Ranillon has already covered the flow of the game itself.  He mentioned having help from a teammate that flank marched into the enemy's rear?  Those were my marines, and this is my take on the battle.

FLANK MARCH

On setup, I found our force setting up opposite a player who brought a MASSIVE imperial guard tank company, complete with superheavy tanks and backed up by a Reaver titan and a Warhound titan.  While my own Reaver Titan set up on our side with space marine scouts as screening troops in cover around it's ankles, my space marine battle company was able to come in en masse over consecutive turns behind the imperial guard player, thanks to a distinct lack of jamming or chaos covens in his area.

I had intended to shoot up his transports and then assault the troops inside, so my marine company would have an assault to hide in during the IG player's next shooting phase.  But I discovered to my horror that the 16 or so Chimera transports he had brought were in fact EMPTY.  It seems he only had so much room in his car, so he'd left all the actual infantry at home!  While this seems a very odd thing to do for an unlimited-points game, it quite nicely left my space marines stranded behind a sea of battlecannons, and only his desire to shoot my tanks first saved my marines' ability to fight.  Krak grenades, melta bombs, and the odd powerfist or meltagun did most of the work.

HOT REAVER-ON-REAVER ACTION

Let's face it... no matter how you arm these monsters, a reaver titan is pretty much capable of savaging another reaver titan unassisted in 2 turns.  With the sort of help you find in an apocalypse game, even a Reaver titan stands up to only one turn of firing.

My Reaver went first, assisted by a squadron of my predator tanks who downed a few void shields.  An apocalypse barrage launcher stripped the remaining shields from my opponent, and I savaged him down to 2 structure points and a lot of engine hits with a Turbolaser and a stratch built Volcano Cannon.  Sadly, I inflicted no weapon hits and no "cannot fire next turn" hits, which I was counting on to slow his counterattack.

The IG player's reaver went next, preceded by a tremendous amount of battlecannon and lascannon shots from an approaching company of Leman Russ tanks.  They stripped my shields, and while his vulcan megabolter could not harm me, his plasma cannon inflicted some engine hits while his single shot Vortex Missile ripped through my titan like a hot knife.  His Warhound titan joined in and finished me off with a Turbolaser shot.

STERNGUARDS FOR THE KILL

I had two squads of sternguard veterans in the IG player's backfield at this point.  In an unlimited-points scenario such as this, both 10 man squads were fully equipped with Combi-meltas, and each squad had a librarian attached to them.  The librarian's job was to give the veterans a 5+ save and, more importantly, teleport them around at 24" per turn.  Though an enemy psychic hood was limiting the effectiveness of this tactic, one sternguard squad managed to teleport in behind the enemy reaver titan and unload with it's remaining 7 melta shots.  The damaged Reaver titan went down quite easily to this tactic, freeing my surviving predators and razorbacks to unload on other things.

80 PERCENT CASUALTIES FOR THE WIN

Doesn't seem like much of a win, but I did sweep the IG player off the board (Minus his superheavies, which Ranillon was dancing with) and claimed an objective marker or two in the process.  Oddly, about 1/3 of my marine casualties came not from incoming fire but rather from exploding tanks.  With so many krak, meltabomb, and powerfist hits each turn against densely packed IG tanks, I was losing marines at a steady rate to 6's on armor penetrations when they killed a tank.  One unit of assault marines in particular was reduced to a single model without ever being fired upon, due to 5 successful assaults with melta bombs.

LESSONS LEARNED

1 - For their points and/or cost in Assets, Orbital Bombardments are useless against tanks.  Even strength 10 ones.  Quite often, you'll just inconvenience a tank or two.  If you get them free as part of a formation or as an ability from your army codex, fine.  But don't waste an asset on them, and don't aim at tanks.

2 - Teleporting Sternguard Squads with combi meltas.  A squad is pretty much guaranteed to kill a superheavy target and then rough up any infantry they see on the way to an objective marker.  Even after they're out of combi weapon shots, they still have krak grenades at no extra cost!  If you're not limited by points and you have an asset that allows all your units to be scoring units, then there is no reason not to overload on these as much as you can.  Mine are represented by Deathwatch marines, since there are no current rules for Deathwatch.

3 - A Titan, any Titan, must endeavor to engage the enemy line from OVER 60" away, and use it's 96" or 120" range guns.  If it cannot do this for any reason (physical limit of table size), it will attract fire and die on turn 2.

4 - Psychic Hoods are normally wonderful for cutting down on the dirty psy stuff the enemy is pulling on you.  But a Psychic Hood has a limited range, and in Apocalypse it is easy for an enemy psyker to be out of range.  A DARK ANGELS Psychic Hood, on the other hand, HAS NO MAXIMUM RANGE.  One Dark Angel librarian with a psy hood can interfere with each and every enemy psyker in an Apoc game, no matter where he stands or how large the board.

As any self-respecting 40K fan already knows Games Workshop just released Planetstrike, their new expansion book.  With it comes a number of new building models.  The question is whether or not the rules and/or models are any good.

What’s Good

The first thing that hits you when flipping through the Planetstrike book is that it enjoys the same great production value common to GW products.  The rulebook includes extensive rules, lots of great and inspirational pictures, and loads of source material.  At just $25 the book is worth picking up just for the reading value.

The rules are presented in a straightforward manner, although they are a bit “thick” (that is, make sure to read carefully or else you are bound to miss something).  The “Organizing a Battle” section goes step-by-step into everything you need to run a basic game of Planetstrike – setting up each side, choosing stratagems, and all the special rules involved.

The basic rules are both what is good and bad (more on the second below) with the book.  Unlike most similar GW efforts there are no points values for anything.  So, for instance, it is not the case that a defender buys his fortifications or even that he receives fewer troops in exchange.  Instead, you choose the type and number of the fortifications you like.  They are balanced out by giving the attacker various advantages.  For example, a wide range of attacking units may now Deep Strike while those that already have the ability can land and assault in the same turn.  Likewise, the attacker receives a preliminary bombardment while being able to fill his force chart with more non-troop units if he wishes.  In fact, he doesn’t have to take any troops at all, which is okay as in Planetstrike any unit – even if it only has one lone soul left! – can claim objectives.  The book also includes a number of different missions that tinker with the basic rules of Planetstrike to provide new experiences.

An important part of the rules are stratagems – Planetstrike comes with eleven pages of them!  These are split up into various groups, some which can be picked by anyone, some just by the attacker or defender, and some only by specific armies.  Both sides receive one stratagem “point” for every objective on the table, you can only buy a certain stratagem once, and there are many that cost more than one “point”.  Examples of attacker stratagems include “Dawn Assault” where the game uses the Night Fight rules and “Planetquake Bomb” where every non-vehicle unit (both sides!) must test for pinning and all bastions take a strength 10 hit! 

As nice as the book may be arguably the models are even better.  The three primary new Planetstrike box sets are the Aegis Defense Line (only $20!), the Bastion ($30), and the Skyshield Landing Pad ($40).  I’ve bought examples of the first two and they are excellent so I assume the Pad is as well.  The Aegis comes with a bunch of defense emplacements – units using them get a 4+ cover save or a whopping 2+ if they go to ground – and a quad autocannon in a mount.  The Bastion has two primary sections, one of which has defense guns on each side, and a mounted super lascannon (same boom, greater range) to go on top.

What’s really nice about these first two sets is that they are in many ways interchangeable.  The gun mounts for either can be freely exchanged, meaning you can place quad autocannons on top of your bastions and lascannons down with the troops.  The bastions are also modular allowing you to easily combine multiple sets into larger and larger structures.  For example, you could build a tower six levels high or a high wall across the entire battlefield.  The modeling possibilities are quite extensive.

The Not Good

Given how excellent the Planetstrike book and the associated model sets are it is rather shocking to realize just how basic – in my opinion – a mistake Games Workshop made in designing the rules.  The error can be reduced down to a single statement:  None of the new models come with point values.

At first this may not sound like much of a sin.  After all, the scenario rules (theoretically) take care of any force imbalances by giving the attacker a slew of advantages.  However, this “user friendly” version of setting up a game comes with a lot of potential drawbacks, problems that assigning points values could have addressed (if not solved).  After all, Warhammer 40K is a game built on the concept that everything has a points value which in turn can be used to properly contrast and compare the combat effectiveness of various units.  For that reason alone it is odd that GW decided to chuck the idea out an air lock.  Why fix something that ain’t broke?

As a result of this decision Planetstrike sets itself up for abuse.  The application of defense structures within the game is quite vague, allowing the defender to potentially take as many as he wants.  This is partially balanced out by the rule that bastions always count as objectives (therefore giving the attacker more pregame firestorm barrages), but a sly defender could pick his fortifications with care and get around this.

I realize that Planetstrike was written in the spirit of “just have fun” and if one player wants to make sure no one has any he can do so regardless of the rules.  However, in my experience most disagreements between players are a matter of misunderstandings, not deliberate attempts to ruin the game.  So, for instance, the defender may show up with a truck load of fortifications based purely on the expectation such is the “established” way for him to be victorious.  Likewise, an attacker with different expectations may bristle at the presence of more than a few sets of fortifications.  Without points values to help make sure each side has a fair amount of stuff hard feelings are a constant danger.

The lack of points for fortifications also makes it nigh impossible to mix and match the new sets with regular 40K games and, most especially, Apocalypse.  Having bastions and defense lines is a natural addition to the latter (forgeworld even has rules for fortifications in Apocalypse), but even in regular 40K pickup games a player could spice things up by replacing a tank with a bastion or including a few stationary defense guns.  Without listed points values you can’t really do this – and, frankly, “just make things up” is a poor way to resolve this sort of issue.

This problem also makes it hard to take up the suggestion given in Planetstrike to build extensive fortresses (something that the bastion kit itself encourages).  The rules for using large fortifications are vague at best and a bit clunky even if you discount the points value issue.  For instance, a one level tower is just as robust a structure as a ten level tower.  Technically speaking each is just single building requiring just one good hit to bring down.  You can mitigate this by building horizontally (different horizontal sections of the same fortress count as different “buildings” for purposes of the rules), but shouldn’t going vertical be just as valid a game option?  Should I be punished because my conception of an imposing structure is more tall than wide?  Likewise, there are stats given for different guns that could come with a fortress, but no real standards for their use.  Is taking a bastion with a missile silo really just as fair as one with a heavy bolter?

If nothing else you’d expect having point values to help with sales.  Why restrict a whole range of new sets to just one narrow range of possible applications when you can instead provide a new experience for the game as a whole?

A related issue is that to properly play Planetstrike you really do need for at least one player to pay out for fortifications.  A defender without any is pretty much dead meat and the Planetstrike format assumes there is always an attacker and a defender.  This requirement may sound utterly natural, but consider this – while Apocalypse encourages players to collect super-heavy tanks it doesn’t actually require that they do in order to play.  You can have a perfectly enjoyable Apoc battle with everyone using only units you would see in a standard game of 40K.  By comparison, Planetstrike insists that you spring for those super-heavies – or, in this case, for fortifications.  Likewise, there are no real rules for playing with more than two players, although it wouldn’t be too hard to just wing it.

The Sum Total

I like the book and especially the new fortification models far too much to give Planetstrike a bad review.  The game has a lot of potential.  I am just mystified by the decision to exclude point totals.  It suggests that the expansion was hurried into production or that the designers were just lazy and didn’t want to worry about balancing point values.  It’s a decision that needlessly increases the chance of arguments and limits the uses of the models.

My recommendation therefore is to buy the game, but keep in mind that issues of debate can easily pop up.

Well, I’ve gone through all of the units in the new IG codex.  Yet, each is really just a part of the larger organization that is a complete Imperial Guard army.  Today I am going to go over the common basic designs out there and how well you can use them given the new codex.

Mechanized Infantry

The good news is that it is almost as easy to have a mechanized – that is, all mounted – army as it was in the last codex.  Heck, the chimera is even a whopping 30 points (on average) cheaper in cost!  The bad news is that there are now a number of units that can no longer hitch a ride.  In the old rules you could, by definition, give a chimera to any unit necessary.  Now, you can only do so if it’s listed as a transport option.  In the new book there are a number of important exceptions.  Most notably this includes heavy and special weapon squads, conscripts, and penal troop squads.  The last example is unfortunate if understandable – you don’t give traitors and shirkers their own tank to ride around in – but the rest are a real pain.  It means that for a platoon you can only take command and infantry squads in a fully mechanized army, thereby really limiting your strategic options.  It’s a pity too as the new chimera rules allow up to five models to fire out the top hatch at a time.  Imagine being able to fully use your special or heavy weapon troopers from inside the comfy confines of a chimera!  Oh, well.

I suspect that this limitation is going to encourage people to use veteran infantry squads (which can also take chimeras) over platoons in their mechanized army.  Units can’t take orders while embarked and the special units available from a platoon are denied you.  It’s simpler just to use vets.

Carapace Armored Infantry

If you were one of those fellows who preferred to have all of your infantry fitted out in 4+ armor you are out of luck.  You’ve gone from being able to have most of your men in carapace armor to only having veterans and storm troopers.  Technically speaking you could still have “all” your army up-armored, but only of course if you greatly limit what you put into it.  Hope you didn’t spend too much time converting all those miniatures!

Deathworld Jungle Veterans

You can sort of still play a jungle veterans army.  Obviously, you will need to fill your army with infantry veterans.  From there just be sure to take either the Forward Sentries or Demolitions doctrines.  Either fit within the general theme of jungle fighters.  However, you can’t duplicate some of your old abilities.  You can no longer move through trees with ease or infiltrate.  You also can only do this for veterans.  Any other infantry unit is stuck using the same rules as those bumbling city dwellers who don’t know a Catachan death vine from a hole in the ground!  You also can’t give sentinels extra attacks or take units of (non-short and barefoot) snipers. 

All these differences aren’t that much of a pain, really.  You just need to alter your concept of a “jungle force”.  For instance, giving a deathworld army a few Valkyries allows you to use them as mobile infantry in the manner of American troops in Vietnam.  Clearly, you won’t want to take a tank heavy force – heavy vehicles and thick jungle don’t usually go together well.  The absence of a lot of jungle warfare specific rules means your “jungle” army is going to look and act a lot like any infantry heavy IG force.  Still, that does also mean you can “cheat” and get in effects that you normally wouldn’t have seen in a jungle army before – such as, for instance, having 5+ armor.

In the end modern Deathworld armies are going to be more a matter of flavor than rules than in the past, although you can still have enough of the latter to make your army distinct from the typical example.

Drop Troop Army

Just say no. You just can’t take a real Drop Troop force any longer, at least in the same complete fashion you could in the old codex.  Few units can now deep strike; certainly nothing like a complete organization.  All those grav chutes on your infantry models just became meaningless jewelry.

A possible replacement for the Drop Troop army is an all Air Cavalry force using Valkyries and Vendettas.  It is certainly possible – you can take as many as nine of them, enough to carry an entire army.  However, as I have already hinted in previous posts there are a number of serious limitations.  Sure, you can take nine, but only as part of as many as three squadrons.  Every squadron member must move together and, worse, fire at the same target.  An Air Cav army is already going to have a problem with firepower and being forced to concentrate what you do have on just three enemy units is simply horrendous.  It definitely makes for a finesse force that wins through movement and position, not sheer boom.

The Horde

With prices on many units coming down it is now easier than ever run an Imperial horde.  You can take 100+ models for as little as 500 points.  That means that at normal game point totals you could be looking at 300+ man armies!  It would certainly make for an impressive sight.  It also wouldn’t necessarily be ineffective – you can include a lot of heavy weapons in the mix.  Sure, you’ll lose men in droves, but what do you expect when running a horde?  It would also be tactically limited if for no other reason than your army wouldn’t have much space in which to move!  Still, if you are a masochist when it comes to modeling and painting the IG horde army strikes me as a viable idea.  At the very least I’d love to see it played at a tournament.

The Imperial Gun Line

The arch-typical IG force, the new codex has certainly done nothing to limit its effectiveness.  Quite the contrary, you now are spoiled for choice.  It’s easy to take five to ten tanks of various sorts backed up with a good amount of infantry.  That represents a lot of targets for the enemy to take down, many of which pack considerable firepower.  Any opponent is going to be dismayed when you start dropping a dozen templates and/or roll twenty dice at a single go.  The main limitation of the traditional gun line is a lack of mobility, but fortunately the new rules provide enough ways to get units moving to mitigate this fact.  A few valkyries or chimera mounted veterans should be enough to grab needed objectives, especially when backed up with a veritable forest of big guns.  You’ll need to be careful, however – in some scenarios the enemy could just cherry-pick his targets and leave you without the right units to win even if you otherwise pummel his force.

Nevertheless, the gun line is likely the most overall forgiving of IG army designs (even if a bit boring).

It’s finally time to take a look at the special characters that come with the new IG codex.  Just one note – although specific characters have specific backgrounds there is no reason you can’t use them as “count as” in any army.  So, Lord Castellan Creed could end up in the same army as Commander Chenkov; you’d just want to alter the names to fit a common theme.

Lord Castellan Creed

Here is a good choice if you are interested more in the tactical possibilities of a special character than his ability to directly do damage.  His ability to give any single unit the Scout ability can potentially be quite handy, especially if combined with an astropath (or two).  Likewise, his power to give four orders a turn is nice.  His special order – “For the Honor of Cadia” – strikes me as being of moderate usefulness.  You don’t usually want to be charging into combat with infantry squads, but if you are facing a situation where there is no viable alternative you might as well get some bonuses out of it.

Colour Sergeant Kell

While usually seen as being the eternal sidekick of Creed with the new rules Kell is actually worth taking on his own for one reason – his ability to let a commander use his leadership at range when using orders (e.g. the target unit uses the commander’s leadership to see if they obey).   However, overall you’ll still want to keep these first two choices together if at all possible (even if it is a pricey combo).  You get the most out of Kell’s leadership power while also giving Creed a powerful bodyguard – important since the latter isn’t any tougher than your usual commander.

Knight Commander Pask

I see Pask as a niche special character only useful in certain situations.  His most obvious use is as the commander of a Vanquisher – add in a secondary lascannon and have him go to town on the enemy’s vehicles.  If you are otherwise light on the anti-tank weaponry here is a way to get a lot out of relatively little.  One temptation may be to stick him in an anti-infantry Leman Russ to give his BS4 to as many weapons as possible, but doing that loses you the benefit of his crack shot ability (although, this could make something like an Executioner into a credible light vehicle threat admittedly).  Nevertheless, I expect “Pask” to become synonymous with “Vanquisher”.

Sergeant Bastone

If you want to add as many orders as possible to your army then Bastone is a good choice.  He costs almost as much as the veteran squad he must lead, but he’s sure going to give that unit a lot of backbone.  He can give it any of four orders each turn while allowing it to regroup regardless of casualties.  He also sports a power weapon and hot-shot laspistol.  Bastone is basically a super vet sarge.  The question is whether you want two vet squads or one with a great unit leader.

Colonel “Iron Hand” Straken

Now here is your choice of commander if you are looking for someone able to wade into combat and take heads.  Essentially the “bionic commander” he boasts a 6 strength, 4 toughness, 3 wounds, refractor field, and the equivalent of power armor.  Add in the fact that all of his attacks ignore armor and you end up with a guy as powerful as most Space Marine commanders!  He only gets to give two orders a round, but that is more than balanced by his ability to give everyone with 12” Counter-attack and Furious Charge while he and his command squad are Fearless.  Even at 95 points Straken is my pick for best overall special character.

Guardsman Marbo

I’m not sure what to think of this Rambo clone.  On the one hand he has some impressive abilities, but on the other they operate in a vacuum outside the usual needs of your army.  He acts as his own unit doing things solo.  For an individual model he is pretty nasty, but not so nasty as to be able to carve his way through most units.  Obviously, you have to use him carefully, going for high reward targets that can fall to his attacks.  I just don’t believe he is powerful enough for you to feel confident he’ll be worth the points – not when he costs 65 of them.  As such I see him as more of a curiosity than anything else.

Gunnery Sergeant Harker

Another super vet serge Harker strikes me as being about as useful as Bastone.  He doesn’t get a power weapon, but he does have a heavy bolter than he can use on the move.  He also gives his unit the Infiltrate, Stealth, and Move Through Cover special abilities.  Likewise, as he personally Feels No Pain he’ll stay up in a fight for a while, but he is not going to be quite as nice in close-combat as Bastone.  Still, for 55 points he makes a good pick for a veteran squad.

Commissar Yarrick

An oldie, but a goodie Yarrick is pretty much what he has always been – one tough hombre with a thing against greenskins.  Perhaps his best ability is that he makes everyone with 12” Stubborn, making him a good choice to stick in the middle of your battle line.  He and his group also get to reroll misses when charging into combat.  Beyond this he has what he has always had – a power claw, special force field (which now forces wounds against him to be rerolled), evil eye, and the iron will to keep on going even after losing all his wounds.  One interesting aspect to Yarrick is that he is his own pick – unlike most other special characters he does not replace your commander.  Thus, you can employ him wherever needed instead of him being chained to a special command squad.  He is an astonishing 185 points, however, so I suspect he’ll be used relatively rarely.

Captain Al’Rahem

A replacement for a platoon commander Al’Rahem is another possibility for best character.  He gives his platoon the Flank March ability, something they must use (that’s not a liability since you’ll be planning for it).  That’s potentially as many as 14 units (one platoon) coming in to one side of the board!  He also gets a special order he can give called “Like the Wind”.  If successful a unit can shoot and then move d6 in any direction.  This gives you a limited ability to hit and run – you shoot at the incoming target and then hopefully scamper out of charge range or at least into cover.  Finally, Al’Rahem gets a power weapon that causes instant death (which isn’t as nasty as it used to be).  He doesn’t get any special protections, but does have a plasma pistol.

Commander Chenkov

Another platoon commander replacement, by far Chenkov’s most important ability is that he makes anyone within 12” Stubborn – like Yarrick, but for far less points.  He does get fewer orders as typical commanders, in this case only “Get Back in the Fight” and “Move, Move, Move” which at least are two of the better ones.  He also can let you spend 75 points to make one group of conscripts eternal – they can return after being destroyed – but that seems a bit pricey for what you get.  Otherwise, Chenkov is a typical platoon commander with carapace armor and a power sword.

Mogul Kamir

An add-on to a Rough Rider squad I frankly don’t like him.  He does make his unit Fearless while being able to Furiously Charge, but only at the cost of suffering from Rage.  As I argued in previous postings a Rough Rider squad depends on being used carefully to be effective, namely by waiting patiently for the best time to strike.  However, when subject to Rage they have to gallop toward the nearest enemy as fast as possible.  In effect, a unit that must be tightly controlled to work best is in this case mostly out of your control.  I see Mogul and his men being too easily shot down while in the midst of a temper tantrum to be useful.

Nork Deaddog

Perhaps the closest thing to “loveable” you are likely to find in the 40K universe Nork is what he has always been – the best bodyguard around. He’s big, Feels No Pain, and is Stubborn with a strength and toughness of 5 and 3 wounds.  He can automatically take wounds for a commander while being potentially tough enough to survive them unscathed.  His attacks don’t ignore armor, sadly, but at least he gets four of them.  He also receives one last death bashing where he does d6 strength 6 attacks to the unit that killed him.  At 110 points he's expensive, but he will make any commander squad far tougher.

Let’s face it – if there is anything that will get the blood of an Imperial Guard player pumping it’s tanks and heavy artillery.  Well, you’re in luck as today I am reviewing the Heavy Support choices in the new Guard codex.

Leman Russ Squadron

We’ve known of a whole host of different Leman Russ variants for quite some time, but they were relegated to Forge World books and therefore only seen in special games.  Now those variants are now completely legal options.  In fact, you have seven different variations of what may be the best tank in the game (for the price) to pick from.  That gives you a Russ for every occasion.  The only real question is if it works for your army given the points cost.

One thing that is for sure is that Leman Russes now represent a hell of a lot of potential firepower.  The new Lumbering Behemoth rule means you can fire the main gun and everything else at the same time – now you don’t have to make the choice between taking sponsons and using ordinance weapons.  Along these lines you can also take any possible sponson weapon – multi-meltas, heavy flamers, heavy bolters, and plasma cannons – on any variety of Leman Russ.  That makes for a lot of nasty – if pricey – firepower!

All this dakka does have one drawback of a sort – taking heavily armed Russes in squadrons is almost a guaranteed waste of points.  When you can load up a single tank with enough bang to annihilate entire squads you don’t want to be forced to fire two or three such behemoths at a single target.  A more reasonable use of a squadron would be one without sponsons meant to be mobile.  In such a case combining fire on a single unit might work, but even then you’d be tactically limited.  In general, the Leman Russ is just too powerful of a tank to be efficient in squads.

If there is any downside to so much choice it’s knowing what to choose and when to choose it.  Some variants are clearly better in some roles than others.  For instance, a Vanquisher is a good vehicle killer but next to useless against masses of troops.  Likewise, a Punisher will mow down hordes with ease, but be little more than an annoyance to well armored tanks.  Unlike in the past when you could just pick either variant – the Battle Tank or Demolisher – and have something that did everything at least pretty well you now have to actually stop and think over your choices.

Broadly speaking I think you can split the various Leman Russ types into four categories:

Good All Around:  These are Russes that can fill most any need and include the Battle Tank and the Demolisher.  Thanks to having high strength, large template weapons they can hit vehicles and slash through good infantry armor with equal effect.  Sponsons are liable to be inefficient on a regular Battle Tank because of the big difference in ranges between its main gun and sponson weapons, but with the Demolisher it may be worth it since it needs to be up close and personal to work anyway.

Anti-Vehicle:  While other types can certainly be lethal to vehicles only the Vanquisher is obviously designed with them in mind.  I suggest taking it with a lascannon and no sponsons (since they can’t carry any weapon with the range to match what the tank already has).

Anti-Heavy Infantry:  Only the Executioner fills this role as it has an AP2 main weapon great for killing even the toughest infantry, but on the weak side for going after vehicles.  You’ll get the most bang for your buck going after pricey enemy ground pounders.  If you want something truly horrific to power armor go for the plasma cannon sponsons – you could wipe out an entire squad of Space Marines or Necrons in a single round – but the high cost of such a load-out makes this choice high risk, high reward.

Anti-Infantry:  This type includes the Exterminator, Eradicator, and Punisher.  None have weapons that are better than AP4, but do have the potential to hit a lot of infantry at a time.  Take a Heavy Bolter for the hull mount and for the sponsons to create tanks with a plenty of dakka (especially the Punisher – you could end up rolling 29 dice!).

Hydra Flak Tank Battery

The Hydra has been around for a long time – always did like the Forge World model – but it was really only meant for to be anti-flyer and it was also expensive for what you got.  Its usefulness was therefore limited mostly to Apocalypse games.  Well, that’s true no more.  The new Hydra is half the price of the old Forge World incarnation and comes in squadrons.  With its twin-linked long-range Autocannons it can potentially hit anything on the board while its firepower is limited enough to make taking multiple Hydras in a single group worth a squadron’s inherent limitations.

The Hydra’s ability to ignore the effects of movement for skimmers and bikes isn’t quite as nice at it seems at first since Autocannons are only AP4 and bikes you are most likely to see – Eldar and Marine – have 3+ armor.  Still, at least Orks and Dark Eldar are cursing the day the Hydra rumbled on to the field.  Otherwise, the Hydra is just a long range and accurate set of autocannons good at killing infantry and light vehicles.  For 75 points that’s not bad.

Ordinance Battery

When people speak of the “might” of the Imperial Guard this is what they mean – big guns!  You now have four options which you can mix and match in squadrons as much as you want.  All of them are good choices.

The Basilisk is much the same as it always was, a strength 9 pie-plate that can be fired indirectly if necessary.  Even better to my mind is the Medusa (a model and rule set I preferred since Forge World produced it).  It’s basically a Demolisher cannon with a three foot range, something that makes it far more useful.  At strength 10 and AP2 there is nothing that will not fear it.  Because of this I’m not too wild about the Bastion-breaker Shells.  Given its comparative inaccuracy to other vehicle killers like lascannons it just doesn’t seem worth giving up the larger template just to give what’s already a strength 10 shot even more penetrating power.

The Colossus is the still effective worst of the bunch.  Not being able to fire direction is a significant liability even if it is an AP3 large template.  That means it is going to be inherently inaccurate.  Still, it has the range to hit a target even a few tables away and will frighten any infantry not in terminator armor.

Finally, we have the return of the Griffon.  Compared to your other choices it’s somewhat meager in firepower, but then again it is half the cost and is a large blast.  It too can only fire indirectly, but that’s okay since its special rule is the ability to reroll scatter dice.  The Griffon will work over any enemy infantry not in power armor.

The question of whether or not to take any of these in squadrons is more complex than Leman Russes.  I wouldn’t take the first three in more than pairs as otherwise you’d almost certainly be wasting too much firepower on a single target.  However, the lower cost and strength of the Griffons make them a good choice to take as trios.  Also, since you shouldn’t be moving your ordinance battery unless something is really wrong they are a prime choice for camo netting (even if it does cost 30 points).

Manticore Rocket Launcher

Another Forge World alumni, the previous incarnation of its rules never appealed to me.  It was pricey, didn’t do any more damage than a Basilisk, and was limited to just four shots.  This new version still suffers from the first and third limitations, but the second is now far different.  A Manticore rocket is now a d3 barrage meaning that a single shot could potentially drop as many as three strength 10 ordinance templates!  Suddenly the Manticore is worth the limit of just four shots.  One, because it often won’t survive longer than four turns anyway, and; two, because the amount of damage it can do during that time is tremendous.  A single salvo can annihilate everything in its range of effect not in power armor.

With a range of 120’ you can setup the Manticore as far back from the action as you like, relying on its ability to fire indirectly to get the job done.  However, it’s worth noting that the Manticore can fire directly if necessary thereby raising the odds of an accurate hit.  You can’t take these tanks in squadrons, but that’s okay – they do enough damage individually.

Deathstrike Missile Launcher

I’m not sure what to think about this would-be wonder weapon.  On the one hand it is a cool concept that really will vaporize anything and everything it hits.  Yet, on the other hand it only gets a single shot which isn’t likely to go off until at least the third round.  Whether the Deathstrike is a legitimate choice in regular games or just a curiosity I can’t say.  It will, however, always be interesting.

Certainly, if you take one you’ll have to do your best to protect it – camo netting is a virtual requirement.  You’ll then have to hope you get lucky as the sooner it fires the better.  The biggest limitation that I see in its use is that it’ll go off too late to be worth its cost.  Over time the enemy will be naturally whittled down, thereby lessening the odds that a juicy mass of targets will be around to target.  If nothing else your opponent will tend to spread out to avoid the worst effects of the Deathstrike, although this could potentially work in your favor.

Ultimately, I think the possible usefulness of the Deathstrike Missile Launcher comes down to one question – do you feel lucky?

More to come...

I thought I would take some time out to go into more detail as to why I don’t think Rough Riders work well within the dictates of the game mechanics of 40K.  I do still think they are cool models – both in basic design and conversion possibilities.

With Rough Riders you get the following abilities and liabilities:

• Only as tough as a Regular Guardsman
• Possible Charge Range of 24” (6” basic + 12” Assault + d6” Run)
• One shot power weapon at Strength 5 and Initiative 5
• Otherwise, normal attack at Strength 3 and Initiative 3 – do not get bonus for extra weapon
• Possible to take some special weapons, but this is mitigated by the necessity to always move
• Frag and Krak Grenades

The big limitation as I see it is that RRs are so fragile – a few heavy bolter shots and they are suddenly pointless.  That means you are going to have to hide them behind cover while waiting for the chance to charge a particularly appealing enemy unit.  If you can’t do so or decline to do so then expect the enemy to devote heavy weapon fire to whittling them down.  Once they are at 5 members or less they can be effectively ignored.

But, let’s say you succeed in the best of all possible ways and get the drop on, say, a squad of ten Space Marines.  You charge and skewer the buggers.  On average you can expect to kill 6-7 marines with you first charge.  That’s not bad.  You’ve roughly killed 96-112 points worth of the enemy.  Since your squad of ten regular Riders cost 105 they’ve just made their points back.

While that may sound pretty good in reality it’s not.  Remember, this is a best case sort of scenario and you’ve done is recovered the points you spent on Rough Riders.  A one-for-one exchange makes for at best a draw.  It certainly isn’t a recipe for victory.

Ah, but you counter that the group can still kill even more thereby making your points spent/points killed ratio better.  The problem is that you won’t be killing much of anything else.  After their one single grand attack Rough Riders are reduced to fast moving guardsmen with a single close-combat weapon.  They are going to have a hard time even finishing off the remaining Space Marines of their initial target let alone galloping on to further victories.  The classic tactic with close-combat troops is to attack one target after another, in the process hopefully rolling up your opponent’s battle line.  Yet, Rough Riders are one-shot-wonders that don’t have a prayer of doing so.  Once their single power attack is gone they become little more than cannon fodder.

Whether or not your Rough Riders will get to enjoy a best case is highly debatable.  Since they have to hide out before the big charge your options for using them are limited.  It also makes it easier for the enemy to deal with them.  For instance, one good method is to advance toward where the Riders are hiding with an expendable unit of troops or, alternatively, with a heavy vehicle.  The first target is a waste of the Riders’ abilities while the second is going to be difficult if not impossible to hurt.  Yet, they can’t just wait for something better to come along as the approaching unit will soon get line-of-sight and start firing.  You could easily find yourself having to charge a unit all but guaranteed to blunt your Riders’ effectiveness.

To my mind that is the real problem with Rough Riders – since they only have one good shot that really limits their possible uses, so much so that it’s hard not to conclude that some other unit would be better.  For roughly the same cost as 10 Rough Riders with a few special weapons I could get, say, a Hellhound or Valkyrie.  Either choice is going to be superior 9 times out of 10.  They are also less likely to be complete duds.  Remember it takes just one round of bad dice rolling – or good rolling from your opponent – to ruin Rough Riders for the rest of the game.  That just seems like too much of a risk to me.

If I was designing Rough Riders I would reduce their attack to Strength and Initiative 4, but let it count as a power attack for every charge.  Give them hit and run and they would suddenly be a real threat while being able to protect themselves somewhat from fire by always being in close-combat.  Add in scouting (come on, scouting has always been the historical role for cavalry!) and you’d have a useful unit.  Instead, what we have now is at best a borderline Fast Attack choice that the designers seemed to have overlooked while writing the new IG codex.

Today I talk about the Fast Attack choices in the new Guard army.  However, I first want to discuss a topic that is going to come up repeatedly from here on out – Vehicle Squadrons.

Most any player excitedly reading over the new codex probably drooled (at least at first) over the listing of all those Fast Attack and Heavy Support options that can come in squadrons.  Yup, you can take three Hellhounds or three Leman Russes for just one choice!  Pretty cool, eh?

Well, maybe not as much as you think.  In some ways vehicle squadrons are as much of a pain as a blessing.  They may give you more tanks, but at the cost of connecting all of them together at the proverbial hip.  Vehicle Squadrons have to move in formation and, much worse, have to all fire at the same target.  That’s a serious tactical limitation.

Imagine this scene for a moment – knowing that you are playing an Ork horse you bring three Hellhounds and fit each with an extra Heavy Flamer.  That’s six total templates full of greenskin roasting goodness.  You rush the trio forward and time things just right so that they get to launch all weapons at the approaching tide of ork all at once.  Only one problem – all six of those templates have to be fired at one single unit!  A squadron that could possibly lay waste to half your opponent’s army in one go must instead concentrate on one single group.  Sure, those boyz are so much barbeque, but what about the other hundred who just saw their mates burnt to ash?  Do you think they’ll be nice enough to stand still while your squadron flames each in turn?

The primary limitation of squadrons is that they can in effect tie up a lot of your firepower – instead of being able spread out the shots in the most efficient manner you have to concentrate on just one target.  Accordingly, squadrons work best when its components have little enough firepower individually so as to combine well.  For instance, a pair or trio of lascannon armed Sentinels would make for an effective vehicle killer.  By comparison, a squadron of three vanquishers armed with lascannons and multi-meltas would be a waste of points.  Sure, one target is pretty much vaporized, but under normal circumstances you could very well bag three.

The basic lesson:  The more expensive the squadron in total, the more likely you are being inefficient with your points.

Now on to the unit reviews…

Sentinels

These, um, Imperial walkers now come in two flavors – plain and extra armored.  They also get access to almost every heavy weapon in the Emperor’s arsenal, including the new choices of missile launchers and plasma cannons.

The Scout Sentinel receives scout and move through cover, but suffers from a wafer thin 10 armor rating.  They also can’t take plasma cannons.  By comparison, the Armored Sentinel loses the special abilities, but packs a front armor of 12.  Both are, of course, walkers.

In both cases the best way (as I see it) to use Sentinels is to take advantage of their particular rules.  Scout Sentinels can get in behind or to the side of the enemy force while likewise being able to cut through terrain to gain an advantageous position.  Use them to back up moving forces.  Their armored brothers are better for stabilizing the gun line.  Keep their front armor toward the enemy and you have a mobile heavy weapon that is as hard to kill as most vehicles.  Sure, it’s still kind of wimpy when compared to something like a Leman Russ, but it costs a lot less and is also a less tempting target.

Another important use for Sentinels is close-combat.  A single attack and strength 5 isn’t exactly devastating, you say?  True, but remember that unlike other vehicles in close-combat walkers use their front armor.  For an armored Sentinel that’s potentially huge – not because you can expect it to kill very much in melee, but because it can tie up entire units for perhaps the rest of the game.  For instance, drop an armored Sentinel on a group of 10 regular space marines and you get 55 points effectively negating 170+. That’s a pretty good exchange for any IG player.  A mere scout sentinel can use this trick as well, although in fewer instances and likely for fewer rounds.  Still, holding back a powerful group for a turn or two may be all you need for victory.

Finally, since they only come with a single weapon (not counting the optional HK missile) sentinels work well in squadrons.  Being cheap you’d probably want to take entire groups anyway.

Rough Riders

I’m beginning to wonder if GW has something against horses.  To my mind Rough Riders have always been a cool concept saddled to mediocre rules.  Sadly, that didn’t change with the latest codex.  In fact, the rules are hardly different from before.  You still only get one single “use-it-and-lose-it” power attack combined with the speed of cavalry and the vulnerability of a regular guardsman.  They are also twice the cost of a vanilla trooper.  No special abilities and few options. 

Much of the rest of the new codex is a breath of fresh air compared to what came before, but Rough Riders are still a comparative pile of poo.  They are fragile one-shot wonders seemingly destined to reenact the Charge of the Light Brigade when included in any battle plan.  They aren’t useless, but compared to the other possible Fast Attack choices at your disposal they are clearly disappointing.  If you ask me they should be able to get a power attack whenever they charge and scouts to boot.  That would make them a good buy.  As it is I suggest using them only because they are nifty, not because they are an integral part of your army.

Hellhound Squadron

We now return you to your regularly scheduled effective unit.  Hellhounds went out and got two new brothers, the Devil Dog and Bane Wolf.  All of them are rather nice.

The regular Hellhound is still the monster of hot, flaming death we’ve all come to love with pretty much the same rules as before.  The Devil Dog replaces the flamer with a multi-multa.  Finally, the Bane Wolf is a wonderful infantry killer – it always wounds on a 2+ and is AP3.  You can’t use it at extra range, though.  On top of all this you can now take multi-meltas as secondary weapons along with heavy bolters or heavy flamers.

I like all of these choices.  The Hellhound is just a good all-around tank that, thanks to its strength of six, can even go after light vehicles.  The Devil Dog – especially if you double up with an extra multi-melta – is a nasty anti-vehicle threat.  Yet, I may like the Bane Wolf the best.  Some are going to balk at its 1 – yes, one – strength, thus making it useless against anything with an armor value.  However, it is otherwise death incarnate for any infantry not in the equivalent of terminator armor.

Being “fast” you use these tanks when you want to get somewhere and still be effective.  Tank shock followed up with gouts of template death seems an especially good tactic.

Valkyrie/Vendetta

Admit it – Wasn’t it the Valkyrie that made you the most excited to see the new IG codex come out?  An Imperial Guard skimmer that had once upon a time been a pricey (in real $) Forge World kit now suddenly made available to the masses?  Anyone interested in Air Cavalry?  Can you look at the model and not have Wagner playing in your head?  And, they even come in squadrons!

You don’t need to be a tactical genius to realize that Valkyries/Vendettas make for great transports.  They have decent armor, are fast, and can even drop chute troops anywhere along their flight path.  Imperial Guard have never been so mobile.  The vehicles are also pretty good shooting platforms with the Valkyrie being better suited to anti-vehicle and the Vendetta to anti-tank.  Add in a good mix of possible weapons and what’s not to like?

Well, squadrons for one – and for reasons already mentioned.  However, the movement restrictions for squadrons also hit Valkyries/Vendettas hard.  The whole point of fast transport is to be tactically flexible, but a squad is required to stay together.  You’re either going to have to land your troops all as a mob or take the risk of a lot of drop chutes.  Likewise, although they can carry twelve models, for a force as potentially large as the Imperial Guard that’s not very much.  You’ll want to reserve seating for more elite troops that can be effective quickly and/or when cut-off from the rest of the army.

As for weapon load-outs I suggest either a Valkyrie with rocket pods to shoot up infantry or the Vendetta to act as a gunship.  Both cost the same while filling different combat niches.

More to come...

I return to my review of the new IG codex by tackling the bread and butter of any Guard army – troops!

Platoon Command Squad

This unit is really just a slightly weaker version of the Company Command Squad.  You can take the same basic components with the exception of Advisors – which you can’t take – and commissars which you can.  The second option does give you leadership 9 and another potential power weapon, but it does come with the not inconsequential liability that you’ll lose your single order giving model the first time you fail a morale check.

Beyond this the two command squads are almost the same with only a few minor differences in possible wargear.  One consideration is that the platoon standard is a poor version of its command equivalent – you only get the bonus to close combat and not the leadership advantages.  Yet, it’s the same cost.

I’d personally load up the commander and commissar with a power fist so as to provide the platoon some meaningful hand-to-hand nastiness when the time comes.  Beyond that you take advantage of the commander’s orders to give the rest of the platoon some much needed versatility.

Platoon Infantry Squad

Here is your grunt in the field, the poor sods that have to do the heavy lifting of an IG army.  At only a base of 50 points the Infantry Squad represents a pretty good buy, especially if you can successfully combine them with command orders.  There are also plenty of options to choose from.  One of them is a commissar (meaning you could have one with every squad if you wished) which is a better buy here than the command squad as he still has the 9 leadership, but you only lose a sergeant with a botched morale check.  The commissar and sarge are also the only ones who can take power weapons, but at a measly strength 3 you would probably be better off to purchase a plasma pistol instead.

Otherwise, the infantry squad isn’t much different than before – you can take one special and one heavy weapon.  You can also mount them in a chimera for easier travel.  Given their low cost you could easily field a hundred guardsmen if you wanted in your 1500 to 1850 size force, a daunting prospect for any opponent even if your ground pounders will nevertheless die in droves.

Platoon Heavy Weapon Squad

Again, this is almost a duplicate of the old squad except now they come as part of a platoon (and therefore count as scoring).  There are more downsides now, however.  For one they only have a leadership of 7 and only a Lord Commissar has leadership at range.  They also can’t take a transport, quite a bummer if you were playing a mechanized force before.

I would personally always give the squad the same basic weapons – either anti-infantry or anti-vehicle – so that they can concentrate on killing one or the other.  I would also keep them back and in cover, anything to protect them from having the make leadership checks!

Platoon Special Weapon Squad

Much as before this squad has all the disadvantages of its heavy weapon brother, but in this case that makes for an even worse situation.  Unlike heavy weapons which can always stand back and shoot many special weapon choices require one to get up close and personal.  That means exposing them to more fire which in turn means more morale checks.  With a meager 7 leadership the squad could easily end up running away before they get into position to accomplish anything.  This is complicated thanks to the squad not having access to transports or special abilities like infiltrate or stealth.

For that reason I would always try to keep them under cover, often as response troops to incursions toward the Imperial gun line.  That way they can jump out and fire without being subject to excessive amounts of firepower.  Accordingly, plasma guns, sniper rifles, and grenade launchers make the most sense while by comparison a flamer or demolition charge armed group would be expected – at best – to get one big shot off before dying. 

Platoon Conscripts

If you want bodies to throw at the enemy this is what to use.  You can only take one group per Platoon, but it can be as big as fifty grunts – and at the cost of just 200 points.  Sure, they all stink, but conscripts aren’t there to amaze with their abilities, but rather to stand and die.  With that many troopers you can certainly fatten up the Imperial gun line.  And, as Stalin was purported to have said, quantity has a quality all its own.

The main difficulty to using conscripts is their pathetic 5 leadership, but their sheer bulk of members is something of a defense against this.  With fifty troopers you have to shoot 13 to force a morale check.  However, a good combo is conscripts with a Lord Commissar.  Suddenly they have a 10 leadership and a source of close-combat muscle.  Otherwise, you use them as a wall of flesh to soak up damage and provide mass – if inaccurate – fire.

To my mind the main limitation to conscripts are the cost and trouble of preparing the actual models themselves.  They are only cannon fodder, yet represent a huge expenditure of effort to construct and paint.

Veterans

Want to keep playing your grenadiers or death world veterans?  This is how you do it – take the new IG veterans.  Whereas the platoon represents a huge and somewhat unwieldy mass of troops, the vet squad is a more manageable ten soldiers.  Veterans are also better skilled while having access to options – such as being able to take carapace armor or camo-cloaks – no one else can take.  Add in the ability to take a chimera and you can duplicate a lot of the old doctrines from the previous codex (the big exception is a drop troop army).  One nice advantage of Veterans is that they can take three special weapons in addition to a one heavy.  Also, the sergeant can take a power fist.

However, there are some disadvantages that come with Veterans.  A big one is that they can’t take commissars so, ironically, a squad of newbie troopers in a platoon can have better leadership than their hard-bitten veteran counterparts.  You also can’t buy platoon commanders outside a platoon, so a veteran heavy army won’t have many if any orders to throw around.  Likewise, one big omission is that vets don’t have any options to gain abilities like scout or stealth, something you’d otherwise expect.

Veterans are a good choice when you don’t want platoons at all or don’t want more than one platoon.  They are more versatile and can be better armed.  You can also give them doctrines no one else can take.  That allows them to fulfill specialty roles.  Veterans are therefore the ideal choice when constructing what would otherwise be seen as “elite” IG forces.

Penal Legion

“The Dirty Dozen” in space, penal troops are in some ways the best troops selections you can take.  Being leadership eight and stubborn you can expect them to hang around a good while.  Even better, their “Desperado” abilities all improve their close-in effectiveness, although you have to roll randomly at the start of the game to see exactly what you get.  They also get the scouts ability, so unlike most of the IG army (including, frustratingly, veterans), they can outflank.  At the very least they get to make that extra move.

That’s a good thing as penal troops otherwise get no other options – no special or heavy weapons and no transports (although you could devote a Valkyrie to the task).  This is not surprising since as far as the Imperium is concerned their only role is to die in battle.  A group of ten penal legionaries also costs 80 points meaning they are too pricey to use strictly as cannon fodder (that’s the job of conscripts).  This makes penal troops an odd sort of unit for the army in the sense they are fairly tough, yet expensive and lightly armed.  As such you are going to have to devote extra brain cycles to figuring out exactly where they fit into your tactics.  Whatever role you give them make sure it utilizes their scout ability.  Otherwise, I think there are better choices.

More to come...