DAEMONHUNTERS versus Lost and the Damned

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Wayne
Mission: Cleanse
1st turn: Daemonhunters
Points: 1000

Daemonhunters

• Inquisitor Lord Kurven, Psycannon, Emperors Tarot, Gun Servitor, Plasma Cannon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Imperial Guard Veteran, Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Sage, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
• Death Cult Assassin
• Squad Godirtho, 5 Storm troopers, Veteran Sergeant with Plasma pistol, 2 x meltaguns, rhino with smoke, extra armour, hunter killer missile
• Squad Matoso, 5 Storm troopers, 2 plasma guns
• Armoured Fist Squad (inducted Imperial Guard) Sergeant, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Flamer, Chimera, Multilaser, Heavy Bolter, Smoke Launchers, hunter killer missile, heavy stubber
• Infantry Platoon (inducted Imperial Guard) Command squad, junior officer with power sword and plasma pistol, medic, vox caster, 2 plasma guns, Infantry squad missile launcher, grenade launcher, vox caster, Infantry squad missile launcher, grenade launcher, vox caster
• Lance strike
  

Lost and the Damned

• Basilisk
• 15 man Traitor squad with sergeant with powerfist
• 2 large mutant squads
• 5 spawn
• 5 raptors with 3 flamers
• 2 units of Slaanesh daemons
• Lieutenant with dark blade and mutation

Terrain and deployment
Yet another game on the Cityfight table.

Nooooo!

Wayne won the choice of board edge and I had a large, deep building to contend with in my deployment zone. I set my Inquisitor up on top of the building in a commanding position with the Guard squads amassed below. They were set up a bit further forward than I would have liked but it meant I had clear lines of sight everywhere. My chimera anchored my right while the stormtroopers in the rhino took the extreme right flank. The assassin was placed centrally in a good counter-charge position and the Imperial Guard command squad and the storm troopers with plasma guns were behind the front rank of infantry, hoping to get a chance to rapid fire.

The game
The game began superbly for me. The first shot of the game was the hunter-killer missile on the rhino taking out the hull down basilisk in a long range effort. Result!

I followed this up by wiping out the entire 5 man spawn squad in just two turns of concentrated fire. I know how tough these guys are in combat and made sure I killed them all. Wayne was looking despondent at this stage as he had caused virtually no damage to my army, for the loss of his two heavy support choices.

He got back in the game, though, with a daemonette squad who just scraped into combat with a Guard unit and wiped them out. They swept into the command squad who then rapid fired their plasma guns. When the smoke cleared there wasn't a daemonette left. The mutant squads were now in assault range and impacted my front line, causing a massive rolling melee involving 50 or more men.

Up until this point I had been shadowing Wayne's Raptors with squad Godirtho but they shot forward, flamed a few Guardsmen, assaulted the survivors and then hit and run away from my rhino. My whole firebase began to collapse now as the guardsmen were killed or routed and Inquisitor Kurven had to pitch in, trying in vain to take down the Chaos lieutenant.

The assassin leapt out of the shadows to kill a couple of Raptors and a flamer shot from the dismounted armoured fist squad killed the crucial third to take them down below half strength.

Then the 2nd unit of daemonettes showed up and got stuck in.

My chimera was destroyed by a powerfist in a mutant squad I hadn't spotted - even so Wayne needed to roll sixes on 4 attack dice to just glance the front armour, and he got four! To add insult to injury he rolled two sixes on the glancing chart to blow it up, but it did manage to reduce the traitor guardsmen to less than 50% before it went.

Looking at the board in turn 6 I had three squads capable of taking a quarter: Kurven who was in combat with the lieutenant, and squad Godirtho and their rhino. Wayne only had two units remaining: a large unit of mutants led by the lieutenant and one unit of daemonettes. I knew Kurven was going to die in combat so it was up to squad Godirtho. I could either run the squad one way and the rhino another, claim two quarters and settle for a draw, or I could zoom forward, kill the daemonettes through shooting and a charge, and then sweep the stormtroopers into another quarter to try and win.

In the spirit of past games against Wayne I took the latter. I needed to kill two daemonettes to take them under half strength. Squad Godirtho shot a plasma pistol, two meltaguns and two hell guns at them and I only killed one model. They passed their instability test so I assaulted them, lost one model and then hit them with 11 attacks. They all failed, the squad was wiped out in the last assault phase of the game and Wayne won two quarters to my one.

Result: Loss

Learning points

• Another cracking game against Wayne! It had everything - awesome shooting, huge close combats, HQ vs HQ slugging it out, and a decisive last turn. It genuinely could have gone either way.
• I really enjoyed my shooting phases in this game. I had forgotten what is was like to be in charge of a really 'hard' army that your opponent fears. After my second turn it looked all over for Wayne. I can't wait until I have an all Imperial Guard army painted up.
• Emperors Tarot worked a treat allowing me to off the basilisk on turn one. I think this little piece of wargear will turn up even in my regular Imperial Guard army.