Imperial Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus: Imperial Guard rides out!

I had a couple of Incursion games with my Imperial Guard today! The first game was against Iron Hands, and my friend brought a bunch of Space Marines to the table for an Arks of Omen game. As in, a mission using the Arks of Omen campaign. As I said, this is an Incursion game, so he had 1,000 points of Iron Hands ready to rumble. If I'm not mistaken, his list looked something like this:

Iron Hands Arks of Omen Detachment

Primaris Techmarine (with a Warlord Trait that gives him an extra wound)

Lieutenant in Phobos armor

2 squads of 5 Infiltrators

Redemptor Dreadnought

5 Devastators in a Drop pod, 2 multimeltas, 2 grav cannons, and a grav pistol

3 Suppressors

3 Eliminators in an Impulsor with shield dome

I'm pretty sure I'm missing a unit or two, but I simply can't remember what they are. Ugh. Maybe that is 1,000 points, and I'm just overthinking it. Anyway, my opponent made good use of his Devastator Doctrine and Iron Hands' Cold Fury or Calculated Fury or whatever, and in the first turn, he dropped his Devastators in front of my Leman Russ tank and destroyed him. Oh, wait...I should write out my list.

Imperial Guard Arks of Omen Detachment

Cadian Castellan with plasma pistol and power fist

Regimental Tech-priest Enginseer

4 Armored Sentinels (2 in 1 squad)

Leman Russ tank with plasma executioner cannon and plasma cannon sponsons

Shadowsword

Not only that, his Redemptor Dreadnought and Suppressors destroyed an Armored Sentinel, though I think the rest survived a bunch of shots from the Eliminators that hopped out of the Impulsor and began taking potshots. Yikes. That made me sad.

However, I made him sadder by destroying his Redemptor Dreadnought with my Shadowsword's volcano cannon. Let's just say it was overkill. The Redemptor Dreadnought promptly exploded and dealt a bunch of mortal wounds to the Suppressors, Eliminators, Primaris Techmarine and Lieutenant in Phobos armor. The twin heavy bolters killed 2 Devastators, but the remaining Devastators were wiped out by my Armored Sentinel's plasma cannon. The other two surviving Sentinels also took out several Infiltrators with their plasma cannons, then charged into the Eliminators and carved them apart with their chainsaws before consolidating into the Infiltrators nearby.

The Primaris Techmarine and Lieutenant continued moving up the table, trying to bolster the Infiltrators, while the Suppressors slowly whittled down another Armored Sentinel, but he survived. Meanwhile, the Impulsor and Infiltrators fired on another Sentinel, to little effect because his Armored Tracks gave him a +1 to his armor save against their bolt carbines and heavy stubbers. Hah! The Armored Sentinels are a lot tougher than most people believe. Meanwhile, the Armored Sentinel continued to carve apart a couple of the Infiltrators he was locked in combat with. Yay.

The Shadowsword destroyed the Impulsor, who proceeded to blow up again, dealing mortal wounds to my injured Armored Sentinel and wrecking him, and an Infiltrator took a wound, as did my Castellan. The Primaris Techmarine and Lieutenant in Phobos Armor also took a wound or two, but the damage was minimized. Meanwhile, the Armored Sentinel finished off the Infiltrators, while my Castellan charged in and pummeled the already wounded Primaris Techmarine with his power fist. Hah! On the other side, my second surviving Armored Sentinel charged into the Infiltrators and locked them in combat, while the heavy bolters of my Shadowsword took out the Suppressors.

I think the Lieutenant in Phobos armor charged my Armored Sentinel and didn't do anything to him, but I couldn't quite kill him in return. My Castellan charged in and killed the Lieutenant in Phobos armor with his power fist, making him quite the hero because he literally slew two Space Marine Characters or leaders by himself. Wow. He's a hero. Meanwhile, my second Armored Sentinel continued hacking away at the Infiltrators but failed to wipe them out. Though they were still stuck in combat, my opponent conceded because he literally only had a couple of Infiltrators and the drop pod left on the table. Yikes. Oh, well. I don't know what to say. That was brutal. It did seem quite dire for me at first when I lost a Leman Russ tank and an Armored Sentinel to his Iron Hands' ferocious firepower, but my Shadowsword singlehandedly won the game for me by killing everyone else.

After that, I took the chance to buy a third new Sentinel and assemble him, which means I now have 6 Armored Sentinels in total! 3 old ones and 3 new ones. It's kind of funny fielding the 6 of them side by side when they are so different, but I'll still do it. The new Armored Sentinels do not invalidate my old ones. At least I don't think so.

Since I had some time after finishing my new Armored Sentinel, I agreed to play another game with another friend. He wanted to try out his Space Wolves, and so his list looked something like this:

Space Wolves Arks of Omen Detachment

Captain in Terminator Armor and Relic Blade

10 Scouts with sniper rifles

Invictor Tactical Warsuit with autocannons

Wulfen Dreadnought with frost axe and blizzard shield

5 Intercessors in a Razorback with twin assault cannons

2 Land Speeder Tornadoes

Attack Bike with multimelta

Whirlwind with Vengeance launcher

Yeah...that's about it, I think. I don't remember anything else. He didn't bring Longfangs as I suggested, probably because he had no points left for them. Oh, well. And yes, I know Primaris Space Marines like Intercessors aren't supposed to ride in a Razorback, but I didn't really care about that. If he wanted them riding in the Razorback, then they get to ride in it, Primaris or not. It never made sense to me that Primaris Marines somehow couldn't ride Rhinos, Razorbacks and Land Raiders, and firstborn Marines were forced out of Repulsors, Impulsors and Repulsor Executioners. Screw that, just let him play what he wants.

I changed up my list because my Shadowsword is starting to look like a very unfriendly dude. Like, wow, he was singlehandedly winning me my games, but I doubt it would be friendly for my opponents and I was starting to feel bad blowing everything up with his volcano cannon. I'll save him for more competitive games. Anyway, this is my new Imperial Guard list for 1,000 points.

Imperial Guard Arks of Omen Detachment

Cadian Castellan with plasma pistol and power fist

Kasrkins with 2 plasma guns, plasma pistol, 2 hot-shot volley guns, marksman's hot-shot sniper rifle

6 Armored Sentinels divided into 3 squadrons

Leman Russ Executioner tank with plasma cannon sponsons

Rogal Dorn tank with oppressor cannon and multimelta sponsons

As usual, I allowed him to go first because I feel kind of bad. He moved his Razorback up and shot my Armored Sentinels, but with their armored tracks giving them +1 to their armor saves, they only ate a couple of wounds. The Attack Bike did nothing against my Rogal Dorn because of his Toughness 9, though his Land Speeder Tornadoes chewed through a single Armored Sentinel through weight of fire, and adding the Invictor Tactical Warsuit's autocannon, they brought him down to a single wound. Ouch. The Scouts fired on my guys, but because I was in cover, I managed to negate their Devastator Doctrine, though I rolled pretty well on my saves and only lost 1 guy. Whoa. I can't believe it. It helped that the Space Wolves Scouts moved, and so their heavy weapons gave them a -1 penalty to shooting and they didn't hit much. Phew.

That was...not good.

My retaliation was pretty fierce. I blew up his Wulfen Dreadnought with the Rogal Dorn's oppressor cannon alone, while the autocannon, multimeltas and meltaguns blew up the Invictor Tactical Warsuit. I did a bunch of wounds with the oppressor cannon, and despite having a 4++ invulnerable save thanks to the Blizzard Shield, the Wulfen Dreadnought only made one and ate a bunch of shots that destroyed his measly 8 wounds despite Duty Eternal reducing the damage 4 to 3. Damn. That was unlucky. The wounded Armored Sentinel and his friend fired on the Razorback and brought him down to 2 wounds. The other wounded Armored Sentinel, his friend chewed through the Land Speeder Tornadoes and wiped them, while the Leman Russ Executioner killed the Attack Bike and also damaged the Land Speeder Tornadoes, which were finished off by the Sentinels (sorry, I'm forgetting things out of order). One Scout died from the chaincannon from the Rogal Dorn and a salvo from the third squadron of Armored Sentinels. Damn, I took out almost half his army in just one turn alone. Oh, and the Armored Sentinels charged and destroyed the Razorback with their chainsaws, allowing the Intercessors to spill out without losing a single one. Phew. But that was still brutal for my opponent. I was rolling too well.

The Captain in Terminator Armor and the Intercessors charged and killed one Armored Sentinel while wounding the other. The Scouts took out another Karskin with a mortal wound, though I made my 3+ cover saves. 3+? Oh, that's because my Karskins had the Industrial Efficiency Regimental Doctrine, allowing them to outright ignore the AP -1 of the Scouts' sniper rifles, and they obviously were no longer in Devastator Doctrine. So they were in cover, which gave them 3+ saves against the AP -1 (now AP 0) sniper rifles. Heh. The Whirlwind finished off the already injured Sentinel, though, so there was that.

I had my Leman Russ tank destroy the Whirlwind with his plasma executioner cannon and lascannon, though he took a couple of wounds despite rerolling ones from his supercharged plasma, and my Armored Sentinel fell back so that I could shoot the Intercessors with my Kasrkins. They fell, and the sniper rifle did 3 wounds to the Captain in Terminator armor. With his Intercessor bodyguard gone, I proceeded to obliterate him with plasma from the other Armored Sentinels. Meanwhile, the chaingun shots and other stuff took out a bunch of Scouts, leaving him with just a single combat squad of Scouts. I think 4?

The Scouts killed another Karskin with another mortal wound, but once again, I made my 3+ cover saves, and they survived. The retaliation from my plasma wiped out the Scouts and my opponent was tabled. Yikes. That was another brutal game. At least he killed a bunch of Kasrkins and 2 Armored Sentinels, so there's that. I think.