A bit of a fun game today, not a league and not the new GT Nephilim Book, we used the old GT Nachmund Book for this Cadian Gorgon vs Iron Hands game. I know the Gorgon is Legends, but my opponent did not mind – so we were game on!

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This game was at Boards and Swords, in Derby.

Cadians 2,000 Points List

Command Points

• -1CP for a Tank Ace
• -1CP for Imperial Commander’s Armoury
• -1CP for a Whiteshields
• -3CP for the Gorgon Super Heavy Auxillary Detachment
• -3CP for the Baneblade Super Heavy Auxillary Detachment
• +2CP for the Shared Faction bonus on one Super Heavy Auxillary Detachment
• I will be starting on 5CP

Cadian Battalion Detachment

HQ

• Warlord Company Commander with Power Sword and Boltgun
• Gatekeeper Tank Commander with Hunter Killer Missile, Multi Meltas and Lascannon

Troops

• 2x Infantry Squads with Vox Caster, Lascannon and a Melta Gun, Sergeant with Plasma Pistol and Power Sword
• 28 Conscripts – In the Gorgon

Elites

• Platoon Commander with Power Sword, Plasma Pistol and Laurels of Command – In the Gorgon
• Psychic Barrier Astropath – In the Gorgon

Heavy Support

• Demolisher with Hunter Killer Missile, Multi Meltas and Lascannon

Flyers

• Vulture Gunship with Punisher Cannons

Heavy Support

• Full Payload Manticore

Cadian Super Heavy Auxillary Detachment

• Gorgon Armoured Assault Transport with Hunter Killer Missile

Cadian Super Heavy Auxillary Detachment

• Baneblade with Hunter Killer Missile, a pair of Lascannon and Heavy Bolter Sponsons and Hull Down Deployment

Cadian Secondaries

• Bring It Down
• Engage on All Fronts
• Raise The Banners High

Iron Hands 2,000 Points List

• Iron Father
• Chapter Master
• 5x Assault Intercessors
• 4x Eradicators
• 3x Eradicators
• 2x Gladiator Reapers
• 2x Gladiator Lancers
• 1x Repulsor
• Redemptor Dreadnought

Iron Hands Secondaries

• Bring It Down
• Engage On All Fronts
• Grind Them Down

Tide of Conviction – The Mission

This is from the new Nachmund Grand Tournament book.

You had to hold the objective in your Deployment Zone to get your Battle Forged CP in your Command Phase.

The Primary was 4VP for each of the following;

• Control 2+
• Control 3+
• Control More

And the final piece of the puzzle in the Primary is;

• Score 2VP for controlling at least one objective in the enemy’s territory – in your first, second, third and fourth turn
• At the end of your fifth turn score 2VP for each objective held in the enemy’s No Man’s Land and 4VP for the objective in the enemy Deployment Zone

Deployment

I could just fit my Super Heavies into the Deployment Zone. But there was not much room, my Tank Commanders went on the left, with the Manticore and Vulture on the right. The Heavies went in the middle/right.

Simon’s forces were well spread out, with a Reaper and Gladiator on each flank. But with The Redemptor and Repulsor on the right, opposite my Baneblade and Gorgon. The Eradicators went in the middle, covering the whole battlefield just about.

The trees were dense, the ruins in the top left and bottom right were ruins that were obscuring. The other ruins that ran diagonally through the table were just obscuring.

Turn 1

Iron Hands

Irons Hands won the roll-off and shift around for line-of-sight. It was nice playing an army that did not just run at me!

I lost the Demolisher right away along with both of my Infantry Squads. Even being in Cover, using Take Cover and Cadia Stands made no difference to the many, many shots coming in from the Reapers.

I probably made a poor choice with the infantry deployment, but I felt like I could not hide them. Touching the ruins I can be seen, but with the model numbers, it is very hard to hide them. Especially when I filled my Deployment Zone with tanks!

Astra Militarum

The Gorgon shifted forward and the Baneblade stayed still to maintain its 1+ Armour Save. I got Psychic Barrier on the Gorgon taking it to an effective 1+ Armour Save and 4+ Inv Save. The Vulture moved up to get Engage On All Fronts. My Warlord was on his own now in the centre of my Deployment Zone, he shifted to hide and Raised a Banner.

My shooting was really poor, one Eradicator died and a Lancer took 4 Wounds. The Manticore did those 4 Wounds after it rolled 5 shots. Yuck.

I also rolled poorly with the Baneblade’s main cannon. The Demolisher was out of range and the Heavy Bolters didn’t do a lot either. From all that I did get the Repulsor down to a single wound though. Not dead though.

Turn 2

Iron Hands

They shuffled around again and removed my other Tank Commander. And got the Manticore down to 5 Wounds and the Gorgon down to 5 Wounds with the Eradicators. 

The 4++ really came into its own during this turn. The Iron Hands threw a lot at the Gorgon hoping to break it open to then mow down the Conscripts inside with the  Dreadnought and a Reaper. But it was not to be. 

The Vulture was taken to its middle bracket this turn too. 

I’m sure all three of those vehicles would have been dead without Armour of Contempt on them. The Vulture shrugged off scores of light arms fire from the other Reaper. That AP1 counting as AP- really made a difference. 

Astra Militarum

The Vulture rushed off for Engage on All Fronts again.

The Conscripts disembarked in front of the Dreadnought and shuffled right up to it. The Gorgon itself, on 5 Wounds, limped away towards my left flank to creep onto an Objective after an Advance move.

The Baneblade moved this turn. It was time to get more enemy units into its firing line.

With the Repulsor on one Wound and an Astropath to hand, I went for glory, a Smite was attempted to finish off the Iron Hands tank. A six was rolled for casting and a six was rolled for damage. That was 3 Mortal Wounds and no Feel No Pains were made! My 35-point Astropath had finished off a Repulsor!

The Vulture was disappointing again. Doing nothing at all. Even with Hammer of the Emperor, it wasn’t performing.

Once again the Manticore whiffed and I got a very low number of shots. I swear I’m never taking that thing again. It did 5 Wounds against a Lancer.

Finally, the 28 Conscripts FRFSRF’d into the Dreadnought dealing 12 Wounds from their 96 shots. Had my Laurels of Command roll worked to re-roll ones to hit, they may well have finished it off in one volley of shooting!

So they charged it and did no damage.

Turn 3

Iron Hands

More shuffling around. 

Most of my Conscripts died from all the anti-infantry Gatling gun-style weapons the Iron Hands were wielding. But they were hard to kill and it took all the enemy shooting to get them down to five or so models. The Assault Intercessors came in to finish them off though and remove them from the Objective. 

My Platoon Commander who was with the Conscripts survived as he was too far away for the Intercessors to get to him. 

Everything else survived. The Gorgon was down to a single Wound after shrugging off even more Eradicator shots. 

Astra Militarum

It was another now or never turn 3…

My Baneblade moved up ready to charge an enemy Reaper.  The Gorgon did the same on the other flank. I put the Vulture into Hover Mode so it could stay where it was and get Engage On All Fronts again. 

My Manticore… yup didn’t kill anything again. Never. Again. This is the most overhyped unit we have. Full Payload or not, D3 x zero and 3 x zero is still zero. This thing lacks any form of reliability. Anyway…

The Baneblade didn’t kill anything either. Even on its charge, it failed to remove the Reaper and it remained on one Wound. 

My Gorgon charged in to try and scratch off the last few Wounds on the Lancer the Manticore had failed to destroy twice. It did not. But then the Lancer hit it back on a 6! Wounded it on a 4+ with AP-. And so the dice Gods went full circle after my luck at killing the Repulsor earlier on… I rolled a 1 for its save and the Gorgon’s last Wound was lost. It did not explode sadly. 

The Astropath was lost this turn too. 

Turn 4

Iron Hands

The Vulture went this turn. So did my Warlord. 

The Baneblade survived somehow. 

Astra Militarum

I tried to kill the Lancer with my Manticore. Again, it didn’t. 

The Baneblade finished off a Reaper but nothing else. 

Turn 5

I lost the Baneblade and my Platoon Commander. I just had the Manticore left now. 

The game ended with the Dreadnought on 3 Wounds, the surviving Reaper on 1 Wound, a Lancer on 3 Wounds and the other Lancer on 4 Wounds. 

Summary

The Gorgon was fun to use! Competitively it’s no good. But for this game with those Conscripts, it was perfect. It was hellish durable as well with that 4++ after getting Psychic Barrier on it. Just about all the Iron Hands shooting couldn’t remove it in Turn 2. 

Despite the score, this was possibly much closer than I thought at the time. Had I not rolled so badly on multiple turns with the Manticore and Baneblade it may well have been another story and all those above Vehicles could’ve been destroyed in Turns 2 and 3. 

I’d like to solve this swingy problem the Guard have; to try and get some more constants in my lists. I had done this with the Punishers in previous games. But then I got absolutely taken apart by the Tau. Maybe that would’ve happened though no matter what I took. 

The damage dealers we have are all random; Demolisher, Battle Cannon, Manticore, etc. Multi Meltas can help as Sponsons, as can Hail of Fire on one Leman Russ. Even the 3D6 on the Baneblade Cannon isn’t guaranteed- I remember rolling awful for that too. 4 shots on one occasion this game!

I shall press on as always…

Astra Militarum – 36
Iron Hands – 78

Iron Hands Victory