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.

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!

A Look Back

I find myself the only person who actually, deeply misses the old IG codex. If for nothing else, for light infantry doctrine, I always took that, as well as sharpshooters, cameleoline, and hardened veterans. That made my army a whole lot pricier, but in the end it was worth it. People don't expect to fight a Gaurd army where everyone can infiltrate, and move through cover, get better coversaves, win in close combat, as well as essentially being ballistic skill 3.5 (reroll ones).

I think that without the doctrines, we certainly lost a big advantage. That's where the real fluff for IG came from. You could have any unique army you wanted, and I certainly enjoyed playing that army more than the new stuff. I like new platoon system, its a lot more defined, and I like the new stormtroopers, but overall, I don't care for the codex anywhere near as much. Granted, orders help with some of that, and keeps your army far more flexible, but I miss the fluff, and being an underdog. Now I feel like a cheapskate everytime I win, and people chalk it up to an OP army, instead of a tactical victory, I don't always want to win.

Doubles Match

Gearing up for a big game is one of the best parts of the hobby. Its that thrill of massing your army, preparing to fight a great foe, for glory and possibly loot. I find myself gearing up for a doubles match in about a month or so. Its nothing too major, just 1500 a person, and there are only 4 of us. However, it should be interesting nonetheless. My teammate is fairly new to the hobby, it will be about his third game, but I'm confident he will do fine.

Now, we don't exactly know what armies our foes will bring, because each has two armies, and they are staying pretty closed lipped about which they will bring. One foe, I am absolutely not worried about, because he plays either Tau, or IG, both of which my army easily beats. The other player is a bit more worrisome, he will either be playing Chaos Space Marines, or Necrons. I have no idea what CSM army he has collected, and I've only fought Necrons once, and they were on my team, so I don't know much about fighting them.

IG have a problem against Space Marines (and therefore Chaos Space Marines) and Necrons.
their armor, and other tough as nails attributes are just too much for the lasgun. So here's the plan:

My buddy, who collects Space Marines, will be dropping in with a couple of drop pods, and hopefully tie up the Chaos, or Crons. While he does that, My Vendetta, with Grae's Grenadiers in it, will be flying over the Tau or IG lines. I will drop my men into their gunline and kill as many as possible, which should be alot, while my Vendetta will blast at one of the Cron, or Chaos units. What will probably happen, is after two turns, our harassment forces should be killed off, however, they bought precious time for the rest of our army. My guard, led by Straken and a hefty unit of flamers, should make short work of any surviving Tau or IG. While my stormtroopers, aided by my buddies Terminators and other Marines, should be able to kill the rest of the Chaos or Crons.

Granted, it's simple, but the more simple the stronger they are, because fewer things can go wrong. I hope it works, and no matter what, it will be fun.

This Party is Rue-eeind.

In what situations is it better to get in an intact building than a ruin, and when is a ruin better than a building? Ruins are generally better against vehicles, seeing as they are already destroyed, and buildings are better against infantrymen who can't pierce that armor. There, settled... what do you mean that article was short? I have a cold okay. Fine, I'll add more.

Now how do I make my buildings or ruins you ask? Well, since I need all my money for models, I can't afford GW ruins. Instead of spending $30 or so on a building, I simply make my own. Out of cardboard YAAAY! but in order to make it look better there are a ton of things you can do. For instance adding some small rocks, mud, or boarded windows is a great plan. Always make sure you base coat the building in black, or even grey. Then usually I slap on some textured spray-paint, the stone kind from Lowes, and there you go, some awesome ruins. Lastly I like to glue helmets in the windows, like they used to do in WWII so the snipers would shoot them, and having a row of lasguns on the wall helps too.

Killing is My Business...

A lot of people overlook snipers in the Imperial Guard, and I don't know why. I have two veterans I currently field, one for offense Grae's Grenadiers (covered in a previous article), and another for defense, they are the subject of this article.

With Cameleoline they are afforded the stealth special rule, and with snare mines, they are even better on defense. Now the reason I don't field my snipers as part of a special weapons team, is those only have BS 3, and don't have stealth or snaremines. Veteran's have BS 4 and all that snipery goodness. Now what makes snipers worth it? Well for starters they lend a fantastic weapon to the unit, it can take anything out, regardless of toughness on a 4+, and on rolls to wound that roll a 6, it is an instant wound, regardless of any saves. On top of that, it counts as pinning, and has 12 inches on a normal rifle. This saves my but against Tau, which are easy to pin, and hate it when you have them in range, and they don't have you in range. I use my snipers for all sorts of things, and just to make sure that the job gets done, they have an autocannon in the unit.

The sniper rifle is truly a great, and overlooked weapon, it can deal with light-infantry by pinning them, and heavy infantry, even monstrous creatures, with its rending rule, and the fact it ignores toughness.

Glory Boys

Stormtroopers, the word conjures both images of the pristine white servants of the evil Star Wars Empire, and the elite of the Imperial Guard. We will speak of the latter.

Stormtroopers are your answer to those pesky Space Marines, roughly the same cost in points, and 1v1 they are evenly matched, however you get even more with a stormtrooper, you get Spec Ops.

There are three Spec Ops options:

Reconnaissance (scouts, move through cover): I rarely use this, but in games like a cityfight, or in a jungle map, it could be handy, but generally you are better off using one of the other options. But this is nice if you need that scouts move, so determine before deployment if you need that scout move worse than your previous plan. Also remember if you put them in a Chimera, the transport also gains the scouts rule, so keep that in mind. You could potentially outflank with that Chimera, imagine their surprise when a tank shows up at their back door.

Airborne Assault (re-roll scatter dice for deepstrike): This is pretty obvious, if you are deepstriking, take this, it will greatly benefit you, almost ensuring your units survival.

Behind Enemy Lines (infiltrate and first shot is pinning): This is my favorite, it gives me more options than the rest. Do I want to infiltrate, or outflank (more than once their outflanking charge has saved the day.) Also the pinning thing is great, because that is the potential to have 20 pinning shots from a single unit, pretty awesome.


Let's talk about the stormtrooper's capabilities, one of the important factors people often forget about, is the fact that every stormtrooper carries a hotshot pistol. This allows them to assault and fire their AP 3 pistols in the same turn, and gives them all an extra attack, making them even better. I often use this to my advantage when I outflank, it makes a big difference when you count the pistols. Now because I use them this way, I often give the sergeant a powersword and a plasmapistol, this enables him to rip through Space Marines, or anything else foolish enough to get in the way of my lads. Also I usually use a plasmagun and a flamer in my squad, this enables them to deal with both light infantry and heavy infantry.

Their are some downsides to stormtroopers, like a crummy WS and only range 18" but between deepstrike, scout, or infiltrate, you shouldn't have a problem getting in close. Other than that, there aren't a whole lot of downsides.

Lastly, don't forget their ability to act as simply superior Guardsmen, with their increased ballistic skill, heavy armor, and improved weaponry, they are right at home leading a charge or taking heavy fire like the rest of them.

"Hello World." "Here's Your Gun."

In reference to the title, conscripts are basically untrained and too young to fight under normal circumstances, however hard times call for desperate measures. As far as on the game board conscripts are totally rejected, I have never seen another player use them. I however love the drama there.

As usual, I will talk about what makes them bad first. Look at the veteran, increased BS and leadership than the normal Guardsman, he is two points more, then look at the conscript, worse in absolutely every way (other than armor, weapon, strength and toughness) and is but a single point less. In my opinion they should be at least 2 points less, but I think in order for people to except them they need to be 2 points a piece. I know that is ridiculous, but I mean no one uses these guys. Man per man, point for point, you are actually better off using a Guardsman.

Now what makes these young 'uns worth bringing to the table?

There are two ways to field them that work, in small units and large units, and it all depends on what you're using them for. If you want defenders take a small unit, and give them Send In The Next Wave. With that special rule you essentially have an unlimited reserve of conscripts. These are handy in capture and control where your firebase is within your deployment zone so your conscripts can essentially always be there to defend it. The other way to field them is as a large group of around 50, this is decent on defense, but really shines on offense, and is a little more versatile to the smaller ones that are constantly coming in and dying. They are more versatile because you aren't constantly having to start over with them, so they can actually go out and do something, however don't expect any to be left alive by the end of the game. Use your conscripts as expendable fodder, I usually don't do this to my beloved men, however I do like to play into the lore, and a bit of heartlessness is refreshing. Ideally use them to act as a meatshield for advancing tanks or waves of infantry. Ideally their large size, should prevent them from taking too many morale checks. Also a good thought for conscripts is to look like another large unit, about 30 or so men in a ruin or something is a hard thing to dig out, even if they are conscripts. When used as a faux unit, I will usually give them a heavy weapons squad of autocannons, to make up for their lack of firepower and range.

There is another thing that conscripts are good for, and that's large armies. When a platoon comes in from reserve, or is deployed, you can have up to one hundred models or more come in. This is especially handy in dawn of war, or if you just want to shock your opponent. In dawn of war, you can pretty much start out with your entire army on the table, or at least look like it to your opponent, who has like 20 space marines compared to your 200 Guard. Do you need conscripts for this? not really, but that's a lot of extra models that only help look like a massive wave of Guard.

Is the conscript worth it in the end? No, but I try and field them anyway, for the simple fact it brings me some unexpected options, and more bodies on the table. I encourage any Guard player to give them a shot in your next game, and use them in creative ways, especially playing to their perceived uselessness.

Heavy Weapons

Basically heavy weapons are the means by which you win battles, dirt cheap, and pack a massive punch, better yet, they are troops. Heavy weapons can either park on objectives, or act as the support role in your army. Personally I have a love hate relationship with them, because they are $35, how do I overcome this? some creative modeling, instead of spending that, simply convert six men from a squad into them, this works great with rocket launchers, but it works just fine with things like autocannons too. One of my men has an autocannon and uses a mortar stand as a bipod.

Mortar:
One of my favorite heavy weapons is the mortar, easily convertable so you don't need to spend that money on extra troops (just use the same troops from whatever squad gave 4 men up to an officer's squad, then you have 6 left over, perfect for a heavy weapons squad), and I like the mortars for their range and pinning power. Against Tau, the mortar works wonders, and also against other Guard. A lot of other Guard players dismiss the mortar due to its minimal strength 4, and AP 5, and its only a small blast, so how is it going to hit anything, let alone kill it? Well, some things lend the mortar strength beyond its statistics, its barrage, so you can fire over cover, and the whole "you can't use the model's BS to keep it on course" only applies if the model can't see it's target. Speaking of which, it can fire over terrain, so you can place them behind a large piece of terrain, and your opponent usually won't see a threat in them, so they will go the entire battle unharmed. This weapon won't kill a whole lot of people, however, its only 60 points and at the very least it can hold objectives.

Autocannon:
Without doubt, my favorite piece of heavy weaponry is the .50 cal autocannon, with two strength 7 shots it pulps Guard, Tau, Eldar infantry, and Nid Gaunts instantly, and with range 48, what's not to love? its cheap, strong, and long ranged. I field them with my defensive squads, this is the only heavy weapon I suggest for infantry squads, because it lends to their strengths, as long as they are on defense.

Heavy Bolter:
If you only fight Guard or Nids, then yeah go for it. Otherwise, I can't say I love this weapon. If you do field it, then field it in a heavy weapon squad, that's nine strength 5 shots in a single turn, from a relatively cheap unit, perfect for fighting horde armies.

Lascannon:
Don't ever field this with an infantry squad, they don't work well in the same unit. That said, lascannons are perfect for killing terminators, vehicles, and monstrous creatures, and work particularly well with the "Bring it Down!" order, which makes them count as twinlinked.

Rocket Launcher:
My least favorite heavy weapon of all, with strength 8, it will take out a light vehicle, but for the points it's not worth it, and as an anti-infantry weapon, there are weapons that do it far better.



Now that I've covered that, understand the different roles that heavy weapons can play. On defense heavy bolters should be placed directly on the objective, so their short range isn't so much of a problem, and you can use their immense firepower effectively. A great supplement to any defense, is mortars, placed a good distance away, they can hammer anyone attacking your defenders, or even if the enemy has captured the objective. If the mortar pins them then use the other elements to finish the enemy unit off. Even if the Mortar doesn't kill them then at least they are a nearby unit that could potentially contest, or at the very least force your opponent to go out of his way to kill them. As a support, mortars also come into play, so make sure when you place them, you place them so they can both defend and support. Lascannons shouldn't care about their own welfare, simply take out what poses the greatest threat to you, such as enemy tanks (obviously) and those pesky terminators. Autocannons should do their best to support the infantry from afar helping them advance by mowing down swathes of enemy heavy troops, the lasguns can get the rest.

So there you go, any more questions, ask and I will answer.

The Sentinel

There are three builds of the sentinel I love to field, the first is my general purpose sentinel:

Optimally fielded as two separate scout sentinels so they can fire at multiple targets if necessary, this is a defensive sentinel build, equipped with an autocannon so i can target just about anything, and cammo netting. Basically use your scout movement to get your sentinels into cover and killing by turn one.

second is my anti-infantry sentinel:

also a scout sentinel, and instead equipped with a heavy flamer, that's it. I simply outflank with my sentinels, and use them both in the same unit, that way, they can burn the bejesus out of any light infantry, and enter close combat in the same turn, to prevent the enemy from shooting any of the big stuff at them. This build is fantastic for fighting Guard, Tyrannids, even Tau if used properly (kroot hate flamers).

And lastly, is my least used build, the Anti-tank sentinel:

This is a heavy sentinel, with smoke launchers, and a lascannon. Use both sentinels together so you can keep them moving across the table (units in squadrons treat crew shaken as crew stunned, so they can keep moving even if they can't fire) and use the smoke launchers to create cover where there is none, just make sure only one pops smoke at a time, so the other can save it's if need be. I don't use this build a whole lot, because my Vanquisher tank does most of the vehicle killing, and armor 12 isn't enough to keep this alive long against most heavy weapons for the price of these guys.

The Lowly Guardsman

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

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

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

Here are some suggestions for your guardsman:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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