The Guard Does Not Need To Win The Fight
2K Armoured Infantry + Designation Force vs Adeptus Mechanicus – Eradication Cohort
I went first.
This was my first mistake.
I have a tendency to go way too big on Turn 1. I like aggressive opening moves, pushing everything forward and trying to establish dominance immediately.
So naturally, this game started with me attempting exactly that.
Scout moves.
Aggressive Sentinel movement.
A Centaur carrying 10 Kasrkin.
The plan was to surprise the Adeptus Mechanicus and contest his expansion objective before he could properly establish his position.
For approximately 30 seconds, I believed I was a tactical genius.
Then I started shooting.
The shooting was...
horrific.
WELCOME TO THE GUARD SON
The Kasrkin were supposed to hit hard.
Instead, they apparently decided that their weapons were purely decorative.
Then his turn came.
Six Kataphrons advanced towards my exposed position.
They looked at my Scout Sentinel.
They looked at my Centaur.
They looked at the 10 Kasrkin inside.
And then they demonstrated the ancient Martian doctrine of:
“Have you considered simply deleting them?”
The Sentinel died.
The Centaur died.
The Kasrkin died with it.
Turn one.
My elite unit had been annihilated.
My transport was gone.
My Scout Sentinel was gone...all for 6 infantry guys.
My brilliant tactical manoeuvre had lasted approximately as long as a Guardsman's life expectancy after volunteering for the first wave.
I stared at the battlefield.
“This may have been the worst first move I have ever made.”
But this time, I learned something.
Instead of continuing to throw everything forward, I pulled my Leman Russes and Rogal Dorn back, playing much more conservatively behind my objectives.
Usually I push them too aggressively on Turn 1 -2.
Not this time.
I decided to wait.
Let the Mechanicus come to me.
Let him reveal the big threats.
Let him commit.
Then shoot the hell out of them.
And that change probably won me the game.
His crawler tanks continued hitting extremely hard, and over the course of the battle he eventually destroyed basically all of my vehicles.
But the important part was:
He destroyed them too late.
While the Mechanicus was advancing and trying to eradicate my army, I was sitting safely enough behind my objectives, maintaining control of the centre and forcing him to come further forward.
Eventually, the Kataphrons became the problem.
And this time, the Imperial Guard had a response.
The Rogal Dorn Commander, supported by a Leman Russ Punisher, managed to take down the Kataphrons.
It was one of those moments where you look at the battlefield and realise:
“Okay. Maybe we actually know what we're doing.”
Meanwhile, hidden on my expansion objective were Gaunt's Ghosts.
Among them was Larkin, patiently waiting with his Long-Las.
His Precision shots proved extremely useful, he one-shot a Tech-Priest character truing to advance to the center objetives.
Apparently the Mechanicus had spent centuries developing advanced technology, cybernetics and machine intelligence only to discover that Larkin was hiding behind a ruin.
And when another Tech character attempted to contest the centre, Old Yarrick personally dealt with him with a Precision attack (D3 +1 Damage that turned into 4 killing the character).
At the centre of the battlefield stood Yarrick, a Command Squad and 20 Cadians.
They became the anchor of the entire army.
Every turn, the Mechanicus continued destroying my vehicles and chewing through my forces.
But the Cadians stayed.
The Mechanicus was winning the firefight.
I was winning the objective.
And then there were the Bullgryns.
Their tactical purpose was extremely sophisticated:
Get shot.
They absorbed an absolutely ridiculous amount of punishment, soaking up firepower while their 4++ kept them alive until the final round.
They eventually died but they removed a unit of infantry trying to contest the center.
And then came the final round.
My Cadian Rough Riders appeared on his home objective while his army was pushing forward.
They were not there to win a glorious cavalry battle.
They were there to create a problem.
And they succeeded.
The Mechanicus was forced to bring units back to deal with them.
The Rough Riders accomplished nothing in terms of damage.
They died.
All of them.
Beautiful.
But by forcing those units to return to the home objective, they disrupted his final push.
He simply didn't have enough manpower left in the right places to properly contest the centre.
And that was the game.
The Rough Riders had sacrificed themselves so the rest of the army could keep scoring.
Exactly how the Emperor intended.
By the final round, the battlefield was a graveyard.
The Mechanicus had destroyed all of my vehicles.
My Turn 1 assault had been an absolute disaster.
My Kasrkin had been sacrificed to the Omnissiah.
My Sentinel had been destroyed.
My Bullgryns had finally fallen.
But the Cadians were still standing in the centre.
And the Mechanicus had run out of time.
Final score: 89–85.
VICTORY FOR THE IMPERIAL GUARD.
Larkin killed their leaders from the shadows.
Yarrick killed their leaders from the front.
The Cadians held the centre.
It wasn't elegant.
It wasn't efficient.
It definitely wasn't the plan I started with.
But it worked.
Final score: 89–85.
The Guard prevails.
The Emperor protects.
For Cadia.
For the Emperor.
And above all...
For the primary!!!
I know we are in a rough spot now my friends but there is still fun to be made and games to enjoy!
Greetings to all!