Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Lord Corellia wrote:

 Runic wrote:
Which is why I said that I consider the age of monocodice armies mostly over instead of "completely."

Yeah, it's mostly over! Except, y'know, the three or four newest books...

I know Eldar and Necrons are devastating on their own, what are these 2 other books that do better mono than with allies you speak of?

Space Marines only have the Gladius, without it they hardly hold a candle to the top tier tournament lists on average mono, and I find with allies they are so, so much more efficient than without them. Gladius also gets stomped by some builds. It does a bit better if you ally a Knight/Assassin with it, and then it's no longer a monocodex army. Admech? Flesh Tearers Strike Force makes them infinitely better.

Makumba wrote:

Almost over and somehow all the post decurion books can be played fine solo.

Maybe on your competitive level... all quite relative.

But, pretty much all advice has now been given. The guard isn't very efficient solo except with a few builds. That's how it is. I for one listed the options a player realistically has earlier. If there's one thing I've seen in practice in my 13 years of wargaming it's that people who focus on the solutions usually become better players ( and more fun to be around... ) than the ones who focus on the problems.

Wow, thank you for all the replies and support, I had not expected this.

I would like to put down a couple of quick notifiers in response to a couple of posts though:

Firstly, to whomever suggested that I drop the Heavy Bolters in my Veteran sections: I can see where you are coming from, a concentration of lasguns and the capitalising of the FRFSRF order. However I find that the heavy bolter actually augments the sections firepower despite this. A section set up in an area of cover can inflict an extra 1.25 wounds on average against an MEQ unit, even if FRFSRF within 12", and can also reach out further.

Secondly I heard a call to drop my Meltas. Sadly I can not as these are the only real AT weapons that my army currently possesses, baring the Destroyer of course, and I need them. Imperial Guard anti tank is currently in the "Might as well not exist" phase that the Orks went through.

Thirdly I am looking in to the inquisition and Allies rules and I feel that the Inquisition may be a way to continue. Thankyou for the help people

Don't underestimate the ability of a solid force multiplier when it comes to your anti tank. Guard AT (with the exception of the Paskisher obviously) suffers overwhelmingly from being BS3. That's why Lascannons make such good baseline weapons for marines and bad ones for guard.

When it comes to things like Divination buffs, a liability for guard (vehicle squadrons) becomes a strength, as you can apply Twin-linked or 4++ to the whole squad. My inquisition list is built to maximize cheap warp charges. I've got two on Coteaz, one on Ordo Xenos, one each on two bare bones Warband squads with 1 psyker and 2 henchmen, and 1 from my Astropath giving me 6 charges at an average of 40 points per charge. That's Eldar level psychic points efficiency, if not better.

But by far the easiest way to up your anti tank power and your objective claiming power is to transport those vets. Drop the Heavy Bolter and Camo and you've got nearly enough points for an inquisitorial Rhino to cart them around in and get them in melta range.

As an aside, one of my biggest curiosities is seeing how that ridiculous new Librarius Conclave would do combined with a pure guard army. Their only weakness with space marines is they run out of stuff to buff after a while, and they lack places to hide. The IG has both of those two things to offer in spades.

Jokaero and an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with Conversion Beamer can provide some nice AT firepower.

That is also an option, though I don't favor it because it's just addibg it's own power to the guard instead of increasing the guards power.

Loyalist monkey Obliterators can get pretty hilarious though. If you like that sort of thing.

626, I have no idea why they destroyed Chaos the way that they did, and while I think they can still build a scary list to play in casual obviously they are not looking to play strong in a tournament (to make them what they should be it requires far to many points).

I would love to see chaos marines have FNP and a 6++ save at all times (some of the regular marines ar 10000 years old... they didn't make it that way just because of an armor save)... furthermore, I would like to see each of the marine vehicles in their line up, or here is an idea... make traitor guard a real thing and not a forge world thing. Also, I think it is high time that they allow for battle brother alliance with marines, as it is not unheard of for even a company size element to go rogue... which would make them traitors, so by default Chaos. Granted if they went that route there would have to be something in the rules that prohibited characters from SM codex, so you would get chapter traits... but that would be it, and there would be no bonuses from associated characters.

There is a ton of possibility for casual play, and while maybe in tournaments it will not be viable, but for playing with friends and pick up games the options are limitless... remember the rules are a guideline, and upon agreement they can be modified.

I will say that there are some issues because I am a casual player while at the same time a tournament player, and it is unfortunate that there are some armies that as of right now can not handle some of the new "top tier" armies.

I do think though that there is no such thing as a top tier army or a bottom tier army... because I could easily build a necron army that could not beat anything. I think we need to look past the codex power and instead look at build power, because there are definitely top tier army builds... but when we are talking about one or two lists from the "best" codices I question them being the power houses they are made out to be.

This Guard thing made me want to try and make a mixed SM-AM list, just for fun (note: i don't own the IG models, so it's all theoryhammer).
So I made this reasoning based on what I know and what I understood of IG from this thread.
What is SM lacking? Bodies, specialization and tanks.
What IG lacks? Ability to put their squshy humies where they want to be.

CT: Imperial Fists or SoT

HQ: Librarian ML2 termi armor SS 100 (Divination on blob/devastators, or you can try and go for an Invisible ATSKNF mini blob)

Troops:

Tac sqd: 10 men, HB, PG, Combi-Plasma, Drop Pod 210 ( obj camping)
Tac sqd: 10 men, HB, PG, Combi-Plasma, Drop Pod 210 ( obj camping)

FA

Stormtalon: skyhammer ML 115 (wee bit of AA)
Drop pod 35
Drop pod 35

HS

Devastators, 4HB (or something heavier losing the tac squads' HBs) 110 (general heavy weapons. given the quantity of melta in the IG allies i went for anti-infantry loadout)
TFC 100 (good for bolstering guardsmen blob's cover)

ALLIED IG

HQ
CCS 4 meltas, carapace armor 108 (goes in pod and very probably pop a tank)

Troops
Inf. Sqd Commissar, vox caster 80 (Stubborn Obj holders)
Inf. Sqd Commissar, vox caster 80 (Stubborn Obj holders)
PCS Vox caster 35 (more bodies, also orders)

Veteran squad 4 meltas, carapace armor 105 (goes in pod and pops a tank)

HS

Leman RussBattle Tank with HB sponsons (I wanted something with a good range and I went for classic)




Might swap the devs+tacs' HBs+a commissar for another Russ.

I do have to say that this thread has given me more solid tactical advice on how to use Guard than all of the AM thread in the tactics forums put together. Medusa gun carriages+Servo skulls.... brilliant stuff!

Couple odd little things.

1) CCS costs 60 points. They can offer the 3 best orders in the game. PCS costs 30. They get the least powerful three and can only order 1 unit a turn vs two. CCS also gives you the incredibly powerful regimental advisors. Pcs is also Obsec. Why would you suicide drop melta the ccs and give the pcs a vox?

2) Battlecannon Russ with Heavy bolters-this one actually made me laugh out loud. You're in the Guard now, son, this ain't some namby pamby space marine army where upgrades to tanks work! That Battlecannon is Ordnance, i hope you like snap firing maggot! I recommend you switch that tank to a Plasmacutioner so it can blow itself up and save your opponent the trouble!

3) 4 meltas in a veteran squad NOPE.

4) infantry squad with no special or heavy weapons but an expensive commissar and a Voxcaster. "Orders coming through the vox sir, he says to kill the enemy!" "With WHAT?" *shot in head by commissar seconds before ork charge crashes into the line*

 master of ordinance wrote:
Wow, thank you for all the replies and support, I had not expected this.

I would like to put down a couple of quick notifiers in response to a couple of posts though:

Firstly, to whomever suggested that I drop the Heavy Bolters in my Veteran sections: I can see where you are coming from, a concentration of lasguns and the capitalising of the FRFSRF order. However I find that the heavy bolter actually augments the sections firepower despite this. A section set up in an area of cover can inflict an extra 1.25 wounds on average against an MEQ unit, even if FRFSRF within 12", and can also reach out further.

Secondly I heard a call to drop my Meltas. Sadly I can not as these are the only real AT weapons that my army currently possesses, baring the Destroyer of course, and I need them. Imperial Guard anti tank is currently in the "Might as well not exist" phase that the Orks went through.

Thirdly I am looking in to the inquisition and Allies rules and I feel that the Inquisition may be a way to continue. Thankyou for the help people

Well the more you make poor choices, like deliberately taking Heavy Bolters when they haven't mathematically been good in god knows how long, it's no wonder you end up with a Guard army that does poor. That's not Tactical Marines being superior to a bunch of troops at all. Tactical Marines really only have ONE good loadout and nobody uses them except to get free Razorbacks or to be "fluffy". All my Tacticals currently represent Sternguard for that reason.

Autocannons >>>> Heavy Bolters.

the_scotsman wrote:
Couple odd little things.

1) CCS costs 60 points. They can offer the 3 best orders in the game. PCS costs 30. They get the least powerful three and can only order 1 unit a turn vs two. CCS also gives you the incredibly powerful regimental advisors. Pcs is also Obsec. Why would you suicide drop melta the ccs and give the pcs a vox?

2) Battlecannon Russ with Heavy bolters-this one actually made me laugh out loud. You're in the Guard now, son, this ain't some namby pamby space marine army where upgrades to tanks work! That Battlecannon is Ordnance, i hope you like snap firing maggot! I recommend you switch that tank to a Plasmacutioner so it can blow itself up and save your opponent the trouble!

3) 4 meltas in a veteran squad NOPE.

4) infantry squad with no special or heavy weapons but an expensive commissar and a Voxcaster. "Orders coming through the vox sir, he says to kill the enemy!" "With WHAT?" *shot in head by commissar seconds before ork charge crashes into the line*

1) then i'll do vice versa
2) I forgot that the LRBT is ordnance
3) they'll be suicide dropping, why not? or is it battlescribe who put the options wrong?
4) then i'll take out something like SM's HB to give them ACs or something.

I'm fairly certain Vets can only take 3 meltas. If I'm wrong, awesome.

Yeah most people forget the Russ ordnance thing because they used to ignore it, and that made sense.

Don't forget to take the 25pt ccs upgrade that makes your reserves come in on a 2+, mr drop pod!

Autocannons would probably be the best bet.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 master of ordinance wrote:
Wow, thank you for all the replies and support, I had not expected this.

I would like to put down a couple of quick notifiers in response to a couple of posts though:

Firstly, to whomever suggested that I drop the Heavy Bolters in my Veteran sections: I can see where you are coming from, a concentration of lasguns and the capitalising of the FRFSRF order. However I find that the heavy bolter actually augments the sections firepower despite this. A section set up in an area of cover can inflict an extra 1.25 wounds on average against an MEQ unit, even if FRFSRF within 12", and can also reach out further.

Secondly I heard a call to drop my Meltas. Sadly I can not as these are the only real AT weapons that my army currently possesses, baring the Destroyer of course, and I need them. Imperial Guard anti tank is currently in the "Might as well not exist" phase that the Orks went through.

Thirdly I am looking in to the inquisition and Allies rules and I feel that the Inquisition may be a way to continue. Thankyou for the help people

Well the more you make poor choices, like deliberately taking Heavy Bolters when they haven't mathematically been good in god knows how long, it's no wonder you end up with a Guard army that does poor. That's not Tactical Marines being superior to a bunch of troops at all. Tactical Marines really only have ONE good loadout and nobody uses them except to get free Razorbacks or to be "fluffy". All my Tacticals currently represent Sternguard for that reason.

Aye, they may not be the best but as I posted they inflict an average of 1.25 extra wounds against an MEQ than another Lasgun, and that is assuming FRFSRF at sub 12". Beyond 12"/within 12" with no FRFSRF they are putting an extra 1.75 wounds on the same unit and beyond 12" with no FRFSRF they are putting an extra 2.25 units on the target.

Sadly I lack Autocannnons right now but steps are being taken.... Anyway though I have just downloaded the Inquisition codex. Hopefully this will help.

You can keep posting the info on HBs, but at the end of the day they are just not that good on IG squads. Much better options out there (AC or LC or no heavy at all are better).

If you like them aesthetically or for fluff reasons, no reason not to go for it. But otherwise I would heed the advice if you want a better performing IG list.

Also, Chimeras for the vets. That's pretty much a requirement and they can rock when popping shots out the top hatch. X3 special weapons is awesome.

Martel732 wrote:
Autocannons >>>> Heavy Bolters.

This. I never feared HBs that my friend took in his lists. It was the autocannons and the lascannons that wrecked my transports, followed by leman Russ blasts...

I'm joining the voice that HB are just not worth it, they cost too much and do too little.
Luckly, converting them to autocannons is as simple as adding a solid straw or the likes to make an extended barrel-and autocannons are just leagues above them.

Also, mixing meltas (rushing forward) and heavy weapons+sentries (keeping cover) at one squad is basically wasting points. a team need to either hog the back lines-or rush forward.
So either tool up backline

The CCS is also of questionable value considering you don't have many infantry to give orders to anyway, and do not reserve.

Also, why is your tank commander manning a blast-based russ? its a waste of his BS.

It surprises me that people find IG such a weak codex.In my personal experience,other than cheesy death stars and the newest codices taken to the extreme,we can at the very least have a decent chance fighting everything that is thrown at us even without allies or using FW units.Yes,the codex is bland,yes,basically half of its units are unusable in any remotely competitive scene and yes,we have mobility and durability issues.On the other hand,we have excellent firepower,can easily present a wall of armor that any non tailored or cheesy list will find hard to crack and can still choose to flood the board with bodies,special/heavy weapons and slug it out.

As for the OP,i think a major problem is that you have fallen for the classic mistake all of us made at some point;excessive upgrades that are simply not worth it.For example,the only upgrades our tanks need are dozer blades and sponson/hull weapons on non ordnance variants.The rest are either worthless from the get go or too expensive for what they offer.Assuming you are using ABG rules for your tanks,all those upgrades cost what,90 points?That's more than half the cost of the tank to begin with!

Same thing with your infantry.Medics seem nice,but they give FnP to t3 models;how often is this going to come into play?Krak grenades are unnecessary to a unit that can take 3 BS4 meltas AND 10 melta bombs+a demo charge for 30 points.Heavy bolters are a horrible weapon even for anti Geq duty,and a waste of the veterans BS4;as others have said before,autocannons are much better for their higher Str and the ability to glance transports.

Finally,try to invest some money on Wyverns and Chimeras;the former are absolutely ludicrous against anything that isnt T6+ or a vehicle (my buddy playing GK has a hilarious fear of them despite fielding an army of 2+ saves models,and the rest of the guys just cringe every time they see them fielded ),while the latter will boost the survivability of your veterans and give them some mobility for objective grabbing and midfield presence.Also,i d suggest trying the Pasknisher+Executioner combo;its by far the most effective variant combination we have and can tackle pretty much anything non stupid thrown against you.

 master of ordinance wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 master of ordinance wrote:
Wow, thank you for all the replies and support, I had not expected this.

I would like to put down a couple of quick notifiers in response to a couple of posts though:

Firstly, to whomever suggested that I drop the Heavy Bolters in my Veteran sections: I can see where you are coming from, a concentration of lasguns and the capitalising of the FRFSRF order. However I find that the heavy bolter actually augments the sections firepower despite this. A section set up in an area of cover can inflict an extra 1.25 wounds on average against an MEQ unit, even if FRFSRF within 12", and can also reach out further.

Secondly I heard a call to drop my Meltas. Sadly I can not as these are the only real AT weapons that my army currently possesses, baring the Destroyer of course, and I need them. Imperial Guard anti tank is currently in the "Might as well not exist" phase that the Orks went through.

Thirdly I am looking in to the inquisition and Allies rules and I feel that the Inquisition may be a way to continue. Thankyou for the help people

Well the more you make poor choices, like deliberately taking Heavy Bolters when they haven't mathematically been good in god knows how long, it's no wonder you end up with a Guard army that does poor. That's not Tactical Marines being superior to a bunch of troops at all. Tactical Marines really only have ONE good loadout and nobody uses them except to get free Razorbacks or to be "fluffy". All my Tacticals currently represent Sternguard for that reason.

Aye, they may not be the best but as I posted they inflict an average of 1.25 extra wounds against an MEQ than another Lasgun, and that is assuming FRFSRF at sub 12". Beyond 12"/within 12" with no FRFSRF they are putting an extra 1.75 wounds on the same unit and beyond 12" with no FRFSRF they are putting an extra 2.25 units on the target.

Sadly I lack Autocannnons right now but steps are being taken.... Anyway though I have just downloaded the Inquisition codex. Hopefully this will help.

The Autocannon does .04 less MEQ (what you seem to be jealous of) damage but a foot further. You could theoretically kill more before MEQ actually advances. Couple in that S7 > S5 for ID potential and vehicular damage, and that it's relatively easy to make a Heavy Bolter into an Autocannon or Counts-As, and there's essentially no excuse on your end for your misinformed choices.

Meqs are honestly the least of the IG's problems. Crap like Wraiths and TWC are really the threat.

Martel732 wrote:
Meqs are honestly the least of the IG's problems. Crap like Wraiths and TWC are really the threat.

MEQ is what the OP is complaining about. Specifically, how his Guard lack grenades and ATSNKF, both of which don't really matter much. Especially Grenades. If I could pay less to have them I'd entirely do that.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
Meqs are honestly the least of the IG's problems. Crap like Wraiths and TWC are really the threat.

MEQ is what the OP is complaining about. Specifically, how his Guard lack grenades and ATSNKF, both of which don't really matter much. Especially Grenades. If I could pay less to have them I'd entirely do that.

I know. That's why I posted that. I know meqs are actually pretty bad because my BA can actually beat them. But most vanilla marine lists don't have too many meqs anymore except in Skyhammer formations.

Thyhadras wrote:
626, I have no idea why they destroyed Chaos the way that they did, and while I think they can still build a scary list to play in casual obviously they are not looking to play strong in a tournament (to make them what they should be it requires far to many points).

I think it wasn't just that 3.5 CSM Codex was a powerhouse, but rather that the codex allegedly from what I have heard that the codex used to have legion rules similar to Loyalist CT, but for every legion and more to do with FoC swapping.

Then came the EoT campaign which was supposedly a campaign in which GW created a worldwide campaign centered around the 13th Black Crusade and they said which ever army loyalist or heretical that would win would be recorded in the official fluff with fluff advancement from that point..

What happened was I predict and assume that people went crazy competitive both from Chaos and IoM, but since CSM are like what Eldar are perceived to be, CSM was slaughtering their way through..

GW creative directional team did not take this very well..

...And so from what I have heard was that Chaos were doing so well that GW decided to cancel the campaign..

Then 4th ed. CSM codex came out and well... If you want to check out threads between 2007 and 2011 you can see the fan-base dissatisfaction..


To the OP, I do feel your pain though I think what happened to guard was that guard were the formation faction through the use of the platoon mechanics in-built in the codex before formations were a thing, but as time has passed by and that more and more codex's were given more formations then its slowly corroded the guard play style as other armies do what the guard to but better now imo, an example of this is that SM can get free transports in their formations which means that they can fill up their points on other things meanwhile Guard still have to pay for bodies and Co..

I honestly would not fret too much though as I can see guard when their new codex comes getting free bodies for picking formations or at least free HWT

I must say myself that I have been quite bitter about the game for a while now, but its really hard to sympathize with the game when the game lets a proportion of my opponents cram in formations left, right and center and spam for Invis on their super heavies... And I have NL CSM 40k and Orks..

Well.. best play unbound with two meks with KFF in two Stompas.. Because that apparently just as casual and fun as a Waithknight with Invisibility (and the only chance I feel as I can to at least compete with few in my area imo)..

Best of luck to you and your 'Oomies

 happygolucky wrote:

Thyhadras wrote:
626, I have no idea why they destroyed Chaos the way that they did, and while I think they can still build a scary list to play in casual obviously they are not looking to play strong in a tournament (to make them what they should be it requires far to many points).

I think it wasn't just that 3.5 CSM Codex was a powerhouse, but rather that the codex allegedly from what I have heard that the codex used to have legion rules similar to Loyalist CT, but for every legion and more to do with FoC swapping.

Then came the EoT campaign which was supposedly a campaign in which GW created a worldwide campaign centered around the 13th Black Crusade and they said which ever army loyalist or heretical that would win would be recorded in the official fluff with fluff advancement from that point..

What happened was I predict and assume that people went crazy competitive both from Chaos and IoM, but since CSM are like what Eldar are perceived to be, CSM was slaughtering their way through..

GW creative directional team did not take this very well..

...And so from what I have heard was that Chaos were doing so well that GW decided to cancel the campaign..

Then 4th ed. CSM codex came out and well... If you want to check out threads between 2007 and 2011 you can see the fan-base dissatisfaction..

Not to derail this too much, but from what I recall Mr.Kelly telling some of us, the big problems were;
1. The story literally was not making much sense overall, as the IoM was completely demolishing Chaos in the 'space war', but Chaos ran absolutely roughshod over the IoM in general on the ground, in fairly good part to the Xenos 'mercenary' forces almost entirely supporting the Chaos side. (even some Eldar were caught fighting for the Chaos side!)

2. The GW stores led the way in the Imperium getting absolutely killed on the ground... Mostly because the vast majority of Space Marine players who play in GW stores, (which had to record all game results by default!), were/are kids. I know at my local GW at the time, Marines overall were only winning something stupid like 10% of their games, simply because we had maybe half a dozen non-Little Timmy Marine players.

3. Rampant cheating... Because anyone could simply go onto the Eye of Terror website and e-mail in their 'game results', up to 10 games per day. You'd get plenty of people "playing games", that their army would magically always win, and they'd send these "results" into the website.
Hell, I can recall a couple locals who'd actively brag about how they'd uploaded the max number of "results" each and every day, just to screw with the system... The same thing happened with the Armageddon campaign too.

While player-influenced campaigns are cool, GW has found out that it simply ends up getting pooched by a decent portion of the community who take the opportunity to act like dbags.


As for the 4th ed codex bastardisation, it was nothing more malicious than GW had decided to go in a new design direction of 'simplified but fluffy' army building. Hence the likes of Dark Angels getting bolt pistols + grenades for free, and their squads being either 5 or 10 men, etc...
It was just a really badly implemented idea, (it went way too far into it's simplification of rules/options - thank-you Jervis!), and after the backlash over the Eldar/Dark Angels/CSM's/Orks, GW decided to change design philosophies and go for the more rules & more options of the 5th edition codices.

I've been playing tank guard for a long time, and I agree with a lot of what MoO has been saying. It feels like everything that was cool or special was taken from us. Want shovel loads of tanks? Play eldar, marines, or dark angels and get invuln or cover saves on everything! Like shooting a whole bunch of dice, enough to overwhelm any incoming force? why not try any of those, necrons, or tau? Trying to turtle up? Dark angels and Tau overwatch with the force of a thousand exploding suns!

But alas, I have fallen back on an ancient and powerful technique, something that only the orks can muster up as rivalry. The powerblob. Three LVL2. primaris psykers, three priests, three techpriests, and all 15 servitors to go along with them.

Its the only Guardy thing I can really find that works on its own. artillery guard is soft and they took away a bunch of the cool options and gave us the wyvern... ugh...

Powerblobs went back to 3rd or 4th edition (I dunno, I never played them, but my buddy did) and no one else can really field anything cool like that. Just a wave of bayonets and servo arms driven by faith, righteous zeal, and wiggling your weird mechanicus winky at it. So when wraithknights have you down, and you feel like all of the armies stole all of the nice things you used to like, remember, not even orks can field 18 power fists in blob of (hopefully, with good psyker rolls) 50 4+ invuln guys. We've still got this going for us.

Eh, this is why I'm just making a fandex of a combined IG/Skiitari faction. When something gets as broken as 40k, may as well create the army you want to play. Besides, Battle Zeppleins! And gas-masked soldiers with beam cannons and lightning guns!

@MoO: Looking into the future, eveuntually Guard will get their day in the sun, where we will have the best and brightest new toys.....and then have 90% of the Dakka Forums complain about how OP we are every single day and how underpowered the Necrons and Eldar are. I've only been in this game for 3 years, and it isn't that hard to spot how cyclical this is. Until GW get's off their collective rear end and actually thinks however we are stuck with the cycle, and might as well make the most of it. Or Homebrew. Or wait until GW collapses, hope that somebody decent gets the IP, or create a living rulebook made by gamers from all around (Actually that is a horrifying idea, forgot I said anything). Just try to make the best of it through the rough patches.

Just one more tactical trick, quite obvious, but anyway.

Get Drop Pods one way or another, and stick Veterans in there with 3 meltaguns and Democharges. Also put a Command Squad in a pod with 4 Meltaguns.

That's cheap squads that throw a S8 AP2 large blast in someones face instantly when they arrive and blast 3 Meltaguns while at it, and they also have Meltabombs. With Orders it becomes quite effective, and they are cheap enough to bring back their points 90% of the time.

I've tabled Necrons with that setup being supported by SM Sicarans, IG Wyverns & Vendettas.

Not a bad plan, but he's not too keen on Allies. Some Inquisition or Assassins are one thing, he doesn't seem to want to have a load of Marines supporting him.
If I'm wrong, the best options would probably be Blood Angels (for that detachment with crazy amounts of Fast Attack slots for the most Pods) or Dark Angels (not as many, but up to 3 in a CAD that'll give you access to Azrael for invulnerable Platoon fun! ).
It's worth mentioning that this is generally considered dickish powergaming it would seem. Not that anyone could necessarily complain if you're just compensating for a disadvantage, but it's definitely something to keep in mind.

BA allies as power gaming? Okay, lol.

Martel732 wrote:
BA allies as power gaming? Okay, lol.

BA allies as taxi service.