Consequently, I played what is most likely my final game in Singapore, at Battle Bunker today. I am very grateful to my opponent, who was such a good sport and agreed to have a game with me even though he was supposed to play X-Wing with some other person. Thank you!
Anyway, it was an Imperial Guard versus Space Marines (Imperial Fists) game. The game was set at 1,850 points because my opponent wanted an official tournament feel to it, or something, and we ended up playing Maelstrom, rolled a 6. So it's that mode where you draw 6 objective cards at the beginning, and slowly whittle it down by 1 with each subsequent turn (5 in turn 2, 4 in turn 3, etc.). I brought my Cadian Battle Group (or Draconian Battle Group as you already know), but this time I brought my Kamikaze Troopers (Storm troopers or Militarum Tempestus platoon for those of you not familiar with my Draconians) and an Emperor's Spear Aerial Company of 3 Vendetta gunships instead of my Stormsword. My opponent used Gladius Strike Force...actually, he used the Sternhammer Strike Force.
Basically, I'm not sure what's going on, but this was what my opponent brought along:
Sternhammer Strike Force
Command
Strike Force Command, Lysander. Yeah, he brought along a single Captain Lysander as his Command. Yup, that cheesy guy who's clad in Terminator armor, has 4 wounds, Eternal Warrior, a 3++ invulnerable save thanks to his Storm Shield and a freaking Thunder Hammer that hits at S10. Ugh. What a monster.
Core
Battle Demi-Company. A Captain...I think (not sure if it's Captain Lysander here or he used Captain Lysander as a separate Command choice). 3 Tactical squads with 10 men each, with 2 squads armed with 1 meltagun each. I think. 1 Assault squad, all armed with jetpacks. Yay. Jump shoot jump goodness. And 1 Devastator squad armed with lascannons. Oh, and the obligatory Dreadnought with a multi-melta. Two of the tactical squads are loaded into drop pods, because why the hell not?
Auxilliary
Now this is what I'm not sure about. I have completely no idea what's going on here. Basically my opponent brought a Combined Arms Detachment (yes, he brought a CAD) as his auxilliary, and he assured me that it was legal and part of the Sternhammer Strike Force. I have my doubts, but whatever. I'm here to have fun, not to debate rules and be a lawyer. If he says so, so be it.
Anyway, his Combined Arms Detachment consisted of a Librarian as his HQ, 2 5-men tactical squads with no upgrades, another Devastator squad with lascannons, and a 3-men Centurion squad with grav guns. The Centurions were loaded up inside a drop pod along with the Librarian, whom he didn't bother to roll on the Psychic Table or used his Psyker powers. In his own words, he said that he only took a Librarian because he's the cheapest HQ (cheaper than a Captain and a Chaplain). Why he didn't bother taking the Devastator and Centurion auxiliaries, I have no idea, and when I checked my digital copy of Angels of Death when I got home, I don't see anything about the Sternhammer Strike Force taking a CAD as an Auxiliary. To make matters worse, he told me that all his Devastators have +1 to their armor penetration rolls against my tanks because of some Imperial Fists Siege Hunter rules. And when I just checked the book, it says against BUILDINGS only. Well, I suppose everyone makes mistakes. I make them too. I guess.
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| Those blue Space Marines are meant to be Imperial Fists. That's right. Imperial Fists, not Ultramarines. |
Anyway, on to my list.
Cadian (Draconian) Battle Group
Battle Group Command
Company Command Squad, armed with heavy flamer and 3 flamers. Yes, trust me, equiping them with flamers was worth it. Loaded on one of my Vendetta gunships.
Core
Emperor's Fist Armored Company. Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon as the Tank Commander, a Leman Russ Main Battle Tank with lascannon as squadron buddy, a Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannons and lascannon, 2 Leman Russ Punisher tanks with 3 heavy bolters each. And the obligatory Tech-priest Enginseer.
Auxiliary
Emperor's Spear Aerial Company. 3 Vendetta gunships. Hell, yeah! I finally get to use them!
Militarum Tempestus platoon, otherwise known as Kamikaze Troopers. Old school stormtroopers. Anyway, a command squad with 4 hot-shot volley guns, and a 10-men squad with 2 meltaguns. The 10-men squad took a Taurox Prime with Taurox Gatling Cannon and twin-linked hot-shot volley gun as Dedicated Transport while the command squad rode on one of the Vendetta gunships.
So yup, that's 1,850 points worth of Imperial Guard versus Space Marines! Let the game begin!
Cadian (Draconian) Battle Group versus Imperial Fists Sternhammer Strike Force
We rolled off, I had the first turn and my opponent failed to seize the initiative. By the way, my Warlord, the Company Commander, rolled the Staunch Traditionalist Warlord Trait (he rolled Above the Thundering Guns trait first, which is entirely useless given how my Warlord already has Voice of Command AND can already issue 3 orders thanks to the Cadian Battle Group benefits, so I chose to re-roll it). That would be the death of him, as you'll see later.
Someone really ought to kick the guy who wrote those useless Cadian Warlord Traits into the Eye of Terror.
Turn 1
Anyway, I started first. I drew 6 objectives, and I think one of them was Hold Your Ground, another was grab an objective I was near to, and another was Overwhelming Numbers. I can't remember. Anyway, I deployed with my Tech-priest Enginseer sitting alone in one corner, to hog Objective 1. Yay. He remained there for the entire game (yeah). I tried to move my tanks up to grab Objectives 3 and 5, while keeping them in the Tank Commander bubble to grant them BS4, as well as keep half my tanks inside the deployment zone to grab Hold Your Ground. My Taurox Prime also zipped up to grab Objective 5 because my Punisher wasn't able to reach it, but my other Punisher reached Objective 3.
On the other side, my opponent had deployed with his 2 5-men Tactical squads out in the open (because we didn't have a lot of terrain on the table), a 10-men tactical squad, Dreadnought and Devastator squad all squeezed inside a single building (for cover and to secure Objective 2), the 2nd Devastator squad parked inside a 2nd building to capture Objective 4. The Assault Squad, along with Lysander, was deployed right next to the 2nd building for some reason, also out in the open, but they do have intervening cover from the jungle in the middle of the table.
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| The inexorable advance of the Emperor's Fist Armored Company toward the hapless Traitor Space Marines. |
The Executioner didn't get any Gets Hot! rolls and went on to disintegrate 2 or 3 dudes from the Assault Squad. With First Blood on my hands, plus Objective 3 (or was it 5?), Hold Your Ground and Overwhelming Numbers, I earned 4 points. I had 3 more, I think one was Objective 2, another Objective 4 and the last one was Witch Hunter. Ugh.
My opponent then dropped 2 drop pods right next to and in front of my tanks. The Centurions and the Librarian poured out of one of them and basically wrecked my Tank Commander (the Vanquisher) with their grav shots. Wow, grav is awesome...unless used against me. Ugh. Oh well, there goes my BS4 benefit. NOOO!!!! Funnily enough, the other guy who came out of his second drop pod fired his meltagun pointblank range into my Leman Russ Executioner, and despite being within melta range, rolled a combined D2 of 5 (a 1 and a 4), and only had an armor penetration of 13. Not enough to even glance my AV14 front armor. Poor dude. Anyway, he combat squadded the 10-men squad and split them up into 5 each.
The Devastators fired upon my tanks and their lascannons failed to glance the AV14 front armor of my tanks, while the Assault Squad moved, ran and then jumped toward Objective 6 but just couldn't make it there...
My opponent drew Assassinate, which he had gotten, and some other objective I can't remember, for about 2 or 3 points. Oh boy, that's close!
Turn 2
I rolled for reserves, and while I fluffed my first Vendetta, my second one came in and I opted for the 3rd to automatically come in as well. I then declared a low-altitude drop for the Stormtrooper one so that they could jump out without scatter and hose down a tactical squad with their hot-shot volley guns, which they did. One Punisher and those Kamikaze Troopers that grav-chuted from their Vendetta wiped out one tactical squad while the other one was also wiped out by my other Punisher. Yay. So another 2 tactical squads bite the dust.
The Centurions were taken out by combined fire from my Leman Russ Executioner AND my 2 Vendetta gunships, firing their 3 twin-linked lascannons to slowly peel the wounds off them. Apparently the Librarian had 3 wounds, but was Instant Death-ed by a lascannon from my Executioner. Woohoo! That earned me Witch Hunter. On the other hand, I accidentally had one blast plate scatter right into my Punisher and glanced a hull point off him. Ouch.
I had drawn Objective 6 this time, so I quickly moved my Taurox Prime up to capture the objective, which the Assault Squad had run to but failed to capture, so I scored that too! Anyway, I took out about 2 or 3 with my Taurox Prime, but failed to wipe them out. Fortunately, my Leman Russ Main Battle Tank fired and squished the remaining jetpack dudes with one shot of his battle cannon. Woohoo. Another Space Marine squad blasted into a bloody pulp. Nice!
I can't remember the other objectives, but I pulled ahead to about 6 or 7 points. I think.
My opponent then responded by dropping the other drop pod next to my Taurox Prime (but for some reason he didn't shoot the Taurox Prime?!). He had his tactical squad, Dreadnought and Devastators stay in cover, but suddenly he claimed that he forgot about the Imperial Fists' Siege Hunter bonus that allows them to add 1 to their Armor Penetration rolls against vehicles. As I said, only now I found out that he misread that bonus and it only applies to Building Damage Tables...oh well. Lysander slowly moved, but to where I have no idea.
Anyway, I think he wrecked one of my Punisher tanks with the combined fire from the Devastators. Ouch. I don't remember. Anyway, I think that's about it. I can't remember what Objective he secured, but apparently there was one with D3 points, and he rolled a 5 or 6, which granted him about 3 points, which pulled him up to 5 or 6 against my 6 or 7, cutting my lead by a lot.
Turn 3
My 3rd Vendetta came onboard while the other 2 zoomed around. I dropped my Company Command Squad, but they scattered all the way to in front of the forest I was talking about earlier...right in front of Lysander of all people. Ugh. Anyway, I had drawn Objective 4, so I moved my Taurox Prime up the table to the building with Objective 4 and disembarked my troops, but they were unable to get into the building because I rolled snake eyes for move through terrain and got 2 ones. Ugh.
However, my shooting was vicious. I think. My Vendetta gunships fired upon Lysander, and only put one wound on him. Meanwhile, I threw out orders for both my Company Command Squad and Storm troopers, with "Forward, for the Emperor!" for the former and "Fire on my Target!" for the latter. The flamers didn't do anything to Lysander, unfortunately (so you must be wondering why I said they were worth buying). On the other hand, thanks to "Fire on my Target!", my Storm Troopers emptied their meltaguns and hot-shot volley guns with Ignores Cover and exterminated the Devastators camping inside Objective 4. Yay.
My Punisher killed 1 Combat Squad...I think, meanwhile my Executioner completely scattered all his shots and did absolutely nothing. Ugh. On the other hand, I rolled a Gets Hot! roll of 1, but thanks to rolling a 4 after that, my Executioner didn't kill himself. Phew. The Main Battle Tank fired on a drop pod, and while I could roll 2 dice thanks to ordnance, I only rolled a 1 and a 2 (or was it a 3?), which meant my Main Battle Tank did nothing against the drop pod. What luck.
I can't remember what objectives I earned here, but I succeeded in gaining a few more to about 9 or 10. I think. Oh, I remember. I drew Hold the Line. Thanks to my Company Command Squad, my 10-men Storm Trooper squad and Taurox Prime (now a separate unit since my Kamikaze Troopers disembarked from it) being within 12" of my opponent's side of the table, I scored D3 points and I rolled a 6. So I pulled ahead by a lot, maybe about 10 or 11. Whoohoo!
My opponent had to kill a character in a challenge or something, and to grab Objective 4, or something. And he also had to grab Objective 6, which he was in position to do with his last, remaining combat squad. He killed 1 of my Storm Troopers there in the open, ouch, but I have 9 men left. Kind of pitiful, actually, given how many bolt rounds he fired...or it was because I made my saves. Carapace Armor and their 4+ armor saves really make a difference. He had begun moving his Dreadnought and Tactical squad out of cover and into the open, finally making a move. They fired upon my Kamikaze Command squad, taking out 2 guys. The remaining 3 guys actually failed their morale test and ran away. HEY! Leadership of 9, and I rolled a freaking 11?! I lost a Punisher Tank as well, which was painful. That meant I only have 2 tanks left. Oh boy.
What happened next was kind of hilarious. Lysander charged my Company Command Squad, who responded by squeezing the triggers of their flamers and creating a Wall of Death. The boltgun, unsurprisingly did nothing, but the sheer amount of wounds the Wall of Death inflicted on Lysander actually managed to take 2 wounds off him. Yes, even with a 2+ Terminator Armor save, he actually lost 2 wounds to the flamers. That's why I said it was worth buying them the flamers.
On the other hand, my Warlord's Staunch Traditionalist forced him to issue a challenge, which Lysander promptly went and won, beating the poor Company Commander's ass into a bloody mess with his S10 Thunder Hammer. Ugh. The wounds spilled over and 2 more Veterans died, leaving the other 2 to run off, terrified at the sight of a Captain in Terminator Armor crazily swinging his giant hammer around like some sort of Khorne berserker.
These Space Marines really have fallen to Chaos, eh? Time for us Imperial Guard to do our duty in the name of the Emperor and purge these Traitors!
Hmm...what happened here, I can't remember, but I think he had a point for Slay the Warlord and for Objective 6, so he pulled to 8 points or so.
Turn 4
I can't remember what I drew this round as well, except for one card that really stood out and yelled at me. Slay the Warlord. That's right, I drew Slay the Warlord, and I had a Lysander with a single wound left in my sights. This is doable! No, I MUST do it! I must kill the Traitor Captain! FOR THE EMPEROR!
So I basically threw everything I had at Lysander. Oh, wait. I'm getting ahead of myself. The two flamer Veterans continued running away from the sight of the Terminator Captain bearing down on them, but I did regroup my Kamikaze Command Squad. Meanwhile my 9 surviving Kamikaze Troopers jumped into the building to capture Objective 4, with me rolling a 6 to bring them to the second floor of the building. Yeah, now I remember, that's another objective I captured. My second Vendetta gunship promptly flew off the board while my remaining two pivoted to face Lysander.
Anyway, everyone and anyone that could fire on Lysander did so, but the bastard was a tough nut to crack. He survived all the lascannons that my Vendetta gunships threw at him with that absurd 3++ invulnerable save of his (stupid Storm Shield), he survived the single meltagun shot (1 missed, whoops), he survived a volley of hot-shot las-fire with his 2+ Terminator Armor save, and I was forced to use my Taurox Prime to fire upon him. Finally...FINALLY! Lysander FINALLY died to a single round from the Taurox Prime's Taurox Gatling cannon. All it took was a single roll of 1, and when my opponent rolled a 1, that was the end of Lysander.
Slay the Warlord is mine. WOOHOO!
Again, my Leman Russ Main Battle Tank and my Leman Russ Executioner scattered so badly I might as well not have bothered firing their cannons. At least I didn't roll any Gets Hot! rolls this time. Phew. On the other side, the three Kamikaze Troopers (the remnants of the Command Squad) rallied and took out 2 of the Tactical Marines that were advancing upon them. Yay?
That earned me 2 points (I rolled a 4) for Slay the Warlord, another for securing Objective 4, and brought my points total to 13.
Um, my opponent opened fire with his storm bolters on his drop pods to kill the 2 fleeing flamer Veterans, his Tactical squad moved closer to kill the 3 Kamikaze Troopers and wiped out 2 in the process, as did his Dreadnought who also moved closer and melted the Kamikaze Captain (or Tempestor Prime) with his multi-melta. On the other end of the table, the Tactical squad rushed in to throw krak grenades at my Taurox Prime, taking a hull point off it, and then charged it to destroy it in close combat before consolidating at the foot of the building my Kamikaze Troopers were in, supposedly to hide out of sight so that my Kamikaze Troopers couldn't fire on them. I think that earned him D3 points for No Mercy, No Respite, and again he rolled a 5 or 6, earning 3 points to pull himself up to 11 against my 13. Wow, that's so close. It was making me nervous how he was catching up so rapidly.
Turn 5
My Vendetta returned, and I saw that I have to secure Objective 5 again. Oh well. So I dropped one of my Vendetta gunships to hover mode to capture Objective 5, only for my opponent to point out that there was a drop pod on that objective, and it had Objective Secured. Darn...except that your drop pod is right in front of my Vendetta.
So my Vendetta fired three lascannons shots into the drop pod...only to miss all 3. Yes. I had twin-linked, I re-rolled all 3 misses and I still MISSED. What the hell!? Groaning, I then have my second Vendetta that just came on again to fire at the drop pod, dreading my rolls. This time, fortunately, all hit (there was 1 miss, but twin-linked allowed me to re-roll that and I hit with all 3 shots!), and I actually rolled 2 threes and 1 four. Yes, that's right. I wrecked the drop pod in one volley of lascannon shots. WOOHOO! Objective 5 is mine! MINE, you sucker! MINE!
The 3rd Vendetta zoomed toward the Dreadnought and opened fire, and once again thanks to twin-linked, all 3 hit the side armor...only for me to score 3 penetrating shots. Wow, how lucky can I get? Even better, one of the penetrating shots resulted in an Explodes! (because I rolled a 6) and the Dreadnought's debris careened right into the Space Marine Tactical Squad in front, killing 1 or 2 of them. Wow, that was quite the stroke of luck. My Main Battle Tank opened fire and basically squished the remnants of that Tactical squad, so the entire middle section was empty save for my tanks and Vendetta gunships.
My Executioner, bless his machine spirit, did not roll any Gets Hot! rolls and while he scattered 3 of his shots, he managed to land 2 small blasts right atop the 5-men Tactical squad that clustered like mushrooms at the foot of the building my Kamikaze Troopers were camping in. In his haste to hide from the line of sight of my Kamikaze Troopers, my opponent didn't realize that bunching up his Tactical squad like that made them vulnerable to blast templates...and my Executioner happily executed those Traitor Marines like the cowards they were. HAH!
Um...so what does that mean? I can't remember...oh, right. I pulled ahead to 15 points during that turn.
My opponent couldn't do much, but he retaliated with his remaining Devastator squad to wreck my poor Executioner tank (with those +1 to AP rolls of his), and he earned a point from there. I think. So it was 15 to 12? Still pretty close, but hey, whatever works! Anyway, with only one Devastator squad and 2 random drop pods left, that was all he could do...
My opponent rolled to see if we should continue, and continue we did! On to Turn 6...
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| By this time, there's not much left on the board except a Devastator squad hiding in that building and a couple of drop pods facing three Vendetta gunships, a Leman Russ Main Battle Tank and 9 Storm Troopers. |
Turn 6
And what do you know, I drew a card that asked me to secure Objective 1. I bet almost everyone has forgotten by now, but my Tech-priest Enginseer that had been camping on Objective 1 ever since the beginning of the game and doing absolutely nothing while fiddling his mechadendrites on the objective was still there, so that was effectively a free point for me. At that moment, before I could shoot the Devastators off the board with my Leman Russ Main Battle Tank and Vendetta gunships, my opponent called the game. With only 1 Devastator squad and 2 immobile, stationary drop pods left, there was nothing he could do. With me pulling ahead to 16 points, there wasn't much he could do except drag the game on. So we called it there, and when it ended I found out that I actually have Linebreaker as well, with my Kamikaze Troopers still camping on Objective 4, and within 12" of my opponent's board edge. Woohoo.
So the game ended in my favor 17 to 12. That was close, very close. The game ran all the way toward the end, and if I had not rolled those lucky rolls that saw me blow up a drop pod and a Dreadnought, I wouldn't have such a great lead. Not to mention, I was lucky enough to roll 3 points and 2 points for Hold the Line and Slay the Warlord. Then again, the same could be said for my opponent, who rolled 3 points twice for the score D3 points objectives. Well, whatever the case, we had fun and it was awesome!
And my Imperial Guard army finally won a game! FINALLY! I never thought I would see the day when my Imperial Guard would win! Great job, Draconians! Mission accomplished! WOOHOO! We won! DRACONIANS FOREVER! FOR THE EMPEROR!
Not only that, my Draconian Imperial Guard regiment actually beat Space Marines! Okay, my opponent wasn't playing aggressively or competitively - and if he actually threw Lysander down in a drop pod with the Centurions, my tanks would have been totally wrecked. Ouch. Oh well. Thank the Emperor for that (I guess?). Not only that, his list didn't seem optimized. I mean, he might have been better off taking a Gladius Strike Force and spamming Rhinos, Razorbacks and drop pods (but if he did that, he wouldn't have the right to protest against me bringing a Stormsword...right?). This proves that a game can still be fun and winnable even without a super-heavy, and my Storm Troopers are actually excellent at capturing objectives! Not only that, my Vendetta gunships are pretty powerful too! They really saved my bacon there at the end, blowing up the drop pod and Dreadnought. Phew.
Anyway, the story can go like this: The Draconian Armored has prevailed over a renegade Space Marines Chapter that supposedly succeeded the Imperial Fists. That's why this successor chapter uses blue power armor instead of the golden armor representative of the Imperial Fists. They were exterminated by the courageous, determined tank crews and Kamikaze Troopers of the 42nd Draconian Armored Defense Force, and purged so that no man, mortal or otherwise, can ever defy the words of the Emperor again.
For the Emperor!
Oh, right. And as this is probably the last game I'll be able to play at Battle Bunker Singapore for a long time, here's a goodbye picture I took with the mascot standing guard right outside the shop. I mean, in the spirit of Pokemon Go! or Pokemon Trading Card Game and stuff, right?
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| Pikachu? Why are you in Warhammer 40K? Did some Imperial Guard regiment breed you on some paradise world where citizens of the Imperium capture pocket monsters to battle each other in the Emperor's name? |
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