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The tops of the buildings vanished into a haze of smoke, water vapor, and other, more noxious chemicals. The nic-stick glowed brightly as Colonel Grenko smoked the tobacco down to the filter. He flicked it to the ground and crushed it with his bootheel.

"Have the sappers returned from target epsilon?" Grenko's gaze never waivered from the buildings.

"Da, colonel - epsilon will fall on your word." Lieutenant Ugrozh, Grenko's XO, answered with a deep lowborn accent of one of the lesser hives from their home world of Vostroya.

Grenko climbed into the back of his command chimera, "Petroshka's Fury" and the pistons hissed as they locked the ramp into place. He pulled on his worn leather tank commanders helmet and plugged in to the master vox.

"Sons of Vostroya, our mission is simple, we are to clear and claim the buildings of these city blocks. From there our foothold will be established and the invasion can continue in earnest. Many of you are new from the motherworld but I expect no less than perfection from you all for we are all First Born."

He switched off the vox and pulled out another nic-stick. "Should you have briefed them that they would not be facing elements from Loki 122nd as originally intended?"

Grenko inhaled deeply and held the breath in silence for several seconds before finally exhaling a great gout of blue gray smoke. "No, Nikolai. Intelligence is not always for the line trooper. Better to see how they respond when the enemy is somewhat more... resourceful than they might have expected. Besides, I am curious to see how the new additions to the motorpool perform against the Angels of Death."

Shep and I played a 1500 point 5th edition Cities of Death game last night. Most of the rules meshed over without too much fuss but we agreed before hand that only troops could score but anything could contest. We also changed the VP missions to KP missions if that was what we rolled on the chart. There were a couple of other minor changes - we used true LOS instead of the area terrain rules, 5th edition depoloyment rules including "Sieze the Initiative" and a few other things I don't really remember. We hashed everything out before deployment in about 10 minutes - if you are going to have a go at Cities of Death (or even some Junglefighting rules from the old Codex:Catachans I suggest that you do the same before a single model is placed. Also, we both knew what the other was taking and geared our lists somewhat to that.

Iintended to take more pictures but it was getting dark and, quite frankly, the game was so much fun that I forgot to take as many as I had originally intended.

Shep was using the new IG codex and I don't know it as well as he does so hopefully he will correct whatever I mess up in his list.

1500 pts Vostroyan First Born

Senior officer with juicy command squad (medic, standard bearer, 2 bodyguards, 2 meltas, power fist) in a Chimera
Lieutenant in Chimera with 4 Plasma gunners
Platoon of 30 men with plasma/AC and a commissar
Veterans with 4 meltas in a chimera
2 Banehounds (the chemical cannon ones with heavy flamer sponson)
2 Leman Russ Executioners (plasma cannon sponsons)
Stratagems - ammo dump (I think that is what it is called, we forgot about it), turn 2 demolition, preliminary bombardment

I was also trying out my "new" army - Crimson Fists (using many Black Templar stand-ins as I build and paint). This was my first full size SM game. I have to say that I was a bit stunned in how quickly the points went. I had also wanted to have a unit of sternguard and a librarian plus up the terminators to 10. Ah well.

1500 pts Crimson Fists

Pedro Kantor
10 SM with missile launcher/flamer in a rhino
10 SM with missile launcher/flamer in a rhino
10 scouts, 5 choppy, 5 sniper rifle - the sgt was choppy
10 assault marines, 2 flamers
Thunderfire Cannon
Whirlwind
5 Terminators with Missile Launcher
MM dreadnought in drop pod with locator beacon
Stratagems - preliminary bombardment, turn 3 demolition (we chose the same building), infiltrate for my scouts. I also ended up with 2 "free" stratagems - fortifications from the techmarine and deepstrike because both my deepstriking units do so regardless of mission (that is in the 5th edition codex which makes me think that some of the missions coming up in planetstrike and the rumored Great Book of 40k Missions might disallow infiltrate and/or deepstrike under some conditions.)


Deployment and pre-game
Shep won the roll to deploy/go first - we just ruled that every mission uses the spearhead deployment with quarters.

Shep blobbed up his 30 man unit thinking to string it together and claim multiple objectives and placed them in one of his buildings then flanked them with his vehicle support. The banewolves were far forward on the flanks both near an executioner.

I, on the other hand, combat squadded everything that I could, both of my close support tac combat squads started in the rhinos and the fire support squads started in cover as best they could while still having solid LOS - Pedro joined one of these. The techmarine set up in an abadoned chapel. The sniper scouts infiltrated into the building in my deployment zone that was closest to the center of table while the choppy scouts found a place out of LOS on the extreme left flank a mere 12" from the Vostroyan lines.

Shep called in his preliminary bombardment which was pretty impressive. He hit one of the fire support tac squad, killing one and pinning the rest. Not content with that, they also killed 2 assault marines and pinned them.

Mine, on the other hand, was much less impressive missing everything.

At least I was due for a 6 come time to Sieze the Initiative. Alas, even that was failed.



Turn 1
The banehounds both zoomed forward and popped smoke, the executioner on the left flank took aim at one of the rhinos and destroyed it with contemptuous ease. The squad inside took cover behind the gutted machine scant seconds after I stated "Wait, it has how many plasma cannon shots? Every turn?!?" I guess I intimidated them with my fear and they were pinned.

The other executioner unloaded on the squad Pedro had joined killing all the tac squad save the missile launcher and putting a wound on Pedro. Luckily they passed their leadership test and held.

My turn 1 the dreadnought drop pod crashed down in the rear of the Vostroyan lines almost drifting off the table. The dreadnought got out and took aim at the executioner and rips through the rear armor stunning the crew. The choppy scouts ran forward and charged at the lieutenants chimera, failing to do anything to it. The snipers kill one of the blob and Pedro calls down fire on that unit as well killing another 3. The whirlwind counts for another and Shep says offhandedly that at least he won't have to make a leadership test this turn. Then the Thunderfire cannon fires. I have been on the fence about this unit and it must have known it. I get 4 hits in a row with airbursts negating cover saves. That alone counts for 10 more Vostroyans - they pass their leadership test. The assault marines and the rhino with combat squad A move tawards the blob.

Turn 2
Shep's banewolf zooms forward and sprays chemical death on the sniper scouts, killing 2 and clearing a level. The executioner moves to higher ground (a hill in the form of a collapsed building) and is tasked with silencing the thunderfire cannon. It gets 4 hits, all of them on the gun itself and it is destroyed. The lieutenant gets out of the chimera with the four plasma gunners and they all fire at the scouts. One of the guns overheats killing the gunner and 3 of the scouts die including the sergeant (mostly because I wasn't paying attention when I removed the models). The two remaining scouts swear an oath of vengeance and hold their ground. Two melta gunners from the command chimera fire at the dreadnought and it is my turn to get lucky as he is only stunned making me wish I had spent the points on extra armor.

The terminators arrive with pinpoint accuracy, homing in on the drop pods locator beacon. They have a rear shot at the executioner and fire, ripping off the main gun. The close support combat squad A disembarks from their rhino and hose the the occupied building down with fire and bolter, killing another large group of guardsmen. The techmarine leaves the wrecked chapel and fires his plasma cutters at the banewolf threatening the snipers stunning it. The rest of my shooting careens off of the armor of the executioners except for my whirlwind which drifts onto combat squad A, killing 2 (doh!).

The techmarine and combat squad B (now unpinned) both charge the banewolf but fail to do anything to it.



Turn 3
The blob shifts its plasma gunners into range of combat squad A and wipe them out. The command squad's meltas fail to do anything to the dreadnought. The damaged executioner fires at the terminators in their nice packed up deepstrike formation but thanks to drifts and a timely invulnerable save, the terminators emerge unscathed. The other executioner fires at combat squad B and wipes it out and a drift threatens the techmarine but he makes his coversave.

The techmarine, shaken by his near experience with 5 plasma cannon shots, moves around to the front of the chimera. His plasma cutters fail to get through the front armor, but he charges it in the assault phase and destroys it but leaves a wreck to shelter behind.

A missile launcher immobilizes the other banewolf and Pedro moves towards it, wiping it out. The unit of 3 assault marines shoots and charges into lieutenant's chimera while the single scout runs away from it expecting a huge explosion. It is destroyed but not catastrophically, and the single scout will spend the rest of the game out of LOS claiming a building.

The dreadnought fires at the damaged executioner and misses - he then charges in and destroys it. The terminators surround the command chimera and shooting, again, fails to do anything but power fists prevail, counting for the 4th vehicle "fisted" this turn. The command squad performs an emergency debarkation and is pinned for the following turn.





Turn 4
The guard army is starting to look a bit thin, though my own scoring units are now - 1 choppy scout, 3 sniper scouts, 1 missile launcher, and one other combat squad with 4 guys left. At the end of the guard shooting, Pedro is dead and I am left with 1 sniper scout.

My 3 assault marines charge into what was left of the blob and wipe them out. They have a good massacre roll and end up on 2 different levels of the ruin. The terminators charge the command squad, losing 1 on the charge before their power fists kill a couple of guardsmen. The command squad holds.

My scoring units all shift around each claiming a different building (though 3 of those are with a single model each).

Turn 5 and 6
At this point the writing is pretty much on the wall and it is getting late. We decide just for kicks to finish up the close combat between the terminators and the command squad - to both of our surprise, the command squad ends up winning the match pretty handily.



After Action Review
This was a really fun game. Shep and I were both playing "new" armies for us using old models - this is always the best thing about a new codex.

My army performed very well - everything exceeded my expectations and really meshed well. I really like the combined arms theory of the new codex. Combat squadding was nice and I think that Shep made a mistake in blobbing his platoon. It gave me a really big target and since he only had 2 scoring units I was able to pound that one down. I know why he did it, and expect that he will be along to give his thoughts.

Commendation
Credit has to go to the Thunderfire Cannon and the techmarine crewing it. They killed swathes of guardsmen, the banewolf, and the fortification of the snipers' ruins kept them a constant threat, as well as claiming an objective.

Condemnation
The Executioners. 5 plasma cannons or 3 on the move still makes my heartrate accelerate. We will be seeing many more of these, I am sure.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I'd love to hear any comments.

[i]Colonel Grenko was surrounded but a wall of armor. Both of his bodyguard lay on the ground unconscious. Sgt. Milovich's breathing was ragged and a trickle of blood was pooling beneath him.

His tanks were almost all silent and the new recruits had been routed and scattered. A quick glance at his dataslate showed him that the Crimson Fists had taken up commanding positions in the center of the town - it would be impossible to take the field of battle.

He lowered the blade of his office. "Enough."

The city was flooded with blinding lights. Steel bracers and girders were revealed in the sky above the buildings as Hold #7a of the transport "Fendir's Fury".

"Thank you for your assistance, Brother Sergeant."

"We will be fighting beside you and the 122nd. It is good to get a measure of one's allies."

Great report, Somncide. Thanks for taking the time. I love the commendation and condemnation bits.

Can't wait to here what Shep has to say. I love his take on tactics.

Haha! We were in the Danger Room eh?

First off before I forget, the executioner shoots 4 plasma on the move The turret plus one sponson.

Yeah, I tried hard to justify my choice about blobbing the platoon. When you buy one a 35 point commissar you give them leadership 9. It makes passing orders easier, and you only have one order to pass. Plus with stubborn there isn't really a downside to the large unit size.

Well, I just don't believe that anymore. i still love the 35 point commissar, but I think in my objective games I should look to be as MSU as possible. (Matchups/deployment/generalship/terrain are all things to consider when making the choice, not just mission type.) I could have spread out more and covered more firing lanes in our cramped city conditions. A vostroyan general of all people should know better haha

One thing I'll notice about the power units in the new IG book is that they are DAZZLING at killing off the first 80% of a unit. But equally terrible in finishing off units with one or two models in them. Chimeras do that job pretty well, but they need more help. Splitting my platoons up whenever I can is still going to be important. Getting off a 'bring it down' with my blob was awesome, but I was really only ever attempting one order a turn, when I have a platoon command squad sitting there and the company commander looking for someone to issue another order to. That's not efficient.

After turn one, both Somnicide and i were both thinking, Well, lets just see how long it takes the guard army to table the marines. The executioners were just shredding his squads, in most cases just picking up 5 at a time while GETTING cover saves. The bane wolves were just horrifying as well, but with multiple stories on the buildings, he was able to dodge having whole units just scooped off the table. He also made it a point to neutralize them asap. Then I had reduced his scoring units from 6 combat squads to 4 of them with a single model, one with 2 models, and one with 4 models. I still had an intact veteran unit in a chimera, an undamaged russ, and a russ with no main gun. There was a chance for me in a 7 turn game to take out those single marines, and maybe block some buildings, but the learning was done.

Turns out i played the command squads 'look out sir, argh!' rule incorrectly, and to my benefit. I'm certain that the unit can't expect to survive combat with terminators. But it can certainly rip through a combat squad with no difficulty. The question is not whether it can do that, but rather, should you invest the extra 90 points into it? Probably not. Since my banner and my medic couldn't take meltas, I only had 2 shots on that drop podding dreadnought. When i got double 1's on them, it showed me that I should have had a third one

Oh som... you forgot to regale everyone on how your rhino's stormbolter immobilized and crew stunned my banewolf in a single round of shooting. That was pleasant.

Cities of death still holds up. It is incredibly fun, and makes you look at the same old units in different ways. Highly recommend everyone set up a game of COD next time your main army is feeling a little moldy.

Keep the great reports coming.

@kidhappy&hardrockfreak - as long as I keep getting comments I will keep posting.

@shep - oh yeah, that was pretty awesome (for me at least). That immobilize is what let Pedro rip it apart. It definitely earned a forgeworld door that I will be adding this coming paint night

Excellent report! That is what I love about fighting with / against the guard. You just have to stick with it. The guard usually stomp people right off the bat. Then the enemy gets closer and....bam... the game is even again or the guard gets creamed. Great report and thanks for taking the time to post it with such great detail.

Love the detail in your report! to answer your question in my post, I stand on a ladder to get an overhead. Thats a tip I learned from Panic. Actually Panic puts his camera flush with the ceiling.