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Hi all!

I was wondering what are your views on heavy weapons teams in an IG army. I've always been loathe to use heavy weapons teams, feeling that 3 heavy weapons manned by only 6 men means a couple of hits will render the entire squad rather useless. But heavy weapons teams are a way to get lots of big guns for a relatively cheap cost I suppose.

Compared to a regular 10-men squad with 1 heavy weapon, sure you pay a lot more for each heavy weapon, but that single weapon will last much much longer. But it's a heck of a lot more expensive though...

So which is more important, sheer number of big guns or the survivability of each gun? Should I take heavy weapons teams at all? Are heavy weapons teams really worth taking?

Any advice will be much appreciated!

If you are taking an all infantry IG army, then absolutely load up on Heavy Weapon squads.

If not, then you want to generally avoid them.


Although if you're using Cameoleoline and you regularly play with 4+ cover, a Heavy Weapon squad with a 3+ cover save can be pretty damn durable.

Hmm... But I thought playing an all infantry army means I do not have to spend points on vehicles, thus I can afford to buy more regular squads to provide me with an adequate number heavy weapons without having to resort to heavy weapons teams.

Or am I seriously mistaken here? Please advise!

Yeah, you're not getting why heavy weapon teams are normally a bad idea and okay in an all infantry force.


You see, your typical opponent will have X number of anti-infantry weapons in their army and X number of anti-tank weapons in their army.

When you have a mixed Guard army, the enemy can fully utilize both types of weapons to eliminate potential threats in your IG force. Their AT is taking out your Hellhounds/Russes/Chimeras while their AI fire is killing your guard squads.

If you have limited numbers of infantry units, the enemy AI fire will obviously pick off your heavy wapons teams first, thereby drastically reducing the amount of return fire you can put out in the next turn.


On the other hand, when you play an all infantry army you still expect your opponents to have roughly the same mix of AT and AI weapons. However now, their AT weapons are essentially useless.

So you load up on heavy weapon squads (because it allows you to bring many, many more heavy weapons into your army). Your opponent simply doesn't have enough AI firepower to wipe out all your Heavy weapon squads (because they've got those darned AT weapons). Meanwhile, even if you lose one or two Heavy Weapon squads you now have enough long range firepower to obliterate whatever enemy units are trying to kill you.


Does that make some sense?


Now, I'm not saying that is the only way to play an all infantry IG army, but I can safely say that without taking any heavy weapon squads in an all infantry army, you'll have quite a hard time getting enough heavy weapons into the army to really outshoot another shooty army.

Oh, so it's the other way round from what I was thinking. Not taking vehicles frees up points, not to bring more regular squads as I was thinking, but to bring so many heavy weapons teams that the enemy cannot finish killing them off before you get to destroy their shooty/AI elements...

Thanks a lot! Never thought of target saturation at all, too used to playing marines instead of horde armies in the past I guess...

A good example of a great way to use HW teams.

Game time in a tournament is running out and you need to move through two turns quickly.

"OK - these 17 lascannons are firing at that Carnifex." Roll to hit, roll to wound - pull off the carnifex and my turn was finished. Next.

I'm experimenting with the idea of several heavy weapons squads as well. I had viewed them much the same as you had, geekinthehouse, but after playing some IG players, I found them much tougher than I had expected, and just as deadly.

Sure, you'd think a railgun submunition (for example) would easily nuke a 3 lascannon HW team, but you get a miss or two, and suddenly you're taking a lot of return fire. You start putting 9 HW teams on the board, along with regular squads and such, and suddenly the enemy has a problem killing everything quickly enough.

Bigger concerns would be very mobile armies, as they may be able to take apart your more static list in a piecemeal fashion, or drop-podding marines, as they have plenty of AP weapons (bolters) and can drop them in on your most threatening units fairly easily.

Heavy Weapon teams are essential in All Infantry Guard. I think I brought 12 Lascannons and 12 HBs in my last 171 model All Infantry army, and that was with a Kyoto-Pattern Inquisitorial Fire Team, who I wouldn't field in 4th Ed (freeing up 171 points to buy more 6 point Guardsmen).

All Infantry is Great because all those Lascannons and Railguns are going to do is kill 6 point Guardsmen and 5 point Conscripts all game. Your guns remain equally as effective. And in those situations HW squads bring you loads of cheap heavy weapons that you need to overwhelm your opponent with firepower.

In regular armies a few doesn't hurt, specifically Lascannons and Autocannons. Why? Well, they've got a 48" range, for a Lascannon AT Squad or an Autocannon FS squad with Light Infantry can effectivly set up after your opponent has put the best target for your guns on the table, and place them as far back as possible, making full use of the 48" range and keeping you out of range of usual anti-infantry weapons (which average around 36" in range).

BYE