Regimental Reporting: Staysback strikes back!

Welcome back to the Vault brave Venturers. This post comes at the end of the regular monthly gaming weekend; board games on the Saturday evening, followed by a game of 40K on the Sunday.

The board games evening was taken up with a play test of Salt Lands (more of that to come in a future post), whilst I took the opportunity to take the mighty Imperial Guard to the battle field for the first time in 8th edition, led by the brave, charming and incredibly ruthless* Colonel Staysback.

(*some of these descriptions may not necessarily be true; the Colonel values shiny medals and saving his own skin above all else).

The Imperial Guard needs you!

This was an opportunity to try out the new Imperial Guard codex, with a great mix of units:

HQ
Company Commander
Scion Commander
Tank Commander (in a Leman Russ)

Elite
Platoon Commander
Commissar

Troops
3 Infantry Squads with various Heavy Weapons
Conscript Squad
2 Scion Squads with Plasma Guns

Old School Karskin; New Edition Killers

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Battle Tank
Wyvern Artillery
Manticore Artillery

The Manticore

The Wyvern

My opponent for the day was Duncan's Space Wolves and we played an Open War mission, which was another first for me. Open War comprises two deck of cards from which the players draw:

• The Mission Objectives/Victory Conditions
• The Deployment Map.

Our cards and deployment dice rolls found is with a very unusual set up: the Space Wolves in the centre of the table whilst the Imperial Guard controlled the 4 corners.  We were to fight for control over 3 objectives; one central, one in the Space Wolves DZ, and the final one in a corner controlled by the Guard.

Even more unusually the VP scoring for controlling objectives was done at the end of each player turn with additional VPs earnt for holding the objectives over consecutive turns. So the Guard had to storm the Emperor's Executioners; no pressure then!

The Stormwolf advances on the massed Imperial Forces

Whilst the elite Storm Troopers drop in, clean house and advance on the Space Wolves' objectives

Storm Trooper Squad 2 take & hold the central objective for the remainder of the battle.

Storm Trooper Squad 1 and their Commander do not fair as well, and whilst holding the objective for the mid game they fall at the final hurdle.

So this was a a fun game: The Space Wolves advanced out from the centre, hunting the artillery and the infantry castle, whilst the drop troopers counter attacked and took the Sons of Fenris's base out from under their nose!

Battle raged on the outskirts of the field, and although the Wolves destroyed a small enclave of Guard infantry and artillery, the main guard "castle" held true. A late game push by the Space Wolves back to the centre came a touch too late; the cumulative scoring for holding all 3 objectives for several turns gave a Win to the Mighty Militarum!

I really enjoyed using Staysback and his loyal cannon fodder troopers; the new Codex gives them a lot of options and cool toys, and Open War is a great twist on the standard missions; I might see if I can find a pack of the cards.

Expect more from the Colonel in the future; for now it's time for him to head back to the barracks for Tea and Medals!

On the table next door Paul's Sisters of Battle fought against Dave's Nurgle Nastiness. The Plague Daemons had rampaged their way through Octoberfest the previous weekend, taking the top slot, and they continued their winning streak today, giving Celestine and co. a sound battering.

-X-

At the beginning of the article I mentioned a board game called Salt Lands. I'll be writing a review of this of Multiverse. We played the "Classic" mode last night; there is also "Co-operative", "Competitive" and "Solo". I'm intending to try Solo Mode soon. Here's a little teaser for you:

Salt Lands: Sooo many game pieces!

Thanks for reading, and see you again next time!