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I played a grand little Apocalypse battle under 5th Edition rules yesterday.

My Guard allied with 2 Marine players against Eldar & Nids. (huh? eh, just go with it).

I got to say, when the Guard can depend on Traits Marines to take objectives, and simply focus on holding their own while providing cover fire without needing a proper FOC, they can do pretty well. I took:

Doctrines:
- Drop Troops (oop, forgot about this),
- Close Order Drill (probably not so helpful with Yo-Yo Hawks about),
- Grenadiers (for cheap Scoring Units),
- Sanctioned Psykers (12pts for a 6th model in the Command Squads), and
- Cameoline (+1 to Cover Saves is *awesome* in 5th Edition).

Sr. "suicide" Officer w/ 4 Plas, Psyk & Camo (117)

Jr. *Scoring* Officer w/ ML, 2 Plas, Psyk & Camo (97)
3x 10 Grunts w/ ML, Plas & Camo (95 ea)

2x 6 Grenadiers w/ 2 Plas (80 ea)

2x Hellhound w/ XA (120 ea)

3x Demolisher w/ HB & XAS (163)
2x Russ w/ HB & XAS (153)
2x Basilisk w/ indirect, closed & XAS (158)

This was exactly 2000 pts, with all of the Ordnance and Template throwers I own covering for 6 rather squishy Scoring / Contesting Troops units.


We got stuck with the small side. And we bid high and lose 1st turn. No biggie. They set up aggressively, of course, right on the line. Mech / Sneak Biel-Tan Eldar on the left, Stealer Nids w/ GSC on the right.

I castle up in the center, with the AV14 stuff shielding the infantry & Bassies. 3 Land Raiders holding 35 Assault Marines on my right. Remaining Marines in Reserve to spearhead and reinforce as needed - looks like a plan!

For Strategic Assets, I place a 36" Minefield directly in front of the Nids to take the edge off the Stealer surge.

They have Strategic Bombardment, but Turn 1, Nothing Happens because nobody's near the target. Heh.


Interestingly, the Eldar player fears my armor wall, and decides to intially try and hide behind terrain. The Eldar do a good job at clearing the Marines as they arrive piecemeal, but that's >2k vs <1500pts. If played a bit more aggressively and strategically, perhaps he'd have done better. Still, he holds his Objective very decisively.

The Nid player starts crossing the Minefield. Wow, that thing is *mean*. Ultimately, it will clear about 500 pts of Nids - top performer of all the Strategic Assets (enemy Blind Barrage is largely ineffective, both sides have an army with all infantry Scoring). Good effort, but the Minefield blunted their main thrust a bit too much. But they do a good job at holding the their deep Objective.

In subsequent turns, the Strategic Bombardment manages to destroy a Demolisher, and then kill a few Guardsmen. Not bad. But then, that's why I keep my Tanks as cheap as possible and didn't even bother with the overpriced Chimeras.

The Deep Striking Flank Marching Reserve Marines do a excellent job of spreading the enemy all over their own backfield, pulping 1 Nid Bio-Titan with his PF-wielding SM and contesting one of their Objectives.

The other Marine player shows how good SM can be operating en masse, and he holds his Objective. 35 Furious Marines can lay down some serious smack.

My Bassies definitely earn their keep, clearing threating stuff away. Highlight shot of the day cleared an entire unit of 6 Jetbikes with Farseer. The Demolishers kill enough stuff, and protect what they need to. Hellhounds got a lot of enemy attention, so they underperfomed as expensive move-and-fire Heavy Bolters. I have enough Scoring Guardsmen to babysit the 2 nearest Objectives.

The Imperium wins 3-2 in a well-fought game of 5 turns (called on time).

nice, i feel sorry for the nids
shoulda been the pointy heads that died 1st.
but i guess its killing the biggest threat 1st
(waits for an evil look from any eldar players)

i tend to not use my nids in apoc, too many blasts dont do them any good, i stick with iron hands.

seems like fun and i need to start battling again.

Depending on which side of the board you were on, the Minefield was tragic or comedic. I saw it as great comedy, the most entertaining part of the game.

But yeah, the Nids had it kind of rough.

OTOH, if you're playing Monsters, Nids probably do pretty well in Apoc. A flank-marching mass of Carnifexes probably does quite well, I imagine.

but a large ammount of fex's usually draws me the attention of a warhound or 2, which is never fun when it has a VMB and IC lol

Hahaha.

Yeah, but it would be fun to watch!

i rather cry when i see my fex's get blown to pieces
about the most luck ive had is deepstriking 3 trygons next to a reaver titan and dragging it down, and almost dying in the blast :K