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Hey guys, I'm writing my first foot guard list and I'm wondering what do do with my PCSs

I can't think of a way to run them and keep them points efficient compared to other options, so I'm wondering what do people do with them?

What else is in the rest of your army?

In a chimera heavy army 4x flamers can work well. (and out of valkyries and vendettas too).

In a more foot based army I prefer to keep them cheap, so no upgrades, although 4x melta/plasma/falmers have their place, and can work well.

Remember PCS' are a very cheap scoring unit, so don't be afraid to hide them out of sight on an objective.

As PCS are BS3, avoid putting expensive guns on them.
As said, load them up with flamers, and keep them in cover guarding your blob squads and HWP.
Drop them out of a Valkyrie, and hose away.

CCS are BS4, so give them good ranged weapons, and send them out.

It depends what you want to do with them really. If they are going to hold a defensive position then a lascannon gives them some bite. If you want to move forward then 3 or 4 flamers/meltas are decent.

Just because they are bs3 doesn't mean that they are useless with good weapons.

PCS are the one spot I can see grenade launchers working. 4x gives you a non rending assault cannon which isn't horrible.

 minigun762 wrote:
PCS are the one spot I can see grenade launchers working. 4x gives you a non rending assault cannon which isn't horrible.

Not terrible, not great. Can be ok. I have used this squad with a primaris psyker in a chimera in lists where I don't want to take a CCS. The PPs lightning, combined with the multilaser and the GLs, puts down a lot of str6 at a decent range. Ok for trouble shooting problems.

 Trickstick wrote:

 minigun762 wrote:
PCS are the one spot I can see grenade launchers working. 4x gives you a non rending assault cannon which isn't horrible.

Not terrible, not great. Can be ok. I have used this squad with a primaris psyker in a chimera in lists where I don't want to take a CCS. The PPs lightning, combined with the multilaser and the GLs, puts down a lot of str6 at a decent range. Ok for trouble shooting problems.

I was thinking of something similar, using a ML & HB chimera.

I generally use one naked PCS to man a Quad Gun with the Platoon Commander's BS4. If the Quad Gun gets killed before his squad I have him hide and try to score towards the end of the game if he survives, which he often will because 5 men with lasweapons just aren't really worth shooting at most of the time.

Either naked or with flamers. They're a cheap scoring unit, and most of the time you probably just want to hide them on an objective, with the flamers discouraging people from getting too close.

4x flamers in a Vendetta. You want to put a scoring unit in your Vendettas for late-game objective grabbing, and the 4x flamer PCS is a very cheap and efficient way of doing it.

Putting an autocannon in there and no other upgrades is a good way to go. Still cheap, still expendable, and at least can do something to help out besides commands.

Foot slogging=nakid or with an ac

In a chimera=quad flamer

In a vendetta= nakid

If you ever plan on moving, I think GL beat an AC.

Sometimes I place them in Chimeras as a cheap alternative to Vets. Same average number of hits for 35pts cheaper. This is when I'm playing a Hybrid Army List.

 schadenfreude wrote:
In a vendetta= nakid

Why? Why would you want to make the unit completely worthless when you can make it reasonably effective for a mere 20 points?

I like the Mortar when not placing them in a chimera or Vendetta. Stays out of LOS and can still issue orders.

When I don't run Vendetta's, I like to put 4x Flamers on them and have them act like a buffer for my gunline against any close units or deep strikers. It isn't much, but I can try and guarantee one safe turn for my guns before being attacks.

If I do run Vendetta's, I do something similar (4x Flamers, although I tried Melta's once FSAG and it turned out kinda okay. I wouldn't do it again though.) but use them for quick objective grabbing. Being in the vendetta keeps them pretty safe.

Glocknall wrote:I like the Mortar when not placing them in a chimera or Vendetta. Stays out of LOS and can still issue orders.

If you have your PCS around JUST for order duty, you are wasting their potential. Honestly, I don't know anyone who uses them for that. Everyone I know just uses them as a cheap SWS and the orders are just kinda there in case you might want to give them.

Problem with using them as a cheap SWS is that they will die like a SWS - quickly and easily. At least if you keep them back and out of LOS for orders they will at least get those orders off, unlike if you kit out a PCS with meltaguns, when 99% of the time they will die before anything comes within 12".

 Peregrine wrote:

 schadenfreude wrote:
In a vendetta= nakid

Why? Why would you want to make the unit completely worthless when you can make it reasonably effective for a mere 20 points?

Because they usually scatter after grav chut insertion, issue move move to themselves, go into cover by an objective, and go to ground when shot at. Objectives win games. Works just fine without the flamers.

 schadenfreude wrote:
Because they usually scatter after grav chut insertion, issue move move to themselves, go into cover by an objective, and go to ground when shot at. Objectives win games. Works just fine without the flamers.

But by giving them no weapons at all you're creating a unit that can ONLY hold an objective (and only if it is completely undefended when the PCS arrives). If you give them flamers you have a unit that can still do that just as effectively, but also has the ability to do some damage when they arrive if you need to use them in an offensive role. And since the cost of 4x flamer is so low it's a pretty obvious decision.

 washout77 wrote:
When I don't run Vendetta's, I like to put 4x Flamers on them and have them act like a buffer for my gunline against any close units or deep strikers. It isn't much, but I can try and guarantee one safe turn for my guns before being attacks.

If I do run Vendetta's, I do something similar (4x Flamers, although I tried Melta's once FSAG and it turned out kinda okay. I wouldn't do it again though.) but use them for quick objective grabbing. Being in the vendetta keeps them pretty safe.

Glocknall wrote:I like the Mortar when not placing them in a chimera or Vendetta. Stays out of LOS and can still issue orders.

If you have your PCS around JUST for order duty, you are wasting their potential. Honestly, I don't know anyone who uses them for that. Everyone I know just uses them as a cheap SWS and the orders are just kinda there in case you might want to give them.

First Blood. I have been phasing out my CCS and PCS in chimeras for this reason. Those units while very points efficient really like to give up FB or even Slay the Warlord. I run a prescience DA libby in my guard blob and do not take infantry heavy weapons. CCS orders really are not important to my army. A Mortar PCS is nice for giving FRFSRF to my Libby Blob with prescience. You can rack up staggering amounts of hits running it this way.

 Peregrine wrote:

 schadenfreude wrote:
Because they usually scatter after grav chut insertion, issue move move to themselves, go into cover by an objective, and go to ground when shot at. Objectives win games. Works just fine without the flamers.

But by giving them no weapons at all you're creating a unit that can ONLY hold an objective (and only if it is completely undefended when the PCS arrives). If you give them flamers you have a unit that can still do that just as effectively, but also has the ability to do some damage when they arrive if you need to use them in an offensive role. And since the cost of 4x flamer is so low it's a pretty obvious decision.

They cannot reliability use flamers after a grav chute. Dropping in range to hit with 3 flamers is suicidalas any mishap =dead. Dropping in a safe place and running towards a flamer vulnerable unit is iffy, the better the opponent the more likely the squad will get gunned down. Can always go hover mode, but then the vendetta is vulnerable to assault. I like quad flamer pcs in a chimera. At first I was really worried if the nakid pcs would be worth a damn. Then I tried nakid pcs and 4 nakid squads instead of flamer pcs and 3 squads with ac. The results have not disappointed me. Then again my perspective is skewed because my guard allies with deamons which are very good at destroying stuff.

I find the PCS to be a fairly useless unit. They can't dish out the good orders like GBitF or BiD. They don't have BS 4. Load them up with melta or plasma and they are too small to weather a turn of shooting. They are pretty much delegated to last minute objective grabbers or sacrificial blocking units to safeguard a blob or position for one turn. Now that I plan on running multie vendettas I can see myself getting use out of them with flamers to grab / contest objectives. Previously when I ran a static gun line I used them with a mortar and found it to be useful for the small squad since you can bind them out of LOS.

I would never give a PCS plasma guns or melta guns over any other unit, because they would never get to use them because they get targeted and killed quickly and end up being a major waste of points. I say give them cheap weapons. 4x flamers work decently, but not when on foot. In this case they have to have a Chimera or a flyer transporting them. If I want to run them on foot, I have found that giving them 4x grenade launchers work quite well when they are on foot. The uni still only costs 50 points, but still put out a decent amount of firepower at a decent range. They can move around, shooting at MC's and transports with krak grenades, or fire frag grenades when a juicy targetof opportuniy arises.

 schadenfreude wrote:


They cannot reliability use flamers after a grav chute. Dropping in range to hit with 3 flamers is suicidalas any mishap =dead. Dropping in a safe place and running towards a flamer vulnerable unit is iffy, the better the opponent the more likely the squad will get gunned down. Can always go hover mode, but then the vendetta is vulnerable to assault.

Turn 4-5 you hover and drop off the PCS.

If your opponent still has powerful assault units to kill your vendetta, you played the game wrong. If it's turn 4-5 and you're that worried about losing your vendetta, you didn't do its job early enough, and you now have to choose whether its worth it to risk the Vendetta in order to get 4 flamer shots off.

It just seems to me, whatever you do with them, something else in the guard does it a hell of a lot better, for much better points efficiency, so I guess, keep them cheap and try some stuff out.

MunGo_0600 wrote:
It just seems to me, whatever you do with them, something else in the guard does it a hell of a lot better, for much better points efficiency, so I guess, keep them cheap and try some stuff out.

Nowhere in IG can you get a 50 point squad of 4 flamers that also scores and can deepstrike from a Vendetta with the mishap footprint of 5 guardsmen.

This is the 1 thing they do best.

You make an excellent point.

I've had one configuration that I've actually liked - give them a single lascannon, and that's it.

If you give them shorter ranged stuff, they'll be killed before they get a chance to use their weapons. If you give them crappier weapons like autocannons or grenade launchers, then they won't contribute very much to the battle. If I want something that's ignorable, I'd rather save the points and give them nothing. Worse, your opponents could focus on them anyway to get first blood, which means that you will have thrown points at something that won't actually ever do anything with them.

With a lascannon, you're going to get at least a couple of shots off, and with S9 Ap2, they have a pretty decent chance to do some real damage before they're wiped off the board.

 Ailaros wrote:
I've had one configuration that I've actually liked - give them a single lascannon, and that's it.

With a lascannon, you're going to get at least a couple of shots off, and with S9 Ap2, they have a pretty decent chance to do some real damage before they're wiped off the board.

I do conditionally agree with this.

If you don't have a flyer to slap them in, I would likely do this. Putting them in a chimera with flamers just means your opponent will be killing another chimera of yours, because he/she wants to prevent 4 flamers from hitting his lines, or he/she is a fool.

If you have a flyer, this is much harder to prevent.

So if you are found without an empty flyer, I could see myself recommending this as an alternative way to get them to do something. A 50 point scoring lascannon isn't bad, and behind some cover it will get 3/4 hits (providing it survives all game). For 50 points, 3/4 lascannon hits isn't too shabby. As soon as that PCS kills a Transport, it likely has made its points back.