Fight Night Report

Pictures from Yesterday's throwdown are here. It went pretty well.

This was our newest player's second game and he's starting to pick up the rules. Abaddon is still a beast in any sort of combat, mowing down wraithlords, wraithguard, and Lords of Change with ease.

Daemons are still fragile, but they work well in a team setting. The thing I've learned most about daemons is that they are insanely good in low point games. At five hundred or seven hundred fifty points they just tear up the opposition. There's almost no stopping them. Once you start moving up the handicap of only having half your force on the table becomes more pronounced. With your opponent getting a turn to react and pour all his firepower into just half your army, you'll feel lucky if you have anything left to make choices with on turn two. Running as part of a team softens the blow quite a bit, since with a teammate you've got three quarters of your combined forces versus all of theirs, which distracts from killing the daemons and helps keep more of them around to cause damage on subsequent turns.

Rumble and Grumble

This last tuesday's gaming night I pulled some tanks together and ran an Armored Company list.  Here's the list:

Command Tank: Leman Russ w/various options

Troops: 2xLeman Russ w/various options

Heavy Support: 3xDemolishers w/various options

Fast Attack: 2xHellhounds

Fast Attack: Squad of 2 Sentinels w/Autocannon

Inquisitor Lord w/3 Warrior Henchmen (1 melta, 2 plas)

1 Callidus Assassin

The plan is to pound the enemy line with the tanks, root out squads hiding in cover with the hellhounds, and outflank with the sentinels to get side or rear shots on enemy armor.  The inquisitor lord and his melta/plas followers would hang around the main body of tanks and provide targeted close range fire support to finish off what couldn't be killed by the templates, while the assassin provides a crucial first turn bunch-up of troops in addition to assaulting any targets that might present themselves.

I rolled up against my friend's Dark Angel Deathwing Army.  He was rolling with a Land Raider Crusader, Belial, 3 Terminator squads, 2 Dreadnoughts, and a Devastator Squad with plasma cannons.

We rolled Annhilation, so my lack of scoring units wasn't a factor. As the battle progressed it became a standout example of how vehicles in general, and imperial guard vehicles specifically have been affected by 5th edition. Here are some highlights:

• Defensive Weapons - It's only defensive if its strength four or less.  This means all those heavy bolter sponsons are basically useless.  In fourth when you were forced to move you could just unload with your bolters, now you're stuck to just firing one when you move.
• Close Combat - Vehicles that have AV10 in the rear die in close combat.  It doesn't matter if you moved twelve inches and your opponent hits on a 6.  Any MEQ unit is capable of generating a glancing hit or two, and a squad of terminators is more than capable of putting the hurt on.  Your vehicle might only get glanced, but it's almost a sure thing that you won't be shooting or moving in the next turn, and then the squad that's attacking hits automatically.
• AV14 is king. Even with strength nine and ten weapons there's a good chance you won't destroy your target.  And unlike with Hand-to-Hand your chance to kill a stationary vehicle with shooting doesn't get better.
• Ballistic skill does help your ordinance, but not that much.  Pulling your shot back to center when it scatters is nice, but you're still going to completely miss your target most of the time.

I still think Armored Company is viable in 5th Ed (See post on BellofLostSouls).  However, I thin they need to be treated like a gunline army.  They need some solid counter-assault units that can screen and clear dangerous units that are trying to close with them.  My nomination for this role will be Grey Knights.  Demolishers are just as good as as standard battle tank, and just the same cost, too, so I'd throw in the Seige Doctrine to get those guys as troops. Without pointing it up here's what the modified list would look like:

Command Chimera, 3 Demolishers, Inquisitor w/3 warriors and 3 acolytes with combi/plasma weapons and a Land Raider, Assassin, 2 squads of Grey Knights.  If there are any points left over they would be spent on basilisks, sentinels, and hellhounds.

I'd be curious to try this list out, since I think it could perform well against a variety opponents.

Demonzilla Redux

The Demonzilla's first outing was a dismal failure. The troop selections were the ones to show up first and then the monstrous creatures stayed at home in the warp until turn four. They gave a good show when they showed up, but it was too little too late.

We did manage to get a lower point game in as well. A Lord of Change in a 750 battle is a pretty unbalancing factor.

Tonight will be their second outing, albeit at a lower points value.

We're doing one thousand point team battles. I'll bring a lord of change, the Masque, some bloodletters, daemonettes, horrors and a khorne demon prince. My teammate is running chaos marines and we're going up against ultramarines and dark angels. Even with the points split between us there should be quite a few monstrous creatures on the table.

I think if I had the model, I'd drop the masque, horrors, and khorne demon prince and replace him with a bloodthirster. Which means it might be time to pick up a bloodthirster model. Maybe black friday....

Attika VI - Campaign Week 4

Reports from Attika VI clearly indicate that the chaos incursion has been repulsed. Preliminary reports suggest that despite fierce fighting inside the city walls, casualties were within acceptable parameters. Timely intervention on the part of the Dark Angels and the Sisters Sororitas ensured that most of the holy sites within the city were kept safe.

Pictures can be found here.

Campaign Week 3

Apocalypse

The penultimate week brought Abaddon the Despoiler and a daemonhost to the outskirts of our fair city, where the brave city defenders gave their lives to delay the inevitable breach of the city walls.

More photos with a description of the battle can be found here.

Campaign Week 2

Week two of the campaign sees the chaos forces gaining steam as they take control of the planet's orbital defense laser installation. On another part of the planet the combined might of the imperial guard an dark angels were barely enough to retain control of the imperial manufactorum.

Next week brings an attack on the planet's temple capitol. Everyone is teaming up to play an apocalypse game.

Of Chaos and Cooking

Standard tuesday night protocol found me at Games and Gizmos with a big brood of Chaos. Some buddies are gearing up for a 3000 point tournament at the bellevue bunker, so I added another grand onto the demon bomb army. He's still tweaking so we only played 2750 instead of the full 3000. I don't think it made for a very strong list, and is certainly less bomby than the lower point list.

HQ
Chaos Lord bike, power weapon, meltabombs, mark of tzeentch, personal icon
Demon Prince wings, mark of tzeentch, warptime, wind of chaos
Greater Demon

Elites
(10) Chosen champion w/meltabombs & powerfist, icon of tzeentch, 5+ inv. save, 2 plasma guns, heavy bolter
(6) Terminators mark of tzeentch, 2 chainfists, reaper autocannon

Troops
Thousand Sons 4 marines, sorcerer with doombolt and personal icon mounted in a rhino
Thousand Sons 4 marines, sorcerer with doombolt and personal icon mounted in a rhino
6 Lesser Demons
6 Lesser Demons

Fast Attack
6 bikes champion w/power weapon & meltabombs, icon of tzeentch, plasma gun, melta gun
5 raptors champion w/power weapon & meltabombs, icon of tzeentch, plasma gun, melta gun

Heavy Support
Land Raider havok launcher
Land Raider
Predator twin linked lascannon turret, lascannon sponsons

The additions to the list obviously don't play to the strengths of the army. There are no new icons, and nothing new in the list that gets called in for deep strike. It becomes much more of an assault army with a couple deep strike support elements. What it really needed was two separate squads of terminators an increase in size on the larger squads of thousand sons. Then if points were left over throw in some more summoned demon squads.

Playing things out against my buddy's space marines everything just kind of fell apart. The insult to injury was the terminators scattering the full twelve inches off the table edge in turn four. C'est la vie.

I'll work to correct some defencies, and hopefully get some modeling done so I can finally put combi-plas on all the terms.


After my ignominious defeat, I went home and cooked myself a little dinner. Have a recipe:

Ginger Leeks

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon ginger, chopped
2 large leeks, remove the dark green part, slice the rest.
1/2 teaspoon salt
half a tomato, cubed
fresh ground pepper to taste.

Put the butter and brown sugar in a small frying pan over medium heat. Stir occasionally to mix the sugar with the butter and prevent the butter from burning. When butter starts to foam it has reached the right temperature. Reduce the heat to just below medium and add the ginger. Cook for two minutes, until the ginger becomes fragrant. Add the leeks and sprinkle the salt over the top. Stir it around to get the leek slices coated in butter. Increase the heat to just above medium and cook for six or seven minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning. The leeks will become limp and the rings of the slices will separate. Stir in the tomatoes an cook for another two minutes, just so the tomatoes are heated up. Too much time over heat will cook the tomatoes all the way through, making them mushy. Add fresh ground pepper, stir, and serve.

Super Bomb Bomb

A friend and I did a 1750pt battle for our weekly Tuesday face off. I decided to try out a demon bomb army. I prefer armies with speed, and speed is definitely a requirement for a good demon bomb. I was also keen to test out some mounted Thousand Sons. Here's the list:

HQ
Chaos Lord w/bike, power weapon, meltabombs, mark of tzeentch, personal icon
Greater Demon

Elites
Chosen 9 members, champion with meltabombs & powerfist, icon of Tzeentch, 2 plasma guns
Chaos Terminators 4 champions, icon of Tzeentch, 2 chainfists, reaper autocannon

Troops
Thousand Sons 4 marines, sorcerer with doombolt and personal icon mounted in a rhino
Thousand Sons 4 marines, sorcerer with doombolt and personal icon mounted in a rhino
6 Lesser Demons
6 Lesser Demons

Fast Attack
Bike Squad 5 bikes, champion w/power sword & meltabombs, icon of Tzeentch, plasma gun, meltagun
Raptor Squad 5 members, champion w/meltabombs

My Ultramarine opponent brought a bunch of 5-man tactical squads with heavy weapons, an assault squad led by a jumpy chaplain, a scout squad with sniper rifles and missile launcher, two dreadnoughts (one venerable), a pair of land speeders, a vindicator and two predators with twin-lascannons and heavy bolter sponsons.

All in all it worked really well. The terminators and demons came in half on turn two and half on turn three. The thousand sons held down an entire flank, using the rhinos as mobile pieces of cover, keeping everything but a single target from having line of sight to the thousand sons. And of course that single target was what the thousand sons blew away in the shooting phase. The thousand sons managed to clean up and hold the entire right flank, only taking casualities in the last couple turns of the game when the chaplain and assault marine remnant charged them.

The bomb itself also worked great, bringing extra pressure to bear where it was needed. Lesser demons were more than able to tie up and kill the marines they came up against. The greater demon chewed up a tactical squad and most of the assault squad before being brought down.

By far the most frustrating element of the army for my opponent was the invulnerable save that each and every trooper in my army had. At worst I always had a 5+ save versus anything he could throw at me, and most things had a 4+. Lascannons, assault cannons, power fists and dreadnought weapons mean a lot less when you're still able to roll a 4+ to ignore a hit.

If I had to change anything, it would probably be to fit some lightning claws and a combi-melta on the lord, put some combi-plasma on the terminators, and fill the chosen squad with the maximum number of plasma guns possible.

MVP of the game was the aspiring sorcerer who force-weaponed the jumpy chaplain on my last turn.

Tourney Battle Reports

The 1750 tournament at the Redmond game store has come and gone, and I am overdue for my reports. There was a good turnout but the game started late.

Here's the army I brought:

HQ
Heroic Senior Oficer (power weapon, bolt pistol)
2 plasma guns
Medic
Commissar (power weapon, bolt pistol)

Anti-Tank Squad (2 lascannon, missile launcher)

Inquisitor Lord (power weapon, storm bolter, carapace armor)
2 Heavy Bolter Servitors
2 Acolytes (bolt pistol, carapace armor)

Elites
10 Ratlings

Callidus Assassin

5 Ogryn in Chimera(multi-laser, heavy bolter)

Troops
Platoon 1
Junior Officer(bolt pistol, power weapon)
Infantry Squad 1 (autocannon)
Infantry Squad 2(autocannon)

9 Storm Troopers
Veteran Sargeant (bolt pistol, power weapon)
2 meltaguns
Chimera(multi-laser, heavy bolter)

Heavy Support

Leman Russ Battle Tank (3 heavy bolters)

Leman Russ Battle Tank (3 heavy bolters)

Leman Russ Demolisher (lascannon, 2 plasma cannons)

On to the battles. On to glory

Battle 1 - Mechanized Chaos Marines

Patrick brought three squads of plague marines kitted with plasma guns and mounted in rhinos, and a land raider with Kharn and a squad of berserkers. The mission was hostage rescue. I was defending and had to prevent Patrick from getting to the prisoner and then leading him out of my deployment zone. He deployed fairly uniformly across his starting line, while I assigned the ogryn and storm troopers to hold my left and right flanks respectively, while the rest of my army was tasked with holding the center and protecting the hostage.

The game started pretty well for me. I immediately immobilized his land raider and most of his rhinos, but if I was expecting the rest of the game to continue this way I was in for a rude surprise.

The plague marines made an inexorable advance towards my center line. The imperial guard can usually wear down power armored troops through sheer volume of fire, but Plague Marines with their toughness of five and Feel No Pain simply ignored all my efforts to bring their numbers to a manageable level. In the end I had killed a fair number of the enemy, but my army was killed to a man. Here are some lessons I learned:
1. Careful with your battle cannons. I pulled my assassin off the board after a stray round from a Russ landed on her. Battle cannons are not close fire support weapons.
2. My Ogryn got caught by the berserkers after they fired on the assault target that was supposed to get them away from them. So rather than acting as bait to draw the berserkers closer to my battle cannons, they ended up getting caught by the berserkers while they were high-fiving each other after killing a rhino. Rather than shooting at the rhino they should have held up for the assault phase and used the extra six inches to get themselves to safety.
3. My army needs more counterassault. I think maybe a priest instead of a commissar, and replace the plasma guns and medic with some meltaguns.
4. I was too concerned about the hostage. Instead of clustering my armor in the center I should have set them up on a flank (probably the left where there was lighter resistance). Since the only thing that could harm my armor at range was his land raider. A concentration of fire here would have let me hold down that flank in a couple of turns, while the hostage could have been protected by an infantry picket.

It was a good game, and seeing the plague marines in action was frustrating. They definitely seemed like a unit that basically played themselves. MVP on my army was the inquisitor lord who on the last turn held up the squad escorting the hostage and kept it from leaving my deployment zone.

Battle 2 - Lashing Chaos Army

Ross brought a lash chaos army. There was a demon prince, a sorceror on bike, some noise marines, some chaos marines, a couple of obliterators, a land raider and a couple of spawn squads. The mission was Emissary Escort, where Russ had to get a special character into my deployment zone. He set up a long line with his heavy stuff on my right flank and his lashers and emissary on my left. I piled my armor onto my right flank and lightly held the center. There was a large piece of terrain in the very center of the board that made for very poor diagonal sight lines.

Since the chaos codex came out everyone has been kicking and screaming about Lash of Submission. And I definitely think that it is a powerful, but to really do a lash army you are committing an awful lot of your points to just lashing.

My armor spent a good portion of the game moving up my left flank. I think they were able to start picking targets on turn three. The callidus popped out early, pasted the emissary and spent the rest of the game holding up most of his right flank. The battle tanks had a field day lobbing shells the length of the long table edge and the storm troopers managed to microwave the land raider on the last turn. As I recall, the game was a draw in the end.

Here's my thoughts on Lash having played against it now:
1. Lash allowed my opponent to have a first turn charge with his spawn. Since spawn basically move 2d6 inches with a twelve inch assault, the extra 2d6 from the lash are almost guaranteed to get someone into their assault range on the first turn.
2. Lash could move my units, but moving a sixty point guard squad doesn't hurt me that much. What I think actually hurt me more was that the lash would pin me.
3. His sorceror and demon prince spent most of the game pussyfooting around lashing stuff closer to his spawn. He could have charged his casters into combat also, but then he risks having them tied up and not able to lash.

Game 3 - Imperial Guard Vostroyans

Aaron B brought a beautifully painted Vostroyan army. I won this game, but I'm not interested in a retelling. The mission used escalation rules and Aaron had lost his first two games which made him not care about the game we were playing. It was basically a miserable game. My opponent didn't care about being there, he kept wandering away from the table and bullshitting with his friend who was playing on the table next to us. As it was I spent quite a bit of time just sitting around waiting for him and we were only able to make it to turn four (which is a real problem in an escalation game where a majority of your army is in reserves). It's the first tournament game I haven't been able to play to completion because of time.

The tournament was fun and I definitely got a kick out of my first two games. There's a tournament this Saturday at the Bellevue Bunker but I'll be out of town, so I'm not sure when I'll next be able to play in a tournament. Maybe I'll have my Chaos in order.

Tournament Report

I showed up to the Bellevue Bunker around noon and sat around waiting to see if three people wouldn't show up so that I could be moved from wait-list to player. In fact at least ten people didn't show so everyone on the wait list got to play.

I played the list I specced out in the last post with the exception of the Inquisitor Lord since I forgot the WYSIWYG model.

Game 1
The first game was against a black templar player. I don't think I've even ever read through the Black Templar's codex before so I was wholly unprepared. Mike, my opponent, had three blocks of ten marines, a chaplain and emperor's champion, and a razorback/predator (It wasn't painted so I can't remember for sure) with twin linked lascannon turret and heavy bolter sponsons. The mission had something to do with killing a select enemy squad.

So I guess Black Templars have a whole bunch of rules that let them make extra moves. They swept across the battlefield and by turn six had wiped out my entire army. That isn't to say that I didn't give a good accounting of myself. By the end all his squads were below half strength, one squad had only a single member left, and the tank was wreckage. Still, as the first tournament game I'd played in an awfully long time, a massacre didn't have me hopeful for the rest of the day.

Game 2
The second game was against a beautifully painted ultramines army commanded by a pleasant fellow named Timm. It was comprised of a tactical squad, scout squad, devastator squad and command squad all of which had every single option and loadout. We played on a fun ruined city location. The mission was a straightforward cleanse with some sort of extra gravity rule that we both forgot about.

This game went much better. I was generally able to exert overwhelming force on each of his squads individually, taking his army apart piece by piece. I will also admit that the dice were very much in my favor and I think that my tanks scared him because his command squad spent the whole game shooting a single lascannon at the demolisher. In the end I wiped his army off the table and only lost five or six guardsmen.

Game 3
Game three was played against an unpainted ravenwing-centric dark angels army. There was a tactical squad, scout squad, two squads of three bikes, a dreadnought, and the master of the ravenwing in his land speeder. The mission was Suicide Squads where we each had a squad that we wanted to get killed for extra victory points.

This was a total slug fest. The dark angels won the first turn and the bikes and speeder zipped forward to lay waste to my infantry squads. After that there was mainly just a lot of back and forth blasting at each other with my army having a bit more firepower and luck. In the end I had the inquisitor lord, russ, demolisher, immobile chimera and stormtroopers left, and he had half a tactical squad detachment, an immobile dreadnought, and the land speeder. It was a victory for me, but far from a resounding one.


I had fun. In the end my army performed as I predicted it would when I made the army list. Against the hand to hand templars I crumpled, against the straight up vanilla marines I dominated, and where I had to fight against a land speeder with fourteen armor on the front and sides I had a really hard time dealing with it. If I had to do one thousand points again I'd definitely tool up my command squad for close combat so that I could have some sort of response to an assault.

Defense of Hive City Outskirts

After Action Report: Hive City Bhamut. Bhamut defence force. Colonel Saunders. Personal Journal
Not being told why this particular piece of rock was so important, only knowing that the High City Lords had determined that an opposing force would be attempting to move through the abandoned tenements to the northeast of town. I was given charge of a small force and ordered to stop the intruders before they were able to gain a foothold.
In the middle of the day forms took shape on the horizon. Marching implacably, they came at us. We dug in and prepared. I was quite shocked to see my foe was indeed a band of Space Marines themselves. I had heard no reports of the Adeptus Astartes operating on Bhamut. I could only assume this was some sort of renegade band, no doubt given over to the depredation of the infernal powers.

Dark Angels vs. Imperial Guard. Take and Hold.

Dark Angels: Chaplain and 5 deathwing terminators deep striking, 2 10 man tactical squads with plasma cannons. One was broken into two 5 man detachments
Imperial Guard: Senior Officer command with plasma guns and commissar. Junior Officer with two squads. 5-man storm trooper squad (grenadiers) led by a veteran sergeant. 5 man squad of ratlings and 2 Leman Russ Battle tanks with 3 heavy bolters.

Terrain: A mix of forest and destroyed buildings. The right half of the battlefield had some tall buildings on it, the left half was mostly open except for some low hills. A large rock spire dominated the center of the field. The dark angels set up with the two 5 man squads on the left and the 10 man squad on the right, poised to advance through the town. The storm troopers set up on the far right, with the ratlings infiltrating into a building just ahead of them. The rest of the guard setup to hold the left and center of the table.

Turn 1

Dark Angels: The deathwing terminators deep struck and landed right in front of the main imperial guard force. One of the 5-man squads advanced towards the center of the field while the large tactical squad started creeping through the town on the far right flank. The terminators and stationary plasman cannon decimated a squad of imperial guard, dropping eight of them and causing them to flee off the table.
Imperial Guard: Looking to get some distance in order to use their main guns, one of the Leman Russ tanks drove towards the center of the table while the other threw the gears into reverse and backed away from the menacing deathwing. The remaining guard squad and Junior Officer advanced on the terminators, while the stormtroopers on the right moved into cover within the crumbling buildings. The guard squad sprayed the terminators with lasgun fire, but failed to make a mark. Then the Russes opened up, delivering a pair of explosive battle cannon shells right into the center of the terminators, killing four of them. The junior officer charged the terminators and managed to put a wound on the chaplain before falling back. Finally, the ratlings killed one of the members of the tactical squad advancing on the right flank.

Turn 2

Dark Angels: Left tactical squad continues its advance, shooting into the building where the ratlings were hiding, but failing to pick them out amongst the cover. On the left flank, the chaplain and remaining terminator advance on the Leman Russ near the center of the table, shooting at the guard squad as they go. Combined with plasma cannon fire and fire from the still advancing tactical detachment in the center of the table the guard squad loses a few of its number, but does not flee. Finally, the chaplain and terminator assault the Russ, manage to put a chainfist into its rear armor but only inflict a crew stunned result.
Imperial Guard: The Junior Officer, being at less than half strength, can't rally and runs off the table. The command squad shoots and assaults the chaplain and terminator, killing them both. The storm troopers continue to advance to meet the large tactical squad advancing on the left. They combine their fire with the ratlings and undamaged Russ, managing to kill a few of the Emperor's Finest. The guard squad pours lasgun fire into the tactical squad in the center, killing two of the five. Finally, the storm troopers assault on the right, and manage to lose a few of their number and kill one marine, then are cut down in a sweeping assault.

Turn 3

Dark Angels: The three-man tactical squad in the center assaults and destroys the the remaining guard squad after it loses a few more members to plasman cannon fire. The tactical squad on the right takes a shot at the rear of the damaged Leman Russ, but the superheated plasma failed to penetrate.
Imperial Guard: The Command HQ assaults and massacres the three marines in the center, and consolidates back towards the center. The two Russes combine their fire and obliterate the Plasma Cannon firebase on the left. The ratlings fire on the right tactical squad but fail to have an effect.

Turn 4

Dark Angels: With only one unit left, things are looking grim. The large tactical squad fires its plasma cannon at the command squad, managing to only kill the medic.
Imperial Guard: everything in the army turned to pour fire into the remaining command squad. Between the ratlings, two Leman Russes and command squad the tactical squad was completely obliterated, although a plasma gunner did succumb to an unfortunate overheat.


Overall it was a fun battle. It was the first time my opponent and I had played with an objective. It was also our first experience with Deep Striking. I think I got lucky killing as many terminators I did on the first turn (average rolls would have killed two instead of four). Also I was extremely pleased with how my command squad handled close combat. Nine strength three power weapon attacks when charging puts a dent even in terminators. The stormtroopers could have done better, but I think that was mostly bad dice rolling on my part. Also I only scattered two out of seven ordnance blasts.

It looks like we won't be playing next week, but the week after we'll be adding another 250 points to the armies, bringing us up to a full 1000. My plan is to add a witchhunter inquisitor lord as a heavy bolter firebase and callidus assassin. Maybe a Culexus. I haven't really decided. They're all pretty great.

More Imperial Guard

Played some more 40K this evening. I've tried out the same list a few times in a row now. We're up to playing 750 points. Against my Space Marine opponent this list has won twice and lost once. Tonight was one of those wins and one of those losses.

List:
Senior Officer HQ w/power sword
Ratlings(5)
Imperial guard platoon. 1 Junior Officer HQ and 2 Infantry Squads. No upgrades.
Armored Fist Squad. Chimera with Multilaser and Heavy Bolter.
2 Leman russ with Lascannon and Heavy Bolter Sponsons.

This list performs fairly well. At the 750pt level there are a lot of troops on the board (40, or 35 if you just count the ratlings as stationary sniper platforms) so we can concentrate firepower pretty well. The Leman Russ are hardy. One of the wins (and the loss) they were the last of my army left on the table. The senior officer doesn't perform so well in close combat. I find myself wishing his squad was a harder hitter. My opponent has been fielding two tactical squads(one with rhino), a devastator squad, and a terminator chaplain. His power-armored goons spread across his starting line then march inexorably across the board. It's a rare day when I'm able to stop them from reaching my infantry line. The lack of counterassault in my army is causing me lots of concern. I've been perusing various sites and I think I'm going to have to ditch my chimera for some meatier hand to hand and shooty bits.

Here's my probably army list:
Senior Officer HQ
Force Weapon
2 plasma guns
Vet. Medic
2 Bolters
Iron Discipline
Commissar w/ power weapon

9 Ratlings

Infantry Platoon
Junior Officer w/power weapon & bolter
Squad
Squad

4 Storm troopers (grenadiers)
1 Veteran Sergeant w/ power weapon & bolter
2 melta guns

2 Leman Russ w/3 heavy bolters

Doctrines: Grenadiers, Ratlings, Iron Discipline, Drop Troops(its free, so why not have the option of not deploying most of my troops at game start.)

This still means I have 35 models on the field (again not including ratlings). I've given up the chimera in return for a passel of special weapons and some close combat meatiness. I'm excited to test this army out and see how it goes.

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