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Alright so I am a dedicated imperial guard player but I have been troubled of late trying to figure out ways for my toughness 3, flak armor guardsman to hold objectives reliably. With 6th edition the rules changed so you now have to be outside your transport to hold objectives. Most armies don't mind this but unfortunately that was the only way IG got it done reliably. What makes the issue even worse is trying to take objectives from the enemy without getting curb stomped. The only ways I have generated so far are..

1. Going 2nd so you can get your guys out on the final turn without harassment.
2. Board wiping your opponent or at least killing all threats in the area of an objective from range before moving in.
3. Taking allies to capture objectives for me (Space Wolf Grey Hunters seem to do it okay but just arent really my style)

Any suggestions out there? Im all ears...

Objectives used to be a strong suite for IG in 5th edition because we were weak at kill point games... now I kind of dread objective games.

Tomb King wrote:trying to figure out ways for my toughness 3, carapace armor guardsman to hold objectives reliably.

Yeah, welcome to 6th ed imperial guard.

In all of my trials, the best I've been able to figure out is Send in The Next Wave! conscripts. They're the only permanent scoring unit in the game.

If you're really committed to mech, though, I don't know what I'd do. Perhaps put stuff in reserve and hope for poor reserves rolls.

1) Allies. Say hi to Deathwing terminators, GK, etc. The rest of your army pushes forward aggressively and kills stuff, the terminators walk onto the objective and force your opponent to choose between shooting at the plasma vets which aren't on an objective but are an immediate threat, or bouncing shots off 2+ armor.

2) Chimeras and Vendettas. You don't have to disembark until turn 5, and by that point you should have done enough damage that your remaining troops can survive a turn or two of firepower.

In all of my trials, the best I've been able to figure out is Send in The Next Wave! conscripts. They're the only permanent scoring unit in the game.

Of course this only helps with your "home" objectives, you still need a way to get a scoring (or at least contesting) presence onto your opponent's objectives if you want to win. But it's not a bad way of securing those objectives near your table edge.

Peregrine wrote:Of course this only helps with your "home" objectives, you still need a way to get a scoring (or at least contesting) presence onto your opponent's objectives if you want to win.

Of course, but that's what stormtroopers/harker/anything in a vendetta/anything that ouflanks are for.

If you can guarantee hold all of your own objectives, then all you need to do is blow your opponent off of one of his to win the game.

 Ailaros wrote:
If you can guarantee hold all of your own objectives, then all you need to do is blow your opponent off of one of his to win the game.

At least two, you mean. You have to plan for the case where it's an odd number of objectives and you place second. And then of course there's the mission with random objective values where "hold 'home', contest one" isn't a reliable plan, the missions where fast/heavy units give up VPs, the relic mission where the ONLY objective is outside your deployment zone, and of course the secondary VPs. End result: sometimes you can just win by blowing your opponent off a single objective if 'yours' are secure, but far from always.

Moar regular poor guys (you never have enough grunts)
Less pricey veterans / costly stuff

it worked in 5th, it works in 6th too

table your opponent and if that doesn't work obliterate his troops

Only way is really to either do the endless wave tactic of conscripts, or use your superior firepower to obliterate their troops. I also found very helpful to have 6+ scoring units, which is extremely easy, At 1850pts my current Armored Fists list has 9 scoring troops, 11 if it is it is The Scouring or The Big Guns Never Tire. Also since people are over reacting to 6th, they bring more anti-personal and less anti-armor. Which means my 12 Av 12 and 2 Av 14 vehicles are hard to kill.

Any guardsmen that are not directly in the fight that are on foot should go to ground until such a time as they need to hold the objective they occupy. Thats a start.

You say you have problems getting enemies off objectives. Where are your flamers and your battle cannons?

Mech lists have it a bit easier to grab objectives. use your tanks to block off your enemy from shooting your fragile guardsme and if anything go to ground or if your CCS is near give them the order of incoming so the save iis better. if you cant get the opponent off the objective more battle cannons or flamers! in both my vendettas i have 2 PCS with 4 flamers a piece. It has really saved me in two games to grav shoot those guys on an objective or against enemy units. and if you dont manticores or basilisks are good for blasting objectives. basilisk are somewhat better as they can wipe power armor units off, manticore is good for horde armies and tanks. but if your gunna use basilisks just grab more vanila russes and just blast the objective.

Now one question i have is if your having trouble taking objectives i assume your not running rambo(marbo). some people may say hes not worth it but that guy alone with a s8 large last template ap 2 i believe maybe 3 can clean objective for you. not to mention hes got melta bombs to wreck enemy vehicles and hes good in melee against fragile units as he has ws 5 and wounds on 2s. for 65 pts hes not bad.

another way of getting your opponent off the objective. SWS x2flamers and a demo charge. Stick them in a vendetta and you gotta a unit that will create plenty of wounds to clear an objective.

Maybe try a colossus, i dont know why i dont see anyone use this often as its got a short minimum range and its s6 ap 3 and IGNORES COVER! yea it probably wont be killing your enemies transports but thats why you have vets and battle tanks to pop them open and then blast them with that so then they wont get any cover bonus and if they hide on their objective that cannon isnt gunna let them have a cover lol.

Try creating firing lanes to the objectives and where your enemy has to advance so your tanks and heavy weapon teams can lay down tones of fire on your opponent and as that happens have your tanks roll up with either your vets or some footslodging guardsmen.

hopefully some of these tactics help you out a bit, a lot of them sound pretty reasonable as I would think.

This might seem like a basic question, but what is your list like? It may reveal a large weakness that perhaps you were over-looking.

I've honestly never had a problem holding home objectives. I find blobs of guardsmen manage it well.

My problem is forward objectives which my chimeras never managed to get to at the start of 6th. Deep strikers were the answer to this: forcing my opponent on the defensive. I've found chimeras to be a liability so far in this edition. So now they're just proxying as various artillery pieces until I decide which one is the best for its points cost.

 Griddlelol wrote:
This might seem like a basic question, but what is your list like? It may reveal a large weakness that perhaps you were over-looking.

I've honestly never had a problem holding home objectives. I find blobs of guardsmen manage it well.

My problem is forward objectives which my chimeras never managed to get to at the start of 6th. Deep strikers were the answer to this: forcing my opponent on the defensive. I've found chimeras to be a liability so far in this edition. So now they're just proxying as various artillery pieces until I decide which one is the best for its points cost.

Its not a list building issue because it is a general issue with IG. Home objectives are easy to hold its the opposing objectives that are hard to take. I have also played around with daemon allies might bring some horrors in for objective holding and a bloodthirster to clear the objective haha.

I'm not sure it is just an issue with IG. There aren't many codices that can easily hold enemy objectives.

Centre board ones are a different issue and definitely the realm of space marines or necrons, but all armies have trouble holding the opposing forces objectives short of tabling. I find the "relic" mission to be the most difficult when playing as guard. I have to focus on killing the opponent's troops and tagging the objective on turn 5 or 6. Although, that's what I do on most missions...

I would agree most armies probably have a hard time holding opponents objectives but you should deffinitly have some troops in vendettas to attack those or have chimera vets charge up on them.

I too just played the relic for the first time last week and i did not like it at all, my gunline just couldnt move up on it. the problem though was that i had 2 vendettas, 2 stormtroopers squads and marbo in reserves and marbo didnt come in until turn 4, a vendetta had to wait till turn 3. I just needed to have an officer of the fleet or astropath to bring those reserves in as they were really important and with that much in reserves that 2+ for reserves woulda been much needed.

On a side note to tankboy: Astropaths are pretty much mandatory for reserve heavy lists. I went for a while without one until a fateful game where none of my reserves entered without the automatic entry on turn 4. Amusingly it was on the relic too, adding to my distaste of that mission. Now I consider my CCS to be an 80 point unit.

Oh yea it was the relic lol. I had such a hard time just trying to grab it and since my vendettas came in at different times my flamer PCS didnt have the chance to take it, and marbo and a squad of stormtroopers was forced to wait until turn four. It was a bad game so I am requiring the astropath in my list now.

I have been allying with Sw/SM to get my tough scoring units and putting a SM IC in my blob squad to keep them on objectives.

I wouldnt concern yourself with trying to find the perfect scoring unit with Guard, I have been trending towards cheap scoring units like the PCS and the SWS. Place them in Vendettas to keep them safe.

While many people will be putting a huge amount of points into their scoring units you will be building some devastating firepower to quickly destroy their capacity to retaliate.

Then move in with cheap scoring units to cap distant objectives and your more durable units to hold home objectives.

A nice thing about IG is you have a weapon to kill any type of unit. Not just something that can get the job done but literally something will remove it from the battlefield. Take enough of those and you don't need many big durable units.

Space wolves are nice but with only two allied troops available I have to maximize their effectiveness with combat squading.

 Griddlelol wrote:
I'm not sure it is just an issue with IG. There aren't many codices that can easily hold enemy objectives.

It's much worse for IG. Their mobile scoring/denial units (Chimera vets, for example) are 5-10 T3/no save models, while their only durable units (by sheer number of bodies) are foot blobs and limited to 6+D6" of movement a turn. Getting those enemy objectives becomes a huge problem, anything fast enough to get to them isn't durable to hold them, and anything durable enough to hold them can't get there.

Marine armies, on the other hand, have T4/3+ basic troops, so even a 5-man Razorback squad has a decent chance of surviving on an objective, making it a lot easier to take and hold enemy objectives.

 Peregrine wrote:

It's much worse for IG. Their mobile scoring/denial units (Chimera vets, for example) are 5-10 T3/no save models, while their only durable units (by sheer number of bodies) are foot blobs and limited to 6+D6" of movement a turn. Getting those enemy objectives becomes a huge problem, anything fast enough to get to them isn't durable to hold them, and anything durable enough to hold them can't get there.

Marine armies, on the other hand, have T4/3+ basic troops, so even a 5-man Razorback squad has a decent chance of surviving on an objective, making it a lot easier to take and hold enemy objectives.

Good point here. It is easier and even cheaper to get to the objective with a small durable unit (someone in transport with T4 and good armour) than to get there with big, but not durable unit (foot blob - T3 and mostly no save without cover). Thanks to the wound alocation in 6th edition you are in fact moving slower then 6+D6 because the guys at front die first.

 Lothar wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:


Marine armies, on the other hand, have T4/3+ basic troops, so even a 5-man Razorback squad has a decent chance of surviving on an objective, making it a lot easier to take and hold enemy objectives.

Good point here. It is easier and even cheaper to get to the objective with a small durable unit (someone in transport with T4 and good armour) than to get there with big, but not durable unit (foot blob - T3 and mostly no save without cover). Thanks to the wound alocation in 6th edition you are in fact moving slower then 6+D6 because the guys at front die first.

I'm not claiming it's easy for IG, but I don't think, in any game I've played, I have let a razorback or rhino make it near my deployment zone. Those things are just too easy to stop now. Drop pods on the other hand, I find to be the difficult part.

What I've found works very well is 2 squads of stormtroopers in chimeras and some vets and lots of bodies. If the scout the chimeras up then you can start the fighting farther up and then advance with the rest you should be able to put the pressure on early.