Strakens Light Armoured Brigade

I got a couple of games in this weekend, for which I used the same list (save me reselecting my army with such short notice between!)

The basic list was as follows.

The straken bomb, with priest with eviscerator, loaded in a valkyrie.
Two small mechanised infantry platoons (command with four meltaguns for tank hunting, two squads each with a meltagun - both platoons identical)
Two penal legion squads
Two Hellhounds
A Hydra
A Psyker Battle Squad in Chimera
The irreplaceable Marbo
A Primaris Psyker (want to playtest this a bit, see if it adds something to my game)
Five Ratlings (to spend the last of my points, and maybe pin some units when combined with the PBS)

My thinking with this list was that people playing against guard expect lots of infantry, and Leman Russes. This list has no tough nuts like Leman Russes, but plenty of armour. There are very few infantry targets for the enemy to munch on. While chimeras aren't as durable as a leman russ, I can get three for the same price. The only major point sink in the entire list is the Straken bomb, which can usually take control of itself.

My first game was against Scotts Eldar. The lack of infantry targets was a problem for him. His bright lances should have performed better, which hampered him (though chimeras don't fear lance weapons as much as leman russes do.) The PBS LD reduction managed to see off the rangers, but I couldn't always get psychic powers off, as Eldrad was on the board. The real killers in this list were the Hellhounds, as scott didn't shut these down quick enough, and they had the predictable effect on Eldar. It was a sieze ground mission with 3 objectives, which worked in favour for scott. With more objectives I could have spread out more. At turn 5 I was winning 1-0, but we rolled to play on. In turn 6 scott was in combat with my squad near the objective. We'd managed to kill all of each others scoring units apart from this one. A passed Ld test on double one kept them in the fight in scotts turn, then some hideous rolling in scotts turn saw the guard win the combat. The guardsmen were in range of the objective, but the eldar were not. Scott was hoping to kill my last scoring unit so that I'd need to wipe him out to win. With him being down to a wounded farseer, one warlock, and Eldrad Ulthran, a seventh turn may have seen that happen.

The second game was against the new guy at the club, Rob. He played a Marine list. He's new and a little overcautious. We had a kill points mission, and I battered him. He said he'd learned quite a bit from the game though (for starters he also has a guard army, and his eyes have been opened to the utility of penal legion squads. I've told him to try to get at least a couple of outflanking units in his army) He finished the game with a single dread left (after the meltagun in the rear from 2" away could only glance it!!!) The PBS did well again, the reducing LD of units that need morale checks (and positioning of units to keep them running) seeing off the vanguard vets, the command squad, and a sniper squad. The straken bomb ate a dread, two tanks and a squad of marines. Again, the lack of leman russes (combined witht he sheer amount of vehicles) did seem to throw my opponent off guard. After the game I did give him advice about what he could have done differently to try to reduce my effectiveness, so hopefully he's taken that on board.

All in all an interesting army. Will have to keep the list handy. Course, for now Straken can keep quiet, as this weekend is all about Bugrit! Following that next monday Chris is organising a combat patrol tournament, so I'm probably gonna take my winds of war force down for a few test games.