Imperial Guard vs Grey Knights (Vassal Battle Report)

Continuing on with my online Vassal40k league to practice with my army, my next opponent was a Grey Knights player. We rolled up a map from the map pool, and ended up with Five Objectives with Spearhead deployment. I elected to go second here to reduce surprise objective grabs (and maybe make some of my own). His list:

-HQ-
Librarian - Warding Staff (215)
-Might of Titan, Shrouding, Sanctuary, Quicksilver, The Summoning, Warp Rift

-Elites-
5x Paladins - Brotherhood Banner, 1x MC Hammer, 1x MC Halberd (390)
-1x Master Crafted Warding Stave + Master Crafted Psycannon, 1x Master Crafted Sword + Master Crafted Psycannon

-Troops-
5x Strikers - 1x Halberd (Justicar), 1x Psycannon (165)
-Razorback - Twin- Linked Heavy Bolter - Pysbolt Ammunition

5x Strikers - 1x Halberd (Justicar), 1x Psycannon (165)
-Razorback - Twin- Linked Heavy Bolter - Pysbolt Ammunition

5x Strikers - 1x Halberd (Justicar), 1x Psycannon (165)
-Razorback - Twin- Linked Heavy Bolter - Pysbolt Ammunition

5x Strikers - 1x Halberd (Justicar), 1x Psycannon (165)
-Razorback - Twin- Linked Heavy Bolter - Pysbolt Ammunition

-Fast Attack-
Storm Raven - Twin- Linked Multi-Melta, Twin- Linked Plasma Cannon (205)

-Heavy Support-
6x Purgators - 4x Psycannons (260)
-Razorback - Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter - Psybolt Ammunition, Hunter-killer Missile

Dreadnought - 2x Twin-linked Auto-cannons, Psybolt Ammo (135)
Dreadnought - 2x Twin-linked Auto-cannons, Psybolt Ammo (135)
Total: 2000 pts

Initial Impressions:
Well, there are three things that stick out at me when I see this list:
1) He has a Stormraven and tooled out Paladins squad, I need a solution for stopping them.
2) He only has 20 total scoring models in his list, all of which die to the same things that kill marines.
3) He spent way too many points on his HQ, Elites and Fast Attack combo.

Deployment

The objectives are pretty much symmetrical. He basically deploys on the line and places all his Paladins, his Librarian and one Dreadnought on the Stormraven. I take my two Infantry Squads and deploy them in front to hold up the Paladins for a turn. Their empty transports will  be taken by the Special Weapons Squads. I elect to Outflank my Stormtroopers due to Warpquake probably ruining my day.

GK Turn 1

He moves many of his units aggressively forward. Good move, considering their short range. The Stormraven moves in on the top dropping his Dreadnought on the way. His Multimelta only managed a Stun on one of my Chimeras. On the left, his Squads easily wipe out my Infantry Squad which flees (and leaves the table at the start of my turn) while his Dreadnought explodes my Hydra. Behind the building, his Purgation Squad sets up to be a nuisance for the rest of the game. He leaves one Squad back to babysit an objective.

IG Turn 1

Umm... not much to report here. I felt really slick when I noticed I could surround his Stormraven with my Infantry Squad. Their first 6" gets them a good amount around it, but my Run, Run, Run! order fails. Their own run of 2" kind of dashes my hopes of accomplishing anything. He casts Shrouding on his Stormraven, giving it a 3+ cover save. I still try giving his Stormraven what for and maybe pinning the squad and manage one Shaken, which he removes his next turn. On the bottom, I move in to the lower zone, blocking it off with a forward Chimera. Everything follows behind. I didn't manage to do anything down here. So that's an entire 1st turn shooting barrage resulting in one shaken result. Oh, and two of my Chimeras immobilize themselves. Go Guard!

GK Turn 2

Oh... Em... Gee... So things start looking rough for me at this point. My top Platoon Command Squad Chimera explodes and the squad takes some shooting but holds. A bit to the left, my last Hydra is also reduced to a crater. The top Special Weapons Squad loses their ride to a wreck. My charge-eating Infantry Squad doesn't manage to do their job, having disappeared in the shooting phase. At least that limits his forward movement! On the bottom, the other Platoon Command Squad has a wrecked ride and the forward Chimera is stunned and immobilized. Things are starting to look bleak...

IG Turn 2

Revenge time! Okay, not really... let's go with Survival time! I try two tank shocks on his Grey Knight Squads and they both hold, taking a few wounds to some shooting. Up top, I start trying to layer threats to slow down the Paladins (even if it is a single Melta). Everyone fails to receive orders to improve their threat against the Paladins. Time for slick manoevre #2 (this one actually works): assaulting with Sentinels. 6s to hit with grenades, one attack each, and 6s to glance mean these combats are going to go on a while. There we go, half of his scoring units tied up. I generally try to spread some wounds around to force morale checks, but to no avail. Both my Stormtroopers come in on my side of choice and work on taking out his troops sitting on an objective. They manage to wreck the vehicle and the squad hides behind the inferno.

GK Turn 3

Alright, more carnage courtesy of the Grey Knights. The two tankshocking Chimeras get immobilized and wrecked respectively, as is my forward Chimera on the bottom. His Stormraven moves into place along with his lower Dreadnought to punish my Stormtroopers. Between the two, the Stormraven does nothing and the Dreanought stuns the lower one. The Purgation squad joins in, but I save their single penetrating hit. Shockingly, nothing happens in either Sentinel combat.

IG Turn 3

So, time to start thinking about the mission a little more. I smoke the damaged Stormtroopers Chimera and move up with the other managing some shooting on the hiding Strike Squad. The Multi-laser on the top manages two wounds on the Purgation Squad but they hold. I move my top Company Command Squad Chimera in an effort to block off access to my objective; I will have to figure out how to actually take it when the time comes. On the bottom, my Platoon Command Squad starts moving in order to start threating those Razorbacks that can tank shock a lot of my troops and possibly contest later. They find it was a useless trip because some lucky shooting ended up dropping both those vehicles. I manage to wipe out his Strike Squad on the large building, bringing him down to three scoring units. His two Razorback at the top both lose their guns to some shooting. At the very top centre, a lone Meltagunner moves in to block the Paladins' movement and meet his fate.

GK Turn 4

Jumped the gun a little and moved an Infantry Squad at the top of the building before taking the screen shot, ignore them. Well, his Razorbacks without weapons got turned into tankshocking machines and that is just what they did. His Librarian leaves his squad to make room for this tank shock. My lone Meltagunner on the top runs, but his job is now being done by the Razorback placed in the way. The other one gets Death or Gloried into an immobilized result. To the right, his Stormraven stuns and immobilizes the top Chimera. He finally gets ticked off about the lack of results in the Sentinel combats and stacks  two psychic powers on the top Strike Squad. Str5 with 2d6 pen does manage to explode the Sentinel, taking a couple with it. I start getting a good feeling because it really seems like he has run out of steam at this point.

IG Turn 4

All the Stormtroopers disembark. The top one fails to hurt the Stormraven while the lower group wipes out the Strike Squad. In the centre, I wreck both his vehicles after hiding my Infantry Squad behind the wreck, hopefully forcing a couple Dangerous Terrain checks on anything that tries to assault. On the left, my Platoon Command Squad gets back on their objective.

GK Turn 5

His Stormraven launches two Frag missiles (both missed) and a Plasma Cannon into the central group of guys. I take some wounds but both squads hold. The Strike Squad gets into it with my Infantry Squad, but they also kill one back resulting in losing by two, and they stay in. His Purgation Squad moves itself into cover, rightly afraid of the coming Stormtroopers and fire a volley into the close squad, killing three. He tries ramming my top Chimera but does nothing and the Librarian comes in to wreck it, forcing the Command Squad out.

Alright, if the game ends right here, I have it, but I have to plan for future turns just in case. I have to start taking down the things that can come in to contest objectives. On the left, the Platoon Command Squad moves off their objective to join the assault against the lone guy fighting my Sentinel. While they did avoid the vehicle on their move, their assault claims two models (including the Commander, which I thought had two wounds). They flee due to their losses despite having been able to reach the combat. My worry was the lone guy finally winning combat and consolidating to contest the objective.

 Rules break: Was that done properly, or do they eat the wounds and that then counts toward the combat result?

For this reason, I disembarked my Veterans and spread them out to make a wall to block his model from sneaking to the objective without a dangerous terrain check. I manage immobilized results on his top Razorback and Stormraven stopping their ability to contest later in the game. The Chimeras on the right put one more wound onto the Purgation Squad and they finally run. I finally kill the lone Librarian who could have come in to threaten objectives. The combats both end up continuing finishing up the turn, and a roll of a 2 ends the game.

Results: IG: 3, GK: 0

Concluding Thoughts
A lot of people complain about the Grey Knights, but they have a rough time with a lot of match-ups, and if you choose not to play them on their terms. Take advantage of the fact that they lack reliable anti-vehicle weaponry (if they elect not to bring Minions) and have limited range. One of their biggest issues is the cost of their toys, leaving them with few targets that actually have to be destroyed. I think this is a great example to illustrate why those big toys tend to come up short. That Stormraven survived the turn that I wanted it dead, so I just forgot about it until the end when I had dealt with the other things. What did it accomplish during the game? A couple vehicle results (nothing destroyed) and not much else. Just imagine if I instead had to deal with more Strike Squads instead of that plane and the Paladins; it would have definitely resulted in something different.

The Sentinels were definitely the MVPs of this game, locking down half his scoring units for most of the game. Do not be afraid to get your shooting Dreanoughts into combat if you can take the hit to your shooting, it is specifically why I have brought them in my list.

I was definitely disheartened by my second turn, having done nothing and getting a good part of my army destroyed. Do not quit! I admit, I was thinking of doing exactly that. Push through and see what you can make of the game. Some casual observers to our game were checking in occasionally and were shocked that it resulted in an IG win as they had only seen the first couple turns. Very worst case: you get some good practice in.