"Psychic phase?! We don't need no psychic phase!"

Had a game recently with Screech. It was a pick-up game, and only my 2nd 7th edition game and I was fearing I was going to face a psyker (at least one, right?). So, I figured I would try out a Culuxus Assassin to got along with my Ultramarines. When Screech and I decided to get a game going he gave me a choice between facing his Tyranid army or his Imperial Guard. Foolishly, I chose the IG. This was foolish of me because unlike the 'nids, there were no psykers to be found in his guard army.

LOL, and it all goes down hill from here!

Our table set up.

Ultramarines deployment.

The Imperial Guard (or Astra Millivanili) deploy.

After the usual mission selection, etc, I deployed first. It was a objectives mission, and I was poised to pounce on them and do as much damage as I could do my first turn. This "plan" was dashed when Screech rolled a '6' to steal initiative. And he managed to alpha-strike me into near oblivion! The two 6-man squads in the pic below were both reduced to 2 guys each, with the unit on the ground pulling back when they failed their break test. 

Ouch!

 On the other side of the table, my two 5-man squads were reduced down to 2 survivors each and my whirlwind was 'stunned', The whirlwind was a key element in my plan reduce his infantry numbers that were bunched together on the other side of the missile site.

But, I wasn't going to let Screech's awesome round, or my cardboard power armor, stop my assassin from having some fun, even if he didn't have any psykers to hunt down. Realizing his limited functionality, I dove him headlong into the nearest guard unit, where I managed to avoid being overwatched to death and took out a few of Screech's groundpounders.

"I'll blow your minds with my fists!!!"

 Turn two, and the punishment continued. My landraider scared a few of his tanks in the last round, but nothing that netted any lasting results. However the IG managed to immobilize my venerable tank and forced my Captain and his Command Section to bail out.

A unit of Scions arrived via Deep Strike and pasted one of my squads. The Assassin, who, despite his awesome stat-line, just botched it in the following assault phases before falling to the IG. It was really looking like the Ultramarines needed a new hope...

Impossible shots R us.

 And on my turn, the hope arrived.  My Terminators arrived via Deep Strike and slaughtered a squad that was hiding behind the tanks that were giving my Landraider hell. Most of the unit were set ablaze by the heavy flamer terminator (note the props in the pic below!).

A few more Imperial Guard were immolated by the sole survivor of one of the squads near the missile site. That Scions took some losses from the whirlwind and some fire from the Command Section and some of my straggling units. But it wasn't enough...

Top of Turn 3, and the might of the Imperial Guard rained death on my Terminators, and by some miracle, two guys lived!

On my turn, they charged the IG tanks, and I hope, nay, expected them to rip those fricking tanks to scrap, but they either failed to hit the damn things or they failed to penetrate them enough to take them out of the game.

"I thought you said these things opened like sardine cans?!"

 My end of my my turn 3, all I had left, except for those two hapless Terminators, are as they appeared below.

A functioning Dreadnought and my Captain and Command section. And not a lot of options.

We decided to call the game, and just for kicks we tallied the VPs: Ultramarines 4, IG 9. And it surprises me that I did that well! LOL

Mistakes? Well, the obvious one from the start was taking an army based around a psyker hunter and electing to fight the army least likely to have one! I think I should've been more aggressive with deploying the Captain and his unit, but other than that, there wasn't a whole lot I could do. I had sufficient cover, but his dice were hot and mine were not. It became a goal of trying to milk as much fun out of the situation as I could, so we did, and it was good time as always!