Victory, bloody victory!

[SnorriSnorrison]

I love the smell of bloodbath in the morning.

 

So much for the introduction. As the title says, I played Imperial Guard today. Normally, I wouldn't take the time for a batrep because normally I'm playing games for fun and not with WAAC guys. Today, however, was different.

 

Our GW has it's own forum for members to chat, discuss and to hook up for games, which I did. So my opponent is known as playing quite hard lists with his Imperial Guard and Tau(no! Yes! Ooooh!) with lots of shooting, and when I asked for a game, he answered. I asked if he intended to play a competitive list, and his answer was that his list was build to win, at all costs. I knew I was up for a very tough and probably close game.

 

So this is the force I mustered against the traitor guard of vostroya:

Mephiston

Librarian, JP(Shield and FoD)

 

Terminators, Hvy Flamer

2x Sanguinary Priest, JP

 

2x Assault squad, 2x Meltaguns, one with Fist, one with Sword

Tactical Squad, Meltagun, Rocket launcher, Powerfist, Drop Pod, Beacon

 

2x Landspeeders with MM

 

Stormraven, extra armour, MM, AC

Devastators, 2x lascannon

Whirlwind

 

His list was the following:

Command Squad,

4 Sniper rifles, Camo cloaks, the commander had some 5++ invul save

 

Psyker Battle squad, 9 of them plus that watcher guy who executes a random number of psykers after perils.

 

Infantry Platoon

Platoon command, nothing special

3x 10 Guardsmen, one with commissar ------> combined to one big blob of meat

4x Hvy Weapon Teams, Autocannons

2x Veterans in chimeras, 3 meltaguns each

 

3x Vendetta

 

3x Manticores

Aegis Defense line with Quad gun

 

Points total was 2000 points. Mission was Big guns never tire(oh :cuss ) with deployment on the short board edges (holy :cuss !), we rolled 3 objectives.

 

Tactical Squad succumbed to the Red Thirst right before battle.

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We used a lot of terrain, and he encouraged me to do so while setting up, which I found strange...on his turn, I learnt to know why.

 

So he set up with the big blob of guardsmen behind the Aegis, as well as the 3 manticores behind the big squad. The commissar was at the Quadgun for BS4.

On his right flank was the psyker battle squad in the open, one squad of veterans with chimera and two 3 man-weapon teams in a ruin. The left flank was crowded with the other veterans, the weapon teams as well as the platoon command squad, ready to give orders.

In a big ruin in the center of his deployment zone, directly in front of his big 30 men squad, was the Command Squad, hiding and giving orders to anyone within 12".

Vendetta's in reserves, obviously.

 

I seldomly play against such 'competitive' lists, so this was new for me. I knew that the Manticores and Vendettas were going to be a major threat, so my set-up was a little different as usual.

 

I deployed the Devastators, the Landspeeders, Mephiston and the Whirlwind, all in cover of ruins. The rest of my army I deepstruck. And that was the first step to achieve victory, if I may spoil this.

 

He had first turn....

 

• Imperial Guard Turn 1
  

 

The first unit to shoot were the Autocannons on the right flank - and because the only thing they could see(literally!) were my two lascannon marines, they opened fire - 4 wounds, and I failed two saves, so the Devastators were actually useless from now on. Useless, you say? If you have nothing left, you can still give your life.

Then came the Manticores, a truly devastating weapon system - if you're relying on vehicles. First shot saw 3 templates dropping on the Whirlwind, and since it was barrage and indirect fire, the shots ignored cover saves. Luckily because of scatter, only one template hit and destroyed the stormbolter. Then unleashed the next manticore its deadly weapon and sealed the deal. First Blood for the Imperial Guard, but this was expected. I mean, look at that firepower!

And just because there wasn't much else to do he fired another rocket on my landspeeders. No cover save, no LoS, S10. Luckily, for me, they were only scratched and unable to move and shoot.

 

 

• Blood Angels Turn 1
  

 

Without the Whirlwind and the Devs, this was going to be a short turn. The Tacticals dropped on the left flank, next to a big, big, ruin (the Imperial Aquila shrine-thing) and splitted into 2 combat squads. One with Meltagun, the other with Sarge and Missile Launcher. The meltasquad sat in the rear of the Chimera, the other squad in the side - ready to pop the can and drop some bolters on the meltavets, which I thought to be big threat. Then, everything missed. The Meltagun, the Krak Grenade, the bolter shots didn't glance.

The other combat squad didn't do better, so I said an untimely goodbye and went on to Mephiston.

 

Perils for Wings of Sanguinius. Bugger. Crawling down from the first storey of the building, hidden from sight.

 

The Devs moved down to head for the objective where the Landspeeders where sitting, still unable to move.

 

 

 

• Imperial Guard Turn 2
  

 

 

Here comes the Vendetta! Only one? Yes, only one. And since the only thing that's closely comparative to a tank is my drop pod, he moves it in the general direction of my speeders and the Devastators. It shot down a poor blue-helmeted marine.

 

What else? Oh yeah, massive fire incoming to the drop pod from the Aegis, which doesn't do anything. Then he unleashes quie some volley of fire - two templates from a Manticore with LoS, but within minimum range ( :P ), so he has to fire indirectly. Funny thing is...he scatters. I'm in hin deployment zone, and the two templates scatter off on his Vet-Chimera, and the other one on a poor Autocannon guy. I'm trying not to laugh right there, but did anyway. You gotta laugh while you can!

 

Then, all the autocannons focus on the Melta-Combat squad, as well as the meltavets from the Chimera(wierdly enough, it got a hullpoint removed) and the Platoon squad. Now it was my turn to shine! After the dust had settled and the nozzles of the bigger guns started to cool down, there they stood - three tacticals out of five. Meltagun alive. Standing in a crater for a 5+ coversave, and me being extremely luck with my armour saves, those were becoming some real die-hards. Fearless, of course! The Drop Pod got hit by another Manticore rocket and exploded, however I made all saves.

 

The battle psykers tried their power-thing on the Tacs as well...yeah, I rolled that 6 for Deny the Witch. :P

 

 

• Blood Angels Turn 2
  

 

Enter the Angels - I made EVERY reserve roll - Terminators, 2 Assault squads AND Stormraven appeared. Like Angels descending from the sky, I placed them in the spots between his forces.

To support my Tactical Squad, I placed an Assault Squad with Librarian and Sanguinary Priest between the Tacs, the Command squad and that 30 men blob. Right in the middle of the action. The landspeeders shot the Chimera of the Melta-Vets down to a wreck, however these smooth bastids piled out so neither my tacticals or my assault squad could see them - good move there. The Melta-combat squad assaulted two remaining Heavy Weapon teams, however lost a member through overwatch. They fled, however not far enough to be off the board.

 

On the right flank, the Terminators and the other Assault Squad dropped, ready to kill some traitor guard of the unprimed regiment of rogue psykers! Terminators focused on the weapon team.

Shooting saw two psykers go down, as well as a wound on the autocannon team - some tough luck on my side and some very good coversaves on his side made sure that none of these traitors would run. Not this turn.

 

Stormraven came on, destroyed the lonely Vendetta - like a smooth pilot. The Big Boss, Mephiston, rolled an 11 for Wings...so he was walking through some ruins, not in range for assault.

The devs headed for the ruin, in safety for now.

 

• Imperial Guard Turn 3
  

 

What I expected was some massed template-fire, as well as the other two vendettas - what I got was about mildly surprising, yet very amusing.

No vendettas. *chuckle*

First Template to drop were the rogue battle psykers - they passed, I failed Deny the Witch, and laid down some mighty S9 AP2 on my assault squad - and then scattered 10" back to the casting psyker squad. ;) Some few die thanks to clever positioning of him. As I said, he was taking this kinda serious...

 

Manticores were next in line. Templates dropped on my Assault squads, and on the Terminators....which was also the time that I learned that those missiles were only AP4. With a broad grin on my face, I make a good load of my armour saves, losing about 4 or marines in total. Yup, 4 or 5. The squad without the priest falls back 5 inches for a tactical retreat.

 

Some wild snapshots at the Raven, some commands here and there. Also, the Big blob of guardsmen goes all First Rank, fire![...] on the Assault Squad next to my Tactical combat squads - again, about 3 losses here. Nothing much else, even the veterans fail to do major damage because of Shield of Sanguinius. ^^

On the other flank however, their veteran-clones melta'd two Terminators.

 

 

• Blood Angels Turn 3
  

 

This was where the magic happened that is close combat. With the terminators, Mephiston finally in range and the assault squad I wiped out two weapon teams, and the psykers. I consolidated in a widely-spread formation(thanks to CAG at this point, it helped me to reduce incoming template damage) and mostly in cover.

 

The Tacticals took on the Veterans, even though the Frag grenades I used did most of the damage, and wiped them out. The Assault squad next to them erased the last weapon team on the field as well as the platoon command squad and consolidated into the forest where those guardsmen used to be.

 

Stormraven fired on the manticors, but only ripped off a hullpoint, thanks to cover and poor rolling on my side.

 

It already felt like a victory at this point, which he admitted as well. His shooting was either unlucky or ineffective thanks to FnP. Those Priests really saved my bacon today!

 

 

 

 

Thanks if you've read to this point, I tried my best to make this a good read for you guys! What happened in the last turns, you might wonder? Yes, I destroyed his last manticores in assault, wiped off the Company Command squad with 4 Tacticals in close combat, the remaining veterans, and then took on the big blob defending the Aegis. The vendettas weren't able to take down my raven because of the jink save(always stayed in flier mode, no passengers this time), which I made as well as any other armour save. While I lost many marines because of the repeated fire of that 30-men blob, the losses occurred too late in the game to make a difference.

 

End of the game, by turn 5, I had destroyed anything close to an objective while having a Devastator squad sit on one(big guns never tire...), killed his warlord, as well as 3 units in his deployment zone. He counted and said with quite a sad face: 'That's 5:1 for you, mate.'

 

Victory! A bloody one, but a victory fought with honour and against all odds! He's known for some nasty lists in the area, and he told me that his list was made to 'Win at all costs'...

 

 

Closing thoughts:

- Template-heavy imperial guard suffer from deepstriking armies. A lot. If you can survive that one round of pie-plate-doom, that is. He killed a good bunch of his own guys with that many templates.

- In an edition that favours shooting, close combat is often overlooked in non-MEQ armies, and can be a serious disadvantage for them. Even with Leman Russes instead of the Manticores, firing those while a good bunch of your own army is around is very dangerous. I got close very early, and with that many templates, many of them scattered into the wilderness/on his own squads.

- If the Emperor and Sanguinius are holding their hands over your dice, you can't lose. ;)

- My play could have been described as aggressive, while he was hiding behind defense lines and ruins for his safety - which wasn't enough in the end. Got him on the wrong foot when all of my reserves appeared turn 2 provided excellent target saturation.

- Aegis defense line is ineffective to say the least. To take down a raven you have to be extremely lucky. To be honest, he used the Quadgun far more often for overwatch fire than for interceptor fire.

 

All-in-all: I'm still not a friend of lists that lean more towards the 'competitive' milieu(which is a very, very relative term by any means), however it was a nice change to my normal beer-and-pretzel games.

 

 

So, there you go. First semi-proper batrep from me(pictures would have been preferable). Good night you all, or have a nice day. Either way, Snorri out.

 

 

 

Snorri

[Lanfear]

thanks for the nice report <_<

[Morticon]

shotto for the report Snorri! Tight list of his to deal with.

You mentioned "grenades" having done all the damage. Was that over a few turns, or what? (Im asking since it reads like your tac squad threw more than one -unless you meant one from each combat squad?).

 

 

Glad you enjoyed a competitive game :D

[Chaplain Admetus]

Good report, and congrats on the win :D. Do feel I have to point out that the guard player lost by an even worse margin as you're forgetting to add heavy support kills into the mix (he got a whirly, you got multiple manticores).... *locates guard player's flesh wound. rubs in salt vigorously and with glee*.

[Biaz]

Awesome! I love deepstrike armies, and even more I love tough guard lists getting obliterated (or guard lists in general. Its just so... thematic :D )

[Zynk Kaladin]

Nice win, dude! Being at the receiving end of such competitive guard lists, the mere notion of them getting thoroughly trashed makes me extremely happy :tu:

 

I played my friend's fairly competitive 2k guard list last night (short table edges... fml) and, by the grace of Sanguinius, managed to tie the game (could have won by 3, but I goofed on my RAS on an obj and he shot everyone withing 3" away with butt loads of guns). Guard shooting in 6th is SCARY effective being able to constantly use hard hitting weapons from turn one and on. Don't even get me started on the sheer amount of armor and infantry they can put on the table. I was literally 6 assault marine deaths away from being tabled and my friend had most of his force still intact. The only reason I managed to tie was by playing the long term objective game and placing 2 objectives on my side of the board and neutralizing his chimera vets.

 

I don't think I will ever have the confidence to table a good guard list with a good BA list so your win definitely make me feel better. Personally, I feel like IG is the antithesis of BA and almost every battle I have fought has been an uphill one.

[Brother Maxwell]

Congrats on the win~!

 

Great battle report, real easy to follow :blush: I haven't played many games but I've never thought about a full tac squad in a pod for a BA list heh, have to give it a try from my usual sterns!

[Taranis]

Well done Snorri, and congratulations. Templates can be a double edged sword. :cuss

[SnorriSnorrison]

thanks for the nice report

Not for that, brother! :)

 

shotto for the report Snorri! Tight list of his to deal with.

You mentioned "grenades" having done all the damage. Was that over a few turns, or what? (Im asking since it reads like your tac squad threw more than one -unless you meant one from each combat squad?).

 

 

Glad you enjoyed a competitive game

 

Extremely tight list! I got to admit, I'm a bit proud - none of us rolled badly in a streak, mostly we both rolled awesome, his to-wound rolls(on 5s) were extremely lucky, over 3 turns. Well, thank to Sanguinius, my armour saves were lucky as well. :cuss

 

Yes, the two combat squads threw the grenades, sorry if that wasn't clear! The three guys with the Melta headed off for the Assault cannon teams, lost a Marine to overwatch and smashed some face, but the team got a away. They then came back next round and together with the Sergeant's squad fragged the Vets down to about 3 or 4 guys, which were wiped off in close combat. It feels so good not to need any Prescience in CC!

 

And yes, I enjoyed it. Mostly because it was a very fluffy setup, and a lot of things were going according to plan - even with heavy resistance from his side. So what I'm glad about is that it wasn't a one-sided game, but that I had to really keep my thoughts together to win, which I think I managed quite well. ^_^

 

 

Good report, and congrats on the win . Do feel I have to point out that the guard player lost by an even worse margin as you're forgetting to add heavy support kills into the mix (he got a whirly, you got multiple manticores).... *locates guard player's flesh wound. rubs in salt vigorously and with glee*.

 

Haha, you're making my day man! :) *passes the table salt* go ahead with that salt-rubbing! It's an 8:2 then! I also let out quite a loud roar after the victory was achieved - just too funny to let that opportunity pass!

 

 

Awesome! I love deepstrike armies, and even more I love tough guard lists getting obliterated (or guard lists in general. Its just so... thematic )

It is, isn't it? It was the perfect matchup, and so very fitting to our fluff. :P

 

 

Nice win, dude! Being at the receiving end of such competitive guard lists, the mere notion of them getting thoroughly trashed makes me extremely happy.

 

The only reason I managed to tie was by playing the long term objective game and placing 2 objectives on my side of the board and neutralizing his chimera vets.

 

I don't think I will ever have the confidence to table a good guard list with a good BA list so your win definitely make me feel better. Personally, I feel like IG is the antithesis of BA and almost every battle I have fought has been an uphill one.

 

It made me happy as well, brother, to be honest, at one time I caught myself smiling like a small child, it was at one occasion where a template of his manticores scattered off on his troops again!

 

Objectives are important in a game like that - the Guard player relied on his superior firepower, and on the two Veteran squads to take objectives. Luckily for me, I managed to assault from both flanks which meant that the two objectives he placed there were constantly contested. and of course, all the exploded Manticores helped a bit. ;)

 

I wouldn't think that my list was overly competitive - the 'hard' units were the Raven and Meph - and Meph didn't make an appearance until turn 3. Terminators are fairly simple, and my troops were versatile, that's all.

It's an uphill battle, though. If that Astropath-guy were there to give me -1 on my reserve rolls, this game would have been completely different. Born to lose, live to win, brother! I'd say try it out over and over again. ;)

 

 

Congrats on the win~!

 

Great battle report, real easy to follow I haven't played many games but I've never thought about a full tac squad in a pod for a BA list heh, have to give it a try from my usual sterns!

 

Thanks brother, glad you liked it! I've been using the Tac in pod in all but one game in 6th, because the Rhino is no longer my preferred tranportation vehicle because of the new disembarkation rule and hullpoints on AV11. The Pod arrives, a Tac squad disembarks and is already in range for bolters and maybe even melta. Plus, they're often overlooked and don't seem to be a big threat like the Sternguard. ^^

 

Well done Snorri, and congratulations. Templates can be a double edged sword.

 

Thanks, Taranis! Indeed, they do have quite some potential. :lol:

 

 

Thanks again, guys. I left out the last two turns because nothing really exciting happened. Mostly, we were shifting models in order to get a better coversave, prepare assault and stuff. The climax that ended the game was probably me destroying his Manticores with my Assault squad and Librarian, as well as the Tactical squad mopping up the Company Command squad. Nothing overly exciting in any way.

 

 

Well, thanks again for reading!

 

 

Snorri

[Kierdale]

Congratulations, Snorri. As both a marine and guard player, your report was both entertaining and insightful.

[JamesI]

Well done Snorri!

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Well done, Snorri, and thanks for the battle report. Well written -- please bring your camera next time as I'd have loved to see some pics.

 

I'm a guard player myself, and I am just as happy if not happier than everyone else here to see a 3x Vendetta 3x Manticore list get thoroughly beaten. I hate those lists, and refuse on principle to bring Manticores or Vendettas in my own guard armies because of how they're abused. Overall I think the guard 'dex is good and I really like it, but those two units are overpowered and overpriced in my view and I hate what it does to Guard players' reputation that people bring lists like that so often.

[Mr.darkness]

the problem with his list was obviously that three manticores are good but not very diversified. When he came up against a list like yours with a fair few T4, 3+ men, then he gets some problems.

 

Still a hard list by any measure though. well done on the win.

[knife&fork]

Manticores are nice and all that, but if I ran IG I would be all over the basilisks. Great anti MEQ and anything AV.

[SnorriSnorrison]

Thanks again guys!

 

I'm a guard player myself, and I am just as happy if not happier than everyone else here to see a 3x Vendetta 3x Manticore list get thoroughly beaten. I hate those lists, and refuse on principle to bring Manticores or Vendettas in my own guard armies because of how they're abused. Overall I think the guard 'dex is good and I really like it, but those two units are overpowered and overpriced in my view and I hate what it does to Guard players' reputation that people bring lists like that so often.

 

The Manticores are killer. Against anything else than deepstriking Blood Angels(a style that is not often the preferred choice) they are incredibly effective, and a good part of luck was needed to let my troops survive against the templates. Against Hordes, their D3 templates will erase a 30 men-mob from the table and with a little luck, that's only one manticore shooting. The vendettas are really good anti-tank units, as if that was needed when the Manticore missiles have 2D6 armour penetration....

In the end, it felt good to kick that list where it hurts. ^_^

 

 

the problem with his list was obviously that three manticores are good but not very diversified. When he came up against a list like yours with a fair few T4, 3+ men, then he gets some problems.

 

Yes, indeed. Against anything else, his list is extremely effective. However, the manticors are very hard-hitting tanks if you're a table-length away, so that's about 80-90% of the lists and armies that are played.

 

 

Manticores are nice and all that, but if I ran IG I would be all over the basilisks. Great anti MEQ and anything AV.

 

They'd posed a bigger threat, definitely! AP3 would have been deadly, very deadly. On the other side, the basilisk is often overlooked because it 'only' fires one template. ;)

 

 

 

Snorri

[Chaplain Admetus]

The uber-cheese Daemon build would probably hurt that guard list if it glanced stuff to death with flamers (they do do that, right? Or have I confused them with something else)... Manticores don't like Cron Air either. But then, those two armies are unpleasant to just about everything out there so that probably shouldn't count.

 

Definitely a good read overall - I've always really struggled with guard and they're the one army I always expect to lose to. Anyone else I tend to feel like I have a fighting chance, but against the Hammer of the Emperor I always feel like I'm going to get shot before I can get near enough to punch something in the face. Oh for the days of 4th edition where you could consolidate into an enemy and have 1 squad just roll an entire flank....