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After completing my plasma cannons for the armored sentinels this past week after a recent bits order, I decided to give my oft maligned (by me!) cadian regiment a go on the tabletop at Treefort Games in Fayetteville, Georgia (I entered it on Dakka's new store finder feature so check them out). My opponent and I decided to play a 2500pt game on a standard sized table with one force org chart. With regard to mission parameters, we went with killpoints with the added caveat that a single objective in the center was worth 3 KP also. With just that decision, I knew that i'd be at a serious disadvantage with IG due to the sheer number of KP my army gives up. Without further adeiu, here are the opposing forces.

Imperial Guard Cadian 888th Regiment

Company Command with Officer Powerweapon/boltpistol, 2x grenade launchers, regimental standard, and vox
10x Veterans with Demo doctrine, 3x plasma guns
10x Veterans with Demo doctrine, 3x plamsa guns
10x Veterans with Demo doctrine, 3x melta guns, in a Chimera with heavy stubber/heavy bolter/multilaser
10x Veterans with Demo doctrine, 3x metla guns, in a Chimera with heavy stubber/heavy bolter/multilaser



Platoon Alpha consisting of:
Platoon Command with Officer Boltpistol, 3x grenade launchers, vox
2x Infantry Squads (no upgrades)
1x Infantry Squad with vox and Commissar (boltpistol/powerweapon)
2x Special Weapon Squads with 2x flamers, demo charge
2x Heavy Weapon Squads (one with autocannons, one with missle launchers)



10x Stormtroopers with Airborne Assault SpecOp, 2x grenade launchers
10x Stormtroopers with Airborne Assault SpecOp, 2x flamers
Sly Marbo (henceforth referred to as CHUCK NORRIS!)
3x Armored Sentinels with Plasma Cannons (separate, not a squadron)
Basilisk
Leman Russ Battle Tank with heavy bolters x 3
Leman Russ Executioner with plama cannon sponsons and lascannon




Dark Angel Battleforce

Belial with Dual Lightning Claws
Interrogator Chaplain with Terminator Armor
Deathwing Command Squad with medic, 3x LC, 1x TH, 1x CF
Deathwing Squad (1x PW, 4x PF, 1x assault cannon)
Deathwing Squad (as above)
Ravenwing Biker Squad (Sergeant with Power weapon, 2x flamers)
Dreadnought (Heavy Flamer, Extra Armor, Plasma Cannon, Venerable) in drop pod
Tact Squad (PW sergeant, lascannon, melta)
Tact Squad (PW Sergeant, plasma cannon, melta) in rhino
Vindicator with dozer blade, extra armor
Land Raider Crusader with multimelta
Land Raider (godhammer pattern)



I'm still deciding on the final format i'm using for my battlereports but i'll be going with the following for this one. the pics were mainly taken after each player's movement phase. the blue pics indicate movement (with deepstriking or other special deployment indicated via an arrow from above). red arrows indicate shooting and yellow is for assault; if a unit is wiped out, i've tried to cross them out with the color appropriate to the phase it happened in. So, here are the initial deployements... I allowed the dark angels to take first turn (i won the roll off) and they set up heavily concentrated in the center, with the vindicator/LRC/rhino with tact squad/ravenwing on the ground. above, a second tact squad covered the highway (on which the only objective was) and the godhammer landraider deployed on an elevated repair platform. two deathwing squads as well as the drop pod dreadnought were in deep strike reserve.



with the huge terrain pieces placed on this regular sized table, i really did have a hard time placing my units (and with hindsight would have done a few things differently..) since my opponent had deployed a tank high up in terrain (i didn't see a problem with it deploying there although i said it requirred multiple dangerous terrain tests to move off as a consequence), i did likewise with my executioner, placing him high up on the landing pad. the three sentinels deployed on the ground next to the landing pad flanked by a squad of mounted melta vets. the plasma vets took up residence on the other side of the platform to cover the LRBT in the corner (covering the center) from deepstriking terminators. the heavy weapons squads deployed on the main landing platform in front of the CCS. On the highway, i positioned my blob lasgun squad to grab the objective; accompanying them, two special weapon squads and the PCS were prepared to deal with deepstriking terminators on the highway. finally, in the corner behind the huge building, i placed my basilisk out of LOS and deployed the second melta vet chimera with the idea of killing the land raider on the platform early on. chuck norris and the two stormtroopers were in reserve.



after my deployement, neither of us had any infiltators so my opponent made his ravenwing biker scout move and i realized that i had made my first mistake already! i failed to steal the initiative so my opponent started his turn right after.




TURN 1 DARK ANGELS

Using deathwing and drop pod assault, one squad of terminators landed on target above the ravenwing squad on the highway while the dread drop pod landed unerringly in front of my blob and SWS squads on my side of the highway. the terminators shot and whiffed against the executioner while the dreadnought annihilated a SWS and put a wound on the blob squad with his shooting. The ravenwing bike squad continued their headlong advance towards my hidden plasma vets and moved 12" forward to within charge distance of them; my opponent didn't want to lose the charge so opted not to fire the dual flamers. the LRC moved forward 6" and opened fire (along with the highway tact squad lascannon) on the LR Executioner without any effect. The second landraider split its fire between the executioner and the melta vet chimera but missed once and failed to penetrate with the second shot. the tact squad rhino advanced towards my lines while the nearby vindicator shot the autocannon HWS dead on all three but managed to only kill one base due to cover saves. In the assault phase, the bikers charged the plasma vets and killed three, running down the survivors and consolidating up the side of the building i raised an eyebrow about bikers being able to do this but eventually said sure with a difficult terrain test; it didn't matter because i fulled expected them to die very soon.





TURN 1 IMPERIAL GUARD

As normal with shooty guard, i'm on the defensive and reacting to a more mobile army. While well prepared for deepstriking terminators on the highway, my opponent instead dropped two av12 vehicles in front of several squads that can NOT reliably deal with even one. The autocannon squad fails its bring it down (BID) orders but the missle launcher squad succeeds in hearing the order and explodes the dread killing several guardsmen in the ensuing fireball. ironically, this is the only time until the final turn that i successfully issued an order and the squad that recieved it hit with all three shots the first time round! in the normal shooting phase, the autocannons stun the vindicator, gaining some measure of satisfaction against the tank that killed their colleage. both melta vet squads in chimeras charged forward and popped smoke, prepping for a round 2 melta barrage on their respective targets. the hidden corner basilisk took a long range indirect shot at the highway tact squad but deviated off target while the LRBT also opened up on them, killing several. My PCS on the large building had two grenade launchers in LOS of the DA rhino and took a few shots, stunning it. The trio of plasma sentinels as well as the executioner opened up on the terminator squad on the highway, killing them all despite the cover and going to ground. Finally, the remaining plasma vets annihilate the ravenwing bikers on the roof, taking revenge on them for killing their sister squad.







TURN 2 DARK ANGELS

Reserves were rolled for and the second squad was going to be arriving this turn. Placing the terminators a bit for aggressively, my opponent decided to place them near the board edge between my LRBT and plasma vet squad. Unfortunately for him, they deviated 10" off the table edge but luckily rolled a 4 for the mishap, resulting in me placing them on the opposite corner edge from my lines.



Toward the middle, the crusaderand vindicator move forward 6" each, keeping roughly in line with each other. The vindicator can't shoot due to a stun damage roll so pops smoke while the landraider crusader opens up (along with the lascannon tac squad and second land raider) on the executioner, destroying it. The rhino disgorges its tact squad which move straight towards my vet chimera but miss with the melta shot as well as all the attacks in the ensuing assault phase. Finally, the drop pod continues to find the only spot under my blob squad that is not blocked by a guardsmen and misses twice while the godhammer land raider's machine spirit lascannons off the melta vet chimera's multilaser.



TURN 2 IMPERIAL GUARD

Reserves are rolled for with the two stormtroopers squads coming in but not Chuck Norris. The first storm trooper squad aims for the highway by the tact squad but deviates half off, resulting in a mishap. Having chosen the SpecOp that allows me to reroll deepstriking, I proceed to do so and land 10 inches behind my intended target on the ground. I place the models so that the two grenade launchers have a back shot on the vindicator but they both miss in the shooting phase. The second stormtrooper squad also mishaps via deviation but lands on target with the reroll; they proceed to kill 5 of the tact squad marines (along with my leman russ whose battlecannon deviated off and whole 9 heavy bolter shots missed 8 times) leaving only the sergeant and upgraded weapons (funny how that always happens...).

The two HWS failed their orders and whiffed in the normal shooting phase while attempting to destroy the drop pod. The middle chimera rolled forward and disgorged it's cargo as close as possible to the LRC (i was hoping to deny him the ability to deploy everyone within 2" by block two of the doors). The vets choose to fire on the LR (this was before my stormtroopers whiffed on the backside of the vindicator) and proceed to penetrate only once and immbolizie the tank. :( The sentinels, having no close juicy targets to shoot, fire on the drop pod but miss twice (killing a guardsmen) and fail to penetrate the third shot. They're great against infantry but unfortunately i only had a LRC (av14), vindicator front (av13), and a drop pod to shoot at (av12). Also, the plasma vets move and run up to the building rooftop the ravenwing bikers previously occupied, expecting a terminator deathstar unit to soon be visible.



On the other end of the highway, the blob squad lines up along the edge of the building in preparation for a lasgun barrage on the disembarked tact squad below. The chimera backs away from the same squad and attempts to hightail it out of there but rolls a 1 on the difficult terrain check and immobilizes itself on a short wall; the melta vets inside disembark on the off chance the blob squad doesn't finish off the tact marines. After a successful FRFSRF from the PCS, the lasgun squad of doom (27 models in LOS and within 12"!!) kills 9 of the 10 tact marines leaving only the tooled up close combat sergeant. Knowing that only a single marine like that is a threat to a whole IG squad, the meltagunners are forced to open up on him and kill him while their chimera fires at the rhino to no effect.



TURN 3 DARK ANGELS

The Dark Angels are now fully committed to the fight in the center and continue to press it. The deathstar squad in the immobilized LRC disembark in preparation to flame/assault the vets who previously threatened their transport. After two heavy flamers and an assault (in which the DA player opted to NOT use his power weapons to prove his superiority!!), no vets were left. Luckily for me, my opponent let it slip that he loves multicharges so i purposely pulled models in a pattern that did NOT allow him to charge the chimera also. The terminators who mishapped continued to move through difficult terrain and run towards the fight. On the bridge, the three remaining tact marines lined up for a bolt pistol volley and assaulted the deepstriking stormtroopers, killing 3 with no loss of their own and running them down in the ensuing sweeping advance. The LRC opened up a sentinel with it's multilaser and multimelta to no effect while the vindicator moved 6" back and almost annihilated the second stormtrooper squad, luckily rolling 3x ones to wound and giving the troopers enough hope that their morale held.



On the other side, the drop pod continued to waste ammo keeping the IG platoon's heads down and blocking the vital access to the objective. The godhammer LR and rhino opened up on the sentinels, exploding one.



TURN 3 IMPERIAL GUARD

The final reserves of the game are rolled with Chuck Norris coming in exactly when he planned to (he's chuck norris!). with no chance of deviating, he lines up for a possible demo charge throw onto the tact squad remnants on the bridge that are slick with the blood of the stormtroopers. After seeing both the basilisk and leman russ kill only 1 model due to deviation (perhaps their crews were worried about tussling norris's hair with their blasts and this affected their aim?), chuck decides to fire off his demo charge and kills the remaining models. Underneath him and inspired by his bravery, the 3 remaining stormtroopers move to get a side shot off on the vindicator, stunning it with grenade launchers, before assaulting and wrecking it. Over by the helipad, the deathstar terminator squad and HQs get quite the tan as a demo charge, 3 plasma guns, and 2 plasma cannons are fired their way, killing belial and 3 of the 5 terminators. This volley was joined by the now-deceased melta vets' chimera to no effect.



On the other side, the both HWS fail their orders as well as their normal shots against the drop pod... AGAIN!!! ughh.. the mega platoon moved toward the drop pod in anticipation of it not being there by the shooting phase but are quite disappointed; despite this, they charge it simply to get closer to the objective. Apparently, the attached commissar made them overcome the fear of the eventual explosion in his quest to claim the highway. The PCS and immoblized chimera fail to do any appreciable damage to the tact squad rhino while the remaining melta vets move and run 11" closer to the elevate landraider.



TURN 4 DARK ANGELS

Now almost alone holding this part of the battlefield, the godhammer land raider pivots and fires on the approaching melta vets, killing 4 but failing to break their resolve. The tact squad rhino charges full speed into the back of a sentinel but rolls a 1 on the ram penetration. The drop pod yet again manages to find a small spot of bare ground inbetween platoon IG and fails to kill anyone. Under the highway, the mishap'ed terminators shoot the remaining 3 stormtroopers, killing them and earning back their killpoint.



Over in the middle, the LRC splits its fire between the autocannon HWS (earning an easy killpoint with the instant death-dealing assault cannon) and whiffing the other machine spirit multimelta shot on a sentinel. The chaplain, incensed that his captain and most of the command squad died, climbs up the side of the building to close with his foe, destroying them in the assault despite the difficult terrain.



At this point, the store owner announced that he'd be closing so we decided that we'd call it after the end of turn 4.

TURN 4 IMPERIAL GUARD

At this point, the game was all about killing the stragglers for kill points. After two turns of utterly failing, my remaining HWS finally heard the orders being issued RIGHT NEXT TO THEM and destroyed the drop pod with their missle launchers. Caring not for the 6 dead guardsmen killed in the drop pod explosion, the commissar and PCS urged the mega platoon on towards the now unblocked objective, rolling a 6 for their Go, Go, Go! order. The meltavets roll a 5 for their difficult terrain, getting close enough to explode the land raider with their controlled fire (only a 1" explosion). Their immbolized chimera as well as the two remaining sentinels fire to no effect on the rhino with the previously rammed sentinel also assaults the rhino but is unable to hit it (it moved 12").



The remainder of my army shot except for Chuck Norris concentrated on the remnants of the terminator command squad, confident that the level of firepower devoted to this could fell another killpoint (or possibly two if i was lucky). After shooting the LRBT battlecannon/3 heavy bolters, the basilisk earthshaker shot, the CCS grenade launchers and lasguns, and the chimera heavy bolter/stubber... a single terminator was killed! no kill point there... Chuck jumped down from the highway (yay move through cover!!) and assaulted the immobile land raider; apparently feeling that it was beneath him to destroy such an easy kill, he set the melta bomb to half strength (i whiffed the pen roll) and let the crew live.



As previously decided, we ended the game and tallied up the killpoints. Tied at 9 vs 9, the deciding factor would be whether or not one of us controlled the central objective. Checking my opponent's rhino first, he was determined to be just over 3" from the objective above him on the highway and therefore not contesting. Hoping that i had run *just* far enough, we checked how far away my blob platoon squad was and...



TIE GAME!!


As a side note, we both were entertained by the chaplain who clawed his way up the side of a building in terminator armor to get towards a plasma vet squad. With my opponent rolling a 5 on his difficult terrain check, it was determined that the chaplain (and only him) was close to the edge of the roof after moving. Unable to balance him there, we propped him up with a terminator from his squad. When looking over the pics for this report, the look of the chaplain getting a powerfist boost up the wall made me chuckle. This is, btw, the last thing a guard squad would ever see before dying, lol!!





THOUGHTS ON THE BATTLE

My "new" unit of plasma cannon sentinels didn't do much but i didn't expect them to due to gaming superstition (the newly painted models always die!). technically, they earned their keep by getting a KP for the one they gave up but that was more luck than anything. As a side note, I play an all-comers list (basically, at 2500pts, it's everything except for my astropath that i can fit in my carrying case!) which is the reason i had 3 squads of 1 sentinel each instead of a squad of three in a KP game. As for MVP and Chump units of the game... I'd say the lowly drop pod and HWSquads respectively earned those honors. The armor 12 drop pod kept me from claiming the objective while the HWS utterly failed both to recieve their orders as well as in the normal shooting against the vehicle.

Speaking of orders, i'm still on the fence regarding this game mechanic. This is actually the first game in which i didn't forget to issue orders at all which i guess is an improvement on my part. FRFSRF proved to be the close range death sentance i had hoped, killing 9 marines out of 10 and GGG proved to be useful after all. The main problem i have with the system is that the squads you're most likely to WANT to issue orders to are the ones LEAST likely to be able to use them... SWS and HWS especially. Neither can take a vox unit nor do they have a sergeant so their LD is a 7... In a shooty army, they'll be hanging back by the CCS yet he's not able to help them with their orders unless you spend the points on Kell or a Commissar Lord. I won't feign some RAI knowledge regarding this but it seems counterintuitive IMO but it's obviously here to stay.

Anyways, till next time!

Haha chuck norris force commander

Yea! Sly Marbo FTW!

yeah, i was hoping he'd get another land raider notch in his belt (he's got one there already) but it wasn't to be. i actually suprised my opponent in a previous game by charging his combat squad with sly and winning the combat round (initiative 5 and 2+ to wound FTW!)

Nice report. Agreed on the orders. I find that Bring It Down is seldom useful as my vets rarely miss. what they need is to replace the re-roll to miss with Tank Hunters or something since I'll inevitably roll a '1' when trying to penetrate.

again, good batrep

Good report. At 1500+ I have 3+ HWS and I attach a Lord Commissar to the CCS. The main reason I do so is to ensure they don't run away, what with 3 models at ld7. Rerolling (regimental standard) ld10 means the HWS aren't going anywhere and must be completely destroyed to silence the battery. Ld10 orders is a really nice bonus, as twinlinked HWS are fairly efficient.

Because the CCS ends up having 10 wounds that way, I usually add a medic. I fill it out with a mortar, boltguns for the commander and LC, lasguns for medic/standard, stuff it all in a chim for protection and increased order range. 227 pts, and in range of HWS's in good cover it makes them very dependable.

Congrats of the draw. In kp games I usually lose unless I can table my opponent.

I find my Plasma sents a bit meh, but I love them, everynow and then they suprise me and most people I play seem to over estimate them so at least they draw fire away from the rest of my army.

I know what you mean about orders, half the time I don't need them and when I do they never do as well as I hope. 9 marines with frfsf is impressive.

i'm suprised you took GL on the storm troopers, the trend seems to be melta.

I enjoyed the report

What is with the land Raider on top of the building?!?

Glaive Company CO wrote:Nice report. Agreed on the orders. I find that Bring It Down is seldom useful as my vets rarely miss. what they need is to replace the re-roll to miss with Tank Hunters or something since I'll inevitably roll a '1' when trying to penetrate.
again, good batrep

BID is 90% of the time the order i go with (basically as long as the HWS squad(s) are alive). my guard rarely run due to the regimental standard (as well as being more commonly simply killed in the sweeping advance) and i can count on one hand the number of times i've issued any other order with my CCS in about a half dozen games with the current army configuration.

murdog wrote:Good report. At 1500+ I have 3+ HWS and I attach a Lord Commissar to the CCS. The main reason I do so is to ensure they don't run away, what with 3 models at ld7. Rerolling (regimental standard) ld10 means the HWS aren't going anywhere and must be completely destroyed to silence the battery. Ld10 orders is a really nice bonus, as twinlinked HWS are fairly efficient.

Because the CCS ends up having 10 wounds that way, I usually add a medic. I fill it out with a mortar, boltguns for the commander and LC, lasguns for medic/standard, stuff it all in a chim for protection and increased order range. 227 pts, and in range of HWS's in good cover it makes them very dependable.

do you find the medic useful? do you usually hang back and use them as a shooty CCS or an assaulty one? mine are always minimal points as possible upgraded (hence the grenade launchers as weapons) and hang back with the HWS. the only things that have ever shot at them other than pistols right before an assault were long range weapons that are usually strength 6 which negates the FNP. I'm debating busting out my yarrick model as a counts as standard commissar lord to try it out but i'm hesitant to pay the points. that single model means i'm losing a full squad's worth of guardsmen somewhere else to pay for the points. i've even gotten to the point where i've repainted my medics and use them as veteran squad demo charge hurlers (that IV bag is the "trigger"). 30pts to save a t3 sv5+ squad of 5 is too much; for 10pts, i'd consider it (or 30pts if you could put them in a combined squad).

SpankHammer III wrote:Congrats of the draw. In kp games I usually lose unless I can table my opponent.

I find my Plasma sents a bit meh, but I love them, everynow and then they suprise me and most people I play seem to over estimate them so at least they draw fire away from the rest of my army.
I know what you mean about orders, half the time I don't need them and when I do they never do as well as I hope. 9 marines with frfsf is impressive.
i'm suprised you took GL on the storm troopers, the trend seems to be melta.
I enjoyed the report

i'd love to say that i simpy prefer the grenade launchers but they were simply the models (along with the flamers which is why the other squad has them) that were available in the 10 man boxed set of kasrkin. the melta/plasma blisters were extra and came out later IIRC. either way, i'm not totally disappointed with the choice either as the hellguns make short work of marine armor (not termies though) while the grenade launchers and flamers give the squads a bit more punch vs vehicles and horde armies. to be honest, i'd prefer them to have meltas but i'm not going to go through the trouble of buying and painting models to match a squad painted 10 years ago with specific colors i can't recall. as for the FRFSRF, i got lucky and my opponent didn't with our respective rolls on top of being in almost optimal placement for the order (27 of 31 models in the squad were within 12" and in LOS). statistically, i think i should have killed around 5 and then had the melta vets mop up the rest.

CT GAMER wrote:What is with the land Raider on top of the building?!?

we discovered during deployment that the terrain piece was actually movable and had a lever at the base that elevated the platform (see pic below). my opponent wanted it up after the discovery so i acquiesced (and placed a LR executioner on the top landing pad for tablewide LOS as revenge!) with the caveat that it would be several dangerous terrain checks if he wanted to do anything other than pivot in the movement phase. he even asked if he could lower it during the game as needed but i said i'd only agree to that if there was a techmarine standing by the switch who gave used up a repair roll to do so.