@Admiral-Badruck: I should be at joshin next month as well, if you feel like getting your 40k on again so soon!
Game 1: Imperial Guard (mech vets) vs Dark Eldar (dark lance spam!)
We fought on a rocky grassland map with aircraft debris strewn across it, deploying on the long table edges. The Dark Eldar (DE) rolled some crazy warlord trait that let them reroll night fighting, reserves, and seize the initative. DE deployed first, setting up in two groups, one heavier in anti-tank power and the other in anti-infantry. DE reserved 3 flyers and a couple of deep strikers. IG also deployed in two groups opposite from the enemy, the group with the wyverns mostly out of LOS from a cliff, and the other group in the open but with Tank Commander Paskette's AV14 protecting the chimeras and hellhound.
Round 1, DE shooting scores a lucky hit and explodes a Leman Russ Vanquisher (the anti-tank variety). The vanquishers didn't perform that great in this game, but I still like them (who needs melta when you've got 72" armourbane attacks). No other effect from the DE shooting I think. On the IG's turn, the surviving vanquisher scored a lucky shot of its own, blowing up a transport, whose occupants were than shot up by either the wyverns or a hellhound. IG objectives are consistently unlucky, "kill a unit in an assault," "get into the enemy's deployment zone" and the like.
Mid game, it's clear that the DE are going to win on objectives unless the IG can table them, which they're making good progress at. The IG hellhounds perform exceptionally well against everything except the flyers, being able to pen all of the skimmers and ignore their jink saves, and also benefiting from the 7th edition rule where flamers can roast the guys inside open topped transports. Their Str 6 is also enough to ignore the pesky Feel No Pain rolls on everything but the Grotesques (T5). I realized a little late in the game that the wyverns could also do some damage to the AV 10 DE vehicles, glancing on a 6 but still ignoring jink. The deep strikers were promptly shot down by dismounted veterans, Paskette's squad, and the hellhounds.
Late game, almost all DE ground forces have been wiped out, but the flyers are still zooming around, and the IG have no skyfire in their list. The chimeras drive up to eliminate the rest of the skimmers, but one is immobilized by a flyer and the other breaks a tread on the rocky terrain (even with the dozer blade reroll). IG casualties have been both hellhounds, wyverns, two of the chimeras, the aforementioned vanquisher, and a leman russ executioner (plasma cannon variant). On turn 5, two of the DE flyers enter ongoing reserves, giving a very good chance for the IG to table the enemy. They come up just short though, with one hull point left on the 3rd flyer and one hull point on a skimmer (everything else is dead). The game ends, and the DE win on objectives, securing plenty of slaves to make their escape with.
Game 2: Imperial Guard (unbound tanks, hellhounds, hydra) allied with Space Marines (dark angels? bikers and termies) vs Dark Eldar (same list as game 1)
This time around, the mission is Contact Lost, where you get a number of tactical object cards equal to the number of objectives that you're holding. There's no night fighting and the Imperials deploy and act first. The IG hydra and one hellhound deploy behind the cliff again, with Paskette's squad and another hellhound in the middle. The SM bikers deploy next to Paskette, the scouts infiltrate to grab an objective in the center, and tactical marines find cover in some woods. The DE deploy all in one corner, far away from the bulk of the Imperial force.
Early game, the Imperials drive hard forward to hold 4 objectives. Long range shooting from the executioner and SM heavy weapons destroy a pair of DE transports in the corner. The executioner did well, I think, because it scattered onto a different vehicle than the one it was targeting, and jink saves can only be taken if your vehicle is targeted by the attack. DE return fire explodes the hydra, eliminating the only skyfire on the Imperial side.
Mid game, the DE haven't been able to get far away from the corner, advancing across the board to the objective that a hellhound is sitting on. That hellhound flames the DE transports twice, wrecking them on the second shot. On the other side of the board, the temies have been chilling out on a cliff and watching everything from a distance (they don't do much this game). Deep striking winged DE (don't know their names) destroy the main gun on Paskette's tank, and then are vaporized by the executioner. The Grotesques arrive next to the tactical marines and scouts and prove very difficult to kill. They charge the marines, who hold their ground but take losses. DE flyers make a bombing run on the termies.
Late game, the DE troops dismounted from the skimmers charge and wreck the hellhound, taking its objective. The troops are safely out of LOS behind some rocks, but almost all of their vehicles get wrecked by Imperial shooting. The other hellhound continues driving fast around the battle, flaming transports and dismounted infantry. One of its attacks kills everyone inside a 5 man transport, but not the transport itself.
The bikers drive just ahead of the hellhound and assault DE infantry. The flyers are left to do their own thing all game, managing to wreck Paskette's tank near the end and strafe the SM bikers and the hellhound. The game ends when it's clear that the Imperial forces are going to win on objectives, having been sitting on most of them all game and getting fairly good luck on the cards.Thoughts
- Hellhounds are awesome against Dark Eldar, and I assume against Ork trukks as well. I'm starting to like them more than Vendettas for the Fast Attack choice.
- Dozer blades are well worth the 5 points per vehicle.
- If deep strikers land near the Punisher / Executioner leman russ squad and fail to wreck it in shooting, then they're toast on the next IG turn.
