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.

Infantry Platoon: Where size -does- matter. Part 3

Welcome back to Infantry Platoon, for those of you who have not read the previous two entries i suggest taking a look at Part 1 and Part 2 and sorry for the delay on this part three but things have been very busy with 'ard boyz and other local events.

Part 3 will discuss the final three options in the Infantry Platoon: The Heavy Weapons Squad, the Special Weapons Squad, and the Conscripts Squad.

The Heavy Weapons Squad:

Made up of 3 heavy weapons teams of mortars the HWS is an essential to the imperial guard gun-line lists. They can have mortars, heavy bolters, autocannons, missile launchers, and lascannons in any combination, mixed and matched. They are also able to be equipped with krak grenades (though why you ever would is beyond me, i guess if someone decided to assault them with a walker?)

In my own lists I happen to enjoy all the different sort of weapons and prefer to keep my squads all the same type, though something can indeed be said about putting a lascannon with two missle launchers in order to protect the lascannon. With orders these squads can tear down enemy vehicles or squads with great efficiency. However they must be protected by those infantry squads or perhaps the conscripts.

Another tactic i have heard used, but never tried myself yet, is to load these heavy weapons teams up in chimeras bought through your infantry platoons, though that would no longer allow them to receive orders, this would provide them with a bit of extra protection.

Over all I -love- these guys, they rip through everything and are worth the points!

The Special Weapons Squads:

Special weapons squads are cheap methods of death dealing craziness, they are made up of 6 regular imperial guardsmen and three of them -must- take a special weapon. They can take flamers, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, meltaguns, plasmaguns and even the dreaded demolition charge.

Having not experimented to much with these, I have not quite made up my mind on them, though the cheapness of the squad itself combined with the amount of possible firepower protected by a chimera bought through the infantry platoons or through a valkyrie or vendetta can make them quite potent. After all who wants to see 3 large str 8 ap 2 blast templates tossed at them from a squad? Or three meltas on a tank? or three plasmas?

However I do not think the flamers or grenade launcher options are worth much here, though i can see the validity of having 3 snipers in some situations but it seems still a bit of a stretch.

Over all I want to see how these work on the field a bit more before i five my final answer.
The Conscripts Squad:

This squad of bodies can consist of anywhere between 20-50 bodies of WS and BS 2 imperial guardsmen with no possible upgrades unless you have Commander Chenkov in your army to give them the Send in the Next Wave option. With their low leadership of 5 it might seem like something you would not want to field, but once again just think about 50 bodies there to help plug up that front line and provide you cover, or stop an assault on your good troops. Then if you do have Chenkov in your army, they become infinitely better due to the fact that they can keep coming in over and over again! Plus with 1st Rank Fire, 2nd Rank Fire! you have got up to 150 las gun shots, which makes the BS 2 thing a bit more palatable.

Over all I would not consider using these all that often in competitive play, however in a game that is for fun with a friend, these fellows can provide endless (literally) entertainment.

That is all for now folks, let me know if there is anything specific you want me to cover otherwise I will be choosing my next topic soon.


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

FOR THE EMPEROR!

Infantry Platoon: Where size -does- matter. Part 2.

O.K. Folks, on my first post I covered the basics of the Infantry platoon and then the Platoon Command Squad itself, so this time I will be covering the next part of the troop choice.

The Infantry Squad

So first the basics, the squad consists of 9 regular guardsmen and 1 sergeant, with a single troop choice you are forced to take 2 of these at minimum up to a max of 5. The squads themselves have the normal option of trading 2 guys for a heavy weapons team, but unlike the Vet Squad you can only have 1 special weapon. Each squad can also be assigned krak grenades, a vox caster, a commissar, and a chimera and based on what you plan on doing with said squads will highly influence if you indeed want to take any or none of these.

From what I have seen at Adepticon as well as our own shop the majority of players either enjoy tossing large numbers of Infantry squads together with a commissar and a vox caster together with the combined squad special rule, and perhaps a special weapon or two and using them as a large squad objective holder, with stubborn. Perhaps taking some chimera's from them to stuff the heavy weapons teams into for their own protection, or the special weapons teams at that. The second method is to give each squad a special weapon and heavy weapon, load them into chimera's and have at it, giving the enemy lots of targets to choose from but none a large priority, often causing confusion.

My own method varies slightly from these as I prefer to to grab a medium sized combined squad, maybe 2-3 squads, give them some heavy weapons, a commissar, a vox caster, special weapons and then power weapons to the Sgt.'s and commissar and give them orders as i see fit, mostly to provide a screen of losable men to protect my tanks and the heavy weapons teams I have hiding behind them on the ground (why i leave them on the ground i will cover in their section of posts.)

A fun method, one that is expensive in points, but highly amusing is to run 5 squads, each with a Grenade Launcher, Krak Grenades, Commissar with PW, Sgt. with PW, one vox with 5 Ministorum Priests with shotguns and Eviscerators..... Those along (with the Plat. Comm. Squad) is 935 points of pure fun, but highly ineffective bliss.... I mean common... 60 guys? 15 of which have power weapons of some sort? That is indeed amusing.

Overall the Infantry Squad is quite the varied prankster, able to take orders and deal out tons of lasgun to lascannon firepower. The possibilities for competitive play, and theme for your armies are nearly endless, plus the added bonus of an impressive amount of models to show off.

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

FOR THE EMPEROR!

Infantry Platoon: Where size -does- matter. Part 1.

Well it is finally time to perhaps tackle the largest section of the Imperial Guard army, and to do so will take time, however, I am a kind Lord and will break it down into a few different sections to help keep this short and sweet.

Today's lesson will focus on the different methods of running the infantry platoon and on the Platoon Command Squad.

First there are a few different strategies, overall you can decide upon a few different things with your IG platoon force. The first being that you want to use it as a base for getting a hold on bunches of heavy weapons while keeping a few extra bodies in the way of them getting killed. The second being a mass amount of bodies designed to tear down opponents infantry with volumes of lasgun fire, or large amount of bodies in assault with hidden power weapons. Thirdly a rapid strike force of metlas in small squads or piles of demo charges with bodies to hold objectives. Fourthly, a method of grabbing a hold of lots of cheap armor in the form of Chimera's as each Infantry Squad can have one along with the PCS. Yet no matter the method you go for with this troop selection, all can be equally effective.

Now let us take a closer look at the Platoon Command Squad.

At its low point cost the 5 man squad can be highly effective, though its low model number can often leave it as a easy target, after all no opponent wants to just let you give -another- order. My advice? Don't make them a large threat. Give them a mortar or heavy bolter heavy weapons team (I prefer the former, as pinning can always be nice) and not much else, perhaps a chimera. Yet the squad has so many options available to it that it can be tempting to provide it with 4 flamers or sniper rifles or some such thing but there are after all dangers with this, as described before.

There are some things that just aren't worth it. Such as the Medpak, krak grenades, and (looks over his shoulder to make sure one isn't around) Commissar... i mean who wants to have their Platoon Commander shot in the head and no longer able to give orders? I mean, Imagine if you were running Al'rahem or Chenkov and all those points got jacked by a single failed leadership test? Ouch...

As for those two fellows... well each gives their own unique benefit to your army, after all... squads of outflanking metla/demo wielding special weapons teams and chimera after chimera backing them up?... mmmmm... brings smiles to my face... or endless bodies to throw at the Nids or demons? Lovely....

Look at your platoon command squad as a small bonus order (if you don't have Al'rahem or Chenkov) and nothing really more that is able to hold objectives and try and make them hardly noticeable to try to keep them alive, soon your opponent will realize their error of course, but by then 145 lasgun shots have been plastered into them and their 10 man Tac squad now only has 2 guys left in it... mmmmmm Victory tastes so sweet...

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

FOR THE EMPEROR!

Imperial Guard Veterans: Wait they have BS 4?

I cant even begin to describe the amount of times people have looked at me with glazed... dazed eyes as I say "Yes, my vets have a BS 4... yes, I am sure of this." Veteran squads have quickly become a main staple of most of my lists, mainly due to the fact I was getting ready for Adepticon team tournament and they fit nicely in 1000 points. Yet let us get a bit deeper into the dark recesses of this troop choice.

The vet squad had a few things goings for it, number one is its BS 4 and its relatively low point cost compared to our other choices. The increased BS makes for a wonderful addition over regular squads mainly due to the second important thing: 3 SPECIAL WEAPONS!!!!! And thirdly is the Chimera as a transport, always a bonus.

3 special weapons is like a godsend to any guard player who relied on their 1 per squad and a million squads to get their meltas through. Of course this has other benefits, with 3 flamers you inflict lots of wounds, 3 plasmas mean bye bye feel no pain/termies, grenade launches mean bye bye orcs and dark eldar, and 3 sniper rifles... well... some at my store aren't fans... but how can you deny 36 inch rending wounds on 4 you bastard demon/nid player! HA!

Ahem...

Besides that you have a full array of heavy weapons, making that autocannon oh so much more worth it as BS4 (Lascannon too! woohoo!)

Next the sergeant gets some nice goodies too, I mean who doesn't like 2 power fists for so so cheap! Or a shotgun for FREE! (along with the rest of his boys)

A few people are not fans of the doctrines available to the vets (except for Demos) mostly on the Grenadiers, though you do not see many people taking Forward Sentries either. I am however fond of both, as giving Grenadiers to the vets makes them far more survivable against their vehicle exploding or burning myself on plasma guns (plus tau guns and bolters aren't auto kills). The Forward Sentries i see more as how your store runs things, if there is plenty of cover about, giving yourself the additional +1 to cover saves can be quite nice and taking away a charge bonus can mean enough guys surviving to fight back or not against an assault.

An interesting method for the guard around my area that has worked wonders is to triple up on metlas, or two and one flamer, then toss in the Demolitions doctrine and exchanges all the vets lasguns for shotguns... after all if you hit with that demo charge and kill off some along with the shotguns and flamer... woohoo that power weapon/power fist on your vet Sgt might just kill off the remaining few left alive of whom you are assaulting (plus the 10 meltabombs in case you are working against a vehicle)

My personal favorite is to run triple sniper and lascannon for that armor killing ability at long range and monstrous creature handling. Another fave as of late has been triple plasma gun lascannon for termies and feel no pain takers.

As for the two special characters available to the Vet squads... both are quite nice, after all a relentless heavy bolter is AMAZING if you sit and think about it for Harker (on top of everything else he gives) or the ability to give your vets twin linked against monstrous creatures/vehicles from the order given to them by Bastonne when wielding the triple plasma/triple melta vets and the always regroup rule is nice too!

Over all the vet squad is definitely in the running for best Troop choice for Imperial Guard... though in my own opinion it really depends on what type of army you are going for, troop based or vehicle based.

Penal Legion

Hello again DFG readers, Lord Solar here with our first lesson in the Imperial Guard. First lets talk about the codex as a whole and then let me get into a breakdown of something specific.

The different views on how IG should be played is quite vast, with their varying troop choices and the variations in the troops themselves, to the multiple vehicle's available to it, both in the heavy and fast choices specifically, and lastly their specialty units placed inside the elite slots as well as one in the fast... This -doesn't- however mean that all the variations work. The IG codex is, according to most, a pure gun line codex with little or no thought of assault. Accordingly most pick either mass infantry gun spam, with some artillery support or mass tank spam with very little infantry support. (Or at least that's the philosophy I have seen played around with). Sometimes you might run across that fellow who will claim without any doubt that IG can assault and beware such and most people ignore such ideas, however I am here to tell you that to beware a 62 man squad assaulting you with 5 eviscerators, 10 power weapons and 2 power fists in there is quite a scary thing in my opinion.

Needless to say, its hard to decide what you want to do with IG because there is just -SO- much to do with them. So if you want to get to know what might work for you lets review the units of IG one at a time, from its most basic to its most complex.

So where do we start? How about:

Penal Legion Squad

At first glance when you look at the name of the choice I always think. “Wow these guys are going to be so cool!” Even after having read over their rules a million times. Then I decide to read such rules and the point cost and then comes the rambling anger that follows. However I think a fair and balanced idea of what these poor souls can do is in order. So lets talk:

The squad itself consists of 9 penal legion members and 1 custodian. They all have a decent leadership at 8 meaning that even if the so called Custodian dies you are left with a good chance of making any checks you need to against it. The squad size is of normal size for most armies and would seem at first glance to work well enough. However given their weapon skill and ballistic skill of 3 giving them the combined squad order that normal Infantry Platoons would seem like something they should have, and however do not, why it bothers me, will become more apparent.

Secondly we look at their gear. Like all guardsmen they are equipped with Lasguns, Flak Armor and a CCW, while the Custodian has laspistol, CCW and flak armor... thats it... no upgrades... not even the ability to take a chimera. Rough stuff here, mainly due to how much armor we see on the battlefield these days a few throwaway plasmas or meltas would be quite helpful or even perhaps the ability to toss them some krak grenades./melta-bombs, however no such luck once again,

Last but not least is where everyone looks to see how they make up those glaring flaws, and it starts out well enough. Scouts gives them the impressive ability to outflank, a sometimes vital necessity in games or the ability to move before the game starts, also quite useful when you don't have any transport. Second they get the Stubborn special rule, one of, if not -the best- special rule in the entire game, making their 8 leadership all that more impressive because it is not just the custodian that has it. Last but not least is their special special rule.... “Desperadoes”

Desperadoes can give the Penal Legion squad a whole grouping of USRs like making their guns assault 2, or giving them counter attack, fleet and furious charge, or lastly giving them a second CCW and rending. However the huge negative is you don't get to pick which one you want. It is randomly chosen on a die roll before deployment. As fun as this might seem, and is, in fun play, it makes the squads impossible in real competitive play. I mean, ask Captain Obvious how much he “loves” it when his witches roll “always strike first” when he -really- needed and wanted that 12 inch assault.

Over all it almost seems like this troop choice was just an afterthought for the codex, like someone in the office complained about how they removed Colonel Schaeffer's Last Chancers and decided to just toss these in. At to high a points cost with inefficient rules and no special weapons or transport they are just a burden to you rather than a helpful troop, I mean, they aren't even the cheapest troop choice! Perhaps you might ask how to make them better? How to make them playable? It is simple really. Even at their current point cost simply giving them the ability to combine squad before you roll off for their special rule would be a huge upgrade, along with rolling twice on the chart and taking two of the choices, rerolling if you rolled the same as the first time. Or shoot, give me the ability to choose their special rule and give me some special weapons to grab for them. Or a vehicle. Something....

I end up raging on about these guys up at the shop and I am sure Old School, Farseer, and Captain will be tired of hearing about my frustration but its out now and I am done with it. So unless you are playing a game for simple shits and giggles, ignore this troop choice, there are cheaper, more effective squads out there.

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

FOR THE EMPEROR!