IMPERIAL GUARD versus Chaos Space Marines

Game: Warhammer 40,000 4th edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Seek and Destroy
Level: Gamma
Location: Celebes
Background: Again, the forces of Chaos test the outer defences of Celebes Hive Primus with a small scale raid. Captain Kennell sallies out to meet the enemy head on but his mechanized column runs into difficulty. The outer defences are breached and the Cadians retreat to the inner fortifications.
1st turn: Imperial Guard
Points: 1000

Imperial Guard

• Command Squad 77, Captain Kennell Junior officer, Standard, 3 meltaguns
• Infantry Platoon
• Command Section 36, Lieutenant Dophan Junior Officer with Plasma Pistol and Power Weapon, 4 plasma guns
• Infantry Squad 501, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Squad 541, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Infantry Squad 609, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Armoured Fist Squad 812, Flamer, Chimera with Multi-laser and Heavy Bolter
• Sentinel, Autocannon, Extra Armour
• Sentinel, Multilaser, Searchlight
• Sentinel, Multilaser, Smoke Launcher
• Basilisk, Indirect Fire
• Leman Russ, Heavy Bolter
  

Chaos Space Marines

• Lord with Berzerker Glaive
• 8 Marines (close combat)
• 8 Khorne Berzerkers
• 5 Havocs with 4 missile launchers
• 5 Marines (1 lascannon)
• 3 Obliterators
• Dreadnought with lascannon

Background
This was my third Winter War game and my second against Gary. We had identical lists to our previous game.

Terrain and Deployment
The amount of terrain on this table was utterly ridiculous! It looked like it had been gathered from every other table in the joint and dumped on ours. I'd estimate that around 75% of the playing surface had terrain on it.

There were four large ruined buildings, two in my deployment zone in the centre and left, and two in Gary's zone on either flank. The dominant feature, though, was a massive wood stretching 4' between both of Gary's flank buildings and going from the edge of his deployment zone almost to mine. To cap things off I had a wood to my extreme right and there was a large rocky outcrop on the right. There were virtually no lines of sight anywhere!

Gary set up his Havocs first, in the ruined building opposite my right flank. I guess he must have thought I'd try and use the smaller wood to get some cover saves. I set up everything I had on my left flank - refusing the right. That left the Havocs with no targets and they were effectively out of the game.

The Chaos assault elements were behind the large central wood with only the Dreadnought and the five man lascannon squad on my left. Gary opted to deep strike his Obliterators from reserve.

My plan was to destroy the Chaos left flank in the first two turns then target the Marines emerging from the wood with the entirety of my army. My plasma and melta Command sections would hide away out of sight until the Obliterators appeared.

The Game
This is the worst game of 40k I have played in a long, long time. I won first turn (again!) and killed one model on the left flank with my entire army's shooting. Gary took out the Leman Russ which I was planning to move in my following turn. My lines of sight to the woods in the centre were now completely screwed.

My second turn of shooting was almost as bad as my first, and I only killed four models. Now the Obliterators arrived. Gary took a risk and brought them down on my right flank, near my Armoured Fist squad. If they scattered left they would almost certainly have landed on one of my closely packed squads and been destroyed. Similarly, they were within 6" of the board edge and could easily have scattered off the table. The density of the terrain would have been a major problem if they had gone right or back toward Gary's lines, too, as they wouldn't have been able to bring their guns to bear for several turns (and I would have had time to redeploy my plasma and melta squads). In the end they only scattered 2" (Gary thought they had been destroyed on a double 1, but that was 3rd edition).

The Oblits were so close to the Fist squad they used flamers to kill them all. Now I was being rolled up on my right flank by the Obliterators, and being pushed back on the front by the assault troops.

My plasma command squad destroyed itself to a man in just two turns of shooting due to overheats. At least they took the Chaos lord down with them. I shot three Krak missiles per turn into the Dreadnought over four turns before it was destroyed but by then I had also lost the Chimera and a Sentinel to it.

My last gambit was to zoom the Basilisk 12" away from the Obliterators and try to target the assault troops with its Earthshaker gun. I rolled a 1 for its difficult terrain check.

The Chaos Marines made it into close combat with an Infantry squad and wiped them out. The game ended as the Obliterators had Captain Kennell in their sights.

A thorough pasting.

Result: Loss -solid defeat

Victory Points: Guard 777, Chaos 1223

Imperial Control: -22%

Kennell's Commendation: None.

Learning points

• I had the worst luck in this game that I can remember. Everything I tried failed. Gary didn't even have good luck - he didn't need it!
• I only didn't lose by more points because of the terrain. Gary just couldn't reach me. My refused flank helped in this regard, though I paid for it when the Russ blocked my already narrow lines of sight.