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I think we all know that IG conscripts are pretty useless unless during fun games. What would make a conscript squad useful? I had a few ideas.

3 points per model
being able to take "junior" sergeants, maybe a guardsmen who has some leadership skill but not enough to command a real infantry squad
and a commissar or a "junior" commissar, a commissar that has maybe not proved himself completely worthy so therefore doesnt get to over see important troops

obviously junior would mean they have lesser states, so maybe every 10 conscripts you could take a junior sergeant and every 20 you could take a junior commissar? i would have to say that the commissar would be the only one who could take a power weapon, seeing has the junior sergeant probably hasnt the rank to carry one, but the sergeant does give higher leadership, say 7 instead of 8, and a junior commissar 8 instead of 9.

those are my 2 cents, anyone else have an idea?

Interesting idea.

Your Junior Sergeant would logically be a Corporal as, iirc, it's one step above Trooper in the IG fluff and a Cadet-Commissar would be a logical choice for a Junior Commissar, as per the Gaunt's Ghosts novel.

I don't think either should be allowed to take a power weapon (like you said, they're supposed to be somewhat rare).

DoW

For points cost i would say a Corporal would have to be like 10 points? and a Cadet-Commissar say 20 points? Also I was thinking being able to buy "send in the next wave" without having Commander Chevnov, but increase it to say 100 points but you get to keep your Corporals and Cadet-Commissars with the squad. so say a 50 man conscript squad with 2 cadet commissars and 5 corporals would be 150 + 50 + 40 = 240 points 340 w/ next wave.

i do agree with no one being allowed to take power swords, but i was thinking to give commissars them just so you might be able to kill something in CC with them.

also, for summary execution, since they are conscripts they wont be kept fighting just by the sight of 1 guy being shot, so what if you had to kill the amount you failed your morale test by? so LD 8 you fail it with a 12 you have to kill 4 conscripts instead of just 1.

Simply letting them purchase a commissar would make them useful.

Melissia wrote:Simply letting them purchase a commissar would make them useful.

i really dont understand why they dont let them buy a commissar anyways

Funk3140 wrote:

Melissia wrote:Simply letting them purchase a commissar would make them useful.

i really dont understand why they dont let them buy a commissar anyways

seems logical.

but to your other post, i dont see why a conscript would be an less afraid of one guy getting shot than a regular infantryman. plus there is the question of a commissar having the time and ability to blow away 3 or 4 guys in a turn.

they should just get a regular commissar, who could get a power weapon if he wanted. that would maybe make conscripts somewhat useful, as a meatshield for the commissar. a gimped commissar wouldnt do much to help make conscripts useful.

Melissia wrote:Simply letting them purchase a commissar would make them useful.

Yup. Done and fixed.

Ailaros wrote:

Melissia wrote:Simply letting them purchase a commissar would make them useful.

Yup. Done and fixed.

Agreed!

This would make the squad MUCH better. It may even border on making them too good.

Naw, they'd still be limited by the following:

-- Only one power weapon (the commissar)
-- No special weapons, no heavy weapons
-- WS and BS 2.

Sure, they'd be hard to take down, but even with a stubborn Ld9 (and a re-roll if they sacrifice a member) they're going to have their limitations on what they can do offensively. And the fact that they're tied to an infantry platoon adds to the minimum cost and the number of kill points needed in order to take one.

Right, it wouldn't make them too good, exactly because the conscripts themselves can't take any upgrades. They would still be worth little more than a screener unit, but at least then they could do this job competently.

Would having a commissar affect Send in the Next Wave, though?

BS 2 or not, being able to test on a commissar's ld for first rank fire would be awesome.

Yeah, just ask Orks how effective BS 2 can be when there's 50 guys doing it. But it's still Lasguns, too. Lemme think...

Let's assume that somehow you managed to get within 24" without anyone dying. You FRF,SRF, and manage to get it off with the Commissar. That's...100 shots, of which 33 hit...

Against MEQs, 11 wound, and...3 or 4 fail saves. Not bad for conscripts.
Against GEQs, 16-17 wound, and...11-12 fail saves. That drops a squad (I assumed 5+ saves, by the way).

For a unit that has to be in a platoon, and costs 4 a model, I think it actually works, and doesn't break the game or the points bank.

Actually I would think that Conscripts probably shouldn't be able to benefit from the Commissar for Orders. I mean, they're conscripts.

How about for Orders they still test at their normal Leadership, but can re-roll if the Commissar executes d3 of them as the Commissar ATTEMPTS to drive some order into them.

Sounds good. Makes use of the Conscripts' most important resource.

You know, I was just talking about this with a friend the other day.

I think that the 'Commissar kills 1d3 guys' is reasonable for a re-roll on orders. It would certainly help with FRFing people to death and making Conscripts a reasonable choice for a Guard army.

Conscripts are, if nothing else, a wall of T3, 5+ save guys. That's almost as good as a guant....

Except... Pea shooters and cardboard armour PLUS the ballistic skill of an ork! Orders would make them slightly better, but still not worthwhile.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Melissia wrote:Actually I would think that Conscripts probably shouldn't be able to benefit from the Commissar for Orders. I mean, they're conscripts.

Yeah, really. They probably wouldn't even know what the dude was talking about.

A commissar wouldn't waste his time on consripts, IMO. There's more important stuff to do.

Just changing their squad leader still doesn't make them useful (except sometimes with the send in the next wave rule.)

IMO, send in the next wave is pretty useless. You can throw more of the same inneffective troops at the same targets that are slaughtering them, and hope to score a lucky wound somewhere. Other than that, having them count as casualties is devastating in certain scenarios.

I'd give them Without Number as an upgrade without having to take Capt Russia.

Capt Russia would still have send in the next wave though.

Why? Objective taking. Park them in your deployment zone, let them get killed and then next turn march them right back onto that objective.

See?

Useful!

With Commander Chenkov, 50+ conscripts are great for clearing minefields and where IG has to get inside fortifications and face a hail of fire across open ground... "Walk in a line advancing, anyone who runs dies, anyone who stops dies, anyone who dies has followed orders."

My conscripts are necromunda gangers. (they are the best the IG recruiters could come up with at short notice).

nevertellmetheodds wrote:With Commander Chenkov, 50+ conscripts are great for clearing minefields and where IG has to get inside fortifications and face a hail of fire across open ground... "Walk in a line advancing, anyone who runs dies, anyone who stops dies, anyone who dies has followed orders."

My conscripts are necromunda gangers. (they are the best the IG recruiters could come up with at short notice).

Thats funny since most Necro gangers had better statlines and weapons than the IG