I has tanks.

This isn't just any old picture, it's a picture of the 1500 point army I took to a local tournament last week.

Not only that, it's a picture of a nearly fully painted 1500 point army.

Now, I wasn't too sure what I could potentially face, but high on the list were Eldar and Tau. It turns out that both of these armies were there, but so were Grey Knights, Blood Angels and Dark Eldar. No Orks or Imperial Guard, but it was a more varied environment than I had envisaged.

The List.

HQ - Iron Hands Chapter Tactics - (110pts)

Master of the Forge; Bolt pistol, Bolter
2 x Servitors; 2 x Servo Arm 

Troops (640pts)

1 x 5 SM Tactical Squad; Plasma Cannon. Razorback; Twin-Linked Lascannons.
1 x 5 SM Tactical Squad; Plasma Cannon. Razorback; Twin-Linked Lascannons.
1 x 5 SM Tactical Squad; Plasma Cannon. Razorback; Twin-Linked Lascannons.
1 x 5 SM Tactical Squad; Plasma Cannon. Razorback; Twin-Linked Lascannons.

Elites (350pts)

1 x Dreadnought; 2 x Twin Linked Autocannon.
1 x Dreadnought; 2 x Twin Linked Autocannon.
1 x Dreadnought; Plasma Cannon, Power fist, stormbolter.

Heavy Support (300pts)

1 x Hunter.
1 x Predator; Autocannon, Sponsoon Mounted Lascannons.
1 x Predator; Autocannon, Sponsoon Mounted Lascannons.

Fortifications (100pts)

Aegis Defence Line; Quad Gun.

The Plan

Helmuth von Moltke once wrote "No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force". Now, while he may have been one of the greatest military tacticians ever to have lived I have to say I beg to differ. My plan worked perfectly.

Admittedly because it couldn't be any simpler and Moltke the Elder never had 4 Razorbacks, 2 Predators and 3 Dreadnoughts.

So what was it?

Don't worry what your opponent has in his army, just shoot the shit out of everything you can see and don't stop until there's nothing left to shoot with. 

So how did I get on? 

Pretty well all things considered. My first game was against Blood Angels which I won 9 - 4. I managed to take 1st Blood, Kill the Warlord (Mephiston) and took 7 of his units off the table including 2 Storm Ravens, Vanguard Vets and their Drop Pod.

I never really rated the snap shot rule until this game. I managed to snap shoot both of his Ravens, which left us both a bit slack-jawed.

The second game was against Dark Eldar. Now, I wasn't too sure how I would fare against their Lances, and I did take a couple of casualties, 1 Dreadnought and 1 Razorback, but the sheer amount of fire power I could put down the range soon put paid to his anti-armour threat. His fliers were a lot more resilient, I couldn't kill those buggers for love nor money. Tight game, finished 1 - 1.

Third game was a non-starter. I had a bye, so I promptly went to the pub for a couple of drinks.

The fourth and final game was my crowning glory and biggest failure. I was playing against an Eldar Wave Serpent army. I took six of them and a couple of infantry units off the table and, this is true, only lost 3 hull points in the process.

Should have been an easy victory.

Except it wasn't. We were playing for objectives and at the end he had 2 and I had 1. That gave us a final score of 6 - 4.

So my day ended with a 1-1-1 record.

Not too bad for a list that, with the exception of the points difference and Chapter Tactics, wouldn't have looked out of place in 5th edition.