Under a Hail of Fire!- 500pt list I have made for an upcoming Tournament

Hello all!

I have clawed my way back from the abyss to linger in the Webway once more.

As you have possibly picked up on from the title of the post, there is a 500pt tournament I am bracing myself for. It is part of a lengthy leader board tournament ranking system that my local GW is running that awards points to those who consistently win games and penalises the persons who turn up with unpainted units, non hardback codex's, etc.

The main guidelines are heavily drawn from the 40k in 40 minutes rules we have used in the past and translates into something like this.

500pts
You can only take up to 1 HQ slot, 2 Elites slots, 4 Troop slots, 2 Fast Attack slots, 1 Heavy slot option
There can be no special characters
There can be no Vehicles with all armour facings adding up to more than 33
There can be no over 3 wound models or over 3 hull point vehicles
There can be no 2+ saves (Including invuls!  )
No monsters
No flyers
Played on a 48x48 board

Immediately what stood out to be was who benefitted the most from these restrictions. A couple of armies stood to gain here (including DE  ), however one faction clearly stands apart to gain the most.
That's right, the new Astra Militarium!
Cheap troops, Cheap tanks, cheap fearless, and the other hint in the title description, the dreaded Wyvern.
The new guard have been causing me a lot of head aches in my list preparations for this event; the biggest problem being that little stinker of a mortar tank. Clocking in equivalent to a venom in pts, it is the auto win button against our fragile troops and on a chimera chassis, it is the only tank that can sport a relatively high armour value for such cheap pts cost.

We have lots of guard players in our store, which only adds to the worry. I played my good friend the other day against his five hundred in a kind of test match.

I ran the following

Haemi with LG
2x 5 warrior units in venoms
1 warrior unit in Raider
Ravager with NS

He had

CCS w/auto cannon
2x Infantry squads w/auto cannon in Chimeras w/HF
20 conscripts with a priest!!!!
PCS w/auto cannon
Wyvern

In merciful shortness, he blew me to shreds. I didn't even touch half his squads   
Granted, he got some fluky rolls. Turn 1 he glanced the haemi's raider with an auto cannon and the Wyvern, yes the Wyvern! Removed its both remaining hull points!! He only hit 3 times as well!

In short they really worry me. I took venoms in the list above to combat the expected guardsmen hordes and the ork players I was bound to find at the tourney but when my darklight was dusted they all proved useless against gone to ground guardsmen in ruins and completely moot against his vehicles  

The mortar tanks kick major tailbone (even the store manager said they were going to rule) and because they were actually durable tanks they forced me to compensate, which really throws my list into all whack trying to balance more Anti-tank in my army.

Ok On a happier note (read less whiny) I can get to the lists I have crafted two lists (finally!) to solve my problem.

List 1 (The Kennedy's)

Haemi w/LG
3x 5 Warriors in Raiders w/Dissies
Dissie Ravager w/ NS

List 2 (Reactor Meltdown)

2x Haemi's w/LG
3 Grots in raider w/sails
5 Wracks w/LG in raider
7 Wracks w/LG

List one is my least ideal list as it relies on our moist toilet paper armour and jinks to keep it running (NS for the Ravager). Spamming vehicles are great in this tourney but raiders lack the shots on infantry and while venoms can lay down the hurt I've found that they can easily be suppressed in small games by gtg against them. I'm not a fan of the warriors in this one, don't seem to provide enough shots to balance their fragility especially when cracking open a raider torches them like marshmallows over a Bunsen burner (don't ask me how I know this). NS seems nice for the ravager, which is our only heavy that can be taken thanks to the rules, but on 48x48 it becomes a lot harder to scrape out of range of those weapons such as the auto cannons my pal ran.
The dissies are also the best choice for this, hurting both infantry and the light tanks, but if I can't get round side armour (and some of the boards have dense terrain) then I will have problems. I love raider rush but at this points value its a bit impractical despite really making all the marine players days sad (we have tons of SPESS MAHRENS in our store).

List two is my fav. It almost breaks the game a little bit with the double haemi grot star. Thanks to the rules not specifying a single HQ model I can take advantage of our up to 3 Haemi's a slot to really bring on the pain (tokens). I prefer it because it is far tougher and with the grots fearless with the double haemis, I can ignore those potentially game losing pinning tests. The grots will munch both infantry and vehicles relatively well and I get to bring along 4 Liquifiers for the Lulz. with the Raiders I can add a little bit more infantry killing power (they will have dissies) and they can knock off the last few hull points on a tank if I'm in a pinch. My only worry is for the 7 wracks. With the guard dominating and wyverns throwing around 4 TL pies of ap 6 death, FNP will not go a very long way to save them. My thinking will be use them as a distraction unit to absorb fire early on and provide mid-field mop up. Oh and with FOUR Liquifiers, I can still slap on the potential to murder infantry and still have some punch on the hordes of marines that will be likely coming hot on the heels of those guardsmen.

It's a bit long winded (a bit!) but if you stuck through to the end. I would like to hear any of your thoughts between the two lists. Take your pick or put me to shame with your list building skills and offer up something on your own. (if you have a suggestion outline it in your comment)

Whatever happens it'll be a blast (pun intended)  

The Reactor Meltdown looks like it could be a very fun list to play with but I would probably put the 7 wracks in the raider. Its one of those that will either hit like a brick or crumble like a sandcastle.

Have you considered a wych list? Venoms and Haywires? In close quarters that could poyentially munch through a lot if you kept the force together, and it does give a great AT option?

First of all, thanks for commenting!

I see your point on Reactor Meltdown. I think the list really relies on going first to really apply that pressure from the Grot star early on; however with only two raiders, my flotilla could very well be scuppered before it even gets a chance to move and foot slogging of any kind with dark eldar is an invitation to destruction.

I'm not sure yet as to which wrack squad should have its own raider; the squad of five is only their to fulfil the 2 troops minimum requirement. As I don't yet know any of the missions (the TO said they'll be all special ones) I think I'll just have to decide on the fly.

A Wych list? Good point I haven't thought of that yet, although I did run a Succi-Reaver-Haywire Wych list in a rematch against my pal and barely scrapped a tie. So it proves it works. Wychs are fine antitank option, I think I'll only be limited to three units at most though, and their armour is weak an orks meaning that even those lasguns (twenty of them in the conscript unit alone!) can really punish them. I like your suggestion though! You have made me think of potential viable lists that hadn't occurred to me before.

If I am to run one I think it'll go along these lines

Succi w/VB and HW
2x 7 Hay-Wyches in raider w/sails
5 Hay-Wyches in raider w/sails

This list can hit hard but will need to stick together like glue in order to create enough punch to destroy my opponents army. I'm still worried about units like Wyverns though, the first time those Wyches are shot will be the last I'll be seeing of them.

An alternative to the list above will be to replace two raiders with venoms and remove the two extra wyches on two squads and add a unit of 3 Splinter Born.

Well you certainly have me brainstorming possibilities, I'll keep at it and see what I can muster  

Haha yeah, plenty of opportunities. In my experience venoms are superb at laying down and thinning out stuff for wyches to chew up, might be a good thing to have. You will have to have a think!