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I’ve been wanting to get my guard army back on the board for the last 3 months, originally it was a very balanced list relying on drop troops doctrine to claim objectives. Now it seems the only way for a guard army to be competitive is to be all mech.

At first I thought the ‘it’s cold outside’ mech setup (vets never get out the chimera) was excellent but one thing is seriously bugging me and that’s the chimera.

It can be harmed by anything with at least strength 4 in combat, hitting on 4s as you can’t move 12 without sacrificing the vet squad’s shooting phase and you need to get within 12 of the enemy to do any real damage in the first place.
And to make matters worst if your opponents stuns the chimera it will suffer automatic hits the next turn which will do even more damage. The extra armour is just too expensive.

So can someone please tell me the benefits of a veteran mech army and how you deal with this huge akeley's heel? As well as how tips and tactics about how to play such an army?

i've not used a mech list but I have had similar doubt to you.

I guess the best way to use them would to have a number of Chimera's advancing in a line so only the front twelve is a target, with either something like a Lehman Russ and/or board edge secureing the flanks

The main advantage I can see is to make infantry slightly less squishy.

You are the imperial Guard. If the other guy is meleeing you then you are in trouble. You can either run a alpha strike type army that vapes the enemy army before they get close, or try the mech-tau thing of running away constantly until your opponent is dead, or just trade chimeras for a chance to drop 4+ flamers and whatever plasma/melta/etc on the other guy in perfect range, after tank shocking them into a tight ball if you have the chance.

So what if they glance the hell out of chimera and makes it useless? They are getting a squad in very exposed position for a cheapo transport. Mech is fairly mobile and even if the opponent has paid all the points in being fast you can still set it up that any charge would be into the beehive of firepower.

spankhammer has the right idea, use more than one chimera. as a general rule, try to keep all your vets in a vehicle or none of your vets in a vehicle. it doesn't take much to drop one transport, but it can really suck to try and drop 3 or 4 transports. It only takes one of them to get up to the objective so that they can support the others walking to the next objective.

remember that transports are NOT provided for speed (except valks, of course), they are provided for durability. At the same time, your transports will live much longer if you've got other heavy armor that makes itself a more immediate threat.

OK, I am a long time Mechanized Guard player. Usually the only time I actually move a chimera is when I am packing it up from the game being over. Chimeras dish out alot of firepower for a 55 point vehicle. I played in a tournament on saturday and fought two double lash armies, and my chimeras alone accounted for 3 dead daemon princes. From my experience if you have anything assaulting your chimeras then you have bigger problems than the rear armour of 10, because the enemy tramped all the way across the board and is still strong enough to kill your tanks. I realize my advice is counter-intuitive. A fully mechanized guard army that never moves except to take objectives on turn 5? But trust me it works and well.

Mech Spam with Ig makes your army much tougher to bring down in every way. you are protected from shooting, and have a wall of steel that is very hard to assault.

Proiteus wrote:how you deal with this huge akeley's heel?

How do you know how to use this expression, but not know how to spell it? It's just something you'd usually see written down, not used in conversation. (FYI, it was Achilles' heel that kept giving him problems)

Anyway, vs shooting you can literally move your chimeras in a line, shoulder-to-shoulder, with a LRBT or Hellhound at each end - this is only possible on open battlefields obviously.

The thing about assault is this: chimeras can have a heavy flamer on the front, so when you get close you should do so by driving 6" forward and flaming something and/or by moving up to 12" and letting your veterans jump out and use their special weapons. Also, since it's possible to get a lot of units in a mechanised IG list, you can gang up on enemy units - rush them with 2-3 chimera squads simultaneously. If you play your IG army in this very short-ranged style (veterans w/meltaguns or flamers usually) than it is kind of risky, but if you can do this it is really quite devestating.

If your chimeras do get destroyed in assault, at the end of the day, so what? 55 pts! And now your vet squad just has to pass a pinning test (which their officers can rescue them from even if they fail) to blast the enemy's assault unit in your turn. The only thing I would be worried about is multicharges - try deploying your chimeras so that any really powerful units (units containing multiple powerfists, or massed S6 cc ability) can't assault more than 1 at a time. As has been said already, charging and destroying a transport often leaves the chargers badly out of position - I think the grand slam of anti-mechanised tactics is to blow up a transport with assault weapons, then charge the passengers.

The benefits are mobility, protection and firepower.

As has been said, a Chimera is 55 points, and it gives you two weapons. You can pay 20 points for a Heavy Flamer, and 10 points for a HBolter. That right there is 30 points of firepower. Is an AV12 transport with 5 shooting ports worth 25 points? Yes it is.

The default use is to do the driveby. Stay in the vehicle, move 6", shoot from the roomy top hatch. Yes this is slow, but it offers a lot of protection, and if anything does assault you, who cares? The troops inside won't be locked, they'll get out and blast whatever assaulted them. Even when you lose, you win.

Plus you can still drive 12", disembark 2", then shoot, just like always. You can do this if you've got a straggler somewhere that doesn't realize just how far 20" is. In this situation it's best to bring two Chimeras to be sure that you totally wipe out whatever it is, as a Guard squad locked in combat is basically dead. Even if you can't do it in optimal conditions, it's still available.

At the end of the day, the benefits are numerous, and the limitations are minimal. Basically it forces (or at least strongly pressures) you to use Vets, which is not a bad thing at all, since Vets are some of the better Troops for the points in the game.

I'm astonished that no-one has pointed out that Chimeras are amphibious.

Anyways, while I am aware that the current meta-trend is mechanized and everyone and his kitchen sink advise it, I often wonder whether everything works as advertised. After all, there are some glaring weaknesses that usually drown under a wave of euphoria.

One of the main problems is and remains AV 10. Yes, you can move in a line abreast but terrain will just as often foil that plan as the threat of a multi-charge. Doing a drive-by is nigh on impossible with this setup, as the turret will block the passengers LoS to the front. If you wish to shoot at someone, you will have to present your side armour more often than not or be absurdly precise. Also, with a drive-by, you only have a range of 18" max including the move, less with flamers, and usually a couple of inches less because you're shooting from the back of the transport. You will also be within 12" of the enemy. Ganging up is a good idea. So is staying together for mutual support. Most of MY opponents either know this or play it this way instinctively.

Disembarking is another option, and it can be very useful. Just remember that when you disembark and add the 2" to your range, you are again presenting AV 10 and the fact that you drove 12" is meaningless against shooting. It may not hurt to lose 55 points but you lose the same two guns, the same resilience, protection, mobility and amphibious capability that makes a Chimera good.

My favourite approach with Chimeras is to use the flexibility they grant. That means I will often stay still for three turns or so, blasting away with everything they've got and only move when threatened, then start to move forwards where needed to get to any objectives.

I've been playing a "Steel Legion" style guard since Codex Armageddon came out, through the remainder of 3rd edition, the constantly moving chimeras of 4th edition, the mostly ineffective, overcosted chimeras of 5th, pre codex release and now I play them in their current form.

Everyone is hitting on all the benefits of them, from cheap firepower, to protection, to amphibious, to lots of firepoints to AV12.

They are also correct that they have horrible side armor and only one access point.

But the advantages are significantly better that then the drawbacks.

The best part of chimera, IMO, at this point is they work well in groups, overwhelming your opponents AT, or as a lone purchase to offer some mobility, some anti infantry firepower and when parked in cover, surprising toughness for only 55 points.

In my current list that I use, chimeras act as boh pillboxes for squads to fire from and hold objectives as well as transports to get special weapons where they belong and infantry in the most health possible.

For 55 points its hard to complain about them at all.

I usually run with dismounted vets martching alongside the armor. It's a more fluffy way to play and confuses some opponents that are used to the "cold outside" mentality. Also, it provides twice the targets.
Is it a good strategy? Not really, but it's fun to use a dismounted sort of patrol.

Keep in mind if they pop the Chimera in melee they dont get a massacre move. So will be very tightly packed in, perfect targets for flamers, blast templates, etc.

Dont get the impression that mechanized is the only way to play Guard though. Blob-squad gunlines arent bad either, if properly equipped and supported. Not quite on the A game level, but definitely B+ in my opinion. And having access to so many types of tanks means that even in a mechanized list the flavor may be completely different between two armies. Add in ally options from the Daemonhunter/Witch-hunter codexes and Guard armies have a ton of options now. Sure we had doctrines in the previous codex... but how many of them were actually viable other than drop plasma? New codex is definitely versatile.

The benefit of being 100% mechanized or 100% on foot is that you're negating the efficiency of some of the enemy firepower. If you're 100% mechanized, their small arms aren't doing much. If you're 100% on foot, their anti-tank isn't doing much.

Considering that even small arms such as bolters and the like can hurt Chimeras if they get to the side (which isn't exotic), I'm not sure how much of an effect that really has. Conversely, I fought against horde Orks a while back and was able to present only AV 12 on the first turns. Having only big shootas, the decision to shoot or run was made for them.

All mech guard makes Jaws of the Wolf and lash useless.