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Just thought I'd record this 'report' for posterity. 750 Point game, Imperial Guard (me) vs custom space marines chapter with Salamander rules (got to say, really nicely painted.) Slight background to my list; I normally run a big blog of Guard Infantry with supporting artillery, but I was trying out having an army based around a hero unit, in this case, Pask. I should have known that would spell trouble from the start, as whenever I've done this before, it has never ended well, but this was an especially unholy mix of sensible target selection from my opponent and horrendous rolls/bad choices on my part.

Lineup was as follows:

Guard:

HQ: company commander (warlord), primaris psyker, Pask w/ battle cannon + x3 Bolters
Infantry: 3 x 10 guardsmen
Elites: commissar, tech priest + vindicare
HS: basilisk, lascannon heavy weapons squad

Marines:

HQ: primaris captain
Infantry: x2 intercessor squads
Elites: redemptor dreadnought w/ plasma incinerator, grenade launcher and onslaught gatling cannon
HS: repulsor executioner w/ heavy laser destroyer, Icarus pod and ironhail heavy stubber.

So the setting is my local GW store. This is the final stage of a learning event and the tables are full of new faces. me and this other guy have volunteered to sit out the final round as we've both had a go and it seems only fair, but the staff offer to set us up on one of the painting tables that is no longer in use, to which we thankfully agree to. Consequently the scenery is rather spartan; some flat cardboard terrain and a few small pieces of the STC Ryza ruins that stretch diagonally across the table, which is probably about 48x48 in diameter. Though the ruins provide some cover, no unit is completely obscured at this stage.

Both of us are a bit short on time, so we just set up our respective armies on either side of the table, put five objectives down in an 'X' shape on the board and go on a game based on victory points. He sets up with his forces spread pretty evenly across the board infantry in front of his nasties, while I essentially blob most of my units around Pask, intending for him to form a spearhead with which to take the fight to him, while placing my lascannon team and my basilisk in a supportive positions more or less on top of one of the objectives. Rolling for turn order, he gets to go first. I spend command points for Prepared Positions. And so begins the pain.

Turn one:

The other guy moves nothing. The dreadnought opens up with his plasma incinerator on Pask. It's at this point that I realise the AP potential of Salamanders using Master Artisans, captain buffs and doctrines are going to be a problem, but it ends relatively well: Pask takes four wounds which I reason will be mostly sorted out by my tech priest come my turn. I reason incorrectly.

The repulsor lines up its laser destroyer. The dice are rolled. Nineteen damage goes through and Pask is vaporised. I am stunned. This is not helped by the fact that between the smaller weapons on his nasties, the Captain and his intercessors, he proceeds to wipe out my lascannon team and fifteen of my guardsmen while lightly damaging my Basilisk. I'm in a bad spot. More than half my army is dead and what remains of my infantry is grouped together, able to exert very little board control. To add insult the injury, the commissar goes about his grisly job of putting down a fleeing guardsmen to keep the rest in line. Not a single unit got any saving throws.

My turn. I moved up my infantry to secure an objective. If I was going to win this, it was going to have to be by victory points. To my advantage, we were rolling for major objectives every turn, and it just happened to be that the one that they took was just that, so I was feeling a little hopeful. What's more, out of the shadows of the ruins steps my Vindicare. I want that primaris captain's head.

The psychic phase is short; a simple smite on the dreadnought that takes off three wounds. All my shots in the following turn miss. The Vindicare, with a command point re-roll fails to wound. That's that.

Turn two:

The Marines move forward and shoot. My guardsmen are slaughtered to a man, my psyker succumbs to fire and the basilisk is wrecked. All I have left are my company commander, commissar, tech-priest and Vindicare who is on his last wound.

On my turn, I put my commander onto the objective that the infantry previously held, and advance my commissar onto the central objective which rolled to be the major objective. Once again, the Vindicare lines up on the captain and pulls the trigger. For a second time, his shot fails to wound the captain. The game is over in all but name, but the Guard do not retreat.

Subsequent turns:

During the next turn the Vindicare, tech priest and the company commander die. The commissar fires his bolt pistol in one last act of defiance, dealing the only weapon damage my army inflicts in the game before dying in a hail of fire in the fourth round. The battle is over.

Victory points worked out:

Me: 8 from objectives
Opponent: 8 from objectives, 10 from squads slain, 3 from slaying my warlord.

Closing comments:

Though painful at the time, I came away with useful lessons and considerations, the main one being that, unless I have a plan B, I should not invest so many points into a high value target like Pask. I always do better when I'm playing the Guard as an infantry army. Less clear is how to deal with high AP armies, but that is something that I will learn eventually.