40K Tournament: Imperial Guard take 1st & 2nd

Hello all, Slick here. This past weekend I participated in a small 500pt 40K tournament at our local gaming store and came out of it with 2nd place. There were ten players in Saturday's bracket and ten in Sunday's bracket. I played in Sunday's bracket. The list I brought was:

Company HQ w/2x Flamers, 1x Autocannon team + Chimera
2x Veteran Squads w/2x Meltaguns, 1x Flamer + Chimera
2x Veteran Squads w/2x Meltaguns, 1x Flamer + Chimera
1 Hydra

All tanks had hull heavy flamers.

Our very own Inigo Montoya was also at the tournament with his guard list which ended up being virtually identical to mine and he'll likely add his own tournament summary soon.

Here is a breakdown of the rounds:

Round 1 vs Orks - My opponent was a newer player. She had a Nob squad with the warlord in a truck, a squad of Lootaz, and a large mob of slugga boyz. I won the roll to go first and the hydra blasted apart 3 Lootaz. She choose to go to ground, saving one of the Lootaz but also not being able to do anything with them on her turn. These would've been a serious threat to my tanks. One of my Chimeras also ended up wrecking the Ork trukk forcing the Nobs and Warboss to walk across the battlefield. From there on, it was a matter of mopping up the remaining Orks. She did kill the Hydra on turn six, but by then she was down to the Warboss who faced the wrath of 3 chimeras, 2 vet squads, and the company hq. Absolute massacre for me as I tabled my opponent.

Round 2 vs Death Company - This was quite an interesting choice to take in the tournament as it meant that he could not hold any objectives (in a tourney where 4 of the 6 missions were objective-based...). Turn 1 the Hydra immobilizes his DC dread and from there it was a matter of just blasting away at his main Death Company unit. They managed to reach a Chimera and blow it up but were then wiped out in the following turn leaving only the immobile dreadnaught. I spent the next 3 turns trying to bring it down and ended up blowing off both arms and finally knocking it out in turn 6 to also table this opponent. Both myself and Inigo were 2-0 with two massacres heading into round 3.

Round 3 - vs Imperial Guard - The two 2-0 armies square off in an epic battle! This scenario had some interesting night fighting rules which basically meant the guard were BS2 for the first few turns. Casualties were heavy on both sides as the battle shifted from long range shots to brutal close quarters combat once night fighting kicked in and the remains of both armies moved to secure the central objective. After 5 fast and brutal turns the game ended in a draw. The objective was literally surrounded by wrecked tanks and a squad from each army contesting the objective.

Round 4 - vs Tau - This was another objective mission with some kill point rules worked in. I won the role for deployment and took a heavily wooded area behind the central hill while forcing my opponent to deploy in the table quarter that only had a couple of trees for cover. The night fighting rules were in effect for the entire battle. With some select use of searchlights I started blasting away at his two firewarrior squads, eventually panicking both over the first 3 turns. I also put a few wounds on his battlesuits. A rush to the objective also let me get 3 flamers on his Kroot squad, which wiped them out. He did manage to blow up a chimera and half a vet squad with his HQ. The vets got revenge by moving up and blasting his HQ with some meltas. Another massacre put me to 3-1.

Round 5 - vs Tyranids - This was another objective mission and actually required a unit to carry the objectives around with them. Units could not carry them in vehicles so it would mean getting out of the Chimeras once the area was secure. My opponent won the roll for deployment and deployed in a corner with a lot of cover. I deployed my Hydra on top of a hill which afforded my unobstructed sight to his units and my Chimeras formed a line across two of the paths between rocky hills. Turn one saw his warriors grab an objective and then he ran for cover with it (and would essentially castle the whole game). The Chimeras move up and engage his warrior squad. The Hydra also added some support and I managed to down 2 warriors! He had no shots to take as his list had nothing to deal with armor 12. Turn two saw another warrior fall and his prime take a wound as well. My company hq also hopped out onto an objective and moved into cover. Turn 3 saw his genestealers come in and explode the Hydra which resulted in 3 genestealers getting caught in the explosion! My turn 3 saw both vet squads dismount and move up to deal with the genestealers. 1st rank, 2nd rank fire, some flamers, and the autocannon team saw the genestealers wiped out. The Chimeras poured fire into his biovores, dropping one. By turn 5 I had moved the vet squads to grab two more objectives and then hide behind cover. Fire from the chimeras finally brought him down to just 1 warrior and the prime. He decided to concede as it was 3-1 on objectives and he had no hope of taking them from me. Another massacre for me.

Round 6 - Tyranids - Final game. The scenario involved kill points with the main objective being to get as many as your units off the board as possible. My opponent won setup and took a multi-level hill with some good cover. I took a smaller hill in the opposite corner with a few trees around the area. I managed to seize the initiative and moved my chimeras up the flank and then engaged his genestealers with everything that could see them, dropping about half the squad. He decided to start moving his warriors up the opposite flank, not bothering to shoot, running for the table edge instead. A few more turns of this saw the genestealers wiped out and his warriors down the last. On the final turn I moved my company hq and vet squad off of his board edge in to get over half my army off securely. I had to leave the hydra on unfortunately to deal with his last warrior who came up short on the previous turn, missing my board edge by an inch. The hydra took care of business and he was tabled. Unfortunately he rolled a one and the game ended, otherwise I would've made the attempt to drive off the board with the hydra as well.

Final tournament result 5 wins, 0 losses, 1 draw which was the same as Inigo, although he ended up 1 point ahead of me. He had 107/120 points possible and I had 106/120. I ended up getting a Manticore for my prize which was pretty sweet :)