Now that I've had time to think about it, I think I did OK for my first tourney. One win, two draws, and four losses (2 of which were very close and decided in the last turn). I'm still a complete rookie when it comes to Warhammer and... I brought Guard. It's still hard to find just the right mix with the IG and in my humble opinion, I don't think there is a good tourney build for them. All my tanks and ordinance are scary, but with the assload of melta weapons out there, it just means my vehicles just blow up.

My first game was against a Tyranid player. Good kid with a solid list, but he did not play them very aggressively, which I believe hurt him. We played to a draw and I didn't really lose that many units. If there had been one more turn, I probably could have beaten him as the Valkyrie and Vendetta were set up to put a real hurting on him.

Second game was against a NASTY SM list. Vulcan can suck it!! Around 20 bikes with meltas and multimeltas, 9 landspeeders with multimeltas and missile launchers, an Ironclad Dread in a drop pod with a melta, and Vulcan with a unit safely hiding behind a big terrain feature. Great guy, but he was rough to play against. He got first turn and all those twin linked meltas starting popping vehicles first turn. I only got one round of shooting off with the Bassies before they exploded and their shots scattered badly. He was destroying at least 2 vehicles per turn and then assaulting the Veteran squads into oblivion. The only highlight of the game was when my Commissar Lord and his faithful Ogrynns took a charge from 2 bike squads with a Captain and held them up for 2 rounds. Obviously I was beaten horribly...

Third game was against a 17 year old kid with a horrible Eldar list. Only 1 wave serpant. I felt sorry for the poor kid and I started giving him pointers halway through the game because I was beating him so badly. He would start to do something and I would have to stop him and give him advise. I think he appreciated that, becuase for the rest of the tourney he would find me and ask me questions. I guess the "parent" in me was coming out and he reminded me of Dustin. Anywho, solid win, but I felt sorry for the kid..

Fourth game was against the dreaded Necrons. He was a very funny guy and had a scary list. Two lords, one on foot and one destroyer lord, both with res orbs. Four 10 man warrior units, three squads of destroyers, 2 heavy destroyers, tomb spiders and scarabs. I hate WBB!! I was killing warriors by the handfulls and they kept coming back! On the last turn, we both had 2 objectives and there was one contested. I saw his Destroyer lord coming after one of my objectives and I unloaded on it, finally destroying it just as it was in charge range, then put my Commisar and his two remaining Orgrynns in front of the objective to protect it. It was his turn, the Lord came back to life and cut through my HQ with that damn Warsythe and his consolidation move put him contesting range, so I lost. It was a very good game!

Fifth game was against a 20 year old kid who makes most all the tourneys. He had a beautifully painted Black Templar army. Two landraiders, four Rhinos full of Crusader squads (he had more but I can't remember everything he had). He was a great kid and we were very evenly matched. As we played, he told me that he goes to lot of competions and this was the toughest group he had ever faced. Anyways, none of his Templars got into charge range until the last turn and I rolled terribly. I lost but it was very close. I have to say that I am seriously thinking of doing Black Templars, even if Rolling Stoop (AKA John) thinks they are broken. They are just a very cool army.

Sixth game was against a Mech Sisters of Battle army. Very cool guy and it was great game. I had destroyed the majority of his units, but the 2 that counted most, I couldnt get them off of objectives and then in came Saint Celestine and took down one of my objective holders, winning him the game. I count it as a draw though because after we totalled up the points I had made all the other secondary, teitary (tittyary), and all the modifiers, so we were even on points. The best part of the whole game was watching my Ogrynns march down the field destroying Sister Units (I imagine raping them) as they went. Poor girls. I bet the suvivors had nightmares for months....

Last game was against a Gunline IG army with an ass-ton of Lascannons and Creed. Another great kid and a beautifully painted Mordian Army. It went badly. I was exhausted and he got the first turn. First thing he did was have Creed give orders to twin link all the Lascannons and Auto cannons. He blew up FIVE vehicles in turn ONE!! Both Bassies, A Hellhound, A Chimera, And the Valkyrie. The vets that had been in the Valk then ran off the board. Turn 2, he blew up the Vendetta, the other two Chimeras, and the battle cannons off both LRBTs. I got one objective and two unclaimed one left the table, leaving him sitting on two objectives. With all my vehicles popped, there was no way for me to get to them. I lost horribly.

All in all it was good experience. If anything, it has motivated me to finish my Ultramarine force and get them on the table. I didn't see any pure Ultramarine lists out there. I wish I had more time to watch the Narrative games and especially the Fantasy battles, but I still had fun......