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Here is my Imperial Guard Air Cav army with Iron Hand Straken at 1000 pts

HQ
Company Command Squad(mounted in Valkyrie) 265 points
-Straken
-4x Melta guns
-2 body guards
-Astropath
-Carapace

Troops
veteran squad -100 pts(in vendetta)
3x melta

Veteran Squad -100 pts(in vendetta)
3x melta

Veteran Squad (140 pts)
-3x Grenade Launcher
-Harker

Fast Attack
Vendetta

Vendetta

Valkyrie



The thing that I'm most worried about is how bloated my Command squad is

My plan is to reserve my entire army, while having Harker's squad infiltrate and blast away in cover with the heavy bolter and grenade launcher at a relatively safe range at enemies, then have the rest of the army come in on 3+(thanks to the astropath) on turn 2 or 2 ups on turn 3, and drop off melta vets near prime targets and have Straken's squad destroy dangerous targets and in both shooting with melta guns and assault

the valks will provide anti horde support while the vends snipe and far away threats

The reason why I'm taking Straken is because according to various play tests from my friend, Straken's bloated Squad owned Calgar several times in his tests

I've been hammering at this as well. Was going to roll with Mech Guard but my friend who was giving up Imperial Guard has changed his mind so I wanted something different than what he was doing, so why not Air Cav I thought?

My main Troop choice I've been thinking of using are:

- [130] Veteran Squad (x3 Meltaguns, Demolition Charge, all Shotguns)
- [115] Veteran Squad (x3 Plasma Gun)

I think the Demolition Charge will actually be necessary given you're not going to be having many bodies for a Guard list.

I too was playing around with Harker. My setup was going to be a little different though with Sniper Rifles and a Heavy Bolter. Will probably ditch the Sniper Rifles for Plasma Guns, but its already 150 points this way. I think the 2 Heavy Bolters, Stealth, and Infiltrate make him handy for holding a home objective.

Seriously its like you were reading my mind as I was thinking Straken would be pretty sweet for either a full foot list or air cav list. Since you have to get out of the transports to shoot (unlike with Chimeras), both Counter Attack and Furious Charge will come in handy. At 1000 points though, I'd drop him and get Multiple Rocket Pods on your Valkyrie (and probably Heavy Bolters on all of them).

It seems like AirCav is strong in 1500 point games and lower. I'm not sure how it will handle at larger point games given you have to Squadron things. Tournaments don't always allow Imperial Armor armies so Elysians are out for me though.


I'm struggling with not taking Carapace Armor for everyone. A 4+ save sounds attractive given flamers and bolters but I don't think its worth the points in the long run. Too many Heavy Bolters and Autocannons, or worse, out there.

Just a quick note; I pretty sure that your Astropath will only work when its on the board. Thus if you want its bonus your ccs valk will have to be on the board

Astropaths and Officers of the Fleet don't stack their bonus, but it does work while you are off the table. I seem to recall Tyranid players that had a Hive Tyrant with wings deep striking benefit from his own reserve roll. Even off the table, the Astropath is technically "alive" until he's, well, been killed.

Astropaths and Officers of the Fleet don't stack their bonus, but it does work while you are off the table

yup much to many people annoyance, however I though the tyranid equivalent had to start on the board

The Tyranid version also works off table by the way, as does the Eldar version (and theirs even stacks!).

Surprised there are little to no comments about the list! Really I think its a bit of a glass hammer after thinking on it. At 1000 points you have as many bodies as many Space Marine players would, and you are definitely not space marines. Your mobility gives you the initiative if the enemy doesn't blow them out of the sky. If you lose the initiative (either by losing your mobility before you can strike or by striking ineffectually) then you are really up a creek without a paddle!

Its for that alone I would recommend dropping Straken so you can take the demolitions doctrine. An AP2 large blast could be what you need to deal with either hordes of Orks/Nids or Space Marines. You shouldn't have to worry about cover saves either... You can drop down pretty much wherever you want so if they are in cover, disembark into cover and be within 2" of the enemy if at all possible. Makes the scatter roll dicey but there will be no cover save from the terrain.