Admiral Drax vs Siph - Imperial Guard vs Relictors Space Marines

So I met up with fellow Blogger Admiral Drax for a friendly 1750pt battle at Giant's Lair, the premier gaming venue in the South West. I'd never visited Giants Lair before (only hearing about it on Drax's Blog) and never met Drax before but followed his blog for a good few years now. His was one of the first I used to read at about the time Ron set up From the Warp bloggers community. I even named my first Rifleman Dreadnought after him, lol.

It was an Annihilation and Table Quarters, putting Drax's mass of guard in a tight spot and at a killpoint disadvantage. To make matters worse, I stole the initiative and opened the game with a devastating volley of template weapon blasts which killed guard in their droves...

I've never played Guard before and now I see why SM are feared, Power Armour saved the day and Frag is actually useful (I mostly play against Pornstarjedi's SM or Daemons where it is next to useless).

My new StormTalon made its first shiny outing (pre-transfers) and promptly fell to his Hydra AA guns without getting a shot off! Such is the way with new toys!

His penal platoons had Furious Charge and CC weapons and with the Sentinel outflanked into my Assault marines and chopped them up nicely after both my Marines and Termies failed their charges into cover, falling short on turn 2 and paid the price for failure.

During the battle Drax's shooting and saves failed due to desertion of the Dice Gods and I made some great saves, leaving Drax in a tight spot with by turn 3 and the clock ticking away into the wee small hours, Drax had to concede and a narrow win for the Relictors. We were not the quickest of players it is said - but a nice battle all the same. Marbo didn't make an appearance thank goodness and my experimental use of Devastators left me underwhelmed, Krak just bounces off AV14... but Frag does kill Guard.

If we had time to go to turn 4-5 my flank would have been open and only the Landraider my best chance of victory against his Leman Russ and Demolisher. It could have gone both ways.

A great battle and a good opponent, and a top venue. Check it out. I look forward to a re-match in the future. Hope you enjoyed the pics!