035 Victory to the Footsloggers!

Okay, so I know the title gives it away a little, but I WON! This isn't a battle report, but I think it'll still be a long post, so if you're like me, and tend not to read these, please skip to the photos at the end!

NB: You might find the glossary (on the right) useful in parts...

Allow me to present the majority of the IG participants - the brave men of the 2/24th Cadian Light Infantry:
This game was:
- The first game I've played against an actual opponent in months (usually play against myself to try ideas out - how sad is that?!);
- The first I've played against a non-Guard enemy in years (usually my opponent uses my collection);
- The first proper game I've played with 5th Edition rules;
- The first I've ever played with an almost entirely painted force (and boy, does that make a difference!);
- Rather good fun, and (within reason) surprisingly fluffy!

Game stats:
1500pts
Imperial Guard Vs Daemons
Mission: Capture and Control
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Terrain: 6'x4'; outskirts of blasted Imperial habitation (incl. four 'Cities of Death' ruins)
1st deployment / 1st turn: IG (Opponent's choice)
No. of turns: 4 (Opponent graciously conceded defeat at end of daemons' turn 4)

Things to note:

(a) My opponent was superb and is always sporting. He has an encyclopedic grasp of 40K fluff and enjoys cinematic gameplay. These aspects combine to make a very enjoyable adversary. Challenging too, as he's often beaten me in the past; not least with identical ('blue-on-blue') forces!
(b) He was fielding a Daemon force, but most of this was proxied as he's only just started collecting daemons, and he wanted to try out various troop choices.

(c) Kate very kindly set out the terrain for us, and even baked one of her yummy apple pies whilst we played. It's great having a third party lay out the table, and she always makes it look believable, which I never can. More about Kate's contributions anon...

(d) My force comprised the following (the 1500pt breakdown will be posted separately; units are hyperlinked):
HQ Sect w. Cmsr;
Lascannon F/Sup sect;
1 Pl. w/o. LI;
2 Pl. w. LI;
1 F/Sup Pl w/o LI;
Hellhound 'Cerberus'.

(e) Sadly I can't go into detail about the daemon force, but it was led by a bloodthirster, and included 4 units of bloodletters, 2 units of plaguebearers, and a unit each of flamers, screamers and pink horrors. As you can tell, my opponent was trying dfferent troop types out for the first time.

(f) He kindly allowed me use of a bunker, as I wanted to see how good they were now...

(g) The game in a nutshell: The Infiltrate skilll granted by LI allowed 2 Pl to deploy around the daemons' home objective and in the surrounding ruins, which forced the daemons (arriving piecemeal by deepstrike) to fight on two fronts and the Guard to fight defensively - had they had to go on the offensive, they could only have scraped a draw, as they would've been slaughtered wholesale in the open ground. As it was, they took a fearsome toll of the daemons.
(h) Unusually, the Guard aquitted themselves superbly well! Each unit did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the (surprisingly) few who died sold their loves dearly. Casualty rates were very low indeed (eg: 1 Pl lost only 1 man out of 40!) and would've been much higher had the daemons carried more missile weapons - they had very few.

(i) There were a couple of good 'last stands', but the Best Bit simply had to be when the Bloodthirster deepstruck in a few yards in front of the infiltrating 2 Pl's 2 sect in turn 1, only to be cut to ribbons by their short range lasgun fire (yes - lasguns!) and finished off by 1 sect's sergeant... with his laspistol! How the mighty are fallen, eh? Mr. Bloodthirster's really gonna feel the burn of that shame!

(j) Finally, the daemons' compulsory deepstrike really is a double-edged sword. Even in a small-ish game on a large-ish table, my opponent was obliged to be cautious in his deepstriking. Given his complete lack of fatal errors, we agreed he probably should be less cautious in future; but apparently, appearing in front of a gunline is a pretty dangerous occupation for any warp creature - even fearless ones with invulnerable saves!

PHOTOS:
NB: Sorry about the kitchen (esp. the bowl of oranges) in the background!

This is 1 Pl still in position around their defended bunker at the game's end:
The IG command section is in the bunker (naturally, although they did sally out to pummel one deepstriking unit - six 'pink horrors'). Note the F/Sup sections in place at the top of the ruins, covering thier arcs: These are two views from the ruin next to the Daemons' home objective: 2 Pl HQ sect were - against the odds - still making a stand here at the end of the game.

These are two views of Kate's wonderful Ruined Memorial Fountain centrepiece - I love this piece of terrain, and in another post I'll try to showcase more of the stuff she's done for me. Anyone recognise the statue?Finally, here's Kate herself, in the middle of whipping some cream. She'll probably ask me to remove this one if she discovers it's been posted, but hey - I love her and it's only her patience which makes these games days possible, right? And her awesome apple pies!Thanks for tuning in...army list to follow anon.

The Emperor Protects.

- Drax