After Action Report

Dark Angels vs. Imperial Guard
500 pts.

Dark Angels
Librarian
(Alpha) Tactical Squad w/Plasma Cannon
(Beta) Tactical Squad w/Lascannon and Plasma Gun

Imperial Guard
Junior Officer w/grenade launcher, missile launcher, chimera
5 Ratlings
2 Storm Trooper Squads w/meltaguns
Leman Russ Tank


Turn 1:Dark Angels
Alpha Squad advanced into cover on the space marine's right flank, with the librarian following closeby.
Beta Squad fired it's lascannon at the missile launcher on the hill, missing.

Turn 1:Imperial Guard.
Chimera advances on the IG left flank and pops smoke. Left Storm trooper squad advances into cover. Officer squad and remaining storm troopers advance forward. Leman Russ comes from behind the hill.
The ratlings and guard open fire on Alpha Squad, killing 1 marine. The Leman Russ fires its battle cannon at Beta Squad, deviating but still catching two marines in it's deadly blast. The missile launcher on the hill misses.

Turn 2: Dark Angels
Alpha Squad and Librarian continue their advance. Beta Squad holds its position.
Alpha Squad fires into the StormTroopers on the space marine's left flank, killing two and causing them to fall back. Beta Squad fires its lascannon at the tank, but the massive front armor of the leman russ shrugs it off.

Turn 2: Imperial Guard
The fleeing storm troopers rally. The chimera advances towards Alpha Squad. The officer realizes he's quite exposed and begins moving towards cover. The remaining storm troopers advance towards Alpha Squad.
The chimera unleashes gouts of promethium, incinerating two of the marines. The Leman Russ and the rest of the guard fire into the squad, and when the smoke clears only three marines are left standing, but they make their leadership save and do not fall back. The missile launcher on the hill misses.

Turn 3: Space Marines
Alpha squad contiues its inexorable march across the battlefield. The librarian breaks ranks and moves towards the storm troopers on the space marine's right.
Alpha Squad kills the the officer's honor guard. The librarian summons power from the warp and incinerates two storm troopers in a coruscating ball of hellfire. Beta squad continues to pound lascannon fire into the Leman Russ.

Turn 3: Imperial Guard
All the damaged squad from the previous round of shooting make their command checks and the're off to the races. The chimera rolled towards the remnants of alpha squad. The rallied storm troopers move up to cover the officer, the storm troopers on the right flank move up for some shots on the librarian. Even the Leman Russ abandons the hill covering its right side and rolls forward to assist.
Between the chimera, officer, and left stormtroopers Alpha squad is reduced to a single plasma cannon. The Leman Russ opens up with its three heavy bolters, finishing off the last of alpha squad. The storm troopers and ratlings manage to inflict just a single wound on the librarian. The missile launcher on the hill misses.

Turn 4: Space Marines
The brave librarian turns his back on the pitiful guard before him, and strides across the the middle of the battlefield towards the chimera, reciting the litany of hate as he does so.
Channeling the power of the warp, the librarian vomits forth another blast of hellfire, but it's not strong enough to penetrate even the light armor of the chimera. Beta squad opens fire with some well placed shots and destroys the remainder of the storm trooper squad on the space marine right flank.

Turn 4: Imperial Guard
The chimera drives around the stagnant pool of water, the officer and remaining storm troopers advance on the hapless librarian.
The chimera, officer, and storm troopers cut the librarian down. The ratlings pick off a marine from Beta squad, but the real luck comes when the Leman Russ lands a cannon shell smack in the middle of the remains of beta squad, killing five of them. The missile launcher on the hill misses.

Turn 5: Space Marines
The brave marines hold their ground and fire at the chimera that moments before destroyed their beloved librarian. The lascannon's shot went wide, but the plama gun's ball of fiery death burned through the tracks of the chimera, stunning the crew and immobilizing it.

Turn 5: Imperial Guard
The remaining guard advance on the remnants of the once-proud space marines.
Adding their fire to that of the Leman Russ, the space marine army is reduced to a single marine with a lascannon. The missile launcher on the hill misses.

Sensing victory, the battle tank and remains of the guard advance on the lone marine, intending to cut him down and make their victory complete.


Tactical Post-mortem
Imperial Guard:
Pretty much everything went well for the guard. I was able to bring the majority of my fire to bear on individual space marine squads and drastically reduce their effectiveness in a few turns. The frustrating part was when I was trying to finish off a single damnable model. That's when the guard's low ballistic skill and underpowered weapons versus the marine's impressive armor and toughness really started to hurt me. It took as much of my army to kill a single model as it did to take out an entire squad. Also that damnable missile launcher never hit once. I don't know who was manning it but they're in desperate need of a court martial for incompetence.
Space Marines
The space marines struggled a bit. They probably should have capitalized on having the first turn by moving Beta squad towards the center of the table. This would have put the plasma gun in range, and allowed them to lay bolter fire into my squads. Instead they got hung up on putting a single lascannon into the Leman Russ every turn. Also, Alpha squad probably could have just advanced into the cover on their first turn and then just hunkered down and held their position. Getting caught out in the open where everything in the IG army could take a shot at them was disastrous.

Wednesday Commute: Bus to work, ride home from friend
Wednesday Exercise: 6 miles running