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The Y-Mod Series is a weekly modification of some of 40k's worst units in the game. These are units that are shunned by almost every player, in almost every version of the game. In Y-Mod, I attempt to "fix" these units in a way that makes them usable to at least a portion of the gaming population, while still not so powerful that tournament lists would use them. Try to assume that the points costs remain the same, or close to the same. I'm also not going to massively change the unit's role, and will try to keep it in the same "space" as before.

On with the show!

The Infantry Platoon

(Before continuing, I need to note that I started this entry before the new Campaign books were released, which provide a big boost to the Grand Ol' Army. This has been written without that campaign book in mind.)

Well, this is going to be a long one.

The Imperial Guard (#sorrynotsorry Astra Militarum), have forever been defined as the first line of defence of the Imperium. As a friend just recently told me; the cheapest resource in the Imperium is men. Yes, these guys are pretty terrible, and their lasguns have been the butt of more flashlight jokes than a blonde, but they are an important unit. They define the bottom tier, and define what it means to be the bottom tier. But these soldiers are also supposed to be the grease that makes the wheels of the Imperium turn.

The Infantry Platoon has always had a few certain qualities to it;

#1 - They are Plentiful
Aside from Orks and Tyranids, no one can put out bodies quite like the Imperial Guard. On their own they are terrible, but start throwing enough dice and they really will drown their target in lasguns. This "plentiful" quality has shown up by letting them be taken in combined squads, by having the Infantry Squads be a requirement, and by their expendable nature.

#2 - They are Regimented
An Infantry Platoon has a hierarchy and an order to it, almost like a miniature Force Organization chart. You must have a Platoon Command Squad. You must have two Infantry Squads. You may include up to these many other squads. A Junior Officer cannot issue an order to a Senior Officer.

#3 - They are (mostly) Poorly Equipped
Now, this isn't entirely true. Each squad has historically been able to take a Heavy Weapon and a Special Weapon, just like most other units in the game, but since you had to purchase them in a squad of 10, often you were wasting a large part of the squad's potential to sit in the mud and be a meatshield for a mostly ineffective heavy weapon. They can purchase a Chimera, which is one of the best transports in the game for its cost, but is still a terrible transport when engaged from the sides or rear.

Now, these wouldn't really be a problem if the Imperial Guard didn't also have access to Veterans as Troops. Veterans do almost everything better than an Infantry Squad. They have access to more special weapons, have a higher leadership, and a higher ballistic skill. They cost a little more (but not much), but effectively cost less as you don't need to buy the whole Platoon. The only ways that they're weaker is that the Platoon has a Junior Officer that can issue commands, and the Platoon can purchase Heavy Weapon squads as Troops rather than most faction's Heavy Support choices.

Fundamentally, I think the issue rests with the Infantry Squad itself. Generally speaking, you're far more encouraged to take a minimum number of these and spend as little on them as possible just to hold some backfield objectives. They are never in the forefront, and when they are, they don't do anything meaningful. It's time to change that.

The Y-Mod

Guardsman WS;3 - BS;3 - S;3 - T;3 - W;1 - I;3 - A;1 - Ld;7 - Sv;5+
Heavy Weapon Team WS;3 - BS;3 - S;3 - T;3 - W;2 - I;3 - A;2 - Ld;7 - Sv;5+
Sergeant WS;3 - BS;3 - S;3 - T;3 - W;1 - I;3 - A;2 - Ld;8 - Sv;5+
Junior Officer WS;3 - BS;4 - S;3 - T;3 - W;2 - I;3 - A;2 - Ld;8 - Sv;5+

Unit Type: Infantry
Unit Composition: 9 Guardsmen, 1 Sergeant

Weapons:
Lasgun

Special Rules:
Requisitioned Forces; Before deployment, you may have an Infantry Squad join another infantry unit in your army. The Infantry Squad counts as being part of that unit for all rules purposes for the rest of the game. Units from other factions can only be joined if they are Battle Brothers.

Options:
One Guardsman may replace his/her Lasgun with one of the following special weapons:
- Flamer
- Grenade Launcher
- Meltagun

Two Guardsmen may be replaced by a Heavy Weapon Team with one of the following special weapons:
- Multi-Laser
- Missile Launcher
- Lascannon

The unit may purchase:
- Offensive Grenades
- Defensive Gernades
- Chimera (dedicated transport)
- Taurox (dedicated transport)
- Taurox Prime (dedicated Transport)

The Sergeant may be upgraded to a Junior Officer. Junior Officers may issue one order per turn from the Junior Officer Orders List, and may purchase items from the Junior Officer's Equipment List.

The Breakdown:

Okay, so what's going on here?

Well, the squad's "modularity" just skyrocketed, even if their actual abilities took a hit. Now for a low cost, you make any unit in your army bigger, with more (weak) bodies, some additional heavy or special weapons, access to some decent transports, and the ability to issue orders. Note, as they become part of the unit they join for all rules purposes, a Junior Officer in a Space Marine squad could only issue orders to other Imperial Guard infantry units, and couldn't issue an order to the Space Marine sergeant.

This is a pretty big improvement on the unit, so much so that I limited the weapon options available to the unit. Being able to combine an Infantry Squad already works well when added to Special or Heavy Weapon squads in the Platoon, works well for adding to the Platoon Command Squad, or works well adding to just about any squad in the Guard codex! But the really fascinating thing is that you can start adding these units to other detachments.

Obviously the full extent of this rule isn't known. If you find something that's really broken by doing so, let me know.


Comments/Suggestions
As always, comments and suggestions are welcome! I realize I didn't fix the "isn't fast enough" problem that plagues the Carnifex, but that's an issue with the game as a whole. There's so many units that suffer from this problem that it seems very apparent to me that it's a problem with the game if a unit is only useful if it can move quickly. Until a Y-Mod unit comes up that is described as being somewhat faster than your normal bear, I likely won't be including too many options for increased speed.

If you want to see me "fix" a unit, go ahead and let me know which unit you think needs a Y-Mod!

I'm ambivalent about these changes. Allowing Guard to bulk-up other squads is certainly interesting, but the record-keeping required is going to be immense, especially since you decide which squads are attached to which others from game to game?

There's also questions raised about the combined unit - if I join an infantry squad to a unit, can I issue orders to it?

And ad far as abuse, I certainly don't want to see Centurions or Terminators with a dozen or so extra wounds. It's not very fluffy either.

If a squad joins a unit, can the new unit use the squad's Dedicated Transport?

Squads joined to Imperial Assassins WOULD be straight-up broken.

Overall I think this is a big thumbs down. It's a fun idea, but impossible to balance and impractical on the tabletop.

Thankfully I can answer some of these!

#1 - If an Infantry Squad joins another unit, because it is part of THAT unit for all rules purposes, then you can only issue orders to it if you were already able to issue orders to that unit.

#2 - Hard to abuse with high-save/high-toughness models, since the Infantry Squad pulls down the average toughness, and the saves are done on a per-model basis, making them not much of a meat-shield, but one that is possible. The extra wounds and losses also makes previously tough units easier to break through Leadership.

#3 - Yes, provided the Dedicated Transport's capacity is large enough! Adding 10 models to a unit means there's not too many vehicles in the game that can hold them plus the original squad.

#4 - Not sure why Assassins would be broken. Care to elaborate?


Thanks for the input raverrn!

I don't think they would be able to join assassins due to the rules

The only thing I don't like is weapon options being cut down. I hate rule changes that invalidate models and suddenly a lot of plasma gunners and several heavy weapons teams are illegal

HoundsofDemos wrote:
I don't think they would be able to join assassins due to the rules

The only thing I don't like is weapon options being cut down. I hate rule changes that invalidate models and suddenly a lot of plasma gunners and several heavy weapons teams are illegal

Not at all! They are now Special Weapon teams and Heavy Weapon teams, which can be easily joined by the Infantry Squad.

I don't really understand the point of your modifications actually. I appreciate when people try to mod existing armies but I think there are simple ways to do.
For example, at my LGS, we have a league where we can bring our custom units and where everything is monitored by an a very fair admin. So I just modified the range of IG radiovoxes from ridiculously short to unlimited (that's a freaking radio for god sake) and it instantanely made regular infantry a LOT better!

I'm not sure I understand the point of these changes. Eliminating a lot of weapons options doesn't help anyone, nor does allowing the unit to randomly join any other infantry unit. You say the problem is they're mostly meatshields, then instead of fixing them you turn them into meatshields for Battle Brothers. It's like you've given up on Guard infantry and encouraged players to go buy Space Marines instead. Not to mention that this is a bit of an implementation nightmare - units joining other units is one of the biggest sources of rules issues in the whole game, especially since GW (and these rules here) mostly leave it to the player to sort out what rules apply to what model.

I think what Guard really need is a complete and total overhaul of the orders system that increases synergy and usefulness. Each unit and unit upgrade needs a clear and effective role. The goal, to me, should be something resembling WWII combined arms fire-and-maneuver tactics (to the limited extent this is possible with 40k's very limited palatte.

I liked what you did with the Mandrakes. I think this one should go back to the drawing board.