Infantry Squad Loadout

[Boomkapow]

Hello All,

 

     I love paying for at least one infantry platoon per game just to get boots on the ground. The issue I am having is making them worthwhile. I have tried basically all the heavy weapons and have not been pleased having 25 men in the backfield and only having 6 shooting for the entirety of the game (clearly when I play less shooty armies more get some action but those are rarer in this edition). So, how do you all run them and why? What purpose do they fill? Thanks

 

Boomkapow 

[WarriorFish]

I always take at least one Platoon, and I like to focus my Platoon units. Infantry squads advance or hold ground with a cheap special weapon, heavy weapons are in squads to focus their guns or ideally on vehicles so they can move and shoot better.

 

It's not just about numbers, that helps of course but they need to work together with other elements. Infantry advancing or reacting to the enemy on their own are weak, but when there's Hellhounds and Sentinels supporting them your opponent will start having troubles. Add in your heavy gun support and you can really hammer him where it counts.

 

I try to have it so the infantry just need to clear out the remnants of the enemy and hold ground, and always keep them nearby to help. Should the enemy manage to move against you your squads can work together to blast them into oblivion with concentrated fire.

[Kierdale]

I've heard both schools of thought:

i. Keep your HWTs in your infantry squads so they can't be specifically targeted. Use them to shoot important targets at range and use the massed lasgun fire when the enemy get close.

ii. Keep your HWTs in heavy weapon squads so they can always use their weapons effectively, and keep your infantry squads limited to lasguns and a complementary special weapon.

 

Which is best? I'd say that depends on your opponent's army, generalship (yours and theirs), the available terrain...

I'd say experiment and see which feels best for you.

[Boomkapow]

Thanks for the ideas guys. I have been going with the "heavy weapons in teams" route so far, so I think I will try the special weapon route. Latly, is it worth purchasing vehicles for infantry platoons? I feel like that would help get them into position and get out of sticky situations. What do ya think? BTW, I haven't decided how I feel about the model but I would be going with barebones Tauroxes (Sp.?). AKA keeping it cheap.

[WarriorFish]

Like Kier said a lot depends on what you need or want. The new codex isn't much different to the old one in what you can do, so there's a lot of flexibility in how you run a list as there's no true "right" way

Chimeras are great, and new the Taurox should provide an able fast gun platform. Both benefit from armour saturation and in Guard that's normally in the form of more of the same, though the Chimera has the advantage of there being several other units in the Guard codex that share its profile.

Guard transports are firing platforms as much as troop delivery systems, so they're always useful even if you don't use the mobility they give your infantry. I recommend giving them a go, but you can't be wishy-washy about mechanisation - either jump like you mean it or don't bother. You want to have three or four in your list to make it work better as a rough estimate I reckon. With our numbers we don't have to mechanise every squad, so you don't have to go full mech.