Military Exercises

Matt and I got a chance to play a game this weekend and given that we've committed to a 40k 5th edition Apocalypse game for Christmas this year, we decided that we'd probably get out heads round the rules before dialling things up to eleven.

We both took the armies we are intending to use on the big day, Blood Angels for me, Imperial Guard for Matt, only limited ourselves to just 1500 points - mainly so we could get the game done in an evening.

My Blood Angels force was as follows:

• Librarian with 5 Honor Guard in a Razorback
• 10 Tactical Marines in a Rhino
• 5 Assault Marines with a Sanguinary Priest
• 5 Death Company with a Chaplain
• 2 Attack Bikes
• Land Speeder
• 2 Dreadnoughts

Matt's Imperial Guard detachment looked like this:

• Lord Commissar
• Officer with 5 Veteran Guardsmen
• Sanctioned Psyker
• 10 Guardsmen with Chimera
• 10 Guardsmen
• 8 Stormtroopers 
• 3 Sentinels
• Leman Russ Squadron (Executioner & Vanilla)
• Leman Russ Annihilator
• Valkyrie

I will admit to being a touch intimidated by the armoured fust facing me, as barring a smattering if Multi-Meltas, I didn't have much that could threaten the Leman Russ column.

However, we rolled up the Seize Ground scenario, which was all about grabbing objectives with scoring units. Matt had only two of these and I, after cleverly dividing my Tactical Squad up, had three.

Importantly, I didn't have to destroy the tanks, just survive them.

TURN ONE

Matt got the first turn, but very little happened as neither of us had much on the board. There were two squads of Guardsmen, a Chimera and the Officer with his Veterans, all clinging to cover and objectives. Facing them were two combat squads of Tactical Marines, one of which was in a Rhino.

A smattering of shots snapped back and forth killing one man on each side, but not much else was achieved.

TURN TWO

Reinforcements began to rumble onto the board for the Imperial Guard. Two Leman Russ battle tanks lumbered up in the centre of the battle line, not sure where the threat would emerge from, whilst a squad of Stormtroopers managed to deep strike their way across half of the battlefield.

Meanwhile, the Lord Commissar and Psyker ran on behind the lines shouting encouragement to their troops.

Blood Angels reserves also arrived in force. Assault Marines and a Land Speeder dropped from the sky on wings of fire, stunning the crew of the Chimera and killing two of the Stormtroopers, forcing them to retreat.

These were backed up by a pair of Attack Bikes, and the combat squad in the Rhino disembarked to unleash the worst volley in 40,000 years to do absolutely no damage to them men stood totally in the open.

Meanwhile, a Dreadnought armed with a Lascannon and a Missile Launcher moved up in support of the other combat squad and between them they managed to remove most of the threat from the Veteran Guardsmen.

TURN THREE

As the rest of the Imperial Guard forces except the Sentinels arrived, targets were acquired and firing solutions prepared.

The Leman Russ Executioner lived up to its name by targeting the Assault Marines  which were foolishly in the open and clumped together. Superheated plasma rained from the sky on the transhuman warriors. The presence of the Sanguinary Priest might have made them 'feel no pain' but he could do nothing to stop them from all dying.

Somehow the Land Speeder avoided being destroyed by the Valkyrie, which I was to learn was significantly less worrying than it looked.

Unfazed by the obliteration of the Assault Squad, the Blood Angels pressed the attack.

The Land Speeder swung round the Chimera and unleashed it's Assault Cannon on the cowering Guardsmen, but to no real effect, whilst the Attack Bikes only managed to shaken the crew of the Chimera again.

The Death Company and a second Dreadnought arrived in the centre of the line, ready to go where they were needed.

Meanwhile, turning their attention to the mission objective, one combat squad took a leak out of the Imperial Guard handbook and hunkered down behind cover, whilst the other advanced towards an objective using their own transport to shield them.

TURN FOUR

The Leman Russ squadron continued to dominate everything it could see and demolished the Rhino, with the resulting explosion killing two of the Tactical Marines sheltering behind it whilst the Stormtroopers polished off another one.

The Valkyrie proved ineffective against the Death Company whilst the limited anti-tank capabilities if the Guardsmen only managed to stun the Land Speeder.

The Sentinels finally turned up and began the long walk to hopefully achieve something by contesting the objective held by the Blood Angels Missile Launcher.

The Death Company leapt into action, and, doing what they do best, hacked the Stormtroopers and Lord Commissar to shreds before consolidating towards certain death...erm, I mean the Leman Russ squadron.

Meanwhile, the Dreadnought in the centre bathed the Guardsmen in flames before charging into the undergrowth after them. The poor bloody infantry were outmatched, fled and were cut down, denying Matt the objective they had been holding.

Once again, the Attack Bikes failed to land a telling blow on the Chimera, this time only shaking the crew, however, Blood Angels shooting on the other flank was much more effective as two Sentinels were brought down by a sharp-shooting Dreadnought.

The Librarian and his Honour Guard arrived in their Razorback, too late to achieve anything meaningful with the melee weapons they carried.

TURN FIVE

Unable to win a game that ended on turn five, Matt opted to go for broke and inflict damage in the hope of getting another turn.

The Leman Russ squadron continued their habit of utterly eradicating whatever they shot at and the Death Company died. The Annihilator tried to follow suit, but was only able to drop the Dreadnought threatening the last Sentinel to one wound, whilst the remaining Guardsmen once again shook the Land Speeder, neutralising it's threat.

The Valkyrie had the option of using it's Lascannon to kill a Tactical Marine and hope the other one broke, or go for a glory shot and try to take out the Razorback full of over-priced and ineffectual HQ units.

Matt being Matt chose the latter, but his missile was evaded by the Shield of Sanguinius negating its impact.

There was very little for the Blood Angels to do except try to hold the lead they had gained.

The Tactical Marines hugged cover, the Attack Bikes fired ineffectually at the Valkyrie and the Librarian and Honour Guard disembarked to pose for photos.

Once again it was the Dreadnoughts that did the work, one of the finishing off the final Sentinel and and hope Matt have of contesting the objective id held all game, whilst the other one finally managed to hurt a Leman Russ, immobilising it.

When the time came to roll to see if we had another turn, the result was that the game was over and the Blood Angels had secured a crushing 2-1 pyrrhic victory.

AFTERMATH

This was a really good learning experience as we got our heads round what to do (move faster) and not do (deep strike). 

My major concern remains that my Blood Angels still struggle against armour and firepower until they are up close, something which is quite concerning given that they are likely to be facing a Baneblade and a Warhound Titan in the not too distant future.

I'm also sure that the Honor Guard is a hideous points sink at this scale, and I'll probably swap then out for a second Tactical Squad and some extra jump troops in future.

The game itself is significantly simpler than both Horus Heresy and 2nd edition, whilst being more granular and less 'gamey' than 9th or 10th edition.

I'm glad we've settled on 5th edition as our 40k standard, as it's the first iteration I started playing 'properly'.