It has taken me a while to get this post up as I’ve been super busy licking my wounds from my last defeat at Vet’s Night. The Kabal of the Ravenous Blades hit the table with their new list and a whole lot of confidence. Sadly the Gray Knights managed to sneak out a win even though they were easily outnumbered on the table by the end of the game!

List:

-Archon (mounted in venom)

-Haemonculus (also mounted in the venom)

-3 Units of Kabalite warriors each with a dark lance

-2 Raiders each with 1 unit of Kabalite Warriors from above in them

-2 Ravagers

-2 units of scrouges with 4 blasters each

-3 Voidraven Bombers

-5 Mandrakes, cuz…I don’t know seemed like they could tie something up in melee for a while

This was a really straight forward list with a lot of dakka ready to go. But his knights and their invulnerable saves were just too much for me to bring down.

Deployment:

The Gray Knights seemed to be putting half of their units into reserve, so I decided to spread out a bit and make sure that if he got turn one he couldn’t deep-strike into my side of the table. As it turned out I actually got to go first and he failed his seize initiative roll. Being spread out didn’t do me much harm though as my units are so mobile.

Turn 1 – Drukhari:

All engines ahead full! My bombers blitzed across the board with the rest of my army in tow. I deployed the scrouges around the board making sure they had nice juicy targets to pick off. No sense keeping fire power off the table was my thinking. Shooting went pretty well. I managed to secure first blood as his squad of Paladins fell to blaster fire. I actually ended up killing a lot of the models he had on the table. At the end of the shooting phase I honestly thought I pretty much had this game wrapped up; but I know that the Drukhari don’t handle being shot too well. With the amount of power still off the table I was confident, but still a little nervous.

Turn 1 – Gray Knights

The knights fall from the sky and get ready to obliterate my forces with their psyker powers! His Warlord tries to cast Sanctuary on himself but perils! He decides; I think wisely, to use a command point and re-roll. He passes his psyker check and manages to delay disaster…but not for long.

His next psyker also perils. Warp energy engulfs his own forces slaying friendly models left and right! It is legit brutal. Between my first shooting phase and this, I really feel confident now. I honestly don’t see a way to lose! He manages to get some wounds off during his shooting phase and with a few other smites, but nothing all too concerning.

Turn 2 – Drukhari

The dice gods get their revenge. My rolls are terrible. I strike out against almost every unit I shoot at other than wiping out a few straggling strike team units. I disembark my HQs and the Crucible of Malediction is fired…to no effect. Even though he was surrounded by enemy psykers, I miss every roll. The turn as a whole is a disaster.

Turn 2 – Gray Knights

Melee swirls in the middle of the table. Mandrakes are slaughtered but my HQ units remain locked in combat with his big machine death shooters. He manages to knock a Ravager out of the sky and shoot up a few other units. My Kabalite Warriors are starting quickly to thin out. In a surprise turn of events, my Archon doesn’t fail the first invulnerable save!

Turn 3 – Drukhari

The bombers and remaining skimmers kill off most of his army. There really isn’t a whole lot of his models left, but the ones that are just will not die. Again my rolling let’s me down; but at this point things are turning. We are both very weakened and we realize this has become a seize the objective game, not a table your opponent game. My units that still have some fight scramble for objective markers and cover while the bombers try desperately to finish off his army.

Turn 3 – Gray Knights

More smiting. My units are thinning as quickly as his. At this point we’re both looking for critical rolls and not getting them. He moves for a few objectives.

At this point the game really dissolves into ruin. I was informed that my unit of Kabalite Warriors holding down my winning objective…are actually out of range. I don’t have them men or mobility left to get to any others and the game ends with his 2 or 3 remaining models cowering in fear of my remaining flying death machines; but I can’t secure the points to win.

All in all it was a heart breaking game. How I managed to lose with what I felt was overwhelming fire power was beyond me. In retrospect, even if I ignore the terrible rolling, I think focusing so much firepower on his warlord with a 3++ invulnerable save was a mistake. Better to have wiped out his other units entirely and held objectives. All in all one hell of a game but one that left a super bitter taste in my mouth. I’ll have to see what I can do to make the next game better. I think the mandrakes probably weren’t worth it (not to mention I somehow forgot they had ranged weapons). Sadly the way to win with Drukhari really seems to be just straight up Dark Lance spam, and that’s sad. I think the Drukhari as an army have a lot of cool potential that just seems wasted due to their extreme frailty. Guess we’ll see what happens when the codex drops in a few months!