IG gunline!

[tedwin183]

Recently, a rogue player in my local gaming shop's 40k league has been completely dominating anyone and everyone he faces. It's a strange looking army. He has absolutely NOTHING painted, but everything is assembled. He uses NO tanks, NO sentinels, NO transports. It's ALL infantry. He spams heavy weapons platforms. He has something like 15-17 heavy bolters, 6 lascannons and then a couple full sized platoons used to hold objectives and then he uses several squads of drop infantry in the form of stormtroopers/something else (i'm not a guard player). Anyways, this list has been completely mopping up at our local store lately. He's smashed 2 power build Ork lists like they were half the points they actually are. He rolled a Tau player; actually out shot a Tau player. He's made mince meat of a Chaos Daemons player, and otherwise has beaten up on everyone he plays. I don't think he's played against a space marine list though. I feel confident I can crack this list. Getting a bunch of assault marines/assault termies stuck in tends to make IG very unhappy. The thing is, he is so good at positioning his stuff so that you're ALWAYS going to be in a fire lane, right up until you actually get into charge range. Has anyone else had any experience playing against this kind of list? Is this guy just getting lucky, or is this a really competitive IG build right now?

[Scott-S6]

Guard Horde can be a tough list if the player knows how to use it. It's only going to get worse when they can buy twice as many!

 

Fully mobile and highly concentrated is the way to go. If he's only got a few lascannons then squads in rhinos are going to get you close fairly safely, especially if you keep them together.

 

Does he spread out to stop deep strikers? If so, then concentrated rhinos all the way. Otherwise, pod in some nastiness to distract him.

[Koremu]

Send an attacking force, preferably including a Dread, onto one flank of his gunline, while engaging the centre of his line with suppression firepower (Whirlwind is useful here).

 

The weakness of a static gun line is that anything with speed and manoeuverability will be able to pick the assault target, and once you close and flank the enemy, their own mass of troops on the gunline interferes with the shooting.

 

The guards general weakness of low Ld can be abused and exploited. Taking a (counts-as) Telion, to use the Stalker Pattern Boltgun to remove Officers, Commissars and Heavy Weapons teams is recomended, along with Sniper Rifles.

 

Also, STR6 is instagib time for most IG characters, so the Thunderfire Cannons primary fire mode will do the trick, and can be positioned to outrange all small-arms fire and most of the IG heavy weapons... and in any case, you should be giving your opponent more pressing targets to use his weapons fire on.

[RolandTHTG]

It's a nasty list, but it does have some weaknesses.

 

1) Whirlwinds are the guards killer. He's not going to be able to spread out that much, so you should be able to catch a lot of guys. Then remember to have him take all the necessary leadership tests. They will eventually begin to fail.

 

2) That many models will force him to spread out through sheer numbers, which will allow you to concentrate against one of his flanks. Remember that shooting through hi own men will give you a cover save (protect tanks/save special weapons). Avoid at all costs leaving any of your units in front of his army. Lasguns kill in numbers, and he has the power to do that. Avoid the center of the board at all costs.

 

3) Leadership is the key to guard armies. Your long-range shooting (especially HVbolters and Autocannons (instakill vs T3)) should be continually firing at his command squads (which probally have a heavy weapon or a bunch of specials) as once the officers are dead, the army will crack. I play guard myself and the only two times I've had multiple units flee, my officers were all dead first.

 

Your tactics should be:

Concentrating your assaulting units against one of his flanks, avoiding the center of the table.

Use your shooting units to suppress his command squads and Fire support squads

Use whirlwinds or thunderfire to pummel the middle of his force (keep him from reinforcing the thretened flank) and hit any hiding command squads - remember the leadership.

Use transports to blockline of sight and give cover saves, he can't kill what he can't see.

Remember that command squads are both HQ and Troops, so have him point out all his officers to you when the gave starts.

Remember to make him take leadership, especially after the officers are dead. Guard are base 7, and will eventually fail for each 25% from shooting.

[greatcrusade08]

Id say whirlies t-fire for long range fire... and heavy flamer spam on everything else... cheap land speeders at 50 points each will earn thier weight..

Also podding in some ironclads with dual flamers will soon sort them out...

Failing that some LSS storms with heavy flamers and shotgunners inside will do well.

 

GC08

[Allerka]

I'd also recommend, if you're gonna take Terminators, stick them in a Land Raider. No tanks means no demoliser cannons, and even a lascannon needs a 5 to glance it, so your odds of closing the gap are pretty high (plus a Crusader can pump out tons of shots to shred them). Though you have to be EXTREMELY careful with the Terminators once they're in assault, you absolutely MUST avoid them winning on your turn and being left in the open. A horde of lasguns are the greatest bane of Terminators (when you'd think they'd actually have no chance of wounding them at all).

 

Also, if you're gonna try rushing towards him with Rhinos (something I've never been successful with), use your first turn to rush as far forward as possible, then position the Rhinos to shield your squads, and disembark them all and pop smoke (since it's highly likely they'll be annihilated on his turn). Remember to keep your units together, the mutual support is one of the strongest parts of a mechanized list. Plus, if you concentrate on one side of the board, it prevents him from bringing a large chunk of his army to bear.

[minigun762]

For Loyalists, my thoughts would be something like this:

 

IronClads in Drop Pods with Flamers, roast them alive then assault big units. They should lose, break then run.

Whirlwinds and/or Thunderfire Cannons

Rhinos/Razorbacks with TL Heavy Bolters

Drop Pods with Flamer/Heavy Bolter/Power Weapon Tacticals

Assault Squad with dual Flamers/Power Weapons

10 man Terminator squads with dual Cyclones

Jump Pack Chaplains or Librarians with Avenger

[tedwin183]

I've been successful against guard thus far, however, I have never played a pure gunline list like this. I always tend to flank with a big group of assaulting units, meanwhile giving my opponent a lot of juicy targets in the middle to distract him. I'll see how this works. The hard part about this list is all the deep strikers he has.

[chaplain_quint]

with that many units.... likely that he has to use the full deploymentzone.

thus:

Khan with outflank.

Shrike with infiltrating assaultsquad

[Warp Angel]

I play a similar guard army. I'm really good with it.

 

1) It lacks strategic mobility. Exploit that to your advantage by eliminating any units he has that might contest your objectives.

2) It lacks hand to hand capability. Get into as many assaults as you can.

3) It relies on volume of fire using mostly light weapons. Use transports as screens as you close the distance.

4) Leadership sucks. Tank shock the heck out of them.

5) Leadership sucks. Try and inflict 25% casualties in shooting and watch them run.

6) Leadership sucks. Winning close combat by small margins results in running guardsmen.

7) Leadership sucks. Decapitate command squads and it gets worse.

8) Multiple assaults are fun. Get into them whenever you can.

 

Specific strategies:

 

a) Combat Squad your forces if possible. Concentrated firepower results in wasted offense and dispersed firepower results in ineffective shooting phases.

B) Be mobile. Avoid him where he's strong, strike him where he's weak. This is why I have transport capacity for pretty much everyone in my Marine army.

c) Flamers flamers flamers flamers. Armies like this are why my bike squad has a flamer in it instead of a second plasma or a melta.

d) Contest their objectives with vehicles. They have very few grenades or power fists and have to shoot your vehicles with firepower that is probably better spent trying to wreck your infantry. Tank shocking through his forces to get there is pure bonus.

e) Break up line of sight with vehicles. Even if they die in place, they still prevent him from shooting you.

f) Start the game dispersed to make it dangerous for him to deep strike in coordination and concentrate his firepower.

g) Bolt Pistol + Assault > Rapid Fire

 

The horde guard armies will struggle with standard Kill Point missions and with Table Quarters that pack them tightly onto the table.