Knight Commander who?

Soooo, I've tried the Imperial Armour 1 Armoured Battlegroup army list 3 times now...

Game 1 vs John's Eldar: The tank company was taken apart most horribly. It takes ONE lucky warlock on a jetbike with a Singing Spear amidst my tanks to ruin my day. Admittedly, I rolled horrifically this game, so I daresay I'm very willing to give this another go. I blame these dice, which I had acquired just before the battle and I thought just looked too good to pass up...

Note to self: Never use these guys again except when I'm putting Chaos on the board...  

Game 2 vs CK's Iron Warriors: On turn 1, CK had 2 Forgefiends, 2 Rhinos full of Chaos Marines and a Hellbrute hiding behind a ruin, at night, while I fired the first salvo. Pretty much wiped out his army for almost no losses, but CK's list very ill equipped to take on mine, with only Raptors with meltaguns and a team of Obliterators being the only real threat to my tanks. It was an objective game, and CK could conceivably have won had some Chaos Marines crawled deep into a ruin to camp an objective for the rest of the game, but seriously, what kind of game would it be if you had one beleaguered squad sitting in a hole, while the rest of your army got blasted apart by a collection of guns mostly meant for games of Epic 40k?

Game 3 vs Ian's Orks: I say again: ORKS. A marvellously fluffy game: A tide of green hurling themselves at the armoured might of His Divine Majesty's Imperial Guard. It was a Kill Point game so it really came down to whether I had the firepower to keep the greenskins away from my soft squishy rear armour. Ian's list had undergone some tweaks, adding bikes and trukks for some serious mobility. Fortunately, I had 3 things working for me: First, Hammer and Anvil deployment, which gave me a little more room to back away and shoot up more Orks. That having been said, it also made it more difficult to maneuver into a position to bring more guns to bear on trouble spots. Second: I had the first turn, which I promptly spent blowing away 3 vehicles full of nasty greenskins. Third: His primary ranged armour-busting unit, the Tankbustas with their Weirdboy, spent most of the game cowering in a forest due to the Weirdboy's destructive fits.

Troll wargamer shirt, courtesy of my dear fiancee... 

In the last game, the Commisar Tanks really shone, showing what an Exterminator with 3 heavy bolters and BS4 could do. This was also aided greatly by the Command Tanks issuing orders to force opponents to reroll successful cover saves. I often get asked why I don't used Leman Russ Eradicators, and the reason is simple: When your tanks are threatened by a single model, even a Demolisher Cannon can, at most, force him to make one save. A Terminator with his Powerfist, or a Nob with a powerklaw skulking in a forest, if he's in charge range, can quite reliably be expected to take down a Leman Russ of any flavour. But an Exterminator with its sponsons can quite easily sort the problem out by forcing such a troublemaker to make an unreasonable amount of saves...

The Beast Hunter shells were also absolute gold, and really plug a serious weakness in the armoured company. That dinky blast makes a big difference when all my guns are turned to the task of blowing up swarms of infantry before they reach my lines. I've yet to inflict it on a Monstrous Creature, though...

Anyway, I am pleased as Punch with this list. It's interesting, it hits stupidly hard, it's fluffy, and, most important, it's a completely different playstyle to ALL my previous lists, and achieves on old ambition of mine, that is, establishing a true, 100% gunishment army, with the added bonus of me not actually having to paint a single infantry model (though I suppose I'll paint one for my Warlord Command Tank).

So, that's it from me. Until next time, happy wargaming...