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I'm currently looking into Al'rahem to give me some more intitiative when playing my mostly foot imperial guard.

What are your experiences with Al'rahem? What builds would you suggest?

I've been thinking something along the lines of:

PCS (Al'rahem + 3 melta + vox + chimera)
2 x PiS (2 x flamer + vox)
2 x PiS (2 x melta + vox)

The idea is to either enter with lasguns blazing using FRFSRF or to go vehicle hunting with BiD, possibly linking up with deep-striking stormtroopers.

Voxes are controversal, but might be worth it here to better the odds of a good alpha strike..

Well, i tend to use him and his platoon meched up.
I run:

Al'Rahem PCS w/ 4x Meltas in Chimera
4x IS w/ PG in Chimera

Pricey, but it packs one hell of a punch. And I rarely fail to achieve the Linebreaker objective.

I second the mechanized idea. I did it once back in 5th and it was pretty awesome. Hopefully in 6th it will be just as good. But yeah, load them up with either PG or MG in chimeras and take an astropath.

I run him with flamers in a chimera, and 5 infantry squads with meltaguns. Supported by two plasma stormtroopers, a flier (vulture or vendetta) and sometimes marbo. Remainder of the army is firebase with autocannon squads and an exterminator or two. When placing objectives, put as many as you can along the flank you want to come in from, AWAY from your firebase. This forces the enemy to come and play on your terms.

With an astropath, pretty much everything comes in on turn two where you want it. Use the meltasquads and bring it down to pop vehicles and prepare targets for the stormies, flyer, and marbo to wipe out. The ammount if targets keeps everyting alive longer, all while your firebase plinks away.

An outflanking mech cavalry charge would be cool, but I've never done it myself.

On foot, its best to just throw around a whole bunch of melta and call it a day. Outflanking power blobs were cool, and al'rahem made a fantastic eviscerator priest delivery system, but now you can't charge off the board edge anymore, so I wouldn't bother.

You do still get a lot of guys delivered into melta range (or at least, range to use meltaguns in), and BiD is fantastic for this. Plus, once you take some ground with his platoon, a melta hedge is the best thing to help you defend it.

As such, I'd probably do al'rahem with 3 or 4x meltas, and 2 PISs (up to 4, as you note) with meltas and nothing else. Keep it cheap.

Alright, it seems quite a few using Al'rahem after all! I've been looking at posted army lists he didn't seem that popular... Interesting!

So it seems most of you advocate investing quite a few points in Al'rahem's platoon. At what points do you usually start including him?

On mech/no mech: This is a tough one. I agree with Ailaros that it would be an awesome sight, but the cost of a chimera could buy another flamer/melta squad.... Plus Al'rahem's orders become less useful.

@McGibs:

I really like the image of an outflanking platoon teaming up with deep striking elements and I agree that an astropath would be almost mandatory if you try this kind of play. Just a question. In my mind the stormtroopers would do the melta-popping (as they are easier to get in melta range) and the platoon would mop up, but you do it the other way around. I can see the point of this as the ST has very good anti-infantry fire (barring TEQ). How has it worked out so far?

As for people using al'rahem, I'll point you to my 5th ed battle reports, wherein I used him off and on between games 2 and 27.

Al'Rahem may be good, and he may be scoring, but in 6th ed I've replaced the usefulness of his squad with stormtroopers instead. Deepstriking is just better than outflanking, and with carapace they're not less durable for their points, and with Ap3 lasguns, they're generally rather killier.

Well if you want to get use out of his orders you can still run mech for your infantry squads, but now you also run SWSs which can't take vehilces and will outflank with your platoon. Give them 3 MGs and BID makes for a nasty surprise. Give your IS plasma now or a flamer and you can cover all your bases.

Honestly, I think a mech al'rahem would probably work best as dragoons. The chimeras ride forward a bit and dump the guys out, and give cover/block line of sight for return fire against the infantry while the infantry take orders and wreck stuff. In the turn after, the chimeras stay as an armored shield for the troops on foot, or they could run forward and tank shock/heavy flamer stuff/ram things, or the guys could hop back inside the next turn.

Unless they're up against something that will just butcher them (or they show up on the wrong side of the board), in which case they can just stay in their box for a turn.

Hmm...

SWS could work. Starting on the board they feel like easy pickings for the opponent, but moving in from the flank they would potentially have one opportunity to fire. Alternatively if you do mech and there are no suitable targets I guess you could disembark the PiS and embark the SWS on the first turn.

So what would the SWS loadout be then? 3 x melta, 3 x plasma, 3 x flamer, 2 x flamer + demo charge?

Mixing the ideas in this thread how about this?

PCS (Al'rahem + 3 x melta + chimera(ml + hf))
2 x PiS (melta + chimera (ml + hf)
2 x PiS (melta)
SWS (2 flamer + demo charge)
SWS (3 x plasma)

While pretty flexible I wonder if this is a bit over the top point wise though. Rule of diminishing returns... For about the same points I could run 3 full squads of stoormtroopers Ailaros style!

That's up to you really, though with this tactic you put not only boots, but armor in your opponent's backfield. Something to consider with your SWS loadouts though. That democharge range is only 6in. Your only going to be moving them onto the board 6in so that charge has a 12in effective range. Not all that impressive. Now if you are out of range your opponent has the ability to kill your SWS before they get to do anything. I would rather load them up on melta or plasma, and give your guys in the chimeras either flamers or meltas.
If you want to do the demo charge SWSs, you're better off sticking them in a valk and grav chute-ing them in with 3 demo charges. For less than 100pts you have 3 demo charges dropped right behind an enemy formation. Then you unleash the crazy and let the dice decide whether it was a good idea or bad idea, lol. But in that case your SWSs would have to be rolled separately from your outflanking platoon as they are not in a dedicated transport.

 WhiteWolf01 wrote:

If you want to do the demo charge SWSs, you're better off sticking them in a valk and grav chute-ing them in with 3 demo charges. For less than 100pts you have 3 demo charges dropped right behind an enemy formation.

Step 1: Take bomb
Step 2: Give it to a guardsman
Step 3: Drop said guardsman out an aircraft
Step 4: Throw the bomb

Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous? I know it's the year 40,000 and all, but wouldn't they have remembered that actually, the aircraft can drop the bomb...

 Griddlelol wrote:

 WhiteWolf01 wrote:

If you want to do the demo charge SWSs, you're better off sticking them in a valk and grav chute-ing them in with 3 demo charges. For less than 100pts you have 3 demo charges dropped right behind an enemy formation.

Step 1: Take bomb
Step 2: Give it to a guardsman
Step 3: Drop said guardsman out an aircraft
Step 4: Throw the bomb

Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous? I know it's the year 40,000 and all, but wouldn't they have remembered that actually, the aircraft can drop the bomb...

Perhaps they're worried about collateral dama-HAHAHAHAHA, yeah...

Bring back human bombs I say, outflank those mofo's.

 WhiteWolf01 wrote:

 Griddlelol wrote:

 WhiteWolf01 wrote:

If you want to do the demo charge SWSs, you're better off sticking them in a valk and grav chute-ing them in with 3 demo charges. For less than 100pts you have 3 demo charges dropped right behind an enemy formation.

Step 1: Take bomb
Step 2: Give it to a guardsman
Step 3: Drop said guardsman out an aircraft
Step 4: Throw the bomb

Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous? I know it's the year 40,000 and all, but wouldn't they have remembered that actually, the aircraft can drop the bomb...

Perhaps they're worried about collateral dama-HAHAHAHAHA, yeah...

You've got it all wrong. They give the guardsmen the bomb so they don't have to pay for a targeter for the bomb. After all, the guardsmen are cheaper then targeters.