Outflanking Al for Blog Wars Tournament?

Outflankin' Al' rolls on after the battle...as standard..

The next tournament is coming up next week for the Sons.. Ven (me), Atreides, Kabalite, newcomer Bradimus Prime (new to the Sons anyway, a UK tournament 'mainstay' for at least 18months) and friend of the Sons - Bringer of Death will all be attending.

A strong team presence.

Bringer has had a tough year regarding tournaments..he started the year by taking his beloved MechDar and either drawing or losing to superior firepower at the start of the year. Grey Knights came out and he has polished off all his old models and embraced them..

But he has still not enjoyed the kind of success he is looking for.


You see, Bringer can't roll dice.

Really.

He is shit! Bringer needs to roll about a million dice before he actually approaches statistical average!

So, with that in mind, he has dusted off his Imperial Guard and combined them with my own Guard army. The two armies combined can pick pretty much anything..

Bringer would like to use Al'Raheim for his Special Character mandatory choice for Blog Wars (the tournie requires the use of at least one special character in your army)...

 Here is what he is thinking of taking, he'd love your feedback.....

CCS - 4 Melta, Chimera

PBS - 8 man, 7 Psykers, Chimera

PCS - Al'Raheim, 4 Plasmaguns, Chimera

2 x 10 Infantry Squad,Meltagun, Chimera

Veterans Autocannon, Chimera

Veterans 3 x meltaguns

Vendetta

Vendetta

Hellhound

2 x Hydra

Medusa

Manticore

So, for me...a few thoughts.
I'd like more options. The Vets with Melta have no ride, no choice but to jump in a Vendetta. I'd like to see them in their own Chimera, with an Autocannon.
This gives them several things - mobile firepower, the added firepower and utility of the chimera, extra range on an alpha strike due to the larger base of the Autocannon team, a bit of duality in the unit in terms of range.

I'd like to keep the Manticore, but I think changing down to another single Hydra would provide some great anti transport firepower, but also free up points to make the above change I discuss.

By doing this, Bringer will get more Av12 hulls on the table, increasing survivability through saturation.

Talking of survivability, how about splitting the squadron of Hydra's down to a single Hydra..
So the heavy support choices might look like:
1 x Hydra
1 x Hydra
1 x Manticore

In fast we have 2 Vendettas which are basically still awesome.. the transport capacity though is an OPTION, not a requirement...I personally don't think it should be used all the time just because it can be..I think it should only be used in very specific circumstances.. especially considering the Vets do not have Demolitions so no meltabombs.
The CCS can jump in, but they will not always want to, so they need a ride too..

I LOVE HELLHOUNDS. It's a personal thing, but they have so many uses.. Hellions, Scarabs, Necron Warriors, Nids, Orks, Guard blobs from a safe range, marine scouts, Dark Eldar avoiding FNP, GK
Warrior Acolytespam.. even for rear armour of transports and for packed in Dark Eldar vehicles..

Yeah, so that can stay.

So I think Bringer should take something like this.. bear in mind that Outflankin' Al' is staying no matter what...

CCS - 4 Melta, Chimera

PBS - 8 man, 7 Psykers, Chimera

PCS - Al'Raheim, 4 Plasmaguns, Chimera

2 x 10 Infantry Squad,Meltagun, Chimera

Veterans 3 x meltaguns, Autocannon, Chimera

Veterans 3 x meltaguns, Autocannon, Chimera

Vendetta

Vendetta

Hellhound

Hydra

Hydra

Manticore

What I would really like to do is bring in an Astropath.
Adding +1 to reserve rolls helps Bringer to apply pressure to the enemy as early as possible. I dislike having large elements of the army off the table as it just allows the enemy to bring all their weapons to bear on what is on board, out gunning and out manouevring the IG.. so we want Outflankin' Al' on board asap to redirect some of the enemy fire and we want him in the right place...the Astropath allows us to reroll the side on which we arrive..

Just need to find 30 points.

What about you guys? Any experiences with Al? I know some guys run him quite successfully despite the hate he often gets...remember, a SC must be picked, so don't hate too heavily!