Imperial Guard versus Adeptus Mechanicus Battle Report

First of all, Merry Christmas, everyone!

As a Christmas present (not really), here's a battle report! Yesterday, I managed to get a game against a friend who I sold my Adeptus Mechanicus stuff too (I only kept the Tech-priests Dominus and Tech-priest Enginseer because I wanted to do a Legio Cybernetica army from forge world). It was great to see my Kataphron Destroyers and Oanger Dunecrawlers again, but he opted not to use his Kastelan Robots.

Basically, his Adeptus Mechanicus list looked like this:

Belisarius Cawl (not the Warlord), a Tech-priest Enginseeer (the Warlord) with Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land and the Monitor Malevolus Warlord Trait, 2 squads of 3 Kataphron Destroyers with plasma culverins and cognis flamers, 1 squad of 4 Kataphron Breachers with heavy arc rifles, 3 Onager Dunecrawlers - 1 with Icarus array and 2 with neutron lasers, 1 squad of 15 Corpuscarii Electro-priests, and a single Knight Paladin with twin Icarus autocannons. Scary. Really scary. I was so scared I broke down and cried, praying to the Emperor.

No, of course not. Instead, I brought out my standard Imperial Guard list and relied on my faith in the Emperor. So my Imperial Guard list looked like this:

Draconian (Cadian) Spearhead Detachment Tank Commander – Leman Russ Executioner with lascannon and plasma cannons 237 Leman Russ Executioner with lascannon and plasma cannons 192 Leman Russ Annihilator with lascannon and plasma cannons 212 2 Wyverns with heavy bolters 206 Total: 847, 1 Command Point Draconian (Cadian) Supreme Command Detachment Primaris Psyker 46 Primaris Psyker 46 Company Commander with plasma pistol 35 Command squad with 4 plasma guns 76 Shadowsword with 3 twin heavy bolters and 2 lascannons 472 Total: 675, 1 Command Point Kamikaze Troopers (Militarum Tempestus/Stormtrooper) Vanguard Detachment Tempestor Prime with bolt pistol and power sword 45 Tempestor Prime with bolt pistol and power sword 45 Militarum Tempestus command squad with 4 plasma guns 88 Militarum Tempestus command squad with 4 plasma guns 88 Tech-priest Enginseer 42 Valkyrie with lascannon, 2 multiple rocket pods and 2 heavy bolters 168 Total: 476, 1 Command Points Grand Total: 1,998, 6 Command Points

We played 2 Maelstrom missions.

Game One

The first one was the tactical kill mission where we generated up to 3 tactical objectives per turn. My opponent seized the initiative after losing the roll to start first (despite the +1), and he proceeded to beat down on me. Basically, his Knight wounded my poor Wyvern, bringing him down to 4-5 wounds (I think?). I just remember that he was in his second profile. His Onager Dunecrawler with Icarus array put a couple of wounds on my Valkyrie (as did the Knight Paladin's Icarus autocannons), but most of his guys were out of range to do anything. Unfortunately, the 2 Onager Dunecrawlers with the neutron lasers put about 10 wounds on my Shadowsword. But he failed to kill anything, and he needed to defend Objective 2 (I believe) for 2 consecutive turns. His other objectives were to kill a psyker and to destroy an enemy vehicle without it blowing up (Destroy and Acquire). So...no go there.

I also had an objective that required me to secure Objective 4 for 2 consecutive turns or something, and I have a Leman Russ tank sitting right on it (Objective Secured Leman Russ tanks for the win!). Unfortunately, I also had 2 other Objectives that I needed to secure and none of them were in my deployment zone, and one of them was right in enemy territory. Frak my life.

It didn't matter. I put at least 14 wounds on his Knight Paladin with my Shadowsword and Leman Russ Annihilator, and then wounded the 2 Onager Dunecrawlers with neutron lasers while repairing my Shadowsword to 7-8 wounds or so. Despite throwing so much plasma at them, the Onager Dunecrawlers refused to go down. Ugh. It also helped that they had the 5++ invulnerable save. I had my Kamikaze Troopers Deep Strike right behind enemy lines, behind Objective 5, in order to clear the Kataphron Breachers sitting on it and claim it, but obviously the 9" rule didn't help. My Valkyrie also flew forward to drop my 2 Primaris Psykers, my plasma command squad and company commander. The first Primaris Psyker got off his Smite and did a couple of wounds to a Kataphron Destroyer, but didn't kill him. The second Primaris Psyker...failed his smite. Ouch. Oh well. Anyway, the plasma squad opened up and managed to kill about 1 Kataphron Destroyer. Funnily enough, my Company Commander killed the wounded Kataphron Destroyer (the one who got Smited) with his plasma pistol (I didn't overcharge). Phew. So each squad of Kataphron Destroyers only had 2 each. Meanwhile, at the back, my Kamikaze Troopers opened up and killed all 4 Kataphron Breachers with their supercharged plasma guns. Nice! My Wyverns opened up and killed about 7 Electro-Priests - could have been more, but my 1st Wyvern was firing on his 2nd profile after having been wounded. Ouch. My Valkyrie fired on his Kataphron Destroyers but didn't do more than 1 or 2 wounds.

At least I got First Blood. So 1 point for me.

The second turn was more brutal. For some reason, my opponent had his Knight retreat to the back, but moved his Electro-priests toward my Kamikaze Troopers. He used the Wrath of Mars Stratagem and had his Electro-priests wipe out both my Kamikaze command squads with mortal wounds - splitting up 6 on one and 3 on one. It didn't matter, with their taser "3 hits on rolls of 6s" and mortal wounds from Wrath of Mars (I honestly think he's wasting it on these guys), both plasma Kamikaze command squads were dead.

The Knight fired on my Wyvern, but failed to kill it, only putting about 2-3 wounds on him. Ouch. Poor Wyvern was left with exactly 1 wound left. He also had his Onager Dunecrawlers fire on my Shadowsword, bringing him down to 8 wounds and putting him in the second profile. Meanwhile, the Onager Dunecrawler with Icarus array and the Knight's Icarus autocannons fired on my Valkyrie, and again, brought him down to less than half his health. About 6 wounds? I can't remember. Anyway, the Kataphron Destroyers fired their plasma culverins and killed my plasma command squad, and their cognis flamers killed the first primaris psyker and company commander. The nearest 2 Kataphron Destroyers then charged the second, surviving primaris psyker, while the electro-priests charged the 1st Tempestor Prime. While my primaris psyker survived, the Tempestor Prime didn't, getting wiped out by the electro-priests in combat. Hilariously enough, my opponent charged his Tech-priest Enginseer Warlord into my 2nd Tempestor Prime, failed one of his hits, and then failed to wound with the other hit. I swung back and actually did one wound with his power sword. Surprising.

My opponent got the Defend Objective 2 for 2 turns, earning 2 points, and another point for killing my first Primaris Psyker, so he had a total of 3 points. The score was 3-1 in his favor so far.

In my turn, I finally took out the Imperial Knight with my Shadowsword despite his Rotate Ion Shields Stratagem. Phew. My Tempestor Prime ran away from combat, but my Primaris Psyker chose to stay locked in combat and did a couple of mortal wounds with his Smite against one Kataphron Destroyer, but didn't kill him. After taking out the Knight Paladin, I then killed both Onager Dunecrawlers with neutron lasers with my Leman Russ tanks. Phew! I had repaired my Shadowsword to about 10 wounds, which kept him in the second profile, so no go. Oh well. Anyway, my Valkyrie fired and failed to do any wounds to the Kataphron Destroyers, but my Wyvern fired and wiped out the remaining Electro-Priests. Good riddance. Meanwhile, I had my Tempestor Prime retreat from combat and run to Objective 5 to capture it. The Primaris Psyker and Kataphron Destroyer remained locked in combat, but they failed to wound each other.

Thanks to that, I gained 2 points for Defend Objective 4, also bringing me up to 3 points, but I didn't have Objective 5 or 6, which was what I needed. Ugh. Oh well. At least I got rid of the majority of his army.

In the third turn, combined shooting from the Kataphron Destroyers and the sole remaining Onager Dunecrawler brought my Valkyrie down to just 1 wound. Still not enough to get the Destroy and Acquire tactical objective. Oh well. That's too bad. I can't remember what were the other objectives, but I believe one was A Quest for Knowledge and another was Slay the Warlord or something that he couldn't achieve. So he stayed at 3 points. But he continued charging his Warlord Tech-priest Enginseer toward my poor Tempestor Prime. Again he failed one of his hits, but this time he wounded, and then I made a 6+ armor save against the AP-2 Omnissian Axe while he similarly made a 6+ save against my AP-3 power sword. Oh well.

It didn't matter. I had my Tempestor Prime retreat but still remain in position to contest Objective 5. And then my Primaris Psyker finally killed 1 Kataphron Destroyer while dealing a mortal wound to the other. This time, I drew Defend Objective 3, so I moved my Leman Russ tank toward Objective 3, and had my Shadowsword and remaining 2 Leman Russ tanks fire and destroy the last Onager Dunecrawler and Kataphron Destroyers. My Wyverns fired and killed the Tech-priest Enginseer, giving me Slay the Warlord and allowing me to control Objective 5 for 2 consecutive turns, giving me another 3 points in total. So I had 6 points to his 3. Oh, and my Primaris Psyker killed the last remaining Kataphron Destroyer in combat with his force stave.

By turn 4, all my opponent had was Belsarius Cawl on the table. There was absolutely nothing he could do, and bringing Cawl to the open would just leave him to be murdered by my Shadowsword. So we called it at that point. And I had Linebreaker anyway, and would have gotten another 2 victory points from defending Objective 3 with my Leman Russ tank. So...oh well. Good game. I essentially tabled my opponent, leaving him with just one guy.

Game Two

The second game was Tactical Gambit, where we gamble on how many objectives we think we can achieve, then generate up to four tactical objectives per turn. This time, I went first and my opponent failed to seize the initiative.

I ended up destroying half his army in that turn. I even had the Overwhelming Firepower which gave me D3 victory points from killing at least 3 of his units. So basically I Deep Strike my Kamikaze Troopers right beside his Onager Dunecrawlers, moved my Valkyrie forward to have my plasma command squad, company commander and 2 Primaris Psykers grav-chute near the frontlines. I used Smite to deal 1 mortal wound to the Knight while killing a Kataphron Destroyer with the 2nd Smite. The plasma squad then took out the remaining Kataphron Destroyers. My Leman Russ tanks opened fire and took out one or two Kataphron Destroyer or Kataphron Breacher here and there, but I had First Blood from wiping out that first Destroyer squad. My Shadowsword didn't have such luck, failing to kill the Knight and only dealing about 12 damage in total despite help from my Leman Russ Annihilator. Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, my Kamikaze Troopers destroyed one Onager Dunecrawler with the neutron laser while the other one was also destroyed by a Leman Russ Executioner. My Tank Commander Warlord then fired and destroyed Belisarius Cawl with his plasma cannons and basically everything. Oh, and my Wyverns basically killed at least 8 Corpuscarii Electro-priests. Worse, 4 of them ran off the table after taking a moral test, leaving the squad with just 3 Electro-priests. Thanks to destroying at least 3 units, I acheved Overwhelming Firepower and rolled 3 (I think). With First Blood, I had 4 points. I also secured Objective 4 or something, so that netted me another point, bringing me up to 5. The other 2 objectives was Defend some other objective which I didn't have, and Behind Enemy Lines, which I achieved thanks to my Kamikaze Troopers Deep Striking right inside my opponent's deployment zone. So I had a total of 6.

The Knight Paladin tried to move toward my Leman Russ Annihilator, and he fired on my Shadowsword, but could do only one wound to him. The surviving Kataphron Destroyers and Kataphron Breachers all fired on my Valkyrie, and together with the surviving Onager Dunecrawler with Icarus array, finally destroyed my roving gunship. Poor guy! The 3 Electo-priests used Wrath of Mars Stratagem and wiped out the plasma command squad before they charged into my Company Commander, killing him with the mortal wounds from that Stratagem. Fortunately, my Primaris Psykers performed a Heroic Intervention and while the first guy failed to do anything in combat, the second guy actually killed all 3 of them with his force stave.

Wow. Just wow.

Because my opponent gambled on achieving 2 tactical objectives, and he achieved them (I think one was to destroy a single unit or something), he managed to get 4 Victory points to my 6.

The Rotate Ion Shield Stratagem was really proving its worth now, when the Knight survived my Shadowsword's (who was repaired to full health by my Tech-priest Enginseer) volcano cannon and despite adding Smite mortal wounds and other lascannons, I only brought him down to 2 wounds. The freaking Knight still had 2 wounds left. Meanwhile, my Leman Russ tanks were about to fire, only for the game to be called because the shop had to close. Oh well. I was about to kill the rest of the Kataphron Destroyers and Kataphron Breachers, the last Onager Dunecrawler and Tech-priest Enginseer anyway, so I guess that was fine. I also received unachievable Tactical Objectives such as giving 3-5 tank orders (and I only have 1 Tank Commander!), which was just plain weird. In any event, that was a great game, it was just too bad we had to cut it short.

I have to admit, I didn't think my Imperial Guard list would crush an Adeptus Mechanicus list this badly. Probably my opponent had terrible luck and his dice rolls didn't favor him at all (time to worship Tzeentch instead of the Omnissiah, my friend), but it was kind of one-sided. I think. Oh well...for the Emperor.

And Merry Christmas!