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Decided to take my imperial guard out to their first tournament since the new codex release. 1750 points, with three missions (all three mission/deployment types from the book). Of course, forgot the morning of to pack my camera

My list looked like this:

CCS with 2 melta guns, chimera with hull heavy flamer

DH Elite inq with incinerator, 3 mystics and vet with flamer (rode in a vendetta)

Marbo

3 vendettas (all separate)

3 vet squads with 3 meltaguns, chimeras with hull heavy flamers

3 leman russes (separate) with hull lascannon, plasma sponsons

First mission was capture and control with pitched battlefield setup. 5 objectives. Opponent was (I believe) a fairly new player using a Nurgle-themed demon list. I didn’t get the exact details, but it was something along the lines of:

Ku’gath
Epidemius
3 squads of plaguebearers with icons
1 squad of nurglings
1 demon prince with (at minimum) breath of chaos and flight
1 demon prince with strength, maybe other stuff
1 soul grinder with tongue

He won the roll off and gave me the first turn. Terrain was fairly open in the middle, with a large (but open) building slightly to the right. The objectives boxed the corners of the large open area, with one alone off to the far right on the other side of the building.

I moved up as best I could into the clearing, with one russ, vendetta and vet squad drifting off to the right a bit to close on the more distant objective. His preferred half came in, consisting of two teams of plague bearers, epidemius and the strengthened demon prince. With my mystic-bearing vendetta in the middle of the clearing, there wasn’t a lot of safe space to drop in. The prince and a squad of plaguebearers dropped to the left (minor losses to mystic fire), and epidemius and the other plaguebearers dropped far the right behind the building.

I think the game was pretty much over before it started. With so many blasts, meltaguns and lascannons (and everything in vehicles) I quickly killed his stuff off while protecting my stuff. The vendettas easily wounded the large targets, the tanks plaguebearer squads or larger targets as needed. Even marbo and the inq participated, with the inq flaming the nurglings (two flamers, one ignoring invuls, killed many bases) and Marbo dropping a demo charge to kill about 5 plaguebearers, then charging in to finish off the remaining few nurgling bases. Ultimately, I think I lost a chimera to the soulgrinder’s tongue, but nothing else.

Major victory to me holding 3-4 objectives to his one (he had a couple plaguebearers and epidemius hiding near an objective behind the building at the end of turn 5.

The second mission was secure and control, dawn of war. Opponent was necrons. Army looked something like:

Lord with warscythe, destroyer body, gaze of flames, phase shifter, solar pulse
3 x 12 squads of warriors
2 x 5 squad of destroyers
2 x 3 squads of heavy destroyers

Terrain was fairly open, with low hills and small (marine height) huts scattered around, but no large LOS blocking stuff. He put his objective almost at the center of the board, while I had mine in the center of my edge near the edge. He won the roll for setup/turn and chose to go first. He put his lord near the board’s center and two warrior squads back toward the center of his long edge. After setting up 1 vet chimera near the center of my deployment area, he commented that he probably should have gone second.

I hadn’t noticed the solar pulse, so my lone chimera took the fire off all his destroyers and heavy destroyers…and ended up stunned, immobile and missing its multilaser. His lord turbo-boosted forward, very close to my lines. My stuff rolled on grouped in the center, used a spotlight to illuminate the lord, and took him down to one wound.

His second turn, his warrior horde ran towards the middle, while his destroyers focused on my vendettas. He immobilized one behind a hill (blocking further LOS), shook and destroyed a lascannon on another, and stunned a leman russ. The lord moved in and charged a vendetta, put failed to roll a “6” to hit.

On my turn, I decided to take out his heavy destroyers if at all possible. He had both squads next to each other, on the far right corner of the table. Marbo arrived, and I placed him in some rocks nearby. 1 demo charge later, one squad of three heavies was down. A leman russ landed plenty of firepower to finish off the other squad. Melta vets finished off the lord.

Afterwards, the light destroyers kept stunning the russes every turn, the warriors would stun/immobilize chimeras as they approached the center objective they camped on, and the remaining fire on my side slowly whittled away at the warriors hiding amongst the scattered cover. Eventually, he failed to stun a russ or two, and (together with the vendettas) I took out the destroyer squads in the open.

Still, I was stuck on trying to get to the center objective. All my chimeras were immobile, the russes (being slow) weren’t going to get their soon enough to tank shock the warriors off. I didn’t want to walk the vets there, because they’d get annihilated…in the end, I had Marbo, the inq and a vet squad moving towards the objective, and he (in a colossal error) moved his warriors in a “U” shape around the objective. Time was almost up, so he figured as long as he could keep my ground forces from pulling him off the objective with assaults, I wouldn’t be able to reach the objective. The new codex, however, changed the IG game to a new threat he had forgotten to consider…skimmers. I simply turboboosted over his lines and contested the objective, claiming the other for myself.

So, the final battle was annihilation with spearhead deployment. My opponent usually wins the monthly tournaments at the store, and with 2 major victories today (and all the bonus points) he was already far in the lead. His army was something like:

Creed, Kell, astropath, MotF, 1 meltagun, medic, 2 bodyguards
Chimera with hull flamer, stubber

2 valk with rocket pods, heavy bolters (separate units)

Vet squad with demo charge, 3 melta guns, sgt with plasma pistol, power weapon (in valk)
Vet squad with demo charge, 3 plasma guns, sgt with plasma pistol, power weapon (in valk)

1 Platoon HQ with 2 plasma guns
Chimera with hull flamer, stubber

5 squads (blobbed for this mission) with lascannon, grenade launcher
2 commissars (may have had power weapons or fists)

Medusa with siege shells
Executioner with plasma sponsons, stubber

Terrain had some tall, but fairly narrow, rock/tree formations in the corners, with a giant tree-root thing in the very middle of the board. You could kind of see through it, but not much.

He won the die roll and took the first turn. He setup his mass of troops and executioner on his long board edge, partially looking through the root-thing, while the rest of his force went around the other way.

I lined up mostly opposite the infantry, hoping to hit them with enough blasts to quickly whittle them down. Chimeras in front to give the russes cover. First mistake was to move the inq off on his own away from the rest of the force…I think I was hoping to eventually get him in to flame the mass of troops. Instead, it just let my opponent move in and deepstrike his vets out of their valks.

Unlike my second game, where I was perhaps too timid, I was a bit too aggressive here, moving towards the mass of infantry with chimeras, only to lose them to the twin-linked 5 lascannon shots a turn…then lose the squad to the mass of FRFSRF lasguns and/or grenade blasts.

We ended up slugging it out and beating the crap out of each others’ armies, and in the end, he only had the platoon and creed’s HQ left, but I had lost much more (had more KPs to lose) and so had a major loss. I think I lost 2 vet squads, the company command, the inq and retinue, marbo, 1 vendetta, 1 vendetta, 1 russ and 3 chimeras. Like my previous opponent focusing too much on the vedettas at first, I focused a little too much on the huge platoon blob, when I could have racked up several quicker/easier kills going after his light armor with everything I had. Sure, I killed a bunch of troops that first turn, but with +4 cover from the tree root and commissars to keep them in line, it was going to take a while to make that unit combat ineffective. Keeping my inq in position to keep his deepstrikers away would have also been rather helpful (facepalm).

Overall, I was pleased with how most of my units performed. The Russes proved very resilient to enemy fire and put out a good amount of firepower against both infantry and light-medium vehicles. Even taking a weapon destroyed result or two and getting immobilized, they were a significant threat to most things on the board. The vendettas, too, performed admirably, especially in concert with the russes. They could better tackle MC-type targets, heavy armor, and efficiently finish off the 1-2 survivors from leman russ blastings.

Marbo was a bit lackluster in the last game, but was otherwise incredibly effective. 5 plaguebearers, 2 nurgling bases, 3 heavy destroyers, a damaged medusa and 3 dead HQ retinue (dying once in return) isn’t too shabby. The inq wasn’t so hot, but was still a fairly good investment (even better, perhaps, if I had used him properly that last battle). Seriously cramped the demon player, didn’t get a chance to do much against the necrons, and still wiped out an enemy vet squad before dying in the last game.

Actually, I was most disappointed with the vets and HQ. The chimeras provided decent cover for the russes at times, but otherwise usually got immobilized well before getting close enough to the enemy to do anything. A few melta shots were useful in the first game to finish wounded MCs/squads off, but in the last two games the troops had to stay in the vehicles until as long as possible to avoid getting killed, which meant they couldn’t shoot/participate much in the actual battle. I found myself wishing a bit for some indirect that last game (Manticore, perhaps?), but it wouldn’t have been nearly as useful in the other games, and the reduction of AV 14 platforms in the army would hurt.

I think the army has a lot of potential, so I don’t think I’ll change it much…just need to retrain the commander to use it more properly after the last game!

Sounds like you learned a few things about your army as well as having a great time.

Your list looks good , vets in chimeras that's what they do they stay in the chinera shoot from the hatches and come out once a game to claim an objective in the last turn . Vets also shw there worth agianst marines . The inq with the mystics is a good move and the hood alone makes the squad worth it ,

Good report!

Did you feel like your vets were a little unused when you were forced to leave them camped on an objective instead of going after the enemy?

Actually, the inq doesn't have a hood. No eldar at the tournament (pretty rare in the area) and most marine players don't take librarians, so it's not a major concern. I'd have to spend 25 more points to get the inq lord (need the ldr 10), then 15 for the hood...not worth it for what I usually face. The mystics are the main factor, I just add a few template weapons to make them worthwhile in other situations, and make them less likely to get wiped out and give up 2 KP.

Regarding the vets, I did feel like they were kind of a drag on the army overall. It could have been the match-ups, it could have been my improper use, but they really accomplished little overall because of their limited range. I guess the good news was they couldn't get close to the enemy because they kept getting shot at, meaning less fire was going to my tanks and vendettas.

Actually, there were a couple times in the first and last mission where heavy flamers with the vet squads would have been handy. 10 points more, but realistically, they only fired once at a vehicle (soulgrinder)...everything else was dealt with fairly easily at range. The heavy flamer would have made dealing with the deepstriking vets much easier, for example, as my only other options were to turn a chimera around for the hull flamer or unload troops for lasgun fire and a charge (which went poorly and ended up losing my HQ and a vet squad!).

Mech Vets are actually very hard to use properly. The Chimera is a fragile beast even with AV 12 also running nothing but 3x melta is not the best way to go.

2x melta, 1x Hf is great in a chim. and add demo and you make for a devastatingly effective vendetta rider.

Your ccs should be 4x melta and running with your vets, it will almost always finish off anything the vets leave alive.

I would also recomend a single 3x plasma vet squad to run with your phalanx. Tanks are support for your vets, not the other way around, when you learn to use your big guns to supress the threats to your phalanx and keep the pressure on you shoudl find your vets doing much better.

Great to see you doing well and carrying the torch of the IG well. Its very possible that Mech Vets is not to your style, but the IG book has so many other options as the player running creed showed.

I always root for the Crons, poor toasters. Are Vendettas tanks? If not he could have kept you off the objective by standing in a sort of clump formation around it.

Anyway, good to see the Guard representing. Sounds like you enjoyed your games, and that's the most important thing.

bigtmac68 wrote:Mech Vets are actually very hard to use properly. The Chimera is a fragile beast even with AV 12...

Well, the chimeras proved fairly resilient in terms of not dying, but they did take a ton of immobilized/stunned/weapon destroyed results.

bigtmac68 wrote:
...also running nothing but 3x melta is not the best way to go. 2x melta, 1x Hf is great in a chim. and add demo and you make for a devastatingly effective vendetta rider.

Your ccs should be 4x melta and running with your vets, it will almost always finish off anything the vets leave alive.

I would also recomend a single 3x plasma vet squad to run with your phalanx. Tanks are support for your vets, not the other way around, when you learn to use your big guns to supress the threats to your phalanx and keep the pressure on you shoudl find your vets doing much better.

While some of these idea are ok, the list is already on the razor's edge for point, and none of those recommendations is free. That's why the CCS, for example, only had 2 melta guns. Swapping a melta for a HF is +10, the demo costs +20, etc. The original though was that the chimera flamer would provide template support and the vets AT/anti-MC firepower. I think the HF isn't a bad idea, though, so I'll be considering it in the future. Plasma is similar...more expensive, not quite as versatile, so probably won't make the cut. Can't remember ever wishing I had plasma instead of melta in any of the games, especially as it can kill off my (very few) troops.

The "vendetta-rider" you mention is also a tough sell for me. Especially with vendettas, if you move quickly to drop the vets off, you can't fire the vehicle's weapons to full effect. Sure, it may make sense at time, but in general, trading one unit's chance to fire to let another shoot (and putting both up close to the enemy) seems risky. I'd prefer the vendettas primarily hang back and fire while the troops (whatever they end up being ultimately) participate in some other way on their own.

It's odd to see you mention that the tanks are there to support the troops...I had viewed it as the tanks and vendettas are there to do the majority of the work, while the move forward, distract from the real killers and eventually seize objective. Perhaps both views are correct.

The idea of the vendetta rider is to provide a devastating alpha strike. It works either as an outflanker or using the scout move if you go first. I have had the two Vendetta riders squads annihilate an entire enemy firebase with the two melta shots each followed by a massed meltabomb multicharge. The demo charges also allow them to hammer whole marine squads. The best part is that they are fairly cheap.

As for the tanks, you can go either way but if you are planning to use the tanks as the primary striking force then running mechanized infantry platoons can be more effective by providing more chimeras and troops for objective claiming. I tend to find the tanks to be unreliable as primary killers however. A full Phalanx of Veterans can lay waste to the enemys strike element while the tanks eliminate the enemy heavy support elements from range.

The best thing about the guard though is that you can create an army to fit any play style. Im very aggressive, but a more conservative play style can also work with guard if you prefer that.

In any case you seem to have a handle on how you want to play your guard army, and that is what is important.

Congrats on the tourney. As a long time IG player, i play a force more like your last opponent, with a mix of mobile vets and a infantry and artillery firebase (I love bassies and griffons). In that list more or less you have a secure number of bodies to claim objectives at your end of the table.

Anyway, keep it up! Practice makes perfect, and I'm just glad more IG players end up winners at least at the local scene.

Wow, IG vs IG on table 1 for the last game, truly times have changed (for the better, I say!)