Inquisition v Guard Battle Report

I went to a local club on Sunday the "Brisbane Independent Gamers" and managed to get a game against a guard player who was also new to the place

He played:

1 platoon hq, & 30 men with 3 lascannons

1 platoon hq & 30 men with Al someone or other allowing them to outflank! Ulp...

1 command HQ

2 nasty tanks, a plasma one and a lascannon one, A standard Leman Russ

Sly Marbo

I had the usual except I put the flagellants in the Landraider and the Crusaders in a Chimera

It was spearhead set up and capture and control.  We both put our objectives in out corners and I got to go first.

Deployment was tricky.  I knew he was able to bring on 30 men potentially behind me and I didn't know when they would turn up or where.  He could re-roll the board edge giving him a 75% chance of him coming on my side.

I could be boring and play Borehammer and just sit everything back and play for an easy draw but as I said quite often through the game, "fortune favours the foolish"...  So I set up the Flagellants, Crusaders and Hot Shot warriors as far forward as possible with the Dealth Cult assassins in reserve in the Stormraven.

Coteaz and his retinue set up in my ruin which my Techmarine was kind enough to bolster for me

He deployed his platoon HQ and blob squad in his ruins with the command HQ hiding behind them.

He didn't sieze the initiative luckily as i'd set up without cover for the Landraider but as I could have made him re-roll it I was pretty confident he wouldn't have.

The vindicare is in the ruins below the landraider

Turn 1

I went full speed ahead with the Landraider and Hot Shot gang and popped smoke.  I decided to hold the crusaders back as he hadn't deployed one of his tanks yet.  My Techmarine opened up the shooting killing some of his big blob.  2d6 scatter isn't as bad with a huge target!

My Vindicare made himself public enemy no1 as he easily popped the big nasty plasma tank (I hate those things so much)

And that was that as everything else was out of range.

 

The Guard turn saw them throw nearly everything at my assassin.  The poor chap weathered a lot of fire but eventually succomed to a lascannon in the face from the BS4 tank.  I guess in all the shrapnel flying about he didn't see it coming.
The command squad lascannon managed to immobilize my Landraider with a lucky shot.

Turn 2

No Stormraven yet so the only movement was the Hot Shot gang moving up around the northern ruin to snipe a small command squad hiding there.  The flagellants had to get out and walk so I id them as best I could from the blob squad using the golden ruin.
Shooting concentrates on the blob with the Landraider taking a few skulking guardsmen down and the orbital bombardment sending the rest to the deck as they duck for cover.

The guard tuen see's the arrival of Sly Marbo and the Leman Russ.  And why "Sly slyly sly sly" Sly Marbo has definitely earnt his name as despite my careful positioning pops up behind my flagellants and flattens 7 of them with an accurate st10 grenade.  No feel no pain for me there then...  Grrr
Fire from the heavy weapons of the blob squad and the Leman Russ takes out my Hot Shots Chimera and a few of them making them run for the cover of the nearby ruins.

Turn 3
With a screeching of engine noise and a sub sonic blast the Stormraven enters the battle but unfortunately the pilot fails to compensate enough for his entry speed and overshoots the cover afforded by the golden ruins
With the flagellants near wiped out and the Hot Shot gang running away I have to send the Crusaders down to support the Death Cult assassins.
The lascannon tank has now become priority for shooting as my Stormraven is sitting out in the open.  The Landraider opens up on it taking its twin linked st8 3 shot autocannon, unfortunaltely this is the only thing in range.
The psykers who until now have been having a nice sermon in the ruins have a go at his Leman Russ but miss horribly.
The flagellants charge Marbo with no effect and lose 1 of their number

The Guard player picks up the die for reserves. 1-3 my edge, 4-6 (confident in his ability to roll low numbers obviously). Its a 5! Wohoo! "Don't forget I get a re-roll" he says and rolls again...

Damn...

This turn cold now go horribly for me if my Stormraven cops it.  After the blob squad, command HQ, platoon HQ and the remaining guns on the lascannon tank have finished its still there!  Immobilized and shaken but still in the game and more importantly the assassins inside are safe.
His outflanking platoon get to work surrounding my objective though luckily their shooting is pretty ineffective and he rolls to low to make combat this turn
Marbo tidies up the last two flagellants in combat

Turn 4
The Hot Shot gang continue to fall back and the assassins get out and head towards the blob squad. Without the Benny Hill music but very much in his style the Crusaders to a sharp U turn and head back to my own objective and jump out

"Right lads lets just twat someone shall we?"

Shooting presented some important choices.  Marbo has a melta bomb and will auto hit my Landraider if I leave him be.  The blob squad is still quite big for just the assassins on there own as they won't be hitting first (why no grenades for me GW?!) There is also the small matter of 30 men in my own bulding and the lascannon tank is STILL going and could cuase serious damage to my assassins if they survive the blob squad.  Ok here goes...

The Landraider shoots Marbo with its multimelta, lascannon and heavy bolter vaporizing him somewhere along the line as he wasn't there when I finished.  The machine spirit took a shot at his tank and took it out! HOORAH!

The Stormraven pilot used his powers to shake off the effects of being stunned and opened up on the blob squad with the autocannons only.  I couldn't risk to many dying as if I failed my assault roll with the assassins it would be game over as they stare down 20odd rapid firing lasguns.

Now remember folks, fortune favours the foolish right?

"Orbiting cannons please bring down your fire on my 6 approx 20 meters away.  Yes confirmed. that's what I said.  JUST DO IT!" Quick prayer to the scatter gods and boom 7 dead guardsmen with no cover to hide in this time.  I pull the same trick with the psykers with less risk and take out a few more.  Coatez's bird chips in with a few more kills and the servitors whir up to thin them out some more.  I'm so pleased by this I forget there are 8 warriors with 16 st4 shots between them still sitting around doing nowt.

I need a 4 to get into assault with the blob squad with my assassins as conveniently the models closest fell to the previous fire.  Its a 6 and i'm well in.  the guard go first and roughly 15 shell shocked me hack and slash away to kill one assassin.  40 power weapon attacks later see's just 6 left and thanks to the commissar they stay in the fight.

Inexplicably in the guards turn he charges in with his platoon HQ

The only movement in his turn was to get a little closer to charge me.  Shooing was from the small platoon HQ at my Stormraven which did nothing.

The assassins combat wipes out the blob squad save the commissar, the newly arrived platoon hq gets reduced to 2 models with only a wound left a piece and leg it

The combat in my ruin goes badly as Coatez eats the dirt and I lose by 1 model but stay in the fight.

Turn 5

I charge the crusaders into the fight and as a side issue the chimera flames a small squad out of the nearby ruins taking out his contingency plan.  The psykers take a few more of the outflanking platoon and in combat I wipe out one squad from my ruin but the platoon HQ with Al someone someone is still left.

In the assassins combat unsurprisingly the commissar eats dirt but my consolidation move isn't enough to get near the objective.  If there is no turn 6 its a draw if I don't lose the combat for my own objective.

His outflanking squad made the assault on my psykers and wiped them out.  In the combat below I was hanging on in and there were only 3 guard left in combat with my Techmarine and a warrior.

Taking a leaf out of my book he fires his battle cannon at my Crusaders scoring a direct hit!  Thank the Emperor for storm shields and 3+ invulnerable saves as only 2 fall.

Unfortunately we had to stop there as the hall was closing.  We rolled to see if there would have been a turn 6.  At the moment he had my objective and I had none but had models available to contest mine and take his...

There would have been!  The assassins take his objective earning at least a draw.  Its debatable if I would have got close enough to my own objective to contest but having to roll a total of 6 on 2 2D6 rolls I think it would have happened.  

The end

I really wish I cold remember my opponents name as he was a great guy and this was one of the best games i'd played ever.  The rules worked as GW intended with cinematic moments everywhere and tension building every turn.  I very rarely come away without thinking something bad about the rules but in this one they flowed.

We both had good turns and bad due to luck but the only bad choices made by both of us were his decision to charge his platoon HQ squad into combat rather than wait to shoot at me and me now knowing what to do with the Crusaders meaning they were a little late to the fight rather than in place to be a right pain.  Still if we hadn't had made them it would have been a good chance of a draw and who wants that?!

Learning points

When I get the money i'm gonna swap the flagellants and Landraider for more assassins and a Stormraven.  Its cheesy but ever so effective and one day the Stormraven won't deliver its payload then i'm stuffed.

The Crusaders came good in the end as only they could have survived the blast from the Leman Russ.  And as my opponent said, they don't look a threat until you try to get rid of them then its like trying to clean up a stubborn stain.  There is definitely value in that...

Til next time