Game 1 was against Chee who ended up coming 1st Overall and his Imperial Guard. The most impressive thing about his army IMO was his scratch built Hydra turrets. Made my Razorturrets look lame...if they didn't before :P. Game was Pitched Battle with mission parameters of Objectives --> KP --> Quarters. I won the roll-off and elected to go first choosing the left side of the board. With deployment I weighted the right side with more bodies to tempt Chee into a refuse flank on the opposite side which would allow me to control most of the board. If he split his deployment or refuse flanked on the side I had more on, I had enough to take him head on. My list is here. His list was roughly:
CCS w/melta, Chimera
2x10x Vets w/melta, Chimera
PCS w/Grenade Launchers, Chimera
2x10x Infantry Platoon w/melta, AC, Chimera
2x Vendetta w/HB
Hellhound
2x Hydra
LRBT + LRDemolisher
Manticore
Not a bad list with a fair few Chimeras but the Demo + LRBT mixes roles a lot and I'd rather just see LRBTs so they can stay at range if needed. No Astropath either would hurt on poor reserve rolls if he decided to hide his Vendettas.
Deployment:
So as I said I weighted the right side yet had access to the left and significant cover if he refused flanked. Both of my Dreads should really have been deployed in the centre rather than one on the right as if he did refuse flank, that Dread was useless for a few turns. Anyway, he ended up splitting deployment and we talked about this after the game as I think it was a pretty bad mistake. Mistake 1) his Russes were right in front of me. Mistake 2) his Chimeras were on the far side to most of my firepower and I had units there to keep him honest which will most likely result in lots of side shots later game. If he had swapped them around most of my firepower would have been going into the front AV12 and I wouldn't have been able to play on threat ranges and just pling away at him until support could come as the other side of the battlefield would have had more scary targets (such as the Russes and Hydras and Manticore). Anyway, let's see how this unfolds!
Grey Knight Turn 1
He failed to seize and I moved up. My left flank was going to be all about keeping his Chimeras in the corner so I could focus on his right flank with the bulk of my army. And that meant covering the fire lane between the center building and big thing on the left. If he moved through there I needed to ensure I could get clear shots and hopefully side shots as well so I moved both my Razorbacks there to cover that fire lane. The Dreadnought in the centre moved up the Ruins as well. He was exposed there but could shoot in either direction clearly which would be important. What was going to be important with both of these Razorbacks was to force the Chimeras to do one of two things. Move slowly and shoot at me (I have better shooting but worse armor) as this allows the rest of my army to finish off the other flank or move quickly, unload meltas and then get shot down in return. The moving slowly option was always going to be better but because Chee so neatly split his army, it played into my hands on the other flank.
So the other side... I moved the Dreadnought so he was no longer hidden and had clear fields of fire whilst still getting cover himself. The Chimera drove into the terrain in midfield where it could get cover and project its bubble whilst also threatening with 3 MMs. I then moved a Rhino 12" and unloaded a full 10-man squad and did the same with a Purifier Razor and a Strike Squad Razor. I deployed the Troops so they weren't super clumped but were all within cover between the vehicles and within 6" of the Chimera whilst leaving the Psycannons in the open. The final Rhino moved 6" to shoot out of the top hatch.
I popped smoke on the Chimera in case anything came over for a side shot and then opened fire. My Razorbacks on the left did diddly squad whilst the Dreadnought was able to immobilise and weapon destroy on the lead Chimera. Parking lot halt! On the right my other Dreadnought was able to knock out one of the Hydras despite cover and seven psycannons did jack all to the Russes. It happens.
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| Note how I'm using the vehicles. They are cheap firepower as well as mobile terrain and when there isn't any infantry about, the Psycannons can literally hide in the open. Lots of Ordnance can prove deadly against setups like this but with 3+ cover, less so. |
Chee hadn't really lost a lot but unfortunately didn't have a lot of damage he could put into me. He had a lot of Ordnance to play around with and lots of multi-lasers but there was a distinct lack of options at range in which he could pop tanks since he had reserved the Vendettas (prime targets they were for Psyfledreads). He therefore moved his Chimeras up the left hand board edge behind the terrain. I couldn't access them there but they weren't threatening me from there for a while yet either. His Hellhound moved towards my main army on the right whilst the Russes shifted a little bit. He really needed to move them backwards as much as possible as I was going to be in charge range next turn.
He aimed all his ordnance at the large clump of vehicles and marines on the right but with shrouding successful, there wasn't going to be a major amount of damage caused...then his Manticore rolled a 6, scattered onto the piled out Marines followed by 2 hits. Ouch. The resulting damage was a wrecked Rhino and five dead Marines. His Hydra and multi-lasers failed to do any damage and his Hellhound killed one more Grey Knight bringing them down to four guys with a Hammer and Psycannon left. They passed their morale and headed into Turn 2.
Grey Knight Turn 2
This turn would be game changing. My central Dreadnought shifted on the cover to get a bead on the Manticore whilst my remaining Grey Knights from the large Strike squad moved 6" through terrain to stare down the Russes. A Razorback and the remaining Rhino congo-lined forwards 6" so they could both fire whilst the other Razorback moved to the left flank to provide support. One of the Purifier squads moved into the central ruins whilst the other stayed put to have eight Psycannon shots.
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| Overview |
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| Chee's flank collapses. |
There isn't much Chee can do now and to make matters worse, both of his Vendettas fail to show up. They wouldn't have made a huge difference at this point since most of his anti-infantry is gone but it would have made things closer. As it was he has Chimeras left and that's about it. On the left flank they continued moving around the terrain but didn't want to get too close (whole threat range thing again) and fired a bunch of top hatch and multi-laser stuff at me. They were able to explode a Razorback but the occupants inside were fine.
It was already Turn 3 but there wasn't much to do. I moved the empty Razorback on the left flank into a blocking position and smoked it whilst the Rhino from the right flank moved up into the left. The remaining Razorback on the right swung around the building in the centre to get side shots on the Chimeras whilst the Strike Squad moved so it was within cover and holding the top right objective. The Chimera + a Purifier squad remained where they were to bring down the Chimera on the right whilst the Purifiers in the middle moved through the central building to bring more fire to bear on the Chimeras on the left.
Shooting saw two Chimeras brought down. The farthest on the left was shot in the side armor with a 3+ cover save which it failed and was promptly wrecked. The Platoon Command Squad with Grenade Launchers bailed out the back and passed their pinning test. The Command Chimera was also shot in the side armor by some psybolt Heavy Bolter fire and exploded killing two of the meltagunners but not pinning them. The remaining Chimera on the left behind the building was shaken and that was that!
Imperial Guard Turn 3
Both of Chee's Vendettas failed to turn up again (sure wish that Astropath was around!) and with two Chimeras going pop last turn, not much he could do this turn again. On the right his empty Chimera moved up to try and shoot the rear armor of my Razorback in the middle whilst on the left his shaken Chimera moved forward and dropped some meltavets near my smoked Razorback. The remaining Razorback stayed still whilst the disembarked PCS moved behind the cover and the CCS w/meltaguns moved forwards for some more melta shots.
Neither of the Chimeras did any damage and the CCS meltaguns failed to do any damage at max range to the non-smoked Razorback. The meltavets faired better though and were able to Wreck the smoked one but have left themselves exposed.
Grey Knights Turn 4
The Dreadnought on the right moved out of cover to get clear shots at the Chimera whilst the Purifiers in the building moved through the ruins again for better shooting to the left. The other Purifiers embarked upon the Razorback in the middle whilst on the other flank everyone got out. The two small Strike Squads set up an assault on the Meltavets whilst the Rhino based strike squad got out for giggles and to shoot stuff.
The Dreadnought on the right exploded the Chimera whilst the left Dread hit the rear armor of the Chimera and exploded it. too. The large Strike Squad eliminated the tiny CCS left and the combined fire of the Razorback and Purifiers in the ruins didn't do anything to the mobile Chimera at the back.
In assault the Strike Squads saw off the Veterans before they could swing and consolidated towards the ruins.
Imperial Guard Turn 4
Not looking good but a Vendetta turned up! and killed the central Dread. Huzzah! The PCS dropped lots of little blasts on the disembarked Strike Squad and was able to kill a couple but that's just about it for the turn.
Grey Knights Turn 5
I move my guys onto objectives that aren't there already and move my remaining Psyfledread to ensure clear fire against the Vendetta. One of the Strike squads on the left moves into the ruins to get into eventual combat with the PCS and then I open fire. The Dread drops the Vendetta (not seen in photos) and the platoon inside bails out into the ruins in the bottom right. The combined fire of the rest of my army drops the final non-immobilised Chimera and most of the Veteran squad inside. In the assault phase the Strike Squad finishes off the PCS and with only a couple Veterans, immobilised Chimera and reserved Vendetta/platoon, it goes to Chee's 5th turn.
Imperial Guard Turn 5
Chee's final Vendetta comes on but he fails to do any damage and we call it there. I was ahead 3-0 on objectives, 4-0 on Table Quarters and 13-3 on KP so a full 16 BP victory to start the tournament.
Conclusion
I feel this game was won in deployment. I got some pretty good dice rolls in Turn 2 to get rid of five vehicles but by exposing his Russes to such firepower and combat opened up this option for me. I really feel the Chimeras should have been deployed opposite my main force as I was using the central ruins to mitigate any ranged disadvantage I may have if he deployed the majority of his force in the opposite corner in an attempt to refuse flank. His russes/hydras could then deploy in the middle and still affect me whilst I had to deal with AV12 with less ability to flank into his side armor. The Manticore as well should have been placed close to the ruins in the left so it could move so it was out of sight and force me to either accept 4-12 ordnance templates or move away from his main battlegroup to engage it.
In the end I didn't really have to worry about the AV12 against psycannons and AV14 overall as I was able to get into side arcs of the Chimeras quite often and was able to get into combat quickly with the Russes (i.e. ignoring the AV14). With the Vendettas off the board I didn't have to worry too much about the damage he could do to my tanks reliably without unloading his meltaguns and when they were delayed in coming in, the game was pretty much lost and didn't allow the Imperial Guard army to play to its strengths.
It was a fun game but unfortunate that it was so one-sided. Chee was a great guy and took it well and well deserved the first overall he achieved (his Hydra turrets were completely scratch built!). It was a great way to start my tournament however and hopefully things would continue.
