catalyst2 | Battle #13

Tonight was 2000 points against Sean's Imperial Guard. The mission was Capture and Control with Dawn of War deployment. I've never played IG before so it was a bit daunting too see so many figures on the table but I did know that Sean uses 3 Leman Russ' only with no other armour. For myself, I was using the Thunderfire for the first time in ages and using a Dreadnought in a Drop Pod and a 3 Land Speeder squadron, both for the very first time. I had a plan ready to go but the deployment type well and truly screwed that up. In the tradition of all good plans, it was immediately discarded and a new one drawn up.

From the first turn, everything went right for me - the Predator Annihilator took out one Leman Russ, the sniper squad broke his heavy bolter squad and his command squad was whittled down to a single figure. The Whirlwind and Thunderfire were devastating on his Guardsman - 30 killed in a single round of shooting and 3 squads fleeing off the table. He got to fire and my army shrugged off everything or he missed. Second turn, my two Razorback combat squads (with multi-melta/meltagun in one, lascannon/meltagun in the other) took out Leman Russ #2 whilst the Drop Pod Dreadnought (having lost its multi-melta) took out a squad of guard in a turn.

The next turn, the Land Speeders shot one squad into oblivion as the Dreadnought scythed through another squad but Leman-Russ #3 survived the Predator's shots again.

The game continued in this vein throughout - the Whirlwind and Thunderfire were incredibly accurate and killed and broke so many units that it was stunning. By Turn 6, only Leman Russ #3 and one mortar squad survived of his entire army. The Predator finally took out the tank and massed bolter fire took out the the mortars. WOOHOO! I've never cleared the board in a large battle before so that was a fun feeling. I also controlled both objectives. My entire casualty list was 7 dead Tactical squad marines and one Razorback with no weapons.

The result was an overwhelming victory to me.

What I learned today:
1) This is probably the first time I feel that I've really got army selection, initial deployment and early target selection all correct.
2) I planned this very carefully - but my plan went out the window almost immediately. Being flexible enough to come up with a new plan almost instantly was pleasing.
3) I really do like having at least 3 tactical squads in my army.
4) Massed fire from the 3 Land Speeders can do a hell of a lot of damage - 12 assault cannon and nine HB shots is pretty damaging. Of course the fact that I didn't go hurtling in too close this time helped a great deal. When his Stormtroopers came in via Deep Strike, the ability of the Land Speeders to cross across the battlefield was invaluable.

My W-L-D record is now 8-5-0.