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I am thinking of building a guard army and have yet to really look at the codex. There are just a lot of great looking models out now that I can't resist building some.

My question concerns tank squadrons. Does a squad of Russes fire indepentdantly of each other or must they act like a land speeder squad and fire at the same target?

My initial thought is building an armored company type army with my troops and hqs in chimeras and then finishing up with a lot of russes or russ variants.

Also, has anyone run a punisher with the tank commander upgrade thing? If you have, do you think that a demolisher may be a more effective anti-infantry choice?

They follow the squadron rules in the main rule book so yea they have to all fire at the same target.
Cheers
~Volkan

PS havn't tried the punisher yet.

The great thing about the codex is its many options. Though before you really think about armour heavy read up on the order system as it makes a huge inpact on the game.

augustus5 wrote:I am thinking of building a guard army and have yet to really look at the codex. There are just a lot of great looking models out now that I can't resist building some.

My question concerns tank squadrons. Does a squad of Russes fire indepentdantly of each other or must they act like a land speeder squad and fire at the same target?

My initial thought is building an armored company type army with my troops and hqs in chimeras and then finishing up with a lot of russes or russ variants.

Also, has anyone run a punisher with the tank commander upgrade thing? If you have, do you think that a demolisher may be a more effective anti-infantry choice?

The IG are an awesome army, and can finally play with the big boys with the new Codex.

Squadrons operate as a single unit, so they all have to fire at the same target. That can still be very good, esp with basic LRBTs.

All mechanized is the strongest list, to be sure.

The punisher really is pretty mediocre against infantry due to being only S5 and no AP. Pask does give a re-roll against MCs, so that's a build some people really like. The demolisher is best used against terminators and the like, but the Executioner is better for that. The new kit is modular, so you can magnetize it and test them all out.

So I'm thinking of using my heavy slots for anti-infantry duties and my fast attack slots for anti-armor.

I'm thinking of using a single punisher with Pask,

a squad of 2 naked demolishers ,

and a squad of 3 LRBTs with HB sponsons.

I think this gives me a big anti-infantry punch.

For anti-armor I'm thinking 2 scout sentinels w/lascannon and hunter killer missile

and then 2x 1 devil dog. The melta cannon sounds interesting to me.

I want my troops choices to all be mobile in chimeras, so I'm probably looking at vet squads. Maybe with flamers or grenade launchers and possibly a heavy weapon team to move onto objectives in the middle of the game.

For my HQ maybe just a primaris psycher or a techpriest enginseer to attach to one of my vet squads.

I'm concerned for the frailty of those troops choices for holding objectives, but there aren't really any better choices IMO.

Any guard players want to critique this before I start going crazy with purchases? So far I've only ordered a demolisher kit and the codex.

I don't think you can take a Techpriest as your compulsory HQ but I may be wrong.

Now lets see.....

Punishers are good, certainly good anti horde. I don't know when S5 Heavy 20 ever deserved to be preceeded by the word 'only'.

In fact there aren't really any Russes that aren't good. Certainly LRBTs, Executioners, Punishers and Demolishers are all the best though.

And a horde of conscripts under Chenkov would be very surviveable on objectives. Exactly the same as Vets but with 50 models!

Devil Dog - YES!

But scout sentinels will get axed easily by even bolter fire with AV 10 and Open Topped. Go armoured or even Vendettas for more Lascannons and aerial transport all rolled together. They can even Scout!


HWTs sound good but you will need to take Infantry Squads to get 'em. So not all vets. Also with more infantry you can take more objectives easier. You will only get a max of 6 vet squads and aren't they only 10 man max?

And there we are. Super post over

Techpriests don't use up a FOC slot.

Are you going to be hunting AV 14 with those scout sents? I assume you chose the scout variant for their ability to outflank or position themselves for a shot before the game begins. If they are going to be hunting transports I'd take them with auto cannons. Saves you some points and you will get a first volley of 2 str 7 shots and 1 str 8 shot. Being BS3 the extra shots can help their reliability.

The Primaris Psyker is fun, not really amazing. I think the CCS is more potent but he can still be fun and his shooting attack is decent str and range.
Cheers
~Volkan

If you are going for anti-tank Fast Attack, you should stick to Devil Dogs and Vendettas. Both are excellent at killing tanks (some of the best in the IG army) and are pretty awesome.

The Executioner is a great tank that you should look into. It is only 10 more points than a Punisher and has great range and strength. Plus it ignores FNP.

If I would run Punishers, I would us a squadron to ensure what I shot is dead before it can move into melta range. 46-69 Str 5 shots on the move will make anybody cry.

What I found out playing against an IG-using friend was that squadron rules can really hurt LR tanks. For example, a decent meltabomb assault or a good melta unit (fire dragons, space marine bikers, various units with access to combi-meltas) can fire at a squadron of 2-3 tanks and easily disable them all, especially since immobilised counts as wrecked. As long as your opponent has access to such multi-weapon tankhunting squads, you're actually making things a bit easier for him. Instead of saturating the opponent with lots of armour 14, you're providing him with very few big, juicy targets. When a unit really blasts a tank, they tend to inflict several rolls on the damage table, and that means three tanks could be damaged/destroyed, as opposed to one.

So, I'd never use a squadron bigger that two naked cheap-variant russes. 6-7 russes would be great against a static, lascannon-reliant enemy, against enemies with assault or dedicated melta tankhunters, squadrons are deathtraps.

Quick question: If you ran a squadron with 2 russes, and one popped smoke, wouldn' that count the entire squadron as obscured, allowing you to pop smoke on the 2nd LR later in the game, granting the bonus a second time?