Final 6th Edition Tourney Report

In my last post, I presented an Iron Hands list I intended to run at the final 6th Edition monthly tourney at my FLGS. I figured it would be a fun army to push around the tables.

I played my first game against Thor from Creative Twilight. We play against one another quite a bit, as we're both regulars at the FLGS monthlies. Odds were a little longer this month, as we had 11 people show up, a nice increase from months past.
We played on a city fight board heavy in ruins (I think they're the ruins from Pegasus Hobbies). Beautiful scenery but it made for some tough deployment. Thor went first, and wisely crammed my army in the most congested quarter of the board. I probably could have overcome the congestion, but I deployed very poorly. I didn't look hard enough at his army list, and planned for anti-tank shooting that he simply didn't have!
It was a good fight as always, with some fun moments (his Raptor squad repeatedly failing charge distances was fun for me, less for him). He outplayed me for a 31-5 win.

My second game was against a new player, playing his first ever tournament games. He ran a Space Marine list using Ultramarines tactics, and largely just models he owned. Nothing optimized. It was a hard game to peg down, as I wanted to provide teaching moments, but didn't want to throw the game or steamroll over him.
Hopefully the game was enjoyable for my opponent, as despite me taking a 28-3 win, it was a close fought game. I hate giving new players list advice, especially when they've told you that they're playing with the stuff they liked the looks of and enjoyed painting. We talked about some idea for adding more contrast to his black-and-bronze Marines, like adding small additional bronze details on rivets, skulls, etc.

The final game of the day was against a Space Marine (White Scars without bikes) and IG combo. Two Thunderfire Cannons, tons of lascannons and autocannons, an ADL, Yarrick, a Vanquisher, some blobs, and a beat stick Chapter Master on Bike (Shield Eternal, powerfist, etc).
As usual with the final game of the day that isn't on a top table, I aimed for pure entertainment in my tactics. I was trying to win, but not at the expense of cinematic and crazy moments. There was the tank duel between my tri-las Predator and his Vanquisher Russ, which ended with me exploding the Russ after he repeatedly whiffed on twin-linked cannon shots. My Ironclad roasting Yarrick alive with his heavy flamer and meltagun, only to see him get back up. One Tactical Marine in one of my combat squads taking 18 armor saves by himself, and passing them all. A single enemy marine blowing up one of my Dreads with a thrown krak grenade at rear armor. Lots of craziness and lots of laughing, which made for a great game despite the 31-0 loss I took.

It was a nice send-off of 6th Edition. As for the Iron Hands chapter tactics, they're nice, but not spectacular for my play style. I don't do min-max units, so the Chapter Master on Bike with Shield and powerfist/hammer/whatever won't ever show up in an IH list for me. I only made a few successful It Will Not Die rolls all day, and entirely forgot the 6+ FNP save in the first two games. I never made a repair attempt.
What I did like was the Armor Indomitus on the Master of the Forge with his conversion beamer. I was able to move him around for better sight lines and still fire, as well as have him hop out of a transport and still fire. The beamer itself wasn't a blockbuster, as I either scattered off target or my opponents made all their saves (we play on some boards with significant cover, as the rules intended).

Seventh Edition is next week, and I broke down and put in for the rulebook and both sets of cards. While I have my reservations about the new edition, I've decided to take an "embrace the changes" stance. I realized that our little community at the FLGS might squawk a lot about spam and OP lists, but in practice, we rarely see them run by our group. I think it's highly unlikely that I'll jump into Unbound armies or anything, and will soldier on with my Ultramarines.
I thought about buying the rulebook in Kindle format, but I find it easier to learn a rule set by having pages to flip. I bought the 6th Edition rules in digital format because the rulebook was so damned HUGE. With the three-book format of 7th, that shouldn't be an issue.