Battle Report #28: Imperial Guard vs Iron Warriors

This would have been just another café 40k match, except for the fact that it was the debut game for my new Imperial Guard!  (Warp take that Astra Militarum grox crap.)  I went in expecting to lose (first game with a new army), and hoping for a good and memorable time despite that expectation.

The Iron Warriors were having a lesser debut of their own, as this was my first time using their 30k rules rather then running them as CSM. I had failed to make it clear ahead of time that I would be building my list using the Legiones Astartes list rather then the CSM codex prior to the match. I am greatly appreciative that Gabe was gracious enough to allow me to play my Iron Warriors as the Legion despite the surprise on his part, even if he made it clear to me that he would appreciate clearer forewarning in the future. -Ike

Imperial Guard
Tank Commander Squadron:
Tank Commander (warlord) in LR Executioner w/Heavy Bolter sponsons
LR Exterminator w/Heavy Bolter sponsons
Veterans w/2x Plasma Guns, in Chimera
Veterans w/Grenadier doctrine, 2x Grenade Launchers, 1x Plasma Gun
LR Eradicator w/Heavy Bolter sponsons

Ike's Iron Warriors (30k)
Combined Arms Detachment

HQ: Legio Centurion w/artificer armor, Lightning claws (85 points)

TROOPS: 2 10x Legion Tactical Squads (150 points), each w/Rhino (35 points)

HEAVY SUPPORT: 5x Iron Havocs w/ 5x missile launchers, Sarge w/artificer armor (220 points, warlord)

Legion Whirlwind (75 points)

Mission was Kill Points, deployment was Vanguard Strike, quite cramped on this particular table.  Ike won the deployment roll-off, and let me go first.  Aware that I was not playing reanimating space skeletons anymore, I deployed as far back as I could in my corner.  I kept my footslogging Vet squad in reserve.

Ike crammed his Rhinos behind hard cover, out of my units' LOS.  The Havocs and the Legio Centurion stood a little to the left, out of LOS behind the square building, and he held his Whirlwind in reserve.

  And then Ike went and stole the initiative on me.

Turn 1.  Ike's Rhinos drove out at Cruising speed towards my flanks.  The one to my right got behind the tuna-can building and popped smoke.  The Havocs tiptoed into LOS of the Eradicator, but failed to pen my glorious Imperial AV14 front armor.

I moved forward (unnecessarily, in hindsight) and then goofed up target prioritization by directing my Tank Commander's squadron to shoot at the Rhino that had popped smoke, leaving only my Chimera and Eradicator to shoot at the left-hand Rhino, taking 2HP from it.  I did remember to use Tank Orders, and used the Split Fire one so that the Exterminator could fire at and kill 2 Havocs.

Turn 2.  Ike got his Whirlwind in on his right flank.  His Marines hopped out of his left Rhino and headed for me, and his right Rhino drove adjacent to my Executioner, to...block it from moving?  I think?  The Whirlwind and Havocs shot at my Chimera, took 2HP from it, and got a Shaken result.  The Marine squad assaulted my Eradicator and took 2HP from it as well.

The Vets did not arrive on my turn 2.  I fired back and destroyed the left Rhino, and combined fire killed 6 of the Marines.  Ike had them Got to Ground.

Turn 3.  Ike took his remaining Rhino and had it ram my Chimera...the Chimera penned it instead!  His Rhino was Shaken.  One Marine threw a krak grenade and stripped my Chimera's last hull point, forcing my Vets out on the extreme left edge of the table.

My turn, the Vets came on, I placed them in range of Ike's Rhino.  Tank Orders and Split fire made it so the Executioner killed Ike's Centurion, and the Exterminator knocked 1HP off the Rhino.  Not sure if my newly arrived Vets did anything.  My other Vets attempted to clean up the Gone to Ground Marines, both plasma-gunners fried themselves, but the squad took the Marines down to one model.  I left the Rhino up so that Ike would not be able to charge any of my units on his turn.

Turn 4.  Ike debarked his Marines, they killed 3-4 of my Vets.  The Havocs and Whirlwind were shuffling around in his backfield, not being particularly effective...or were they?  I think one of my Vet squads disappeared around this time.  Ran off the table or got wiped.

I motored my Eradicator towards Ike's Havocs, assuming the rest of my army could kill that 1 Marine model behind it....turns out BS3 couldn't quite accomplish that task.  I reduced the other Marine squad to one model, and now had two 1-model enemy units to finish off.  Easy, right?

Turn 5.  Ike ran his remaining 2 Havocs-one regular model, and his Sarge-warlord–at my Eradicator.  The Whirlwind got its shit together and wiped my remaining Vet squad.  Remember that single Marine model?  The one my Eradicator left for dead?  He ran up behind my Eradicator and took its last HP with a krak grenade.

I now had my Executioner and my Exterminator on the table–in one squadron–and that was it.  I used the Split Fire ordered to take 2HP from the Whirlwind, and kill one more Havoc, leaving the Havoc Sarge-warlord alone.  We rolled for game end, and got Turn 6.

Turn 6.  Ike ran his Sarge behind hard cover, and the Whirlwind popped smoke.  The two 1-model Marine units hid themselves in the wrecked vehicles on my table edge.  I now had to kill the Whirlwind and Havoc sarge to tie the game.  I was too slow to get Line Breaker.

I sent my squadron at the Whirlwind, fired, got crap rolls, got one pen, and the cover save ate that pen.  Rolled for game end, and it ended.  Ike won, 5VP (2 Vet squads, Chimera, Eradicator, Line Breaker) to 3VP (First Blood, 2 Rhinos).

Ike freely admits he won because of stupidly lucky rolls in the second half of the game.  I will forever hold a grudge against those two Chaos Marines, but otherwise had an enjoyable first game with the Guard.  It turned out a lot better than I expected.

Marines of the match.

Me and Nathaniel played another quick game, but it wasn't anything special, just one more variation of "Gabe deploys too far forward against an Assault army and gets tabled turn 3".