Hello again, today I am going to talk a bit about alternate tactics for Imperial guard. In particular I am going to talk about an all reserves list(s) that I recently created for OST.
As some of you might know OST recently had a HUGE amount of IG fall into his lap, as such he was wondering a few things about them, and as we talked over the phone I and he told me some of the special characters he had my mind lit up with possibilities of fun, and potentially devastating lists. So I wrote up a couple for him and today I am going to go over them and perhaps talk about some alternate units to take instead of what he has, keep in mind the list was build off the general idea of what units he had available from his purchase plus some Vendettas and Valkyries.
List 1:
HQ: Company Command Squad: Creed, Kell, Astropath, 2x meltagun
Troop 1: Vet squad 3x Melta, Demolitions
Troop 2: Infantry Platoon
Plat. Com. Squad: Al’rahem, 4x plasma gun, Chimera
Inf. Squad: Flamer, Chimera
Inf. Squad: Flamer, Chimera
Special Weapons Squad: 1x Demo. Charge, 2x Flamer
Special Weapons Squad: 1x Demo. Charge, 2x Flamer
Fast 1: Vendetta Gunship Squad: 1x Vendetta
Fast 2: Vendetta Gunship Squad: 1x Vendetta
Fast 3: Valkyrie Gunship Squad: 2x Valkyrie, 2x Multiple Rocket Pods
Heavy 1: Leman Russ Squadron: 2x Leman Russ Demolisher, 2x Lascannon
List 2:
HQ: Company Command Squad: Creed, Astropath, 4x plasma gun
Troop 1: Vet squad 3x Melta, Demolitions
Troop 2: Vet squad 3x Melta, Demolitions
Troop 2: Infantry Platoon
Plat. Com. Squad: Al’rahem, 4x flamer, Chimera
Inf. Squad: Flamer, Chimera
Inf. Squad: Flamer, Chimera
Special Weapons Squad: 3x Demo. Charge
Special Weapons Squad: 3x Demo. Charge
Fast 1: Vendetta Gunship Squad: 2x Vendetta
Fast 2: Vendetta Gunship Squad: 3x Vendetta
Fast 3: 3x Scout Sentinels
Notes and Tactics
As a note, in both lists all instances of “Flamer” can be replaced by “Grenade Launcher” if you see fit, I find both to be quite useful personally and often find myself using the latter more often due to its dual purpose.
The first list is quite interesting mainly due to the outflanking Leman Russ Demolishers, I mean common, how fun is that!?!? For those of you who don’t know how that works, it is quite simple really, Creed gives the ability for one unit to gain the “Scout” Special Rule during deployment, as it is during he can give it before the Leman Russ Demolishers are on the board, thus making them able to use their newly acquired “Scout” rule to outflank. In the second list we replace the Demolishers for more Vets and the outflanking Scout Sentinels which leads many to wonder why I would keep Creed, well for the simple factor of the second lists reliance upon troop choices to get things done. With a total of 7 different infantry units on the board the 4 orders that Creed can give at 24 inches becomes quite nice (mmm twin linked melta-guns and demo charges). Yes I know this means Creed has to get out of his vehicle to give the orders, but that’s ok, because his unit is not too scary he will be largely ignored, until the opponents realize how bad ass his orders are.
One key part of both lists are the Special Weapons Squads, which either come with 1 demo and 2 flamers or 3 demos. Each can inflict plenty of wounds on opposing squads, and the second can take out vehicles and inflict plenty of no armor save, no FNP saves (something I like) for relatively cheap that is a nice bonus to having coming out of a Vendetta!
The key to these armies is both the outflanking and the maneuverability thereafter, keep your opponent on their toes, and use units that can blow stuff up to do it fast, while relying on your normal infantry squads to hold objectives. Keep the Vendettas moving around with their 6-12 inch movement to keep making your opponent adjust to you and cutting off lanes of fire on your other troops. The Valkyries are used mainly for quick response troop dropping, along with their ability to move 12 inches and drop both their blast templates (yay defensive large blast templates right?)
One alternate unit to consider is to perhaps drop the Leman Russ Demolishers and instead look into a squadron of a Hellhound variant, especially with the melta blast. These guys can cover a ton of ground when outflanking, I mean a 12 inch move and then 24 inch shot after that? No place on the board is safe for them to huddle up in to get away from you, they also free up some points in the list to work with some other weaponry, so check that out as well.
OST said he was planning on maybe trying one of these two lists out and posting about how it worked out, so let’s hope he actually does because I for one am excited to hear about it.
Until next time, burn some heretics, kill some mutants, and do it always....
FOR THE EMPEROR!
I'd go with list 2, mainly because i love Valkyries/Vendettas/all things flying! More fast vehicles means more flat Out Cover Saves if you need them, and possibly making your list a bit more survivable. Plus if you get a bad roll on the Outflank then you will have to waste less time getting your men and guns into position.
ReplyDeleteAs for Chimeras - you can still issue orders out of them as they've got the Command Vehicle rule. Just measure order range from the hull. I presume then that Creed could benifit from his orders in the same manner.
Right, however Creed would have to use his special rule on himself, so it would only work that way if you were not outflanking Leman Russ or Hellhound variants.
ReplyDeleteOriginally Creed gets in a vendetta/valkyrie like the vet squads and the special weapons squads
One thing to consider (a, if you play with INAT FAQ and b, if it hasn't been changed since I last read it) is the Astropath can't use his abilities unless he's on the field. If you don't, and I don't blame you, nevermind.
ReplyDeleteI think I prefer list 1, though you probably don't need Kell in there (you can easily replace him with voxen and probably still come out cheaper). I'd personally use heavy flamers on the Demolishers but that's probably just down to personal preference.
Max, thanks for the feedback and its always appreciated. the INAT FAQ is all dependant on what we feel like, in general we just use the GW FAQ, until it gets closer to Adepticon time. Even so, the Astropath is still useful after he is on board.
ReplyDeleteSecond, the lascannons give the Demolishers a long range option if something they are trying to fire at is out of their normal 24, at least thats my reason. Plus we have plenty of flamer weapons in the list.
Nope, Astropath is still useful while in reserve - his ability is "while still alive", not "while in play" or "while on the board". (and the INAT agrees)
ReplyDeleteINAT, in my opinion gets most things right - enough to make it a useful source of rulings on stuff that GW makes horribly unclear. Yeah, there's some bad blood at the store from the fact that the people writing the FAQ also play in the tournaments (at least some of them), but I can't think of any really glaringly biased rulings.
And there are some things that need the additional ruling, that GW simply does not address or hasn't addressed yet. For example, the rules-storm that emerged from the Doom of Malantai. I think the INAT got it wrong, and GW didn't rule the way they did, but it was worth it just to have a consistent ruling one way or the other. And when GW does rule on an issue in their FAQ, the INAT adopts that ruling as well, so it's not them writing their own house rules.
I thought the IG outflanked with artillery shells?
ReplyDeleteNull deployment IG, whod'a thunk it? Love the concept!
ReplyDeleteWell i thought of it after a nasty spout with my good friend Samsquanch Monster where what he thought was a friendly game to try out fun things, and I thought a normal get ready for tournament game ended in him challenging me to another "SUPER SERIOUS" game where we knew who we would be facing and make a list accordingly.
ReplyDeleteI knowing he played the wolves, knew he would drop pod my ass with as much stuff as possible, as he knew i liked to run lots of Leman Russ tanks, unfortunately for him, I did a null deployment list and you should have seen the look on his face when at first I did not get upset at not getting first turn, and then at placing anything on the board, and then at not trying to seize... finally he took a 3rd look at my list and then had to drop pod in his own deployment area cause what else would he do. Now I did not end up winning this match, but it was a lot of fun and my first attempt at it, with a bit of tweaking (these lists are far different) i think it can be nicely competitive and tons of fun.
Out flanking guard sounds cool. You do relize this will require you to actually move LSS? Im sure u relized this but i have to point out the obvious.
ReplyDeleteOh Captain Obvious, I wrote these lists for OST, not for myself. However that does not mean I would not be willing to try them out. You have to understand, I created my lists based on available models, and my love for the Leman Russ variants.
ReplyDeleteHowever with my recent aquisition of 2 Vendetta/Valkyrie kits (mmmm 2nd place at The Test of Khaine and winning most Victory points) on top of the other Vendetta/Valkyrie kit I got after the team tourny over at GYGO, my lists are going to be getting some revamps as I test out alternate styles.
I think if you took your normal Guard, drummed your Leman's down to 3 squads of one, pushed in three vendettas, kept your vets in chimeras, maybe some with heavy weapons and plasma and some to move out with melta, you would have a list that isn't only durable, but can take tanks, elite infantry, infantry, heavy vehicles and suffer th loss of chimeras due to vendettas or vice versa .... though you would have to move around!
ReplyDeleteDamn ... might have to mount the Tallarn and get that show on the road!
ReplyDeleteWell lets hope you do! I am excited to read a review and battle report on one or both of these lists!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about doing an all reserves IG list myself sometime ago, so I really like your article.
ReplyDeleteConsidering List 1 I'd drop Kell (to expensive IMO) and maybe also change one of the Demolishers to a regular LRBT to get some more ranged shooting.
The melta hellhound variants lack durability IMO compared to the Demolishers (34 armour VS. 38 armour). And strength 10 should be enough to crack open most vehicles anyway.
Else, keep up the good work here! :-)
HellHenni, its not about the str 8 melta vs str 10, which btw on average if you get the melta distance, the str has a better average chance of penetrating than the Str 10. It is about the extra 6 inches of movement you from the hellhound over the Leman Russ. Now dont get me wrong, the extra size of the LR Demolisher gives more opportunity to kill troops, which is why i picked it in the first place.
ReplyDelete