Grey Knights vs Thousand Sons (9th Edition!)

My brother and I were scheduled to play a game today, our first one in four months. We planned on playing an 8th edition game because that was all we knew, and then lo and behold the rules for 9th edition were leaked this week! We figured this was a great opportunity to get our toes wet before the big release later this month.

Over the last few days I've pored over the rules. I've read through them three times, and I think I have a pretty good grasp of the changes from 8th. There's a lot! And not only are there a lot, but they are detailed, extensive, and full of examples and bullet points to ward off the demon that is Rules Ambiguity. There are still a few things that are up in the air (alleged Terminator/Storm Shield 1++ saves, psykers casting Smite multiple times each phase), but over all I am really pleased with how extensive these rules are. I'm very excited to start down the path of fully grokking this edition.

My brother wanted to try out the new Eternal War missions, complete with secondary objectives. It was an hour and a half before we started playing -- changes to deployment and the aforementioned secondary objectives took us a bit to hammer out. One big change that I found interesting is Step 10 of the Eternal War deployment. In a nutshell, all units in Reserve and in transports need to be declared before deployment even begins, and this is done secretly, which adds a whole new tactical layer to deployment. No longer will I decide who's going into the teleportarium chambers on the fly. I think I like this change. It'll lead to some unexpected situations and make me balance my armies in a different way.

1500 points of Grey Knights! Land Raider!

I brought a Land Raider Crusader this time! Throughout 8th the LRC has suffered from the same ills that plague Terminators: mass quantities of high AP and multi-damage weapons. With the new Big Guns Never Tire rule, I was hoping that the LRC would have new life breathed into it. It certainly can't get tagged and made irrelevant anymore, which was always a sad time.

Elsewise, I brought three squads of Terminators, a five-man squad of Paladins, a Nemesis Dreadknight (I love these things and am so desperate to make them work), Grand Master Simandus, a Brother-Captain, and Inquisitor Felencia. Most everyone knew Gate of Infinity, with a few defensive spells like Sanctuary scattered throughout. I wanted to maybe utilize that wonky new Smite technicality and have my characters maybe cast 2 damage Smites a couple times each. See how that worked out.

Thousand Sons

My brother thought the same thing, unfortunately, and brought Magnus the Red. His Smites are base 1d6 mortal wounds, upping to 2d6 when he super smites. He also has 3 casts, 3 denies, all with +2 to cast. So... on average 11 mortal wounds to my guys every turn if I didn't deny anything.

Before the game, my brother pointed out that the rule that previously omitted GK and TS from the cumulative increase in Smite's Warp Charge is in one of the 8th edition BIG FAQs. No where in the 9th ruleset does it spare our psyker-heavy armies from the penalty for successive Smites. So, sad times there.

He used a stratagem to scout-deploy a squad of Rubrics.

I had a total of two drops: my NDK and a Land Raider full of people. Everyone else was in space.

That is a lot of psykers.

He brought some Forgefiends along. I know that their guns are pretty much designed to cut down Terminators. I won the roll-off and got first turn. I began with the time honored tradition of throwing something big and killy up the board to eliminate a unit I don't like.

My Nemesis Dreadknight wasted the Forgefiend with a spectacular display of shooting, but I don't know if that was to my benefit or my detriment. I had intended to charge the Forgefiend and threaten his psyker congregation with the presence of a NDK, and hopefully draw his ire from my Land Raider. But at least the Forgefiend was dead.

My LRC somehow killed only 1 Rubric in the shooting phase, despite my impressive number of hits. I charged them and killed nothing more. But I was closer to the objective! Also, here is a fun change: Psykers cannot cast spells if they fall back in 9th edition. By tying down his Rubrics, I was forcing my brother to make a choice. Either give up a power, or sacrifice shooting my LRC for his whole turn.

Before moving, my Bro-Cap hopped out of the Land Raider and snuck behind a building. I chose the secondary objective that asks me to keep guys in each quarter of the battlefield. My Bro-Cap would spend most of the game sitting here and gaining me points. Which, you know, do your job, my guy! Way to be!

My brother's turn came around, and Magnus started pouring on the hate. Through Smites he brought my Land Raider down to one wound. Oof. The remaining Forgefiend finished off the Land Raider with a storm of hellbullets.

I lost a Paladin in the wreckage (43 points!), and to my sadness I could not reroll the 1 that killed him. The changes to the Command Re-roll stratagem prevent such a cunning play! It also means I can't reroll explosions, so that is good to know for the future.

Wobbling closer to Magnus on my second turn.

I deepstroked Simandus and all of my Terminators into the midfield. Through Smites and storm bolters we erased the second Forgefiend. The way I saw it, I needed to nullify his shooting first. I believed that I could deny a good portion of my brother's lethal psychic powers now that all my Knights were on the table. Later I would find out that I was wrong.

He sent one Daemon Prince to face my NDK. I used the new Overwatch stratagem here (a good change, I think) and took off 6 wounds as he charged. Unfortunately, that axe cut clean through my 2+ saves and killed my Dreadknight.

oh lawd he comin

 Magnus strode over to my deep striking Terminators and just obliterated them all in close combat. With Smite and stave, he killed a whole squad and Simandus himself.

Well damn.

Bro-Cap, no!

The next few turns were just Magnus flying around the battlefield and killing literally everything.

Inquisitor Felencia, no!

In a desperate move, I Gated my only remaining squad of Terminators into cover. I was ahead on points, but I wouldn't be for long. I gambled and hurled them back out into the center of the battlefield to claim the center (another one of my secondaries) and maybe kill Ahriman.

We succeeded in this! Mind bullets and regular bullets cut down the arch-sorcerer. But the following turn Magnus just walked up and dealt 10 mortal wounds in the psychic phase, killing my last unit. My brother outraced me on points and won.

Yoiks, that was a rough one. I didn't bring any anti-armor and did not expect to be going up against Magnus the Red. I tried to deprioritize him and handle other units/objectives, but that obviously didn't work. Every time I ignore a Primarch they just run up the board and fuck all my guys to death. Magnus casting three Smites every turn is unreasonably brutal. I am pretty sure that interpretation of the rules will get errata'd in the first month.

Thoughts on my first 9th Edition game:

• Charging is even harder for Grey Knights now, and I didn't think that was possible. the Command Re-roll stratagem can't be used to reroll a single dice--you must reroll the whole test. This is unfortunate and something that I'll have to find a way to work around. I only got one unit into melee the entire game.
• List building is going to be very different than it was before. We mustered our armies and then chose our secondaries, and both me and my brother realized at the same time that we should have been constructing out lists with our favored secondaries in mind. Obviously we didn't have the foresight to do that this time, but it made us both think about how we will alter lists for the future.
• The terrain rules are very fun. I like how versatile and multifaceted they are. I love building battlefields, and I can see myself using these rules to great detail in the future and making some really dynamic maps. We didn't fuck around with terrain rules too much this time around.
• Honestly, this particular game probably didn't sample a lot of the new 9th edition stuff. It was mostly me and my brother Smiting each other for two hours, with the occasional spray of bolter fire in the mix. I'm very excited to play against other armies and really figure out the nuance of this edition.

This was great fun, and I am so stoked to keep playing. Gah, I love Warhammer, and I love my Grey Knights. Maybe I'll paint that Vortimer Land Raider I've had sitting around.