Imperial Guard in 6th Edition, a new series

Hello once again ladies and gents, up here in grand ol' Michigan we have started diving in more and more into the world that is 6th edition. The more we dig in, the more I at least realize things have changed. I do not mean that the entire thing has been turned upside down, but some units have becomes far more viable, and some less so.

Hello my name is Rambo... I mean Marbo... Mar-bo

Well we all knew it was coming at some point. A long look at what many a person consider to be one of the best units in the Imperial Guard list point for point.

Now I am not going to even attempt to say that Mr. Marbo is bad... but I will at least give the realistic view on his capabilities. So here it goes....

GUARDSMAN MARBO

Ok lets start with his universal special rules, starting with those i consider good. Fleet (awsome), Hit and Run (Sweet!), Stealth (perfect!) and last but not least move through cover. All these make Marbo a great little move about guy who loves his cover and will take it where-ever he can get it to take a 3+ cover save. He only has one Universal Special Rule that is a bit negative in my eyes. That would be fearless, now I know there are some psychic powers that force morale tests, but its hard enough to make his 5+ armor save in close combat once... let alone a second time if we happened to lose by 1 (somehow)

As for his unique special rules, one is very nice, while the other is kinda bad but not too upsetting. First lets go with the good: He's Behind You. This special rule Gives you the ability to place Marbo within an inch of any other model in the turn he arrives from reserves. You cant assault from this (disappointing I know) but it gives a great opportunity for his Demo Charge to hit exactly where you want it to. The slightly negative special rule would be Loner. This rule makes it so that he can not receive orders, it sounds bad, but most of the time you will be placing Marbo out of orders range anyhow. Over all he definitely has a bonus of good special rules however Eternal Warrior would be quite nice to have with his two wounds since he is only T 3.

Now for his Equipment. As already discussed he has a 5+ armor save, and a Demo charge (mmmmm Str 8 AP 2 large blast....), he also has a Envenomed Blade which is a poison CCW that wounds on a 2+ (a nasty bit of damage can be done when you get 6 attacks on the charge), a Ripper Pistol which is a AP 2 sniper rifle pistol with a 12 inch range (with his BS 5 this can be quite nice) and last but not least Melta Bombs. Need anymore to be said? This guy is a walking death dealer in terms of his weapons, but a paper cannon in terms of his armor save, 2 wounds without eternal warrior don't mean much.

Strategy:

As we look at Marbo and what he has and his stat line we realize he can be quite dangerous, if used properly. This is a hard thing how to tell to do besides: Find a group of models, put him near it and blow it up with a demo charge. However this isn't the only method of destroying people with him. You can also place him hidden away, and move him about to assault an unsuspecting group of models with his 6 attacks and hit and run him away to safety once its over.

The best is if you are able to combine the two if he lives through his first turn of being shot at.

For example the first time i really tried Marbo I was in a team game against Old School and his Chaos Plague Marine army and Captain Obvious and his Black Templar army. Marbo came in, tossed his Demo Charge on a group of Black Templar Assault Marines, and killed 7 of them in the blast, was assaulted by 3 plague marines, killed one, didnt get hurt, then killed another by its fearless check. Then hit and ran 16 inches away, next turn helped some stormtroopers assault a space marine squad with a heavy weapon and killed that off with 2 more kills, then ran away again to go after some more plague marines shooting down 2 and killing 2 more in close combat.... He had moved in total from one side of the board all 6 feet across to the other, creating havoc and mayhem the entire way and not dying.

Old School and Captain Obvious were stunned, and scared of the guy from them on... trust me... ask them. Marbo in that game has sort of become a legend at our FLGS after that performance.

Now, I am not saying that he will perform to these standards, as I also have experiences where he tosses his Demo charge on top of himself killing only himself. So he is a back and forth model, but it is TONS of fun to take him and at 65 points he fits into almost any list.

What do you think? What are your experiences?

Until next time, burn some heretics, kill some mutants, and do it always....

FOR THE EMPEROR!

Why hello... we have psychic powers...

Hello Ladies and Gents,

Today we will be covering the wonderful elite choice of the Imperial Guard of...

Psyker Battle Squad

As I am sure some of you are aware of by now, (or at least I hope you are) I enjoy varying up my lists on a consistent basis, not only to keep things fresh for my opponents, but for myself. This helps me as a player by better knowing how my codex acts and how my opponents might react to different styles of play and units I might field.

However, this also can lead to some units not being played to often, one of those, woefully underplayed by myself, happens to be the Psyker Battle Squad. Mainly due to my own lack of thinking about them when I am creating a list, much to my own determent!

First their equipment and upgrades. This is pretty basic, equipped with CCWs and Laspistols, no upgrades available except the ability to increase their numbers to 9 psykers and 1 overseer from 4 psykers and 1 overseer and all between and the ability to buy a chimera as a dedicated transport.

Second lets hit their special rules. First off they are Psykers (except for the Overseer), so they can cast 1 psychic power a turn. Considering they only have two different powers, this isn't such a huge deal. The second special rule is the Psychic Choir special rule which states that the entire squad is treated as a single psyker, a nice thing making it so you only have to roll psychic tests once, instead of once for every guy in the squad... however this does have a downside which is the last special rule. Ultimate Sanction states that instead of suffering Perils of the Warp, the overseer instead kills off D3 psykers... but if somehow he happens to die... they suffer Perils instead.

Now for the important stuff right? Their powers. First off is Soulstorm which is a large blast template with the strength of the number of psykers alive in the unit (yes thats right it can be Str 9) and an AP value of your roll on a D6. Oh... and just in case you really needed to... its assault... so if you wanted to shoot it at a squad 6 inches away... you can then assault them... which might seem silly... but they do have 3 attacks a piece on the charge...

Second power is the one you most likely have seen used... as we definitely have around our FLGS, is Weaken Resolve which states that the Psyker Battle Squad chooses a unit within 36 and line of sight and reduces their leadership by the amount of psykers in the unit down to a minimum of 2. Quite a nasty combination when dealing with non-fearless or non-stubborn units, causing them to run away, and if early in the game, off the board. Really nice due to the fact this is not a shooting power which means it can be cast on pretty much the entire board turn 1 if you placed your unit in a chimera and let it go. It also has been very useful in keeping units pinned down by the shots from Ratlings or Veterans with sniper rifles or a squad of mortars.

Over all the Psyker Battle Squad can be quite a nasty thing to use even its point costs are not that high! I mean 165 points is the max you can put in this unit! Besides that they add a varied, surprising aspect to your army that your opponent might not be prepared to fight against, both with the large blast template and with the ability to reduce the leadership on an opponent. So why not try them out sometime?

Until next time, burn some heretics, kill some mutants, and do it always....

FOR THE EMPEROR!

Mmmmm Sniper Rifles......

Ok, so I have been out of town for awhile and while out thought on what section of the Imperial Guard Codex I would begin to talk on next, So i came to the conclusion that something often overlooked (outside of one choice) is the Elite choices. Now I am not sure why this exactly is, but people seem to prefer their fast attacks to the different elites for us, but perhaps I can now convince a few of you to try out something else.

Today we are covering.....

RATLINGS

At a measly 10 points for a model, sniper rifle, infiltrate, and scout, you can not really go wrong here. Many people complain about how sniper rifles only wound on a 4+ but when you are an imperial guard player, you have to remember that most of the time we are wounding on a 5+ or 6+ it seems, and at best a 4+ anyway with our lasguns.

With this in mind we look to some of their stats, and while Str 2, Toughness 2, and WS 2 is scary, having Ballistic skill 4, Initiative 4 is great! Hitting on a 3+ in shooting can never be discounted, look back at how much we talked about it in the Veteran section. And don't let the WS 2, Str 2 scare you too much, with initiative 4 you will be able to get in a few swings and possibly kill off a few guys before you are run over in combat (heck I was able to -win- combat against some gaunts in my most recent 'ard boyz tournament with them!)

The most important thing to remember about Ratlings though is indeed the -sniper rifle- as it not only wounds any creature, from your normal space marine to a Wraithlord your local Chaos Daemon players Scabieathrax from Imperial Armor on a 4+ it takes away their -ARMOR SAVE- on a 6 plus and can penetrate anything up to Armor 11 and glance anything Armor 12!

Look at it this way, in a standard 1500 point game, you can have 30 BS 4 Sniper Rifles... and still have 1200 points to mess around with...

Or think of it in even scarier terms. You can have 30 BS 4 Sniper Rifles in your 400 point game of Combat Patrol and still have room for a Vet Squad with equipment.

So what do you think? What have your experiences been with these hobbits of 40k?

And until next time, burn some heretics, kill some mutants, and do it as always...

FOR THE EMPEROR!