Blood Talons quell a traitor guard uprising

[Soups]

Blood Talons quell a traitor guard uprising

 

This is a tale orchestrated by the author, Soups. It will be narrated in the most overly dramatic fashion possible. This is the story of how I finally beat Imperial Guard from the arguably best tactician in northern Wisconsin.

 

Points: 2000

Mission: Annihilation

Deployment: Dawn of War.

 

Armies:

 

Blood Angels (Blood Talons)

HQ: Dante

Troops: Assault squad x2, Sanguinary Guard, Death Company

Elites: Sang Priest, Dreadnought Furioso

Fast: Baal Pred x2

Heavy: Storm Raven

 

Imperial Guard (Traitor Guard)

HQ: Creed

Troop: 3 heavy weapons teams, The Blob Squad, Chimeras

Elites: 2 veterans teams, Command Squad(?), Marbo

Fast: Hellhounds x2

Heavy: Manticore, Lehman Russ

 

I don’t know the Impguard codex that well, so excuse any omissions and wrong names and the like.

 

~*~*~*

 

The traitor guard were entrenched in the residential district of the city of Rassmund. It was vital to hold this sector of the city, for the communications tower for supply lines were orchestrated here. Dante knew that the only way to end this war was to shut the body of heresy from it’s vile food. But evil twin Creed with a goatee and handle bar mustache had some other ideas in store for the Blood Talons with his tactical genius…

 

A unit of 2 heavy weapons teams had set up defense inside of a heavy fortified tower (AV 13). Awaiting to ambush Dante and delay him before re-enforcement arrives. Fortune and Sanguinius smiled upon Dante that day, and caught evil Creed by surprise (seize the initiative, woot!).

 

Turn 1-top: having set up 2 assault squads 18” away from the building, I was able to assault it on turn one. Unfortunately for me, rolling on the pen table was terrible. I was only able to stun the crap out of the 2 heavy weapons teams. My storm raven carrying a full compliment of death company with Lemartes and Azariel, my dreadnought, moved on flat out. Baal Preds in support for the ensuing assault I planned on doing.

 

Turn 1-bottom: My opponent kept a 50-man blob squad in reserve, and a command squad(?). Sadly for me 2 hellhounds can do wonders against a tightly grouped mess of marines. They took my 5-man squad, and brought my 10 man down to 4. But 2 melta guns and a fist is still 2 melta guns and a fist. This was the turn my fist felt like doing something, and 1-inch-punched the building into smolders. I can only imagine how cool impguard surfing a rooftop building would look like in real life, as they disembarked the new ruins. Sadly, my stormraven must have been flying too low, as it crashed due to a Lehman Russ demolisher cannon and Azariel was turned into a nice smoldering statue. PERFECT FOR COVER!

 

T2-t: OK, I have a 10-man death company unscathed! Time to assault some hellhounds, and clean up some weapon teams. Dante decided to show up with his guard, and blew up a manticore(praise be the Emperor and Sanguinius). My assault squad went tank hunting. Caught me a chimera and a vet squad. My predators were glancing everything I could see, hugging cover from the mean old strength 10 template.

 

T2-b: Enter the Marbo and command squad. Marbo had Dante and friends in his sights. Luck was on my side, as Marbo must have been feeling a little weak that day and threw his 5” template only 1 and a quarter inches away from himself. Sadly, it also killed 6 dudes. Dante was feeling robust and passed an invulnerable save for the first time in weeks for me. The command squad did their heroic duty and were handily murdered by assaulting into 4 marines. It was a rainy day, as my opponent marooned a hellhound and his Lehman Russ on the same piece of terrain. Death Company lived up to their names. Strength 6 AP 3 flamers, man.

 

T3-t: Dante and the remaining assault squad took out the second chimera and vet squad inside. My predators are having much fun glancing hellhounds from shooting behind the now game saving cover that is my stormraven and Azariel.

 

T3-b: CREEEEEEED! Just as planned, they outflanked…on the wrong board edge. 3 feet from all the action. (At this point I was praising the God Emperor, Tzeench, the Dice Gods, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster). Sadly, my 2 remaining melta guns died to auto cannons. Dante was humping dead chimera chassis, trying to stay out of line of sight.

 

T4-t: I am faced with a decision. Go big or go home. At this point I was tied in KP, but still had Creed to deal with. I figured at this point, all I had to do was kill enough chimera looking models, and I can win, minus being tabled. Go big. Dante assaults Hellhound, 2 assault marines assault a 3 man team, and a predator aim at Creed’s ride. Team killed, Dante wrecks a hellhound, and creed is out in the open.

 

T4-b: Blob squad gets closer, only 1 foot away. My opponent hides a hellhound in the building, and creed finds shelter behind a wall. Because Creed can phase shift, I assume, as there were no doors (walls and the rule book. Funny stuff when you think about it).

 

T5-t: Dante kills the last hellhound, 2 marines kill a immobilized hellhound(yay! No more AP 3 templates). My predators pick off 2 vets with Creed.

 

T5-t: Creep creep creep. Blob squad is blob squad. Blob squad used Run!...it wasn’t very effective. Creed twirls his evil mustache and kills my last 2 marines. Those hot shot pistols are as advertised. A Russ explodiated a predator.

 

And that was game, called to dice roll. I was surprised how terrible Guard are in combat. I have fought the blob before, in previous games, all it took was a liberal serving of Death Company, so I had no idea how much crap 2-4 marines can make. A good deal apparently. I must consider buying and fielding Veteran Vanguard sometime…

 

*~*~*~

 

Retreat was called by evil twin Creed. The Blood Talons were victorious today, with the help of Dante. This world is on the road to recovery, into the Imperium, once again.

[Taranis]

Nice. Good story. Good result. Congrats.

 

T.

[Amsoly]

Congrats! Though reading your topic and then the 50 man blob squad I was hoping for a disgusting massacre over 1-2 rounds between the poor guardsman and a death company dread ;)