Imperial Guard POV: Chaos Space Marines vs Imperial Guard

Since we do not have the Battle Report for this game up yet some of this may not make sense. My list sucked but I did the best I could with it and if it wasn't for shear luck on my part and the fact that Dreese didn't know how to play his army (as well as the fact that we didn't know enough about his army to tell him) I would have lost. So there, I won by one point or so I was told. Sorry I wasn't really keeping count and since George was the arbiter I went with what he told me. Either way at the end of turn 6 there were no Chaos Space Marines on the board and I still had a couple of Imperial Guard.

Let me start with the fact that two veteran squads are just not enough paper targets to be effective. They are great when given the First Rank, Second Rank order since as veterans they are hitting on 3s but without the additional infantry from a Platoon it just wasn't enough. Additionally, my Imperial Guard were horrible for the first two turns because I forgot all about my Orders. Orders make the mediocre infantry into something rather nice especially when you need to take down a unit that is way to close for comfort. All in all I played like crap, I forgot my orders for two turns and I was ineffectual until turn 3 when my Chimera's Heavy Flamer along with the First Rank, Second Rank order started to make a dent in Dreese's army. Even then the list was against me, I didn't have enough figs on the board to do anything. If it wasn't for the fact that Dreese didn't know how to play his army and that blew up my Chimera in the middle of his mass of Cultist I would have lost before turn 5.

I walked away from the game enjoying the Imperial Guard and seeing a lot of potential, but realized that I will probably need a cheat sheet in order to remember what I need to do. I also need to get out there and get some more figs since I will not be winning games with the current list except in the most lucky of situations. I was impressed with the power of the Order system, with the Exterminator, and all the Flamers. I will be using them again. I did make a turn 1 mistake with moving one of my Veteran Squads across the field toward the Relic. It lost me the unit by turn 3 and other than taking out a couple of figs with a flamer, they were a total lose. I need to remember that Imperial Guard are not Dark Angels and shouldn't be used in such a manner. I will be changing my tactics in the next game and since it will mostly be against another Space Marine army I will have some work to do.