The Lowly Guardsman

When the Imperium of Man comes under attack, the first line of defense, and the last one to mop up, is usually some dogfaced soldier of the Imperial Guard. The entire reason I chose to play IG, was the militaristic feel, and when I think military, I think infantryman, so naturally I fell in love with the Guardsman. I feel they get the short end of the stick when it comes to lore and even over all portrayal.

Now before you start thinking I'm blowing smoke up your ass, I understand all the shortcomings of the Guardsman. With a mediocre statline at best, and without doubt one of (if not the) worst guns in the game.

Now, on to what makes them good. Simply put, they are cheap in points, but more than that. Where Hormagaunts are cheap, they are only good at one thing, as are Termigaunts, but again, only good at one thing, Tau Firewarriors and kroot are also fairly cheap, but again, we come upon the same problem: lack of versatility. The Imperial Guardsman has a good chance kill a Hormagaunt, he can definitely out shoot a Termigaunt, Guardsmen platoon equal to the price of the kroot, can overwhelm them, and the Firewarriors guns are too strong for Guardsmen, its simply overkill, to the point where all the guardsmen have to do is charge, and they can certainly beat the living snot out of the Tau in close combat. The point is, Guardsman are versatile, far more than you would think.

Here are some suggestions for your guardsman:

If you take heavy weapons with a squad, don't bring a lascannon, or a rocket launcher, these are anti vehicle weaponry, better suited to a heavy weapon's squad. Any men you put with those will simply spend the game dying, not even shooting.

I highly recommend Autocannons, their .50 caliber shells can punch straight through light vehicles like Ork Trukks, and are strong enough to outright kill most infantry, and with 48" range, they put the hurtin' on the enemy from turn one.

This should certainly go without saying, but your Guardsmen's best friend is cover, they benefit far more from cover than any other unit in the game, it makes up for their crappy armor, and with their sheer numbers, they should be able to hold on for a long time.

When you bring Guardsmen you don't have to field them in squads of 10, you can field them in squads up to 50, though I don't recommend that. However, there are advantages to fielding larger units. For example, you won't have to take leadership tests as often, seeing as 25% of the unit is now 13 men. A simple order goes much further, like FRFSRF (first rank fire...) where as normally a Lieutenant could only give that to ten men, now it goes to however many squads are combined.

Chimeras are great for IG, they are dirt cheap, pack a suprising punch, and are immune to most small arms fire. As far as increasing mobility, they will only help you squeeze a couple more inches, so really just throw this in as a supplement to the firepower and durability of the unit, not for mobility.

I find that special weapons add a lot of flavor to a unit, my favorite is probably the plasmagun, it is ruthless, both to the target and the shooter, but if a single guardsman dies, its a small price to pay for flat out killing a Space Marine. Also against Tau, the sniper rifle does wonders to pin their firewarriors, and it has 6" on them. The sniper also fares well against Space Marines and monstrous creatures by always wounding on a 6.

Lastly keep in mind thirty Guardsmen can beat Space Marines, easily. So its all about how many you can bring to the table.