[chi3sa]

I'm starting an imperial guard army and was wondering about how good and how to play some of the units. I have the codex but was interested on a tactical standpoint. I'm planning on fielding a command squad, karskin, shock troopers, sentinels, and lemon russ. I normally play against Tau and Tyranids. Any ideas.

[sarnas]

Ah dude, I love lemon russes too!

Well, you do know how a standard FoC works right? meaning, you need two troops. If you really want shock troops, take the grenadier option and then have two maxed out squads as your minimal troops. Then have sentinels as support, along with your 'lemons'.

But, we really need more information to help you more. We can't give you a tactica on each unit, unless we know how your play style works.

[Sneaky Git Nurgling Lover]

Before starting topics like this, I would recommend reading the stickies and if your still confused then you could ask questions, second of all, I cant really give you tactica because I have no idea on your play style, doctrines used, the specific kind of nid and tau list you face, and how you equip your current models.

[Dan_teal]

First off, I am glad to see a new Guard player. But, I'll try to help for now, but as above, I need to know how you want to play.

I will assume you know nothing and are playing a standard list, no doctrines.

First off, I will start with the basic FOC:

Command- You have to take at least one command squad. I always take a Heroic Senior Officer unless I am really tight on points. This is for fluff reasons and it just make sense (besides, the others suck IMO for HQ). You can also take the others, I've seen it done, but the HSO just makes sense to me. This unit can run a lot of points, so I would give it a purpose like "get in cc", "kill heavy infantry", etc. Those are just examples of what I mean and they will be dictated by your style. If you play Tau and 'Nids, I would go for cc with Tau and I would probably go for kill heavy infantry for 'Nids, but I have not had any real experience with 'Nids, so a more experienced player could tell you more. For a cc oriented HQ, you would obviously give them power weapons, don't give them heavy weapons, and do meltaguns to take out a few before the assault. Normally take a master-vox for the leadership casting powers. The banner is up to you and medics are great as they allow you to ignore one failed save per medic.

After the command squad, you may take other support squads. Here is where I would put your heavy weapon squads. Not in the Heavy Support section as these in HQ won't take another slot from your tanks. You can take Sentinels here, but I would put them with Fast Attack.

The HQ really can be kitted out many different ways and I could help more if I got some plans from you.

Troops- The Guard are unique for their troop section. You must take at least 35 men and a Chimera without doctrines just to fill the FOC. Normally you would take 2 platoons, or one platoon and an Armoured Fist Squad. The basic platoon is a command squad and 2 squads of 10 men. I take Junior Officers and give them very little to save points. The squads themselves are similar, only upgrading to a Veteran Sarge. For all squads, command and guardsmen squad, I always give them vox-casters to use the higher leadership and I use grenade launchers. I find that flamers and meltaguns are good, but you need to be too close, although with Tau that might be OK. Plasma gunners will often kill themselves before they do much, so I don't take them.

Storm Troopers- Again, keep them lean and give them a job. Do probably grenade launcher and melta-gun, or flamer and melta-gun if you don't mind them being assaulted by 'Nids. I deep-strike or infiltrate them to take objectives, but they need backup or they die. They are only armed with lasguns with an AP value and an upped BS.

Sentinels- I would take Cadian as the autocannon is so good, or Armageddon if you need lascannons. They are not very durable, so they will probably die. I normally do not, however, take them at all, but that is personal as they are a little expensive ($) for me.

Leman Russes- In my eyes, they are the SOUL of the Guard (a little biased, see avatar). I would take at least two if you have the points. You will normally shoot the Battle Cannon, and then you can shoot nothing else. But as they are so awesome, they will draw alot of fire and you will want the hull lascannon as a backup for when the Battle Cannon goes. Sponsons are iffy, I run a company of Russes and the majority don't have sponsons because they can only be fired if the lascannon fires and not the Battle Cannon. The tank also needs to be square on to the target to use both. If the 'Nids sneak up from the side, I could see it be used as a last-ditch attempt to stop assault though.

I am sure I missed something, but I can go back and fix it up when you tell me how you will play your Guard.

[Jeff]

I suggest you go through the stickies and read the tactica. After that, ask any more questions you might have.


Lord Solar, karma'd

[chi3sa]

Played my first game today with 2 squads of shock troops and a command squad against a swarm of tyranids. I upgraded most of my troops with extras while the nids were pretty basic and I ended up getting massacred. It was also pretty hard since it was a city fight. At the beginning of the turn i had my first squad go left and my other right while the command squad just kind of sat their while i waited for something to happen. Since he had to keep with in sinapse he chased after my squads i sent to the right and easily destroyed them with he deathspitters. So I kept my command squad with my other squad as they left after a ripper swarm. Even though they are actually pretty powerful i was able to kill all three each with 3 wounds without loosing a single solider. Specially because in on term he had 12 rolls of 4 up and missed them all. So when i finally got them destroyed the rest of his massive sword of 24 hormanguants 3 warriors and some other stuff came and slaughtered all but one man. IN the case of my command squad he took out two of my men and i failed the morale test and hit the back of the table instantly killing me. As it came down to my last sergeant I decided to go down all guns blazing charged 2 hormanguants and killed one. So on the assault phase he surrounded me with all of his troops with fleet feet and was able to inflict -8 wounds on me. In ideas where i went wrong. I think i should of gone for less points as i was pretty heavily upgraded. I had a total of 250 points. I need help i dont one to suffer another embarrassing loss.

[THE LORD]

Now I think you answer your own problem, I think you doctrines them up to the max didn't you and gave the Sergent's all they could right.

The way I think of the imperial guard no matter what doctrines they are given they are still guard, with las-guns and low armour no matter they are given, they have strength in numbers and not much else, so take as much troops as you can.

I would take as many troops as you can in 250 points and really skimp on the upgrades like maybe a heavy bolter in a couple of squads.

[Commissar_Will]

Indeed, maxed-out IG=suicide. NEVER upgrade your regular sarges - it's not worth it. Many squads won't even need special weapons, just the heavys. Also, keep the Command Platoon low-points - IG command units are not uber-killy melee powerhouses o' doom. Their primary purpose is support. Keep them hidden at the back - ideally, they shouldn't even have to shoot anything. When playing IG, the best advice is to forget the wargear and spam up, but keep the amount of heavy weapons and leadership high.

[sarnas]

You had 250 points? Then your opponent had much, much more than you. 24 hormagaunts? 240 points. Plus his warriors, which should be ~110, if not more, and those rippers? At least 90 points. So you were outmatched even before your army was on the table.

[Dan_teal]

Gecko is right. Even a veteren player would be hard-pressed to beat a force almost twice its points. But like everyone else said, you upgrade, you die. My squads are 100pts max (with carapace armour) thats one special, vox, and vet sarge with no wargear/new weapons. My platoon commands are less, maybe a power weapon and bolt pistol for 6pts, a vox, special weapons and thats it. They don't really provide a support role, so they either skulk around in cover to take table quarters and fire with special weapons or run into CC and die. I don't expect them to take table quarters, its just a "They can try, but if they fail (which they probably will), I get a suicide unit."