Squadrons, and Why They Don't Suck

Positives to a squadron:
-means you can field more vehicles for fewer FOC spots
-stunned counts as shaken
-more intimidating
-easier to claim saves
-popping smoke goes further

Negatives to a squadron:
-everyone has to shoot at the same unit
-immobilized counts as wrecked
-lots of points

Over all, it's debatable whether or not Squadrons are right for you. On one hand the negatives can look mighty large next to the positives, on the other hand, they aren't all that bad when you boil em down.

I field 3 leman russ tanks in a single squadron. Yeah, talk about points. But, when you look at what they can do, it's not that bad. The worst of all of these is that I have to fire three russes at one target. However, if I aim right, that's not at all such a bad thing. For instance, with BS 3, theres a good chance it'll scatter, so I just aim at clusters. I try to fire these guys first out of my whole army, so they have the largest targets to shoot at, and my infantry can mop up the rest.

Leman Russ battle tanks of any variety are pricey. However, they are the best units in the codex. And if you wanna field armor, you're gunna end up fielding squadrons. So use their benefits against the enemy. And protect yourself from suffering the negatives. If you feel the unit is getting to pricey, you're probably right. But try it out that way, and try it out a cheaper way, then make up your mind.

In the end, Squadrons can be beneficial if used properly, or go awry if things aren't thought of ahead of time.

Why Snipers Suck

For some unfortunate reason, GW has decided that snipers should be absolutely terrible. Beyond shadow of a doubt, they are worse than they should be. But here's why! for starters, a single model, while good for GW's money in that it'll be an eighteen dollar single model, it's just one guy for the whole unit, fully decked out, out of the box. No hope to get any more money out of that entire FOC selection. Instead they opt to make the moneymakers cost more, while a unit that wouldn't make as much money has to suck.

Also, if snipers were better, wouldn't everyone spam them? and that just wouldn't be cool anymore. so yeah!

Platoon structure

I try to take 3 platoons when I can. Two being anti heavy infantry, and one being anti light infantry. I do that, because I fight space marines more than anything now. But anywho, structure for anti heavy infantry:
platoon command squad:
platoon standard
plasmagun
rocket launcher team
3x squads:
plasma pistol
plasma gun
rocket launcher

4x heavy weapons squads:
2 squads of autocannons
1 squad of mortars
1 squad of lascannons

For my other platoon, replace all plasma guns with grenade launchers, all plasma pistols with bolt pistols, and all rocket launchers with heavy bolters. Oh, and replace the 4x heavy weapons, with a squad of 30 conscripts.

These squads aren't all that cheap and that's a lot of men. But trust me, it's effective against most opponents. Space Marines represent a massive problem for guard, as there is only a 5% chance for a guy with a lasgun to wound a space marine. which is awful. But crank that up to a 42% chance with a plasma gun or plasma pistol. Worth its weight in gold.

Heavy weapons are unique choices here. In that I like the idea of heavy weapons squads. See, alot of people don't take heavy weapons squads, cuz in theory, just kill one, and there is a fifty percent chance of the whole unit fleeing. which means 100+ points could run off the table after taking a single wound from a str 6 or higher gun. Now, that sucks. BUT! heres the thing, those squads aren't the focus of many opponents, I have no idea why, but they tend to focus on the infantry squads for some reason, I guess they are used to space marines, where the troops are the focus. I don't know, but really, I have usually not lost a heavy weapons team after losing just one, usually I get my points worth out of them, so don't worry too much, unless you're incredibly unlucky.

Now the 3rd platoon, with the heavy bolters and grenade launchers, their focus is less on firepower, and more on bodies on the table. My conscripts are often scoffed at, but look at my article on them I wrote recently, they're not that bad, and rather handy. Now when these guys fight, they do the bulk of the dying, but that's ok, its their job. Whenever possible I present them as the target, I put them on the hardest objectives, I put them first in the assault, all that goodstuff. Because when they die, its not my heavier platoons dying.

I like to field this company with my 3rd platoon (heavy bolters) in the middle, flanked by first and second (rocket launchers and plasma) this gives my 1st and 2nd platoons the range their rockets can handle, and my heavy bolters a range they are more accustomed to.

Anywho, there you go, next up, Lieutenants!

Realism in Your Army

We fight fake wars, and we have a template in real war. bassically we can make all the same decisions that our real militaries do. For example, Marine corps. Platoons are in essence ordered in 3's. 3 men make a fireteam 3 fireteams make up a squad. 3 squads make up a platoon. 3platoons make up a company. So forth and so forth. The formations and tactics are sound, as well as the structure. However, some things don't translate. For example small squad formations, guardsmen just aren't as good in warhammer as a real soldier or Marine is. In essence, while we can take our structure from them, there are some things that don't translate.

For example, lets say that you have a rifle platoon, that being the above formation. Which is around 600 points if well equipped. The basics here is more men, more bodies to throw at the enemy. Without men you can't fight a war. Same goes for warhammer, if you can't take a beating, you can't win. Now the real fun, comes in the support for these platoons. As the points rise, I will simply add more of these platoons, to compensate. But the support is the real flavor.

Lets say I'm goin' against orks. I'll pack my normal platoons in, but I'll take more anti-infantry heavies. Or space marines, I'll still pack my normal platoons, but I'll take more anti-heavy infantry.

Lets say I want to spice it up, I'll field a normal platoon, some vets, and then pack storm troopers in vendettas, and play with that.

Rocket lawncha

Rocket launchers, or missile launchers, are my go to heavy weapon for two of my platoons. Each squad has one of these bad boys. Why? for their space marine killyness. See, its str 8 ap 3 when fired krak, so that's instakill. So there is a 50% chance of killing one per turn for every one I have on the field. If my boys can kill 3 space marines a turn, then they have done fantastic. Plasma I also take here. With str 7 it's almost instakill, which is good enough for me. So there is the loadout of my anti space marine squads. So I go for killin' space marines. And that there is what the Launcher is for. I mean, sure it might take out a transport here and there, but really that's the auto/las cannon's job. So yeah, killing infantry is its mainstay, I think. And I fire krak at anything short of an ork mob, because I'm simply not a fan of frag.

Thats all I can write for now, I am on like 10 different pills from my doctor, and can't see straight.

Conscripts on the table? WUUUUT

Alright, so Conscripts are often laughed at. That's because your average guardsman is the slidescale here (take that space marines). While a veteran, who is barely better than a guardsmen, BS 4... and what else? oh, equipment options... I see. Anywho, that guy, is 2 points more than a guardsmen. Then the conscript must be dirt cheap! nope. The guy who takes a hit to his WS BS oh, and his leadership? just consider it leadership 0. That guy, is one point less than his brethren. Yeup, for one minor stat boost, + 2 points. For 3 major dives, -1 point... Good job Robin... Oh but wait, they have endless reserves! Well, you have to really try to fit in the ever unwieldy chenkov, who has the worst possible loadout for an officer, oh, and good orders? forget about em, he only gets MMM, and GBITF, woooo. oh, and not only do you have to take this overpriced baron, but look! it costs more than the unit to be able to bring it back! awesome! so for 30 conscripts (the only number I recommend fielding them in) chenkov, AND send in the next wave, we're lookin at almost 300 points here. for a unit that will flee whenever someone shoots at it! how could that possibly be fieldable in any sensible commanders army?!

Well, here's how! (since you asked so nicely) in short, They are perfect deployment zone guardians. If you find yourself fortunate enough to field these lads and have an objective in your deployment zone, it can literally be, impervious to enemy capture. With a little forethought, just call the boys back in for another round, and put them on the objective! If you don't have objectives, then use them to cover the basalisks. Make sure chenkov or straken, or someone to help them hold on a little longer is around, and they will surely do better. Stick a priest in there, and more people will hear his rhetoric so just about everyone is happier for that, as in CC they won't be entirely terrible now, even WS2 gets some hits in on 5+ rerolls.

Why 30? well, see, 20 is too few to win at anything, and too many points for send in the next wave. 40 and 50 are too many men to be moving around and too many points, just to have them all flee in a single round of shooting. 30 is the balance between the too.

meatgrinder anyone? in the early stages of the game, where I really don't give a crap what happens to my conscripts, I looooove to just run them up. why? because if the enemy shoots at them, then guess what? they aren't doing anything! because they will appear right back at my own lines in the time it takes to reload a clip. So I throw these guys out with the biggest possible target on their chests, and dare the enemy to kill them. If they don't, then I have a unit in my pocket over there, if they do, then my actual men, are still aok. more importantly, I LOOOOVE guard in assault, and these lads let me do just that, without worrying about the men one bit!.

killing stuff with them! remember, any unit in CC will hit on a 5+ so against a deamon prince, they will do alright. So I find the biggest baddest assholes the enemy has. And throw them right at him. Then maybe after they inflict a single wound, and all get slaughtered, my opponent will grow over confident, and then straken and Nork, hit em, and he goes down for the count pretty easily. oh, and the conscripts? they're back by this point to go and die again.

anywho, good luck with fielding your conscripts, and if you don't like conscripts and you bought the models? guess what? they double as guardsmen and vets... so yeah! lol

Blanks

To field squads of guardsmen with nothing but lasguns is an ok idea. Imagine, an army of 200 guardsmen, for around 1000 points. Not bad. But when you really break the numbers down. You end up with something sad. The lasgun just plain sucks. It's not the guardsman's fault that he has the worst weapon in the entire game. But the fact of the matter is, it doesn't matter how many bodies you put out there, when they just can't kill anything. Lets look at it this way. The real pay out, is that for every 3 squads of well equipped (using that phrase lightly) guardsmen, you can field 4 blanks. I'm sorry, but my money is on the guys who have 6 shots that instantly kill guardsmen going down range at 48 inches. I mean really, the trade off is just not worth it. However. If your goal isn't killing the enemy at all, but instead to simply be more survivable... well, there's a better way to do that too... its called forward sentry veterans. clocking in at twice the price in points, I would put my money on the ten men with a 3 up save (2+ if go to ground) over the twenty 4+s any day. And for less money too.

All in all, blanks are a great choice if you are Donald Trump, and cost is simply not a factor. But at that point, if you're just going for bodies on the table, consider conscripts.

Bastonne

Bastonne is based on one of my favorite men of all time, the USMC's very own, John Basilone. Now that enough is reason for me to take him, however, he ends up being a pretty good unit, if used correctly.

As with most independent characters, the biggest question is, "is he worth his points?" ultimately, that answer is a resounding no. But here's the reason I take him. When the time comes to check all the points I've got, ten more guardsmen, are not going to be the difference between victory and defeat. Neither is Bastonne, but wouldn't you rather lose like a badass, than lose as a coward?

So if you decide to take our honorable and downright decent fellow, how would one use him?

Versatility: for a long time, I ran him as my swiss army knife. aka, my S.A.K. (all testicle reference intended). His unit had a no expense spared loadout, complete with rocketlauncher, sniper rifle, plasma gun, and heavy flamer, carapace armor, cameleoline, and Bastonne. These guys rarely did any better than my other men, for being 3 times the price. But the key here wasn't Bastonne, it was my loadout options. A better way, if you want the more versatile S.A.K. approach, is to stick with cameleoline, and drop the heavy flamer as well as the carapace armor. Keep sniper if you wish, but everyone else plasma guns all around. The unit will be more streamlined, and perform even better. If you want a heavy, the choice is yours, I'm feelin lascannon, and puttin these guys on anti terminator duty.

Holdout: If you take Creed, you can outflank him, and even if you don't, there are other ways to get him there, but in essence, get some of your men, and put them somewhere else, and have them stay there. Not even necessarily an objective, just somewhere on the map where they can batten down the hatches, and hang on for dear life. Bastonne and his men should ideally, be bare bones, with just two or three meltaguns, nothing too much. Relying on Bastonnes high leadership to hold out. If you have the points and you know you're going to take a lot of firepower, then consider the forward sentries doctrine for it's cameleoline, aka stealth rule. The cheaper version of this, is to have bastonne give the order for incoming! and they can get a 2+ save regardless. The reason I like to keep it cheap, is so I don't mind when they die, and am not afraid to lose them. Their whole job at this point is to just harass the enemy, and provide a distraction from my main gunlines.

Assault: perhaps one of the less effective, but really badass ways to use him, is to take him with a unit of vets with grenadiers doctrine, and to go out and charge. Not the most effective unit, but against the right units, could work. A better way to use this, but doesn't require Bastonne, is to have them with straken as a counter push, or bodyguard unit.

Minute Men: Lastly, and cheapestly, just slap him onto a blank (just 9 men with lasguns) vet squad, and give them a ride in a chimera or if a vendetta survives have them give them a lift, and they can score, or contest with minimal fear of retreat. That and they certainly wont look all that imposing.

Overall, like I said, he's not worth his points, and these are by no means the best routes to victory, but, they are some ideas to toy with, and thoroughly respect the ideology of his character.

Storm Raven: aka, IG got there first

So everyone is wigging out now that the BA have their new flying brick, the stormraven (I am like the only one I know, that thought it looked really cool when it first came out, I honestly like it). They're all imagining the possibilities of a fast skimmer, and transport combined. Well you know what? IG got there first. oh and, the vendetta? so much better than the stormraven. Toe to toe who would win? my money? on the vendetta, THREE twinlinked lascanonnons. Yeah good luck surviving that shit. Oh you can transport squads, AND dreadnaughts. Well, we did it first, so haha.

nah but seriously, kudos to space marines for eventually catching on.

Mortar Madness Monday

SO, mortars. What makes them so special as to deserve an entire article just on them? well, for starters, their cheap cheap cheap. So cheap in fact, you can field 15 mortars for 300 points. So what do you do with 15 mortars? Well for starters, how many times have you wanted to fire that lascannon at the enemy transports, but couldn't because something was in the way? well, mortars just plain ol' don't have that problem. They can shoot over everything and everything, and have range 48, so that's a good deal of the board open for them to shoot at. Enemy troops who rely on cover particularly despise the ol' mortar, because, well, it beats the shit out of them. Between denying cover, being str 4 blast, and pinning (most units relying on cover have low morale, ie: guardsman, tau firewarriors) so the mortar, is the cheapest heavy weapons unit, hell, in a regular squad, its only FIVE points. So I mean, do the math, if you're goin in, go in balls out, with a mortar. However, I must stress, it is better as a heavy weapons team, as then it can take full advantage of its range.

Do you suffer from a company command squad that never does anything but issue orders? slap a pair of mortars on that bit, and boom, now you can give orders all day long, sit behind your own lines, and just shoot and shoot and shoot. Throw in a commander of ordinance, and you got yourself quite the artillery package.

Guardsman Marbo

Ok, so this dude has WS 5 BS 5 I 5 has a sniper pistol, a democharge, and wounds on a 2+ in Close Combat. Oh and did I mention he can come in ANYWHERE. For a meager 60 points, you can field this silent killing machine. And he can wreck house anywhere and anytime. Toe to Toe with space marines, what a joke, Toe to Toe with tanks, what a joke. Used right, this guy is insane for his points. Used wrong, Your enemy gets a kill point, and all he had to do, was shoot him. Because at the end of the day, Marbo is S3 T3 with a 5+ save, and can't do anything out of CC worth mentioning, with his short range and relative lack of firepower.

Using him right relies on your overall scheme. If you want a durable unit, that is just gunna be a durable unit, bring him in somewhere, and go to ground, 2+ save. Put this guy next to an objective and do that, and he can aid greatly in pushing the enemy back. But more often than not, this little guy will see himself launching suicidal one man raids on enemy heavy support. Throwing his democharge into gunlines, or acting as a speed bump. As long as this guy gets to throw his demo charge, and get stuck in CC, he'll pretty much earn his points. If you can make him last two turns, then he will work for you. Three turns? your opponent obviously just has no idea what he's doing if your Marbo lasts three whole turns.

How to use him wrong: this is far more important than above, as well, that's common sense. Here we have a tad bit of Forethought. Basically, don't put him in CC against units that are too soft, unless he can easily consolidate into more cover. Don't EVER, leave him in the open without cover. Unless you are fine with him dying after one unit shoots at him, in which case go right ahead. Next up, don't put him in over his head. It's tempting to just throw him at some terminators, but don't. He'll lose that battle 9 times out of 10, easily. Don't throw a goddamn demo charge, if he is surrounded by friendly units. JUST DON'T DO IT!

lastly, why not to take him: kill points, and fighting armies built for CC are fine reasons to leave this guy in the same shadows you found him.

APOCALYPSE!!!

Ok, so let me get this straight. People pay more money, for more models, including massive models, that take eons just to put together, and people field mix and matched armies with no cohesive overall strategy, totally leaving everything up to the dice, and magnify all the bad qualities of warhammer, FOR WHAT? oh yeah, because its totally bad ass...

So how to make your games of apocalypse a little more bearable. First off, let me say, I HATE apocalypse. I mean, I love it too. But more than anything it overemphasizes the negative qualities of warhammer. Anywho, here are a few easy steps to having a better time, if like me, you cant stand apocalypse.

1. MOVEMENT TRAYS!!! this deserves like ten slots on its own. Movement trays are the difference between, moving 200 models individually, and moving 5 trays.

2. Anxious to die: the best way to get out of the headache of all the goddamn people, and all the goddamn noise, and all the goddamn stench of awful unshowered gamer, is to lose. Just run up and die. Now make a purpose to all of that though. At the very least be a meatshield for another army.

3. Pull them all together: here's a hard one to master, but a must if you wish to win. If you can get a structure of anysort going. Have a leader. Have peons, and have staff. Do that, and you can then begin to think tactics, something usually totally devoid in apocalypse.

4. Rethink what apocalypse is: perfect game of apocalypse: get 4 VS. 4. 4000 points per army. And that's it. not too large, good goal for a gaming group. And not to mention, not what most people think when it comes to apocalypse. It's still good. It's not mind blowing, and it doesn't totally suck. With a team of 4, you can coordinate better, and not to mention, you matter a hell of a lot more.

5. Field Grey Knights: moved 60 space marines... done.

6. DONT FIELD IG: moved 400 infantry plus tanks. and then rolled a one to run.

7. DONT FIELD IG!!!!!!!!!!!! remember those 400 guys? yeah? all dead. Now I have to pack them all back up... fuck my life.

8. DONT FUCKING FIELD, IMPERIAL. FUCKING. GUARD!!!: "hey IG guy, blow up their 30 tanks with your tanks...you don't have but 3 tanks?" *beats his face in*

9. just stick to regular 40k.

10: make it a climax to a campaign: HERE lies the goldmine of apocalypse for me. When there is a true and culminating reason for them to all be there. When you are already used to playing for like 6 hours a day, and it's a resolution to all the frustration.

So yeah... hope you found the article more humorous than serious, and uh, yeah...

Jungle Fighters

alright, so one of the things I've been falling in love with lately, is the Vietnam war. I don't mean hippies and all that bullshit, I mean, Hueys, jungles, ambushes, napalm, and good ol' Close Quarters Fightin'. Now, one of the best parts of all this, is the massive change one has to make to fight in a jungle. Gone are the days of massive gunlines, not when there are too many trees in the deployment zone, or no line of sight. Instead it's all about LOS. Everything here is now, either going to be very close quarters, or will take a whole lot of forethought. Now as Guard, I should hate that, takes away all I've got going for me. But with straken, and with priests, now my Guard can use their sheer numbers to overwhelm, and take advantage of all the cover.

Flamers will be a massive problem here, so be on the look out for them. Vehicles will either have to stick to dirt roads, or bring along some dozer blades, lest they get caught up in the trees. The ashwastes from the daisy cutters (giant bombs built for the sole purpose of vegetation destruction, for things like bases, and landing zones) they should be key pockets for your guardsmen to defend, and ultimately if there is an objective there, just let em have it, or keep them back, don't dream about leaving your cover.

basically what I'm sayin is, ITS GUNNA BE AWESHOME!

Rivalries

What is it about that one guy you play against the most? most often if you're like me it's nothing but fun and games, you know if you lose, you know opinions won't change. But every now and again, things heat up a tad. Sometimes in a really big match it's more cutthroat than even the most hardcore of tournaments. Predicting every move, fighting to the last, it's where the real magic happens. If you learn when to get this going, it will make your games ten times more enjoyable, if you do it wrong though, it can create tension and lead to awkward next games. Learn when to walk the line, and when to be friendly and you can't go wrong.

However, we all have that one guy that we love to hate. That one guy that we either love to pummel, or that one guy that loves to pummel us. They're there in every group, just keep looking. Now these players provide a unique release, one where if you wreck his shit backwards, you don't feel sorry for one second. One where if you get your ass kicked, any anger you gain is just fuel for the fire. These guys, while hated, are necessary. Living as these guys sucks, but hey not every star can shine the brightest, oh well.

Then there are those random ass players. Where you call them by the wrong name when the game is done. Your point of view on them could either be hoping to shit all over them, (your probably the guy your group loves to hate, if that's the case) or looking for a new friend, and hoping to just have a good time.

One thing is for sure, people have spent a lot of time and money on their armies (sometimes just a lot of money) and (either way) they HATE to lose. Now if you can get over that hatred of losing, and enjoy the fight for fighting sake, then you will make friends a lot faster. But don't throw the match of course, just have a good time, things will work out.

Anywho, time to step down off the soapbox.

Nork Deddog

SO I can't stop thinking of how much I really want to field Nork Deddog since my last post. I have fielded him twice, but looking back I used him wrong, like I used to use my whole army wrong really. Anywho! Nork is a favorite of mine, as he is big, and awesome, and well, an ogryn that only costs $25 to have. SO that said, what can he do for you?

Say you have straken, and he has the standard loadout that people run with, a few meltas and a medic. So lets say you are hit with a basalisk shot. woops, EVERYONE DIED. Lets say you have Nork Deddog this time. Oh, look, now you have Nork and Straken afterwords. Neither of which may have taken a wound. Because Nork has look out- ARGH special rule, as well as feel no pain. So he has a 66% chance of not taking a wound as long as it's str 8 or 9, and not 10. So now you have all the units you needed before still right there.

So lets put it another way. Say you're charging ten space marines with a rocket launcher, plasma gun, and 7 bolters, plus we'll say they're in rapid fire range, and therefore bolt pistol can fire too. Just Straken and Nork. There's a 66% of not taking a wound from the rocket launcher. Then an 88% Nork will shrug off the plasma shot. Then the bolters all heat up, and unload a whomping 14 shots, and of them 10 will hit, and of those, generously 3 will wound, then 1 will make it through his armor, and the last will be stopped hopefully by either feel no pain, or he can just take the wound. Oh and the bolt pistol like each shot has a 5% chance to wound. Oh and again, that guy has 3 wounds. Straken has a fifty fifty chance of surviving the plasma gun, and there's the whole rapid fire situation. SO ultimately the difference is obviously, MASSIVE, as to his survival.

Now lets say Nork didn't take but one wound, we'll be generous and say a plasma shot made it through his feel no pain. So they are now charging that squad together. Straken kills one Marine with his plasma pistol, and Nork gets one too.

Nork would throw 5 punches, we'll say 3 make it, then 3 wound, and one makes it through their armor saves. Straken, the real heavy hitter here, and kills 3 of them. So now the space marines make all their attacks at the same time, so 9 attacks. Made against the higher WS 5, and against the toughness 5 of Nork. So lets say that 2 of them make it through all that, then Nork has armor of 4+ nothing great, but between that and his feel no pain, at worst he should take one wound.

All in all, they didn't kill off the whole squad in one turn, but they weathered a rapid fire shooting phase, and went in to close combat, ultimately killing over half the squad in a single turn, hard to do with just two warriors, especially potent considering it's Imperial Guard. Oh and I like to run a priest here too, his 4+ invulnerable save generally means he survives too, as well as he can help straken reroll, and with WS5 already, and pretty much instakilling space marines with his str 7 powerweapon, I'm bettin he goes 5 for 5 on the charge, and that's half a space marine squad right there. Oh and the priest will probably kill two himself. combine that with nork and straken on the charge, and you have a fine chance of wiping them out first turn of combat, or better yet, leaving one space marine to kill in his phase, and then you're set.

Chaos

contradictory to what GW feeds us, it is renegade guardsmen that make up the bulk of Chaos forces. it is unavoidable, there are like ten billion people to a single space marine, so like 20 billion people to every chaos space marine, so yeah. Anywho, point is, if the CSM get a codex, why don't chaos guard? don't tell me its because they aren't different enough, because they are far more different from regular guard than CSM are from SM. Anywho, just giving some ideas, make a Chaos Guardsmen a little cheaper, I'm feelin 3 points if you want him to be used properly, and give them the same deal as orks, in that, everyone can either be CC with pistol, or have a rapid fire/assault gun. Also an idea, is some really cool civilian vehicles, anywho, biggest thing obviously comes from marks of chaos. I think there should be a zombie option as a troop choice, as well as some really cool khorne war dogs, I know forgeworld does some of this stuff, but I want GW to make this full fledged. Anywho, think nazi's for tank ideas too, BIGGER is better, but outnumbered vastly by the Guard tanks. also, Heavy weapons should be a little more limited, but their CC anti tank should be pretty great. Ogryns should be a staple, but FW covered that. Uh, you're probably going to want a myriad of guardsmen levels, from the 3 point aforementioned cannonfodder, to the 5 point average joe, to the 7 point hardened average joe. I think the kits here would be really interesting, but maybe that's just me.

Another really cool option here is something like grisly totems of war, with decaying bodies falling from them into pools of coagulating blood, these could provide buffs and anchorpoints in their lines. Not that those seem to be favored by GW, perhaps they could be a tank upgrade.

Of course the primary difference here between them and Guard is that Guard should ultimately have more average troops, while CIG would have either more crummy troops, or fewer more chaos chosen type veterans. I think there is a massive fanbase of guard players out there right now, looking for something to differentiate themselves from the autowin armies of today, and CIG would be a really awesome way to introduce a new dex, and take advantage of the existing market.

I now that article was all over the place, but hey food for thought... or is it, THOUGHT FOR FOOD... stephen colbert quote...lol

Commisariat

SO, lets take an honest hard look at the commissar. For starters, what is he, what does he do. He is an add on to a few select infantry units, where for a small fee of 35 points plus equipment, he can be rather devastating for the menial fee. So what does he do? Ever had your guard squad in a combat where you were guaranteed to fail your morale checks? yeah me too. Well, with all the buffs this guy gives you, worry no more. Oh, and he's pretty good in close combat. Slap a priest in there too, and you have a medium priced decent unit in close combat. Anywho. Commissars are often overlooked because they could kill the sergeant in the squad. And to this I say, so? what does a sergeant do that a commissar doesn't do better? and on top of that, sergeants are no good for shooting, and still no good in close combat, so yeah, WHO CARES if he shoots the sergeant? He failed his duty anyway, I mean, the squad has much higher leadership with the commissar anyway, what are the odds you fail at that point?

Commissars = worth it in points
However, not so worth it, in money. says the poor gamer anyway.

Things to give your commissar? well, I'm not a fan of giving him anything he doesn't already have. Bolt pistol is good enough, really want to kill space marines, ok, maybe a plasma pistol, other than that, I also like a good powerfist, who doesn't these days. So I like my commissars either tooled way up, or bare minimum, anything else, I say isn't worth it. So plasma pistol it up if you only want to buy one of the two.

So yeah, that and they have a beast savatage song named after them (I know its really about the soviet Kommissar, but who cares)

Building Character

If there is one thing in the Imperial Guard I'm a sucker for, it's a character. There are only a handful of characters that I don't take.

For example, I take:
Creed
Straken
Harker
bastonne
Pask
Marbo
chenkov
al' raheim
and on occasion, even the often laughed at Nork Deddog.

Now I will not lie, and say that I field all of them in the average game, but I do certainly enjoy everytime I field one.

Now straken is my go to commander, since the first time I cracked open my new fifth edition codex, I knew straken was going to be my favorite character. What I didn't know, was how popular he was going to be, he's probably the most used character here, him or Harker, and Harker is also my second favorite guy, especially because he's a Gunny. anywho, in my average game, I do make a note to field straken, harker, creed and chenkov. al raheim is usually only for spicing things up, and Pask I only take when I field a single tank, which is not my preferred way to field a tank.

Nork Deddog is there, for the fact I received a single ogryn as a gift once. Now before you go crying out that Nork Deddog is the least fieldable unit in the codex, check this shit out. Toughness five, Feel no pain, and a 4+ save. Couple that with WS 4, and pair him up with straken, and a priest, it really is a fantastic thing. Now hold up! The rhetoric of priests don't work on ogryns! yeah, doesn't mean that Straken with his str 6 attacks, a priest with his str 6 attack, and Nork Deddog with his str 7 attacks don't pair up well. Now by this point, you have probably gone, but he's not worth all his points at least a dozen times by the time you have read this paragraph, and if you haven't, prepare to do so, in response to the shock of a single model, being 110 points. Slapping him down as one of the most expensive non vehicle units in the whole codex. So why take him? to put it simply, he can protect my Colonel Straken from artillery, tanks, lascannons or rocket launchers, and while we're at it, this guy is a boss in close combat, unlike the bodyguards, he's gunna be around a while, and do alot of damage. Anywho, enough about this big lug.

Creed, mine is modeled off of Chesty Puller, if you haven't read my article on him. Creed I like, because he fills out chenkov's lack of good orders. Creed is the main machine that keeps my Guard under control. That and he gives Bastonne's unit outflank. Bastonne is another favorite of mine, as despite all the points he costs, any unit with him, will succeed phenomenally. Not to say that he is worth all his points, but I think in the end he does a fine job. Now he runs a suicide unit of two meltaguns and sometimes demolitions, they just outflank and be a thorn in the enemies side all game.

Marbo to me is just a flat out boss. But here's the thing, he is so fragile. I don't hesitate to have him go to ground, as just a single model, and a guardsman at that, he looks rather unintimidating, but he can do damage like the best of em. I only don't like him to fight against space marines, other than that, he is a go to guy.

Well there we go, an article on some of my characters

Deployment Options 001

In essence, there aren't a lot of ways for guard to deploy. For example, you either have too many models to have any kind of strategy other than fill up the table, or, your vets and valks are so sparse, that you either deploy them together or apart, and that's that. The real strategy comes in, where to put your units in the mess of models.

I find that in the center, a hardened core of counterattack guardsmen, backed by flanks on either side of shooting guardsmen, and the very outskirts of the table, with my tanks and sentinels in cover. My sentinels being entirely a distraction, with cameleoline and lascannons, hopefully getting my opponent to shoot at them, because he fears the lascannon. Anywho, so that's what I like, the hardened center and edges, with more bite, surrounding the shooting units that are doing the damage.

Other options to consider:

Null deployment:
Biggest thing with this, is it takes away the "alpha strike" mentality that everyone likes to think guard are all about, because that makes them simpler. The key here, is to take the right officers and transports. Your entire guard army can come in, in unique ways. For example, valkyries and vendettas can outflank with scouts, or deepstrike. Storm troopers can deepstrike, infiltrate, or outflank, if you give a platoon Al' Raheim, you can have them outflank, and you get a fine officer. The thing to avoid here, is playing the game as a normal game, just with a different deployment, your opponent will chew you up piecemeal, and you'll be screwed.

The big push:
Here is a strategy, that is very hard to work, and one of my favorites. Only works against armies that don't have space marines, tyrannid or daeomons in the title. Basically, get chenkov, straken, and a whole bunch of guardsmen and conscripts. Use the conscripts upfront, as a meatshield, as you run up the side of a table. Use tanks if you got em, to guard the flanks of the blob of guardsmen. Once the conscripts die, bring em back on, and sit them on your objective, if they die again, put em right back. If they never die (lol) then on the 4th turn just call em back, so on the 5th they'll be there. Anywho, once you breach the enemy line in close combat, chenkov and straken with their stubborn and get back in the fight rules, should certainly help your men stay in the thick of it, sprinkle in a few priests and commisars, and if you have the points, ogryns, and BAM you have a decent, fun to play army.

The Ham Sandwich:
Straight up guard deployment, lots of tanks, lots of guardsmen, in one big line. This has two advantages over the other two, and its generally the most popular. The biggest plus here, is that your whole army, can shoot, the whole game. There is the simple strategy of guard, KEEP SHOOTING. but do this enough, and you may get a little bored of it, which is where those damn strange ones come in.

well there you have it, a few of your options regarding deployment, stay tuned for more

Ratlings

A quick word on ratlings:

They are fantastic, just take 3 of these buggers, we are talkin only a handful of points here. And just slap these suckers in cover, go to ground, whenever you get shot at, and you'll annoy the hell out of your opponent. I've had one ratling withstand the entire firepower of a platoon, and live to tell the tale about it. Ratlings aren't that great offensively, and they can't hold objectives, so your opponent will ignore them mostly. But they are only 30 points for 3! that's a 30 point unit! where else are you gunna get that?

So if they kill a few of the enemy, and if they get shot at, at all, then they have made up their points, because lets say the unit firing at them is a squad of 5 space marines, those guys are almost 3 times the price, and the ratlings have a better save here if they go to ground, and that means those marines, aren't killing your more valuable guardsmen! (more valuable guardsmen... when has that ever been said?) so yeah, just pointin out a good unit that I've been toying with.

Oh, and if you're like me, and hate the idea of weird lookin snipers hobblin about your battlefields, try buying a set of catachan snipers for around $15 you get a unit of 3. Or just green stuff a few guardsmen as snipers, that's pretty much what I did.

Cameleoline

Ok, so, for smaller games, and against certain opponents, I love to field a totally different armies, than just my standard guard army. For example, sometimes I run an all grenadiers list, other times I run an all cameleoline list, and that's the one I'm writing about first.

For starters, the emphasis on both of these armies, is veterans, and at ten points a man, I have to be a lot more careful with my lads. However, with the ballistic skill, and saves of space marines, My guardsmen can live up to their veteran reputation.

My standard squads generally consist of a sniper rifle, a grenade launcher, and either a heavy bolter or rocket launcher. I tend to gravitate toward bolt pistols as well, if I have the points I always upgrade to plasma pistol if I can.

The whole point of this particular list is the basic guardsman, relying on more elite infantry, and making each man count. Now unlike space marines, we can't actually go toe to toe with the bigger boys, but, we can take a beating from shooting like nobodies business, just think space marines, but twice as much! since when has the problem with space marines been toughness 4? no its their Goddamn 3+ saves. With cameleoline, we get those too! just gotta be in cover is all. The cameleoline vet list, I like particularly, because it allows me to field a more realistic modern day force, with less emphasis on ridiculous firepower, and more on taking cover, and keeping men alive.

So moving along, I also like to take Creed for this list. Without Lieutenants, I have to be able to give orders somehow, and Creed gives me a 24 inch bubble, and 4 orders a turn, more than enough to give my vets the juice they need. I also like to give vox casters here, usually, I hate to do that, but with each order being do or die, I can sacrifice a special weapon for creed and give him a vox, the voxes on the guardsmen squad never having been the problem for me.

So with all this said, any particular strategies? It's more of basic target priority, and terrain construction. As the battlefield is crafted, I naturally look for any ways possible to be in cover, and deny that cover to my enemy.

I never use this army against space marines, it just won't add up in a victory for me, nor do I use it against particularly assault oriented armies. But, against other guard, against tau, against necrons, against eldar, and against certain tyranid builds, the simple fact of having a more elite army, will win you the day.

Tanks in this list are also welcome, as they provide you with more anti-horde weapons, leaving the tank killing to your BS4 heavy weapons.

Eat NERF!

So two of my all time favorite weapons in real life, are just absolutely awful in 40k. The Shotgun and the sniper rifle. Granted each have their purpose in game, but neither are the best at what they do. However, there is hope! the shotgun in the new Black Templar update... its str 4! that would make the shotgun indispensable to Imperial Guard. We could give our vets, STR 4 WEAPONS! best of all perhaps, we would finally be using shotguns like they should, its the precarious advance, followed by sudden and shocking violence.

However, the update obviously only applies to the Black Templar at this point, so yeah.

As far as snipers go, here's the only glimmer of hope I can find, is that maybe in 6th edition, they will be flipped, so that we buy more models. Snipers should definitely be range 60 at least, and count as str 4, with ap 4, and also rend, that way, shooting vehicles can actually be done, and shooting monstrous creatures is still viable if you rend. granted, with those stats, it would cost a good deal more, but hey, it would become my go to special weapon, and probably everyones at that point.

Shock Troops

Imagine...

The battle is raging on in full swing. Every single warrior doing his part, and the Imperial Guard are just barely holding against a terrible assault. When over head, two vendettas drop their payload of napalm, and stormtroopers float down on grav chutes shooting all the way down, turning the tide of battle, by diverting the enemy forces.

that is just one way to use the units I'm talkin bout. Two vendettas, with two stormtrooper squads of ten in each. I know I know, stormtroopers are supposed to suck, and valkyrie's much > vendettas...wait a minute, kenny are those door gunners on your vendettas? >.> uh... yeah... DAMMIT learn whats useful and whats useless wouldya!

Joking aside, yes, these are not the best possible units for the job, so one would say... but check this out. My storm troopers pin, on their first round of shooting. That's a possibility of 40 ap3 pinning shots. Just sayin, that's good enough to pin space marines, and or anything else. Fire the vendettas first, so their is a better shot they will be fewer in number prior to pinning, and yeah, there is but one strength I have, and I like it. Why the door gunners? If for whatever reason, I have to hole up my stormtroopers, so they can secure a table quarter, or just divert enemy firepower, I have that extra push of 12 more str 5 shots.

Stormtrooper loadout:
plasma pistol and power weapon for sarge
two plasmaguns in one unit, two meltaguns in the other
and ALWAYS behind enemy lines spec ops rule

Now, on the first turn these units throw down, that's the easy part. They can kill anything, from terminators, to landraiders, to tau gunlines, to super HQ's. they got it goin on. The hard part, is keeping them alive post first punch. As the unit is too expensive to just throw away. There are quite a few ways to do this, each has its flaws, so I have to gauge it as the battle goes on.

Simplest way: divert the firepower of my big guns, so that any unit that can effectively counter attack, is just blown away. Problems: one: the rest of my army then goes without that support :( two: now the stormtroopers have nothing themselves to kill.

Forethought: every now and then, the perfect set up is made, where I can just kill the defenders, and take their spot, and use it against them. Problems: one: it won't always be there. two: it can still be assaulted, and stormtroopers have a short range on their guns.

Conestoga Wagons: in the west, what pioneers would do when they were attacked by indians, is get out of their wagons, and flip them over, creating instant barriers. These Conestoga Wagons, have armor value 12, and a shit ton of firepower. So I can create my own defense if necessary with the vendettas to hold off the enemy. Problems: one: the obvious thing here, is that the vandettas could blow up. two: the stormtroopers would have their LOS blocked. Three: THE VENDETTAS COULD BLOW UP

get the heck outta dodge: just hop right back in the vendettas, and boot scoot across the board, back behind friendly lines. Problems: one: we might be dead by then. two: that's a turn of no killing for a 500+ point group of units.

Sacrifice the Stormtroopers: if I feel the need to, I could move fast, and still drop off the stormtroopers, and have the vendettas out of the way before anyone was able to shoot, and even if they do, get a 3+ coversave, plus armor 12. Problem: it totally fucks over the stormtroopers.

Ok, so there are all the ways to keep them alive... wait a minute, that last one had them dying! <.< nobody's perfect dude.

so yeah, over all, you could cram some vets with demolitions and shotguns in there, for fewer points, and still have a scoring unit. OR you could go balls out, spend way more money on stormtroopers, just so you can pay extra points for first turn pinning, on a unit that might just shoot at a vehicle anyway, and yeah. But you know what, it's really bad ass.

Paint Schemes

THIS IS NOT A TEACHING YOU HOW TO PAINT ARTICLE

but it is a critique of the guard armies I've seen.


ok so, lets talk about my paint scheme, why I chose it, and why I love it so much.

I've never been big on painting, but I do enjoy fielding a vast and pretty well painted army. So, what are my guardsmen wearing these days? For starters, let me just say, I take all my colors and ideas from the United States Marine Corps. I use marpat camouflage, meaning, a forest green, with flecks of tan, and black. Then using a dusty red brown, I paint the armor, and any other gear I like to be brown, meaning sheaths, the occasional boots, maybe gloves, maybe their combat webbing (you have to make that out of greenstuff). Helmets, I usually paint in the camo scheme, but I occasionally leave them black, and the gear I alternate coyote brown (the dusty red brown from before) and olive drab. Representing the phasing of different equipment. I tend to leave the aquillas black, on officers however, I do paint them silver. For the lasguns I leave them black, but drybrush heavily with gunmetal. and for faces, I use a very light skin tone, and give any flesh showing a wash, so it darkens it to a normal shade, and fills in the cracks quite nicely. I tend not to wash the majority of my figures, only the occasional piece of equipment that needs it, they are dark enough.

WHEW that was boring. alright, so there is the how and why, now why I LOVE IT. For starters, I've never seen another like it. Usually its all cadian, how do you know which models are yours if you fight another guard army? lol. but seriously, I see all these really shitty camo schemes, like blue, and captain falcon colors, and grey guys with red helmets, and the occasional all black, but come on! yeah the cadian pattern looks cool, and the rest of that stuff sucks dick, but you don't have to field a lame ass army! Or one that's the same as everyone elses! To you catachan players out there, GIVE YOUR SKIN TONES A WASH! you look like you're fieldin' a bunch of barbies with guns.

Alternative ideas for camouflage patterns:
US Army ACU camo
USMC desert digital (I might throw in a few of these myself just to see if I like it)
USMC urban camouflage (what the Marines wear in the movie "The Rock")
WWII olive drab (now with more olive drab!)
WWII German grey (now with more evil!)
vietnam era tiger stripe (not as difficult as everyone else makes it out to be, just paint yours smaller then everyone else does, that makes it lame)
Paramilitary scheme (think civilian clothes, but olive drab gear, actually not that bad)
star wars storm troopers (you'd have to do a bit of green stuff work, but nothing too difficult)

all I'm sayin is, I'm sick of shitty looking guardsmen, and all cadian guardsmen. now if your army looks shitty, or if you field cadians, or plastic pink catachans, GET OUT THERE AND DO SOME PAINTIN!