Last Square 1850 Tourney: Game One

This past weekend I went to my second tournament at my FLGS and... man, I am pumped right now. :) I ran the following list:

Co. Cmd with 4 plasma guns, plasma pistol, Chimera with Hvy Flamer and Multilaser
3 Veteran squads with 2 meltaguns, flamer, shotguns, in a Chimera with Hvy Flamer and Multilaser
Veteran squad, 3 meltaguns, shotguns, Chimera with Hvy Flamer and Multilaser
3 Vendettas
2 Squadroned Leman Russ Battle Tanks, Hull Heavy Bolters
Leman Russ Executioner, Plasma Cannon Sponsons, Hull Heavy Flamer
Manticore with hull heavy flamer

All of the missions were from the upcoming 1850 Adepticon Championship, which made it great practice for those of us who are going to the tourney in Chicago come April. Some of the missions were great, others were... interesting, to say the least. All of them have three win conditions- whoever wins the most wins the mission, with ties decided by Victory Points. It's a pretty cool system that allows a lot of disparate ways to win and work when they are as different as possible. For the most part it worked...

What was definitely interesting was the spread of armies present across the 14 players. Specifically, the lack of Marines (only two from my recollection) and the presence of a lot of  more unorthodox armies, like these beautifully painted (and best painted winning!) Necrons:

So it was a bit of a surprise when I drew against the only other Guard player at the tourney for my first game. He was a young gentleman who had some very nicely painted models.

  

His list was approximately as follows, and scarily similar to mine:

CCS with astropath, Master of the Fleet, 2 GLs, Commander with Power Sword, grenadiers
4 Vet Squads, 1 with flamers, 1 with plasma, 2 with meltas, all except the flamer vet in Chimeras and with Grenadiers
Vendetta
Leman Russ Executioner with Pask, plasma cannons
Manticore
Psyker Battle Squad with Chimera
Penal Legionnaire Squad

Deployment: Pitched Battle

For this one, the three were:
-destroy the enemy's most expensive unit
-Kill points
-3 objectives, one in the center, one placed by each player in the opposing player's deployment zone.

I won the roll to deploy first and spread out across the board deploying everything. The Manticore was stuck in a far corner away from my objective behind some LOS blocking cover.

 

He deployed everything except for the Penal Legionnaires.

My first turn was a bit of a blow out. The Executioner eliminated his Vendetta, two of my Vendettas took out his Manticore and, in the first of many moments of brilliance that day, my Manticore exploded his Pask-enabled Executioner (his most expensive model) AND wrecked a meltavet Chimera thanks to a lucky pie plate flip.

After taking out the majority of his antitank I knew that the game was pretty much mine. My Leman Russ' provided effective cover to my Chimeras while my Executioner tried to stay out of meltagun range. Getting the early lead also allowed me to suggest better plays to my opponent. He seemed to be doing fairly well for his age, but the difference in list power plus my lucky first turn sealed the deal. It eventually ended up with me winning the KP and most expensive unit conditions while he secured the most objectives. The only KP he secured were a Vendetta and my Manticore, the latter after it had fired all of its rockets.

Second game plus some more pretty army pics coming up tomorrow.