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I recently took my Imp Guard to what many consider Germany’s best tournament. It's one of the largest, too, and happens to take place just a 45 minute drive from where I live. The tourney was sold out almost 3 months in advance, so I was happy to secure my spot. With some of the country’s best players competing, and me being a rather casual player, I didn’t go with high ambitions. I had finished a lucky 12th in the previous year, so my logical target was to go for a top-ten placement this time around.

The tournament had 5 games at 1850 points, custom missions, and a scoring system with 20 points to be awarded in each game, no comp scores.

Here’s the list I took:

CCS w/ 3 Plasmaguns, 1 Meltagun in Chimera
6 Psykers in Chimera
PCS w/ 2 Flamers, 1 Grenade Launcher in Chimera
Line Squad w/ Meltagun, Serge with Power Weapon, Meltabombs, Commissar with Power Weapon
Line Squad w/ Meltagun, Serge with Meltabombs in Chimera
Line Squad w/ Meltagun, Serge with Power Weapon, Meltabombs in Chimera
Heavy Weapon Squad w/ 3 Autocannons
Vet Squad w/ 3 Meltaguns in Chimera
Banewolf w/ Dozer Blade
Scout Sentinel w/ Autocannon
9 Cavalry
Demolisher w/ Lascannon
Executioner w/ Plasmacannons, Heavy Flamer
Manticore

This is not your standard IG list, and it isn’t fully optimized either. I just felt like trying out some of the little used Fast Attack choices. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to get any practice games in with this list, but still felt confident enough that I could give any opponent a good fight.


Game 1
Setup: Dawn of War
Mission: 2 objectives; only scoring units can contest normally

Opponent: Dokrado with Space Puppies

Battle report to follow tomorrow…

I like your list, it's quite different of what I usually see on the table and on the web but one question, how did your Rough Riders perform in the games?? I ask this because I love this underdog unit that can do quite a dent if they charge the right squads… If they survive enough for a charge that is

Generally, the cav did alright. They were quite a threat out of reserve, and killed what they got to charge. The reserved combo of Banewolf + Cavalry stopped one GK opponent from wandering into my half of the table at all. I'm happy with how they did, despite the fact that they died in every game.

Awesome mate , I'm glad they did well and the threat range of the Banewolf / Rough Riders combo is quite bit +-18 inches, right? No wonder the guy though twice before wandering into your quarters.

Cool list! I love Rough Riders.

Very interested to see how you did. What was the name of the tournament?

It was called IV. Rhein-Main Meisterschaften (the Rhein-Main Masters).

Here is a link to the tournament website: http://rmm40k.ttcrm.de/

They have all results posted, and a bunch of pictures for each round.

Game 1 vs Dokrado with Space Wolves:
Setup: Dawn of War
Mission: Take and hold
2 bonus points for killing the unit your opponent declares as his favorite, and having your own favorite survive

Here’s Dokrado list (from memory)

Thunderwolf Lord w/ Hammer, Storm Shield, more toys
3x3 TWC w/ two Storm Shields, 1 Thunderhammer in each unit
2x 10 Grey Hunters w/ Meltaguns in Rhino
2x 10 Grey Hunters w/ Flamers in Razorback
6 Longfangs

So that’s a straightforward, in-your-face list. I was confident I could stop it from running all over my lines, especially since we were playing DoW. The trouble would be to get one of my scoring units onto his objective.

I win the roll to go first and take first turn. The tourney rules made it so that if you took first turn, your opponent would get to choose his side of the table. It didn’t make much of a difference in this game, as both sides were pretty even. The board had one bigger LoS Blocker in each deployment zone to the left, and lots of area terrain littered across the table. We both would have enough cover if we wanted it.

Deployment:
I drop my objective deep in my deployment zone in a ruin. An line squad will later walk into the ruin to hold it. My HWS takes an elevated firing position with LoS to most of the table, while a 20 men Powerblob takes a forward position close to the middle of the table, slightly to the right. I also setup the empty HQ Chimera far forward to the center, so that I should be able to searchlight anything he sets up near the center of his deployment zone. Banewolf and Cav go in reserve.
His objective goes far forward, close to the center of the board. He surprisingly sets up a Razorback deep in his zone to the right, and will have everything else walk on T1.

Thoughts: ok, I should be able to hold him off my objective. His got a long way to go in the face of my guns. On the other end, there is little I can do to contest his objective if he masses his GH there. I just don’t have enough to kill off 40 GH and stick around to score the objective.

Early game:
That Razorback is free shooting practice for my HWS after it is searchlighted, while my units come in carefully to be able to react to him. I’m not planning on advancing until later in the game. He does as expected, with everything driving and running towards my lines. He’s got the TWC charging down the middle, 20 Grey Hunters over the left flank, 10 on the right, and only one unit of ten taking it slow and advancing towards his objective in the middle. My psykers boo off the Long Fangs right after they walked on, so he’s got as good as zero shooting all game.

Thoughts: He’s given me a chance to win big. I need to and will shoot down those TWC, and then all I have do is take care of 10 GH in the middle. I can give those GH coming over the flanks some sacrificial units to play with, which should slow them down long enough to stop them from getting too close to my objective.

Mid game:
My lines shuffle a bit for firing positions and the Powerblob starts a slow advance. Vets and an empty Chimera go left to hold up GH. They will be joined by the Banewolf when it comes in from reserve. There is not much killing going on on that side, as I focus on getting cover and moving fast, and he doesn’t get in Melta range soo enough. In the center, Manticore, Executioner, and Demolisher take aim at TWC and succeed in killing one unit entirely, as well as killing enough of the Wolf Lord’s unit to let the Psykers do their Weaken Resolve magic. When the Lord and company come back for more, they eat some more Plasma and are then charged by the brave men of the Cavalry. The Lord survives the charge, but will have to battle it out with the Cavalry for the rest of the game (I held three morale checks there before they died on the last turn). The few Grey Hunters on the right keep advancing in their Rhino after they blow up the empty Chimera I sent out to block them. I only destroy that Rhino when they are already close. It didn’t matter much tho, as the Marines were kind enough to die from a crapload of Multilaser and Lasgun shots over two turns.

Thoughts: This is going well. The majority of his Grey Hunters are hunting Vets and a Banewolf in no-mans land, the TWC are mostly dead, and my objective is save. Now I need to take care of the GH on his objective, and hopefully finish them with a charge from my Powerblob.

Late game:
There isn’t much that he can do. His units are dead, tied up in combat, or clinging to his objective with nowhere to go. He finally manages to blow up the Vet-Chimera on the left and takes the main gun off the Banewolf, but his GH won’t get anywhere in time. In the center, he is doomed when his GH loose 4 to a Manticore salvo and fail their pinning check. After the HWS claimed another GH, the Powerblob charges in and finishes off the remains to control his objective. There is a 2-model TWC unit still nearby, which can save him some tournament points. I manage to kill one TWC with the Executioner, but then crucially forget to Weaken Resolve the remaining TWC. With that one model, he wisely chooses to just contest his objective in the last turn, resisting to charge my Powerblob in a desparete attempt to clean up his objective.

Result:
I hold my home objective, and “hold” his. Mission rules meant that a contest with a non-scoring unit would not count as contesting, but would still give him some minimum tournament points. With that, I win the mission with a 16:02 score, and I get two bonus points for completing the secondary (my Demolisher survived and his “favorite” TWC unit died).

Thoughts: This was a nice start. Dokrado was a great sport and took his loss well. He wasn’t the most experienced player and brought a fun list, which gave me a rather easy win.

The reults went up on the beamer, and knowing that I will be paired to an opoponent with a similar win, I get ready for a tough match-up.

Game 2
Setup: 12” deployment zones
Mission for game 2: Bring scoring units into the opponents deployment zone
2 bonus points for killing all opposing HQ units and having at least one of your own survive

Game 2 report coming on Sunday or Monday. I’m up against Dark Eldar.

excellent report! As an ork player I feel the pain of your opponent running into an IG gunline...especially if they have a unit to actually counter-charge with cavalry!