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I want to start a discussion about the good old fashion gunline and whether or not you have one or if you even think its a good idea, in fact i would also like.some tips on deploying massed infantry? im more than happy to share my ig tactics to btw

I didn't play any IG battles in 6th but I have alot of experience with a full grunt + Russ army in 5th

With a 1999 pts setup :

I usually field 3-4 Russes and about 120-150 poor bastards

I always take a Demolisher and a LRBT, often a second LRBT / Exterminator (I have old models, no fancy new ones)

My infantry consist of
1 CCS with banner / lascannon / support officers that stays behind and provide cover / orders
2-3 platoons that provide
2-3 PCS with 2 Melta each (usually)
8-12 Regular Squads with flamer / PG / LG
3-5 Hvy Weap with ML / AC

if I have some points lying around, I sometimes add one or two Special Weap Squad with melta / flamer or transform 4 Squads into a Flamerblob with a Comissar and PW (I usually stay at 3 Russes then)

I had impressive success with those as the opponent is overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies and often starts to panic and waste shots.
It's a very good meta breaker army too as all your S:6-7 shots are more or less wasted and your melta will have a very hard time reaching those Russes

You just need to plan a few turns in advance any important movements as it's a slow army and cannot react very fast

Oh, of course, don't worry about losing a few squads .... and yes, I did win most of my KP missions by careful management of my dimineshed squads

I know it doesn't have any anti-air but it's a 5th ed setup, I guess you can forego a ML squad and take an ADL+quad

there are downsides though :
- very long deployment time
- can have long shooting phases with all those stoboscopic flashlight
- expensive (full metal / resin army here ...)

you HAVE to be a fast player and used to quick decisions with an army like this. The good point is you can get away with a few micro-management mistakes surfacing due to the pace you have to impose yourself, simply due to the number of squishy bodies you're fielding

I have been testing out a guard gunline myself. I run two platoons each with 4 inf squads. Both platoons command squadshave 4 flamers and ride in a vendetta each for grav insertion and burning units. 1 platoon has an auto cannon in each squad and the other platoon has a plasma gun in each squad. I have 1 leman russ squadron with 2 battle tanks and then theres a manticore. All 3 have camo nets and sit behind the line for a nice 3 + cover. Then theres marbo and a leman russ punisher with bolters and pask. Pretty much everything sits and shoots where the vendettas with flame squads and marbo try to snatch opponents objective. And if needed the 2 battle tanks and platoon with plasma guns pushs forward to assist. This list managed to beat the chaos daemon spam list with fate weaver so its done me pretty good. This list is 1995 pts. Oh yea theres a company command squad with cloaks, lascannon,Plasma gun, and regimental standard. There is a lord commisar that mans my quad gun for my defense line with an inf squad. Ive thought about getting rid of the camo nets for another command squad with lascannon to add additional orders and moral but tanks with a 3+ cover is crazy. Assault is the only way my tanks have died since ive put the nets on and ive lost 1 tank in 3 games.

Sorry i didnt put this in a list format currently postin this list at college between classes. But what do you generally run and what tactics do you use?

i love your mix of static gun line and fast competietive objective grabbing

usualy i run 2 platoons of 4 squads with autocannons, and then each platoon has a las canno hws. then i run 2 LRBT in a squadren and 1 on its own and plus a manticore, then i have an outflanking vendetta for popping tanks and a deepstriking ssuad of stormtroopers.

im generally not concerned with objective hunting unless i play 2000 points then i can add a leman russ executioner, in which case i charge a platoon out to soak up fire Then move up my tanks with the second platoon and overwhelm most opponants, but thats only if need be, otherwise i deeploy in 20, man squads sit on my objectives and use my fire power to grind down the baddies. i like to have a verstile and dynamic army you see and i usualy adapt to things as they happen on the table. i usually put a net on my manticore and the squadren as well and i agree haha there hard to kill the look on my opponents face when he hits and penetrates the manticore then i save it everytime, priceless. but i usually win games by whittaling my opponent down via target prioritoy, stormies, vendetta, HWS take out heavy armour, manticore takes out whatever the hell it wants, russes fire on hordes or heavy infantry and light vehicles and the guardsmen shoot at whatever comes into range

as for the first guy i really like your army all it needs now is to drop a russ for an artillary piece and the demolisher for a vendetta or take two vendettas

I run a semi-gun-line list most of the time. They're very effective if you get to go first against just about any enemy. They're just as effective if you get to go second against a shorter ranged enemy. I find I do rely on my ADL, and most of my troops are rather unwieldy. Although I always relied on cover, so that's not a surprise.

It gets boring though -_- I'm wanting to try a far more mobile list based around fliers. Incorporating allies has really made it more fun, and just as effective.

usualy i take voxs on my command and infantry squads aswell because i love garunteeing my orders,

heres my CCS loadout. commander bolter, powersword. vox. regimental standard then 2 plasma guns

my PCS for both is commander powersword, melta bombs. vox x2 flamers and a plasma gun

every second squad has a vox, for 20 man purposes

as for the first guy i really like your army all it needs now is to drop a russ for an artillary piece and the demolisher for a vendetta or take two vendettas

It would probably improve the list in some ways but I don't do it for several reasons :
1) The army was built during 3rd Ed
2) Manticores / Basilisks / Colossus / Deathstrikes shouldn't be available in 40K (only as off-table artillery support or EPIC) ... I know, flame incoming
3) Fielding a single AV12 ground and a single AV12 flyer screams "come at me Autocanons !" when one of the ideas of the army is to laugh as this category of weapons have to waste their high strength on Guards

It thus lacks mobility and have a hard time reacting to what the opponent does, true enough.
But when you're covering the whole half of your table edge, there's not much the opponent can do that surprises me, I can pretty much dictate where the enemy cannot appear from reserves (or only in awkwards places) and so on

You have to wield this arny with an Human Wave doctrine, it's very hard to stop its momentum but you have to be careful not to trust the control of a crucial objective to a single puny 10-man unit
I very rarely combine squads, so the opponent only catches 10 guys at a time (you have to be very careful about multi-assault)

i agree it can get boring but personaly i love blowing things to hell as they attempt to cross the bored, then finishing them off with my troopers. then foiling my enemies plan with a last turn tank charge and my vendetta and stormies wreaking havok in the backfield. ive been considerring ork allies just for fun to add a large green meatshield, or some tau for extra fire power


Automatically Appended Next Post:
fair enough haha, i actualy do quite well with a vendet and manticore combo. I can see what your saying to. Personally i hate 10 man squads, they just die and dont have enough fire power to hurt anything its 20 or nothing for me. as for the vendetta being av 12 its the heaviest flyer in the game and mine hasnt even taken a single scratch in 16 games, thats true haha, and then like i said i put camo nets on my manticore and thus it becomes very hard to kill

The only problem with gunline lists is grabbing opponents objectives. The two vendettas carrying the flamer pcs are really not enough to grab objectives.

Ive thought about dropping the plasma platoon and other points to try and throw in chimera vets but then that gets rid of the whole gunline aspect. I typically dont run blobs because once the enemy assaults the whole 20 man unit is gunna end up slaughting them and get overran unless theres a commissar.

 Galactica-actual wrote:
I want to start a discussion about the good old fashion gunline and whether or not you have one or if you even think its a good idea, in fact i would also like.some tips on deploying massed infantry? im more than happy to share my ig tactics to btw

Yay! A Topic I know candidly about!

Gunlines have gotten a nice boost in 6th Edition with Outflanking units not being able to charge unless their unit profile dictates otherwise. With the addition of improved blast templates, Focus Fire, and Wound Allocation; you're not wasting any firepower.

My gunline list evolved from my old Tanith First infultrating army; platoons with Autocannons and Missile Launchers, a sprinkling of Las Cannons, are at its core with two half-nekkid company command squads leading them, backed by two squadrons of a Griffon+Colossus Combo and a single Manticore. The army is quite strong, especially when the Command Squads live past turn 2.

For grabbing objectives I use simple Infantry Squads in Chimeras (Rockin' the Armored Fist Squad), and might start experimenting with using Rough Riders as counter charging units (as units locked in combat cannot Overwatch). I might even bring back my infiltrating Storm Troopers for pinning the nuisance units my opponent might have.

The army is brittle, but numerous, and the artillery can fire during nightfighting with impunity.

The thing I learned about a Gunline is learning how to spread out while being mindful of outflanking units; you should try to use your entire deployment area and all the terrain within, hiding your artillery behind LoS blocking terrain. But spreading out is key. You cover alot of firing lanes and force your opponent to either attack one side or split his own forces, making them easier to deal with as they come towards you.

 KplKeegan wrote:

 Galactica-actual wrote:
I want to start a discussion about the good old fashion gunline and whether or not you have one or if you even think its a good idea, in fact i would also like.some tips on deploying massed infantry? im more than happy to share my ig tactics to btw

Yay! A Topic I know candidly about!

Gunlines have gotten a nice boost in 6th Edition with Outflanking units not being able to charge unless their unit profile dictates otherwise. With the addition of improved blast templates, Focus Fire, and Wound Allocation; you're not wasting any firepower.

My gunline list evolved from my old Tanith First infultrating army; platoons with Autocannons and Missile Launchers, a sprinkling of Las Cannons, are at its core with two half-nekkid company command squads leading them, backed by two squadrons of a Griffon+Colossus Combo and a single Manticore. The army is quite strong, especially when the Command Squads live past turn 2.

For grabbing objectives I use simple Infantry Squads in Chimeras (Rockin' the Armored Fist Squad), and might start experimenting with using Rough Riders as counter charging units (as units locked in combat cannot Overwatch). I might even bring back my infiltrating Storm Troopers for pinning the nuisance units my opponent might have.

The army is brittle, but numerous, and the artillery can fire during nightfighting with impunity.

The thing I learned about a Gunline is learning how to spread out while being mindful of outflanking units; you should try to use your entire deployment area and all the terrain within, hiding your artillery behind LoS blocking terrain. But spreading out is key. You cover alot of firing lanes and force your opponent to either attack one side or split his own forces, making them easier to deal with as they come towards you.

Keegan, do you use HWS in your gunline? I would like to work a few into my list but I have had nothing but bad experiences with them. The worst being having an autocannon team wiped out by a single burst from a Assault Cannon.

Guard can do gunlines, it's called a leafblower. Any other guard gunline setup is going to be inferior to this one. This is especially true, as the only real long-range shooting option for foot guard is HWSs, which are comically easy to wipe off the board.

As for whether or not you should run a gunline, I'd say no. They're tedious and awful to play against, and a game between two gunline players is a game that's going to be nearly devoid of skill whatsoever. Two players showing up and doing little more than rolling dice sounds an awful lot like a game of Yahtzee to me.

If the only thing you're looking for is easy wins, and don't care about anything else, then yeah, you should totally go for a gunline, as they're rather strong right now, and even a brain-dead player can win with them. If you're going to go this route, though, a leafblower list is going to be better than a foot or a hybrid gunline.