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I used 2 artillery pieces in a series of 750 points games and found they dominated and I never lost both artillery pieces (a bassilisk and a colluses).

At 1500 pts level the same two pieces and two Russ variants was horrendous. Obviously I should have had more artillery.

Everyone knows the troops rule, 1 troop choice + 1 additional at each 500 additional points.
I was wondering if there is a similar formular for artillery pieces for guard?

How many should you have at each points level to maintain enough killing power?


I realize I have not provided any list however I have 3 vendettas, 4 Russ hulls, ~ 200 + infantry aegis etc in other words I have all the IG toys avaialble, no FW though so let's leave them out of the conversation for the moment.

As much as you can squeeze in..?

Well, what is your standard ratio of infantry units to artillery? Try replicating that in larger point battles.

2000 pt game = 3 squadrons of 3 basalisks, massive bubble wrap infantry, lord commissar, and a CCS. Some heavy weapons mortars and a master of ordnance to round it out should be funny.

Throw in officer of the fleet of your scared of deep strike

in a 2000 point game you are allowed to take more than 3 squadrons of 3 basilisks....have some fun with it

HQ - check
Spamming troops - check
Vendettas - check

Any points left over go into artillery.
I don't like the 1 troop +1/500pts rule of thumb. I really like to try my hardest to fill up those 8 slots. Although I usually end up with about 5-6 troops.

surely the rule must follow the rules and start with 2 troop choices.


remember you can ally with yourself and take 1 more troops 1 more hq and 1 more basilisk/squadron!

 foxyfennec wrote:
surely the rule must follow the rules and start with 2 troop choices.


remember you can ally with yourself

No, you can't...

Take a massive blob and a bare bones vet squad for your two troops lol

Also i thought that GW FAQ that to were you couldnt ally with yourself?

Solosam47 wrote:
Take a massive blob and a bare bones vet squad for your two troops lol

Why? Why not take troops that will do something considering you have to take them anyway...

Also i thought that GW FAQ that to were you couldnt ally with yourself?

You can't, but I assume she means guard allied with Elysian/DKoK/Whatever.

I think what he means is dual force org at 2k. I have 4 artillery platforms that I have 2 of each of the artillery slots for the chassis: 2 manticores, 2 basilisks and 2 collusi which are by far my favorite platform. So at the moment I can field 4 at most, unless I proxy chimeras as additionals, but I hate parodying. I really don't want to have to fill heavy slots with Russes as I am kind of off them at the moment.

You could mess around and get some artillery carriages if you're struggling for points or models - because in the end, how much do you move those basilisks?

I'm not a fan of putting in Russes for the hell of it either. Just feels like a waste until I've got 3+.

The artillery never moves. In fact one took a penetrating hit last game and my opponent rolled an imobilized result and I thanked him for not rolling weapon destroyed or explodes result.

I would scratch build artillery carriages and Sabre platforms, I would just have to purchase the IA book with the rules and points cost.

Artillery is nice, but i'd be careful with relying on templates. The scatter die only gives a 1/3 shot of actually hitting and BS3 is pretty low.

I'd take 1 Manticore, 2 Griffons. It's not too expensive and gives me an average of 4 big templates that are going to really hurt Xenos armies. AP3 is nice, but not necessary, I'd rather save points and invest them elsewhere.

As someone else said fill out your Vendettas/HQ/Troops (in that order, lol) and then sprinkle in some extra shooting and artillery.

I'd always aim for 4 troops at 1,500 and 5+ at 1750 or higher (6 is always great and Guard have no problem getting 6+).

Just curious when you all mention taking troops. Are you all refering to troops slots or scoring units. The reason I ask is that 2x Infantry Platoons have a min of 6 scoring units and taking 4 units of those would be over kill and kinda pointless.

PCS
50 man blob with axes, bombs, sniper or something cheap
PCS
Shooting blob
2x Vets (in Dettas or Chimera)

Thats what i'd do for guard primary, with a Commissar and CCS.

I wouldn't bother with putting Vets in the Vendettas the PCS is better for that roll. They are a cheep scoring unit that will die really easy if placed on the board. Good for late game objective grabs.

Sinji wrote:
I wouldn't bother with putting Vets in the Vendettas the PCS is better for that roll. They are a cheep scoring unit that will die really easy if placed on the board. Good for late game objective grabs.

That or SWS's I like x2 flamers and a demo charge for mine. I normally run PCS's with x4 flamers but sometimes I like those extra FRFSRF orders that they give out because sometimes the CCS's 2 orders isnt enough. It varies what day it is. lol

As you also noted you didnt find much luck with the artillery and russ combo, thats because guard is best when you have good armor saturation and you spam the same unit over and over. So generally if you go with artillery and foot guard it is best to stick with only artillery and foot guard. I mean it wouldnt be bad to throw vendettas in there just dont start throwing one of everything in your list.

I know this post said don't include FW but Gun Carriages and Sabres work really well with foot guard. Makes a lot of targets to drop with no vehicles for an easy first blood.

 LValx wrote:
PCS
50 man blob with axes, bombs, sniper or something cheap
PCS
Shooting blob
2x Vets (in Dettas or Chimera)

Thats what i'd do for guard primary, with a Commissar and CCS.

Had a couple of 1k games with a 50 man blob (Power axes & Meltas) with Azreal & Librarian & PP. Was... interesting. Against a Tau farsight bomb list (kitted out to kill them) he only killed about 25 before marbo got 11 wound on the group. FRFSRF on his firewarriors had them run off the board.
Against an IG list with some LR they fared a bit worse. He was killing enough of them so that with "move move move" and 2" coherency shenanigans I was only advancing maybe 4 inches a turn. Ended the game with some guys barely out of my deployment zone.
If I could have gotten endurance that would have been amazing. FNP & Relentless please. Still wouldn't have been able to get into combat in either situation though.

If I were to have brung bigger guns in addition to that blob I imagine it would have gone much better. 2 missile launchers aren't the most killy long range firepower at 1k points.

I've been feeling the need for Azrael in a guard blob now that Tau marker lights remove cover saves. Truly the bane of guard.

CaseyColt wrote:
As much as you can squeeze in..?

Yup.

Unless you have something specifically crafty going on, or are playing at, say 1850 points, wherein you can't yet use two FOCs, your list should consist of your troops and one other type of unit, whenever possible.

As such, a 1,500 point list could easily be...

Primaris Psyker

Vets - 3x melta guns, chimera
Vets - 3x melta guns, chimera
Vets - 3x melta guns, chimera

2x Medusas, Colossus
2x Medusas, Colossus
1x Colossus

Or something like that.

Ally with self, run double force org and double allies and double fortifications

Take like 24 guns behind a wall of troops behind a wall of the aegis variety.

You can't ally with yourself. But you can ally with FW armys if.thats what you mean.