Game 3 at Clash of the Titans

The last battle of the day.

I had moved down alittle in the rankings after my loss to the orcs. But that did not mean my opponents would be easier.
I had the pleasure of being matched up with Nick. Nick is an allround pleasant guy from the local crowd in Odense, and also the guy who supplied me with all the stormbolter arms for my Thousand Sons.

Nick plays Grey Knights and had a pretty standard allround list.

Librarian

Techmarine
Vindicare assassin
10 Purifiers with 4 psycannons and halberds.

2x 10 Strikesquad knights wtih 2 psycannons
5 Strike squad knights with 1 psycannon

3 Razorbacks with psybolt ammo

3 Dreadnoughts with tl autocannons and psybolt ammo

Mission:
Pitched battle

Pregame thoughts:
This would be all about deployment. He has three units that can reach 48", 4 that can reach 36" and 7 psycannons that can reach 24". At the very least I want to be able to deploy outside the reach of his 36" or shorter shooting, which should be possible between LOS blocking terrain and nightshields.

Also the fact that he does not have transports for all his grunts is good for me. I can start working on them with my venoms from the beginning, without worrying about punching holes in armor with my lances of fizzle.
I decide to use my speed to gain points of the objectives from the beginning and killing FOC slots and IC´s for extra points.

Deployment:
Nick won the roll and decided to go first.
He then exhibited the 40k version of tunnel vision. He saw a ruin in his deployment zone, fortified it and put his three dreadnoughts and vindicare in it. The mass of his infantry and razorbacks he deployed in cover in the middle of the board.

The picture is from midgame but shows the ruin where the dreadnoughts deployed.

Ofcourse I went on to deploy in the opposite corner. I would be out of range for at least one turn. probably two, of his dreadnoughts. I estimated the razorbacks also would be unable to reach me in turn 1.

Pciture taken after my turn 1 move. The forest at the top left used to contain 10 purifiers + techmarine :)

I reserved my two raiders with content and the reaver jet bikes.

Turn 1

Nick moved up his dreadnoughts and also ran with them. His razorbacks moved up, two of the 12 inches and the last one 6 inches. His many grey knights moved around in the cover and moved into better firing positions.
The only thing that could reach anything was the single razorbacks and the single penetrate it managed I took on the flickerfield of a Venom.

And now to the pain!

I put all fire I could manage, which was 7 Venoms and 2 Trueborn groups, into the purifiers and wiped them to a man inculding the techmarine who were with them.
My ravagers poured dark energy into the razorbacks but as usual only managed stunned or shaken which is utterly meh against grey knights.

Turn 2

Again the dreadnoughts had to move and run to even begin being in range. Next turn they would able to lay down their devastating fire.
The strike squads midfield scrambled backwards trying to get behind the razorbacks and outside range of the Venoms.
The razorbacks ofcourse shook of the stunned and shaken results and started laying down supression fire on my Venoms. One were blown up, another immobilized and a third were stunned.

My reserve rolls got me both Reaver squads and the raider with the succubus and wyches. The Reavers I send up the short table edge far removed from any Grey knights. I want them for contesting in the endgame and maybe meltasniping vehicles. The raider turboboosted straight at dreadnoughts. As it turns out not the brightest move, but at least they end up drawing alot of fire that would otherwise fire on my Venoms.

My Venoms proceed to wipe another Grey knight squad. This time its the 10 strike squad knights They are helped by 3 groups of trueborn. My ravagers fire into the sides of the razorbacks, one has its weapon blown off and is immobilzed. The others are still intact.

Nick flexes at the reavers, maybe he´s trying to intimidate them? :)

Turn 3

The Vindicare assassin put the smackdown on my raider, blowing it up. Massed stormbolter fire followed from the grey knight squad with the librarian. Its a loss ofcourse, but I dont really need close combat in this match so whatever shots that is drawn away from my Venoms is good. The dreadnoughts knocked out a single Venom. The two still firing razorbacks immobilize one ravager.

Still largely intact and able to deliver a knockout punch Venoms move up to start working on the librarian and 10 strike squad knights. A single Venom focus its fire on the Vindicare assassin and kills him dead, dead, dead. The reaver bikes and warrior squads gives the small 5 man strikesquad who this far has been sitting tight on an objective a poison overdose.

The Ravagers move back alittle trying to be out of range of the dreadnoughts while they still can reach the razorbacks. Between them and the trueborns who are now on foot the razorbacks are shoot relentlessly with lances. One is wrecked and another is immobilized.

At this point Nick only has his 3 dreadnoughts, the librarian and a couple of strike squad knights left. The game is by any stretch over, but we play on as im able to gather more points from the game the longer it continues.

Turn 4 and 5

The dreadnoughts kill Ravagers and Venoms indiscrimnately.

The venoms and Reavers kill the Librarian and I move my forces out to all objectives and table quarters.

Score:
Dark eldars: 44
Grey Knights: 14

Post game thoughts:
The game played out mostly as I hoped it would. My deployment gave me the advantage for two turns which as it turns out, was enough for my paperplanes to overcome the titanium of Titan.
Besides sending my boss to her death I did not make any blunders. It is interesting to think about the difference of armies. Many armies and builds allows you to recover from mistakes and bad rolling, the dark eldars not so much.
You need everything to click from movement, to target priority and objectives of the game. As opposed to many armies where you can take a punch to the face and then retaliate, Dark eldars does not recover well from a punch.
So avoid getting hit at all and choose your targets well while all the time keeping the endgame objectives in mind.

"Armour is a state of mind that allows for the possibility of getting hit"