Guard Horde
So I promised Rich a game against his tournament army to give him a bit of practice. I had heard that MEQ guard was doing the rounds at tournaments, but he's Tau. He's got considerable anti-tank available to him. So decided to throw something at him he might not expect to face...
Admittedly this force was designed for a fight against his last chaos army, but I took it anyway. I'm going to list all the squads in the infantry platoon merged, as that was the intention upon buying them.
HQ - Straken and the usual upgraded command.
HQ - Yarrick
E - Marbo
T - Inf Platoon 1. Basic command, 5 infantry squads including power weapon commissar, vox, 3 power weapon sergeants, 4 meltaguns.
T - Inf Platoon 2. Same as 1, plus 50 conscripts in a seperate mob.
FA - Valkyrie with rocket pods - if I got first turn in a Dawn of War I'd obviously start halfway across the board... I'd then need Straken to catch up fast.
HS - Leman Russ Vanquisher - To add some long range anti tank to this army
HS - Leman Russ Vanquisher
T - Penal Legion Squad - had the points spare.
Now the plan with this army was that the vanquishers would knock out any walkers that could tie me up forever. In this game they'll be aiming to take down those submunition hammerheads. The conscripts will spread out to provide everything behind them with a 4+ cover save. Yarrick will join them to keep them in line. The two infantry mobs will then follow the conscripts. Straken will be between them. The command will be behind the mobs in case extra encouragement is needed. If the valkyrie wasn't needed to get Straken in position, I'd chuck the penal legion in it. And marbo will turn up wherever he's needed.
Now the trick with this army is that Yarrick is inspirational. Any squad with a man within 12" of him is stubborn. In addition, hs status as a commissar lord means any squad with a man within 6" of him can use his Ld of 10, even for orders. The squads have their own commissars to grant stubborn if they move out of his range. Strakens AoE grants any squad with a man within 12" Counter Attack and Furious Charge. And to top it off Yarrick and his squad can reroll misses in the first round of combat. So sure those conscripts may only be WS 2... but on the charge they're Str and I 4 rerolling misses :oP
In this game we had 4 objectives to go for. Actually we rolled kill points first. Rich said we could have that be deployment and I should roll for mission instead. Oh look, kill points again. Eventually we just tossed a coin between the objective games. I think people are getting bored of the easy win. Ironically this is the lowest Kp guard army I've ever taken, clocking in at just 12 KP. Anyway, 2 of the objectives were in the centre, one was also central but a little further towards my side, and another was closer to Rich but at the top of a building.
My army advanced on Rich. My vanquishers missed with everything in turn 1. One paid the price, though the other one took out one of the hammerheads before being removed from the game in turn 2. Rich was slaughtering my men. He must have killed 50 in the first few turns. But he wasn't killing them quick enough. As I advanced inexorably on him, Rich came up with a cunning ploy. He detached some drones from his transports and charged me with them. I wasn't causing enough wounds to get past his saves, and several drawn combats were dragging my men further out of position. Tremendous weight of fire had taken away one of my big mobs, and my conscripts were getting whittled down.
At turn 5 Rich was winning. But the game continued. I managed to beat off the dinner plates and start to make my way back to objectives. Despite Richs best efforts he couldn't finish the conscripts, but a hastily placed transport blocked me from another objective. The game ended on turn 6 with a win for Rich. If we'd had another turn, I could have probably got myself into position to secure the draw, though Rich may have thrown some contesting transports my way to deny me. I would also have had to move my infantry enough to claim both objectives, as I doubt my conscripts owuld have survived much more shooting, and Yarrick alone would not claim the objective. Alas it was not to be.
In this game I made a bit of a mistake in being quite so gung ho and running straight for Rich. What I should have done is advance like I did, but then once in position on the three central objectives, with meltaguns at key positions, simply given the order to go to ground for +2 on my cover save with all 150 men. That'd be 150 terminator saves for him to chew through... ouch! The meltaguns would be positioned to prevent tank shock moving me out of the way. I think if I'd stayed on the objectives instead of running at the enemy and coming back later (let's face it, this army was never gonna be known for it's manouverability) I would have won this.
However, sitting there each turn going "order them to duck, order them to duck, order them to duck, order them to duck...ok finished your turn" would have made for a very boring game. The game was fun, and that's what matters.
Next week I'm teaching Rich Space Hulk. And probably Dan, and seemingly Nige too! Nige tried to teach Dan last night, but looking over and having to remind Nige to tell Dan certain rules during the game (not to mention Nige telling Dan his genies only got two dice in combat while Dan had the reference sheet in front of him saying three) didn't bode well for Niges teaching techniques :oP
Admittedly this force was designed for a fight against his last chaos army, but I took it anyway. I'm going to list all the squads in the infantry platoon merged, as that was the intention upon buying them.
HQ - Straken and the usual upgraded command.
HQ - Yarrick
E - Marbo
T - Inf Platoon 1. Basic command, 5 infantry squads including power weapon commissar, vox, 3 power weapon sergeants, 4 meltaguns.
T - Inf Platoon 2. Same as 1, plus 50 conscripts in a seperate mob.
FA - Valkyrie with rocket pods - if I got first turn in a Dawn of War I'd obviously start halfway across the board... I'd then need Straken to catch up fast.
HS - Leman Russ Vanquisher - To add some long range anti tank to this army
HS - Leman Russ Vanquisher
T - Penal Legion Squad - had the points spare.
Now the plan with this army was that the vanquishers would knock out any walkers that could tie me up forever. In this game they'll be aiming to take down those submunition hammerheads. The conscripts will spread out to provide everything behind them with a 4+ cover save. Yarrick will join them to keep them in line. The two infantry mobs will then follow the conscripts. Straken will be between them. The command will be behind the mobs in case extra encouragement is needed. If the valkyrie wasn't needed to get Straken in position, I'd chuck the penal legion in it. And marbo will turn up wherever he's needed.
Now the trick with this army is that Yarrick is inspirational. Any squad with a man within 12" of him is stubborn. In addition, hs status as a commissar lord means any squad with a man within 6" of him can use his Ld of 10, even for orders. The squads have their own commissars to grant stubborn if they move out of his range. Strakens AoE grants any squad with a man within 12" Counter Attack and Furious Charge. And to top it off Yarrick and his squad can reroll misses in the first round of combat. So sure those conscripts may only be WS 2... but on the charge they're Str and I 4 rerolling misses :oP
In this game we had 4 objectives to go for. Actually we rolled kill points first. Rich said we could have that be deployment and I should roll for mission instead. Oh look, kill points again. Eventually we just tossed a coin between the objective games. I think people are getting bored of the easy win. Ironically this is the lowest Kp guard army I've ever taken, clocking in at just 12 KP. Anyway, 2 of the objectives were in the centre, one was also central but a little further towards my side, and another was closer to Rich but at the top of a building.
My army advanced on Rich. My vanquishers missed with everything in turn 1. One paid the price, though the other one took out one of the hammerheads before being removed from the game in turn 2. Rich was slaughtering my men. He must have killed 50 in the first few turns. But he wasn't killing them quick enough. As I advanced inexorably on him, Rich came up with a cunning ploy. He detached some drones from his transports and charged me with them. I wasn't causing enough wounds to get past his saves, and several drawn combats were dragging my men further out of position. Tremendous weight of fire had taken away one of my big mobs, and my conscripts were getting whittled down.
At turn 5 Rich was winning. But the game continued. I managed to beat off the dinner plates and start to make my way back to objectives. Despite Richs best efforts he couldn't finish the conscripts, but a hastily placed transport blocked me from another objective. The game ended on turn 6 with a win for Rich. If we'd had another turn, I could have probably got myself into position to secure the draw, though Rich may have thrown some contesting transports my way to deny me. I would also have had to move my infantry enough to claim both objectives, as I doubt my conscripts owuld have survived much more shooting, and Yarrick alone would not claim the objective. Alas it was not to be.
In this game I made a bit of a mistake in being quite so gung ho and running straight for Rich. What I should have done is advance like I did, but then once in position on the three central objectives, with meltaguns at key positions, simply given the order to go to ground for +2 on my cover save with all 150 men. That'd be 150 terminator saves for him to chew through... ouch! The meltaguns would be positioned to prevent tank shock moving me out of the way. I think if I'd stayed on the objectives instead of running at the enemy and coming back later (let's face it, this army was never gonna be known for it's manouverability) I would have won this.
However, sitting there each turn going "order them to duck, order them to duck, order them to duck, order them to duck...ok finished your turn" would have made for a very boring game. The game was fun, and that's what matters.
Next week I'm teaching Rich Space Hulk. And probably Dan, and seemingly Nige too! Nige tried to teach Dan last night, but looking over and having to remind Nige to tell Dan certain rules during the game (not to mention Nige telling Dan his genies only got two dice in combat while Dan had the reference sheet in front of him saying three) didn't bode well for Niges teaching techniques :oP
all said and done was a really good game, we both made mistakes costly ones in terms of you blowing up half your squad, a regular thing with you atm. at least i know i can possibly maybe deal with guard horde, and lets face it you knew what youd roughly be facing most other oppos i face wont
ReplyDeleteI had no idea how many tanks you'd done and how many you'd be fielding. I was expecting some broadsides, but figured my guardsmen would just shrug them off. The big threat was the hammerheads. The vanquishers were to take those down even if itmeant bending over in front of a broadside and spreading their cheeks! Just get rid of your ordnance. I got rid of one but the other was punishing. Would you have killed off that other troop choice if I'd got rid of both of them?
ReplyDeleteScattering back on my troops was irritating but not all that devastating. They'd probably have died to your fire anyway, and they were a filler unit when I saw I had 80 points to spend. I should have sent the valkyrie on empty and brought those on from the back to try to grab that rear objective. Oh well, hindsight IS 20/20 isn't it?
What I love about Guardsmen is (unless it's dreaded KP, but I mainly mean fluffwise) you can just fling your men at a brick wall and it matters not!
ReplyDeleteWhat about taking the tank ace in one of the vanquishers?
It's a cadian tank ace and I bring Catachan (Straken and Marbo)
ReplyDeleteYes I know I sometimes attach Yarrick too but he isn't with a particular regiment, he just goes where he thinks he might find Ghazkull.
But if I can avoid mixing my themes I will. I used him once in a game against Ken, which was a bit of a patchwork army. I literally picked as many new things in the new codex as I could field to test them and show him what they're like.
Yeah and he didn't really prove much worth then.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun game. Out of interest, how would you have faired if the game had been kill points?
Well Rich would have played a very different game if it was. Gunline all the way. With objectives he had to at least try to get near me...
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of your curiosity though, he killed 2 vanquishers, a valkryie, a penal legion squad, both command sections and one of the uber mobs. That's 7. Out of 11. I killed 2 skimmers, 4 squads, an IC, and 3 sets of drones which I vaguely recall Rich once saying counted as seperate kill points or something... so 10. I think he had 5 units/transports left. So I think a win for me, though a draw under the percentage system.
Like I said though, if it had been annihalation he'd have played a very different game. But so would I ;oP
The Escalation tournie we're going to is NOT counting the drones as a KP. As the Codex states that they are worth Zero VPs, it is the organisers belief that they intended the Drones to be totally free. So no KPs for those bozos.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's the way myself and Rich play it anyway, but we do need a house rule on it at the club.
May I suggest that's the way we play it for the ToFG?
I'm happy with that so long as there's no sneaky rules like as long as the drones are alive the tank only counts as immobilised not wrecked for KP purposes or something. That'd make it too easy for Tau.
ReplyDelete"Ok Drones, off you get and hide here at the back, we're all going on a suicide attack. Remember lads, do as much damage as you can, and if it looks like they're about to pour lots of close range fire at you, open up those ammo stores to make sure they get a nice big self damaging explosion..."
Nah there's nothing tricksy like that going on. Once the vehicle is wrecked or explodes then that's a KP, the drones just merely exist and generate no KP tally either way :)
ReplyDelete