Imperial Guard in Depth -- Heavy Support

Posted by Ranillon on 25. May 2009 23:10

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...