how horrible you might think you paint (or good for that matter), the feedback i've received in the past has improved my skills tenfold in addition to my practice with the brush.

Battle Report: Entombment of a Machine

Well! No sooner have i posted up a Battle report then Boom!  I get another sweet game of 40k in that i think is worth chronicling!

Now, a friend of mine, one of my two 40k "Sensei" that taught me a lot about playing and tactics is a staunch Necron player, back in 4th, he tried out every variant Necron list, and won several tournaments with them, in time, he had to watch as his Robotic badboys crumbled away with 5th edition, slowly watching them get worse and worse as each new round of big boys came out.  Well, when he heard about the Necrons codex coming out for 5th edition, that changed everything, he's back and in fighting form, and we've been vowing to face each other on the field of battle since i took my Knightly vows and renewed my membership to the Inner circle of the Grey Knights...

today was that day!

My friend is also heading down to the PAW tournament (i'm starting to quite lament not being able to join them all) so we played 1500 points, this time i opted for a bit more of a trimmed down list but with a second dreadknight compared to my last game.

The Necrons holding the Objective in No Mans Land.

We rolled up Capture and Control (one objective each) with a Dawn of War deployment and i lost the roll for first turn/deployment (again!).  The Necrons opted to place their objective fairly close to the baseline (the large base on the left of the Ghost Ark in the picture to the left.) and i opted to place mine in the extreme right hand corner of the board (to the top right and just out of shot in the pic).

The Necrons deployed a Ghost Ark and a unit of two Necron Lords behind the Grand vestibule on top of the hill, the Grey Knights opted to just walk on in the first turn.

But in a slight reverse of fortunes, i managed to seize the initiative!  And i didnt even need Coteaz' sneaky re-roll to pull it off!

Roll tape...

 +++NIJEA+++FORMOSA SECTOR+++



Inquisitor Coteaz is a tireless agent of the Imperium.  Continually bringing new worlds into the protective fold of his remit as Lord Inquisitor of the Formosa sector, in addition to his tireless persecution of heretics within his realm.  Not for him the rest of delegation from a command throne, no, Torquemada Coteaz continues to meet the foe face to face and crush them under his mighty Force hammer.  A potent reminder to any who would usurp the Emperor's peace.

Nijea is one such new world that has been settled by the forces of the Missionarius Galaxia, and for several years all had passed without event, until the sporadic loss of contact with ground forces revealed all was not well...

Talk of "Daemons with the visage of death itself" were all that could be ascertained from garbled vox-reports and Coteaz' Astropaths relayed messages of distress and unrest in the warp, and while the Inquisition sometimes carries the heavy heart of Exterminatus, it will equally defend a viable planet in an attempt to spread the light of mankind to the darkest of stars.  With these thoughts fresh in his mind, Coteaz dispatched a strike force of Grey Knights to strike into the heart of what was quickly becoming a losing battle for the forces of the Imperium, only to find the aforementioned Daemons were in fact cells of Necrontyr awakening from their aeons-old sleep, with death as their calling card...

GREY KNIGHTS TURN 1

The Grey Knights make their presence felt.

The first turn saw Coteaz, Grand Master Valdek and his Imperial Rottweilers stride onto the battlefield, flanked by a pair of Nemesis Dreadknights and a Vindicare Temple Assassin, while the Assassin Sprinted into position in some nearby woods, setting up his Exitus rifle, the Grey Knight Terminators and Grand Master opened fire with their Psycannons into the menacing form of the Ghost Ark, psychically-charged shells impacting into the alien machinery and causing it to topple in a burst of flame, while the Nemesis Dreadknights both broke into a loping run.

NECRON TURN 1

While the Ghost Ark may have been annihilated in a swift display of power, this troubled not the pair of Necrontyr standing closeby, Vehicles could be reconstructed, Human flesh could not, they strode into the open to confront the heavily armoured elite warriors with an air of arrogance, confident in their imperviousness.  This solitary display wasn't enough to hold the Grey Knight's attention for long though, the horizon blackened with twitching stark shapes and a horrible chittering noise filled the air as an entire warhost of Necrontyr flooded the battlefield, Canoptek Spyders, Scarab Swarms, Immortals and Necron Warriors shambled into view, and it was clear this fight would be a dear one indeed.

GREY KNIGHTS TURN 2

The Necrontyr's arrogance hadn't gone unnoticed, the Dreadknights came to a halt and dowsed the machines with blessed prometheum from their heavy Incinerators, the ancient metal burning and crumpling to a pile of components in no time at all.

The Dreadknights confront the Necron Lords.

The Terminators took the opporunity to run forward and put less space between them and their foe, while the Vindicare Assassin attempted a shot on a Cryptek that had floated onto the battlefield on a nimbus of electricity, the shot failed to eliminate the creature though as the Assassin operative began to load another shell.

During this exchange Coteaz' acolyte henchmen had found their tactical timing to be flawed and they found themselves entering the battlefield before the battleplan was fully in place, they took the time to shelter in a ruin and await further orders,

As this all unfolded, the two Necron Lords who had been reduced to molten slag moments before reconstructed themselves before the Dreadknight's eyes, until their forms were near pristine again, such foul alien sorcery!  The Grey Knights would not relent.

NECRON TURN 2

The Necron Monolith makes landfall.

As if to stir seeds of doubt in the Grey Knight's minds, the skies darknened as the bulky mammoth form of a Monolith descended from the heavens, Coteaz' had prepared for just such an eventuality, and the Imperial Rottweilers blazed away at the Alien Warmachine, damaging it yet not enough to cripple it's advance.  As it descended, the Portal on the front of the Alien machine stirred into life, attempting to pull the Vindicare Assassin through and to a demise, he managed to cling to a nearby tree firmly enough to avoid instant fate, meanwhile unrigging his Exitus pistol with his free hand...

A Great Beam of light descended from the Crystal atop the Monolith, bathing the Terminators of the Imperial Rottweilers with light before rising to a crescendo of burning laser energy, two of the great warriors were immolated inside their armour, their great forms slumping to the ground as their companions pressed on.

Anrakyr the Traveller, leader of the Necron host banked over the Large ruin that had become focus of this battle in his Command Barge, heading towards the Grey Knight battlelines with wanton abandon.

The  Pair of Necron Lords fearlessly charged into the closest Dreadknight, a cloud of Mindshackle scarabs flying from their outstretched arms and swarming the machine, the pilot was powerless to watch as the combat harness began to turn on its wearer, a Nemesis Doomfist rising up and attempting to throttle the pilot inside his own Warmachine.

GREY KNIGHTS TURN 3

The Grey Knights soldiered on fearlessly, And with the Psychic input of Grand Master Valdek, two Grey Knight Strike Squads were summoned to battle, teleporting either side of Anrakyr's command barge in an attempt to secure the Battleline and stop them from becoming overrun.

The Terminators chose to press on past the almighty form of the Necron Monolith, confident in the abilities of their Vindicare Assassin to protect them from harms way,  they followed in the wake of the unengaged Dreadknight as it charged into the ruins atop the hill to confront the chittering mechanical horrors that lurked within, he fired a great gout of prometheum into the building, killing vast swathes of the incoming Scarab Swarm and injuring one of the foul robotic creatures that were producing more of them all the time.

The Vindicare annihilates the Necon Monolith.

The newly arrived Strike Squads opened fire on the Overlord in his command barge but the Alien technology continued to plow forwards undeterred, seeing this Grand Master Valdek ordered his own Psycannon-bearing battle brothers to add to the torrent of fire, and they brought down another Necron vehicle in a shower of psychic flames, Anrakyr arose from the wreckage unscathed, stalking the Acolytes cowering in the ruins,

The Vindicare Assassin, still holding onto the tree for life in the wake of the Monolith's Portal, cocked his Exitus Pistol and selected a Turbo-Penetrator round, despite the situation, the Vindicare's cool head and relaxant-stimmed body contributed to him still being able to fire a perfect shot, the ridiculously high-bore shell entered the body of the titanic machine, penetrating deep to its core, and in either a show of complete luck, or insane proficiency, the Alien monolith sank to the ground and burst into flames, whatever had powered it was destroyed, and it was rendered inert, with this the Vindicare was dropped back to the ground and he retrieved his Exitus rifle, loading a new shell into the chamber as if nothing had happened.

The Grey Knights take the fight to their foe.

The Dreadknight in combat with the lords still swayed on it's feet in the sway of the Mindshackle scarabs but the pilot managed to wrestle enough control to avoid further harm, meanwhile the two silent machines below him hacked into the machine's legs but failed to find any purchase, his fellow brother marines converging on his position, help had to arrive soon.

The Grey Knights had fought off the invasion of their position, but they still had the menacing forms of the Necron Lords and Anrakyr to contend with, and the wave of scarabs converging on their position...

NECRON TURN 3

The Scarabs advance upon the Dreadknight

The slow moving forms of the Immortals and warriors slowly pushed toward the battlelines, firing Tesla shots into the Dreadknight on the left flank, but his suit of Archaic armour managed to protect him from harm, The Scarabs that blanketed the battlefield continued their advance across the ruin, and a small swarm damaged from the gout of prometheum that had been fired upon them previousl, they swarmed towards the Dreadknight that had done the damage, hoping to strip his armoured suit of protection, but the great knight swept low with his blade and vaporized the entire swarm in one fell swoop.

The withered form of a Cryptek mounted on anti-gravity suspensors lowered an archaic staff weapon towards the Vindicare Assassin and a great beam of energy seared across the landscape, annihilating the operative where he stood and reducing the wooded area around him to cinders, retribution for the destruction of the Monolith.

Anrakyr charged into the Acolytes and cut them down to a man in a fierce and bloody slaughter, their attacks raining down upon his metallic body with the effectiveness of falling rain, he paused after the slaughter and turned to face the Grey Knight Strike squad which were now moving towards him reloading their weapons..

The Dreadknight reeled against his tormentors in combat, but the Necron Lords failed to do any more damage to him, he was holding out for as long as possible and help was finally close at hand...

 
GREY KNIGHTS TURN 4

Strike Squad Ovidius piles into the Necron Lords

The Imperial Rottweilers pushed on towards the Alien Artifact in the center of the battlefield that seemed to be key to the Necron forces, beginning to clamber across the remains of the burnt out Ghost Ark they came face to face with the legions of Warriors before them, pumping rounds of psycannon and Stormbolter fire into a squad of Necron Warriors, the armoured bodies of the aliens came apart under the high-velocity firepower and the Cryptek with them was reduced to a pile of scrap, but where his charges had been annihilated, he slowly reassembled and before long he fully operational.

Strike Squad Ovidius charged into the Necron Lords fighting the Dreadknight, one of the battle brothers succumbing to the mindshackle scarabs but managing not to attack any of his brethren, Justicar Ovidius felled both the Lords with a cleaving blow from his Nemesis Daemon hammer, the marines consolidated back to their battle lines, withdrawing towards their own objective.

 While the Grey Knight's backs were turned, the Lords both slowly pulled themselves together and staggered back to their feet, refusing to die yet again.

Strike Squad Decimus piled into Anrakyr and he cleaved one of them in two before succuming to a series of punishing blows, whatever essence contained within his shell sucked out by the Force weapons, leaving an empty metallic husk..

The other Dreadknight strode amongst the ruins, flaming great swathes of scarabs to death with his heavy Incinerator and charging a pair of the monstrous Canoptek Scarabs, destroying them with his Nemesis Greatsword.

NECRON TURN 4

The Scarabs swarm towards the Grey Knight battle lines

The Pair of Necron Lords charged into the Imperial Rottweilers but their Mindshackle scarabs failed them and the Terminator-armoured warriors punished them for their temerity, killing them off again.

The Scarabs swarmed accross the hill and into combat with the Strike Squad in the ruins as well as the damaged Dreadknight, and despite the great amounts of damage wreaked by both, the sheer number of scarabs managed to kill both the pilot and reduce the squad of greyknights to bloodied remains, a dark day for the Grey Knight Brotherhood.

The Necron Immortals fired volley after volley of shots into the Grey Knight Terminators, wounding Coteaz and felling another one of them, but the Grey Knights held firm and continued to press forward, The Necron Lords charged into them again but were deflected yet again, as much as they refused to die, their skill in combat was no match for the superhuman warriors.

GREY KNIGHT TURN 5

Grand Master Valdek and company heroically defend the objective

 Grand Master Valdek and the Terminators consolidate onto the Alien Objective and stand firm, Coteaz opting to part from the squad and charge into a squad of Necron Immortals, laying about him with his Thunderhammer, he was wounded by the shots of the Necrons as he closed in, but once he joined combat he was an Avatar of War, laying about him with his hammer until none remained.  Valdek and the Terminators fired into another squad of Immortals annihilating them, gradually clearing more space around the objective, yet more Necrons advanced closer, including the accursed Cryptek...

Add caption

The Grey knights strike out at the Immortals before them, killing several and taking no casaulties in return, The Cryptek raises it's staff to fire upon the Grey Knights, but the bearer of the Brotherhood Banner reaches out with his free hand, grabbing the Alien's face and closing his grip, servoes in his armour grind and whir, but eventually the metal caves in and the Cryptek's head is torn from his shoulders, as the Standard bearer holds it aloft for all to see.  But despite this, the remaining alien machines hold fast and with time running out bringing the engagement to a hard fought conclusion...

NECRON TURN 5

With most of the forces locked in combat this would be the deciding factor in the battle, The Scarabs that had succeeded in killing the Strike Squad and Dreadknight pile into Squad Ovidius, killing all of them bar the Justicar himself, who returns the favour and crushes vast swathes of them with his Daemon Hammer.

Scarabs swarm accross sergeant Ovidius.

The Tomb Spyders remaining charge into the Dreadknight, attacking it and pinning in place so as not to aid his battle brothers in the claiming of the Objective, he kills one of them fury before turning his attentions to the other...

The Grey Knight Terminators renewed with the death of the Cryptek redouble their efforts and cut down the remaining Immortals, but their hearts sink as a great cloud of Scarabs crests the Ghost Ark wreckage and sweeps towards them, time had run out, Grand Master Valdek gave the order to withdraw, though neither force had gained the upper hand this day, the losses were unacceptable to the Brotherhood.  They would have to return with reinforcements to cleanse the planet...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Well.  That was a gruelling game ending in a draw altogether, i would say it was fun, but it really wasn't haha, though no fault of my opponent's, the Necrons are top-tier customers now, but i can't help but feel the game dynamics of Scarab-producing Spyders and Mindshackle scarabs are a little generous in the game mechanic... though i'm sure things will reset quite well when 6th edition rolls around..

People complain about Grey Knights, but i just don't see it, they still die like normal marines and there are less of them, sure they have definitely got above average offensive capability, but they don't really have many tricks to stop them dying (bar perhaps the obscene number of points i've spent on my Grandmaster to aid his unit in combat with Grenades).

I look forward to a rematch in future, at 1750 points, i don't really like 1500, the game seems to have moved away from it, it's odd how the extra 250 points makes a list seem less clumsy and just more rounded out, plus, that game was filled with some obscene rolling for the Necrons, the game actually went to turn 7, but i paraphrased the last couple of turns into one as it was bogged down into such a slug fest.

One important thing i learned post-game is that it is actually possible to stop an Ever-living model from coming back to life if you can shunt enough bodies over the token for him once he dies, he needs to be able to be placed within 3" of the marker and not within 1" of an enemy model, so i could have actually ensured the cursed pair of Necron Lords stayed dead the second time i killed them, i have however, honed lots of tricks for fighting Necrons that will be useful in future, this was more of a measuring of the army than a titanic struggle.

Still good old Grey Knights performed pretty admirably in the situation, and i still love the Vindicare Assassin, taking out the Monolith in one shot stopped me being rolled over completely.

Onwards!

Hammer of Daemons

Basecoated Grey Knight Terminator Justicar

As mentioned previously, i've painted my Grey Knight army to a very basic degree, at the onset of collecting the army i decided i would attempt to put more effort into it than any army i had previously attempted. 

Now the figure on the left wont have you convinced it's going it's going to impress anyone with it's paintjob, but thats fine i realised, i've probably put in about 10% of the overrall effort on it that i intend to before i deem it "finished".

I put this army together, but having not played any games with the Grey Knight army i wasn't sure what i should put in the list, of course i selected the bulk of models around what i wanted to paint, but i needed to fine tune the list before i invested in the models and painted them up, the HQ choices alone boggled my mind, in the Grey Knight codex, your battle plan is really dictated by whatever HQ's you take, a Grey Knight army basically has unique characteristics as an army based entirely around it's HQ's, which is nice, it gives the game a closer feel to Warmachine in a way.  The Special characters have unique abilities that sometimes seem too good to live without (Draigo, i'm looking at you)  but, for example, none of the Grey Knight HQ's have a Psycannon, a basic Grandmaster can purchase one for himself, and though it may seem pricey at 40 points, it's going on to someone who is BS6, he will rarely miss with it, and due to Psycannons being based on chance as they are rending weapons, the more you can inflict pain with in one turn of shooting the more chance you will have of succeeding.

Basecoated Servo skulls

i run a big squad of Grey Knight Terminators, just the basic ones, i think Paladins are neat, i just like the idea of taking a cheaper version so i can have more stuff to work around them, i tend to play 1750 points, if i were to play 2000 points i would be tempted to utilize the Terminators as Paladins as they would give a good feel of scaling the army, but i digress,

I take the maximum 2 psycannons for my squad and they both tend to be in range of a target at once, they tend to hit about 6 times in one round of shooting, originally i added another psycannon in the form of a Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in Terminator armour, but his BS of 4 didn't provide the same stellar results as the Grand Master's Psycannon with a BS of 6, things have started dying in one turn since i took the Grandmaster instead, tanks fall apart, troops get wiped off the board, and when you spend 800 points on a unit, they need to be bringing the hurt as often as possible!!

Battle Report: The Valley of Acheron

After lots of time spent painting my Grey Knight army up to a very basic level, i've been lucky enough to get a few games in, recently I played a friend's Blood Angels army to a square trouncing on my behalf, which i place midway between finding my feet with the army and some pretty foolish tactical decisions on my part, but in many ways i prefer a friendly loss to a supreme crushing win, you walk away from a loss with some great questions, does the list need tweaking?  Did i deploy wrong?  Should i have kept that unit in reserve?  If you analyze a loss properly it can lead to you being a much better player.  With these things in mind i went into a rematch against one of my favourite foes in a 1500 point 40k match up, we usually play 1750 points but my friend is going to the PAW tournament in Plymouth soon (which i had the honour of taking the 2nd place trophy in my last visit to), and those southpaws only like playing 1500, so the boy fancied some practice.

The Battle lines are drawn.

Playing area provided by our good friends at Heroes and Legends games in Surbiton, We rolled up an Annihilation mission with Pitched battle deployment (which is a welcome respite from all the spearhead deployments i have been playing recently.)  In time honoured tradition i lost the roll to deploy and go first, with the Blood Angels deploying the Sanguinor and an Assault squad towards the center of their deployment zone backed up by a Vindicator, close by on the other side of a river deployed a 5 man unit of foot slogging assault marines alongside a Land Raider full of Assault Terminators, with a Librarian Dreadnought mounted in a drop pod in reserve, with my deployment i opted for a refused flank, instead concentrating my forces on the left flank where i hoped my foes would have to engage me on my own terms, i deployed my ten man unit of Terminators in the open with Grandmaster Valdek and Inquisitor Coteaz, backed up by a Strike squad on foot and the Dreadknight looming behind them, i kept a Strike squad in reserve as well as the 5 acolytes (who, hopefully would see as little battle time as possible, bless them.) i placed a servoskull in the ruin ahead of my forces and one on the left and one to the right of the Sanguinor and co in the wood in case i could attempt a deep strike to get at the back armour of the Vindicator if need be, the Vindicare Assassin opted to Infiltrate into the highest level of the ruin on my left flank, with a nice clear view of the battlefield.


When i write battle reports, i prefer to do it in a narrative style, which while it may seem overly grandiose, i tend to find reads a bit better than "this unit did this and then this unit did this etc."

Enjoy.

+++TERREK V+++ SEGMENTUM OBSCURUS+++

Having recently seen the sudden uprising of a Daemon-worshipping Chaos cult within its populace, Terrek V was fortunate enough to have had its call for help heeded by a Successor chapter of the famed Blood Angels Astartes, unfortunately for those righteous defenders of humanity their insurrection was required to stem a warp gate which had allowed Daemons to flow forth from the immaterium onto Terrek V's surface, fortunately the brutal assault from the Sons of Sanguinius saw this filth to a relatively quick demise, but the stirrings of the warp hadn't escaped the Inquisition's attentions...

Inquisitor Darkhammer of the Ordo Malleus had joined in the assault in its latter stages and aided the Astartes in the closing of the Unholy warpgate, but at the battle's end the trouble hadn't ceased there,  the Company Captain in control of the Astartes forces resolutely refused to have himself and his troopers mind-scrubbed per the orders of Darkhammer, standard practice of the Inquisition to prevent further corrupting influence.  Reminding the Blood Angels of the power vested in his remit handed to him effectively from the Emperor of Mankind himself.  Inquisitor Darkhammer reminded the Space Marines of the folly in their actions as he boarded his personal craft, contacting his superior, the High Lord of the Formosa Sector, Lord Inquisitor Torquemada Coteaz.

As the Proud Astartes continued their cleansing of the planet a lone sleek, and impossibly fast, Grey Knights strike Cruiser made it's way to Terrek V...

BLOOD ANGELS TURN 1
Grand Master Valdek marshaled his elite force with cunning inspired only through centuries of war with the darkest denizens of the warp, his elite warriors striking deep into enemy territory before they had a chance to react, imposing forms of the Grey Knight Terminators and Strike Squad moved towards the Blood Angels forces, the Strike Squad taking up positions in a ruin overlooking the valley,

The Blood Angels forces maneuvered in response to the fresh threat of the Grey Knights, and in an unfortunate turn of events, the Vindicator accompanying the assault force threw a track whilst attempting to take up a better firing position, doomed to sit prone on the edge of a wood, fortunately it's demolisher cannon at least remained fully operational.

The Sanguinor leads the Assault marines through a wood.

From the sky drifted a shining figure, with a nimbus of gold light playing about his head, the legendary figure of the Sanguinor joined the forces of Space marines in battle, stilling their hearts to face those who would have them reduced to mindless servitors, without a word he advanced through a the wood with the Sanguinary priest and Assault Squad on his heels,

Meanwhile, and with considerably more force, a Drop Pod smashed from the sky into an area of woodland on the right flank of the Grey Knights, presenting a new and real threat, the great form of a Librarian Dreadnought advanced forward, sending a tendril of Crimson Psychic energy lancing forth, fortunately for the Grey Knight Terminators on the receiving end, their psychic defenses stood strong, and none fell to the psychic Attack.

Spotting the Vindicare Assassin atop the ruined building, the Land Raider crew swiveled their Godhammer-pattern Lascannons to bear on the lethal sniper, the great blasts of energy failed to land on the concealed form of the Assassin, as he coolly continued to line up a shot on the vehicle..

GREY KNIGHTS TURN 1

 Choosing to press forward in the face of this new and terrible threat,  Grand Master Valdek orders his squad to continue towards the bulk of the Blood Angels force, accompanied by the confident striding form of Inquisitor Torquemada Coteaz,

The Librarian Dreadnought engages the Grey Knights

Strike Squad Ovidius continue to advance through the ruins of an abandoned Administratum building, the very same building that Coteaz' Vindicare temple Assassin operative had taken up position in earlier that day, where he was currently drawing his sights on the mighty form of the Blood Angels Land Raider, with impossible accuracy, he fired a Turbo-Penetrator round through the top of the tank and into it's engine stack, the Adamantium-tipped warhead round burning out integral parts of the engine mechanism and stranding it in the open atop the shallows of the river..

The Sanguinor falls to the first punishing Salvo.

Grand Master Valdek offered up a prayer to Him on Earth and as one the Terminator squad raised their weapons towards the radiant form of the Sanguinor, Valdek's own Psycannon joining the salvo, shot after shot of psychically-impregnated large bore round was pumped into the figure and despite it's ornate armour and otherwordly nature, it's form crumpled in the face of adversity and fell to the ground, striking sorrow into the hearts of the Blood Angels to see such a mighty hero fall so early in the battle.

The menacing regal form of the Dreadknight strode forward in its battle brother's tracks, raising its Heavy Incinerator towards the Dreadnought on the other side of the river, it fired a great gout of prometheum but was too far away to land a shot on the machine, instead scorching the earth to cinders before it as the flames reflected in the cold golden death mask of the machine.

BLOOD ANGELS TURN 2

With heavy hearts, the Assault marines continued forwards through the wood, blessing the sacrifice of the Sanguinor that had allowed them to advance upon the enemy unscathed,

The smaller foot Assault squad near them advanced towards the ruin and the Grey Knights, also maintaining cover, though rendered immobile the Lascannons of the Land Raider continued to fire upon the Vindicare in search of Vengeance for the damage inflicted upon it, one of the shots came very close to felling the Imperial Agent, but he was saved by his Supernatural reflexes and melted into the shadows in time to avoid death.

The Vindicator loosed off a shot from its Demolisher cannon over the heads of the Assault marines in the wood and though it landed amongst the Grey Knight terminators, the high angle of the shot caused the shell to detonate in mid-air, robbed of it's impact the Terminators were saved from harm in their tactical Dreadnought armour.

The Librarian Dreadnought suddenly launched itself into the air on great pinions of crimson psychic energy, swooping over the prometheum-scarred ground and river between it and its foes, it launched into the great form of the Nemesis Dreadknight as a battle of titans commenced, the two wrestled in each other's grip, the Nemesis Great sword falling upon the Sarcophagus of the Dreadnought but failing to cause catastrophic damage, the Librarian entombed within the dreadnought blazed with anger, and his force weapon wounded the pilot of the dreadnought, severing one of his arms, but the hero piloting the machine continued to battle the psychic warmachine with just as much zeal.

GREY KNIGHTS TURN 2

 Grandmaster Valdek, utilizing his prodigious psychic power, willed Strike Squad Decimus to teleport at that exact moment to join the fray, they materialised deep in enemy territory on the left flank, raising their weapons, they showered the hunkered down assault squad with Stormbolter ammunition and psycannon rounds, felling two of their number.

Strike Squad Decimus joins the fray.

Inquisitor Coteaz' personal Acolytes advanced onto the battlefield, moving up on the left flank, the Terminator squad turned in their tracks to aid their Dreadknight-armoured brother marine,

Atop the ruins of the Administratum building the Vindicare temple Assassin loaded another turbo-penetrator round into the chamber of his Exitus rifle, and with ruthless efficiency fired again into the engine stack of the Blood Angels Land Raider, moments later it blossomed with flame as the fuel tanks combusted, showering its nearby brethren with shrapnel, the Terminator assault squad burst from the wreckage with fury, though one of their number had succumbed to the blast and lay motionless amidst the battlefield detritus.  The Vindicare began reloading his rifle and selecting his next target.

Strike squad Ovidius advanced through the building, attempting to fire at the assault marines in the distance, but causing no telling damage.

The Terminators pile into the Librarian Dreadnought.

The Imperial Rottweilers charged into the Librarian dreadnought, throwing a salvo of Psyk-Out Grenades at the behemoth, causing psychic feedback that reeled the machine, they hacked away at it but failed to do any damage, the Dreadknight lashed out also failing to destroy the enraged machine, all seemed lost until the Justicar of the Terminator squad strode forward, and with one mighty blow from his Nemesis Daemonhammer shattered the sarcophagus of the Dreadnought, instantly killing the pilot.  With a final wave of psychic fury the Terminators and Dreadknight were buffeted with shock waves, but they stood firm.


BLOOD ANGELS TURN 3

The Assault Terminators advanced through the rocky outcrop towards the Grey Knights, determined to have their revenge, even further enraged at the demise of the venerable Librarian they had just witnessed, the Grey Knights were proving themselves a force to be reckoned with..

The Vindicator fired another high-angle shot from the woods, this time the shell landed brilliantly and two of the Imperial Rottweilers were blown from their feet, great blackened holes ravaged through their Terminator armour,

The assault squad in the wood advanced, preparing for their moment to strike which would be very soon, meanwhile their foot mounted brethren on the left broke their cover and began to advance on Strike squad Decimus, determined to assault their foe in glorious combat,

The Drop pod fired shots from its Storm bolter into the Terminator squad, but failed to strike any down, even though its armoured charge had fallen it continued to attack in his stead.

GREY KNIGHT TURN 3

The Grey Knight Terminator squad advanced across the stony bridge over the river, setting their sights on the large assault squad in the wood, while the rearguard of the squad turned to face the Assault Terminators.  As they advanced, the Psycannon-armed brethren loosed off a salvo into the Drop pod, blowing out its control systems and rendering it a wrecked hulk of metal spires.

The Sanguinary Priest survives the Vindicare's lethal intentions.

Strike Squad Ovidius fired into the Assault Terminators and their Psycannon rang true,  One of the Blood Angels slumped to the ground, the psychically-charged ammunition having found its mark.

The Vindicare Assassin fired a Hellfire shell at the Sanguinary Priest, but he avoided injury by darting aside just as the shot splintered into a tree behind him.  And in the midst of all this, the Dreadknight fired a gout of Prometheum into the Terminator squad, killing another two as they roasted inside their armoured tombs.  The last of their number pressed forward, grim determination filling him as he faced insurmountable odds.


BLOOD ANGELS TURN 4


Knowing that it was now or never, the last elements of the Blood Angels force mustered for a final charge, with it they would either break the back of the Grey Knight force or die to the last man.

Squad Decimus and the Blood Angels prepare to do battle.

The foot Assault squad charged towards Strike squad Decimus, killing one of their number with accurate bolt pistol fire.

As the Blood Angels Assault Squad with the Sanguinary Priest prepared to charge the Imperial Rottweilers with the last of the Terminator Assault squad, Inquisitor Coteaz began to speak hallowed words with righteous zeal, until now he had played a minor part in the battle but his true intentions had become clear, focusing his psychic hatred he shielded his Battle brothers with holy flame, the last of the Assault Terminators never made it into combat, dropping his Thunder Hammer and Storm shield he sank to his knees as flames enveloped him in a lethal embrace, two of the Assault squad fell to the same holy flame as they closed on the Grey Knight Terminator squad as well as one of the foot Assault squad, carnage on a grand scale.

The foot assault squad charge into Strike squad Decimus, killing two of them with furious blows, but the Grey Knights were hardened veterans beyond even the Blood Angels compare, and their force weapons struck with more force than even their enhanced frames would belie, the marines were killed almost to a man, and the Sergeant fled the battlefield, knowing that all hope was lost.

The Sanguinary Priest stirred his remaining brethren with words from the book of Sanguinius, but as they charged, Grand Master Valdek unhooked an archaic grenade from his battle-rig and tossed it in their midst, it unleashed sweet-smelling gas and in seconds, the howls of rage from the Blood Angels became truly terrible, as the Psychotroke Grenade caused battle brother to fall upon battle brother, striking their comrades in the confusion, the Imperial Rottweilers strode through the chaos and despatched them one by one with broad sweeps of their Nemesis Force-Halberds lopping off heads, arms, rendering torsoes in two, the few remaining survivors fled in absolute panic, the army in full rout now.

The Grey Knight Terminators returned to formation and looked to their Grand Master, he kicked aside a severed helmet, the head still inside.

"Hun them down."

And with that simple order the Terminators turned away and marched after the handful of marines that had fled to ensure there were no survivors.  The Vox-grille of Coteaz' archaic battle helm spoke as he strode casually in the opposite direction alongside Valdek, "a dark day for the Imperium, it is unfortunate that their heroic acts should end in such a futile footnote."

"Aye" replied Valdek monosyllabicly as they strode through the corpses of the assault squad to the spot where the Sanguinor had fallen.

The body had disappeared.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So a pretty crushing victory to the Grey Knights!  Though to be fair, my opponent was cursed by some pretty horrible dice rolls and i was blessed with reliable luck across the board, i didn't spawn out horribly, but things definitely went according to plan.  

Man of the match for me is either Coteaz for his ridiculously effective use of Sanctuary or the Vindicare, who the more games i play, the more i like.  I can't believe i was thinking of dropping him from the list!  Of course, for every couple of games where he performs excellently, there will be a game where he gets sniped by a lascannon or fails to do anything, but he's doing well.

I don't really think my army is "beardy" as much as i'm getting a pretty good handle on tactics with it, the use of the Strike squads is actually pretty key to the whole battleplan, whether to deep strike them or set them up with the army.  Of course, the big terminator squad with all the tricks is beastly, and very costly, but i'm liking them a lot more than some of the other "deathstar" style units i would play in other armies, like Vulkan and Terminators in a Land Raider,  I'm getting better at not wasting their potential and trying to dictate the flow of battle with them, this game taught me how important it is to try and keep other elements of the army close to the big squad of terminators, to make the most of Coteaz' Sanctuary, which is just horrible when it works!  I didn't even miss the Warp-Jumping Dreadknight in this game, and i thought that was something that would never happen!

On to the next fight!

Be Vigilant.

Lord Inquisitor, Torquemada Coteaz

Having an opportunity to work on my own models for the past couple of days i have attacked it with relish and now my Grey Knight army is looking decidedly more painted than it did a couple of days ago.

Since i'm a big fan of playing 40k as well as painting armies i like to work on my own with a kind of "Blanket" technique, i will try and get the whole army up to basic tabletop standard and then continue to squirrel away and add details until i am happy with it as a whole, this lends to my models having a half finished look for a while and then out of nowhere looking awesome, which is an odd approach, but i'd rather have a half painted army than one awesome looking unit surrounded by "Undercoat Marines".

My latest army (as you may have already read) is Grey Knights, i've decided to try and take a different tack with them and thus far i have avoided falling into the Draigo-wing pitfall (it isn't easy though, i tell you, he's a beast!) and instead, have built my army around Torquemada Coteaz.

Tomas de Torquemada

Another "Spammed" character in tournament lists he tends to be used as part of a "flood them with Henchman" technique but i've gone the other way, my army is nearly entirely comprised of Grey Knights, the only sidestep being 5 little Acolytes for objective claiming and a Vindicare Assassin.

Since the Daemonhunters codex there has been something very cool that just oozes out of his character, he strikes me as a fundamentally good man, who works very hard in persecuting heretics, but at the same time, he's a bit of a bastard.   Just the way all good Inquisitors should be.

I am a fond reader of old 2000AD comics and the much-loved "Nemesis the Warlock" strip features a certain "Tomas de Torquemada" as the Vigilant, zealous Emperor of Mankind, with the passing name semblance i thought it would be fun to base my army around being a nod to 2000AD, as i've already mentioned my White Grey Knights follow a scheme identical to "The Imperial Rottweilers" marines from ABC Warriors so i thought this would be a cool addition, i decided the head would have to be the same as Torquemada's and decided to sculpt one fresh (that you can see at the top of this article) I haven't done much sculpting really but i'm happy with how he came out!  Torquemada has worn a variety of different masks but i decided to go with one of the more simplified versions to avoid overcrowding the detail of the model, he's about half done now, but he's looking good so far!