This past weekend I finally managed to get myself out to the Overlords for some 40k. I hadn't played in several months (since moving to London, really) so I was feeling pretty rusty!
Fortunately I more or less appear to remember how to play the game and both of my opponents were very friendly and helpful on the rules front.
I'm going to participate in an escalation league at the Overlords over the next several months - it's starts with 500pts in January so, this weekend I brought a fairly simple infantry heavy 500pt Imperial Guard list.
I learned a lot from the two games and particularly from chatting to the guys post-game - it turns out both either are or have been guard players so they had plenty of good advice.
Both games were 500 points and played on 4x4 tables.
Game 1: Imperial Fists
Mission: The Relic
Deployment: Dawn of War
Enemy Force:
Two tactical squads (an 8 and a 10 man) in rhinos with a librarian attached to the smaller squad. Plus one land speeder typhoon.
Game Summary:
The table was split down the middle by a large river which we decided would be dangerous terrain. There was a single bridge at the centre on which the relic was placed. I had some hilltop ruins off to the left of my deployment zone so I placed the PCS and one infantry squad there, giving them excellent lines of sight. My other infantry squad and the veterans deployed near the centre, around and behind a low hill, opposite the bridge. The CCS with the master of ordnance deployed out of sight, behind a small impassable building.
The Space Marines deployed in their rhinos more or less directly opposite the bridge. The land speeder was held in reserve.
My "plan" was to stop the rhinos short of the relic and grab it with my veterans, who would then head back into cover in my deployment zone. Of course, I immediately realised that was not going to be possible short of some amazingly lucky shooting on turn one. I totally overestimated the effectiveness of the Master of Ordnance as he proceeded to hit exactly zero things throughout both games. Both rhinos made it to the middle of the board and the large marine squad disembarked, spelling doom for my veterans. I did manage to kill both rhinos, but I was never really able to wear down the tactical squads sufficiently and they mopped up my troops fairly efficiently! They even assaulted the ruins I was hiding in and rooted out my snipers - Dorn would have been proud.
Thoughts:
There was one highly cinematic and rather comical moment in this game - the librarian assaulted my commander and they managed to double-K.O. each-other. Slaying the warlord was little help to me however, as my poor guardsmen were slaughtered to a man...
Even so, it was a fun game, especially since I haven't played at all in so long! I must say it was all very thematically appropriate; the Imperial Fists marched through my lines, shrugging off las-fire and stoically making the most of their bolter drill! I think the big lesson learned here was not to stand out in the open... also the master of ordnance is not as fabulous as that S9 AP3 large blast makes him sound.
Game 2: Inquisition
Mission: The Scouring
Deployment: Hammer & Anvil
Enemy Force:
Coteaz. One squad of stabby henchmen in a chimera plus one squad of shooty henchmen also in a chimera.
Summary:
We played this one on a very cool Orky scrap-town board. There were plenty of multi-level 'ruins' and a few buildings blocking line of sight across the middle of the board. Objectives were place fairly evenly around the battlefield, though we wouldn't learn the value of each objective until it was controlled.
I made a bit of a rookie error in deployment and put my officers well out of order range of the infantry squads... I might need to write up a little checklist so that I actually remember orders in future, I forgot about them completely several times!
I managed to explode Coteaz's chimera early in the game, which killed a couple of the arco-flagellants and left him and the remainder of his very stabby band of henchmen walking across the board. It was also revealed that I had access to a 4 point objective and a 2 point objective, whilst my opponent could only (easily) hold a 3 pointer.
Because of this, the game really boiled down to Coteaz and his retinue making a play for the 4 point objective that I controlled. On the other side of the board, one of my infantry squads and the veterans went up against a chimera - this didn't go very well for the veterans, who were mown down crossing open ground in an attempt to take another objective.
I had a lot of shots going into Coteaz's squad and that slowly took it's toll. I couldn't kill them all though and they made it it into assault with my CCS which was (unsurprisingly...) wiped out in short order. In an act of supreme silliness, my commander even managed to kill himself while overwatching with his plasma pistol... those things get hot, eh?
However, in the very final minutes of the game, a string of SIX 1's put an end to the remaining acolytes and saw my platoon command squad heroically beat Coteaz to death with their sniper rifles.
Another very fun game with some nail-biting moments towards the end - if Coteaz or his acolytes had passed just a one or two more of their saves they would have contested the 4-point objective and that would have been that!
Thoughts:
For me, the lessons here were not too dissimilar to the first game - the Master of Ordnance did zero and my dudes die really fast in the open! Also, orders are a thing and I should try to remember them...
In general, I also suffered from purchasing too many, ultimately unnecessary, upgrades. There was no need (despite killing the librarian in the first game) for the commander to have a power fist - or a plasma pistol for that matter. It's a totally different type of CCS that has such things. Maybe if they had a medic, melta guns and carapace armour - then I could use them more aggressively.
So, I'll be going for something a little different for the actual league list which I shall post imminently.
