Playing against guard.

[Cleal Baros]

I guess the title implies what the topic has been posted for, I'm looking for tips and insight on playing (and beating) guard at medium/high level games (1850). I really struggle, both on the table and on paper, when it comes to beating my regular guard opponent. I'm afraid the man is a power gamer through and through and will almost certainly field every OP unit he can from vendetta squadrons, Leman Russ parking lots under Skyshield cover and mobile artillery.

 

 

Any and all tips will be much appreciated.

Cleal.

[Aglǽca Darkwind]

Well I use melta raptors for tank hunting, and allied vendettas for flyer hunting. Works out pretty well.

[Lieutenant Steel]

I'd look at taking Obliterator units and one or more Terminator squads with 3 or more Combi-Meltas, so you can deepstrike and pop the tanks- the Oblits can deepstrike anywhere that will get them LoS to side/ rear armour whereas the Termi's can come in close for the extra Melta damage.

 

Oblits are still good even if you choose to send them in on foot, with their combination of Multi-melta/ Twin linked meltagun and Lascannons.

 

Raptors with Melta, as Darkwind suggested, are decent at spot removal and can hug terrain well if you take a smallish unit.

 

Nearly anything else we have will suffer after eating lots of those AP3 Battle Cannon/ Ordinance shots...

[Jonah]

Get a flying Daemon Prince into the Leman Russ formation. Hilarity ensues.

[Nehekhare]

DO think about allies (or being allied to):

 

Necrons: lord+scythe in barge, 2x night scythe (lightning cryptek + 5warriors), doom scythe (strong "scythe" theme going on here heh)

 

Daemons: flamers and screamers

 

Guard: if you can't beat them...

[derpasaurus]

be as fast as possible is my best advice. i have a regular guard player i go against as well, it's rough. i've found if you transport up and go flat out to get as close as possible as soon as possible it'll at least make him think twice about dropping those big scary templates on your head for fear of scattering onto his own. (not to mention the rhinos, first blood be damned, can keep your squads from being completely butchered by battle cannons for at least one turn.) the only downside to jamming in so close is, then you're staring down the barrel of about a quarter million lasguns. i basically assault everything as soon as i'm able. overwatch as guard is very effective, but not as effective as when they're hitting you on full bs.

 

bikers and raptors can cover ground like nobody's business, bikes get jink and raptors are like "lol terrain" so melta them out and GOGOGO.

 

vindicators can move 6 and still shoot now, so take advantage of the fact that cover is everywhere now and go nuts with that big gun. chances are most things you'd want to kill with that are well above 130 points, so even if you only get one tank it's paid for itself.

 

at least one heldrake is a must these days, it seems, and that mobility is a craazy plus against guard. it can vector strike anything and that flamer willl murderize any dude it hits. if you want specifically anti-air, give it the autocannon, tho conventional wisdom and personal experience show that the better bet is to rely on vector striking and just burn baby burn.

 

havocs also prove useful, lots of las & missile launchers. missiles are harder to pen with but also let you harass guardsmen if they start to get uppity.

 

other than that and some good old fashioned blood-fed dice luck, i can't think of much specific. guard are a tough nut to crack, for sure.

[Azekai]

If he is parking the Russes on the skyshield they won't be moving. A flying DP (either CSM or chaos daemon codex) will completely destroy them. If need by bring some flamers, since those are good at killing everything. Remember, the 4++ from the skyshield only applies to shooting from beyond the shield itself. Once you make it onto the platform the tanks are sitting ducks.