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.