Marines vs Imperial Guard

[Brother_Ovis]

Hi there,

 

I'm about to play a campaign game in my gaming club, it is going to be against IG. I am a very inexperienced player in general and I have never played against IG, so I humbly ask for your advice - as in some must-dos and do-nots with such an opponent.

 

We play for 1500pts, I play Raven Guard. IA rules and models allowed.

 

Thanks in advance.

[greatcrusade08]

raven guard should counter IG gunlines pretty well..

Shrike gives you the option to get first turn assaults with scouts and jump pack marines

 

other than that, Ig can be countered like a horde, plenty of template weapons, thunderfires, whirlwinds etc

[MagicMan]

Unless he uses a bunch of tanks.

 

My opponent reguarly fits two tanks and a valkyrie into a 1000pt list.

 

Autocannon dreads are pretty nice for downing Chimeras/Valkyries.

[greatcrusade08]

Unless he uses a bunch of tanks.

 

alpha strikes vs tanks auto hit against rear armour... yes please!!!

[Tanhausen]

If you've never played IG before, though you got some nice comments above, I'll try and chip in with my experience (and assuming you have little experience vs swarms/lot T lists):

 

- They shoot. A LOT. A LOT LOT LOT. Ok, you get the idea :) Its not only about the vendettas (3 TL LC) but specially about the lemans (executioners with up to 5 plasma templates per round or standard demolishers with S8 AP3 I thick... 2+=dead marine) and the wolfs (banewolf and so on) that lay flamer templates that are very painful also.

 

- They are extremely fragile in combat. Your MEQ hits first and goes 3+ 3+ to kill (they have 6+) IG by scores. There is only 2 exceptions to this.

 

a- 40 guards with a commisar and a PW. They will take any casualties you deliver and will bog you down.

b- Straken, not a terminator but he improves the guards A LOT.

 

Steer away from CC vs these two.

 

- Focus on the objectives: they carry many models and can bear with losing 1 or 2 squads without a problem. Keep track of what is scoring and what isn't.

 

- Chimeras are really good transports... with an AV10 side ;)

 

- If you blow up the transports, the troops inside will get hurt...quite a bit! Even if they are just strolling by...

 

So, my suggestion is to get into CC ASAP and hopefully get tied in so he doesn't shoot much :D

 

Hope it helps!

[Something Wycked]

Everybody's said exactly the right things. To sum up:

 

Don't try to out shoot IG- you already have taken a step in the right direction with your Chapter choice. You will handily outshine them in assault, just pick your targets carefully- some can hurt you, some can bog you down. If you aren't in assault, be in cover or you'll get shot to pieces by massed flashlights or heavy vehicle weapons.

 

All that said, don't be afraid to take a few shooty elements to your army- these will perform best for you by popping your opponent's transports so your assault elements can get at the meat inside.

[Fatuous]

Ahhh fighting Imperial Guard. As a long term IG player, only just moving over to Marines, I can offer a few insiders suggestions.

 

Most guard armies will outnumber you massively, but not all. Mech vet lists are popular, so you could end up facing alot of tanks, air power, etc.... and less troops than you expect. But regardless of this, I would still ensure you have enough to deal with large numbers of troops.

 

Guard drop like flies in assualt. So you 'can' drop the power weapon upgrades without too much loss, but I tend to keep mine where possible for the carapace and medics that they can bring along too.

 

They may drop like flies to an assualt, but you have to remember that they can bring ALOT of flies with them, and combine those units. My combined squads can happily take a couple of flamer hits, then be assualted by a couple of marines lists, and still hold on for a couple of turns. Sure they get whittled down eventually, but don't go charging in later game to a large unit. They'll just hold you up and send anotehr unit to claim objectives.

 

This also applies massively to any dreadnaughts you might be taking. A 20 man blob with a commissar will happily tie up a a dread ALL GAME LONG (I can promise you this, as I've done it), not run and waste your unit for little cost to them. Sure the blob may cost more, but they'll probably have a few more of them. I massively fear dreads when playing guard, the flamers make a mess of my units, and the dreads will happily trash my tanks, so loosing 1 unit early game to tarpit it, is really no cost to them.

 

This does work your way too. Big guard unit heading to an objective. Sacrifice the dread to hold them in place all game, and not let them move on the objective.

 

So for big units. Shoot them up a bit before charging. For smaller units with no commissar, try to multi charge as many as possible, tie them up and run them down if possible. 2-3 marines will wipe a 10 man guard unit fairly well.

 

Tanks. Melta of course but also, consider that you all get krak grenades, so don't be affraid to assult them.

 

I'd take mostly flamers and melta. Plasma is next to useless against them, so leave it at home.

 

you will need to deal with lots of transport too, so MLs, auto cannons, etc are good too.

 

Basically, make sure you have something to deal with.

 

hordes.

transports

heavy tanks.

 

1 of the guards main weapons is target overload, so make sure you have plenty of appropriate weapons.

[Brother_Ovis]

Thanks for all replies, guys.

 

The game in question was actually played some 2 weeks ago :D It was an Ambush mission from the Battle Missions book - the IG was deploying within 6" of the center line in a column, and first, with a 50% chance of seizing initiative. I had to commit my forces for close assault and deploy them in melta range, but also had to have some reserves in case my opponent got the first round and made target practice for Lemans out of my first line. I did that, fortunately though he didn't succeed ;) The terrain was pretty dense, so to prevent him from running away I employed a classic tank hunting tactic - shot the first and the last vehicle in line. All in all he had 2 Lemans, 2 or 3 Chimeras, 3 Sentinels and some infantry. I will not bore you with details, suffice to say that I wiped him out completely (to a man, that is) in my 3rd turn, having lost a 5 man scout squad and a Land Speeder.

 

From my perspective - I think I did everything the right way, but of course he'd have to have won the initative to really know that. Everything went as planned for me, which was quite a surprise, because I firmly believe that no plan survives contact with the enemy :)

 

Now I'm preparing for my second campaign battle, this time with Nids.

[Something Wycked]

Well done! I will say that you got a big benefit on the mission choice playing up to your strengths; being able to deploy close to him was certainly a boon instead of needing to cross the board with most of your force first.