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!

thirsting for realism

alright, so prepare for a rant!

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

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

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

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

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

Siege Rules

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

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

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

Sound crazy? it should.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No get out there! and man those walls!

.... Nuke em.

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

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

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

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

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

The Road To Ruin

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

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

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

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

A word on Air Cav

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

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

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

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

Happy Anniversary!

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

Upcoming Doubles Match

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

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

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

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

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

Going to Ground

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

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

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

Digging In

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

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

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

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

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

....yeah....

Kill Team List and Tactics

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

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

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

Alpha Strike and How Not To Do It

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

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

Battle Report: Kehsuvall part 1

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

2000 points
annihilation

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

stay tuned for the epic conclusion!

grenadiers

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

Using Stormtroopers

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

semper gumbi (always adaptable)

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

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

What I have:

sergeant Bastone

sniper rifle

heavy flamer

plasmagun

grenadiers

rocket launcher

best loadout:

sergeant bastone

3 plasmaguns

grenadiers

rocket launcher

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

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

how to stop a WAAAGH!!!

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

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

Terminators? ...fuck.

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

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

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

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

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

fields of armor

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

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

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

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

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

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


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