Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Oorah!  Was laying down last night taking a rest from my less than active Sun.  Thurs nights battle started going through my head.  Thinking about what I did wrong.  Hoping not to perform the same mistakes next time.  Also hoping to remember what was successful in the first game months ago and use it in the next game.  Several things occurred to me that would've made the game much easier.

Grey Knights deployed first.  Eldar deployed second.  Do you see the mistake that gave Eldar the game that I see?

First let me say some parts are going to be vague because the enemy adapts.  As Sun Tzu said "All warfare is based on deception" The Art of War Laying Plans 18.  Hope to expound on these at a later date.  Since Captain Hammer is among our readers I need to be careful what I put on this blog.  Should these prove successful I will share them because the enemy will be adapting after encountering them.

Where I failed in my first game with Grey Knights.

* Wraithlord.  This wasn't a threat in the game.  At least not in the turn it was gunned down.  It wouldn't be a threat til turn three at the earliest.  Two turns of moving 6" forward.  For a third time of 6" then finally within charging range.  In the mean time it can only do one S8 Ap2 shot a turn.  This was a non-threat.  Foolish spending any energy on it.

* Eldrad and Fortune (re-roll failed saves).  Sun Tzu The Art of War Laying Plans 23 "If he is taking his ease, give him no rest.  If his forces are united, separate them."  I can summon my problem of dealing with the "Eldrad and Fortune" situation with two words: Unfocused Fire.  There are a certain number of 1's and 2's in a hand full of dice.  Something I've learned from running my Deathwing army.  Doesn't matter if you have a 2+ save there's still a 1 on a die.  Doesn't matter if you can re-roll your failed saves the next roll can be a 1 or 2.  With enough wounds those 1's and 2's start appearing in unpopular and frankly with unfriendly frequency.  Was directing my fire at too many things to focus on just one thing.  Effectively I psyched myself out with target saturation.  Frankly something I rarely ever do.  My shooting is typically Imperial Guard in mindset and action.  Keep shooting at the same thing til its down.  Plus Eldrad and friends (10 Wraithguard) weren't a threat til turn 3.  There were a lot more appropriate targets out there in the first and second turn.  Speaking of which.

* War Walkers. Sun Tzu The Art of War Waging War 6 "There is no instance of a country having benefit from prolonged warfare."  Effectively I was afraid of Scatter Lasers.  You do not want prolonged warfare with 24 Scatter Laser shots.  This is the impetus of this post.  How does my current Grey Knights army deal with Scatter Lasers armed War Walkers?  Started thinking about Scatter Laser stat line 6 - heavy 4.  When I thought about the raw stats it occurred to me.  Considering the answer I always had for them but never knew it.  It was obvious.  Shawn has communicated to me several times his tactics and thoughts on his War Walkers.  We share the same thoughts on War Walkers.  We differ on tactics.  His tactics quickly suffer with the loss of War Walkers.  Mine doesn't.  This leads perfectly to my next point.  Though I'm heavily considering ditching my Starcannons for Scatter Lasers.

* Something I've waxed on a lot recently.  I was afraid of removing models from the board.  As mentioned earlier this is where I psyched myself out.  I didn't want to remove my precious, beautifully-painted Grey Knights.  Damn it they are near top-shelf painted quality.  They don't deserve to be removed from the table.  Well time for me to take a big dose of reality.  As I've said "Models are put on the board to be removed."  I have to let go of the outcome.

* Icarus Lascannon S9 Ap2 Heavy 1.  Really I should leave the stat line as the point.  In my opinion this is the worst weapon in the game.  Now if they could be bought in multiples I would reconsider my opinion.  Since they can't, I won't.  That's the first thing I said to Shawn when he said he had an Icarus instead of Quad-Gun "Its heavy 1 not heavy 4 twin-linked.  Yes, its 9 2 but with 7 twin-linked you're going to be more effective."  I feel so foolish giving it any attention.  Psyflemen gave it one wound and started firing at other targets.  Again back to that Unfocused Fire mentioned earlier.  Next time going to ignore it like nobody's business.  Such a waste of energy.

* Vipers S8 Ap2 Heavy 1.  This gets ranked right up there with Icarus because of what it can't do.  However it deserves appropriate respect because it can get where it wants fast with very little to stop it.  Nevermind it comes with a Jink 5+ cover save.  To sound like the broken record-beating the dead horse, of the three Vipers only took down one and took a hull point from another due to, yep you guessed it, Unfocused Fire.  Damn it, that Unfocused Fire is really beginning to piss me off.

* I never moved my Psyflemen.  This was a huge handicap for the battle.  I planted them.  Silly, amateur mistake.  Hope to never make that mistake ever again.  Making this point quick.  Where should I've moved them?  Towards Purifiers.  /beats head against the wall

* Deployment.  Sun Tzu The Art of War Laying Plans 17 "According as circumstance are favourable, one should modify one's plans."  My deployment was not favourable to modify my plan "everyone has a buddy."  That was the original game plan, which Suijin agrees with, for this army when I came up with it so long ago and quickly trounced Bryan's Chaos Daemons with it.  Something Natfka has mentioned several times, games can be lost in deployment.  Deploying can be an advantage, you're making the enemy react to your deployment.  This is plainly where I lost the game.  I lost in deployment and gave the game to Shawn.  I put myself in a position to ice skate uphill or as River says "You're doing it backwards.  Walking up the down slide."


slainte mhath