So, Airmobile Guard are dangerous.....

[shortysl]

I've just spent the past ten hours playing Capture and Control against Crimson Fists, and Annihilation against Imperial Guard. The Crimson Fists i didn't have much problem with, the timely arrival of a Ravenwing Attack Squadron coupled with the unstoppable advance of Belial and his attendant Terminator Squad sealed the deal for me pretty early on. Then i came to facing the Cadians...... My opponent brought two Valkyries to the table along with a pair of Leman Russ tanks (one of them a Vanquisher) and filled his Troops choices with Veterans and a 20 strong platoon with minimal upgrades. His only heavy weapons were a Lascannon squad mounted on the second level of some ruins. On turn 1 I lost both my Rhinos to Lascannon fire, a Dreadnought to Grenade Launchers and half of a Tactical squad to a Valkyrie. A second Dreadnought was left stunned for two consecutive turns, again by Grenade Launchers. I won't bore you with all of the details but suffice to say he ran rings around me for most of the game. Once again it was only the stubborn advance of the Deathwing that allowed me to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. Special mention goes to Belial who survived a Chapter Master's Orbital Bombardment, 3 shots from the Master of Ordnance's Artillery bombardment, plus countless bolt and las rounds over the course of both games. That 130 point character is a killing machine. Truly the Lion guides us

[Bringer of Redemption]

Special mention goes to Belial who survived a Chapter Master's Orbital Bombardment, 3 shots from the Master of Ordnance's Artillery bombardment, plus countless bolt and las rounds over the course of both games. That 130 point character is a killing machine. Truly the Lion guides us.

Be careful with this--Belial is tough, but he's by no means indestructible, particularly since he lacks an Iron Halo. I've seen him survive all sorts of ridiculous situations, however, and more than once he's been the only person to walk out of combat alive. At the same time, though, my Belial has rarely lasted an entire match--but that's mostly my fault, and it can be avoided.

 

That being said, Guard in general are way more dangerous to DA than I'd like, particularly if the list is good. In general, if you try to match them shot for shot, you'll lose, and they're very good about taking out armor. The greatest threat from airmobile guard, however, is their ability to get places rapidly, and to do it in an AV 12 chasis, which isn't the toughest armor around, but harder to kill than I'd like (I've spent entire games bouncing lascannons off the front armor of chimeras or devilfish when I couldn't get a front armor shot.).

 

Sounds like you had fun today, even with the Guard giving you trouble.

 

--BoR

[Brother Styphus]

The title of this thread should have read "Grenade launchers are somehow dangerous..."

[shortysl]

The title of this thread should have read "Grenade launchers are somehow dangerous..."

 

I have a new found respect for the humble Grenade Launcher. 5 points for a weapon that is capable damaging medium armoured vehicles AND frag multiple low toughness infantry models is ridiculously cheap.

[Isiah]

I think you pulled off a good if not remarkable win. These 'Leaf blower' IG (Vets, Valks and Russ's) armies aren't named as such for nothing – they generally blow anything in front of them away .

 

Cheers

I

[shortysl]

I think you pulled off a good if not remarkable win. These 'Leaf blower' IG (Vets, Valks and Russ's) armies aren't named as such for nothing – they generally blow anything in front of them away .

 

Cheers

I

 

Don't get me wrong, my opponent played brilliantly, all credit to him. I was left with very few models, and almost all of them were Terminators. A victory it may have been, but it was a costly one.

[Bringer of Redemption]

A victory it may have been, but it was a costly one.

 

This seems to be pretty standard when facing the 5th ed. codexes, particularly when the other player's as good as you are. As far as I can tell, even with the new FAQ, we won't be wiping people off the table in a couple of turns unless we're lucky. We'll have to slog through a high casualty battle if we want to win. That being said, Isiah's right--a win against a well structured airmobile list, even if it's not the 'leaf blower' specifically, is worth remembering as a job well done.

 

Also, for more on the 'leaf blowers' lists take a look at these:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2009/09/40k...leafblower.html

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/04/end...wer-affair.html

 

--BoR

[Wysten]

I think you pulled off a good if not remarkable win. These 'Leaf blower' IG (Vets, Valks and Russ's) armies aren't named as such for nothing – they generally blow anything in front of them away .

 

Cheers

I

 

To be fair, that was not a leafblower list, he would have taken malicores, spammed vet squads and taken as much armour as possible if it were a true leafblower.

 

Plenty of AV 12, go first, boom, go second, hopefully too much to make it all go boom.

[Isiah]

To be fair, that was not a leafblower list, he would have taken malicores, spammed vet squads and taken as much armour as possible if it were a true leafblower.

 

well it was close <_<

[syypher]

I think you pulled off a good if not remarkable win. These 'Leaf blower' IG (Vets, Valks and Russ's) armies aren't named as such for nothing – they generally blow anything in front of them away B).

 

Cheers

I

 

To be fair, that was not a leafblower list, he would have taken malicores, spammed vet squads and taken as much armour as possible if it were a true leafblower.

 

Plenty of AV 12, go first, boom, go second, hopefully too much to make it all go boom.

 

Agreed here. Leafblower would have definitely spammed more vehicles and there would have been nothing outside of a tin box. He would also as said before ran Manticores and also Hydras.

 

Airmobile Guard definitely is dangerous. I should know, IG is my secondary army and I run 2x Vendettas and a Valkyrie. However ML spammed lists like SW LFangs and Deathwing Termies with CML's in ea. squad make me a sad panda when I don't go first. Air vehicles will get to scout to get a cover save but all those shots...normally 2 get disabled or wrecked in some fashion, killing a lot of my mobility and thus allowing the Termies to move up and beat my face in!

 

Good job though on the close win! :)

[Wysten]

To be fair, that was not a leafblower list, he would have taken malicores, spammed vet squads and taken as much armour as possible if it were a true leafblower.

 

well it was close :)

 

I was only mentioning. Imperial Guard are all about attriction and massed everything to make up for lack of quaility. In the same way that BA is about special formations, BA is about assualt, Tau is about high quality shooting and Dark Eldar are about lots of light transports with units. This light mobile list just stuck to Chimeras and Valks, with Russes being more of a tough roadblock then shooty.

 

Though if it was the Demo Russes, with the Vindicore shots, fair play, now that be a formidable weapon you don't want to be hit by, and they can shoot that on the move. XD

[Grubbslinger]

If you don't mind me asking, how did you lose a Dreadnought to grenade launchers in one round of shooting? A grenade launcher can only fire Krak grenades, which at strength 6 would take a 6 to glance your dreadnought, and then a whole lot more six's to get your weapons destoryed, immobilized, and then finally killed. This seems like an extreme amount of luck, unless he was able to get behind you somehow. Since you didnt mention that, I am assuming he did not.

[shortysl]

If you don't mind me asking, how did you lose a Dreadnought to grenade launchers in one round of shooting? A grenade launcher can only fire Krak grenades, which at strength 6 would take a 6 to glance your dreadnought, and then a whole lot more six's to get your weapons destoryed, immobilized, and then finally killed. This seems like an extreme amount of luck, unless he was able to get behind you somehow. Since you didnt mention that, I am assuming he did not.

 

Do you know what? now that i think about it, you're spot on. The Dreadnought was pounded by Grenade Launchers but it was the Vanquisher that made the kill shot. Apologies for the mistake, i think i'm still suffering shell-shock from the dozens of grenades that flew my way during that battle :o