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Are the Astra Militarum bad?


Guardsman1275

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I have played quite a few games as the AM, but I have lost most. It seems to me the the AM are not very good. Their units die to anything very fast and their only good wepons are on tanks, meaning you can only take a few. Overall while I love the models and fluff for the AM I am getting very frusterated with constantly loosing to the point where I might just switch factions. By the way I play mech so it could mean that I have go with blob guard.

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what point value do you play? what units did you field, what did your opponent field? any codex can be difficult to master, so don't write off our dex too early!

 

mech guardsmen are incredibly competitive, especially in maelstromgames where we have the ability to capture many objectives due to the amount of mechanised troops we can field

Guard are not bad at all. Not one of the top tier codices but certainly not one of the lowest. There's many ways to play a Guard army but the main thing is to play the Guard way. You will not win games thinking like a Marine, a dirty Eldars or anyone else. To win you must win the Guard way! :tu:

 

Numbers is a game Guard can play very well for example. It's all about the greater whole rather than the individual, it's a vital part of the mindset. It's why I focus on more units over fancy upgrades as that's what wins me games. Surround, neutralise and take out the enemy - use his strengths against him and force the game to play how you want. The key to any victory but Guard can do it well by sheer weight of numbers (models and dice!).

 

Last but not least it takes time to learn an army especially if you're switching to a different play style and sometimes you'll get a bad match up (whether army list or player...) so you shouldn't let your head go down. It may be a case that you're need to mix your army up a bit, perhaps try a hybrid list? Guard are a slow army to build up due to the numbers required which is unavoidable at the beginning, something us veterans sometimes forget...

 

So as mentioned giving us some list stuff to peruse would help a lot, especially details on the types of opponent you have - but the best teacher is experience so in this we can only guide you from afar so to speak. Fortunately there are a lot of good and experiences commanders here to give you aid :)

Become one with the Guard and you will become many- Imperial Guard Zen Moment of the Week

I couldn't agree more with what everyone has said so far. The list would be helpful. Maybe you need less squishy humans and more armour. Or, do the opposite and go all-out squishy. I learned the hard way that a Leman Russ exactly where you want it is bliss, but it's not always possible. Also, giving your opponent too many targets can be useful. It doesn't mean you have to run a blob. That's the good thing about Guard- your options are almost limitless!

The fuzzy taco gets thrown out- Imperial Guard Zen Moment of the Day happy.png

I think a lot depends on what codex your opponent is using.  I've been playing guard since 1998, and I haven't yet won a game against daemons in 8th edition.  Nids can be tough, too, and I'm 0-3 against the shiny new necron book.  On the other hand, pretty much everything else folds quickly...I understand where you're coming from, though.  My shop has 4-5 brand new IG players, and they struggle to win.  I wonder if you're struggling with the IG learning curve (if you're coming from space marines, it's tough to learn how to cope with 5+ armor on a T3 model), or if it's the 40k learning curve...is this your first army?  How long have you played 40k?

We'll forgo the 'bad workmen blame their tools' analogy (which is entirely unproductive and I don't know why I haven't deleted it yet) and move straight on to what you're facing out there. Of course anything fast is a problem - the guard aren't a list that you can easily optimise for countering speed short of laying down obscene amounts of firepower. What you need to do is play to the strengths of the army - hordes of models. Taking a tank-heavy force may seem a viable option (actually, it is, depending on the tanks) but it could very well leave you with an army short of what strength it needs. Seriously think about whether or not upgrading a unit is genuinely worth it. Can you squeeze the army for another unit of models? 

 

Remember - so what if a space marine can save against two in every three shots? He'll fail against one sooner or later, given enough lasguns. Also - pie-plates are your friends. ;)

I can definitely feel your pain. Guard are a very tough army to play competitively. I have been toying with different lists for a couple of months now and I'm finally getting the hang of them. I primarily play Space Wolves and it has taken me some time to come to terms with the fact that my humble guardsmen are not glorious Grey Hunters and my play style has to evolve to do well. I agree with what those before me have stated and it would definitely help if you told us what you're up against.

When I got back into 40k, I got a dark vengeance set, and I started learning Dark Angels, but I abandoned them in short order for Tau, because they just didn't seem right. I moved on from Tau to Space Wolves, I still play both of those armies, and I've really dug into the Codecies. I had a friend that would play my dark angels, so I'd help him build lists, which helped me gain an appreciation for the DA. I wanted to have some scions to play, because I liked the models, and I wanted some Skaerls for my Wolves. The more I looked at it, the more I realized guard were fun.

 

I play my guard as a sort of cross between my Tau and Wolves, Tau because I try to avoid CC, while maximizing my shooting, and wolves in that I deploy them forward to maximize their potential to kill things. 

 

You have to figure out how you want to play the army, and you have to get the hang of the army. Like others have said, what are you using, and what are you up against? Is it your first army? Or are you new to it?

 

Every army can win, and every player can find a way to win consistently. I took me almost two months, to start winning consistently. Remember if you win 3 out of 5 games, you're doing well. A 60% win rate is fantastic, even a 50% win rate is good. 

 

This game takes patience. How experienced are your opponents?

Every loss can be a victory. As long as you learn from your mistakes. Remember insanity is trying the same thing over and over expecting different results. If you try something and it works continue if you try something and it fails don't do it again.
At this point I think we need guardsman1275 to return and give us some info. At its core the guard are a middle of the road army that takes a fair bit of thought to play properly. So in the sense of WAAC yes they are weak, in a friendly environment they are a great army to play and play against.

Agreed, we do need more information. Tau are a very similar army in terms of play style, at least the way I play. There is cheese to be found in any codex you just need to look for it. I play my guardsmen like I play my Tau, accounting for the range. 

http://i.imgur.com/O2ME8Oz.jpg


JK JK  lol.

I had a tough time starting off with the Guard as well, but after I learned to play to the guard's strengths I gradually got better.  Stick with it and you will see the might of the Hammer of the Emperor.

Flexibility is the key to the IG. You need to set your army to maximize it's strengths against your opponent's weakness:

Dark Eldar and Eldar are fast but light so heavy bolters, autcocannons, heavy flamers.

Can't give advice against Skitarii as I haven't faced them yet.

Necrons need big AP weapons but they can't field a lot at 1000 points.

Space Marines should be pretty straight forward.

Nids are a tough nut to crack. At least at a 1000 points you're not going to see a lot of MCs.

 

Orders will make or break an IG army. I'd lose one or both of those Battle Tanks and the Vanquisher. They can be very target specific. Punisher, Eradicator, Demolisher and Executioner are much better and more flexible. I'd drop one of your vet squads and bring in either another Wyvren or a Basilisk.

 

I took 8 straight losses against all armies I faced but now no one in my meta really wants to face me.

Your list is very Russ-heavy I feel, I used to run similar lists and the Russ gets utterly trounced by close-combat and don't put out that much firepower on target for their points. Without a good Platoon to cover them against charges and Drop Pods, etc, they really struggle.

 

My standard 1K list uses a Platoon of 30-40 men with a couple of Hellhound chassis vehicles for fast anti-tank. I also use a Vanquisher Commander with a Demolisher wingman, and maybe a Wyvern and a Melta Vet team to fill in the gaps.

I play both Tyranids and Imperial Guard. If you let us know what's in the Tyranid army, I can help you take it apart. Even just a general idea of what he's taking will help, we can probably guess what bioforms he's using by description if you don't know the name of everything.

Do you think that heavy artillery is worth it? In my FLGS the tables are not huge so the range restrictons is not worth it. Should I take a lascannon vanquisher for long range AT and a Wyvern for anti infantry fire. I will probably take a wyvern in every list I plan to use. They should do well against anything but MEQ's and against dark elday they are amazing, since DA rely on cover saves to survive. Anyways would this be a solid foundation for a list

HQ

CCS  2x melta vox

Troops

PCS vox heavy weapon 

IS heavy Weapon vox

IS heavy Weapon vox

IS heavy Weapon vox

PCS grenade launcher vox

vets 2x melta vox chimera 

Fast Attack

Hellhound heavy flamer

Hellhound heavy flamer

Heavy Support

LR demo

wyvern

 

this should be 1000 points, tell me what you think!


I have yet to play against the tyranid army. The person who plays them just got skitari and played them instead when we played. What I do know is that he has a low model count and used lots of ranged units, as tyranids.

The only thing I am hurting for in this list is AT weapons. Outside of the demolisher I have nothing above strength 8. I will probably have problems against Necrons. SPHEESSS MARINESS shouldn't be super hard as they die faster than necrons and they can't do much against large numbers of troops. What about inquisitions? in a pure inquisition list what should I worry about?

I have yet to play against the tyranid army. The person who plays them just got skitari and played them instead when we played. What I do know is that he has a low model count and used lots of ranged units, as tyranids.

 

Yeh, that's not unusual. Tyranids are a ranged army nowadays, unfortunately.

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