Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey Dakka,
I'm going to start testing my Saleran Guard on the board in games ranging from 250pts to 1000pts.
I'm probably going against Tau in small doses and Tyranids and Necrons in larger games.
Any great advice? Don't do this, make sure he doesn't do that ect.
I'm probably playing based around a core infantry platoon but the lists are ever evolving.

- Leman Russes or artillery to thin out hordes.
- Veterans with Plasma/Melta can take out the larger beasties.
- Vendettas and Vultures provide excellent anti-tank/flyer weaponry.

You'll probably get a lot of advice - most of it contradictory.

It depends if you want to go horde (lots of troops), mech (lots of tanks), air (lots of planes), artillery (lots of big guns) or hybrid (mix of some or all of above).

Current favorites are mech/flyer types but YMMV.

Generally, there are only a few units which everyone can agree on that you want to avoid:

Nork Deddog
Conscripts
Penal Legion
Deathstrike

Things which most people consider to be good (or cheap enough to be worth taking):

CCS (usually with 4 matched special weapons)
Astropath (if you have reserves)
Marbo!
Platoons (usually taken for scoring, line holding, tar pitting/speed bumping purposes)
Veterans (usually with 3 matched specials)
Chimeras
Both Fliers
Most Leman Russes (Eradicator is a bit specialised for TAC - Demolisher tends to get best reviews)
Manticore

Have a look about the interwebz, see what you like the look of and give it a go!

Not sure what you can really do at the 250pt range (that's practically a kill team game). At the 1k level I've tried straight horde, heavy tank and heavy flyer. Each had it's drawbacks and depending on what army I was playing against it could be an issue. My compromise list consisted of the following. Yeah, I'm all over the place but you cover the entire spectrum with answers to pretty much everything you'll run into. 2 large blast templates (one of which ignores cover and kills MEQ). 4 AP2 S7 rapid fire guns, 4 S7 48" shots, 6 TL S9 AP2 shots and 4+ cover save for everyone. Plus lots of units that can hold objectives. I put the PCS into the vendettas and they pop out around turn 5 and flame whatever is standing on an objective. I ran this at a tournament at the beginning of the month and won 3 out of 4 games - and I'm not a very good player. In one game the colossus killed all of my opponents troops - half of which were behind the aegis manning the quad gun. In another game both vendettas went into hover and dropped off the PCS squads who then flamed the crap out of a unit of DE making what was left run off the objective.

HQ: Company Command Squad , Astropath, Master of Ordnance

Troops: Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad, Flamer, Heavy Flamer
Infantry Squad, Plasma gun, Autocannon
Infantry Squad, Plasma gun, Autocannon

Troops: Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad, Flamer, Heavy Flamer
Infantry Squad, Plasma gun, Autocannon
Infantry Squad, Plasma gun, Autocannon

Fast Attack: 2x Vendettas

Heavy Support: Colossus, Camo Netting, Enclosed Crew Compartment

Aegis Defence Line

 necron99 wrote:
Platoon Command Squad, Flamer, Heavy Flamer

Never do this. In virtually every situation the heavy flamer is worse than buying three more standard flamers for the squad, and costs more points.

Well, if you're facing up against tau, the best thing you can do is take those infantry squads, turn them into vets, and put them in chimeras. I can't think of any army that can put down a foot guard army with more contemptuous ease than the new Tau at the moment. 30" S5 Ap5 weapons that can ignore cover means you just die.

For necron, you're likely seeing fliers, or AV13 spam. In either way, just take lots of high-strength weapons.

For Tyranid... I guess it depends on what kind of tyranid list. Probably your best bet is, once again, to put out lots of high or at least medium strength shots with a nice Ap to handle the monstrous creatures.

Bring AV14.

Tau are pretty "meh" at killing AV14, especially once you neutralize longstrike.

Until you do, though...

A free hit with S10 Ap1 tank hunter is a swift road to a gristly end, regardless of the AV of the tank.

Just another one of those game concepts that Tau have the ability to ignore, I suppose.

@Stoned Monkey - List what you have and we can better help you with suggestions. There are lots of great advice but it's all for not if you don't have any of the items being suggested.

So list out everything for us please.

Ex. 20 guys with lasguns
2 sergeants
3 heavy weapon squads w/lascannons.
etc.

If you ok with using Forge World I'd recommend Sabre Guns, Artillary Carriages and Vulture Gunships. All of those optiona are durable and can put out a lot of damage for point cost.

 Ailaros wrote:
Well, if you're facing up against tau, the best thing you can do is take those infantry squads, turn them into vets, and put them in chimeras. I can't think of any army that can put down a foot guard army with more contemptuous ease than the new Tau at the moment. 30" S5 Ap5 weapons that can ignore cover means you just die.

For necron, you're likely seeing fliers, or AV13 spam. In either way, just take lots of high-strength weapons.

For Tyranid... I guess it depends on what kind of tyranid list. Probably your best bet is, once again, to put out lots of high or at least medium strength shots with a nice Ap to handle the monstrous creatures.

Tyranids are traditionally allergic to boomguard. Spamming pieplates and vehicles still ruins most any nid player's day. Tyranids also have very few antiair options and do very, very poorly if forced to go on the defense. Against us bugplayers the best way to win is to be on the attack and crater the map while long ranged units snipe monstrous creatures to death. Given that most of our Comdex is garbage there are usually a few key units in a tyranid army that without which the entire force goes down like a cheap hooker. They are Tervigons, Zoanthropes, Hive guards, and Flyrants, these are the core of pretty much every competitive tyranid list and if you kill them the tyranid player is almost certainly up gak creek without a paddle. This by all means should be an easy win for most any guard list.

Really recommend the manticore, especially against tau (they won't get saves even hiding behind an aegis) and tyranids - won't get a save, and large enough spread of models that you will kill a decent number of models. Against necrons it's really handy for damaging their vehicles.

All while you happily sit out of sight and free from retaliation!

If you're using Forgeworld, Artillery Carriages are amazing. An earthshaker cannon is an extremely resilient artillery piece with the firepower of a Basilisk. S9 AP3 will kill crisis suits instantly, and barrage lets you allocate around the shield drones. They're a steal at 75 points.