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I completed this for relicnews a few weeks back when the codex was released first. Sharing here, hope to help some people.
Introduction:
The Imperial Guard army is phenomenal. Just because they don’t get gauss weaponry, or invincible CC power, does not mean it cannot be shaped into one of the most power army available in 40k, especially with 5th edition codex.
The Imperial Guard army is capable of outnumbering any logical horde army in both number, body count, and armament. Just one platoon can field up to 100+ men, with suitable Heavy weapons and special weapons. Other than the heavy infantries, guards have a huge array of tanks it can bring to bear, anywhere from light armored vehicle and skimmers, to heavy armored vehicles.
There are many kinds of gameplay available to a Imperial Guard player, but the soul core of the system remains unchanged, Guards have advantages, and flaws.
The imperial guards can bring to arm a gigantic force of infantry or armors, capable of taking anything down by raw firepower, but one of its core setback is its leadership. It’s leadership and lack of it is a major problem that all guard players address seriously, so keep this in mind as you read along. Guards also have many advantages. As a start, the ability to issue orders and improve infantry firepower and survivability is important, this will be discussed later in this tactica.
This tactica is divided into 3 parts: description of basic armaments and units; army types and examples; and game play strategies.
Section 1 – Guns of the Imperium
The Imperial Guards are open to a vast variety of guns that have use against different types of enemies. Knowing what they excel at prevents you from wasting shots, and consequencely making your units more cost-effective.
This section will only describe and comment weapons that are available to infantries as upgrades.
Basic Guns:
Lasguns- believe it or not, these itty bitty guns are the corner stone of your army, and will do lots of killing if placed right. “Lasgun is a poor man’s weapon, but when fired in numbers, it will be a fool not to duck” -Graham Mcneill. The lasgun is the basis of a infantry based army, they make up about 70% of the guns you will field. These rapid fire weapons combined with orders, will be tremendous in quantity of shots.
Flamers- the ultimate torcher. Cheap and man-portable, amazing CC fast units trying to out run you. This is very useful with units with BS3, and believe me when I say this, even 1 shot per game is worth it.
Grenade Launchers- cheap like the flamer, forfeited template power for range and strength. It has considerable firepower and is best used by BS4 models such as veterans and command squads. Take this in conjunction with heavy weapons, have them sit and use the “bring it down” order.
Sniper rifles- cheap, like the Flamer and GL. It is best taken in squadrons, with BS4 models, it is fairly nice to be used to pin down enemy heavy weapon teams and such. They are also nice to be fielded by ratlings for stealth and infiltrate.
Melta Guns- for Anti-tank, it has a ridiculously short range so any unit with it should be in some sort of transport.
Plasma pistols- horrible, especially with 16% chance of frying your officer. So just flat out don’t take it
Plasma guns- this on the other hand is much better. It is wielded by basic infantry and is rapid fire. Should be used by BS4 models and should have some kind of transport.
Hot-shot lasguns- fancy stuff, simply a jack-up version of regular lasguns, capable of ripping a marine’s armor apart. It is mostly populated in storm stroopers, so I would think again about taking these for the cost is alittle too much.
Heavy flamers- this is an improved version of the flamer, amazing against units in cover and will do great against incoming CC units like orks and nids. Only take if you can keep it alive until actual usage.
Demolition charge- one time trick. It is amazing when you hit, it will kill anything on a 2+ (discarding invulnerable).. but if there’re times when you hit, there’re times when you don’t, and when you don’t, it’s very so wasted.
Heavy Weapons
What you have to notice with heavy weapon team is that their 2 wounded models now, so S6 will IK one.
Missil launcher- poor man’s lascannon. Only take this if you can’t afford the lascannon. This cannot hurt FA14, but still fairly affective against medium to heavy armors.
Lascannon- the best heavy weapons guards can field as infantries. It can kill FA14 vehicles and wound 90% of models on 2+ with AP2. Like any heavy weapons, should be assigned to BS4 models.
Autocannon- great against light vehicles and heavy infantry. Quantity has its own quality. I would take this over the ML or the HB.
Heavy Bolter- fair amount of shoots, great against infantry and better in packs.
Mortar-A mortar team misses no more often than any other blast weapon. Hitting 33% of the time and scattering 66%. It doesn't take anything at all into consideration about the weapons uses or the fact that it's cheap as all get out.
Specific units.
Here I will address specific units that I find useful and point out their abilities and flaws. Anyone with additional comment or contradictory comment please post.
HQ
Command squad- this is the brain of your army. They can give orders and can carry loads of special weapons which is nice. Options such as med-packs, and standards are nice to keep units alive and such and reinforces its position as command squad. Orders:
Bring it down- really nice order, makes AT shots twin-linked, use this on a squad with HW will be very nice.
Also very useful on Monsterous Creatures (Wraithlord, Carnifex, Daemon Prince), since most (all?) are IC and being able to land many heavy shots are usually the only ways to reliably take them down. -Dragoon
First rank fire! Second rank fire!- great order, able to increase lasgun shots by 1, this can make units fire 3 shots at rapid fire range. Great to use especially on huge squads like 50-men conscript squads.
Incoming- interesting order, able to grant units in cover a 2+ cover save but the unit goes to ground. I would use this if the unit cannot do much of anything else anyways.
Fire on my target- not bad, still not as useful as the others mentioned, use it when you really want to bring down a squad.
Wargears: Med-pack- great for survivability, especially with a squad that has a special character, you want to keep them alive.
Standard bearer- great upgrade for infantry based army, very useful when enemy does things that affects leadership
Commissar Lord- not a bad unit save for it’s high cost. Use him when you’re worried about leaderships, this is definitely more worth it then taking individual commissars. I would take the Command squad over him though, do not give him anything extra, he dies fast. He is the only guy beside Kell that effects units leadership test for orders. -Dragoon
Primaris Psyker- I like him despite his loneliness. I would take him if you want the little jolt of excitement when rolling for psychic powers, otherwise I don’t think he’ll work for you or against you.
Special Characters:
Creed- a must take for infantry based armies. He can issue more orders at a better range. Its up to you if you want Kell, he wouldn’t go against you or for you.
Kell-Creed + Kell guarantee 4 Ld10 orders.-Dragoon. May get alittle beefy when stacking up the points, only take this combo in higher games when you have a horde of infantries to utilize his power. Edit: Creed and make one unit or vehicle squad "scouts", that means you can outflank a squad of demolisher+executioner or just a squad of hellhound variants. And also, since you find out who goes first before you start deploying, if you know youre going first, deploy your banewolf right in front of the squad you're going for, scout move flat out 18" and then at your first turn go 12" then pie.
Straken- CC lord, great in squad with special weapons and transport. I suggest taking him for light mechanized lists. His ability in CC is pretty nice (even beats Yarrick to the stick) I would say prop him up with a couple bodyguards OR Nork for the extra punch and survivability. This guy gets 4 S7 I4 power weapon on the charge, Marines will be hurt pretty bad.
Nork- another unit that will do well in CC, but take him with either Yarrick or Straken will get a big kick in combat.
Yarrick will allow rerolls to hit though which is very nice. Also should be warned that Nork may not get a lot of use from his higher T due to majority toughness rules. -Dragoon
Yarrick- this guys got it all. He does tremendously well in combat when he has body guards to dispense, can go through enemy units like no-one’s business. Stuff him with a ogryn squad and charge them into combat, although beware that he would be very useful if he doesn't seperate from the main phalanx. His leadership boost will be very useful for orders and if other units are charging in. Transport would be nice to get them into combat too.
Elite
Storm Troopers-elite, powerful armed, MEQ killing specialist units. They can do most things a veteran can do but better. If you use them, deplay them wisely, they are expensive and die just as fast. The cost does worry me a bit. Do not take these in small size games. Take special weapon and prop them behind cover to keep them alive.
Ogryns- great CC unit, pop them in chimeras and send them into combat.
Ratlings- I personally prefer these over regular veteran squads with snipers. They are just great to use to pin down enemy heavy weapon teams.
Psyker squad- this is just WRONG. Taking 10 stronge allows a S9 large blast or reduce a enemy’s leadership to 2? Yeah that’s nice. This can be used in conjunction with snipers to pin down units or make non-fearless units run.
Marbo- a great one trick fellow. He can come into gameplay anywhere 1” away from a enemy and can chuck a demolition charge. Take him if you want, I like him, and really, with his profile, his demo will kill a lot. Also, utilize his CC powers wisely, he wounds on 2+ but has no power weapon, so it would be wise to keep them away from monstrous creatures who have 2+ or 3+ saves. He will do well as a decoy too, ignore him and you pay the prize, kill him, and you waste guns.
Troops
Infantry Plattons- these are the meat and bone of your army. You can field a massive amount of bodies just with one platoon. The weapon teams are already discussed before so I will not go into details about each gun again.
Infantry squads- these are the basic of a infantry based army. These are the mortars of your army that fills the little gaps between units and provide sit-and-shoot firepowers. Also, reminded by Dragoon, the combined squad special rule can give you a masive amount of lasguns in one squad. This means you can use only one order in one big squad like this, and you only loss one kill-point for the loss of that unit.
Heavy Weapon team- preferable for AT, and combined firepower because orders are limited and issuing them to one of these squads will be enough.
Special weapon team- I like this over the HWT because there’s meat to grind. Anyway, take only 1 kind of Special w. in each squad, not a good idea to mix weapons.
Conscripts- very nice if you get Chenkov and max out your conscript squads. You can swarm your enemies in rapid fire lasguns.
Platoon commander squad- this should be as simple as possible, with required special weapons, keep them close to the infantry squads to utilize orders.
Special Character:
Chenkov- very nice if you use his conscripts special rules, I do not recommad him but I guess it’s nice if you want to max out infantries and rapid fire lasguns. Although I would add that in order for him to be effective, youre spending ALOT of points on BS2 models and they really don't get to be THAT effective unless you get real lucky
Al’harem- I don’t like him, kind of a point sinker and goes down easily. Thou his power when used correctly, is kind nifty. Use combined squad and utilize massive amount of special weapons with him. Don't take HWT or SWT. Have one big squad and him + platoon command squad.
"Of course! No Imperial Guard players wants to have 60 Infantry with plasma, meltas and flamers coming along the side edge with a special character! I mean, that Land raider won't succumb to a point blank melta blast, will it? That Terminator squad trying to outflank you, that doesn't need about 5 plasma guns rapid firing, does it?"
Veterans- personally much better than guardsmens all around. For 2 points more, you get BS4, better weapon options and fielding options. They have better survivability with upgrades and better equipments.
Camo-cloak- worth while if you plan on sit and shoot. Personally better than grenadier when hid behind cover.
Grenadier-not bad if you plan on moving ahead in line.
-Demolition- great option if you plan on taking transports and moving them fast forward.
Special Characters:
Harker- heavy bolter bearer, nice model and conversion. Gives mmobile firepower and have a great punch when combined with special weapons and such. Don't take heavy weapons as relentless will void them. -Dragoon.
Bastonne- He’s nice. Power weapon and special weapons. He can work well when his squad separates from the main phalanx, He opens up the range in which his squad can be separated from command squads. He's ld10, have special weapons to keep his squad going, can issue orders, this is almost a staple in medium to larger games.
Penal Legion- this is an okay unit with it’s CC abilty. It is very hard to tell what youd get because it’s random rolled for abilities. But used right, should be effective as a counter charge unit.
Fast Attacks
Hellhound- these are the standard fast and light vehicles, they have a ranged benefit over the other variants and are amazing against any non-marine armors.
Bane Wolf- definitely a must take against marines. It’s template, poison, and AP3. Against marine, anyone that ignores one of these running toward them will get hurt badly.
Devil Dog- tremendous AT power. Move up to 12” and still fire a melta blast up to 24”. In conjunction with a bane wolf, it can pop the armor and the banewolf can shoot the passengers.
Sentinels- great unit for being walkers and is not relatively expensive. Take armored ones if desired but personally the regular one is just fine. For me, what has worked is a squad of sentinels as harassing units, combo of guns to make them more variant against any unit type.
Rough Riders- this will have to fill in by other players here, I’ve never used them, and anytime I play against them, they die very fast. Any comment on this? Edited: Primarily I just think they are not expensive but need to be used carefully since they die very fast. Although the possibility of getting into combat is very large for this squad. Great for counter charge, just remember you can only use the lances once.
Heavy Support
Leman Russ Battle Tank- standard, cheapest russ. If any russ to be put in a squadron, I suggest this one. The battle cannon is nemesis to all kinds of heavy armor and heavy infantry.
Demolisher- short ranged, powerful, and high AP ordnance. This is more of a defensive weapon to my taste. Amazing against incoming transports and CC units (terminators).
Eradicator- not my favorite, its ability to ignore cover diminished with other options available to ignore covers. I would not take this one unless you really want one in a squad. I would take the hellhound or the colossus over this, if you bother to take anti-cover units at all.
Punisher- the ultimate anti-horde. Its gatling cannon able to take down any infantry squad. Always take sponsors with this one and if points allow, take Pask too. Do not have too much of this, only take one is games smaller than 1750.
Executioner- this is by far, one of the best tanks when against heavy armored troops and medium to heavy armors. 5 plasma blast going on 1 squad will leave no survivors, I recommand taking plasma sponsors with this one.
Exterminator- very expensive for what it does, I would take squadrons of hydras in place of this one.
Vanquinsher- too expensive for what it does, I recommend the medusa over this, this is just too single tracked for what it costs.
Special Character:
Pask- Almost only effective on a punisher or exterminator, other variants just wont benefit as much from his BS4. Almost a staple on punishers.
Basilisk- staples of an imperial army. I think taking 3 in a squad will be reasonable in any sort of game play. Firing without consequence is something to be envied.
Medusa- combination of the demolisher and the vanquinsher but better. Fires demolisher shells on a better range and fire AT shells at better kill-rate, it’s a blast so will hit tremendously well. I would almost always buy the siege shells if you take the medusa. But remember that if you do, you're restricted to a small blast.
Colossus- if you have the points, take this, it will hurt against marine players, but notice, you’re nixing weapons and I don’t recommend that.
Griffon- poor man’s basilisk, horrible in most things and not worth the point. I would take this thou in conjunction with 2 basilisk in one squad, to get better aim.
You fire the Griffon first, which due to the AB rule has a high chance of landing on-target. This means that the consecutive shots will, due to the rules for Multiple Barrages, only scatter in a direction; the distance is already accounted for. This means that the barrage as a whole is more likely to land nominally on-target, whereas with a less-accurate weapon, the first shot could land too far from the target to be of any use, thus causing the entire barrage to be rendered worthless.
Hydra flak tank- one of the best shots load out there is. It’s cheap, powerful, and variant. I know some people that takes it as a staple for anti-skimmers and anti-heavy infantry.
Manticore- very powerful when used correctly, it’s abominable fire power will do tremendously well in higher games. But remember if you take this, you’re taking up slots that should sit a russ squad or a basy squad.
Deathstrike- one trick piece, tricky, unpredictable, and intimiading. If it his right, it will slaughter anything in sight, if it doesn’t, there goes 160 points down the sink. Keep if behind cover to ensure it's survival through the count down.
Transports
Chimera- cheap, resilient, and fast. Great option for what it cost. Amazing option to be taken in a mechanized list, carrying assault weapons forward as a firing base.
Valkyrie- expensive model but worth the point if used right. Its very fast and relatively resilient. Take this if you really want a fast army. You can almost 2 chimera with one valkyrie’s cost thou, which worries me alittle.
Vendetta- improved gunnery than the valkyrie, fairly good at everything, but the cost still worries me alittle. It makes a very good tri-lascannon firing base, it can also transport, so that's an extra kick there.
Section 2 – Army and gaming Styles
There are different types of army that lines the phalanx of the imperium. From the well balance to the min-max lists, the probrability of imperial guard is infinite.
Balanced lists- A well balanced army composes of a well rounded HQ, major points in infantry and considerable heavy support. It is lined like this:
HQ- 10-15% - basic HQ command squad with basic upgrades
Elite-5-15% - specialized units, stick to the task you assign them
Troops-50-60% - Core of army, max out Heavy weapons and special weapons.
Fast- 5-15% - fast, variant, able to manuever
Heavy Support 10-15% - russes or artillery units for firing support
This kind of army utilizes the ability of infantry and heavy vehicles to provide heavy suppressing fire and keep enemy at range. This kind of army relies heavily on guns and will need many kind of guns to out-do enemies. I suggest taking a variety of guns to maintain a kill-range and KNOW YOUR KILL ZONES, keep track of your shots and know who is doing what.
Pros- reliable, unpredictable, resilient, variety
Cons- slow.
Good against-all sorts, may not absolutely outdo a certain army thou.
Bad against-all sort, may not loss horribly against a certain army.
Heavy Infantry – Horde – this kind of army is completely based upon man-power, portable HW’s and close quarter rapid fires. Should be mapped out like such:
HQ- 10-15% - basic HQ command squad with special characters, leadership bubbles are important.
Elite – 10-15% - basic, do not go overboard, stick to the specific task you buy them for.
Troops- 60-70% - max out platoons and lascannons
Heavy – 5-10% - get the very basic for firing support, don’t spend too much points.
This playing style is reliable and VERY powerful, with reinforced leadership and extensive use of orders, a infantry army can be very difficult to outmaneuver. This kind of gaming can be very difficult to play against just because the quantity of shots and quantity of bodies able to be dispensed without hurting. In this kind of army, you can field up to 100+ bodies in a platoon, make sure you can keep your HW’s alive with bodies to dispense.
Pros- reliable, resilient
Cons- lack of variety, boring to play, slow
Good against- horde armies such as tyranids and orks.
Bad against- elite armies, well balanced power armies.
Light Mechanized- This is definitely a power gamer thing to do because it’s difficult to use and is a pain in the ass to kill. A light mech army contains fast and light vehicles, hence the name. This playstyle incorporates hellhound variants and chimera/valkyrie transports, also loads of special weapons and sort of CC abilities. This kind of armies takes the fight to the enemy and is unprediactable. Also, that rush in the end to the objective is always nice. Light mechanized armies have the ability to outmaneuver enemies with ease, you need to exploit the use of transport and have a variety of weapons for different purposes. It can be lined up as such:
HQ- 10-20% - basic HQ with some CC or close shooting abilities, a special character and transport
Elite- 10-20% - dedicate them with a certain task and stick with it, take transport
Troops- 30-40% - use veterans in transports, max out special weapons, leave the tank killing to the tanks.
Fast- 30-40% take hellhound based fast vehicles or valkyrie variants to maintain speed.
Heavy 10-15% - hydras, believe in hydras, and maybe the medusa for that kick against heavy armors.
You get a lot of speed with this, giving you full ability to start the game with NO infantries in the open and everything can move up to 12 a turn while firing.
Heavy Mechanized – My favorite, the amount of tanks guards can field in low point values are ridiculous. I personally find playing this at low point values such as 1000-1500 is very fun because it is competitive, cheesy, and believe it or not, powerful.
This gaming style requires a massive amount of tanks, heavy armored tanks. No one likes the look of 3-4 FA14’s running toward them at 1000, especially everyone of them packs HI-strength pies and HI-AP powers. You will need to think very well with this one, first, you won’t be needing transports, believe it or not, you will be doing most of the dirty work with the tanks.
Now, what you need to realize with this is that you will need variety, you’re trusting your army to only a few guns that you expect to roam anything down. You need a variety of tanks to outmaneuver the enemy. For my 1000 and such, I take 1 banewolf, 2 russes, punisher, medusa, and basic veterans and HW’s. From my experience of playing tanks, you need at least one tank for all of the following:
Anti-cover – hellhounds, template weapons, colossus, eradicator
Anti-MEQ – Battle tank, basilisks, banewolf
Anti-horde infantry – punisher, hellhounds, template weapon
Anti-heavy vehicle – medusa, lascannons
Anti-Terminator equivalents – executioner, demolisher, medusa
Another question I hear people ask is that y don’t I have transport for my veterans since I can clearly get two chimeras by dropping the banewolf, and my answer is, y would I send my troops forward when they’re essentially the most important unit in my army? What I do is use the incoming order, and have them sit with their beautiful 2+ cover save. (as mentioned in the battle report below)
Imperialas Tactica
When organizing your tactics, you should have a few things set in mind before you go on with your plans. Since there are so much tactics possible and the sheer spontaneity of battles, there’s little we can cover here in the grand scheme of things.
Tactics depends heavily on the kind of armies you use. When planning tactics, it is important to know what is possible and what is not.
Few things necessary to keep in mind:
-Have a center piece, be it a unit, a combination of units, or a order of importance.
-Don’t put too much egg in a basket. If you’re spending too much and have a part of it gone, it will all be lost
-Stick to your plans and even plan out spontaneity.
- Know your cons and pros and don’t be afraid to take chances. Always have something to back yourself up when you do take chances though.
Here are some basic center pieces you can look into.
Orders- you can center your troops around orders, being one of the amazing features of the imperial guard army. Orders can do everything that is needed to preserve ad to strengthen your troops and infantry. With this tactic, a medium to heavy volume of infantry is necessary and a serious quantity of available orders is recommended. To put it simply, make sure you have enough orders to go around.
It is almost definitely that Creed should be utilized for the range and quantity of orders, taking Kell would ensure 4 Ld10 orders at 24” though.
Also, if you do this tactic, platoon commander squads are very handy too. Using combined squad and maximum HW will allow maximum survival and trivial casualty which are absorbed by the mass of bodies.
You can shoot your HW’s and when you get shoot at, go to ground! And in your own turn use Get “Back in the Fight!” To get them back up to shoot HW’s again.
An army like this can either utilize a fast and advancing army or the classic sit and shoot method, both works, just need suitable weapons and equipments.
Another unit to be considered for orders is Psyker Battle Squad. Using the Soulstorm at 36” with “fire on my target!” order can make a squad in cover duck in pain.
Combination of weapons and units- very useful when exploiting enemy Ld and make them fall back. A concentration of firepower usually can do a lot when done correctly. The use of weaken resolve can almost ensure pinning if forced and fall back 95% of the time.
The easiest way to pin down a HW squad is with Snipers or barrage because any casualty will cause a pinning test. This can be done with even just mortars killing 1 or 2, then with weaken resolve, pin the entire squad.
Making a squad fall back until off the table is very nice when you have a fast vehicle or such to ensure no regrouping, this can be done either by that, or forcing 50%+ damage to a squad. This is very useful to elite squads that can fall back or a huge squad with low Ld. Using PBS will drop their Ld to a 2 or 3 which is pretty promising they’re going to fail.
Special Operations- another interesting tactic to have your units centered around. These include infiltration, scouting, outflanking, and deepstriking.
Scouting- very useful, comes with outflanking. Use it wisely, especially when you pay for Creed partially for your hellhounds to charge before even first turn. Creed can make any unit scout, which can make your banewolf go 18”-24” at scout move and then 12” and shoot in first turn. This is very tricky when you have first turn.
Outflanking- amazing tactic, unexpected if playing someone who’s not used to seeing one. A squadron of hellhounds or banewolfs outflanking will make any squads in cover cry. I would recommend taking the Astropath to ensure the table edge in which they emerge on.
Infiltration- very nice but only limited to certain units for guards and those units are usually very expensive. Make sure you deploy them with care and make sure they don’t die too early in the game.
Deepstrike- pretty much the same as infiltrating, valuable skill but limited, difficult to center around but useful.
Center pieces with Units- This is the most cost-effective way to dish out damages because even if your tactic loses a piece it will have the rest to buy back their points. It requires little skill and maneuver. Best combined with other center pieces to survive and augment ability.
Some units to consider:
Yarrick/Straken with Ogryns, they are amazing in CC and are very good at bumping incoming CC units.
Leman Russ squadrons of two are very versatile in battle and can whoop out a lot of shoots in range. They are durable, long ranged, mobile and powerful. What I love to do with them is to sit them in the back and shoot the crap out of anything, even moving backward or sideways to get out of range of heavy weapons. You can survive really well with its FA14 and maneuvering ability.
--{This is complete on my part for now, anything extra concerning anything just bring it up, we'll discuss it and I'll add it. Thanks everyone for the support.}--
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The Nameless (3401) "Sold my soul... Got a great price!"
The Coven of the Crimson Tyde (1400)