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Hey guys, I have started guard and my style is going to be the largely favoured veterans in chimeras supported by leman russes and vendettas. I know how to use them against tau, or marines. The problem is though how should I use them against an assaulting army such as orks or tyrannids. So I am asking what is a good tactic for this style of guard army against an assaulting army.thanks

There's really only one thing you can do. Stand back as far from melee range as possible and focus fire wisely

Large Blast templates, especially Medusas tend to do well. And Manticores.

Against assaulty armies I usually elect to go second (don't let on that you want this since most opponents will want to go first anyway). Deploy intelligently, generally keeping as far away as possible. Cover will be *very* important, by deploying second you can exert a degree of control over how and where cover affects the battlefield, so deploy accordingly.

List-wise, I would prioritise high volume short-range firepower, since your enemy will be running flat-out towards you, you can probably assume they're going to be close to you pretty quickly, *but* you're running mech, so you are able to concentrate your firepower more effectively than offensive armies.

The way I have always done it is to perform a fighting retreat so that I can shoot my 24" plasma into the horde.

The important part is the refuse a flank so you can focus on half of the opponent's army at a time.

Acknowledge the fact that 80% of your army is sacrificial and plan out what you need to survive at the end of the battle at the beginning. Depending on the opponent I will sacrifice the chimera's first or the vets first, it all depends on what will buy me the best advantage.

Finally template are useful to force them to spread out but you should also have some high RoF weapons for when the opponent has spaced properly. This is why I like to mix punishers/ massed multilasers with my demolishers/ manticores/ thudd guns/ etc.

It's another mech vet list, there's nothing you really need to worry about. Spam as many special weapons as the points allows and watch the opponent slowly hate you as the turns progress and as they take handfuls of their models away a turn.

One thing to remember about mech vets is that you don't have to keep your vets in the chimeras. sometimes it is good to diesembark, and move away from the vehicle. let the vehicle get assaulted and destroyed. It is better to be out of the vehicle when it blows up than inside. Then, you have the full squad to fire upon said assaulters.

Mech vets also have great defensive power against assault. Over the space of 3 turns, you can fire normally, overwatch from the chimera before it's destroyed, fire again in your turn and then fire overwatch again. The enemy has to go through 4 rounds of shooting before they can even touch the vets. This also gives you another round with which to drop pie plates on them, as either they destroy the Chimera and are left in the open, or they somehow whiff their rolls and it survives, and they are left in the open.

You also need to consider that in this kind of list, most of the killing is done by the Russes or artillery, so if you can delay a mob of orks/horde of nids by throwing a chimera-vet squad in their way, then do so, as your big guns can then keep firing. Obviously you want to keep your troops fairly safe, but if it's a case of keeping an artillery squadron firing another 2 turns and losing a vet squad or keeping the vets but losing the artillery, then option one is usually the best.

Generally, you should seek to play a surrendered flank with this kind of list, so put everything on one side of the board and force the enemy to face all of your army with half of theirs, if need be using the mobility of the Chimeras to redeploy and set this up again.

When it comes to grabbing objectives in the late game, then it is often a good idea to disembark onto it before moving the chimera, and then park the transport between them and the enemy. This works against shooting and assault armies, as for shooty armies they have to blow up the chimera before hitting the vets (and if they wreck but don't destroy it you still get a cover save) and for assault armies they have to either charge or move round it, meaning they take longer to get to you.

Against hordes is also one of the few times I would suggest running HF on the chimeras, as they are going to die anyway, so they might as well charge straight in and go down burning.