If you’re even remotely into the Warhammer 40k tournament scene then you already know that the 2009 ‘Ard Boyz Tournament is less than two weeks away. And you probably already know that the locations, rules, and scenarios have already been posted.

In case you don’t, check out the following links: Locations | Rules | Scenarios

Last year I did fairly well in the tournament, taking 1st place out of 40 in the preliminaries with a very balanced Space Marine + Grey Knights allies army. I spent a lot of time running practice games and preparing…which led to complete 40k burnout. I didn’t play again until the second round and I ended up making a lot of foolish mistakes which I chalk up to being rusty (one of which cost me a win in game #2).

All in all, I had a blast. I love playing big games and I didn’t run across a single jerkoff at either location.

This year, I’ve decided to try something new. I’m currently building a mechanized Imperial Guard army, so there’s really no leftover spending cash for tailoring my Salamanders for 2500 points. Instead, I’ve decided to use my Chaos monstrous creature list and fill out the Troop selections to make up the difference from the 1750 level. It’s not a powerful list by any means, but it’s a lot of fun to play (except against IG/Tau).

Despite the conscious decision to bring a non-competitive build to ‘Ard Boyz, I’m having a lot of trouble crafting a list with which I am satisfied. I have fun regardless of whether I run a competitive list or an uncoordinated mish-mash of units, so I at least want to bring an army that isn’t guaranteed to tank (being likely to tank is another story). Not having ANY long-range firepower is going to be rough.

Originally I had planned to take dual Daemon Princes with either lash or warptime and a Greater Daemon, however scenario 2 brutally sodomizes armies with suicide HQs, and fast alpha strike T5 MCs don’t last long at 2500 points. This has forced me to compromise the theme of the list, cutting the big badass targets from 9 to 6. Further tweaking brings it down to 5.

The list I’m currently considering is as follows:

Chaos Sorcerer – Slaanesh, lash

Chaos Sorcerer – Slaanesh, lash

Chaos Dreadnought – Multi-melta, heavy flamer, extra armor

Chaos Dreadnought – Multi-melta, heavy flamer, extra armor

10 Chaos Space Marines – Chaos glory, meltagun x2, Rhino

10 Chaos Space Marines – Chaos glory, meltagun x2, Rhino

5 Plague Marines – Meltagun x2, Rhino

5 Plague Marines – Meltagun x2, Rhino

10 Khorne Berserkers – Skull champion, power weapon, Rhino

10 Khorne Berserkers – Skull champion, power weapon, Rhino

3 Chaos Bikers – Meltagun x2

3 Chaos Bikers – Meltagun x2

Defiler – Close combat weapons

Defiler – Close combat weapons

Defiler – Close combat weapons

As you can see, I’ve maxed out on my Troop choices. I’m planning on using the wall of Rhinos to corral enemies while simultaneously tank shocking them. If I position correctly, any failed tests will result in the destruction of the unit due to the double-back restrictions. Savvy use of the Rhinos will be the real strength of this list. When fully deployed and disembarked, my army takes up a crapton of space. With the set game length of 6 turns, I plan to use this to my advantage in order to box out enemy units from getting within 3″ of objectives.

I’ll hemorrhage kill points against substantial long-range firepower, so I’m praying that I don’t get matched up against Tau or Imperial Guard. Hopefully the Defilers will be able to shake Vendettas to limit the amount of incoming lascannon fire against my AV 11/12. I have little else that can do damage at range, and for that reason I’m really not looking forward to Dawn of War deployment in mission 2.

At least I will be able to benefit from the Night Fight special rules in the first two scenarios.

Now I just need to remember to pop smoke.