IG Victorious! Traitors Cleansed!

 

 
In yet another marathon hobby and gaming session, I managed to put in a couple of games, assemble a couple of test figures for my next IG army, have dinner with the guys, and watched some amazing games being played. By the time I got home, I was completely exhausted.

The big game for the evening was my Brandenberg IG fighting off a Khorne army in a Cleanse and Control maelstrom mission. It was the first time ever that my army deployed 2 Hellhounds, and I was really excited to try out my new old toy, freshly painted the night before. I'll share just a brief overview of the game, as my opponent agreed to do a batrep, and I love his batreps.

The Khorne army looked fearsome, with a Lord mounted on steed and with all kinds of wargear, 3 favoured Berzerker squads, a Land Raider, 2 Rhinos, a Heldrake (thankfully with the Hades autocannon), 3 deep-striking Helbrutes with multimeltas and a guest appearance by a Mastery Level 3 Nurgle Daemon Prince. I had my favorite infantry force of 108 men, supported by 4 Leman Russ (1 Exterminator, 1 Executioner, 2 Plain Jane Russes), 2 Hellhounds and a Vendetta.

From the get-go, it did not look good for the Brandenbergers. I had deployed defensively, being overly-concerned about his deep-striking Helbrutes. The problem is, most of the objectives were either in no-man's land or in enemy territory. Either way, it was going to be quite a hike for my troopers. And Khorne got first turn.

The first couple of turns didn't do anything to boost my confidence, as my shooting was ineffective (it took almost the entire army to wiped out a pack of daemon beasts, though I did get First Blood), and both my assault platoons on my flanks were charged by the enemy - left flank by a squad of Berzerkers, right flank by the Khorne Lord himself. To add to the tactical errors I had made, the dice were not cooperating either. I would roll low to hit and to wound, but when in Turn 3 I wanted to sacrifice my conscripts by making the Priest accept the Khorne Lord's challenge, the Priest actually made all his invul saves!

But he must have known something was afoot, as suddenly fortune made a 180 flip. The Khorne Lord, having slain my Priest in my turn, was mocked by his fickle gods and was turned into a Spawn (which is much easier to kill). At the same time, over on the other flank, the other Priest (who also spoiled my plans by refusing to die at the right time), killed the Khorne champion in a challenge. Then everything started going the IG way - the Vendetta blowing up his Land Raider in a single volley, my 2 Hellhounds freely ranging on the battlefield to claim objectives (the Hellhounds' speed contributed more to the victory then their shooting actually), the late arrival of the Helbrutes, which gave me time to prepare for them, and they landed into more or less ambush positions.

The IG finally won 9-7. It helped that I got First Blood (the whole army gets credit for this one), Slay the Warlord (the Exterminator got this one) and LineBreaker (Hellhound, of course). And as I mentioned above, the Hellhounds managed to rush around and throught the enemy lines to score objectives. Of the 6 Maelstrom Objectives the army scored, 3 were done by the Hellhounds. The battle was really bloody and losses were heavy, with a 70% casualty rate amongts my infantry. No vehicles were lost. The Khorne army survived the battle with only an immobilized Helbrute, the Heldrake, the Daemon Prince and 4 Berzerkers left standing.

Before that game, I managed to play another game with my Alaitoc Windriders Eldar army against an Imperial Knights force. I just realized now that it was the first time I played my Eldar in 7th ed, and the first time I've ever played against Imperial Knights. I was obviously intimidated, facing off against 3 mini-titans that were supported by a platoon of IG infantry, IG command squad, stormtroopers and a Vendetta. But the Eldar are super-deadly, and nearly wiped out the mon-keigh army, leaving only a single Knight alive at the end of the game, for minimal losses. I was quite amazed, actually.

And my next IG project, the 2nd Denerair Highland Regiment, started with the assembly of the very first figures, one of which shown below. I'll be doing a test paint job soon, hopefully in time for the next update.

In the meantime, keep rollng them dice ...