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I take a 50 man blob with five auto cannons, melta bombs for sergeants and an aegis line, then castle them up in a corner.

The autocannons add range, punch and versatility. With orders, it's only really heavy armour that they can't hurt. In my last game I took out a flying hive tyrant and it was glorious.

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

 DoomMouse wrote:
My ten man squads get an autocannon + bolter (on the sergeant), then combined into units of 20-30 and given a priest/commissar/inquisitor to stop them running away.

Gives you a tough unit that sits in the backfield and some reliable firepower that you can augment with orders.

That's quite unusal to see someone giving heavy weaponry such as autocanon to squads. Or at least i personnaly don't for i find it's too much hindering mobilty and the range issue applies to this case. Can you certify it works? i'd like to try once

As far as flamers i assumed according to the form of his question, saying he wanted tanks and infantry rather than mecha stuff, that he wouldn''t get any chimera. But of course, if you do own a chimera they're quite sweet as a matter of fact!

In fairness, heavy weapons counting as moving is done on a per model basis. With so many members you can string out the supersquad quite effectively whilst keeping the heavy weapons stationary

 Krusha wrote:
I take a 50 man blob with five auto cannons, melta bombs for sergeants and an aegis line, then castle them up in a corner.

The autocannons add range, punch and versatility. With orders, it's only really heavy armour that they can't hurt. In my last game I took out a flying hive tyrant and it was glorious.

Where do opponents tend to place the "backfield HW blob in cover" in terms of target priority? Are people usually distracted by the big guns on treads, or are they quick to mop up the soft T3 bodies with only a cover save as protection? It's a tactic that does have some appeal to me, though without an objective to camp it otherwise feels somewhat expensive to field.

 KommissarKiln wrote:

 Krusha wrote:
I take a 50 man blob with five auto cannons, melta bombs for sergeants and an aegis line, then castle them up in a corner.

The autocannons add range, punch and versatility. With orders, it's only really heavy armour that they can't hurt. In my last game I took out a flying hive tyrant and it was glorious.

Where do opponents tend to place the "backfield HW blob in cover" in terms of target priority? Are people usually distracted by the big guns on treads, or are they quick to mop up the soft T3 bodies with only a cover save as protection? It's a tactic that does have some appeal to me, though without an objective to camp it otherwise feels somewhat expensive to field.

It depends what else you bring right?

I usually bring artillery and buffer those killy units with a blob with heavy weapons and then conscripts up front. Usually the artillery is out of sight, so unless your opponent has barrage that can hurt T7 they have to get through your bodies. If you take 2 blobs most armies won't be able to churn through them before the game ends.

bogalubov wrote:

 KommissarKiln wrote:

 Krusha wrote:
I take a 50 man blob with five auto cannons, melta bombs for sergeants and an aegis line, then castle them up in a corner.

The autocannons add range, punch and versatility. With orders, it's only really heavy armour that they can't hurt. In my last game I took out a flying hive tyrant and it was glorious.

Where do opponents tend to place the "backfield HW blob in cover" in terms of target priority? Are people usually distracted by the big guns on treads, or are they quick to mop up the soft T3 bodies with only a cover save as protection? It's a tactic that does have some appeal to me, though without an objective to camp it otherwise feels somewhat expensive to field.

It depends what else you bring right?

I usually bring artillery and buffer those killy units with a blob with heavy weapons and then conscripts up front. Usually the artillery is out of sight, so unless your opponent has barrage that can hurt T7 they have to get through your bodies. If you take 2 blobs most armies won't be able to churn through them before the game ends.

Full sized medusa artillery carriages (i have 2 so thats almost 16 T7 wounds to chew through behind an Aegis) can be a beast to kill. Sprinkle in Yarrick and Coteaz and you have a near unkillable deathstar that ignores cover and otherwise murders everything on the field. When I do take that unit I enjoy taking things like HWS because who is going to bother with the Autocannon squad when theres THAT thing to contend with! Also liberally apply 10 man squads around your artillery to create a nice buffer. Yarrick keeps them in place so you dont need to worry about leadership and being MSU means its more things to shoot at and you can just move them around to cover the holes in the line.

If you really dislike your opponent put it all under a void shield!

heh how would you field those in a battleforged ITC legal list though?

Try fielding Armored Sentinels in place of infantry. The most successful guard list I have run involves 0 infantry:

Emperor's Talon (9 Armored Sent.)
Emperor's Fist (5 LRBT)
Emperor's Wrath (Manticore, Bas. Bas.)

I use the Sentinels to do the jobs the infantry would otherwise do, and so far they have done a far better job, and survived far longer that my 60 guardsmen ever have. Not to mention they are a legitimate shooting threat, unlike guardsmen. 27 STR 6 PE shots per turn can do terrible things, however 200 lasguns does basically nothing.

ExFideFortis wrote:
Try fielding Armored Sentinels in place of infantry. The most successful guard list I have run involves 0 infantry:

Emperor's Talon (9 Armored Sent.)
Emperor's Fist (5 LRBT)
Emperor's Wrath (Manticore, Bas. Bas.)

I use the Sentinels to do the jobs the infantry would otherwise do, and so far they have done a far better job, and survived far longer that my 60 guardsmen ever have. Not to mention they are a legitimate shooting threat, unlike guardsmen. 27 STR 6 PE shots per turn can do terrible things, however 200 lasguns does basically nothing.

Armored Sentinels: the Imperial Guard's almost-scatbikes.

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

 DoomMouse wrote:
My ten man squads get an autocannon + bolter (on the sergeant), then combined into units of 20-30 and given a priest/commissar/inquisitor to stop them running away.

Gives you a tough unit that sits in the backfield and some reliable firepower that you can augment with orders.

That's quite unusal to see someone giving heavy weaponry such as autocanon to squads. Or at least i personnaly don't for i find it's too much hindering mobilty and the range issue applies to this case. Can you certify it works? i'd like to try once


I find this works well. Although I normally go with Heavy Bolters primarily. Autocannons at S7 is to high for general troom targets. 3xS6 shot from a HB work out well. And add 2-3 into a 20-30 man blob squad meanso I generally run them turn 1-2 inot cover then pump out fire support and when hey attract enough attention to be attacked having 20+ men and a priest means hey don't go anywhere

FLAMER EXCEPT NO SUBSTITUTE! HERETIC FRYING ON A BUDGET!

but in all seriousness, they are guardsmen. They are there to choke on bullets as my skitarii step over their mangled corpses to claim the objectives. Don't spend more than 5pts a squad. Slap a flamer or nade launcher in there and save points for more "effective stuff" such as:

Heavy Weapon Squads with Auto Cannons
Leman Russ
Artillery
Space Marines
Did I mention the Auto Cannons? (seriously get more auto cannons...just not in infantry squads because their job is to eat bullets)

Leman russ hulls are not a good value in 7th ed.

Nor are pure squads of HWTs. They have reasonable damage output when combined with orders but are pitifully fragile in defense. They don't even work particularly well in a foot guard army as they will be targeted first by any sensible opponent. I'd love them if they were appropriately priced but they're just too expensive in points.

I agree with the "don't spend more than 5 points per squad (if even that)" idea. Don't bother upgrading guardsmen, they are not reliable. Put those points to use by giving heavy weapons to more capable allies who will actually make good use of them. This saddens me, as I really like guard infantry, but the reality is they are just totally irrelevant for anything beyond absorbing charges and bullets right now.

• Las-plas platoon with 35 troopers, commissar, 4 lascannons, 4 plasma guns, vox, and 3 meltabombs. Good against heavy armor/heavy infantry.  This is my favorite configuration. 

While it is horibly expensive (chiming in at about 370-ish points) and innefficient (plasmas work better when in the hands of BS4 vets), it is a really fun combo.  The sheer firepower of this blob (especially if I'm using orders and double-tapping is awe inspiring).  This unit has been an MVP in many games.

I've been using it to good effect for 16 years.