1,500 Point Tournamnet Army List - IG Armored Battle Group

[Katharon]

So I'm going to be part of a 1.5k tournament this weekend and here is the list I am thinking of bringing. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Armored Battle Group Army List (See: Imperial Armour - Imperial Guard Volume 1 Second Edition)
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HQ
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Company Command Tank (Warlord) [240 Points]
- Vanquisher Cannon
- Hull Lascannon
- Artificer Hull
- Anti-Grenade Mesh
- Beast Hunter Shells
- Armored Track Guards

Company Command Tank [230 Points]
- Vanquisher Cannon
- Hull Lascannon
- Artificer Hull
- Anti-Grenade Mesh
- Beast Hunter Shells


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Elites
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Commissar Tank [200 Points]
- Leman Russ Exterminator
- Heavy Bolter Sponsons
- Artificer Hull


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Troops
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Siege Tank Squadron #1 [220 Points]
- 1 x Leman Russ Punisher
- Heavy Bolter Sponsons
- Camo Net

Siege Tank Squadron #2 [220 Points]
- 1 x Leman Russ Punisher
- Heavy Bolter Sponsons
- Camo Net

Siege Tank Squadron #3 [165 Points]
- 1 x Leman Russ Demolisher

Battle Tank Squadron #1 [150 Points]
- 1 x Leman Russ Annihilator

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Heavy Support
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Hydra Tank Flak Battery [75 Points]
- 1 x Hydra Tank


TOTAL POINTS: 1,500 Points

[Katharon]

I'm happy to report that this list won me 1st place at our tournament. There were roughly 14 players, with three games each -- points determining who played whom.

Round 1: I tabled a Grey Knights & Dark Angels terminator list. Those poor terminators just couldn't make a save for the life of them. Three squads deep struck with Belial and Maldorak in two of their respective squads next to my right flank (surrounding my Warlord tank), but weren't able to disperse enough. I basically just backed up, shifted right, and unleashed a Demolisher, two Beast-hunter shells, and two Punishers onto them. Turn 2 I took out his Dreadknight with one well placed Beast Hunter Shell. Turn 3, he was down to one last terminator squad, which were quickly destroyed by more BHSs and autocannon fire.

Round 2: I tabled Chaos Space Marines. This list was a bit more hard to fight against. He had an ADL with quad gun, Kharne, two units of 'Zerkers, one Land Raider, one Rhino, two squads of two Oblits, and a Hellturkey. Turn 1 was his and he basically drove up a little, didn't have much to shoot that could effectively pen or even scratch AV14. My turn 1, I popped the Land Raider with a Vanquisher and I popped his Rhino with an Exterminator. Demolisher cannon and Punisher combo-wiped out most of Kharne's squad that had been inside the LR, and the 2nd punisher killed off a few 'Zerkers that fell out of the Rhino. The mission was Relic, so he kept having to go for that. His hellturkey wasn't as useful with a baleflamer against my Leman Russ, and I had deployed far enough back that his first turn he had no rear armor to flame and nothing to vector strike. Hydra flak tank took care of the rest. Kharne hid behind a ruined bastion for two turns, whilst his cultists were massacred by the Commissar tank (rightly so). The oblits proved to be a bother. They deep struck and over the course of two turns, killed three tanks (both Punishers and the Annihilator), but finally succumbed to BHSs and Demolisher pie plates. One last ditch run to snag the relic in the last turn caused Kharne to eat a Demolisher round and die.

Round 3: Faced off against Space Wolves, and won by points 8 to 6. This was far more close of a game than I liked to remember. He took two Drop Pods (one with Wolf Guard and 4 combi-meltas, and the second with standard grey hunters with a melta gun and 1 combi-melta), two vindicators, two 6-man grey hunter squads inside of two Razorbacks with lascannon on top, and then an ADL with Icarus lascannon, 1 Rune Priest with Divination powers, and a Long Fang squad with four MLs, 1 lascannon, and a wolf guard attached wearing a terminator missile launcher thingy. Knowing I'd face off against the drop pods with meltas, I positioned in such a way that he could not deploy behind my tanks at all -- and his scatter ultimately forced him to land twelve inches further back than he liked, but close enough that by turn three, both Drop Pods were dead along with the units inside them). The Vindicators lived longer, until turn five -- at which point one Razorback had run into the center of the board to try and claim the objective there, but was popped by the Hydra flak tank (totally made up his points ;) and then had a BHS take out the clumped up survivors. Could have gone either way, if the luck of the dice had been a bit different.


AAR: Beast Hunter Shells are a must-take. The amount of versatility it gives the Vanquisher and the fact that its S8, AP2, Instant Death, 3" small blast -- just makes it awesome. None of the armies I faced were especially prepared to go up against so many tanks -- though there were a few times where I lost over half my tanks (such as the last round). The fact that I was not able to claim objectives made it fairly straightforward for my strategy, which devolved down towards good deployment and good target priority work. The list itself is fragile however, I think, due to the fact that a vehicle runs the risk of blowing up from a single penetrating hit.

It worked out for me this time, but next time I might not be so lucky. Like that Round 1 game. I should have lost that game, but I got lucky -- or my opponent was just really unlucky. You decide.