Saturday's 40K Games, Guard vs. Salamanders

So Saturday, Bandar and I got together to throw down some 40K. Remember I mostly play for the fluff, not to win and we normally have a house rule that we don't take named characters (hold over from Warhammer Fantasy balance issues)
So keeping that in mind, here is my list (1850):

Salamander 5th Company:

• Captian with storm bolter, power sword, artificer armor
• Command Squad: Apothicary, Champion, Company Standard, and a dude with power fist and bolter, and a regular dude with pistol and chain sword
• Captian and Command Squad jumped in a Razorback with extra armor and twin-linked Heavy Flamers
• 3 10 man tactical squads with flamer and Multi-Melta
• Dreadnought with Heavy Flamer and Multi-Melta in a Drop Pod
• Vindicator
• Librarian in Terminator Armor with Strength of Ancients and Vortex of Doom
• 5 Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shields
• Land Raider Redeemer with Multi-Melta
• 5 Assault Marines, a Sergeant w/ Melta bombs

Here is Bandar's list...or at least as close to it as I can remember

Rebellious Planetary Defense Force (Imperial Guard):

• Lord Commissar with Command Squad, in Chimera
• 2 units of 12 regular dudes with Grenade Launcher in Chimera
• 1 unit of 12 vet dudes in Chimera
• Three Sentinels, two with multi-laser, one with Las cannon
• Two Lemon Russes. One with a Demolisher cannon and two plasma cannons; one with a battle cannon and other guns (las cannons I think)
• a hell hound
• a unit of 10 ratling snipers

...and there might be another unit of 12 regular dudes in Chimera...I cannot remember

So we set the board up, and end up playing the mission with two objectives, one that you have to hold, the other you have to grab from your opponent. I place my Objective behind a large building on my right hand side of the board about 5 inches away from my board edge. He places his between a building and some ruins on my left hand side of the board about 10 inches away from his board edge. We end up running the board edges as deployment zones, and get ready for the beat down.

I roll higher and decide to deploy first and go first. I split my tactical squads into combat squads. I decide to do Sergeant, Flamer, 3 regular dude then multi-Melta and four regular dudes for the two squads. I decide the three multi-Melta combat squads will hold my objective via cover in the building, while the rest of the Salamander 5th company moves against the rebellious Planetary Defense Force's Objective. Bandar spread his forces out, focusing his troops and command squad near his objective while focusing his tanks and ratlings towards my objective.

So turn one comes around. I decide to sacrifice my Dreadnought/Drop Pod to deal with his Battle Cannon and demolisher. The idea was a multi-Melta in the face would deal with the problem. So I drop the pod between the Demolisher and the Battle Cannon. I move the Vindicator forward 6" and the Land Raider Redeemer carrying my Termis forward 12". The Razorback moves to cover in the ruined building in the center of the board, as do the Assault Marines. I position the assault marines to Melta bomb the Hell Hound or the remaining the Lemon Russ tank after my Dreadnought melts the other one. The three combat squads move behind the razorback and vindicator for protection. I open fire with the Dreadnought, missing the battle cannon. I fire the Vindicator at the Sentinel Squad, but end up scattering into nothing. I fire the Assault Cannon and the Multi-Melta on the land raider at two different Chimeras, immobilizing them both. Two of the troop carried Multi-Meltas open fire on the Battle Cannon Russ but fail to do anything worth talking about. And so my first turn comes to an end. 5th Company needs to practice shooting more...

Bandar moves two of his Chimeras out from behind the immobilized Chimeras, and moves the sentinels. The squads in the Immobilized Chimeras disembark and move towards Bandar's objective. He opens fire with his Demolisher Cannon at my Dreadnought. It scatters over his Hell Hound (YAY!) and proceeds to explode his Hell Hound (Double YAY!) He proceeds to open fire with the rest of the Lemon Russ's firepower at my Dreadnought and explodes him well. The Battle Cannon opens fire on my assault squad which goes to ground to prevent death. The regular guardsmen opened fire on my Sergeant’s combat squad, eliminating a couple dudes, requiring one squad to take a panic check, which it passed. Ratlings eliminate a squad member of one of my multi-Melta squads, pinning them (YAY rolling well on the leadership), and the sentinels panic another Multi-Melta squad. There is no close combat, so thus ends turn one.

My turn two starts up; I move the panicked squads back into their position, move the Land Raider forward twelve towards Bandar's objective, open the assault ramps and unleash the Termis and the Librarian. The Razorback moves forward and my command squad disembark in the center of the board. Assault Marines do nothing and they were hiding in their holes to prevent deal by Battle Cannon. In the shooting phase, I open fire with the Vindicator on the Sentinels, with little success. I fire the storm bolter on the drop pod at the ratlings, with no success. Troop carried Multi-Meltas fire at the Lemon Russes, still with no success. combat squads moved up and opened fire on the disembarked Guardsmen, killing a couple. The Termi Librarian fires up the Vortex of Doom just to roll double ones and takes a wound. The Termis charge in and cut down the Chimera closest to the Objective...opening up its insides for killing next turn.

Bandar's turn two starts up. The sentinels move close to my command squad. The remaining avalible Chimeras unleash their troops in preparation to stall the onslaught of the Terminators. The Lord Commissar and his squad jumps out, as do the Vets. The Battle Cannons open fire on the assault marines once again causing them to go to ground. The Ratlings kill two more marines in one of the Multi-Melta Squads. The Vets open fire on the land Raider, causing my poor Land Raider to explode. The remaining units on the left side of the table (three squads, two chimeras, sentinels) open fire on the Terminators in an attempt to slow their assault. After about 100 shots, I end up losing one of them. The Sentinels assaults my command squad (Tarpit fail :( ) and the Lord Commissar’s unit assaults the Terminators. The Commissar has a power weapon, so the hope is to kill dudes with power weapons and buckets of attacks. Combat proceeds with the Librarian going first, killing a dude, then the Commissar kills one terminator and then the rest of the Guard squad does nothing. The Termis proceed to crush the unit, kill them all, then consolidate towards another squad. The Sentinels charge the command squad. Krak grenades and one power fist fail to do anything, thus ending turn two.

At this point, turn three through five go pretty quick. Honestly, I cannot remember much about those turns as at this point. By turn four Salamander 5th company controls both objectives. My vindicator ends up exploding, and Bandar loses his entire left flank of his army. The Ratlings and the Lemon Russes cannot get close enough to the objective to contest, so I pull a victory, 2 objectives to none.

Overall it was a super fun game. I learned a bunch about 40K (I still consider myself a 5th edition n00b...since I've not played much) and the Space Marines. First thing I learned: Rhinos. Troops do not walk...ever. Secondly, I don't need to split all my tactical squads into combat squads. I also need to leverage the Melta better. 24" range is really not that great when you pile it up in one corner. Well I learned a bunch and Bandar was a great opponent. I look forward to the next game!