Thanks. Here is a full write up of my games.
The rules where one standard detachment with either one allied or a formation and a LoW could be an Imperial Knight counted as a battle brother for all armies. With the missions being from the Escalation book at two thousand points.
My list went through a few different design ideas one had next to nothing but fliers A Tiger-shark two Barracudas and a Sun-shark with my troops being minimal and in Devilfish. This didn't make it off paper I just couldn't see how it's would be balanced enough in all situations.
I then went for my standard four squads of twelve fire warriors backed up by an ethereal. I just love the fire power these guy put out! With the core of my army sorted I then went about putting in a much devastation as I could. I knew I'd need markerlights so put in two six man units of Pathfinders My first tested list had in a Tiger-shark AX-1-0 as I just could resist having a LoW unit and 3 Riptides.
The list looked solid and did win it's practice game but my enemy got far to close to my lines and if the Tiger-shark hadn't mad it on in turn two I'd have been in trouble. This was not at all what I wanted in a tournament. It's bad enough to include units with blast weapons that can scatter off target so having to worrying about reserves was out of the question!
I eventually swapped out the the 'Shark for three units of broadsides two with seeker missiles, rail and plasma rifles and one with high yield missile pods and smart missile systems all had Early warning overrides. One of my Riptides would join the two rail rifle broadside teams to form a fire base support cadre. This also (after some points adjusting) allowed me to tool up one fire warrior squad and my pathfinders with EMP grenades, for the just in case.
With my list finalised and play tested I was ready for action, although I was still untested against Knights and supper heavies.
The Approach of Doom
Round one had me up against a Necron player who had a a transcendent C'tan! After some brief panics about it being toughness nine! I got on with deployment this mission was a god send as all LoW had to start in reserve! In the first turn I stepped forwards and called a storm of fire just incase of assault retaliation and markerlit him up and killed almost all of his warriors (not quite enough to kill both units) my Riptides killed off his destroyers and flanking assault unit (not sure of there name). My smart missiles obliterated a lone wraith hiding out of sight in a ruin close to my lines then the rest of may army adjusted position. His turn only saw half a dozen troops dead. Then in my turn two shooting phase I wiped him off the board he was so disheartened that he didn't even bring on his eight hundred point C'Tan and conceded the game. The battle only took twenty minuets and had a 22-0 victory point finish in my favour.
Trampled Underfoot
Round two had me up on the top table against a guard player who hadn't played a game for years (until the week before) and had only got to the top table through shear luck, as none of them had read the victory conditions of the mission and realised you got a point for ever units still on the board at the end of play. He had a mass MSU troop list with a few tanks to back him up. A squadron of two battle tanks and a vanquisher with a torrent tank and basilisk. Lucky for me no LoW to destroy the objectives. I again won first turn and stopped all but his vanquisher from firing by taking the main weapon on his basilisk and killed a few troop in the blasts while my troops ran forward to better firing positions. His turn was very very bad nothing at all hit and the vanquishers shot that did hit a Riptide was saved by the shield on 5+..... The rest for the game went on like this turn two had him with all his tanks dead and his troops failing to hit a barn door. To give the guy his dues he kept playing and never gave up but round after round had my whittle him further and further down in the end he only had 6 troops left that where out of line of sight of the majority of my army when the game ended. Victory was again mine 11-0.
Ultimate Linebreaker
The last game of the day had me face my first Knight and LoW unit of the day! My opponents force was a Space wolf army with Grey knight allies and an Imperial knight as LoW. He had a big Thunder wolf squad lead by Lord, two long fang squads one with all lascannons one with all Plasma cannons and two 5 man grey hunter squads. His knight had a Libby with 5 man retinue (not sure what) and a dread knight with the flamer.... by this time (after dinner) word had spread about my armies prowess and my ability to use it. I had this guy beat before we'd even deployed! Both long fang squads where placed out of line of sight of my entire army and stayed like that the whole game! Only my Riptides and his Knight could see over most of the sight blocking terrain. For the third game in a row I got first turn! I took his Knight down to his last hull point in one round of shooting and it only survived that because of some epic shield saves it did how ever send the rest of his army running for the hills knowing it wasn't far off from exploding. His Dread knights shunt move took him close enough to almost flame and entire Fire warrior squad off the board and his Libby used terror to see off another squad (yes I failed even with a re-roll!). The battle was gruelling he was on damage control from turn one. His thunder wolves with a 3++ made a tough unit to crack they ended up in combat with the lord hammering a units of broadsides before being shot off the board in the next turn and a Riptide kicking the last one to death after three rounds of combat. After that I'd realised I hadn't been keeping track of the game turns and made a mad dash to his deployment zone almost to little to late.... the end result was a much closer game than I'd had all day with the final result being 5-3 in my favour.
The end gave me 17 Tournament points and 38 Victory points putting me 8
VP above second place that went to the Eldar Revenant player...... I'm so glad I didn't have to face that monster!