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ive been running mech for about 6 months now, and steem rolling every thing. i want to give a gun line list a try but dont even know where to start. first is it a viable list, have you seen it used and still work. next, i know i will need a ton of guys, and AC work well in this list. but that would be about all ive got so far. so please give me a boost in the right direction.

Start with a Company Command Squad.

I used gunlines in the past with incredible efficiency, though now I prefer the assaulty horde IG army, but I'll make ya list, gimme a second


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Company Command Squad-125
-Lascannon, Plasmagun, Officer of the Fleet
Company Commander
-Powerweapon, Laspistol

Company Command Squad-110
-Lascannon, Officer of the Fleet
Company Commander
-Powerweapon, Laspistol

Guardsmen Marbo-65

10 Man Psyker Battle Squad-110

10 Man Psyker Battle Squad-110

10 Veterans-150
-Demolitionists, Lascannon, 2 Plasmaguns

10 Veterans-150
-Demolitionists, Lascannon, 2 Plasmaguns

10 Veterans-150
-Demolitionists, Lascannon, 2 Plasmaguns

10 Veterans-150
-Demolitionists, Lascannon, 2 Plasmaguns

Infantry Platoon
Command Squad-40
-Heavy Bolter

Infantry Squad-70
-Heavy Bolter, Meltagun

Infantry Squad-70
-Heavy Bolter, Meltagun

Infantry Squad-70
-Heavy Bolter, Meltagun

Infantry Squad-70
-Heavy Bolter, Meltagun

Infantry Squad-70
-Heavy Bolter, Meltagun

Heavy Weapon Squad-75
-3 Autocannons

Heavy Weapon Squad-75
-3 Autocannons

Special Weapons Squad-95
-3 Demoltion Charges

Special Weapons Squad-95
-3 Demoltion Charges

Quick Summary, 4 Ordinance Templates a turn, 6 BS 4 Lascannons, 9 BS 4 Plasmaguns, 6 Heavy Bolters, 6 Autocannons, 5 Meltaguns, 40 Meltabombs, 11 Demolition Charges, and on extremely bad A$$ scout who can take out enemy Heavy Support that your lascannons can't hit.

Infantry squads need a commissar to keep them from breaking.

you want your infantry squads breaking from combat, you don't want them to stick around and tie up shooting

That's not always true, the Guard have several options that actually make them quite viable in melee. If you build a good list, you could do very well keeping your infantry in melee. Also you DON'T want them to break because I3 is going to get you crushed in sweeping advances. If you are going to make a melee army, then make it right. If you are going to make a gun line army... then don't worry about your guys in melee, cause you weren't supposed to let them get into melee.

Sure, IG can be a melee army, but I was speaking of this specific list.

That's a really interesting list. It's only got 152 men by my count, which isn't that high for an all-infantry IG army, but it's got unusually concentrated firepower. I really like the idea of the demo charges and meltaguns, which are too short-ranged to be useful all the time, but make your opponent think twice about coming right in close with elite troops or tanks.

When I think of a gunline I just imagine CCS, platoons with a fairly heavy number of HWSs. I think Angron's list might do a lot better against aggressive armies. But what if you run into other long-range shooty armies? You'd better have a lot of terain in that case.

I took some Grey Knight Terminators in a recent game and found them exceptionally useful. 2+ armor and power weapons all 'round. Team them up with Straken for I5 on the charge. Expensive, so I'd not recommend them under 1500 pts.

@Sarge, even just a 5 man squad of GKT will just about shred the faes off of anything they go up against. I also believe they can take a dedicated Landraider, which DEFINITELY helps. And add Yarrick into the equation and you have an expensive, but extremely deadly force to be reckoned with. I would like to try these guys out with Straken following them up though Because thanks to the recent FAQ, I can't give the terminators FTHOC from Creed! (Furious Charge)

I favor running a gunline army (because I started in 4th ed, when platoons were all you could take, and I'm too poor to buy a lot of chimeras) And my HQ choices are a CCS with Creed and a LC, and Commissar Yarrick. I have about 3 more vet squads with LC's, and then 2 more vet squads with AC's and if I have the points, I add another AC vet squad. Of course, I also use more than 3 russ tanks on average. Especially 2 Executioners.

The only down side to this army is if you're playing someone that has a lot of Terminators (such as Dark Angels with Belial) But I like playing this style a lot, because it can go either really really good and or get stomped.

One thing about the gunline i find helpful is to have a big bloated CCS to sit among your HWS. I go PW, medic, regimental standard, 2x flamers, 2x bodyguards, at least the master of ordinance if not all 3 advisors and attach a Lord Commissar as well. He's the rocksolid leadership bubble that keeps the HSW in the line and at top efficiency with Ld10 for morale and order checks, bolstering the effectiveness of the commander and the standard. The Master of the Fleet and the Astropath hopefully get their work done early. The Master of Ordinance speaks for himself. The flamers are cheap and help with the unit's secondary job of counter-assault. The medic, the wounds/refractor fields on the commander/commissar and the number of bodies in the squad make it durable enough for the commander/commissar to survive alot of shooting. And if they are shooting at this squad, what are they doing about the gunline killing them? I'm thinking of adding a priest or techpriest as well - heck, you could have an 18 man CCS plus servitors!


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And don't be afraid to bring pieplates along, one per 600 pts is what I find myself fielding with the gunline...

Murdog, that squad runs 300+ points. I realise it can give some major bonuses, but why not just take a CCS with a vox and a regimental standard. 70 points. Then take other units to provide either counter-assault or more firepower. It seems to me that making a big, resilient unit gets expensive too fast . . . you end up spending terminator-points for models that are still less tough than marines. Anything S6 or above, or anything with real assault capability, will enjoy eating your super-expensive unit.

ifyouseekamy wrote:@Sarge, even just a 5 man squad of GKT will just about shred the faes off of anything they go up against. I also believe they can take a dedicated Landraider, which DEFINITELY helps. And add Yarrick into the equation and you have an expensive, but extremely deadly force to be reckoned with. I would like to try these guys out with Straken following them up though Because thanks to the recent FAQ, I can't give the terminators FTHOC from Creed! (Furious Charge)

Termies are way too expensive for an IG army. IG can do so much more with those kinds of points. Another tank or 2, 3 or more infantry squads are all in the range of a fitted out squad of Termies. Also, Termies are awful besides that 2+ save. Plasma goes right through them, you are going to feel even more helpless when your enemy has an AP2 pieplate. Watch out when you go against a melee army, and your enemy has power weapons. Termies are fun, to soak small guns fire, but no one shoots them with small guns... they just hit them with some high AP weapons... and then they just disappear. (1 wound... whaaaat??)

murdog wrote:One thing about the gunline i find helpful is to have a big bloated CCS to sit among your HWS. I go PW, medic, regimental standard, 2x flamers, 2x bodyguards, at least the master of ordinance if not all 3 advisors and attach a Lord Commissar as well. He's the rocksolid leadership bubble that keeps the HSW in the line and at top efficiency with Ld10 for morale and order checks, bolstering the effectiveness of the commander and the standard. The Master of the Fleet and the Astropath hopefully get their work done early. The Master of Ordinance speaks for himself. The flamers are cheap and help with the unit's secondary job of counter-assault. The medic, the wounds/refractor fields on the commander/commissar and the number of bodies in the squad make it durable enough for the commander/commissar to survive alot of shooting. And if they are shooting at this squad, what are they doing about the gunline killing them? I'm thinking of adding a priest or techpriest as well - heck, you could have an 18 man CCS plus servitors!


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And don't be afraid to bring pieplates along, one per 600 pts is what I find myself fielding with the gunline...

I pretty much couldn't disagree more with this. What a awful, useless pointsink. Powerweapons are useless, because humans die too easy... and our S3 can't hurt anything. If you are going to take power anything, take a powerfist. Medic is useless, because humans die too easy and the medic won't be able to save enough people for him to be worth 30 pts. Standard is great if you have a CC based army, or plan to lose a lot of moral checks; otherwise it's sorta pointless since you can give orders to fix broken squads... if they aren't in CC and having to worry about being swept... you don't need the extra rolls. Flamers are nice, but only work if you are in CC range with your CCS... which is a bad idea. 2 bodyguards are great, if you expect to be in CC with your CCS... or plan for it to take a lot of gunfire. If you don't drop 500pts into the squad, then you shouldn't have to worry. MoO is awful in anything under 1500pts... ill try to find my other post later... but the short of it is 1/3 of the time it scatters 7 inches... and 2/3 of the time it scatters 10 inches... what are you going to hit with that?? The other advisors are good, if you know your enemy is going to use reserves, or you are. Overall, you basically are asking for someone to wreck your CCS... and it's just as defenseless as any other human squad... but this one is worth 500pts and is able to give the rest of your army buffs.

*Edit* Found my post. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/263006.page#1082426

It may be an awful pointsink but it is not useless. My first point is that if they are shooting the CCS they are not shooting the things that are killing their army, like my HWS and pieplates. They may enjoy eating my super-expensive unit in CC, but they have to make it across the table first...

My second point is this: I do plan for it to take alot of gunfire, ergo the big squad size. It will take fire because the commander/lord commissar/standard combo is making my gunline more resilient and more efficient. They do this by maximizing the chances of the gunline shooting better and staying longer. The Orders BiD and FomT make them shoot better. The Order GBitF make them stay longer. The Commissar makes sure they follow those orders. The Regimental Standard helps them stay longer by giving a reroll to morale and pinning tests. But they have to be near them to do their job, 12" for commander/standard and 6" for the LC. The RS/LC do not work from the safety of a chimera, so the unit will be a target. The medic saves wounds, and with every model added gets more useful. I don't beef it totally for smaller battles, and the 30pt advisors only start coming out at 1500+, priests and TP's would be APOC level for me and may be getting out of hand - it's just a thought (it could get pretty effective for CC - powerfists, eviscerators, servo-arm). In addition to having their own useful roles, these advisors have basic CC kit, which is the secondary job of the CCS.

Remember that it is the HWS that the CCS supports. Infantry squads have Ld8, and are usually screening the gunline or fighting for objectives with their PCS and out of range of my CCS anyways. Voxes are not useful to me because HWS cannot take them. The commander/commissar/standard are there because with 6 wounds, it is very easy to neutralize and eliminate HWS even in cover, by pinning them or forcing fallbacks from which they cannot rally because of being under half-strength. With Ld7 they will fail these checks. Maximizing the wounds in the CCS keeps the C/LC/RS combo working longer.

The main reason I take a PW for the commander is because it's on my model. I think one with just basic kit would be better, at least for smaller battles. The flamers could be dropped as well, but those times when i do want to charge something it is nice to have them. As everyone points out, the squad isn't exactly golden in CC.

The MoO's weapon profile lists it as "Ordnance Barrage 1". Page 58 of the rulebook states "Unless their profile specifies otherwise, all ordnance blast weapons use the large blast marker". Where does it say to use the small blast? Having reread it, I realize that you can fire it without line of site, just don't get the BS adjustment to scatter. I'll be hiding my CCS behind vehicle or LOS-blocking terrain more often now. Inaccurate yes, but hey - it's a pinning pieplate for 30pts!







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I'm going to give my CCS it's own thread to see what others think of it...

I screwed up the template size, it is large blast.

This is a link to my other post on why MoO sucks.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/263006.page#1082426