thirsting for realism

alright, so prepare for a rant!

So earlier today I was discussing army backgrounds with a friend of mine. He has never really played 40k before, and is buying an army for christmas. Now, he has everything planned out. Except for background. And when I asked him, he responded with a statement that someone else would come up with it. Disgusted I regaled him with tales of my regiment. Down to food preferences for some of my men. Yeah, I write books on the guys, Maybe someday you will read them from the black library :D (yeah right they don't accept books, just short stories) anywho so I was explaining it to him, and dare I come to the realization that he wasn't enjoying himself. D:

So that out of the way, that made me think, that people really don't look at this game like I do. For them, its exactly that a game. What else is it? to me it's something deeper. To me its a window into a world that I love to visit. For the tales of glory, and the fights for humanity keep me going back for more. There isn't a game I play that doesn't have deep narrative. I love campaigns for that reason. and every turn I see the explosions, shrapnel and blood, the screams of the dying the cheers of the victorious! and I revel in it!

But to others its tiny models on the table, and statistical probability of victory. V.V that makes me sad inside. That someone would spend as much money as we do, to only have the feeling of victory and competition. Yeah I enjoy that too, but that's only like 5% of why I game. honestly if you want that, there are cheaper ways to get that, and more fun ways to get that. I mean there has to be a little narrative in there! come on just a little!

Deep down I cling to warhammer, not because it's cool, not because I'm any good at it, but because its everything I want in a game. As much realism and creativity as I can cram into 28mm scale. And I eat it up like I do cake (though not any more, I'm losing weight for boot camp, but that's irrelevant).

anywho after all this ranting I am left no wiser, and only with a craving for cake. v.v

Siege Rules

One of the things I've been toying with is the idea of guardsmen defending a strongpoint to the last. Not really original I know. But with a few rule modifications and whatnot, I could see this being really cool.

The biggest rule changes here are in deployment, and in falling back. All of the defenders deploy in the center of a massive board, the floor is really your best bet here. and the defenses should be multi-tiered. Meaning outer wall, inner wall, and keep. Defenders must deploy within the outer wall, no exceptions, no deepstrike, no reserve, no outflank, no scouts, this is it. The enemy may deploy as normal, but infiltrators must be in cover, no matter what, representing them having moved out under the cover of the previous night.

Now for the doozy, falling back. Instead of the normal rules, all units fall back to the next level, and to make it more useful, any defenders who are in close combat may choose to fall back, but they do have to endure one round of CC as per the hit and run special rule. Once a unit has reached the keep (the final wall), they not only become fearless, and gain the counter attack special rule, but count as having scored one extra wound in closecombat, but only for combat resolution. This may stack with the same rule for the Imperial Guard or any other banners, for a max of an extra 2 wounds in combat resolution.

Sound crazy? it should.

So in this world of defenders with special rules, what do the attackers get? well, for starters, they may deploy from any side they choose, how big the board is, is up to you, if you really can't come to a conclusion about 3 feet from the outerwall at any point is a fine marker for the deployment zone.

Also you may give up to three units grapnel hooks, so they may treat the walls as difficult terrain, instead of impassable. The unit you give these to may roll 3 d6 for scaling the wall, as they have been preparing for this moment. Other units may climb the wall after them, so leave a marker in the general area they climbed over the walls. The units climbing after them must treat it as difficult terrain also, and do not get the extra d6.

The attackers may use the special siege towers, up to three, and these siege towers, ideally, are just towers on tank treads, which also act as transports. They are free, have no guns, but may transport up to three units for a total of 25 infantry and allow your units to disembark over the walls. their armor is 12 in front and sides, 8 in rear. Attacking infantry inside may assault the turn they disembark. And the siege towers don't count as killpoints, and in the force organization chart they count as dedicated transports.

Once the attackers breach the outer wall, they smell victory and for that turn have the furious charge rule, and for the remainder of the battle, the counter attack special rule.

Now you can assign armor values to the walls and whatnot, use your imagination, the walls I have are decent, but they don't look impenetrable, so I give them a value of 13.

If your defenders and attackers are even in points, ideally the defenders should have fewer points, by about 15 to 25%, but if they are even consider giving the attackers preliminary bombardment, which gives them D3 large blast templates, fired at BS 2 and still scatter 2d6 on a direct hit, and 3d6 on a scatter

Well thats it for rules, keep in mind this is in no way a super competitive match, but instead the telling of an epic story, and should be played in good fun on a slow afternoon. If you have the models, and hell even if you don't look in the apocalypse rulebook for some extra oomph rules wise. as long as everyone's happy and enjoying the narrative, that's what matters.

No get out there! and man those walls!

.... Nuke em.

Alright, lets address something that hardly anyone even considers... the manticore missile launcher and deathstrike ICBM. Alright lets dispel some bullshit. Deathstrike missile launcher can have a 12 inch blast, why? because its not d3+3 inch diameter, its d3+3 inches radius. that 8 to 12 inch blast is str 10 ap 1 and denies coversaves and no center of blast. It also has a 960/unlimited range
(it gives two different values I'm going to say unlimited because its a fucking ICBM). Now the manticore does not have 4 blast templates, it has 4 shots that each give off d3 blasts. So in theory you could have 12 str 10 ap 4 large blasts in one game!

Now that we have that cleared up, lets talk about the downsides. First of all, the deathstrike has a possibility of never firing. Thats never good, especially for a 160 point unit. But thenagain, if it does fire, whatever its aiming at, is probably going to die. If fighting space marines, you could wipe them off the board, landraiders, terminators, tac squads all wiped away from the table. However, by the time it fires, (maybe turn two. Maybe never) it could be too late, meaning the terminators, landraiders, tac squads and such have already done their damage and are now too scattered across the board for you to have a hope of doing anything worth while. but again if you reached that point 160 points would really have made too awful much of a difference, not to mention its something that probably drew his fire away at least a little.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, from one megablast we go to a dozen smaller but still very lethal ones. The manticore is your answer to hordes. Absolutely devastating against large numbers of anything short of a space marine. At it's worst it will get 4 shots, at str 10 large blast with high range and everything, so it's about as good as a basilisk at worst. At best you get the ever devastating 12 large blasts. Now when you use this, keep in mind that you will probably only get 4 shots out of a basalisk or any other artillery/missile launching piece, before it gets blown away or becomes useless in some other manner.

So against hordes are there better options than the manticore? yeah.
Against space marine armies, or tank spam armies, are there better options than the deathstrike? yeah.

so why take em? who doesn't love them some bigass explosions? yeah, that's right, you know you do! and come on, it adds suspense and wonder and a whole lot of surprisingly orky fun to an army that is known as a pretty "safe bet" kind of army.

The Road To Ruin

So Beasts of War recently put up a video on roads. It was shallow, but nonetheless brings up a great point. Why no roads homes? The long and short of it really is, for most I think, how do you make a road? and what do you do with it?

Lets start with how to make a road.
Materials:
a base (foamboard will do, I will be using tempered hard board myself.)
sand (any old sand will do, preferably store bought in this case, as it looks more like asphalt) glue (duh)
and a bit of black paint, water, and a brush to paint it on with.
styrofoam (the kind that comes in regular packaging with the open celled stuff)
small rocks
kitty litter (un-used....at least I hope so.... >.>)
and dirt from your yard

So what on earth do you do? cut the base into strips, approximately 5 inches across and about 12 inches long. Make 8 of these. 8 what am I ever going to do with 8? the more terrain you have, the better, and if you make it now, it will not only match more, but you will never get around to making the same terrain twice, trust me. So what you are gunna do to all your road surfaces is liberally add watered down glue. Then pour your sand over it, let it dry for at least 5 hours if you live in a very humid place. if not, just let it dry longer than you think you should. Next you're gunna want intersections probably, and maybe a few winding roads. If you're gunna do an intersection, I recommend liberally adding rubble. Just break off some styrofoam and cut it into any shape you want, and glue small rocks and kitty litter everywhere. instant rubble. Its important to do this after you add the sand. Next slop a ton of watered down glue onto your rubble and anywhere you want to add dusty effects. Then pour the dirt from your yard over it. This is very fine grain more than likely, and makes fantastic mud for world war one, or in this case dust. This dust will fill in the holes of the open celled styrofoam while also leaving the rubbly feel of it. after allowing time to dry (which can take very long sometimes) Remove excess dirt and whatnot that didn't stick to it. Next add a bit of water to your paint, it should be really watery but also hold the black color. Then paint on as much as you want, if you only add a bit, it will give your roads a worn and gray hue. If you add a lot, a more dark and more gritty look. Now why add the water at all? Put simply, it gives you more and it gets in all the little nooks and crannies without a problem. Side effects may include but are not limited to, WARPING. if you add way too much (something I am often guilty of) then your base could warp. However, I am not one to mind this awful much, its never really that big of a deal.

Alright, if you skipped that section shame on you, but I understand. Now how to use roads. My advice? stay off of them. It's a very easy place for things to go south, and I can't imagine a scenario where the road is heading where you want your vehicle to be going. That said, they make fantastic elements in a campaign, where they can really give some narrative to a battlefield, so use them even if no one has vehicles or if no one is going to use them. Now if your enemy is the type to use roads, there are many things you can do to ruin his day. First, don't shoot the lead vehicle until you're ready. It will get them off the roads and let them out of your control. If you have a unit with demolition charges, melta bombs or a powerfist, sneaking them into a ruin along the road is a good idea. Lastly while you are setting up the battlefield, have a stretch of road with plenty of ruins on each side. Then if possible hit the lead and rear vehicle. Then they are trapped. and risk immobilization in the ruins if they get off the road. It only takes a glancing hit, and odds are the vehicle is going to stand still for the rest of the turn, therefore they all will. Objective placement is also key here, if you keep your objectives just out of reach of the roads, then you will force your opponent's men in the transports to forgo a turn of shooting to run for the objective. So in short, don't use roads yourself, but do use them to know more about your enemy, and predict his moves. Good luck and happy tank hunting!

A word on Air Cav

what use is the valkyrie and vendetta other than popping tanks and generally being hard for the enemy to kill? its a transport, but a half assed one. In order to have true air cavalry you would need a lot of things. and before I delve into the list of all the stuff that would be necessary lets take a look at what makes Air Cav decent... despite the incredible cost :(

So what exactly is Air Cavalry? flying horses? basically its when all your troops, generally light infantry, have a very mobile helicopter, or in this case a valkyrie. Typically the major advantage to this is real warfare, is that you can get to important places quickly, and well ahead of the enemy. However in Warhammer 40k, we don't have to worry about moving the troops around, because we are all gentlemen and totally shake hands that we will stand in massive lines and whatnot. So what advantage is mobility to a guard army in 40k? not a whole lot... if you wanna run this, its probably best you rely mainly on the power of your valks and vendettas. However, if you run vets with demolition charges, meltaguns, shotguns, and you have Harker and Bastonne as well as stocking up on one Colonel Straken, you don't have a plan that will necessarily suck. and you get the fun of fielding a badass air cavalry unit. Not to mention, you would have a lot of flexibility, and it would come in very handy in an apocalypse game, where you can just zip around securing objectives where necessary.

Really, there is a decent strategy against any type of army. your opponent relies heavily on tanks? zip over or deep strike disembark lads and pop em with meltaguns. Fighting an assault heavy army? take out their big guns and then shoot them from a distance playing the Tau game of fire and retreat. Fighting an army relying on a gunline? fly up there blast em with the valks, and hit em with the shotguns and meltas.

All in all, its probably not the best kind of army to run with. Not to mention you won't have a lot on the table, and your men will still be regular guardsmen with crappy 5+ saves, and toughness 3. and the biggest kicker for me is, in order to do this you would need like 8 valkyries, which clocks in at $500. HOWEVER. your men will die with incredible style, and people will be jealous of how cool your Vietnam War themed army is... not recommended, but doable and loved by dog faced soldiers everywhere.

Happy Anniversary!

I totally forgot my one year of blogging anniversary! 385 days ago I found the courage to put my thoughts into actual WORDS!! I know, I know, I can't take all the credit, I didn't do it alone. Actually... I did, so HA world, I have bested you yet again!

Upcoming Doubles Match

Very rarely do I experience more than a friend and the occasional inquisitive person in one match. However recently, mostly due to the convenience of a college dorm room, I have three players in the same building. So with me in the picture, I smell a doubles match a'commin. The match up, Horde IG and horde Space Marines VS. Tank heavy Tau army, and suped up assaulty Space Marines army.

So I am obviously the IG, and no one else is important right? jk jk

so the plan? well, I don't wanna give it all away before the battle, I mean some of them read this, so yeah.

BUT here are some tips to help you and a bud prepare for a doubles match. So, take the strengths of your army, and your friends army, and find a suitable weakness in your opponents army. Simple really. For example, Orks and IG would make a very well rounded pair, you have assault and shooting, just let the orks do all the punching, and IG do all the trigger work. Now lets say they are going against Eldar and Black Templar. What can you expect from those two armies? mobility and wicked CC abilities. So in general, my plan would be use the Guard and orks together to pummel the Black Templar threats. Once that's done, the Eldar's maneuverability is really the only hindrance, so use what orks are left to tie them up and when they go down, just finish them off with the heavy weapons of the Imperial Guard.

Not much of an article you say? hrm... well I'll just throw in a picture that always seems to please you people.... yeah that's right "you people"... jk jk I love mah readers, I can't express how long I did this without anyone reading my stuff. So to all who have read, thank you :D

Going to Ground

First off, what is going to ground, put simply, its sacrificing a turn of moving or shooting, to keep you head down when the bullets get going. Basically a better coversave. Particularly useful if you think that your opponent is going to target that unit. Only problem (other than the inherent no moving or shooting) is that, it makes your other units that much more of a target. So its best not to have that valuable unit go ducking down as soon as the first man falls. Wait until you are confident that your other men will be safe as well.

Now Guard have an even better thing goin for em, with their orders, instead of a +1 to the save, its +2 to the save, making even a lowly guardsmen as protected as a terminator. Devastating against any army that relies on shooting. But this coversave isn't cheap, it means two turns of inactivity. So in that case, its kind of an investment. you can use this in unique ways though. Want that platoon to be in perfect condition by turn three? You don't have to reserve them, just use orders.

Ultimately, a well timed +1 to your coversave as a Guard player, where your having one squad inactive isn't the end of the world can save your ass. Lastly, a lot of people don't know this, but you can initiate this after your opponent has rolled to wound, if they got really lucky, say 8 out of ten space marines land a wound, just go ahead and go to ground, and statistically only take half the wounds.

Digging In

My favorite form of cover is definitely trenches. Recently I finished a small display board for my army that uses trenches. Eventually I plan to make an entire board of trenches, but that's gunna be another article (with lots of pictures and how to's). Now as far as how to make your trenches effective on the board, lets take a minute to go back to world war one. Basically, a zigzag was favored over a straight line, as that creates pockets, where some of the men are in close quarters, while others might still have a good ways to go, not to mention this looks more interesting than straight lines all the time. Also the trenches weren't all horizontal, some were vertical and led to the other lines. Now how does all this translate into gaming terms?

Well first off, you are gunna want to make some decisions about your trenches. Will they have firing steps where your men are concealed until they step up on one and can now fire out of the trench? Will there be other emplacements in the rear for the machine guns to fire over the heads of the men in the trenches? will you build up a slope to act as difficult terrain so approaching enemies will have a few inches of difficult terrain before they are at your throat? Each one of those elements has a major effect on your trenches gameplay, and takes a lot of effort to construct. Now I recommend all of those, but that's just me. Having a zigzag pattern is also very important, so that at the very least you can create pockets - there I go again with these pockets, why are they so important? basically, when a unit goes into close combat with another, neither side can shoot through it. Think ork boyz and lootas. The boyz get stuck in with your grunts, and now the lootas can't shoot anyone behind them. With the zigzag pattern, not everyone in your gunline will be in close combat at the same time, so not only is it confusing for your enemy, but now you can counter assault, fire another volley, or even just get the heck outta Dodge, the choice is now yours.

As far as connecting trenches go, consider building them at a slant, so that enemy troops have further to travel before they are in your next line, possibly giving you a round of shooting before they start bashing more heads.

Time to start talkin bout bunkers and battery nests! Bunkers are the anchors of a defense system, as such, you should put them in the most strategic places possible. For example, four across the entire trench, evenly spaced of course, should be sufficient. Maybe two more in the next line spaced so they can still see the thick of the battle. Now Bunkers can house officers, or heavy weapons squads, the choice is yours. Both have benefits, I prefer to spread the love, and use the two on the edges for autocannons and heavy bolters, and the two in the middle for junior officers, so the officers can give orders to all the men in the middle, and some on the sides, and the heavy weapons long range can use their long range effectively. Now any trenches worth their salt have battery nests, a place where the big guns can all get together and beat the shit outta stuff. While I would love to have the earthshaker cannon forgeworld makes *drools* the basalisk from GW is half the price, and is actually more effective DAMN YOU THIN WALLET! so yeah, I run with basalisks. Place them somewhere towards the edge of the line, and just let them go to town. Also mortars will need a fine place, however I find the rear middle to be the best spot mahself.

In closing I must say that trenches represent not simply terrain! *points finger upward* but an entirely different battlefield, built solely for war, and nothing more! as such, any Imperial Guard army benefits from such a design! Not only does it fit their lore and fluff more, but provides a better way of gaming on the table! Gone are the days of guardsmen simply being mowed down! And in their place, I suggest a table where every guardsmen has a coversave! And all models be treated equal!

....yeah....

Kill Team List and Tactics

If you didn't buy the Battle Missions book thangy, then kill team is simply a 200 point game, where models don't need to stay in unit cohesion, and you can give any 3 special rules from that section that starts on page 74 of the big book to any 3 models (only one rule per model, and each rule can only be used once). (Run on sentences ftw) so here's my list:
3 ratlings (I use the catachan snipers as "counts-as")-30 points
2 scout sentinels with autocannons and camo netting-100points
1 vet squad which either has half shotguns or all lasguns depends on my opponent -70 points
I usually give the sergeant of the vet squad feel no pain, one of the ratlings relentless, and another vet stealth.

Now as you can tell, not a whole lot of models are bein used here, but that's ok, because any vehicle here is worth its weight in gold, let alone one in cover with a 3+ save. Lets put it this way, a space marine with a plasma gun has less than a 10% chance to even penetrate it. And my sentinels can take out enemy vehicles all day, with their 48 inch range, and no unit cohesion, they can be on opposite sides of the board, and guarantee one of them a side shot. My ratlings I usually place on three of the four corners of the board, using them to keep the enemy moving around the center of the board, so my other units can pelt them while I'm only sacrificing 10 points a ratling. As for my vet squad, if I'm fighting a soft army, I'll load half of em up with shotguns and use those 5 men to assault the enemy, while my 5 with lasguns hang back and pelt them from afar and generally provide a bit of support fire. If its a harder army like space marines, I'll give em all lasguns, and hang em back only sending one man out at a time to draw them away, generally keeping them out of my hair.

Well there you go, hope maybe you can garner something from that list to use in your own army, and hope you give killteam a shot, its one of my favorite game types, as it provides a small battle that somehow leaves you entirely satisfied.

Alpha Strike and How Not To Do It

Yes you read the title right, how NOT to do it, one of the problems I face as Guard on a regular basis, is if I'm not playing against Orks or Space Marines, particularly a less skilled opponent, I have won by turn two. Those are the only armies I have really fought and had some trouble with. Eldar and Tau in particular, tend to simply dissipate at simply the sound of my guns. To the point where certain people refuse to play against me. Guard (as of a year ago about half the people here play Guard) don't die as fast, but in the end, their mech spam is pointless against my autocannons.

Anywho point is, in my games of late I am trying to take fewer points than my opponent if they are Eldar or Tau, its simple really, it gives them a tad more of an edge, and allows me to still enjoy firing the big guns.

Battle Report: Kehsuvall part 1

The campaign had not been going well for the regiments of Wake. The 423rd armored was routed in an early blitzkrieg assault from the enemy warbiker mobs and deffkoptas, leaving this sector without armored support. And more recently the 328th had been pulled back from the frontline after sustaining 74% casualties in but one week of heavy assaults. After a month of deadlock fighting against the brutal orks on Kehsuvall IV the men of the Wake 325th were also approaching their breaking point. In response to the increasing enemy forces in this sector the men have been working every night to prepare and repair the defenses for the coming massive assault.

2000 points
annihilation

deployment: I won the roll off and chose to go first, simply because we both had large armies, and troop placement here didn't matter nearly as much, seeing as no matter what, we would take up both sides of the table. So I deployed a core of my troops in the center with straken and an assault platoon of combined squads there. On the flanks, I placed a Basalisk and the majority of my heavy weapons teams in one spot. On the other end I placed my mortars and my more shooty platoon.

In typical ork fashion, my opponent simply placed alot of boyz everywhere, and put some lootas and his warboss in the center, and kept two truks of shoota boyz and a few warbikers in reserve.


Turn one:
I knocked out an entire mob of boyz who were mostly in the open by firing my basalisk in the knot of boyz cowering behind a large boulder, and then by using heavy weapons to smash the rest of em up. Most of my lads where out of range, except for Gunny Harker and his snipers and autocannon, who I used to blast another mob of lads, only managing to kill 5 boyz out of 20 though.

all the orks moved up, and the loota's shot at Harker who's men had the stealth rule, and made all their saves.

Turn two: basalisk missed, but the men where now mostly in range, and with a whole lot of FRFSRF goin on, we managed to wipe out the rest of the mob of 20 boyz and a few from a larger mob.

Orks moved up, one truk made it onto the table along with the bikerz both of which ran up the side that had the basalisk and heavy weps. The lootas fired at a larger mass of men and managed to kill five men from my combined squad of thirty.

I know this report so far seems like I shoot, he runs, I shoot, he runs, well yeah thats kinda how all Ork Vs. Guard start our, but I assure you its about to spice up.

Turh three: So by this time, he's making a notable shift towards two of my three sections, my basalisk and heavy weapons, and my core. Leaving my more shooty platoon, along with Gunny Harker. By the end of this turn I know that his shoota boyz will be tearing my heavy weapons teams a new one, along with his warbikers smashing up my basalisk. accepting the losses I fire all my heavy weapons and basalisk at the warboss in an attempt to bring him down before he can hit my lines. I only got one wound on him leaving him with two left. Firing the rest of my men with yet another FRFSRF we manage to wipe out another mob, leaving him with only one full strength mob and two half beaten ones, with the full strength mob and the warboss chargin up the middle, and the two half beaten ones along with the truk and warbikes headin up the left towards my bassy.

Ork warbikers smash my basalisk, and the truk parks right in front of my heavy weapons teams, while the boyz get out and pour fire into them. The warboss and his boyz end their turn exactly 7 inches away from my gunlline.

stay tuned for the epic conclusion!

grenadiers

Every now and then I am reminded that Imperial Guard are only supposed to be good at one thing, and that's gunlines. There's really no way around it, Imperial Guard are at their best when in a giant line, and all firing their guns.
However, I always have tried to find ways around it, from using a few stormtroopers to using mass assaults, from ogryns to rough riders, I've tried em all.
Today we'll be focusing on Grenadiers. Now there are a few ways to go about using regular guardsmen and the best way is to use veterans with the grenadiers doctrine. Now these men are double the points of regular Guardsmen, therefore you can only take half as many, but with increased BS and increased armor, you have a unit that can assault fairly well, just remember that the more of these men the better, however, don't skimp out on them either, because a unit with three plasma guns is more than worth it's point cost when it comes to Space Marines anyway.
As far as using them, if your opponent is a gunline, then run up the table using straken to give a well timed move move move order or two, using cover as you go, and when you finally get there, if its another IG army, get the regular guardsmen first, they should fold like paper, ifnore the heavy weapons for now, they are surprisingly resilient in assault, and shouldn't be firing at you since your in close combat. pretty much follow what can fold like paper first, other than that, you might want to consider dodging the tougher enemy troops, as they are likely to kill your guardsmen pretty easily. In the end these men should be well supported by heavy tanks and or artillery, use those supports to kill the things that you know your guardsmen will have the most trouble assaulting.

Using Stormtroopers

Lets face it, Stormtroopers are awesome, but they aren't the super-warriors they are cracked up to be. With a modest improvement in morale, and a minimal increase in ballistic skill, the only thing they really have going for them is their equipment, which is mediocre at best. And all this clocks in at 16 points a model. All that said, they do have their uses, mainly coming in the form of their Special Operations special rule. Basically you can either more accurately deepstrike, infiltrate/pin, or scouts. You have to choose these beforehand, but they make a world of difference. The other thing that makes a big difference is their loadout. Now for some odd reason they don't get as many special weapons as veterans, but they get more than standard guys, so go figure. With only two special weapons, you have to choose wisely. I either use plasmaguns, or nothing. See when you take plasmaguns you still get that awesome low AP and with higher strength. Now the hotshot has a lot of power on its own...well AP power...not really strength lol (would it have killed GW to have made it str4?) anywho, the whole point of this squad is to fight high armoured units so you want to take things that help you do that. I'd love to say there was more to it.... so I will... I posted an article earlier, and it has a few more tips...

semper gumbi (always adaptable)

Now I've never been a fan of jack of all trade units...on a large scale. While it's better for the unit, it's worse for the force as a whole. Because they end up effective at nothing or rediculously expensive in points. So I've done my best to avoid these type units.

That said, I have one in my list. See, having one unit that can do just about anything, is worth it as you always have a unit that's right for the job. Now I've done my best not to make this unit over powered, because that's just not fun to play against. So here's what I have and then what would be the best possible unit:

What I have:

sergeant Bastone

sniper rifle

heavy flamer

plasmagun

grenadiers

rocket launcher

best loadout:

sergeant bastone

3 plasmaguns

grenadiers

rocket launcher

Now what makes this unit so great? first of all, bastone can give orders, infact he's better than any lieutenant, and since he's leadership 10, he rarely fails. Now why grenadiers its so expensive in points? Well for starters, I wanted this unit to have some degree of survivability out of cover, because I've already invested a lot in them, and second, because with a plasmagun, there's now only an 8% chance of user death.

It's worth the high points to have the ability to do anything, granted they won't be going out and killing everything, but it's nice to have the option, and flexibility.

how to stop a WAAAGH!!!

A measly 5 orks on the charge, as long as one is a nob with a powerklaw, can kill around 15 guardsmen no problem. That's right, you pretty much have to kill the orks to the last one to prevent the death of your men. Well, the first row of your men anyway. So how do we deal with the onrush of boyz? First and foremost, they boyz are the greatest threat to a horde guard army, forget the killakanz forget the lootas, forget the deffkoptas, focus everything you've got on the boyz. The killakanz go down eazy with autocannons, lascannons, and tanks. The lootas are a bit of a threat, but in the end they won't make a big enough dent, as their BS is awful. And lets face it, who actually fears deff koptas?

So how do we kill the boyz? pinning won't work, with the mob rule. lasguns just aren't powerful enough. and autocannons don't have a high enough rate of fire. The answer? blast weapons. The basalisk and leman russ in particular, because they cause instant death, and are large blast. That said, it's still not enough, that's where the lasguns come in. Is there anything that can be done other than just shooting the whole game? well, not really. A thought however is to tank shock a unit of small boyz. see death or glory is kinda stupid, I always do it just cuz it's epic, but it's a terrible plan, and a great way to kill a nob with a powerklaw. And if they don't death or glory, then they are moving backwards, which is even better.

Terminators? ...fuck.

Of all the units in the game, one of the ones I fear the most is terminators. Should I really be afraid?

Statistically, if thirty five guardsmen each got two shots, statistically thirty five would be hits, 11 or so would wound, and then only one would manage to make it's way through the armor. So with that in mind, an entire platoon of guardsmen, firing rapid fire, will not manage to even put an actual dent in the terminators.

What's the answer? well, they were using lasguns, lets run those statistics with my current platoon loadout. The unit has quite a few plasma weapons, and other AP2 and AP1 weapons, meaning approximately four terminators would die from their fusillade. That's infinitely better, but still not enough. Those terminators are going to be in close combat next turn, where there is simply no hope for our guardsmen.

What can we do when Terminators deepstrike? First, back up. A lot. Then when the termi's move forward, they still won't be in range. So what you want to do is pour fire on them, and to prevent them from killing your entire force, surge one squad forward, so you still get all your killing power, and the termis don't get the charge, tying up one expensiveass unit for at least two turns, especially if you have a commissar, or a standard bearer.

In the end will you ever kill all the terminators? yes, but the key here is to feed them units to tie them up, on average they will come in on turn two or three. Meaning no close combat until turn four or five if you manage to back up fast enough. And then they can't really make a difference now can they? ...what? you mean they managed to prevent a platoon from firing for a turn? and still killed a few squads? yes, but hey, this is the only way short of loading up on lascannons (a pussy move btw) to prevent total annihilation, so get over it.

fields of armor

I usually am not a fan of playing treadhead type units. Hell for the longest time I only fielded one tank, and that was just because the original guard starter box had it. Well, know as my army nears it's zenith in size, I find myself wishing for more armor. See, the leman russ has amazing capabilities for the cost, however, that makes it a bitch to play against. My solution? squadrons. Fielding 3 tanks as one unit of beastemodeness. My squadron commander will be my older tank, so that it stands out, and my two new tanks will be the regular units in the squadron.
commander loadout:
stubber
bolter sponsons
lascannon

standard loadout:
....what? I didn't change anything from the normal russ.

so together they clock in at exactly 500 points, which is my limit for what these guys could cost. So why field this unit in the first place? other than just being badass, and pretty fluffy too, there are benefits to squadrons. Primarily crew stunned now = crew shaken. Other than that, you have to fire at the closest tank, so if you work that tank into cover, the rest don't even need it and they still benefit from it. Not to mention if you field these tanks separately they can't see or shoot through one another, as a unit they no longer have that problem.

So what's the goal of this unit? three things:
one: soak up fire. They are going to be the most obvious threat on the table, so the enemy is going to go apeshit on them, luckily they have the balls to take it.

two: versatility, these guns can kill infantry, tanks, buildings, you name it, they can kill it, and the crappy ballistic skill of guardsmen is negated by the fact its a large blast weapon.

three: space marine killin'. At strength 8 and AP 3 this thing is practically made to kill space marines, so that fills a much needed role in my army.


lastly, why the switch to treadhead lovin all the sudden?
well, first off, I was watching full metal jacket (favorite movie btw) and I saw the guys marchin' behind the tanks and just thought for a moment about how awesome it would be to see guard doin that. Secondly, I recently bought a new army case (a tackle box) and realized the motor pool at the bottom was sadly only filled with a few vehicles, with plenty of room to spare, so that's just begging for more tanks. All in all, I'm not switching to treadhead, or mech, and I'm fielding a lot of heavy tanks, in a manner that isn't overpowered, and still looks cool to play with or against.

Blood of Heroes

So lately I've been debating over whether or not to get Usarkar E. Creed. Jarran Kell is pretty useless, and with the powerfist, what the hell is the point in the powersword? sure you may want to get the first hit on a Guardsmen, but even if you do either way if he hits you're still dead. Usarkar isn't much better than Jarran, coming in at a whomping 190 points, and the only thing he's got going for him is ONE special order, and the ability to give one of your unit's scouts, DURING deployment. All this adds up to one question, why in the name of holy terra would you take them? Well, the answer is simple, fluff. Creed's look is taken right from the history books, and that man is one of my absolute all time heroes, Chesty Puller. A cigar chomping Marine who's won more real battles than you have fake ones. Now Creed is unfortunately a terrible model, but I can't resist the urge to take him. Now I will never replace Straken, who is everything Creed should have been, but I can take them both. One will lead the charge and the other sit back and give orders. Creed will more than likely give the scouts move to my Demolisher, or to my Priest so that the penal legion can take him and still do their goodstuff.

Caught in the Devil's Rope

Barbed Wire, Razorwire, Devil's Rope, Satan's Hedge, so many names, all given to one thing, and it's been relatively left out of warhammer. The rule's that are scattered about the books state that it acts as both difficult and dangerous terrain. Big whoop, one in six men should die, who cares? Well, I do.

For starters, how do you make it? Well, hopefully before noon tomorrow (Sunday), I can put a video up and instruct you guys how to make it, it's ridiculously easy, and undeniably useful.

Now, how do we use it? For defenders there is one concept I want you to grasp: Barbed wire is a tool to control your opponent with. Use it to effect his decisions, like where to assault, where to manoeuvre, and most importantly, where to avoid. People are just damn reluctant to trudge into barbed wire. Place barbed wire where you are weak, and if you did it right, and your opponent doesn't always think things through, he will either put too much, or too little pressure on that spot, either way, you win. In short, while it won't kill a lot of guys, it will affect your opponent's decisions, in a positive way for you. For example, if you place your trenches forward and center, and place a forest of razorwire in front of it, spread your line a little thinner than you would normally, but spread them out so they look bigger, your opponent will concentrate on this area with most of his forces. Leaving the rest of his forces spread thin, and unable to cope with the firepower of your remaining units. However, doing this will leave your center broken, plan for this, and you should make it out ok, just make your opponent split his forces again, each half going after the half of your army, and again, due to the way your forces will split, you will have the upperhand, and in the end, victory. The other option your opponent has, is to avoid the center all together, in which case, just sit tight in the trenches, and pour your forces to the weaker side of your opponent's battleline. At this point you control most of the board, if its annihilation though, your going to have to kill the rest, but life in the Guard isn't supposed to be easy.

Well, that's all nice, but what if I find myself heading into the hornets nest? Well, to be entirely honest, just keep on running in, razorwire will slow you down a little, but in the end it won't change the outcome of a battle, so if you're going through Hell, keep going!

Hunting Rhinos

Imagine stalking the crater pocked battlefield with a rocketlauncher pressing it's weight into your shoulder. The seemingly quiet moments before you hear the low growl of your prey. Totally ignoring the rest of the battle as you take a knee. Squinting as you press your eyes to the viewfinder and aim, slowly, deliberately...

Now here we have a unique dilemma for any army, how to deal with the rhino rush. Simply outmanoeuvre it, and present it only with options you preplanned. For example, lets pit two squads, a platoon command squad, and an autocannon heavy weapons team, against ten Space Marines in a rhino. Set it up with the autocannons a little further back in the center, the squad on your right with the platoon command squad, and the other squad on the left, but within four inches of the autocannon team. Alright, the rhino should play like Space Marines, and attempt to crash into what looks like a gunline. Once he is approximately one turn away, I'd say about 14 or so inches, use the command squad to give the MMM order to the squad next to it and run them up the right, trying to get in range of the side armor. Then use your squad on the left and run them forward and a hair left getting very close to the rhino. If your like me and have grenade launchers in your platoon command squad fire all of them at the side, seeing as they used their MMM order on the other squad. Now the rhino has an interesting choice, do I disembark? move in any particular direction? stay put? Well, if he runs away, you win. If he gets out, he has to wait to assault, so you can now out manoeuvre him or shoot him down if you've got the chops. If he stays put, no matter what direction he turns the rhino, its side or rear armor will be available to one of your forces, which should at the very least have a grenade launcher, though I highly recommend bringing rocket launchers, at least one per platoon. There is no right answer for the Space Marine Player. You have provided him with the illusion of coming within a hair's width of breaking your line, and replaced it with him naked and in the open.

Youtubin'

For those of you (all two) who have been keepin up with my website, I now have a youtube channel, look for it, it's youtube.com/user/wake325th. Check it out, it's purty cool if I may say so.

For those of you who are new to the blog, and have watched a few of my youtube videos, feel free to wander around the blog, there is some really great material in there, and a lot of it is going to be covered in videos to come, but for now you can get a preview of future episodes.

Inner Conflict

One of the stranger things you will likely have to face at some point, is another Guard army, or whatever army it is you collect. I recently discovered a new pocket of wargamers, with the somewhat disheartening news that 2 or 3 of them, already play Guard. Which has spurred me into a, how to kick my own ass, lesson.

First off, lets talk about how I would kill me. If it's annihilation, then I have combined squads, don't bother trying to kill those straight up, pin them. With mortars, firing at compact units of Guardsmen pretty much guarantees a pinn. Then chip away the rest of my army, until you have to deal with the bigger formations. If it's objectives, place your objectives as far away from my army as possible, and in open ground. If it's firebase, then again, place it in open ground. In conventional warfare, you just can't beat Guard, they will hammer you into the ground, and then shit on the dust that were your remains. So that said, that's how I'd kick my own ass. No, I will not reveal my counterstrategies, there have to be some secrets, especially considering they will probably read this.

Second, lets see how to deal with treadheads. It should go without saying but, bring lots of heavy weapons. Second, there is an unexpected route Guard can take, and that is the priest. Now I've always been a fan of the priest, but it wasn't until recently I truly advocated vehicular destruction with him. all he needs to do is roll his 2d6 and get 5 or higher, and your vehicle is at the very least unable to fire. There is yet another, and even cooler way to take out tanks than those mentioned above. My personal favorite style of tank warfare, is, well, tankwarfare. That's right, tank V tank. I will almost always have the upper hand here, with my tank ace in my Vanquisher, good luck there with your Russes. Now if you want to have a vanquisher just for this, I recommend just the bare minimum here, camonetting, and that's it. No stubber, no sponsons, no heavy armor, just the tank ace and camonetting, this is pure tankhunting. Now how to deal with the tanks. First thing you want to do is target the single tanks, more than likely they aren't using squadrons, if so, probably just one. Then deal with the tougher nuts to crack, that way they can't target as many units, minimizing casualties, which is what my support vehicle (in this case my vanquisher) is trying to do the whole time. Now that you have one unit of a few tanks, close combat is best, denying them those coversaves, if you can run a squad with meltabombs out there, or use stormtroopers also sporting handy meltabombs, then you've got them where you want them.

Lastly, how to deal with mechanized, this is a piece of cake to deal with, first off, bring lots of autocannons (check), bring lots of grenade launchers, missile launchers, and meltabombs (check, check, check) and well, let them come to you (CHECK). I personally hate mechanized forces, it's a waste of points, especially for Guard. But there is another trick for wiping the floor with mech, and that is the killzone. Once you have destroyed/immobilised the transport, they will bring them out of the back, and the rest of your army, who can't Peirce tank armor, are just itching to mow them down. Now they are stuck, if you have barage weapons, now is the time to use them, once pinned, attempt to maneuver a small force to either finish them off, or force them to move into the field of fire provided by the rest of your force.

Spread the Word

Hey all two maybe three readers, I would appreciate it if we could spread the word a little, I will have a youtube channel up soon, covering all the usual stuff, and when I reach 20 subscribers I will post a daily blog entry, so SPREAD THE WORD. Please and thankyou.

Standard Bearer

To many the Regimental or Platoon standard seem useless. In some respects their right, big woop one extra wound in combat, who cares? I do. Against Guard, or Tyrannid it is a life saver. The regimental standard also allows re-rolling failed leadership (or is it morale, I can't remember) tests. Why not take these? especially in an army everyone calls cowards. For me, the standards provide so many things, from looking great, to helping me keep track of who's who, to providing actual bonuses on the field, simply fantastic.

I am the LAW (light anti-tank weapon)

I'm about to eat my own words. I have, as of about 6 hours ago, fallen in love with the missile launcher. I have always disliked it, and failed to see the practicality of it. Until today. During a lecture at one of my classes, I had the image of Imperial Guardsmen trudging through a jungle, and for some reason in my mind I pictured one of the Guardsmen having a LAW on his back. Then it hit me. Just having the rocketlauncher doesn't mean you have to fire it. With that in mind, I modeled my men accordingly. Now I can keep my previous strategy, but if the need arises, I have some anti-tank power too.

Now with my new found realization, comes some questions. First, when to use the LAW. Simply put, on defense. You see, part of my strategy is to forgo the whole static gunline, in favor of a torrent of Guardsmen pouring into the meatgrinder, or straight up outmaneuvering you. With the MMM! order (it's magically Delicious) Guardsmen are the fastest foot mobile army around, we don't need transports, and people don't expect that. So adding a heavy weapon greatly hinders this, because you can't fire it and move. Well, for some reason I pictured having a heavy weapon meant standing still, and I bet that's what my opponent will think too. Second, when is it good. Basically, against transports, and Space Marines, if you hit a Space Marine, he is dead, no rolling. That's one of the main reasons I brought the LAW on board, as a lasgun has a 13% chance of killing a Marine, I figured 15 points is enough to have a 50% chance.

Now finally, are LAWs right for your army? If you fight Space Marines a lot, yeah. Otherwise, not so much, but hey, when is a Light Anti-tank Weapon a bad thing?

The Punishment Due

As a fan of unused units, I find myself loving an unusual unit in particular, a Penal Legion Squad with a Ministorum Priest. You see, each benefits from one another's rules, where the priest can outflank and get scouts, the Penal Legion can re-roll fail to hits in close combat. Best of all, the Leggionares are actually good in assault. I prefer the knife fighter's rule, but physcopaths is also very good. Gunslingers is the only one that I don't appreciate, lasguns simply aren't good anyway you put it, so making them assault two does little for me. Legionarres are already stubborn, and all have leadership 8. The priest not only adds his Rigtcheous Fury to the unit, but also an Eviscerator which hacks apart battletanks, as well as swathes of infantry. Overall, I think you will find this a deadly combination and in some ways a very fitting one, who better to lead those who go astray of the Emperor's light, than the bringer of his light?

Recruiting

One of the things that I feel a little guilty about, is recruiting new players, but it's also damn fun, and keeps the hobby interesting. If you play this game, odds are, either you got someone into this game, or someone got you into it, there is just no way around it, it's a two person game.

Now you could argue that I am doing a good thing, bringing something this awesome into someone's life, but to be honest, I wish I had never heard of warhammer, because I am far more than addicted, its just so damn awesome.

Now recruiting new players means a few things, first it means, getting them to choose an army. Next getting them to buy the army. Then, getting them to assemble and paint the army. But wait, there's more, it means getting them to learn the rules. That is a lot of stuff, and certainly not for the faint of heart.

Getting them to choose the army, while difficult, is the easiest step, pretty much because it's free, and requires no commitment. If you're like me, then you spend countless hours simply finding ways to categorize armies, like comparing each army to a metallica song, or nation in world war two, or even shapes. I know that makes no sense, but I get bored easily. I personally find the person will automatically have a connection with the army, and choose pretty quickly on their own.

Next comes the big hurdle. The deal breaker. The heartbreaking point of no return. Breaking it to them how much this is gunna cost. I have spent more money then I dare look at, on this game. If you can get someone to buy an army, then you've got them.

Next comes the tender love and care they must put into their army. This is a process that will give them the personal touch, and the reason to fight. Sadly, this is the least paid attention to part. Please, care about your army, and give them a narrative.

Lastly, getting them to learn the rules, this is the fun part, but also a headache inducing part. For me, the rules are second nature, I simply don't even have to think about them anymore, but God forbid, I have to explain why it is the way it is. There is no way around it, you are going to have some long matches, that are filled with lots of re-reading rules. My first three matches were all over 7 hours long, and that was with only 1000 points, go figure.



Now all these steps, and procedures mean nothing if you can't hook the person to begin with. For me the easiest way to do this, is to show them your army. Just have a friend come over, to watch the big game, easy because the super bowl is coming up. While they are there, you will just happen to walk by your army on a grand display. Pretending to be embarrassed you attempt to hide your ode to nerd-dom. Seeing this as some dirt to get under you they pry further, however, they are inherently jealous, as they are impressed by your awesome collection. Then, after giving your story of how great the 41st millennium is, you can ask them if they want to play. They almost always say yes, so long as you smell nice. Then while you are playing, bend the rules. Bend the rules, a whole stinkin' lot. Trust me, they have no idea why they are rolling the dice, and they never remember the rules the first time around, they aren't invested that much in it yet. When they have the match of a lifetime, thanks to your impromptu rule changing, they will have had so much fun, that you can then begin spinning your web.

Of course that makes us sound evil, but who doesn't love being the bad guy every now and then?

Bit of a Rant on Armies

One of the harder things for me as a community player, is to recruit new players, and get them to play the army I want them to. Now, that probably came out as making me sound like a control freak, I'm not (at least I don't think I am lol). What I mean is, I don't want them playing the army I am going to collect next. I really want to collect space wolves, I love vikings, and I really wish space wolves were worse (really I'm not a band wagon hopper, as much as GW is trying to make me). Well, this guy wants to collect space wolves as well. I mean this guy is one of the guys who simply collects an army because it's the best. He trys to make his army as dirty as possible, in my opinion this is like raping the game. It's not right, you should collect an army because it fits your playstyle, or because you like it, not because it's the best. Anywho, my plan, is to try and push him towards tyrannids, they are new, and pretty powerful, and make a great opponent. Especially because 6 out of 7 players play for the imperium. I always end up being renegade guardsmen for the campaigns, oh well. Anywho, bit of a rant, but hopefully you enjoyed it.

Incoming Transmission

Vox casters, are simply no good. There, I said it. It's not that they are too many points, nor that I find them useless, simply that it requires two vox casters to make one work, so that's a man from the officer's cadre that doesn't get a special weapon. My officers are designed to stick it out with the lads, and get kills, a voxcaster only marginally helps, compared to taking out a tank or heavy infantry unit the Guardsmen can't do on their own. Orders are important, but shouldn't form the basis of your plan anyway. Orders are about squeezing the most out of a unit, and their impact is only seen after a few orders. One FRFSRF will rarely be the deciding factor in wiping out a unit.

Guerrilla, Gorilla, Biiiiiig Difference

Guerrilla warfare has always represented a challenge to any force, from the American Revolution to present day operations, guerrilla warfare has been a staple throughout modern history. In order to incorporate a few of these elements from guerrilla warfare, I will be giving you some house rules, and hopefully inspire you to create your own. So let's dive right in.

These may only be given to experienced units (like IG veterans, or SM sternguard):
outflank - 10 points
pinning - 3 points per model
infiltrate (but only into jungle or forest terrain) - 10 points
hit and run - 15 points
scouts (but no outflank, you have to pay extra for that) - 10 points
acute senses - 1 point per model
see through jungle (I don't remember what this rule is called, but its the one that allows you to see more than six inches through forests and stuff) - 10 points

These may be given to any troop choice infantry unit:
Move through cover - 10 points
defensive grenades - 15 points


And remember, this is by no means a strict list, feel free to make things more or less points, just make sure you both agree on it. Lastly, lets talk scenarios.

Imagine, your Guard platoon are on a patrol, and then tyranids (they seem to be the buzz the days) jump out at you! Same rules apply from the ambush scenario from the big book. Luckily for this scenario your Guardsmen hail from a deathworld, and may pick from the above traits (except outflank and infiltrate). Just keep it jungle themed, or forest themed, and you should have a great time, I know I do.

A Guided Tour Through an Imperial Guard Rifle Platoon

Some of you may notice the Tom Clancy book reference there, if not, check out his book "Marine" it's a fantastic read for military buffs, or proud Americans. Now I am going to take you through the backbone of my Imperial Guard army, the infantry platoon.

For starters, we have the Lieutenant and his bunch, consisting of five lads, we have the Lieutenant himself, who only carries a chainsword and bolt pistol into battle. Next we have his adjutant, a young chap, who has earned the right to carry the platoon standard, which has my trademark, Aquila-planet-anchor (note another Marine reference) symbol as well as a platoon designation. Then we have two Grenadiers and a flamer or a meltagun, depending on how many points I have left. There we have our platoon command squad, perfect for hanging tough with the guys, and there to lead a charge or smash a light tank. The focus of this unit is to stay with the rest of the squads, and make sure they get the job done, no matter the cost, mission first, then troop welfare, then your own welfare, that's how we do it in the 325th.

Next in line are the poor dogfaced soldiers themselves, military men have never been pretty, but by God, we are dependable. Consisting of ten men, a Sergeant armed with a boltpistol, chainsword, and meltabombs, 8 men with lasguns, bayonets, and a whole lotta guts, and lastly a lone man with a grenade launcher. Now, you may be wondering, where in the galaxy are the heavy weapons? Well, they wouldn't be mobile infantry if they were afraid to move up, now would they? Guard are some of the fastest footsloggers in the game, with Move, Move, Move! they easily get the most out of their running. That all being the case, I take advantage of that, and don't bog my lads down with heavy weapons. It's easy to meld the two units together, but they are more effective separate, and prevents that static gunline that looks so good on paper, but in practice, not so great. I usually take three squads of Guardsmen, that gives me a large amount of men, but not necessarily overkill.

Special weapons squads are an often avoided choice by guard players. Most opt for a unit of veterans instead, favoring their higher ballistic skill. Well, when it comes to flamethrowers, ballistic skill doesn't mean shit. For more on my special weapons, search for my combat engineers, they are the subject of another article.

Lastly we have the heavy weapons teams, these are wonderful given the right circumstance, used improperly, and you've wasted your points, and more importantly, your money. Now, I prefer to take different heavy weapons per platoon, but there is one mainstay through out all of my platoons, and that's the autocannon, I field six of them for every platoon, that's two units of three for you numbnuts out there. The autocannon is my absolute workhorse, when I point them at you, you die, plain and simple, and with range 48, I can point them very far indeed. Now for one of my platoons I take a team of mortars, this provides the barrage, and pinning power my lads need to make sure they wipe the table with the softer units. For the rest of my platoons, it's lascannons I bring, they give my men the firepower to crack the toughest nuts.

Best of all, a platoon built in this way is almost exactly 500 points (508 to be exact), so it's easy to build lists. Now how do I use my platoons? Well, in the beginning of the game, I give each platoon a reasonable objective, such as securing a table quarter, or parking in the middle of the board making it difficult for the enemy to move around. Occasionally platoons will need support from other platoons, like in the event of an officer dying, or needing a few extra lascannon shots. Generally, I don't combine squads, unless it's annihilation, or I will be doing a lot of running, in which case one order gives you more bang for your buck when it covers thirty men, instead of ten. I don't combine my squads because I like the autonomy of a squad, if it needs more men, then they are there, if it doesn't, then they can go their separate ways. Multiple squads are also better on defense, where one can go to ground and survive that extra turn of shooting, or one can make a sacrificial charge to cover the retreat.

In the end, I like platoons because I like the men, and never forget the tired, aching, bloody infantry.

Riders of the Rivermark

One unit that I never see, and believe me, I mean never, is rough riders. Why? I read up on them, and they are fantastic, simply throw a unit of them (only 55 points mind you) into a 5 man tac squad of Space Marines, and watch the carnage, statistically they should win the overall combat. Now the key to all this, is the hunting lance, which give you strength five, and initiative five, and counts as a power weapon, suck on that Space Marines. Now, it does have a flaw, in that, it only works one time, but by the end of that combat, they should be half dead anyway, but hey, 55 points taking out close to a hundred points, not bad, not bad at all. Now, one of the things that you rarely see, is the cavalry special rule, in that they can charge, 12 inches. That means that from 18 inches away they can deliver 11 strength five power weapon hits.

What's the downside to these badasses, well, after their first charge, they aren't much, and the fact they are WS3. Other than that, you can't ask for much more out of 55 points. But all that aside, why do we see none of them? the answer, is GW's fault. $12 a model, and it's not even cool looking? WTF! The need a plastic kit, and to make these guys look cool, ditch the damn Mongol hats already! Either do that, or I'm converting some Rohirim, to fight alongside my IG. Imagine that, Rohirim with lasguns and flamers, sounds purty cool to me.

The Punisher VS. Demolisher

After my last article, Wartorn Streets, I took a long look at the Punisher Gatling tank. It's a pretty expensive unit compared to other tanks, weighing in at 180 points, it's only outclassed by the Executioner, which is 190. However, it makes up for it's cost in efficiency, because unlike the other tanks, this one doesn't need many upgrades to become MVU (most valuable unit). I recommend taking the flamer. This tank is designed to specifically kill infantry, nothing else. Also heavy armor, and a dozer blade are necessary, because they allow you to keep moving forward, a must with it's lousy 24' range.

Now let's get to the star of the show, the gatling cannon itself. With a whomping 20 shots per turn, all of which are cranked out at strength 5, there is no doubt in my mind that whatever infantry unit is being fired upon, something will die.

However, with only 24 inch range, and no antitank (unless firing at the rear, in which case, you have surprisingly good odds of at least damaging the tank), this tank finds it's home mainly in the wartorn streets of Cities of Death. Now, it's not alone as a top-notch Cities of Death tank, the Demolisher is also a star. The question now is, which to take? The Demolisher is fantastic at what Guardsmen are not, it's got great survivability, massive strength, and it's just damn cool, well, maybe Guardsmen fall into that last category, but you know what I mean.

So if your army sucks at anti-tank, armor piercing, or survivability, take the Demolisher. If your army sucks at anti-infantry, massed firepower, or close-combat, then take the Punisher, obvious really. Only you know what your army needs, because your army, is an extension of you, and that's what makes Warhammer beautiful.

Wartorn Streets

After playing a few Cities of Death games, I truly do appreciate the role infantry play in close combat support. People always say it's advantageous to keep a squad of infantry or two near vehicles, so let's take a deeper look into this.

First and foremost, against things like lascannons or other pesky ranged anti-tank, Guardsmen that surround the vehicle provide it with a 50% coversave, this does not mean that they take the shots, simply, they distract the shooter. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly in the confines of Cities of Death, they can screen the vehicle against assaults, you can't charge through a unit to get through to another. As Guardsmen however, when used in this manner, you forfeit their lives, so use this at your own discretion. Thirdly, when used to support one another there is nothing they can't tackle.

Some Guard scenarios often encountered in Cities of Death:

Space Marines: SM's benefit very little from Cityfighting, they have better armor than the cover provides, and their armor goes with them. Guardsmen however, benefit greatly from Cityfighting, using a plethora of cover, and orders to make sure you squeeze every last percent of probability out of them. That said, here's the best way to tackle a squad of Space Marines. Wait for them to come to you, trust me, they will, they think of Guardsmen as squishy, and easily beatable, a perception I love to fuel. Now when they do, make sure you are positioned about 20 inches away, that way, you can have line of sight (LOS), fire on them, and they have to either run to be in rapid fire range, or stay put, where they are at the mercy of your barrage weapons, and platoons of Guardsmen. Tanks are especially handy here, particularly the demolisher, who's short range (only 24') is no problem. Tanks are particularly great against Space Marines, as it denies them their armorsave, and most likely, gives instant death, and with a screening unit of Guardsmen, it should be an especially tough nut to crack.

Tau: Mobile Tau provide an especially daunting experience for Guard players in Cities of Death. They can fly over the buildings and hit your brave Guardsmen from any angle. However, there is a method of easily defeating them. First, when they disembark, hit them with multiple pinning weapons, mortars and sniper rifles are my preferred method, and you need at least two, that insures they will be pinned. Once pinned, charge them, they're only Tau after all, and with a flamer or two (a necessity in Cities of Death) you should wipe them out no problem.

Tanks: Guard have an advantage in both the tank, and screening unit categories here. Their tanks are usually better, and their screening units are cheap and there are plenty to go around. Just make sure you have screening units, and you're Leman Russ's should come out ok. Speaking of the Russ, it's important to know what loadout to take. For starters, the sponsons, just ditch 'em, they will be of little help in the narrow allies, if you want more anti-infantry, the stubber is a better option. Instead of a lascannon or a bolter, a flamer should really help, at the very least, it can clear opposing infantry from buildings. Heavy armor isn't all that necessary here, you should really be parking it anyway, or screening it with units. Dozerblade you can take depending on how much rubble you have.

Tank Hunting: In Cities of Death there is no shortage of vertical terrain, take advantage of this when tank hunting, because the top of a tank has the same value as the rear (yet another advantage for the Demolisher, who has rear 11). Now this works best for me with deepstriking units. Usually an opponent will lock down a street or intersection, so simply drop down with some stormtroopers, with a melta or two, and hit them from above. Killing the tank will immeasurable aid the Guardsmen about to overtake the intersection. All that said, pay attention to the loadouts of your opponent's deepstriking units, so that doesn't happen to you.

Orks: Few armies give my Guardsmen more trouble than Orks. A single Ork Boy, on the charge, could easily expect to kill two or even three Guardsmen. So the trick here, is to bring fewer Guardsmen, and a few more tanks. Now I'm usually no fan of "treadhead" armies, but for Orks I make an exception, especially in Cities of Death. A few Punishers will wreak havoc against those pesky hordes of Orks, especially if the Guardsmen nearby take the brunt of the assaulting powerclaws. Particularly troubling to me, is that intact buildings provide little help against Orks, saving you only from one round of combat, because the nob in the unit will simply blow it up with his powerclaw. So really, just stay as far away as possible, and get those Punishers out there.