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!
