Ok, so I have been out of town for awhile and while out thought on what section of the Imperial Guard Codex I would begin to talk on next, So i came to the conclusion that something often overlooked (outside of one choice) is the Elite choices. Now I am not sure why this exactly is, but people seem to prefer their fast attacks to the different elites for us, but perhaps I can now convince a few of you to try out something else.
Today we are covering.....
RATLINGS
At a measly 10 points for a model, sniper rifle, infiltrate, and scout, you can not really go wrong here. Many people complain about how sniper rifles only wound on a 4+ but when you are an imperial guard player, you have to remember that most of the time we are wounding on a 5+ or 6+ it seems, and at best a 4+ anyway with our lasguns.
With this in mind we look to some of their stats, and while Str 2, Toughness 2, and WS 2 is scary, having Ballistic skill 4, Initiative 4 is great! Hitting on a 3+ in shooting can never be discounted, look back at how much we talked about it in the Veteran section. And don't let the WS 2, Str 2 scare you too much, with initiative 4 you will be able to get in a few swings and possibly kill off a few guys before you are run over in combat (heck I was able to -win- combat against some gaunts in my most recent 'ard boyz tournament with them!)
The most important thing to remember about Ratlings though is indeed the -sniper rifle- as it not only wounds any creature, from your normal space marine to a Wraithlord your local Chaos Daemon players Scabieathrax from Imperial Armor on a 4+ it takes away their -ARMOR SAVE- on a 6 plus and can penetrate anything up to Armor 11 and glance anything Armor 12!
Look at it this way, in a standard 1500 point game, you can have 30 BS 4 Sniper Rifles... and still have 1200 points to mess around with...
Or think of it in even scarier terms. You can have 30 BS 4 Sniper Rifles in your 400 point game of Combat Patrol and still have room for a Vet Squad with equipment.
So what do you think? What have your experiences been with these hobbits of 40k?
And until next time, burn some heretics, kill some mutants, and do it as always...
FOR THE EMPEROR!
As a tyranid player, I like to the option to rend. Now mine obviously comes with an I6 monster, but I know you, CVinton, have seen what they can do to vehicles pretty much every time they touch them! For the Ratlings, it works nearly the same - the con is that they have to deal with the armour facing them - the pro is that their infiltrate and scout should give them an advantage.
ReplyDeleteAdd to this the fact that many armies are going to have to send somebody to deal with those little hobbits, taking away from the frontal assault (something the rest of us need to pull off against the Guard) and those little bastards will be in three units, likely making the enemy sow his life dearly to deal with them.
That brings me to the other thing I like about them - they kill MCs in much the same way as my genestealers - but have the protection of distance vs the protection of high I - sure the MC might find cover, but that means he will be advancing looking for that as much as he will be looking to hide in combat - another distraction to unravel his plan.
I have always liked the deviousness of ratlings when used in multiples and I like what they do for a guard army (add variety to that crappy parking lot set-up we are all too familiar with), though I must admit, my bugs do not like this talk of Snipers, we don't like it one bit!
Whoops, meant you AND Cvinton not as if you were him. You know well due to the CP tourney what they can do to vehicles ... I on the other hand know what kind of BS 4 guardsmen can do when cornered by 5 genestealers and the only thing on their side is a little faith in the Emporer! Damn faith!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget pinning!!
ReplyDeleteYes, adding the pinning is also very usefulk.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt about the pinning... cant believe i forgot to mention that Tom!
ReplyDeleteYes Old School... your stealers did indeed lose in close combat, then ran away from Imperial Guard Veterans... LOL.
Its nice having snipers so cheap I am spending twice that on basic guys and then another 5 points for spiffyness. Snipers are very important especially when facing lots of big beasties like trygons and Wraithlords.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that Ratlings got a pretty bad rep in IG. They're BS4 (a big plus), Infiltrate (something that you don't get a lot of), and have a 36" range, so they can afford to sit back where it's safe and try for wounds. And, while they're pretty unreliable, they do have the potential to hurt pretty much anything, which isn't terrible for 100pts or less.
ReplyDeleteT2 seems to be the big offputting factor. It means Bolters wound them on a 2+, so even with a good save they're going to be taking a lot of wounds an inevitably failing some of them.
True, but when you are talking about a possible 2+ save when in a bunker? That is quite nice.
ReplyDeleteThen again ask around to your local Termie junkie at your FLGS and ask how reliable that 2+ is...
Ya, the 2+ wounding is scary but.... the 2+ saves are nice in cover, but man do ratlings get blown away by any sort of flame template!
ReplyDeleteHowever, you are imperial guard, why did you let the flame template get that close.... unless its daemons.
I'm shifting my love of 10 point models from the roughriders to the rattlings. Expect 30 of them in the future. Also, at 10 each an in the elite slot they're easier to fit in and I don't much mind losing the relatively expensive psyker squad versus lossing my vendettas if I take roughriders.
ReplyDeleteThe elite slot of IG is pretty cool because I don't feel bad about taking one thing over the other. Like I mentioned with Fast Attack. I'd feel bad losing a vendetta for 10 rough riders. But not elites. They're all just as good as each other with the Psyker squad having a slight advantage (though for more points)
I have never had snipers perform in the way in which the numbers suggest they should. This is why I always leave them in the bag, they never seem to rend when you need them to and the points always seem to be better spent somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteOn the converse side I've had snipers glance one of my dreadnoughts to death in a tournament, so maybe its just me.
30 really lol
ReplyDeleteDespite crappy dice rolls and low toughness rattlings are worth the points. I have been on the receiving end of those little buggers and you can't really ignore them. If anything they divert the close combat troops away from more valuable targets. Loosing a wraithlord to hobbits is just a total face palm