Heroic Senior Officer
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How big of a list is this supposed to be? Because 5 squads is going to barely cover 1000pts if you go heavy on tank support. Pure infantry easily can crack 100 guardsmen at a 1000pts. If you're doing more, say 2000pts, you're going to want at least 100, before support elements like officers, pyskers, command squads, combined with tanks and Stormtroopers. I would be wary of going above 130-150 infantry even in large games without conscripts. Thanks to the realities of a 6x4 table with terrain, you start to hit diminishing returns.
Keep in mind that I consider myself an infantry player yet close to half my points in most lists are Stormtroopers and Leman Russe's. This is mainly due to the amount of time it takes to play a proper infantry horde (because it will be a horde) and due to traditional weaknesses infantry have.
As for why, tanks are high firepower bricks that can reach out and touch someone. Most importantly, they're high firepower for their footprint, which can hide officers behind them, and allow you to concentrate firepower. Unlike heavy weapons, vets, or artillery, leman russe's can focus a large amount of firepower in one place should the need present itself and don't have to necessarily hide behind terrain to stay alive. Unlike artillery, russe's are pretty tough for their points, which means weapons like heavy bolters, autocannons, and multilasers are almost as pointless against them as they are guardsmen. This is important, as artillery will rarely have the saturation you need to keep them around in an infantry list like a mechanized list would. Tanks should not be chosen purely based on what they do, but what role they fill in your list. Punishers for example have less utility in an infantry list, you already have a billion short ranged shots, why take more? Executioners and Battlecannons on the other hand fill specific niches that infantry lacks (pure weight of plasma at mid range and longer range, high strength, decent amount of shot shooting) Regiment traits of course heavily influence what tank works best for you, so keep that in mind.
Stormtroopers on the other hand deal with a different issue, dealing with threats across the board, taking ground, and projecting a lot of force in a specific area for a short period of time. This is critical for crushing a flank, killing high value targets, or taking objectives not in Move! Move! Move! range. In addition, bringing a solid amount of Stormtroopers can alter your opponent's deployment, as he must contend with some 20-30 plasma shots dropping in during the opening turns of the match. This can force an opponent like space Marines to waste expensive units screening deepstrikes, or force a player to spread his army out a bit in an attempt to keep you from dropping near a key vehicle or unit. Spreading out an opponent is good, especially in Aurahammerâ„¢, where things like Guilleman exist. This is of course, ignoring the fact that a tooled out plasma 10 man squad is almost identical in cost to a Russ and hits like a truck if played well. Stormtroopers allow you to have an aggrssive element in what is traditionally a slow army and in things like ITC or maelstrom may be your only way to take an objective across the table turn 1-3. Another key advantage is allowing you to "null deploy" a bit by "deploying" them in deepstrike first. Infantry guard will almost never finish deploying first, so embrace it, and let your opponent show his hand. 4 units for IG is nothing, but for other armies that can be half their list. Do that, then place obvious units like infantry squads and officers that babysit them, letting you optimally position your tanks, vets, and heavy weapon squads once you know what you're dealing with.
As for the humble infantry squad, it heavily depends on your list. I feel heavy weapons are generally a good choice, but some disagree. Best bets are mortars and heavy bolters if you want them cheap, and lascannons if you find you need more AT and range. Autocannons and Missile launchers are a bit too generalist. They're not *bad*, they're just not as good. Almost everyone agrees that plasma is a solid choice for the cost, even on your basic 4+ guardsman. Other special weapons can have a place in some regiments infantry squads, but usually are traps. GL's are not worth saving 2pts for BS 4+ infantry, and snipers, flamers, and meltas usually do better in purpose built squads. Plasma is only 7pts and and will reasonably deal with most threats. It's rapid fire, high strength, high AP, can wound T4 on 2's, and can deal reliable damage. That profile let's it pop things like scouts in cover, terminators deepstriking nearby, enemy vehicles or dreads, and even not be completely useless against hordes. If you're mordian, you can even snipe with the things. Do not be afraid to overcharge in most situations, even without rerolls. Most squads in a situation where they need the plasma will die anyways if they don't kill the target, so its not like it's a major loss. Voxes are kind of pointless on infantry squads in most scenarios but can be handy on the assault, say for Tallarn. Where they really shine is Stormtroopers. This let's you drop the squads in a spread out pattern without losing orders and makes them way harder to predict. Thanks to the index being FAQ'd where a vox equipped stormtrooper can still take his hotshot Las, you don't even lose out on any shooting from your squad. Voxes can occasionally have merit on vets as well, but be careful. Vets are black holes that can Hoover up points like you wouldn't believe, make sure you have a good reason to bring them before you drop 30-50 pts across your army.
If you're really cheeky, you can even do things like intentionally place plasma guardsmen closest to enemy assault units and goad them into long range charges with him at 2" cohesion. Wait till overwatch, then overcharge on purpose to kill the Gunner, leaving a squad that thought they had a 9" charge now needing an 11". If you really want to be a jerk, intentionally deploy your squad with the Sarge and heavy weapon in the back, with say 4" forward taken up by lasguns, and the furthest forward man be the plasma. As the squad takes casualties, remove the center core of lasguns. This will widen a gap between your plasma and heavy weapon/Sarge that can be up to 6-8" or more. This gap does not need to be filled until the next time you move, so this is mainly something I use with Cadians. It lets you keep your squads within range of your regimental standards and officers while still taking up as much space as possible. Then you can try to kill your own Gunner on overwatch and have it where the opponent can literally not complete the charge. Even if he does, who is he going to swing at with his 3" consolidation if the rest of your squads survivors are two guys 6" away? He'll get back in contact at the end of the turn with his second pile in, but the squad will live. It's a kind of risky strategy, but in an edition where assault ties into so many battle plans by coming from reserve/scout shenanigans 9" away it can be a key trick. At the very least it's better than nothing and beats the squad just wing guaranteed to die. Keep in mind you've got a 33% ish chance it happens, but if 3 enemy units try it and you stop one by sacrificing an 11pt model from a 50-60 pt unit, it can swing games. You're screwing your opponent often out of over a foot of movement, and more importantly, being able to consolidate into other squads and tanks.
Even with "Get back in the fight", enemy consolidating into you must be avoided at all costs. Every time it happens, your tanks are useless, and your infantry are at best losing things like FRFSRF, or not being able to fire at all if you're low on officers. This is death to an IG army, even if you don't lose a single model in the assault phase. I have seen a single unit tie down 3x it's number of points thanks to consolidation in a guard gunline, do not let it happen. Do whatever it takes, even if it means doing a counter charge in your own turn to slow an enemy unit down. Every turn your big guns aren't firing is a free turn your opponent gets to win the game.
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