questions for list building purposes?

[Wulff]

so having been on the other side.. having fought many ig list over
the years i have a few questions that only some of you IG players might
be able to answer..

 

I'm looking at a variety of units..

Things like platoon squads.. and i see alot of people placing heavy
weapons in them.. but my experience is they don;t last long enuff to be
effective once deployed..  so my question is.. is it better to just go
with 9 lasguns and a sergeant for depth and weight than to purchase med
or heavy weapons in the squads?

 

second is with cover at a all time low in value.. "so many things
just blow it away" heavy weapon teams almost look ridiculous?  i have
seen tau and eldar and space marines just own the defensive use of
cover..  do you put your squads in chimera's  and allow them to fire out
the top at a group of 5?

 

Third, how long do u expect your manitores/leman russ's last...
especially with drop pod armys.. or deepstrikers.. warpspiders and
crisis suits.. terminators that are shooty.. or even necrons and their
fast deployment groups'scythes"  without infantry support they just seem
so vunerable?

 

lastly.. is fortifications..  which one do u buy?  aegis lines or something more substantial??

 

 

Thanks guys.. any response is welcome!

[hendrik]

 

Things like platoon squads.. and i see alot of people placing heavy

weapons in them.. but my experience is they don;t last long enuff to be

effective once deployed..  so my question is.. is it better to just go

with 9 lasguns and a sergeant for depth and weight than to purchase med

or heavy weapons in the squads?

both have their advantages and disadvantages, just like you said. for instance a triple lascannon team has the firepower to effectivly cripple a medium tank, especially with orders, thus delivering an alpha strike whereas the single lascannon in your infantry squad will have to be slightly more lucky. in addition this means you're wasting 7 lasgunshots by shooting at said tank.

In my opinion you need to equip your units for a single duty, after all we can always just buy another unit to take care of that other task.

In general I make all my infantry squads anti infantry units, getting my AT firepower either from heavy weapon teams deployed in heavy cover, my artillery, tanks or flyers. however my lists usually also include at least 2-3 heavy weapon teams. I've found mortar teams to be really usefull since they can hide out of LOS while holding an objective and still do their dammage! (remember 1/3 results on a scatter dice are direct hits, those are odds i'm willing to make with a unit that's cheap, and can remain out of LOS for most of the game).

 

 

second is with cover at a all time low in value.. "so many things
just blow it away" heavy weapon teams almost look ridiculous?  i have
seen tau and eldar and space marines just own the defensive use of
cover..  do you put your squads in chimera's  and allow them to fire out
the top at a group of 5?
 

+3 covers saves etc are not too be messed with. I actually even prefer camo cloaks over carapace armour since quite ofter the cover save is better then the 4+ armour save i can get on my company command squad. as a guard you will learn to EMBRACE! the qualities of cover. remember that guardsmen are so cheap because they will die. it's one of the things i actually love about the guard. if you want to can field more bodies then your opponent has bullets! sure you can be a compasionate commander who loves his troops but in the end we're all just meat for the meatgrinder! best to live up to that title and take pride in it! ;)

in my latest list i readded some chimeras to serve as searhlights so they can illuminate the beefy targets i definetly want to destroy in turn one with my other tanks and artillery

 

 

 

Third, how long do u expect your manitores/leman russ's last...
especially with drop pod armys.. or deepstrikers.. warpspiders and
crisis suits.. terminators that are shooty.. or even necrons and their
fast deployment groups'scythes"  without infantry support they just seem
so vunerable?
 

deepstrikers are often the bane of gunlines, however there are quite some possibilieties to defend you against them. for instance you could arrange infantry squads around your vehicles so at the very least they get a cover save.

 

you could have a leman russ demolisher lumbering within your own lines, blasting away any terminators that deepstrike amidst your army of just have 40 guardsmen rapid fire at said squad. (try rolling 80-120 BS3 S3 ap- shots against5 terminators and see how you like those odds ;) )

any vehicles (both modern and in 40k) is vunerable if the enemy can close in on it! not just with the imperial guard but in any army. work your tactics or even your list around this if you want too.

 

 

 

lastly.. is fortifications..  which one do u buy?  aegis lines or something more substantial??
 

sometimes an aegis, however it's not a staple in my list so far

[WarriorFish]

hendrik has good answers, but I'd like to expand on a few. Heavy weapon squads are a good way of concentrating big guns for less, but if they're not working for you try out different things. Maybe spread them out over several infantry squads and see how that works, or blob them. The most important thing is to always support your elements, for me this is usually in the form of infantry squads as they're cheap and scoring.

They also function well in protecting from deep striking units as well as escorting tanks, which are another way of getting big guns in with more resilience compared to HWSs. The Hellhound tank and variants are a fantastic welcoming committee for me. You'll soon find your enemy hesitating when they see your tanks lurking in ambush, the Banewolf is great at greeting drop podding Marines

When in doubt I have a basic idea I try to stick to; for every unit the enemy takes, have more waiting to avenge them. Numbers is something Guard does well (and needs to, mostly) so make sure your opponent is in no doubt that every small victory will by pyrrhic at best!