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Standard battle today. Opponant stole initiatve, ran towards me full pelt, and wiped me out by turn 3. It feels impossible to bring enough firepower in that single turn. He got 24 wounds on a blob in a single turn for goodness' sake.
I was running a blob, 2 plasma vets with chimeras, CCS with plasma and chimeras, 2 Leman Russes, 1 Leman Russ executioner, 1 devil dog w/multimelta. Opponant was mech BA, Stormraven, razorbacks, assault squads, veterans, etc.
It's infuriating and seemingly impossible to deal enough firepower in a single turn to destroy such a huge amount of assault units, all of whom are mechanised and all of which are capable of wiping out any tank or infantry they touch.
Help/Suggestions welcome.

I have a similar problem against BAs. They assault on turn two, some on turn one, tying up my primary range units or destroying them outright. Seems the best way to win as Guard is outflanking with as many units as possible.

I guess what i would do is spread out nice and wide, so as he cannot bunny hope unit to unit, and he definitely cannot multi assault. if possible, you could use the chimeras to move twelve and block move patterns, making him either hit on 6s deal with your smoke, or go around. I am sure you run a commissar with your blobs, keep in mind you can always choose to frag your commissar with one of his power weapon wounds, so as to make the combat end on HIS round, leaving him open to be shot.

skronk wrote:I guess what i would do is spread out nice and wide, so as he cannot bunny hope unit to unit, and he definitely cannot multi assault. if possible, you could use the chimeras to move twelve and block move patterns, making him either hit on 6s deal with your smoke, or go around. I am sure you run a commissar with your blobs, keep in mind you can always choose to frag your commissar with one of his power weapon wounds, so as to make the combat end on HIS round, leaving him open to be shot.

This was the one area I really messed up. It ended up being just the sargents, the commissar and two regular guys left, leading into his turn. If I'd have wasted the commissar I could have got some volley fire on him.
I'd have still been in trouble though. There were another couple of strike squads baring down.
I'm starting to think BA might be a hard counter to IG, especially if they go first. They're too quick to shoot and they annialate everything in close combat.

Don't outflank. Run. Ideally deploy second whenever possible and rotate the field so that you fighting him down the table rather than across it. Don't hesitate to sacrifice a unit to bait his assault marines out of their tracks and into assault, either.

The other option is the sacrificial Chimera rush. Everyone playing a balls out close combat army is looking for the chance to multiassault a big chunk of your army, win combat, and break your back in a single turn. Beat them by giving them something that looks like that chance.

Shove all your Chimeras forward in a wall and pop smoke. It'll bait him into a giant multiassault on a bunch of them, which, while potentially lethal to lots of Guardsmen, also leaves a huge chunk of his army with their dicks in the wind after assaulting your vehicles that just moved at Cruising speed. From there, burn and shoot and lol and repeat.

It works even better against things like Orks and tyranids, because they are so dependent on the fail that is relying on assault to destroy vehicles.

Don't be afraid to burn a unit to slow down the enemy. You basically want your unit to be away from cover if possible and be capable of folding like a wet noodle in assault, as to leave the enemy unit open to shooting.

As to your bulldog problem, I find a blunt object such as 'alf a brick usually does the job

Jihallah wrote: As to your bulldog problem, I find a blunt object such as 'alf a brick usually does the job

Or a big juicy steak XD

thakabalpuphorsefishguy wrote:

Jihallah wrote: As to your bulldog problem, I find a blunt object such as 'alf a brick usually does the job

Or a big juicy steak XD

A big, juicy poisoned steak.

Yep, as mentioned in the thread on null deployment guard, no guard (or Tau or other shooty army) can bring enough shooting to stop a fast assault army in 1 or 2 turns before they're on top of you.

BA or other fast assault armies are the hard counter to static shooting armies of all kinds. That's why you need chimeras.

Flavius Infernus wrote:Yep, as mentioned in the thread on null deployment guard, no guard (or Tau or other shooty army) can bring enough shooting to stop a fast assault army in 1 or 2 turns before they're on top of you.

BA or other fast assault armies are the hard counter to static shooting armies of all kinds. That's why you need chimeras.

I had chimeras. They got blown up and the guys inside got pinned. This has happened most of the time I've used them, and is statistically pretty likely.
I think I just won't play against BA in future.

Joey wrote:I had chimeras. They got blown up and the guys inside got pinned. This has happened most of the time I've used them, and is statistically pretty likely.
I think I just won't play against BA in future.

Figuring out how to beat BA will make you a stronger player overall. I think you can do it, plus refusing to play an entire codex because of a bad match-up is poor form.

Your list seems to have a lot of plasma in it. Against a mech army, you'll need more longer range S7/8, like autocannons, for that crucial first turn of shooting. If you can avoid using your Leman Russes to take down tanks, you'll be able to lay some pie plates down on the troops that pile out of his destroyed transports. I like the Executioner, but I can never seem to find room for it in my lists.

Also, particularly against fast armies, you need to prioritize your threats. Which parts of his army are Turn 2 threats and which are Turn 3 threats? The Stormraven jumps out as public enemy number one.

As DaddyWarcrimes mentioned, baiting him with Chimeras is a great way to get him to blow his load before he gets to the good stuff. Flavius makes an excellent point that you need to use the Movement phase to your advantage against a fast army, because otherwise they will indeed be all over you too quickly. 3 Chimeras does not a mech army make.

Cofferdamming assaults is big. Using sacrificial units to absorb charges and prevent multi-assaults. Thankfully your units should die the turn he charges them, leaving him open for your shooting. The tactics part is minimizing how many units he can kill early, keeping more or your stuff alive and shooting.

Don't forget also you can tank shock. Most BA units are Ld9 and not Fearless, so they should occasionally fail a Morale test.

If going second, see how he deploys. If he bunches up, trying splitting your force between the corners and shooting him from both sides. If he spreads out, bunch up in one corner (maybe a bit of long-range fire support in the other) to give yourself localized numeric superiority, focus fire on the close stuff and hopefully kill it before the other stuff catches up.

As a mobile BA player, he probably had better force concentration than you did. This is best fixed by using your mobility and long-range weapons to focus your own killing power, and then either deploying very spread out so he can't kill everything at once, or castling up and offering layers of defense for him to try and break through.

Against BA, you're not going to be able to rely on the strength of your list alone. You're going to have to step things up in the deployment phase (and the rest of the fieldcraft in general) to make the biggest difference.

Roboute wrote:

Joey wrote:I had chimeras. They got blown up and the guys inside got pinned. This has happened most of the time I've used them, and is statistically pretty likely.
I think I just won't play against BA in future.

Figuring out how to beat BA will make you a stronger player overall. I think you can do it, plus refusing to play an entire codex because of a bad match-up is poor form.

Your list seems to have a lot of plasma in it. Against a mech army, you'll need more longer range S7/8, like autocannons, for that crucial first turn of shooting. If you can avoid using your Leman Russes to take down tanks, you'll be able to lay some pie plates down on the troops that pile out of his destroyed transports. I like the Executioner, but I can never seem to find room for it in my lists.

Also, particularly against fast armies, you need to prioritize your threats. Which parts of his army are Turn 2 threats and which are Turn 3 threats? The Stormraven jumps out as public enemy number one.

As DaddyWarcrimes mentioned, baiting him with Chimeras is a great way to get him to blow his load before he gets to the good stuff. Flavius makes an excellent point that you need to use the Movement phase to your advantage against a fast army, because otherwise they will indeed be all over you too quickly. 3 Chimeras does not a mech army make.

It's true enough that I lacked Hydras, though even then these are no great guarentee of success. Even in the list I had, the Storm Raven got 3 twin-linked meltaguns from the PCS, 1 unit rapid-firing plasma guns, another unit single firing plasmas, a Devil Dog's two multi-meltas, and two leman russes' Battle Cannons (Executioner got stunned T1, was my only damage) shooting at it. Despite all this, the best I managed was preventing it from shooting (Lol machine spirit). Maybe I should have swapped out the Russes for 4 Hydras, then had points to spend somewhere else too. But hydras aren't great when thy're on the move, which is often. Prioritising enemy units is no good when you can't even take down the one thing that's a really really big threat.

Mannahnin wrote:Cofferdamming assaults is big. Using sacrificial units to absorb charges and prevent multi-assaults. Thankfully your units should die the turn he charges them, leaving him open for your shooting. The tactics part is minimizing how many units he can kill early, keeping more or your stuff alive and shooting.

Don't forget also you can tank shock. Most BA units are Ld9 and not Fearless, so they should occasionally fail a Morale test.

If going second, see how he deploys. If he bunches up, trying splitting your force between the corners and shooting him from both sides. If he spreads out, bunch up in one corner (maybe a bit of long-range fire support in the other) to give yourself localized numeric superiority, focus fire on the close stuff and hopefully kill it before the other stuff catches up.

Well yeah I got shafted by going first then having the opponant steal the initiative. Even so, my power blob was exterminated and I was relying on them as a screen, all it did was stop me shooting the enemy which as guard is what I want to be doing.

Ailaros wrote:As a mobile BA player, he probably had better force concentration than you did. This is best fixed by using your mobility and long-range weapons to focus your own killing power, and then either deploying very spread out so he can't kill everything at once, or castling up and offering layers of defense for him to try and break through.

Against BA, you're not going to be able to rely on the strength of your list alone. You're going to have to step things up in the deployment phase (and the rest of the fieldcraft in general) to make the biggest difference.

Universal fast vehicles and jump packs make any deployment tricks I can do moot. I have a percentage chance to kill them by shooting, they have a definite chance of killing anything they assault.

Roboute wrote:

Your list seems to have a lot of plasma in it. Against a mech army, you'll need more longer range S7/8, like autocannons, for that crucial first turn of shooting. If you can avoid using your Leman Russes to take down tanks, you'll be able to lay some pie plates down on the troops that pile out of his destroyed transports. I like the Executioner, but I can never seem to find room for it in my lists.

...

3 Chimeras does not a mech army make.

This pretty much sums it up. You need more mid to high strength non-blast long range shooting. This should be present not only specifically against a mech army but in a well balanced list. Executioners are expensive tanks. Just redundant due to all the plasma your already taking and thus a waste of points at 190. The devil dog is one of the worst options in the codex. For 25 more points you can get a melta vet squad in a chimera that can deal with heavy armour much more reliably AND can take two heavy weapons to shoot at a different target.

More briefly: your lists need alot of work.

If you don't want to hose the Hydra's shooting by moving it, run Exterminators.
I personally swear by my Hydras. I've had more people focus on them after they're tearing crap up, than do see them as a first turn threat.
And I'm with the "get more Chimera" crowd. Either that, or get rid of the 3. And I'm sure you're going to roll your eyes, but a Manticore can
really ruin a vehicle's day. With the chance of 3 plates, it can ruin a couple of their days.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
PS
If you drop the 3 Chimera, get a speedbump squad for each blob. 10 men die so 30 others can line up
a good shot seems like a good trade.

I own BA and IG. I shall fight myself and tell you what I learned from... myself.

~Lion~

TheLionOfTheForest wrote:I own BA and IG. I shall fight myself and tell you what I learned from... myself.

~Lion~

I don't see how playing with yourself will help.

Sorry, I was kind of rushed this morning, so I didn't post everything I wanted to say.

In this case, having the initiative seized kind of shafted you, and that happens sometimes so this is an exceptional case. But the general question of how guard are supposed to handle an army like DoA BA (or even normal-deploying BA with a lot of jump packs) is a problem that comes up even when your opponent doesn't seize.

Also it sounds like maybe your blob screen held when they should have broken and broke when they should have held? So that's an easy fix: when the blob is doomed anyway, pull the commissar as a casualty in your opponent's turn and let the blob be wiped out. Occasionally they'll get away and can be ordered to get back in the fight to screen for another turn.

Then, when you're going second, deploying in reserve is the answer. But this is the thing that only works for mechanized armies.

But in the bad situation where you're forced to go first and your opponent is fast and assaulty (I had this matchup against a daemon army just last night), that's where the mobility of the mech army bails you out of trouble.

1. Against non deepstriking fast assaulters, concentrate your force in turn 1, take your shots, then when he gets close (turn 2) move the sacrificial/screening units into position while backing off and dispersing your firebase. Make it so that he can't multi-assault the tanks, and so that the tanks he assaults are moving fast. Hellhound variants are actually really at sacrificing/interdicting, since they can move over 6" and still shoot. That gives you an extra turn or two of shooting.

2. Against deepstrikers, use one of these andti-deepstrike deployments:
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/10/spacecurves-tactics-class-deployment.html
Or use the dual castles in the corners. They're all designed in one way or another to limit the vehicles that your opponent can assault. But they mostly only work when your army is fully or almost fully meched.

There's nothing wrong with your army except the lack of transports. Russes and devil dogs work fine, and you don't necessarily need hydras, but armies in 5th edition need to be able to move.

Joey wrote:

Roboute wrote:

Joey wrote:I had chimeras. They got blown up and the guys inside got pinned. This has happened most of the time I've used them, and is statistically pretty likely.
I think I just won't play against BA in future.

Figuring out how to beat BA will make you a stronger player overall. I think you can do it, plus refusing to play an entire codex because of a bad match-up is poor form.

Your list seems to have a lot of plasma in it. Against a mech army, you'll need more longer range S7/8, like autocannons, for that crucial first turn of shooting. If you can avoid using your Leman Russes to take down tanks, you'll be able to lay some pie plates down on the troops that pile out of his destroyed transports. I like the Executioner, but I can never seem to find room for it in my lists.

Also, particularly against fast armies, you need to prioritize your threats. Which parts of his army are Turn 2 threats and which are Turn 3 threats? The Stormraven jumps out as public enemy number one.

As DaddyWarcrimes mentioned, baiting him with Chimeras is a great way to get him to blow his load before he gets to the good stuff. Flavius makes an excellent point that you need to use the Movement phase to your advantage against a fast army, because otherwise they will indeed be all over you too quickly. 3 Chimeras does not a mech army make.

It's true enough that I lacked Hydras, though even then these are no great guarentee of success. Even in the list I had, the Storm Raven got 3 twin-linked meltaguns from the PCS, 1 unit rapid-firing plasma guns, another unit single firing plasmas, a Devil Dog's two multi-meltas, and two leman russes' Battle Cannons (Executioner got stunned T1, was my only damage) shooting at it. Despite all this, the best I managed was preventing it from shooting (Lol machine spirit). Maybe I should have swapped out the Russes for 4 Hydras, then had points to spend somewhere else too. But hydras aren't great when thy're on the move, which is often. Prioritising enemy units is no good when you can't even take down the one thing that's a really really big threat.

So 5 S8 shots, 9(?) S7 shots and 2 S8 pieplates
3-4 S8 hits, 6 S7 hits and oh god who knows
That's a bit of a mockery of a first turn volley. Only 2 of those shots are long range, it seems like you need some more reach.

Joey wrote:

Mannahnin wrote:Cofferdamming assaults is big. Using sacrificial units to absorb charges and prevent multi-assaults. Thankfully your units should die the turn he charges them, leaving him open for your shooting. The tactics part is minimizing how many units he can kill early, keeping more or your stuff alive and shooting.

Don't forget also you can tank shock. Most BA units are Ld9 and not Fearless, so they should occasionally fail a Morale test.

If going second, see how he deploys. If he bunches up, trying splitting your force between the corners and shooting him from both sides. If he spreads out, bunch up in one corner (maybe a bit of long-range fire support in the other) to give yourself localized numeric superiority, focus fire on the close stuff and hopefully kill it before the other stuff catches up.

Well yeah I got shafted by going first then having the opponant steal the initiative. Even so, my power blob was exterminated and I was relying on them as a screen, all it did was stop me shooting the enemy which as guard is what I want to be doing.

You could always buy a naked blob for screening, usually a better idea than a powerblob. As mentioned, you can take some hits on the commissar so the blob will break. That is part of a power blobs list of tricks- know your units.

Joey wrote:

Ailaros wrote:As a mobile BA player, he probably had better force concentration than you did. This is best fixed by using your mobility and long-range weapons to focus your own killing power, and then either deploying very spread out so he can't kill everything at once, or castling up and offering layers of defense for him to try and break through.

Against BA, you're not going to be able to rely on the strength of your list alone. You're going to have to step things up in the deployment phase (and the rest of the fieldcraft in general) to make the biggest difference.

Universal fast vehicles and jump packs make any deployment tricks I can do moot. I have a percentage chance to kill them by shooting, they have a definite chance of killing anything they assault.

Since this is a game of probability, I'd say they don't have a "definite" chance of killing anything they assault. And I'd have a good read of the anti-DS deployments and spacecurves tactics blog in general before saying any deployment tricks you have are moot.

Forward Sacrificial Units. BA's will be nicely clumped up for artillery after they wipe out squads.

I don't know what units you own, so sorry if I make any recommendations you can't use. Anyway, on to list advice from someone who probably doesn't have nearly as much experience as you!

Vendettas are wonderful at popping transports, since two hydras are more expensive and provide 8 twin linked str 7 shots, you're not facing anything with a speed cover save so you don't have to worry about targeting. Anyway mathhammer says each shot from a hydra has a .75 chance to hit * a 1/3 chance to pen * 1/3 chance to destroy (we'll ignore immobilization/weapon destroyed even if that might accomplish your goals, I'm just not good enough at mathhammer to do it) is ~8.3% chance per shot to wreck it. So with 8 shots you can a pretty nifty 34% chance to blow up an AV11 vehicle. Now a twin linked lascannon from a vendetta has a .75 chance to hit * 2/3 to pen *1/3 to destroy gives you ~16.6% chance per shot to wreck, or nearly a 50% chance to blow the whole thing up with a volley. Throw in glancing hits, and count weapon destroyed or immobilized (whichever is your bigger problem) as a favorable result and each Vendetta will (I think) do even better and for 20 points cheaper. Three vendettas in your fast attack slots have a pretty good chance of blowing away 2 vehicles completely and taking something important off a third, and all at 48"!

Another interesting choice could be swapping those Russes for Manticores, especially since the Manticore averages 2 S10 ordinance shots per turn, and they will penetrate AV 11 35 out of 36 times. Once you throw in that 1 in three blasts are hit markers, and that the average scatter if you get your BS 3 is just 4" gives you a pretty good chance of getting at least one hit, especially on a model the size of the stormraven. I feel like you have so much plasma that if you can just unwrap the assault marines then you're golden as they walk towards you, especially with an Executioner strafing them as soon as they pop out.

Finally, the Blood Angels are is designed to start on the table, and you lost a lot to an alpha strike. So plan on going second, want to go second, if you choose to go second then no one can seize the initiative from you. Add an astropath, now 2/3's of your army will roll on at the top of turn 2 from any part of your board edge. You can position them perfectly for firing ranges and angles, and they get to alpha stike. I personally think that an alpha strike from 2/3's of your army with perfect positioning is better then an alpha strike from all your army that your opponent gets to position themselves against. Even if you can't use anything else, planning on going second and having an army that takes advantage of it by adding a 30 point unit means you'll never have to worry about initiative being seized from you again. For that matter, you can make sure that you're out of assault range of anything when you walk on, and anything that is close enough to assault you the next turn is probably close enough to be melta'd or plasma'd by the chimeras rolling on. Also an astropath lets you reroll outflanking rolls, so just throwing al raheem into that platoon, adding an astropath and trying to go second could make it much easier for you. After all, if you can roll on and blow away 2 or 3 razorbacks before they even get to shoot at you could have changed the game.

Take my advice with a grain of salt, while I usually play against my friend who runs Blood Angels, I've only played 1000 point games, and only against a DoA list, though I did do quite well thus far.

Kiarou wrote:I don't know what units you own, so sorry if I make any recommendations you can't use. Anyway, on to list advice from someone who probably doesn't have nearly as much experience as you!

Vendettas are wonderful at popping transports, since two hydras are more expensive and provide 8 twin linked str 7 shots, you're not facing anything with a speed cover save so you don't have to worry about targeting.

Joey wrote:Opponant was mech BA, Stormraven, razorbacks, assault squads, veterans, etc.

D'oh! Vendettas are still great at popping low to mid armor, due to the high accuracy and S9 though.

Kiarou wrote:Another interesting choice could be swapping those Russes for Manticores, especially since the Manticore averages 2 S10 ordinance shots per turn, and they will penetrate AV 11 35 out of 36 times. Once you throw in that 1 in three blasts are hit markers, and that the average scatter if you get your BS 3 is just 4" gives you a pretty good chance of getting at least one hit, especially on a model the size of the stormraven. I feel like you have so much plasma that if you can just unwrap the assault marines then you're golden as they walk towards you, especially with an Executioner strafing them as soon as they pop out.

Manticore's are godly. Even against marines on foot they can throw down alot of wounds. If the enemy is doing a sledgehammer style of assault, then manticores get better and better, more vehicles and target in one area.

Kiarou wrote:
Finally, the Blood Angels are is designed to start on the table, and you lost a lot to an alpha strike. So plan on going second, want to go second, if you choose to go second then no one can seize the initiative from you. Add an astropath, now 2/3's of your army will roll on at the top of turn 2 from any part of your board edge. You can position them perfectly for firing ranges and angles, and they get to alpha stike. I personally think that an alpha strike from 2/3's of your army with perfect positioning is better then an alpha strike from all your army that your opponent gets to position themselves against.

Joey, this is very good advice. Saying that any deployment tricks you can do is moot is silly, because the above is a better concept then "line 'em up boys and get ready".

It sounds like you have lost the battle against BA before you have even begun.

MOAR HYDRAS! Their flat out save ignoring ability, 4 shots of S7 up to 72" and very low cost make them a very good choice for most lists.

as a general question on target priority, do you aim for the BA player's big guns first like SR/vindicators/preds with lascannons first? or do you go for the transports like razorbacks first to deny them the infantry?

sudojoe wrote:as a general question on target priority, do you aim for the BA player's big guns first like SR/vindicators/preds with lascannons first? or do you go for the transports like razorbacks first to deny them the infantry?

Guard will win a long-range shootout with nearly anybody. It's when the str5 furious assaults hit your line that you get overrun and lose the game. So stop the transports/jumppackers first.

Appreciate the advise guys. I may well be playing against BA this evening (though it's 2v2 so even if I am I will have an ally) and will try to take on board as much advice as I can.
Running that list again I'd probably drop the Leman Russes for Manticores, drop the power blob and chimeras (I don't have enough vehicles for mechvet spam) and go for more plasma vets, possibly a couple of banewolfs too.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, this:

Jihallah wrote:
Since this is a game of probability, I'd say they don't have a "definite" chance of killing anything they assault. And I'd have a good read of the anti-DS deployments and spacecurves tactics blog in general before saying any deployment tricks you have are moot.

They do. I can fire a Demolisher at a unit of something, and it will either hit or miss, and then cover saves will be taken. The chance of wiping out the entire unit is pretty slim, but I'll probably do some damage.
Now 7 assault units charge-4 attacks each, with I5 S5 re-rolls to hit and wound. You seriously telling me that's not gaurenteed death to everything in that unit?

Joey wrote:
Also, this:

Jihallah wrote:
Since this is a game of probability, I'd say they don't have a "definite" chance of killing anything they assault. And I'd have a good read of the anti-DS deployments and spacecurves tactics blog in general before saying any deployment tricks you have are moot.

They do. I can fire a Demolisher at a unit of something, and it will either hit or miss, and then cover saves will be taken. The chance of wiping out the entire unit is pretty slim, but I'll probably do some damage.
Now 7 assault units charge-4 attacks each, with I5 S5 re-rolls to hit and wound. You seriously telling me that's not gaurenteed death to everything in that unit?

They day I rolled 24 misses at BS4 with 30 shots was the day probability was hammered home to me. Or the game where my Havoc's did not get a single pen/glance in a whole game, when they did manage to hit. 4 AC'sx5 turns is 40 shots.
And it's a subjective. In a unit per unit world, yes, they will definitely kill them 99% of the time, the 1% being where they roll 24 misses out of 30 dice. But when that unit is vanilla guardsmen, and they get butchered like they should, and then the next turn the enemy is left out in front of all of those lovely AP1,2 & 3 weapons and maybe a counter charge from a powerblob- Yes, I believe the guard win that particular assault phase. I know this because it has happened to me so many times playing assault armies/close range assault hybrid armies, most of which play in a very bulldog style. So I know how to beat them- as flav said stop the transports/jumppackers. Once the survivors hit your line, you still haven't won. I've always been amused at how ridiculously quick a guardline collapses with 2+ units stuck into it. You need to mitigate the damage they are doing via tarpits and roadblocks, whilst maximizing your damage back which is mainly done via special and heavy weapons.

Yeah my bezerkers for example will murder your 20 blob. This will then leave them sitting out in front of the units who are actually going to remove them from the table. You tell me who won that assault phase, because I sure feel I didn't.

Yeah, as mentioned above: if getting siezed is going to table you... choose to deploy second. I often do this. Lets it all stay predicatable and controllable, sometimes wierds opponents out (especially when I pass on siezing) and lets you really script out the first round.

Of course, I play forces that do better going second than IG, but maybe that's still the route to go for IG vs BA. If they're pod heavy (though they rarely are), I'd reserve all tanks.