Victory At Last

Last night I engaged my friend A in a 1,500 point 'Prepared Assault' mission from the 40K Battle Missions book. I took my heroic bad guys, the Karaboudjani Kataphraktoi, in a manner that I've never taken a Guard-based army before. He took his Blood Angel Successors (with some proxies) in a list designed to kill horde armies.

Good job I had a few tanks then!

My list looked like this:

Lord Commissar with Carapace Armour and power sword in Chimera
Primaris Psyker
Priest with Eviscerator

Platoon 1:
Lt with Power Sword and Plasma Pistol
4 Veterans with Flamers

Sgt with Bolt Pistol, Grenade Launcher, Heavy Bolter team, Commissar with power sword
Sgt with Plasma Pistol, Grenade Launcher, Heavy Bolter team
Sgt with Laspistol, Grenade Launcher, Heavy Bolter team

Platoon 2:
Lt with Power fist and laspistol
4 Veterans with Meltas

Sgt with Bolt Pistol, Plasma Gun, Lascannon team, Commissar with Power Sword
Sgt with Power Sword, Plasma Gun, Lascannon team
Sgt with Laspistol, Plasma Gun, Lascannon team

Armoured Sentinel with Autocannon and Smoke
Armoured Sentinel with Autocannon, Smoke and Searchlight

Devil Dog with hull Multi-Melta, turret Melta Cannon and pintle Heavy Stubber

Demolisher with Plasma Cannons, Lascannon and Storm Bolter

He took:

Reclusiarch
5 Assault Terminators with twin lightning claws
10 Assault Marines with twin lightning claws, flamer, plasma pistol
10 Tac Marines with Heavy Bolter and flamer in a Rhino
10 Devastators with Signum, 2 plasma cannon, multi-melta, rocket launcher
2 Baal Predators with Inferno Cannons and hull Heavy Flamers
Furioso Dreadnought with Blood Talons and Magna-Grapple

I went first, and had a dismal round of shooting. But, despite the fact that he caused 23 casualties on 1 Platoon in his Turn One AND destroyed my Demolisher... I still won! Mainly because his teleporting Terminators scattered onto his Dreadnought, suffered a mishap, and died in the warp. I ended the game with all three objectives in my possession and only one Space Marine left on the table - a Devastator with Rocket Launcher.

A had some bad luck - for example, at least one Plasma Cannon 'Got Hot' every turn (although he did pass every save) - and I had some good luck; particularly the tank commander of the Devil Dog who, with his heavy stubber, headshotted a Devastator Marine through a wall, and killed the Reclusiarch. His crew, on the other hand, were utterly dismal, hitting only once and killing a mere three marines from five hits.

All in all, a great game and one from which I have taken a lot - namely, playing Guard in accordance with the background means YOU LOSE. Time to ditch most of my fetish regarding the background and start playing to win a bit more... but not at all costs.

Pictures, by the way, will come when I get my other laptop back from the repair shop this coming week. This one is too unreliable to use for picture uploads &c &c.