The Lord Commissar Paints

[WarriorFish]

The model is very mono-pose, so the weapon swap isn't much help but a different head will go a long way I think :)

[elmo]

How about a commissar with a helmet? Would it work?

 

Something to play around later with methinks...

[WarriorFish]

Depends on the helmet maybe? He needs to stand out a bit from the rank and file, but doesn't look well armoured (this model at least) so a fully enclosed helmet might look a bit odd.

[Captain Titus]

Personally I think a Pith helmet would look good on a commissar, he wouldn't look to rank and file or too odd. Perhaps a conversion using an old Praetorian model or using a 3rd party supplier.

[WarriorFish]

That would work well, but then a Pith helmet generally makes anything better :P

[WarriorFish]

The last hurrah for 7th sees the 144th with Imperial Knight support pitted against the Blood Angels at 2,000pts!

Mission: Something or other where you have the number of tactical objectives equal to the turn number.

144th

Hidden Content

++ Combined Arms Detachment (Astra Militarum: Codex (2014)) [1630pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Enginseer [65pts]: Melta Bombs, Servitor w/ Servo-arm, Servitor w/ Servo-arm

+ HQ +

Tank Commander [395pts]
. . Command Punisher: 2x Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolter, Knight Commander Pask, Warlord
. . Vanquisher: 2x Multi-meltas, Lascannon

+ Elites +

Ratlings [50pts]: 5x Ratling

+ Troops +

Infantry Platoon [150pts]
. . Infantry Squad: 8x Guardsman, Guardsman w/ Flamer
. . . . Sergeant: Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
. . Infantry Squad: 8x Guardsman, Guardsman w/ Flamer
. . . . Sergeant: Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
. . Platoon Command Squad: 2x Guardsman w/ Grenade Launcher, 2x Guardsman w/ Lasgun
. . . . Platoon Commander: Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Orders

Infantry Platoon [150pts]
. . Infantry Squad: 8x Guardsman, Guardsman w/ Flamer
. . . . Sergeant: Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
. . Infantry Squad: 8x Guardsman, Guardsman w/ Flamer
. . . . Sergeant: Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
. . Platoon Command Squad: 2x Guardsman w/ Grenade Launcher, 2x Guardsman w/ Lasgun
. . . . Platoon Commander: Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Orders

Veterans [170pts]: Flak Armour for Squad, Veteran w/ Heavy Flamer, 4x Veteran w/ Lasgun, 2x Veteran w/ Meltagun
. . Chimera: Heavy Flamer, Multi-laser, Pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber
. . Veteran Autocannon Team: Lasgun
. . Veteran Sergeant: Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol

+ Fast Attack +

Armoured Sentinel Squadron [100pts]
. . Armoured Sentinel: Lascannon
. . Armoured Sentinel: Lascannon

Hellhound Squadron [125pts]
. . Hellhound: Heavy Bolter

Hellhound Squadron [125pts]
. . Hellhound: Heavy Bolter

+ Heavy Support +

Manticore [170pts]: Heavy Flamer

Wyvern Battery [130pts]
. . Wyvern: Heavy Flamer
. . Wyvern: Heavy Flamer

++ IK Oathsworn Detachment (Imperial Knights: Codex (2015)) [370pts] ++

+ Lord of War +

Knight Errant [370pts]: Heavy Stubber, Reaper Chainsword, Thermal Cannon

Blood Angels

Hidden Content

++ BA Baal Strike Force (Blood Angels: Codex (2014)) [2000pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Relics and Detachment-rules: Codex: Blood Angels

+ HQ +

Captain Karlaen [160pts]: Warlord

Chaplain [95pts]: Bolt Pistol, Crozius Arcanum, Melta bombs

+ Elites +

Death Company Squad [415pts]: 13x Bolt Pistol, 11x Chainsword, 15x Death Company Marine, Hand Flamer, Infernus Pistol, 3x Power Fist, Power Weapon

Furioso Dreadnought [135pts]: Magna-grapple
. . Power Fists: Heavy flamer, Meltagun

Terminator Squad [230pts]: Assault Cannon (replaces Storm Bolter), 2x Chainfist (replaces Power fist), 4x Terminators
. . Sergeant: Power Sword

Vanguard Veteran Squad [170pts]: 3x Bolt Pistol, 3x Chainsword, Inferno Pistol, Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer, 4x Vanguard Veteran
. . Veteran Sergeant: Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon

+ Troops +

Scout Squad [55pts]: 4x Scout (Combat Blade), Scout Sergeant

Scout Squad [55pts]: 4x Scout (Combat Blade), Scout Sergeant

+ Heavy Support +

Land Raider Crusader [260pts]: Pintle Multi-melta

Stormraven Gunship [205pts]: Extra Armour, Twin Linked Lascannon, Twin-linked Multi-melta

+ Lords of War +

Commander Dante, Chapter Master of the Blood Angels [220pts]

Deployment sees the Blood Angels starting with little on the table - Terminators and Dante's flyer in support.

The 144th deploy ready to advance, with elements focused on the centre to protect my heavier units - in particular Pask.

I have no answer for a flyer short of throwing dice at it (though this has worked for Guard before...), but objective 4 next to the Veteran's Chimera is sky fire which is useful albeit not best placed. I fail to seize and the Blood Angels advance.

Turn 1

The BA move up, the Dread popping smoke and the Land Raider managing to strip a HP from the Edelweiss - but that's all. In return the 144th make their way forwards and unleash the Emperor's hammer. The smoke on the Dread proves useful but the Land Raider takes a hammering especially from the Manticore getting 3 pie plates from the salvo.

The Land Raider and Dreadnought fall to the thermal cannon, leaving the DC to face the rest of the Guard's fire power. The Wyvern's rolls are on fire and deliver 7 casualties. A few more are picked off and the left Hellhound kills 3 Scouts making for a first turn that could hardly go any better.

Turn 2

It's make or break for the BA, fortunately their reserves come in on time. The Terminators arrive to destroy one of the Wyverns and the Stormraven's payload reduces the Knight to 3 HPs. The Scouts on either side of the board advance as does Karlean.

The Guard's response to move up again and fire everything! The Terminators are surrounded and all but one end up falling to the combined might of most of my forces.

The right flank has less to offer, the right Infantry Squad falling back to hide after taking a couple of casualties and the Edelweiss moving up to counter the BA advance. The Ratlings manage to take out a model and the Edelweiss's guns take down some more DC leaving only 2, and she charges the Scouts with Karlean.

As you can expect this goes badly for the Scouts but Karlean cares not and shaves off another HP!

Turn 3

Things are looking grim for the BA but there's still some cards to play. The Stormraven drops into hover to deploy the Vanguard and Dante and the Scouts move to assault the Hellhound reducing it to 1 HP.

The DC attempt to charge the advancing Infantry Squad but get picked off by lasgun and flamer fire before they can reach. The combat against the Knight goes badly too, Dante reduces her to 1 HP but in exchange for the Vanguard squad - at this point my opponent calls the game.

Thus ends 7th Edition, and with a victory for the Guard! The other game played went to the wire with the BT bludgeoning the GK to death so in many ways our last day of 7th was the perfect tribute to a rule set that could go from one extreme to the other

All in all 7th wasn't all bad, seemed like the bad points had a disproportionate influence but it doesn't matter much now as it's soon to be replaced! Here's hoping 8th gives all armies a good account as well as better rules. Not least for reserves, this game once again proving my loss of faith in it to be the right decision...

[Honda]

Great report, thank you for sharing.

 

It was funny, when I saw the IG arrayed before the game started, my first thoughts were, "That's a tough nut to crack" and "The BA don't have enough bodies for that 35 boots)." I've also never really thought that a well played IG are not the kind of army you can "move into contact" on from across the board. You usually have to get into them early and disrupt their fire plan or they are just going to take big chunks out of you until you're gone.

 

All in all 7th wasn't all bad, seemed like the bad points had a disproportionate influence but it doesn't matter much now as it's soon to be replaced! Here's hoping 8th gives all armies a good account as well as better rules. Not least for reserves, this game once again proving my loss of faith in it to be the right decision...

 

 

Agree 8th is going to be interesting. We really liked 7h, thought it was the best set of rules yet. However, it did take a while to play and since most of our games are Apoc, it really reflected that.

 

Cheers,

[WarriorFish]

Dante should have made a beeline for the main Guard line I thought, let Karlean do his best on the Knight. Even if he didn't pull through by then the BA would be deep in my lines so the Knight would probably be unable to shoot or charge to support! The Stormraven could have zipped around and generally been nasty, with twin-linked lascannons and multimelta it'd be popping vehicles left and right and I'd only have had an autocannon to hit it with any accuracy. Probably not enough to win the game, but would have made it a much more close run thing.

 

7th was certainly no friend of assault armies though, so Guard at least can mitigate codex weaknesses by going all out on shooting. Add in putting everything on the table to start with and that's a lot of dice, but that's how Guard win. If you can't thin their ranks quickly enough in the opening turns it's probably game over!

[Jam Master Flex]

Great report WarriorFish! It's always nice when the rollsl go your way against MEQ units when the odds don't seem in your favour.

 

That knight looks like it is painted really well do you have more pictures or are they earlier in the thread?

 

I can't wait for 8th and may very well have a batrep up on my own thread on release day all being well!

[WarriorFish]

I did the Knight for last year's ETL, it's documented in my AdMech/Knight WIP :) I didn't get to use the fibre optic lights again as it was a bright day, but maybe they'll see more use once we get to winter games :P

 

I plan on getting my Guard out for the first 8th games, so hopefully the barracks can figure out the new rules and codex quickly :tu:

[The Pounder]

Great report! Always nice to go out with a bang!!

The Knight and armour are especially pleasing to the eye.

Here's hoping 8th will be a new renaissance for all us old guard players.

Feeling very positive.

[elmo]

Well written report to end the 7th...

 

 

On a side note - whenever I see your thread title I can't help but read it as "The Lord Commissar Pants!"

 

Must be me :P

[WarriorFish]

As promised, the first "proper" game of 8th was with my Guard - 1000pts vs Black Templars. Unfortunately there weren't many notes or pictures as it was as much a learning exercise as anything, make sure we're up on all the rules and experiment with things.

First thing was of course deployment - pretty much only getting first turn on a luck roll isn't going to be fun. You can mitigate and plan for it of course, as you're certain to be going second in most cases but it's no fun to have an enemy unit land and charge you before you can do anything - which is what happened to my mortars on the right flank.

Fortunately they held, only losing one model so they could fall back and the accompanying squads unleashed the dice. This whittled them down but not enough, so when the Assault Marines charged an infantry squad I simply repeated the process and that was that for them! The Hellhounds were great, moving up with a long ranged and quite potent inferno cannon I sent them in to charge enemy Rhinos to tie them up

Worked nicely in buying me time, and due to their toughness they survived the attacks back to simply fall back and allow my army to send forth a storm of righteous fire power. The Manticore was great, even without rolling that high on shots - the lonely Centurion at the back testament to that

The casualties mounted up for the Templars, though they ended up destroying a Hellhound it exploded taking a heavy toll. Despite moving up the attrition was proving too much, and with mortar shells raining down and lasguns cracking the surviving Marines were cut down - not even the Captain safe (the lack of a 2+ making a difference there).

Bonus picture of my Guardsmen holding the line, just out of shot Firionel and the Lord Commissar.

The Vets performed well enough, orders letting them strip wounds from a Rhino effectively with overcharged plasma. This list featured three commissars - two having never been used before - but they weren't needed as the Guardsmen held true. Felt odd to not having a single Russ in the army, they've almost always featured for me but artillery seems useful and I wanted to get the most from the infantry.

With the numbers game - always Guard's strength, and too often a crutch - it feels like we have a leg up. Even if the likes of lasguns aren't amazing in number they do their thing as always, and being able to put cheap squads forward to have them fall back to little loss (or none, with orders!) is really powerful. Yes, the enemy will be on us by turn 2 (or 1...) without too much effort, but at least we have a way out.

I'm keen to try out some different builds, and get some vehicles in too not to mention the Bullgryns and Scions on my list becoming a lot better now - perhaps I should hold off on projects more often if this is the result

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

WF can you give us a summary of the lists taken?

[WarriorFish]

I can get mine easily thanks to the magic of Battle Scribe, and can remember enough on the BT list to detail the main bits - I'll post them up for you tonight. I won't pretend either list was optimised much and the BT one probably suffered a bit from being more 7th this was all part of our grand intro to 8th day so we were focusing on getting a solid foundation on the rules and having fun - accomplishing both with flying colours ;)

 

It has confirmed much of what I have been thinking, so I'm looking forward to 8th with Guard it's going to be a good edition for us :) Not to mention the improvements to various units I like/want to take so it's all looking sound for the 144th :D

[WarriorFish]

Here is my list:

 

Hidden Content

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Imperium - Astra Militarum Imperial Guard) ++

+ HQ +

Company Commander: Chainsword, Laspistol

Company Commander: Bolt pistol, Chainsword

Lord Commissar: Bolt pistol, Power sword

+ Troops +

Infantry Squad
. . 8x Guardsman
. . Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Flamer
. . Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

Infantry Squad
. . 8x Guardsman
. . Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Flamer
. . Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

Infantry Squad
. . 8x Guardsman
. . Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Flamer
. . Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

Infantry Squad
. . 8x Guardsman
. . Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Flamer
. . Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

+ Elites +

Commissar: Bolt pistol, Power fist

Commissar: Bolt pistol

Veterans
. . Veteran Sergeant: Boltgun, Power sword
. . 4x Veteran w/ Lasgun
. . Veteran w/ Special Weapon: Sniper rifle
. . Veteran w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. . Veteran w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. . Veteran Weapon Team: Autocannon

+ Fast Attack +

Armoured Sentinels
. . Armoured Sentinel: Lascannon
. . Armoured Sentinel: Lascannon

Hellhounds
. . Hellhound: Heavy Bolter, Turret-mounted Inferno Cannon
. . Hellhound: Heavy Bolter, Turret-mounted Inferno Cannon

+ Heavy Support +

Heavy Weapons Squad
. . Heavy Weapon Team: Mortar
. . Heavy Weapon Team: Mortar
. . Heavy Weapon Team: Mortar

Heavy Weapons Squad
. . Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter
. . Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter
. . Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter

Manticore: Heavy Flamer

 

Black Templar list was roughly:

 

Hidden Content

Captain with Relic Blade

2x Crusade Squads in Rhino

TLLC Razorback

Assault Squad

Devastator Centurions (lascannons, missile launcher)

 

You can put a fair few Guardsmen on the table if you want, considering this was at 1000pts :)

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Wow ... that's a lot of bodies and weapons at 1000 points. I do think that boys > toys in this edition. 

 

With one more troop selection, that's a Brigade Detachment.

 

By contrast, his army is tiny.

 

How did the armoured sentinels do for you? I love the models and I'm inclined towards a couple of them equipped as yours were for my army, but on the other hand feel like they would just be automatic deaths to my regular opponents' lances.

[WarriorFish]

Indeed, by focusing on the boys I could get a lot in - it's not shy of two Infantry Squads for one Rhino! Centurions aren't cheap either and are nasty so the Manticore did me a big favour The Sentinels had some bad rolls unfortunately, but when I did sneak some hits in they stripped a good few wounds off the Rhinos. I managed to keep them stationary behind the Vets but not much happened so it's not a great judge.

 

I think the -1 to hit on moving hurts the Sentinels badly so I'm thinking that high volume shot weapons are a better idea. It's a shame as I've always loved my Sentinels and got a lot from them but it feels harder to fit them in with 8th

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Yeah, I figured that the -1 to hit would hurt sentinels. The high volume weapons they can have are kind of weak though ... I was NOT impressed with the multilaser when I brought one on a Chimera. Frankly, I've never found a use for mulilasers in any edition. Autocannon is two shots I guess but still a little "meh" as they'd say in the common parlance. Heavy flamers I guess ...?

 

This is why I've been inclined more towards more rough riders with meltaguns for some mobile anti-tank. But I've always loved the sentinel models and was hoping 8th might finally be their chance to shine and be worth bringing.

[WarriorFish]

Multilasers used to be great as they were cheap with lots of shots at a respectable strength - from Instant Deathing the odd T3 character to stripping last transport hull points they always did well for me, albeit exclusively as a Chimera weapon. Sadly that utility no longer exists in 8th so they're not as good :( I'd take them on Scout Sentinels; keeping them cheap, plentiful and not terribly dangerous - not attracting attention always being the best protection :P

[WarriorFish]

Got some games in yesterday, rounding up our little league. Using the same list as before up against some Space Wolves this time.

Deployment was fairly simple obviously I finished last and didn't seize the initiative (6s were somewhat missing during the day for me!).

Turn 1 is fairly uneventful, the Razorback inflicts some damage on the Manticore but it's ok. Return fire from the Guard sees the Grey Hunters reduces along with the Razorback which is pretty good, but as is always the way this is when Guard need to make the most difference! Wouldn't have been so good if the Rune Priest didn't fluff his cover granting power, I'm getting the feeling 8th also requires some anti-psyker protection.

Turn 2 sees the Wolf Scouts and Terminators turn up and the Wolves advancing up the field.

Fortunately aside from the right flank Hellhound which takes a bit of a beating the Wolves achieve little with their weaponry which is quite a stroke of luck. That luck continues as under the guidance of the Officers the Guard's shooting performs admirably much to the Terminator's chagrin.

The Razorback falls to the Manticore's revenge, and torrents of firepower reduce the Wolves badly. To make matters worse they lose models on the charges but do take the Hellhound out. The Terminators utterly whiff against the Guardsmen, even losing a wound on the return! The Infantry Squads on the defensive lines hold out and the return fire in my turn whittles them down.

The PF Commissar and Lord Commissar himself line up for a charge - falling power sword and swinging power fist make their mark known and kill both Terminators. With little left to work with and plenty of Guard guns arrayed against them my opponent concedes.

Something I took away from yesterday, including my Chaos game, is that Terminators are fun but at lower points a few too many eggs. Commissars are cool especially nice to see the Lord Commissar being good finally and the Hellhounds continue to impress I'll post up the other batrep later today

[WarriorFish]

Second game saw the Grey Knights coming to battle. I lost the various starting rolls but on the positive side I didn't have to move my models far as my opponent selected the other table half GK deployment left half in reserves and they duly arrived in front my my lines first turn (having made sure there was none behind of course).

Their shooting doesn't inflict too much damage and their charges fail, with a PAGK falling to over watch lasgun fire.

I throw everything I have at them and don't really achieve all that much unfortunately as my opponent's dice are rolling very well and mine solidly average at best... My opponent naturally makes his charges this time round but his rolling isn't amazing and I'm surprisingly unscathed enabling me to have squads fall back in good order without crippling losses. This time the return fire brings results! Barking orders my Company Commanders unleash torrents of dice reducing the attackers significantly and I can find some breathing space.

The Veteran sniper plinks the last wound off the Brother-Captain but a CP re-roll undoes that glory

Despite the losses the GK press on and psychic powers and guns fly taking their toll along with the Dreadnoughts (who are getting closer). Fortunately being much reduced in number saves the day even though lone GK can still cause a lot of damage.

Surviving to fight another day (barely in one case) the squads fall back under Firionel's gaze and once more return to the fray. Pin-point fire from the Veteran plasmas and autocannon reduce the Multi-melta Dread to 50% and combined fire polishes off the two GK Terminators finally. It's not over yet as I am running out of options to handle the Dreads as my Sentinels continue to be poor.

The surviving GK Squad makes it into combat with the Vets causing one casualty, only for Captain Semper himself to strike them both down with his power sword!

Things go less well on the other flank, with little anti-tank remaining...

.. but Guardsmen are tenacious (especially with their commander and two commissars looking on) and hold on as we throw all the dice we can muster.

The Dread's lascannons destroy the Manticore and with the Vets too far away the left flank is getting pushed back badly, but as if detecting the chance to redeem themselves the Sentinels strike true and reduce the 5 Wound Dread by 5 exactly to round the game off with victory!

With this our sort of intro to 8th league ends with the Guard victorious We're all nicely comfortable with the game system now and with new codex releases falling ready to move into full games now we've bedded the rules in I'm still in the camp of numbers being key to victory, in 8th probably more so than ever. With how fast the enemy can arrive on your doorstep they're the only protection you're going to get...

[WarriorFish]

A quick batrep from my last game, where the heroes of the Guard face the evil Grey Knights...

144th

++ Supreme Command Detachment +1CP (Imperium - Astra Militarum) [32 PL, 574pts] ++

+ Uncategorised +

Regiment: Cadian

+ HQ +

Company Commander [2 PL, 31pts]: Astra Militarum Orders, Bolt pistol, Chainsword, KUROV’S AQUILA

Company Commander [2 PL, 31pts]: Astra Militarum Orders, Bolt pistol, Chainsword

Primaris Psyker [2 PL, 40pts]: 3) Psychic Barrier, 4) Nightshroud, Force Stave

+ Lord of War +

Banehammer [26 PL, 472pts]: Twin heavy bolter
2 Lascannon & Twin Heavy Bolter Sponsons: 2x Lascannon, 2x Twin heavy bolter

++ Brigade Detachment +9CP (Imperium - Astra Militarum) [87 PL, 1426pts] ++

+ Uncategorised +

Regiment: Cadian

+ HQ +

Knight Commander Pask [13 PL, 222pts]: Lascannon
Command Vanquisher: Turret-mounted Vanquisher Battle Cannon

Lord Commissar [4 PL, 55pts]: Bolt pistol, Power sword

Tank Commander [12 PL, 211pts]: Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolters
Command Punisher: Turret-mounted Punisher Gatling Cannon

+ Troops +

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 45pts]
8x Guardsman
Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Grenade Launcher
Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 45pts]
8x Guardsman
Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Grenade Launcher
Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 45pts]
8x Guardsman
Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Grenade Launcher
Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 45pts]
8x Guardsman
Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Grenade Launcher
Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 47pts]
8x Guardsman
Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Flamer
Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

Infantry Squad [3 PL, 42pts]
8x Guardsman
Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Sniper rifle
Sergeant: Chainsword, Laspistol

+ Elites +

Astropath [1 PL, 15pts]: 1) Terrifying Visions, Laspistol

Ratlings [2 PL, 35pts]
5x Ratling: 5x Sniper Rifle

Wyrdvane Psykers [2 PL, 48pts]: 5) Mental Fortitude, 6x Wyrdvane Psyker

+ Fast Attack +

Armoured Sentinels [3 PL, 60pts]
Armoured Sentinel: Lascannon

Scout Sentinels [3 PL, 50pts]
Scout Sentinel: Autocannon

Scout Sentinels [3 PL, 50pts]
Scout Sentinel: Autocannon

+ Heavy Support +

Heavy Weapons Squad [3 PL, 33pts]
Heavy Weapon Team: Mortar
Heavy Weapon Team: Mortar
Heavy Weapon Team: Mortar

Heavy Weapons Squad [3 PL, 42pts]
Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter
Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter
Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter

Leman Russ Battle Tanks [10 PL, 168pts]
Leman Russ Battle Tank: Battle Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolters

Leman Russ Battle Tanks [10 PL, 168pts]
Leman Russ Battle Tank: Battle Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolters

GK

Librarian

Champion

2x 5 GKT

3x 5 PAGK

Doomglaive

TLLC Dread

MM Dread

Dreadknight

Deployment

The table set up is characterfully done as the edges of a city, which means that there's one side I want to deploy my forces on to make sure I can draw line of sight. Fortunately for me my opponent doesn't realise what I'm doing, as thanks to his very low model count he doesn't get to see my plan as I drop down Sentinels and a couple of infantry squads first. Naturally he finishes deploying quickly to gain first turn by holding as many units back as he can, but then I can freely place my models to enact my nefarious plan

Not pictured is the Armoured Sentinel and some GK who deployed atop a building in the ruins section - also the models I apparently forgot, being stood in for by Scouts I scout my Sentinels up to prevent him from DSing right in front of my lines, and fail to seize. I'm not too worried, as my Scouting Sentinels should have bought me a solid turn or two of shooting.

Turn 1

At this point my opponent realises he has made a mistake with deployment, and almost certainly makes a second by trying to shore up his deployed line. Unfortunately for the DSing units my Sentinels are almost perfectly placed to force him right back. Their inevitable sacrifice will not be forgotten! The Dice Gods are fickle, and my opponent achieves little - out of range for a fair bit of his heavier shooting only the right hand Scout Sentinel survives. The other being shot down despite holding strong and the Armoured Sentinel brought down by a charging Librarian (after all his friends failed, despite his Warlord Trait's re-rolls...).

One Sentinel surviving was a big bonus, their armour saves rolled very well absorbing a fair bit (smites aside). The Librarian is now exposed to vengeful return fire, and wounded by the Sentinel's last word he rolls too many 1s under the hail of dice. The same goes for much of the other shooting, orders are bellowed and shots strike true; Pask delivering a punishing salvo on the NDK and battle cannons tearing the Doomglaive down. The Banehammer finds itself left handily last, where it detonates the remaining Dreadnought and rakes GK with heavy bolter fire. At this stage the game is well and truly mine to lose; my dice are good where it counts and some stratagems see that continue.

Turn 2

Things look very bleak for the GK, but they still have something left. The Sentinel is destroyed and the Ratlings killed (they got a mortal wound on the NDK at least). Some of the left hand Guardsmen are killed but thanks to the Lord Commissar aren't going anywhere. The GK in the building fail their Gate of Infinity and the others are dangerously far away from my lines and achieve little.

The right flank is mostly fine though, but are too far away to achieve their charges. The hidden TLLC Dread fails his Astral Aim again, proving entirely useless so I can ignore him. Turrets turn and officers bark - the writing is on the wall, and despite some good save rolls the weight of dice is too much and the GK drop one by one leaving only a few GK huddled in the centre ruin on the right flank.

Turn 3

The surviving ruin PAGK Gates and assaults one of the left hand squads, but finds a chainsword for his troubles. In return the might of the Emperor's Hammer drops once more, leaving little left and my opponent concedes. A brutal victory for the Guard!

Previously we'd been having difficulty with the GK (helped partially by incorrect rule usage, now corrected). In particular the large forces that can drop in and unleash hell on turn 1 (with the low unit deployment count) that made recovery difficult especially for more expensive armies. That and my other opponents are getting in on the trick but I was sure that I could counter it and so this proved, and with the added help from the codex's rules and improvements exceptionally so!

Russes have really gone from zero to hero with the codex, I was glad I squeezed them into the list. The relics are good too especially for Command Points, and with the Warlord Trait I never went below 10 (albeit thanks to good rolling). Of course, now the GK's bubble has been burst I don't expect such an easy battle next time, but I'm finding the new codex to be a solid addition to the index so the numbers and fire power of the Guard should continue to be something to respect.

My mantra of boys before toys will remain and I expect it will yield more than ever before, so I'm keen to try out some other things. In particular some artillery and those Bullgryns and Stormies need finishing one day...

[Guardsman Bob]

Nothing nefarious about solid strategy. Our opposition have read so much propaganda fluff about incompetent hamfisted human goons they underestimate us and demand revenge nerfs. Silly foes.

[Kierdale]

Outstanding performance!

So, having scout sentinels out there is the key to keeping the GK DS back? A small price to pay!