Friday, March 6, 2009

IMPERIAL GUARD versus Space Marines

Game: Warhammer 40,000 4th edition
Opponent: ?
Mission: Cleanse
Level: Alpha
Location: Banda, Halasus Marches, Skolarii Sector
Background: The Cadian 271st are called to the Halasus Marches to combat a series of pirate raids disrupting shipping near the Pangari Nebula. Tracking a ship back to Banda, Captain Kennell is surprised to see a Space Marine Chapter consorting with renegade Exigator Marines. While the Exigators make their escape, the unidentified Marine Chapter stands its ground and makes battle.
1st turn: Imperial Guard
Points: 1500

Imperial Guard
  • Command Squad 77, Captain Kennell Junior officer, Standard, 3 meltaguns
  • Anti-tank Squad, 3 lascannons
  • Commissar Ord Bulman, Power Sword, Bolt Pistol
  • Inquisitor Lord Kurven, Psycannon, Sanctuary, 2 Acolytes with Bolt Pistols, 3 Mystics, 2 Hierophants, 2 Sages, 1 Gun-Servitor with Plasma Cannon, 2 Imperial Guard Veterans with plasma guns
  • Eversor Assassin
  • Infantry Platoon
  • Command Section 36, Lieutenant Dophan Junior Officer, Missile Launcher
  • Infantry Squad 501, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
  • Infantry Squad 541, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
  • Armoured Fist Squad 812, Flamer, Missile Launcher, Chimera with Multi-laser and Heavy Bolter, Smoke
  • 6 Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, 2 Plasma Guns
  • 6 Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, 2 Melta Guns
  • Sentinel, Multilaser, Searchlight
  • Sentinel, Multilaser, Smoke Launcher
  • Basilisk, Indirect Fire
  • Leman Russ, Heavy Bolter

Space Marines
  • Chaplain in Terminator armour with Thunder Hammer
  • Whirlwind
  • Vindicator
  • 8 Devastators with Tank hunter and missile launchers
  • 5 Bikes with 2 Melta guns
  • Land speeder with heavy bolter and assault cannon
  • Annihilator Predator with heavy bolter sponsons
  • 3x8 Marines with plasma cannon

Background
I built my 1500 point list with Daemonhunter allies to combat Gary's Chaos army, that had been kicking my butt in previous games. I stripped out all the soft, fluffy and experimental choices in favour of proven killing power against Marines and Daemons.

In the event Gary was late getting to the store and a noob was looking for a game. A staff member suggested I would be a good opponent, so we set up a game. As luck would have it my opponent also had exactly 1500 points using his friends Marines, so he fielded them.

I thought an Alpha Level Cleanse would be a straightforward mission for a new player.

Terrain and Deployment
The terrain was largely ruined buildings, fairly evenly spaced around 12" from each other. A smallish wood occupied the dead centre of the board. My opponent won the choice of deployment zone and chose the least amount of cover for himself. That meant I had the most cluttered quarter, with poor lines of sight between my units (no split deployment in this game).

I set up with most of my forces hard up against the outside of my table quarter. I planned to zoom the Armoured Fists, a Sentinel and the Eversor off to my left to capture that quarter. The other Sentinel, an Infantry squad and an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper squad would move to the right. The rest of my army would form a formidable firebase in the centre.

The Marines were bunched up in the back of his deployment zone behind a large ruin. He took a risk with one Tac squad, setting it up way out on my left, totally unsupported. It looked like he was going to try and outshoot me from long range(!).

The Game
I won first turn and most of my movement was out on the left. I zoomed the Chimera out 12" and disembarked the squad. They would scramble into a ruined building on turn 2, claiming that quarter and threaten the side armour of any Space Marine vehicles rolling forward. The Eversor moved up behind the Chimera, using it as mobile cover.

My remaining moves were in the centre, bringing a Sentinel, a Stormtrooper squad and the Russ up behind the wood. I was fairly certain the Leman Russ would tempt the melta gun toting bikers out, then I hoped to counter with the rest of my troops.

My shooting was fairly good - I wiped out half a dozen Tac Marines and took out the Vindicator with a direct hit from the Basilisk, and caused further casualties here and there.

I was right about the bikes; they boosted 24" up behind the central wood. Noob pushed his Predator out to target the Russ but failed to damage it. He swung his Land Speeder out on my right and immobilised my Sentinel. The only other damage of note was from his Devs who killed 5 Guardsmen in an Infantry squad.

Those woods and the damage I sustained in the last shooting phase prevented me from killing more than 1 biker (I forced numerous saves but he passed virtually all of them). I pulled the Russ back and pointed my front armour at the Bikes. This was risky as it opened up my side armour to the Pred. Fortunately my lascannons came to the rescue and destroyed the Annihilator.

The bikes rounded the wood but their melta shots bounced harmlessly from the Russ' hull. Noobs Tac squads were still standing around, hanging in the breeze. They were out of Bolter range and their Plasma Cannons were only causing a casualty or two per turn. His Devs were also badly positioned with poor lines of sight, so he tried to move them through the large ruined building. They were still trying to get out of it when the game ended.

In my next turn I threw everything I had at the bikes. Terrible to hit rolls and more good saves left two alive. They took out the Leman Russ, but were then vaped by my Inquisitor's Plasma guns. The Russ had taken out an entire Tac squad before it went, though, and my other ordnance, the Basilisk, was thinning out the other squads nicely.

The Whirlwind killed 2-3 Infantry models per turn to no real effect - he kept shooting at different targets. The Marines also managed to take out my second Sentinel on the left with a jammy Plasma Cannon shot. Otherwise the only other action was on the far left where my Eversor contacted the Tac squad in the building. They hung around just long enough for the Chaplain to join the party and kill the Assassin.

At the end of the game my opponent had that Chaplain, one Tac Marine and a stunned Whirlwind left.

Result: Win - Imperial Guard 3 Table Quarters, Space Marines 1

Imperial Control: +20%

Kennell's Commendation: The Armoured Fist squad for securing the left flank with few casualties.

Learning points
  • I really expected to win this game against a new player and that's how it turned out. He had a fairly decent army I thought, and his more experienced mate was helping him, but his own lack of gameplay let him down in deployment and target selection. Ho hum, you live and learn.
  • My enduring memory of this game was asking the army's owner 'What is the name of your chapter?' 'The Turd Marines,' he replies. I blink. 'Well, they are brown...'

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