Squishy Guardsmen for easy Victory Points

[Wassa]

For my next game it's "No Mercy", and all about getting victory points by killing the enemy unit.

 

Now as a classic guard player, I like to have a lot of tanks, surrounded by a lot of guys, and often take 60-90 men just infantry squads.

 

But this makes them an easy target for those victory points.

 

Do I therefore take less men? More Tanks, More Bullgryns?

 

 

How do you deal with it?

[domsto]

For that kind of mission i would go with the minimum of Infantry Squads and fill the rest up with vehicles. or if you feel crazy play only Sions instead of normal Guardsmen.

This type of mission is by far the hardest for Guard and tailoring is almost necessary. 

[WarriorFish]

This is the old Kill Points problem - more units makes this a bad mission, no way around it. You can only mitigate it with fewer squads, or combining them. Neither of these are ideal as squads are what Guard generally needs, and combining is not going to help much with so many squads! Sitting in vehicles will help, but that requires it to be suitable for your plans/models.

 

As I don't play missions in advance I don't have any list building responses, but I've not found too much trouble with it. Partly because it's the nature of Guard armies and also because I strive to keep my units alive anyway ;) Mutual support goes a long way, as does pulling back depleted units when you can. This also gives you avenues to exploit, as your opponent is likely to try and get to them to score his point...

[Trickstick]

You could take maximum conscript squads instead of standard infantry. 30 conscripts are harder to kill than 10 infantry. You lose out on special/heavy weapons but can use vehicles instead, with the conscripts to provide a buffer. You would need to work out the best way to support the low conscript leadership though. Maybe some combination of commissar, banners, officio prefectus tank strategem and similar buffs.

[MARK0SIAN]

Building on what Trickstick said, two full conscript blobs will provide sixty guys which is a really decent buffer. For one blob just use the strat to make it auto pass morale every time and for the other get a cheap psyker to cast mental fortitude on it so it auto passes morale.

 

Let them buy time for your heavy hitters to do the killing. For the heavy hitters you could get a load of artillery that can ignore los so you can hide it better.

[duz_]

Suggest KP's be based on PL killed?

Otherwise its almost auto lose if you go against an army with less drops, eg knights unless of course you table them? 

 

Can you take allies? If so, Knights :lol:

[Tirak]

If you have the option, you could always suggest the Adepticon Killpoints modification. Killpoints are assigned per 100 points killed rounded down.

[Wassa]

So this No Mercy game (1pt for every enemy unit killed) got delayed a bit and I'm playing it next week.

 

My opponent is now Ultramarines who can fall back and still shoot (-1 hit penalty) and +1 leadership. Nothing really too scary for guard. I don't think hes bringing a LoW.

 

 

I probably plan to pick a Cadian all Tank & Artillery list, but it got me thinking, do I even need guardsmen/conscripts/bullgryns for a screen against UM? Especially with their new bolter rule I predict this will be a shooting battle. My only worry is a lack of CP as I want to bring both Tank & Artillery detachments.

[sairence]

If you have no screen at all, your opponent will easily lock up your tanks. I'd happily give up some bolterfire to stop a Russ from shooting for a turn.

 

You need something front that can either be used as chaff or is scary to charge. Bullgryns would be good, so would Hellhounds.

 

And then I'd maybe add a Battalion of Scions for deepstrike/CPs.

[WarriorFish]

As sairence said this isn't foolproof as the Marines can move up to get your tanks in combat - the game would be down to if you can drop enough of them before they can charge which while possible is a bit of a gamble. If you want to stick to the tank route Hellhounds are a good prospect as most units don't want to charge them. Bullgryns are good and will be a threat to Marines, but aren't cheap so you wouldn't be able to adequately protect your tanks without some additional support.

[HallofStovokor]

I'd say that a battalion of infantry is still probably necessary. Screening is important and bolter fire, even with the new rule, isn't a huge threat. You'll likely get as many kills as a rapid fire bolter, if your guardsman use FRFSRF.

 

There's another problem with an all tank and artillery army. Your warlord would need to be a tank commander or Pask. That means that your opponent can kill your warlord in turn 1. A battalion can give you more options and more bodies to hold objectives.

[MARK0SIAN]

You could always screen with a conscript blob, a lot of guys to chew through but only gives up 1vp as it’s one unit. Give them a cheap psyker to make them pass morale and they’ll last a couple of turns.

[tychobi]

Infantry screen vs standard ultraM will evaporate don't bother. You are just giving up kill points to free bolters. Hidden mortar squads work ok. Hell hounds, sentinels, will serve better to slow an assault element or two. Infantry in transports might be ok. That being said nothing stops ultramarines from fielding nothing but combat knife scouts or other melee. . . Just very unlikely.

[Wassa]

It went swimmingly.

 

<Emperors Fist Tank Company Detachment>

1x Pask

2x Tank Commanders w/BC

1x Astropath (for -1 on Pask)

2x 30 Conscripts (for screening)

1x 6 Scions (for line breaker)

1x LR Executioner

 

<Emperors Wrath Artillery Detachment>

1x Company Commander (hidden at the back to provide Artillery warlord bonus to Basilisks, and daisychain orders to conscript blobs)

4x Basilisks (2x2 to avoid rule of 2 imposed on the game)

1x Manticore

 

 

Turns out guard can form a devastating army for No Mercy, at least if they know that's the mission they're playing!

 

I actually completely forgot to check for extra AP on 6s for the artillery warlord trait, but AP-3 is pretty decent on the Basilisks anyway.

[WarriorFish]

Good news, we just need a full batrep now ;)