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This is kinda crossposted from here.

I run a mechanized guard force and was looking for opinions on protecting the juicy flanks of my tanks. My experiences so far basically revolve around my opponent running in some CC troops from reserve straight into my flanks and toasting my vehicles in CC. Now I like to use the whole width of the board (and I have quite a lot of vehicles to fit in) and I was wondering what you guys do (if anything) to protect your tasty tin cans from all those ravening power fists/klaws?

The options I have come up with so far revolve about putting speedbump troops (e.g. conscripts or penal legion) down the flanks to prevent 1 turn charges into my vehicles. Is this a good tactic or is it a waste of points the could be used better elsewhere?

Sounds good to me, so long as you equip and deploy them so they can still be useful if you're _not_ being outflanked - otherwise they won't be too useful in those games.

Some people would prefer a more mobile option, e.g. Rough riders or Sentinels, but unfortunately that sucks up precious FA slots

I am already running a sentinel squadron as a flanking assault support unit, and I would rather they be at the sharp end than hugging my own baseline.

I finally managed to win a game today with my Guard and having a penal legion squad right on the flank was extremely useful. They managed to take down a random lone spawn and then follow up into a flanking Chosen unit. They got torn to shreds, along with a Veteran squad, but they held up the chosen for long enough for my Hydras to turn and address. Hence the speedbump approach appears to work.

I think I will continue to try this tactic until it shows obvious horrible flaws. Any other opinions or thoughts would be welcome though.

Unit of honour was definately my Vendetta though. Stormed in on Turn 3 to smoke 2 Obliterators that were threating my whole vehicle line

Go with some meatshields, you have Conscripts, lots of them, use them as a wall.

Keep your russes concentrated more in the middle of your deployment zone, with a chimera or two as flankers on either side. If they charge the chimmy, they will kill it, BUT you only lost a 55 point transport. Next turn they eat several S10 pieplates and lose far more in return.

In short, dont spend more protecting a transport than the transport is worth.

As I am running a mechanized force the transports provide me with a large chunk of my heavy firepower. Also based on last nights experience I will not just have the flanking force to worry about, but whatever is rolling straight across the table into my front lines. Having an infantry speedbump was useful as it gave me time to deal with stuff that was already engaged before readdressing and pounding the flanking force.