I started going to my local gaming club again last night. I had a game against a guard player, mostly running a foot list.
Here’s my list:
Imperial Fists
1 x Captain - artificer armour, relic blade & storm shield
5 x Assault Terminators – 2 x lightning claws & 3 x thunder hammers
5 x Assault Terminators – 5 x thunder hammers
8 x Sternguard w/ Rhino – 2 x combi meltas
10 x Tactical Marines w/ Razorback – meltagun & missile launcher – sgt w/ power fist
10 x Tactical Marines w/ Razorback – meltagun & missile launcher – sgt w/ power fist
10 x Tactical Marines w/ Razorback – meltagun & missile launcher
1 x Land Raider Godhammer
1 x Land Raider Redeemer – multi melta
My opponent was Croggy who is a user on Dakka Dakka. I think this is his list:
Imperial Guard
1 x Company Command Squad – autocannon
5 x Ratlings
1 x Platoon Command Squad w/ Chimera – 3 x flamers & 1 x heavy flamer
20 x Guardsmen – grenade launchers
1 x Platoon Command Squad – 3 x flamers
20 x Guardsmen + Commissar – grenade launchers
1 x Heavy Weapons Team – 3 x autocannons
1 x Heavy Weapons Team – 3 x mortars
1 x Heavy Weapons Team – 3 x lascannons
10 x Veterans w/ Chimera –3 x meltaguns
10 x Veterans – demolitions
1 x Hellhound
1 x Vendetta
2 x Sentinels – heavy flamers
1 x Leman Russ Executioner
1 x Leman Russ Battle Tank
1 x Medusa – bastion breacher shells
Croggy rolled to go first, I tried to steal the initiative but no cigar :( . Game was pitched battle and annihilation.
Turn 1
Croggy moved his vehicles forward, except the medusa and used scout moves to place the ratlings in a ruin and turbo boost the vendetta forward.
In the shooting turn a razorback blocking
LOS to the sternguard rhino was popped leaving a power fist sgt combat squad on foot. Another razorback was hit and wrecked, two missile launcher combat squads also felt the pain and lost several members, one was reduced to one man which failed the morale and fell back off the table. I think Croggy at this point was winning with 3 kill points.
When I had setup my marines I had broken them down into combat squads, I have to do this no matter the game type as I’ve taken razorbacks, which I find very useful, though 5 marines on foot don’t last long. Looking across the board it was easy what I had to do – send both terminator squads into the two large platoons and use the redeemer to BBQ infantry when it gets in close. Priority kills this turn would be the medusa, vendetta, executioner and battle tank. These things could tackle my infantry on foot or wreck my vehicles, so they had to die.
I moved forward what I can and fired at various targets. I only managed to kill 2 guardsmen and that was in it!
In assault the captain and mixed assault terminators assaulted the leman russ executioner and the ratlings. The ratlings lost two and fell back ok, the terminators managed to crew stunned on the executioner as they needed 6’s to hit as it had moved 7” at crusing speed.
No kill points to me :(
Turn 2
Vendetta dropped out the demo vets and it backed away towards its own table edge 6” . The
PCS flamer squad in the chimera made its way towards my godhammer land raider and supporting razorback.
In the shooting turn the sternguard rhino got popped and the power fist combat squad on foot were slaughtered when a demo charge killed 2 of them and the rest gunned down with las fire.
Guard are winning with a massive 5 kill points.
In my turn my sternguard moved into terrain ready to unleash hellfire rounds at the demo squad. Captain bails back into the redeemer, which is crew stunned from previous turn if I remember right.
In the shooting turn I don’t do a lot, again. The demo vets get blasted by hellfire rounds from the sternguard with only 2 members left. They fail morale and fall back towards their table edge.
Turn 3
PCS flamers on foot move towards the sternguard along with the melta vets in the chimera. The demo vets fall back off the table finally giving me a kill point! The other
PCS in the chimera moves towards my razorback supporting the godhammer land raider.
Shooting turn the medusa drops a shell on the razorback supporting the godhammer and pops it, the marines had already bailed out previous turn as they took a shot at the
PCS flamer chimera, luckily none take any wounds. My sternguard also take punishment and are left with 2 standing, they fail morale and fall back.
My sternguard fall back off the table giving guard another kill point, 8 in total! Now with the first wave of guard out my way, and unfortunately taking some punishment I can put my plan into action. The plan was to flank forward with the land raiders and unleash the terminators.
Land raiders move forward, shooting wise the
PCS flamer squad is popped finally with a meltagun giving me another kill point. The redeemer splits fire and kills some of the
CCS with assault cannon fire, but fails to kill a lascannon heavy weapon team. The godhammer does better and kills 2 mortar teams, they fail morale and fall back off the table giving me 3 kill points – catching up!
In assault both terminator squads assault the mass platoons, the captain detaches from the mixed assault terminators and goes after the weakened
CCS. In assault the thunder hammer terminators slaughter most the guardsmen, they fail morale and fall back but just stay on the table edge. The captain wipes out the
CCS giving me 4 kill points and the assault terminators lay into the platoon, but they pass morale ok because of the commissars stubborn rule.
Turn 4
The sentinels and hellhound arrive in from reserve. The sentinels outflank but come on the wrong side of the board, which is my left with heavy imperial fist numbers. The hellhound comes in top right corner, but is away from the action. The platoon which got battered by the hammer terminators fall back off the board as they were under half strength, kill point for me!
The
PCS flamer squad on foot jumps back into the vendetta which moves towards the hellhound. The
PCS flamer squad on foot moves into terrain with my two missile launcher combat squads.
Nothing amazing happens in the shooting phase, I think the redeemer becomes immobilised if I remember right.
The
PCS flamer squad decide to charge my combat squad, they win combat but consolidate only 2” – 2 imperial fist combat squads are nearby.
In my fourth turn the thunder hammer terminators move towards the medusa , hoping to give it a good hammering! Plan is now to destroy the
PCS flamer squad in terrain, wreck the immobilised executioner which the thunder hammer terminators did over in a previous turn, take out the medusa and vendetta if possible. I’m ignoring the battle tank as I only have a meltagun which I cannot get into range anyway. Hopefully all will go to plan as my crap rolls in the first 2 turns put me behind!
Shooting wise one sentinel is popped by the godhammer land raider, which is immobilised in terrain but the sponsons can rotate 180. Redeemer BBQ’s lascannon heavy weapon squad, another kill point for me

, redeemer also unleashes multi melta into side armour of the immobilised executioner and pops it, another one for me. The melta vets chimera rear armour is exposed as previous turn it attempted to wreck my redeemer, the combat squad closest with meltagun only pops it, another kill point for me.
In assault the thunder hammer terminators wreck the medusa, the captain slaughters the remaining ratlings, the combat squad charges the melta vets which fail morale and fall back but the marines don’t catch them. The
PCS flamer squad get assaulted, but they survive, luckily. The solo sentinel gets charged and wrecked
So kill points now stands at 9 for the guard and 10 for me, the imperial fists!
Turn 5
Guard don’t really do a lot as mostly locked in combat, captain is killed by lascannon fire from the vendetta, guard now have 9 kill points.
In the imperial fist turn my thunder hammer terminators move through terrain towards the big scrum. Not a lot happens in the shooting turn.
In assault the combat squad which wrecked the sentinel charge and kill the
PCS flamer squad already locked in combat and the combat squad charge back against the melta vets and kill them all.
We had to call it a day, but I won with 12 kill points and guard had 9 points
Summary
I thought the guard list was interesting, but my plan was to get the terminators into combat and those platoons would fail soon enough. My plan paid off. I had some bad luck shooting at first and took some damage as well, but I started to crawl it back.
My plan over all paid over. As well as get into assault range I would use the redeemer on the heavy weapons team, both the assault cannon and flamestorm cannons spell instant death for the heavy weaps team as both are S6.
The redeemer did well here. Only things to threaten my armour was the medusa, which I had no luck shooting, though as it didn’t move the thunder hammer terminators made a meal out of it.
The vendetta wasn’t that annoying really, I only fired at it a few times really. The executioner was a worry, if my marines get in the open I would have problems and my terminators fear it, a little bit. Battle tank was next on the agenda as the ap3 large blast isn’t nice.
Everything went to plan, except the battle tank which caused havoc, I had to ignore it in the end as I couldn’t get anything close enough.
Assault wise the thunder hammer terminators brought it home twice, they did well as always. The captain did well giving the ratlings a beating twice over and killing the
CCS with help from the redeemer, I wish I had enough points for digital weapons – I might be able to squeeze those in actually.
A few thoughts on the guard list; I think it could do with Creed, a foot list with 24” range orders and can issue 4 orders a turn (I think) would be useful. A commissar in the other platoon would be helpful.
I didn’t think the executioner was that good,
tbh that’s why I dropped mine. Another battle tank would be best, though I’d go with ordnance with a foot list, Medusa, Colossus or even a Basilisk would do here.
I think the
PCS with flamers are out there without support and 5 men won’t last too long. The melta vets didn’t do much, and are a easy target on there own. The demo vets also are a one shot unit and then die, ok they wiped out a combat squad but the squad is only worth roughly 100 points.
A good game all in all. Interesting to face a different opponent and different type a list. The Imperial Fists still go undefeated in normal games of
40k! Long live the Fists!