Imperial Guardsmen - more elite?

[Brother Anchelos]

Brothers,

yesterday I fought against my friend who plays Imperial Guard. It was 1550 point game with the use of special characters (he was getting ready for the next saturday tournament and I just wanted to play against new Guard, because I didn't do it earlier). As you can imagine, my force was almost totally obliterated (although it was more suited for friendly game, not a competitive one). He had a force consisting of:

2 Leman Russ Tanks

1 Leman Russ Demolisher

1 Vendetta

1 Hellhound

3 Chimeras with 10 man Veteran Squads (3 plasma guns, 1 autocannon)

1 Chimera with better command squad (officer with more orders) with 3 meltaguns

1 Squad of 5 Stormtroopers with 2 meltaguns

 

My list was build so that it could face any army purely for fun (I post it here just for reference):

Wolf Lord (TDA, T.hammer +shield, wolftoof necklace, saga of the bear) - he's a monster, although not cheap

Runepriest (TDA, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane)

5 Wolf Guard (4 TDA, 2 Hammers+Shields, 1 W.Claw+Shield, Pair of Wolf Claws, Powerfist+Cyclone) - WG with lightning claws is in power armour and accompanies Scouts, Cyclone accompanies smaller Grey Hunters Pack

5 Wolf Scouts: Power Sword, Meltagun

Land Raider Crusader (Multi-melta, extra armour)

10 Grey Hunters (Wulfen, Plasma gun, flamer) + Rhino (extra armour)

6 Grey Hunters (flamer) + Drop Pod

6 Long Fangs: 3 Misslile Launchers, 1 Lascannon, 1 Plasmacannon

 

Grey Hunters in drop pods were led by Wolf Guard with Cyclone and Runepriest. I know this army list is full of faulties but that's not the point that concerns us right now.

Point is that the only units to do something were 10 Grey Hunters (destroyed Leman Russ with Grenades after surviving its shots), Cyclone from drop pod destroyed demolisher cannon on LMD, Scouts demolished 1 Chimera and destroyed another Leman Russ' cannon, Termies killed storm troopers who teleported right behind them, and Runepriest single-handedly killed whole squad of veterans just to be "melted" after the fight.

On his part, he destroyed my LRC with Vendetta in the first turn (he began) - 3 sixes in a row for his lascannon... My Termies with Lord had to footslodge. My Longfangs were reduced to 3 after surviving a storm of autocannon and multi-laser fire (he had hell amount of luck - his 4+hitting rate is about 75% passed) and had to move in the movement phase because of losing coherency. When they ware able to fire in the 3rd turn (only two of them - lascannon and missle) they only scratched Vendetta's paint (damn...). Each turn he tore parts of my army.. right to the end when I had only 4 Grey Hunters and 3 Termies remaining...

The thing is that shootin from inside his Chimeras - I'm not gonna express my extremely bad feelings for Robin Cruddace who put Veterans with 3 Special Weapons and a Heavy Weapon into one squad of Troops, but I don't have any idea what to put into the army to fight that. I can of course charge those Vehicles - but seconds later I get shots to the head from the squad that just came out of the wreckage. And 3 plasma to the head with BS4 (those Veterans have BS4 - no comment) make rubbish of any SM squad. Especially that his tanks alway stay in a rapid shot range to others so it is impossible to avoid.

I thought about an army with 2 10-man Grey Hunters Packs (Wulfen, flamer, Plasma gun) in Rhinos with Hunter-killer missiles and 2 6-man Pack (Plasma gun, Wulfen) in Razorbacks. Of course this is the core. So what do you think, Brothers? I would be greateful for any suggestions how to fight this (but still maintaining well-balanced force to fight other army). What do you think about proposed Grey Hunters Squads? Thank you in advance. :tu:

[ironking]

I think you've answered your own question...

 

You had a "fun" list against your friends competitive tournament list. That's not going to go well for you.

 

When you are fighting heavy armor like that you need either fast moving meltas (skyclaws, swiftclaw bikers, land speeders) or tough as hell bastards who carry tin-openers aka. WG in TDA with chainfists.

 

Long-fangs and whirlwinds are great at subduing armor from range. With LF you always want the full 6man squad with a WG pack leader with the cyclone launcher. I like to give them all rocket launchers this way you get 7 missile attacks and you can split fire.

 

Incidentally I think the new Guard HQ option are way too powerful - almost as powerful as SM HQ!

[Grey Mage]

I think Flamer/Plasmagun is a bad combination, and that youd probly be better of with Flamer/Meltagun in a rhino. Otherwise... yeah, your way to top heavy... need more troops fight gaurd.

 

Though some of it just sounds like bad luck to be honest.

[Brother Anchelos]

Oh, if you mention that. What's the best special weapon combination for 10-man Grey Hunters? I thougth flamer/plasma was well-rounded, but now I think more specialization would be better. What do you think about 2 plasma guns? Or is it really better with meltagun/plasma gun, especially against mechanized/monstrous creatures forces?

[Grey Mage]

I think two of the same weapon are great, and if you want to mix it up a bit then Flamer+Melta is good. The reason Id never touch a PG+MG or PG+Flamer is because I dont want to mix rapid fire and assault in such a manner- both are very effective up close, and getting some plasma love off is good, but plasma is better vs light tanks, while meltaguns shine against heavy armor.

 

I tend to field double weapon squads though.