Advice for allied-to-primary AM force

[Onaeus]

Hi folks,

 

I'm putting together an Astra Militarum army, and my local meta isn't terribly helpful in giving advice, as none of them have really played guard before. So I was hoping the wise folks here might be able to help me. The following is currently meant to be an allied force, to eventually turn into a primary force.

 

As my current marine army is fast, an ultramarines successor with lots of air power and rhino-mounted tactical marines, I wanted to go a different direction with the imperial guard. So to that end I think it would be more interesting to go with lots of ground-pounders, and really go crazy with the orders system and infantry platoons. While mech vets are interesting, I expect they'd play too much like my space marine army to really warrant making them. And I'm pretty adamant that I don't want to use a tank commander or Pask.

 

Here is what I have plotted out right now to act as a 750-1000 point allied force to my space marines:

 

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HQ:

- CCS (Not made yet) - Regimental standard, vox caster, two sniper rifles (I have the models but can replace), barebones commander. Carapace armour and camo cloaks on everyone. They'll sit in cover or behind the platoons and just give orders. Possibly add a master of ordinance to give them some offensive capability.

- Enginseer (Have models for 2 regular servitors, 2 HB servitors, and 2 PC servitors). Hangs back with tanks.

 

Troops: Maybe add commissars to the platoons? The squads have been mostly built except for the heavy weapons, the command squads have not as I am still on the fence with their equipment.

- Platoon #1 - 3x Infantry Squad with flamer, autocannon and vox caster

- Platoon Command Squad, vox caster and three grenade launchers (I already have the models for grenade launchers, though they are derided in my local meta. If I can use them elsewhere I might replace them with flamers. Be a shame for them to sit on the shelf). Commander with boltgun. I might drop the vox caster while it's an allied force, since the CCS will be giving orders to the troopers.

 

Heavy Support:

- Leman Russ squadron: Executioner with plasma cannon sponsons, LRBT with hull lascannon. I think those two synergize okay. Have the techpriest use PotMS on the LRBT lascannon. The Executioner has been built and the weapons options magnetized. The LTBT is unbuilt yet.

 

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To expand to an army in and of itself:

 

- Platoon #2 - 3x Infantry Squad with flamer, lascannon and vox caster (already made but for the heavy weapons)

- Platoon Command Squad, vox caster and three flamers. Commander barebones with laspistol and sword.

- Maybe two wyverns and a vendetta.

- Two battlecannon vengeance batteries (already made)

 

I also have about fifteen of the old kasrkin-style stormtroopers that I would like to do something with. I'm pondering running a couple of five man squads as deep striking objective stealers?

 

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Any advice for the above, for either the allied or the primary, or both?

 

[WarriorFish]

Welcome to the Guard :D The forces of the Emperor work well together as you'd expect, the key with allied armies if to have them working together mutually. Usually your allied force does something different to your primary (or you'd just take more primary forces!) so it makes sense to focus them in their element. In your case your Marines are an elite force closing with the enemy so your Guard should concentrate on bringing the numbers and long ranged fire power.

 

This is how I've always run my Marines and Guard together (even in the olden days), it's a fairly obvious but effective pairing - you've just got to be careful about throwing any Guard pie plates around and risking losing valuable Marines to friendly fire! As such I usually recommend going light on such weapons, or ideally taking none.

 

Seems to me like you've got a good handle on your list and no, grenade launchers are probably not going to do anything amazing - but they're a cheap and versatile weapons that is ideal for Infantry Squads. Cheap and cheerful is how I like them, gets more squads on the board which is also great if you want to go heavy on orders. If opponents don't learn to respect and even fear the infantry of the Guard then they soon will as they drown under dice ;)

 

You could run the Stormies as carapace Veterans if you wanted too, but I'd try out Scions first for a bit of reach. You should be able to get a nice infantry list going supporting by the might of the Russ - have you thought about artillery at all? What about a colour scheme for your regiment?

[Onaeus]

Hmm, I hadn't thought on artillery. For my heavy support, I had figured it'd ultimately be the squadron of tanks as listed above, as well as two wyverns that are not squadroned. I hadn't really considered other artillery, but I will now that you mention it.

 

Good idea on tempestus as veterans. I will try deepstriking them as tempestus. Do you think they need a command squad to function? I was thinking not, as they could be deep striking in very widely spaced areas, well out of range of commands.

 

The scheme thus far is a dark tan uniform, red trim, with bronze body armour, black gun. Here's a test model I did in February: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/pnujpwkn01y23kb/AACbjx04eNL_iFjh6k_dccXoa

 

And the test leman russ. This picture was taken before I decided on the guardsman colour scheme: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/l8pqw1esmi5c6b3/AADW2uJajMiR2A7bX_z9xtBfa

[WarriorFish]

I like the scheme, looking forward to seeing an army in it ;) Sounds like you have a good plan, though I think Wyverns are best as a squadron of two - saves HS slots and enhances their effectiveness as they're cheap and use weight of dice to blast through.

[march10k]

I'm not sold on the company command squad.  Carapace and camo are expensive, especially if you take both.  The best thing to do, imho, is just hide them out of LOS. The thing is, even with camo and carapace, it's a very juicy target that doesn't have a lot of spare wounds...I would spam boltgun fire at it and get rid of it on turn one no matter what upgrades you give it.  The sniper rifles are about as useful as tits on a fish...I would go with an officer of the fleet rather than a master of ordnance...modifying your own reserves rolls, or the enemy's, is very powerful, while the master of ordnance's pieplates have a stupid amount of scatter...they're just plain going to miss if you're not playing against a horde.  No issues with the rest of your choices.

[Onaeus]

Would you suggest a chimera instead of the carapace and camo? We play on a fairly terrain-dense table, but even still completely blocking line of sight tends to be very difficult.

 

Good point on the master of ordnance. I had to read the entry again; I had forgotten that the blast scatters even when it hits.

[WarriorFish]

Chimeras are great for a CCS, keeps them safe and giving orders. Best thing would be to have carapace as well of course!