Imperial Guard Tactica

You are now entering Jeff B's school of Warhammer 40K....Here, I will “attempt” to teach you the how to's and not to's of 40k tactica. This is a diverse and colorful game in which each army has a it's own tone and playing style. Understanding each army's 'personality' is necessary for building an effective strategy and achieving victory. I will construct for you the thought process I use to create my armies. I analyze unit selections and use them as, in my opinion, they should be used. Or, for that matter, not used at all. In effect, I will show you how to create a list that works, with a theme if desired, without being a homo! Which, for all us lady lovers out there, is an important thing. The first lesson is going to be with my first army, The Imperial Guard.

The Imperial Guard - General Thoughts
The Imperial Guard is a unique army for a number of reasons:
1. The army construction template itself is unique because of it's use of platoons. No other army does that.
2. The army creates false perceptions about its strengths and weaknesses at first glance. Lots of guns doesn't necessarily mean lots of hits.
3. It requires a proper combination to maintain balance and effectiveness. Anti-infantry must be balanced with anti-tank. This may get tedious, but it's worth it. If the Imperial Guard is harmonized well, it can be one of the most brutally effective armies available.

Getting Started

The first thing you need to establish when constructing a list for your Imperial Guard army, after points total of course, is your tone/theme. For example, you can create a fast response mobile army, or you can create a heavy weapon laden ground force. Then you could always try the assault weapon ground advance force. Each has distinct unique features that make it appealing. For this first installment, I will describe and explain the list I currently use. I , for now, prefer the good old traditional heavy weapon laden ground force. Also, list combinations make use of the codex entries and imperial armor entries. No allies.

The List - "It's Raining Templates" or "Templates Don't Miss, Sucks To Be You!"

Theme: This list plays on the primary strength of the Imperial Guard, raw firepower. This list also exhibits flexibility, with no particular tone. It is not bound to anti-tank or anti-infantry, but can perform both roles equally.

Before I go on, I want to make it abundantly clear that list construction is dependent on the current rule set. The rule set controls, in effect, what is "good" and what is "not". There is one radical rule change in particular on which I rely heavily. The fact that blast weapons no longer roll to hit, but scatter minus BS, is HUGE. HUGE. ALL IMPORTANT. The entire function of this list requires that.

My list is not purely infantry, but contains vehicles as well. I use no doctrines other than allow heavy weapon platoons, and ratlings. Doctrines can be useful, but they tend to consume points too fast. For this list, I resisted the temptation to use any other than selection additions. I will now outline my list selections and their merits as I see them, starting with my HQ.

HQ Command: I take the required command platoon with a heroic senior officer. He has a powerfist and a plasma pistol(S7,AP2,pistol). The 4 squad men each have a plasma rifle(S7,AP2,rapidfire24"). This is now a good arrangement because they returned misfire to just 1's instead of 1's and 2's. These 5 guys are joined by a commissar w/ a powerfist and plasma pistol. They all ride in a chimera w/ a multilaser(S6,AP6,3@36"), heavy flamer(S5,AP4,template), heavy stubber(S4,AP6,3@36"), rough terrain mod, and extra armor. This chimera pattern is a standard template for me. I think it has the best combination of long range anti-personnel fire, while still being moderate against light tanks. You can never go wrong with a heavy flamer, its use I will explain in tactica later. You want to be able to move around safely so the RT modification is a must. Extra armor is cheap and comes in handy sometimes. This unit is primarily a control group that responds to close range attacks and heavy infantry. The commissar gives the heroic senior LD10, so he can control your surrounding troops(IF YOU WANT TO!). I will explain that last comment in tactica later.

HQ Heavy: Also technically included in the HQ slot are the weapon teams I employ. I use 3 lasconnon teams(S9,AP2,1@48"), 3 heavy bolter teams(S5,AP4,3@36"), and 3 mortar teams(S4,AP6,1@48"guess small blast). The lascannons are for anti-tank and heavy infantry, the heavy bolters are for anti-infantry along with the mortars. Many people have cocked their eyebrows at the mortar team inclusion. These are among my favorite additions to the army. This is because of the nature of the new game being cover save intensive. Most shots will provide the target a cover save. The mortar is a barrage weapon, which denies a cover save and causes pinning. It also has a 48" range, which isn't too shabby! This concludes my HQ selection, and I will now move on to troops.

Troop Command: As before, I take the required infantry platoon. This selection is where the Imperial Guard significantly deviate from other armies. Same with the HQ, but not as much. This troop choice bucks the concept that the imperial guard are cheap. No, they aren't. This requirement means that the imperial guard are difficult to use in smaller games, 1000 pts etc. Jeff C. and I typically play between 1850 and 2000 pts. My designs, and all future ones, are based on 2000 pts. Anyways, on with the show. The infantry platoon is led by a command platoon similar to the HQ choice, except you can only choose a junior officer. This is a spot where I employ a trick. I give the junior officer an honorific imperialis, which gives him the stats of a heroic senior officer. He, and the 4 squad mates are equipped exactly the same as the HQ squad is and also includes the commissar as described above. They ride in a chimera equipped like the one described above. They also serve the same role as the HQ, control and counter attack.

Troop Platoon Squads: The structure of the troop squads is also a unique feature of this army. You have a minimum of 2 ten man troop squads to a maximum of 5 ten man squads per platoon. This means you could potentially have a 55 man troop choice. That alot. And alot of points too! That also excludes unit add-ons such as commissars, priests, etc. My platoon includes 3 squads of ten men. They are uniformly outfitted with the following contents. A standard sergeant with a lasgun(S3,AP-,rapidfire24"), a missile launcher team(S8,AP3,1@48" or S4,AP6,1@48"small blast), and a grenade launcher(S6,AP4, assault1@24" or S3,AP6, 1@24" small blast) for the assault weapon. This squad is cheap and effective. You should observe that both the upgraded weapons in the unit hit automatically because of the all important new blast weapon rules mentioned above. And they can take BS shots at tanks or heavy infantry if they need to. This unit is ideally suited for anti-infantry of all types, but also serves as anti-tank, both heavy and light. The high strength missile option can come in quite handy at times. As stated before, the unit is designed to fire its grenade and missile as a template to get the auto hit.

Troop Armoured Fist: My next choice takes advantage of some of the armies rules. I chose an armored fist squad for my second troops choice. This squad is unique in that it is just 1 squad and it includes a chimera(equipped like the others). Otherwise, the ten men are equipped as above. This selection is a cheap and effective alternative to another infantry platoon. It is also flexible with the inclusion of the required chimera. This concludes my troop selections. On to the elites.

Elite Ratlings: This elite selection, and the only one I made for this army, also represents a unique change they made in the new rule set. Snipers used to hit on 2's and wound on 4's regardless of toughness. This had limited, but useful, applications. The new rules changes snipers to hitting on BS and wounding on 4's, but now 6's to wound count as AP1. This is really good, because now they have a wider range of feasible use. They can now threaten heavy infantry. My selection is especially useful for this task. I employ 10 ratling snipers in my list. They have BS4 and get +1 to their cover saves, so the typical 4 is now a 3. This discourages shooting at them or forces the other player to saturate them unnecessarily. This is good. They make a valuable unit that is effective against all infantry types and is hard to get rid of. Hell of a combination. And they are pretty cheap too! As I said before, this is the only elites choice i used, so on to fast attack.

**Modeling note from Jeff C.: Mount those bad boyz on a rock. Think tall senic base. If they aren't tall enough they will never get to shoot out of a window. Remember, true line of site rules 5th edition!

Fast Attack Sentinals: My choice for fast attack once again is taken with the new rules in mind. From the previous edition, vehicle squadrons have undergone some changes. Now when a member of a vehicle squadron is immobilized, it is considered immediately destroyed instead. This makes it so the other vehicles aren't held in place by their immobilized comrade. I think that stinks, and I like using sentinels, so I broke my 3 man squad up into 3 one man squads of sentinels. This decision has its pros and cons. They each have to be individually destroyed and can cover more area. The drawback is that all the fast attack slots are used this way, but more seriously is that in unit point missions, each of them would be worth a point instead of all 3 for one point. I mentioned this because I myself haven't decided whether I like that or not. If I make a definite decision one way or another, I will let you know. Anyways, I equip my sentinels with multilasers for the same reason the chimeras have them. It also keeps the easily destroyed units cheap. This concludes my fast attack choices. Last, but not least, on to heavies. Oh Boy!!!

Heavy Leman Russ Battle Tank: Heavy selections provide most of the pronounced flare and reputation of the Imperial Guard, and with good reason. I chose to play this army back in the days of yore when I first started because of the tanks. Tanks are fun. Tanks are your friend, except for when they aren't. I use all three heavy choices for my list. This is where imperial armor comes in to the list construction. I use some variant tanks for my list because I had them and they work better now. The first selection is the good old Leman Russ Battle Tank w/ turret battle cannon(S8,AP3,1@72” ordinance), hull mounted lascannon, and heavy bolter sponsons. I include all the other weapons on it because if it gets damaged, your opponent will always go for the battle cannon. Unless he is an idiot, which is possible. I also equip the tank with a RT modification so I can get into position or move in a pinch if I have to. I gave it a search light as well. You never know.

Heavy Leman Russ Executioner: My next selection is the Leman Russ Executioner, an imperial armor piece. It has a turret mounted Plasma Destroyer Cannon(S7,AP2,1@54” small blast), a hull mounted heavy bolter, and heavy bolter sponsons. What makes this tank super awesome is that it's main gun is not ordinance, which means that if it doesn't move it can fire all of its weapons. So it is the perfect little pill box suited for anti-infantry against all types, from terminators to gaunts. Everyone better duck! It has the same auxiliary equipment the battle tank had.

Heavy Leman Russ Annihilator: The final heavy choice is also from imperial armor. It was selected to supplement my anti-tank ability. It is the Leman Russ Annihilator. This variant has a twin linked lasconnon, a hull mounted lascannon, and sponson heavy bolters. It has the same auxiliary equipment as the other tanks. This concludes the unit selection portion for the imperial guard. Bear in mind that this is just one of many formats that can be used. This is just the one I am currently using and I think it is the best. I will describe other patterns that can be used in a later addition. Next up for this army will be the tactica section. It is a basic stratagem guide on how to use the army list I just recommended.

Closing note
There is one thing I must point out about the game and the hobby. What I have just outlined for you can only be completed once you get it painted. If you don't do that, you can't win a thing. I recommend that you contact Jeff C. for any tips or speed strategies for getting your army painted.