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hello dakka
i have been having trouble with my guard army ever since i joined my local 40k league. i was hoping that you guys can help me figure out what i am doing wrong. i play 40k once a week in the league and have been doing so for about 5 months now. in that time i have managed to only win 2 games. i usually play a mec style ig list. my list for 1500 right now is

tank commander pask in punisher with hull lascannon, with an executioner with hull lascannon in tow.
4 vet squads in chimeras(ml,hb) with a plasmagun and lasconnon.
2 demolishers with hull heavy bolter.
2 wyvers with hull heavy bolter (squad)

i place the chimeras with good fire lines on the board first. i plan on using the squad lascannons to shoot for the first couple of turns (hopefully at the same target). i have the plasmaguns for the danger of double tap range plus the longer range compared to the melta. i am considering changing all the plasma to melta to save points plus i normally roll ones when firing plasmaguns. the chimeras hb and ml i use to attack the foot unites my opponent is moving up the board. i move the chimeras up turn 4 or 5 to grab objectives. next i place the demolishers normally one on each flank near the top of my deployment zone. this helps with the 24' range and gives a nice area that will threaten unites moving toward my deployment zone. pask will go in the middle of the board close to deployment board edge or if i go second i will generally place pask close to the unit he is going to gun for. the wyverns are last i normally but them in cover or line of sight blocking terrain.

for 2000 point games i will normally add a manticore and some vendettas.

the army's i usually face are sm(wht scare bike army's or drop pod), orks(hord lots of painboys and the shield fortification) , nids(i am not sure what it is called but it is a detachment with lots of flyers i call it the flying madness list) and tau (rip tide lots of suits with smart missile). the lists i have beat is chaos sm and eldar.

this is what i have to play with
like 70 guardsmen
8 sergeants (a mix of boltpistol,boltgun,laspistol)
6 meltaguns
6 plasmaguns
4 flamers
2 heavy flamers
6 gernade launchers.
6 autocannon teams
6 lascannon teams
3 heavy bolter teams
1 medic
1 commander (bolt pistol, power weapon)
1 commissar (Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon)
1 Priest
3 Bullygrns (power maul)
2 hellhounds (can be any variet)
4 vendettas
5 chimares
2 wyverns (can also be hydras)
2 lemanruss demolishers (can also be battle cannon)
2 lemanruss punishers(can also be executioners)
1 manticore
ags line

i would appreciate any advice
cheers dakka

Things that might improve your gameplay without many changes to the current list:

Give Pasknisher multimelta sponsons.
Give Executioner plazmacannon sponsons in case Pask's your warlord.

Demolishers are not that great usually and can't do much vs MC and Flyers. I'd just go with something else instead of at least one of them.
2 Wiverns are a super-infantry killer. Though, your meta ain't heavy on infantry, so 1 would be fine just in case and able to snipe out painboys like no big deal. Even though, they're so cheap - you can stick to 2 and not loose much even if they won't be need.

Chimera vets are better off with 2 specials and without lazcannons, imo. Their sole purpose is mobility and bs4 special weapon delivery + ability to finish off something in mellee with krak nades. So, either 2-3 plazma or 2-3 melta. Some combinations like 2 melta + flamer are also reasonable if you have spare points.


Generally speaking, i find that platoons + tanks work better than chimera vets + tanks. Cause it's just so much going on for platoons like cheapo comissars, priests and numbers to bauble wrap tanks, and tarpit what you can't kill. Give some of them Krak nades and guyz ain't afraid of MC in mellee now.
However, if you want to stick to mechanised theme, it's all fine too. Just get ready to be eaten alive by flyrant spam. Nothing you can do bout it except for super-cunning positioning, fair ammount of luck and a solid plan. Yep, 2 vendettas can put some hurt on a flyrant. But when there are 3 and a bunch of crones...just nothing you can do with a tank list except for protecting your rear arc sticking it directly to blos so that you don't get 12 tl s6 shots in the rear arc.

You might try to pull off a cunning positioning game where you've got a frontal tank facing where you want and the squadronned or separate tank covering it's back woth it's side so that it can still shoot it's main gun and sometimes a sponson but disallows rear shots.

As for the bike armies - they eat tanks for breakfast. You need an inquisitor with servo sculls to disallow scouting.

You tank squadron with Pask should be decicated to anti-infantry or anti-tank. Having a little of both means you are never getting the most of each. If you shoot the punisher at infantry the lascannon can only kill 1 guy. If you shoot at tanks S5 of the main gun won't do much to heavy tanks. If you want to dedicate to anti-infantry, give the punisher a HB with HB sponsons. Same with the executioner. If you want to hunt heavy infantry (which you should do with the executioner), give it plasma sponsons.

If you want hunt other tanks with your lema russes, the only one you really should be using is the vanquisher or possibly the exterminator if you face light tanks.

with 4 vet squads, I would give 2 of them 3 plasma guns each and use them to kill bikers and battlesuits. Give the other 2 squads 3 melta guns and a lascannon and hunt tanks.

If your having trouble with nid flyers, definetly add in a Vendetta. They are great anti flyer units.

I would run something like this:

Punisher pask with 3 HB
- other tank punisher with 3 HB

2 vet squads with 3 plasma guns in chimera
2 vet squads with 3 melta guns in chimera

2 Vendettas (seperate squadrons)

Not sure what the points come to, but you could add in blob(s) of guardsmen to hold objectives or any of the heavy support tanks you have.

Hope this helps

I disagree with Dalek. Pask Punisher with multimelta sponson and lascannon is THE build. It kills anything and everything. With preferred enemy, rending, and reroll armor pen. Nothing is safe. The executioner buddy is good, but I also had success with a demolisher partner. Their ranges synergize, and it's nice having a str 10 blast with all the toughness 5 goons running about. Just order split fire YMMV.

I am not a fan of having heavy weapons in vet squads that are mechanized. That makes them stationary. You need to move. I do like a heavy flamer in a squad or two. They almost always justify themselves in my games. Otherwise, I would drop a demolisher in favor of a vendetta. You need some token air support.

If you equip pasknisher with hb, you waste the tankhunter buff. While multimeltas and lazcannon provide this much needed anti-mc/tank and can still put much hurt on infantry. Not much less than with 3 HB.

And statistically, 20 s5 rending shots are better than a vanquisher 1-shot cannon. Probably except for av14. But the vanquisher cannon ain't super great vs av14 either - if you want to beat av14 all day every day you can get some melta vets/scions for example. Gatling cannon's only real downside is range.