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".

Battle Report #19: Casual Lahkers vs Chaos Space Marines/Orks

Played a casual match with Ike recently.  I got to test a Maelstrom list for Byrahn to lead, a list that wouldn't fall apart on Turn 2, and see Ike's newly-painted Iron Warriors.

Command Center ate my list, so here it is in regular old type form.  We played 1750 point lists.

Lahkers CAD
Necron Overlord (Byrahn) w/warscythe, phase shifter, Veil of Darkness
10x Warriors in Ghost Ark
10x Immortals w/gauss
3x Tomb Blades w/particle beamer, shield vanes, nebuloscope
7x Lychguard w/hyperphase sword and dispersion shield (with Byrahn)
8x Triarch Praetorians w/voidblade and particle caster
Destroyer Cult:
Destroyer Lord w/Solar Staff, phase shifter
3x Destroyers
3x Destroyers
3x Destroyers
3x Heavy Destroyers

Ike's Iron Warriors & Orky pals
Iron Warriors
Chaos Lord w/power sword, plasma pistol, Mark of Khorne, sigil of corruption
10x Cultists w/flamer, autopistol-and-CCW
10x Cultists w/heavy stubber, autoguns
20x Chaos Space Marines w/Icon of Vengeance
4x Chaos Space Marines w/bolt pistol-and-CCW, Aspiring Champion has 2x lightning claws and gift of mutation, all in Chaos Rhino (dirge caster, extra armour, dozer blade, smoke launchers)
3x Chaos Spawn, each on their own
Mayhem Pack:
3x Helbrutes w/multi-melta, power fist
Orks
Painboy w/urty syringe, dok's tools
10x Boyz in trukk
5x Deffkoptas w/choppa, twin-linked rokkit launcha
10x Lootas w/deffgun and stikkbombs

We rolled Big Guns Never Tire on Dawn of War deployment.  Objectives were placed nearly straight across the center of the table, one each in the big ruins, one in the very center by the giant Chaos meat patty, one in the round cacti field.
Warlord traits: I got Eternal Warrior for Byrahn, Ike got the one on the CSM table that lets him infiltrate D3 units.

From left to right, I deployed the Praetorians, Lychguard with Byrahn, Immortals, Destroyer Lord, and Ghost Ark as my front line.  On my second line, left to right, I had Destroyers, more Destroyers, and then the Heavy Destroyers.  The last squad of Destroyers and Tomb Blades I kept in reserve.

Ike put the Chaos Lord, his Rhino, and the Boyz and Painboy in their Trukk went in the center.  On my right he put the Deffkoptas, and on the very table edge, in the ruins, the Lootas.  Three Chaos Spawn, each alone, were spaced roughly equadistant across his front line.  He had the two Cultists squads and the 20-man CSM blob infiltrate at 18" away, the CSM going in the center, the Cultists in line with the two large ruins.  He held his Ferrus Infernum Dreadnought and Helbrute Mayhem Pack in reserve.

GAME TURN 1

Turn 1 - Me

I moved the Praetorians, Lychguard, and Destroyer Lord up, intending to use them to stall Ike's advancing units.  Both regular Destroyer squads moved up too, one behind the Praetorians, one into cover in the central ruins.  In the Shooting phase, I picked off a few models here and there, but didn't do anything spectacular (though I may have killed one of the Spawn).

Turn 1 - Ike

Ike uniformly moved his army forwards, sending the Cultists into the ruins on my left, his Trukk and CSM blob into the center, and scooting his Deffkoptas up to threaten my Ghost Ark.  The Chaos Spawn rocketed across the field, one targeting my Praetorians, one targeting the Destroyers in the ruins, and where the third one was either dead already or died in a boring and unmemorable manner.  Speaking of dying.  The Deffkoptas opened up on the Ark, and it Jinked both them and the Lootas' shooting.  Ike's shooting was about as (in)effective as mine, killing maybe one Praetorian and Lychguard, and a Destroyer in the ruins.  The Spawn all got into combat, one dying to my Praetorians, the other having more success against my Destroyers.

GAME TURN 2

Turn 2 - Me

I rolled reserves, and got both the Tomb Blades and Destroyers.  I deep-struck the Destroyers in Ike's back line, and brought the Tomb Blades in on my right flank to deal with the Lootas.  Turn 2 moving was very similar to my Turn 1 moving, with the exception of the Immortals and Heavy Destroyers shuffling forward further for better targets.  I made a tactical blunder on my left, bringing my Destroyers too close to the Chaos Rhino, and not screening the Rhino with my Praetorians.  I wrecked the Rhino, but the Chaos Lord and his squad slipped out towards my Destroyers which had not been properly screened by the Praetorians.  Yes, I am still kicking myself for this.  The Immortals and Heavy Destroyers dealt a few wounds to the Deffkoptas, and the Tomb Blades killed a few Lootas, and would have killed a lot more had I remembered they had the Nebuloscope (AP4 blasts with Ignores Cover = a lot of dead Orks).  The Lychguard and Destroyer Lord charged the CSM blob and began hacking them down to size.  I lost a Destroyer to that annoying Chaos Spawn in the ruins.

Turn 2 - Ike

Ike rolled for reserves, got his Infernum Dread in, but thankfully did not get the Helbrutes.  The angry Chaos Dreadnought used Outflank and waddled threateningly onto my left flank.  The Chaos Lord lunged at my exposed Destroyers on the left flank, the Trukk dropped its Boyz in the center field and then backed up towards my deep-striking Destroyers, and dropped off the Painboy.  The Deffkoptas chased my Ark around.  The Lootas and both Cultist squads sat tight in their cover.  The Deffkoptas once again failed to hurt the Ark.  Not much else happened in Shooting, I may have lost a Praetorian to the Cultists.  Then the Chaos Lord got stuck in with my Destroyers, the Spawn ate my last Destroyer in the ruins, and the Boyz joined in the Lychguard-CSM mosh pit in the center.  The Painboy got into combat with my Destroyers.

GAME TURN 3

Turn 3 - Me

The Immortals, Heavy Destroyers, and Tomb Blades scooted further into my right flank.  The Praetorians realized their terrible mistake and doubled back to bail the Destroyers out, or at least avenge their deaths.  This time, I remembered the Nebuloscope, and wiped the Loots out in one volley.  I think I disembarked the Warriors from the Ark, seeing that it would be Jinking for some turns to come.  The rest of my turn was passed in assault, where the Lychguard, Orks, and CSM all whaled on each other in good old bloody hand-to-hand combat.  Byrahn and the Destroyer Lord were having a blast.  All three squads were losing models, but I was coming out on top thanks to my the Lychguards' 3++ and AP3, and the fact that all my models were T5 or T6.  The Praetorians got into the CSM-Destroyer combat and began slapping down Chaos Marines.  Not much happened with the Painboy-Destroyer combat.

Turn 3 - Ike

Ike finally got his Helbrutes in, and had them deep-strike roughly in my center back line.  The Helbrutes weren't terribly effective in their shooting, but did pen the Ghost Ark and bring down its Quantum Shields.  He had his Painboy head towards my Destroyers in his lines.  Again, most of the turn was in assault.  The Chaos Lord and his CSM killed my Destroyers, however my Praetorians killed off all his bodyguards.  The Infernum Dread waddled into combat, assuring my Praetorians' eventual destruction.  I think the last Spawn had run over to join this combat at this point.  My Destroyers put a wound on the Painboy.

GAME TURN 4

Turn 4 - Me

The Warriors scrambled into the spiky plants to hold the objective there, and the Heavy Destroyers got as far away from the Helbrutes as they could.  Seeing how low my model count was getting in the Lychguard-CSM combat (I'd killed the Orks off at this point), I send the Immortals over to make sure I won the fight.  I had the Tomb Blades cruise towards the Cultist squads as well.  The Heavy Destroyers immobilized one Helbrute and reduced it to 1HP.  The Praetorians killed the Chaos Lord and Spawn, and then were squashed flat by the Infernum Dread.  Worth it.  The Immortals joined the Lychguard-CSM combat, and helped Byrahn and the Destroyer Lord deal the final blows.  Byrahn and his one remaining Lychguard consolidated towards the objective and the Proxy-Helbrute, and the Destroyer Lord headed for the large ruins with the Cultists.  My Destroyers killed the Painboy and consolidated towards the same Cultists.

Turn 4 - Ike

Ike had the Infernum Dread head towards center field, and had the Helbrutes fire on whatever they could.  I think I lost a Tomb Blade to them.  The Deffkoptas, what few remained, tried to chase down my Destroyers behind Ike's lines.  Then the Infernum Dread headed for my Tomb Blades, and I think the Proxy-Helbrute charged Byrahn and the Lychguard.  The other Helbrute charged and annihilated my Heavy Destroyers.  My models held fast and I believe Byrahn wrecked the Proxy-Helbrute in a single round.  The Destroyers got stuck in with the Cultists, and lost one Destroyer to a dangerous terrain roll on the charge.  Meh.  One Cultist made his t-shirt 6+ save (Destroyers have no AP), proving that products from a Noise Marine concert can come in handy.

GAME TURN 5

Turn 5 - Me

I had the Destroyers move into the large ruins to contest the Cultist-held objective, with the Destroyer Lord following close behind.  Byrahn and the Lychguard headed for the remaining mobile Helbrute.  The Immortals killed the remaining Deffkoptas, and the Ghost Ark (still alive, to my surprise) turned towards the Helbrutes.  The Destroyers-Cultist combat went nowhere, the Destroyer Lord whiffed on his charge, and Byrahn charged and killed his second Helbrute.  (Props to the Lychguard for being an excellent meat shield.)

Turn 5 - Ike

Ike's remaining Helbrute shot at Byrahn, I believe, and was once more frustrated by the Lychguard's 3++.  The Infernum Dread marched into combat with my Immortals and killed four of them.

I get the feeling we actually went for 6 turns, but I don't know for sure.  I didn't take notes for this game.  I do know it didn't get to Turn 7.

Regardless, at the end of the game, I had 2 objectives (6VP), and Slay the Warlord and First Blood and a Heavy Support kill (3VP total), for a final total of 9VP.  Ike had 2 objectives (2VP), Line Breaker, and one Heavy Support kill (2VP total) for a final total of 8VP.  Lahker victory!

Ike said afterwards a Khorne Daemonkin list might have been better.  I personally think it was a worthy list, the only problem being his Mayhem Pack didn't make it in till turn 3.  Not having 9 total HP of angry Chaos walkers to deal with until things were half over was 40-50% the reason I won, I would say.  I liked how this list panned out.  I want to get in the practice of winning games again without resorting to the Decurion.

Extra Pics:

Do not apply Chaos Spawn to face, hands, body, belongings, friends, or anything, really.

How not to screen enemy units off.

Best fisticuffs I've seen in a long time.