Imperial Guard Platoons

So, one of the things that often confuses people, is the massively complex unit, known as an Imperial Guard Platoon. Each platoon is an army within an army. There is one HQ that's mandatory, the Lieutenant or "platoon commander" as well as two troops, in the form of guardsmen squads. You can take more troops. You can add some heavy support in the form of heavy weapons squads. Or you can add some special weapons with special weapons teams. Oh and conscripts, while mostly avoided, are also found here. Now the key thing here. This is all ONE troops choice from the force organization chart.... ONE TROOP CHOICE can be over 100 men. Easily. So. that said. We have the potential to field the largest armies, and put down the most hurtin in one turn. No other army can say that 100 plus infantry is a single troops choice. Now on the other hand, the platoon isn't too awful effective, but here are some tips.

Take a commissar, and if you do, put him in a combined squad, so his effects travel further.

I like to take 3 squads per platoon. And I'll combine two of the squads, and give them the said commissar from above.

I find equipping a platoon with all the same kit works best. To have a platoon of all rockets and plasma guns, or all heavy bolters and grenade launchers. My lieutenants retinue will follow this as well, with the addition of a standard bearer. Or if you don't like standards, a vox caster or another special weapon will do.

Typically I don't give my lieutenants much special kit. A bolt pistol, or a plasmapistol is enough. any more than that, you're just not gunna get your points worth.

Remember, the point of a platoon, is to hold objectives, and to put it gently, die. If they aint dyin, then they aren't doin their job. Its a grunt's life.

Cover is, as always with imperial guard, if not even more so here, vital to success. Nothin in the entire game is more necessary. It takes your measly 5+ armor save (nonexistent against bolters, or most weapons for that matter) to a whomping 4+ cover save. So what's the big deal? it increases you chance of surviving against bolters, from a 44% casualty rate, to a 22% casualty rate. And that makes your guardsmen worth their weight in gold. and between the incoming order, or just plain ol' goin to ground, you can increase that how you wish.

Typically, I try not to equip my squads with lascannons. On the basis of the fact that they will never have anything to shoot at. That and one lascannon will more than likely fail to blow up a vehicle anyway. So heavy weapons squads are pretty much the way to go. They all have the same range, and are all just as good as the other guys in the heavy weapon squad. so 3 lascannons, 3 autocannons, 3 mortars, 3 heavy bolters, that's how ya do it.

Lastly, remember that platoons compliment themselves rather nicely. Between the numbers advantage, and the similarity in function, they will most likely get the job done better together than each unit within acting on its own.

Powerfist!

Why... why doesn't every single space marine sergeant have a powerfist? sure its pricey, sure they might never need it. But today. In a small battle a friend and I had, his black templar sergeant did SOOOOO much damage with just a single powerfist. Now, I've fought powerfists before. I've even used them mahself before. But this guy, just rolled soooooo well. And for the first time in all my years of warhammer, I had my ass handed to me by pretty much a single average space marine. So why powerfist crazy? well, in a small game, that's a big deal. We're talkin 500 point game. and this guy took out not just my sentinel, but a building, and all my snipers. Oh, and a squad with a commissar and a squad of stormtroopers. ALL thanks to this one guy. so yeh. never again shall I let my friends new black templar army within 12 inches of me again. EVER. and since we don't take a single step back... that means makin' them step back...aka die. lol

Using Straken In Heroic Battles

When it comes to HQ versus HQ most armies expect imperial guard to fold in like paper. Well not if we use our good friend Colonel Straken. And especially not if you kit him right. How does one kit him properly? well, depends. There are a few builds you can run with.

Anti-Space Marine Captain: A priest, the charge and a medic are all you need here. No matter what you're gettin hit first, but thats alright, you got enough lads. But when you hit, just pierce their WS with the priests reroll to hits. and take him down with your str 7 power weapon. Easy peasy.

Anti-warboss: Don't expect to just run straken up and beat a warboss. Actually, straken would just get flattened if he and his men didn't take him out in the shooting phase. The one thing you have here is initiative. The warboss most likely will have a powerclaw. If so, straken could possibly take one wound from the warboss in CC reliably. But any more than that, you're asking too much. SO if you wanna live, take Nork Deddog, or spam meltaguns. No point in a medic in CC here. Ranged combat is your best bet here.

Anti-IG: the only real guy you have to look out for (other than another straken) is yarrick. But you should be able to take him out pretty easily just with strakens statline alone, so a priest for good measure, just incase you come across another straken.

Anti-Demon: Nork is a must here. Against the higher strengths, his toughness, and ability to take wounds for the Colonel, combined with the Colonels own close combat strengths, you got a winning duo. But if you don't wanna fork out the points for nork, just invest in a few more lascannons throughout the army.

Anti-tyrant: well, the key here with straken, is to get the charge. Do that, and with the additions of str and initiative, you might stand a chance. Cant do that? then pray you got the right guns, or a priest by your side.

At the end of the day Straken is still hard as nails, and its only through his prowess, and unexpected strengths that he can win the day. Not to mention he makes your average guardsmen pretty decent in CC

Marauder Bomber

For those of you who don't know, Marauder Bombers are the workhorse of the imperium's bombers. They do everything from bomb shit, to bomb shit thats like 10000 miles away. SO what are they like in game? well, they carry 12 bombs, have a tailgunner that fires twinlinked heavy bolters, nose mounted twinlinked lascannons, a turret mounted twinlinked heavy bolter. and uh... none of that matters but the 12 bombs. So yeah. Basically, anywhere this bad boy flies (and it can fly anywhere) it can drop up to 12 bombs in one bombing run over where it flew. NOW that said, only 12 bombs to drop. But since you only have 3 structure points, with a flimsy armor 10. might as well drop them on entry, and when that happens, you can drop them from anywhere to where your marauder is. so how use? well, whenever it comes in from reserve, find a good large amount of enemy infantry, or tanks. And just drop trow and let loose the payload. Each bomb is a str 6 ap 4 apoc barrage template. And the blast comes from the center, so cover is hard to get. Just aim for infantry, leave the tanks up to the rest, if you can, hit a tank tho, as it hits top armor. well, that's about it on the marauder. Other than that, use the remainder of its weapons how you see fit. At the very least at this point go for an apocalyptic explosion with it. Just fly over an enemy unit that will certainly kill it, and they don't know any better than to just shoot the shit out of it. and boom, it should blow up and kill somethin else with an even bigger explosion. lol, well, have fun, and love your bombers, and they will love you too.

Fall of Theorah Campaign part 004

As winter set on the planet of Theorah, The legions of the lost and the damned suffered hundreds of casualties a day due to their lack of equipment or care from the Sons of the Grave. Helcius scoffed at their frailty. Meanwhile, the unwary alliance of Space Marine and Tau was fraying at the seams. The Commander of the Lost and The Damned, Warlord Karkan, understood the necessity of getting deeper into the city before the cold truly came on in full force, so he decided to move, even if Helcius would not.

TLatD Push against the city

Mission Objective:
apocalypse and cities of death, objectives

Forces:
TLatD
4000 points
strategic assets and stratagems:
snipers
combat engineers
plunging fire
scheduled bombardment
tank riders
on my coordinates


Tau
4000 points

strategic assets and stratagems:
combat engineers
plunging fire
power station
obstacles
minefield
bunkers

Victor: TLatD
Aftermath
when it comes down to it, snipers really do make a difference in the rubble of 40k's cities of death. See, ratlings have their uses when against Tau. Everysingle turn I had at least two units pinned, thanks to mortars and snipers. in apocalypse two units isn't a whole lot, but in the scheme of things, per turn, thats doin some damage. The real kicker here was just how effective imperial guard are in cities. The whole real point of the match was for both me and my friend who each have the largest armies to clash.

Highlight Reel (translation of ingame moment) (yeah that's right, I just added a segment! wanna fight about it? didn't think so!):

So basically, one of my squads had been moving up steadily along one side of the board, taking cover and such when they came to a large intersection, where two tau bunkers were, and a minefield. The Tau had so much fire pouring down onto that intersection it was halting my entire advance. We're talkin two broadsides, three hammer heads, and over 30 firewarriors, all centered around their power station. My leman russes were giving a platoon a ride to the right, they were taking the real brunt of the damage. meanwhile, my squad moving up the left, snuck up and planted a melta bomb on one of the bunkers, the resulting facepalm of my opponent, was totally worth it. Not to mention when my basalisks took out his power station and my autocannons made short work of the remaining forces. So my MVP goes to bastonne and his lads for making their fantastic little stunt possible, and creating the first crack in their defenses, for which the rest to crumble around.

Over Priced

Some units are inevitably over priced, and some of those units tug at my fluffy heart strings. Particularly Vanguard Veterans from the Space Marine Codex. I go out of my way to make guardsmen assaulty, but to make Marines assaulty, that's somethin else entirely. Why? because its semi-doable, compared to guardsmen anyway. Here's the problem, one Vanguard vet the way I like to take them, is worth 60 points a pop. yeah, 60 points per space marine. Thats one incredibly pricey unit. So why do I do it? why does anyone do it? its badass. The tournament types learned to not read what I have to say long ago, so here I am for the fluff types, and I say do it. I mean, if you want to see space marines deepstrike with thunderhammers, and assault the turn they arrive, GO FOR IT. Sure they'll die. Sure you won't get your points worth. But provide a punch your opponent wont forget. Hit him so hard with that unit, with 20 str 8 power weapon attacks, out of nowhere. and you will be on your way to killing whatever the fuck it is you want. Just make it count!

Creating Characters

One of the reasons I feel that armies like Tau and Tyrannids, and especially necrons don't make it into the most popular armies, is they just CAN'T win hearts and minds. There's no personality there. Between communists, bugs and robots, where the hell are you gunna squeeze in a little character? As Imperial Guard, I'm the most human of all the races, literally. Thats far from why I chose it, but it ended up being one of the coolest parts of the job. See, with so many men, I have quite a few leaders. Each leader being someone I have based off a friend. Most of my friends don't play warhammer, and its an interesting thing when I say, hey, wanna see your model? and all of the sudden its far more interesting. Obviously, if you play orks, its hard to get that in there, but oh well, your characters will just have to be THAT much more creative. How do you come up with a character based off a friend? First off, you have to choose a role for your friend. Are they well liked? are they leaders? are they average troops? or specialist troops? can they fulfill their role well? or are they bad at it? if so, is it funny? Sometimes I'm tasteless about it, like all my dead friends are in a squad of men that are all dying, and the most leaderly of my dead friends is the sergeant who is looking on in horror. Its tasteless, but I still find it rather funny. (yeah, I have enough dead friends to fill a squad). Next up we have their weapons loadout. Most of them will be defined by their role, but sometimes, particularly the leaders can have a lot more character in their loadout. For example, my more reserved friends get ranged, my more intense friends get close combat. I like to make characters from the game, and fill their special rules for my friends, for example, Chenkov, is replaced with Wally, and he is able to have a similar mindset, and fits well with how I field my army. Lastly, how you use them on the table is up to you, but I find making the decisions you think that they would make, makes them roll better, and makes for a better story.

Plasma or Melta?

Melta has one more and more debates than plasma has ever dreamed of winning, and with that in mind, I side with plasma. Plasma may be more expensive, it may be weaker, and it may have a slight chance of killing the user. SO? plasma is a 24 inch range weapon, that can pierce space marine armor, and wounds them on a 2+ I'm sold. Not only am I sold, but I'll effin buy it all. In fact, in each squad for two platoons I have I have a plasmagun, and a plasmapistol for a total of 12 plasma weapons, at close range, thats 18 plasma shots. Combine that with the 6 rocket launchers, and in six squads I'm gettin 24 ap 3 or lower shots, so space marines, you can suck it, no saves. Melta, you don't get that, melta you get 6 shots to my 18, and with less range. while you may be str 10, I'll stick with my plasma, and as far as points go, I don't mind, they miss 50% of the time, so more shots is worth the higher price. And as far as the dying goes, theres a 12% chance a guardsmen will die everytime they fire one of the guns, so what? they're guardsmen, there's more. so melta, have your overpowered BS :p