Some Imperial Guard Advice

[Grenadier]

If all goes according to plan I'll get to enjoy a battle in about 3 weeks. Normally I'm lucky to see 3 games a year. So I'm looking forward to this.

It'll be a three way battle but I insist that the two opponents team up. They'll be bringing Chaos. And it'll be a huge Apocalypse scale fight. Both of these guys have well over 10,000 points in their armies. Closer to about 14,000 apiece. Meanwhile my two armies each have roughly 8,000 points. This wouldn't be the first time I've fought battles like this. And I always tend to do very well or win. The only problem is I've only fought against Chaos one time. And much less than I'll be facing now.

As for me I'll be using my beloved Imperial Guard. Normally I make up the points deficit by adding some of my Black Templars to the mix. However, in my last battle I opted to only go with the Guard. Against an army twice its size in points. And I won effortlessly.

But now I feel I'm in some real need of tactical advice. So I'm asking for it.

My army includes pretty much enough tanks (various LR patterns) to field a tank company. It also has 3 Basilisks, a Baneblade, 6 sentinels, and now a Manticore which I've never used. Also there are 4 Chimeras, "Frankentank" and 1 single Valkyrie. I really need Manticore advice please! How best to use it?

As for troops it has two undersized infantry platoons. One Cadian, the other Krieg. And I have 3 veteran squads. Still I have lots of heavy weapon teams. I have plenty of squads for scoring units but being the Guard they don't hold up to hand to hand well. The Kiregsmen do better with an improved weapon skills. I can also pitch 4 squads of Stormtroopers and 4 squads of Grenadiers in. Oh, and I have Yarrick leading some Ogryns.

My opponents will be daemon heavy. And according to them they can get onto me in the first turn. So what are good IG tactics with an army like mine against Chaos?

[Admiral Kenaris]

I might replace Yarrick leading Ogryns with just a Lord Commissar. Although you will lose re-rolling misses the turn you assault, Yarricks makes the Ogryns fearless instead of stubborn and that's no good. I would rather have them stubborn and leadership 10.

[Iceman]

You may also want to equip your sergeants and officer in your infantry platoons with power fists. I get that in a hand-to-hand you are at a severe disadvantage but at least you can count on killing someone with the power fists. Sometimes in close combat attrition that will do it.
The other thing I do is equip the platoon command squads with 4 flamers. That often can winnow the opposing side before getting into close combat so that you have a chance of winning.

[L192837465]

Dude, you're playing IG. Just shoot the bajeezuz out of him and you'll be fine.

[Grenadier]

I never considered placing Yarrick with someone other than my Ogryns. I mainly put him there because he is my only "free" independent character and I thought he'd be a good pairing. In fact, the only time I got to use him and the Ogryns was against the Chaos guy. I assaulted Abaddon who had 10 berserkers with him. I was very impressed with the results. Yarrick went down in the first round sadly due to bad dice. But in the first round those 5 Ogryns took out all 10 berserkers and scored a wound on Abaddon. Sadly he picked them all off in a couple more assault phases. I'll give it a try though and slap a Lord Commissar with the Ogryns. As for Yarrick I may just stick him in my command squad. Can he do that though? Because the squad is led by Straken, and I replaced the bodyguards with good ol' Nork?

Another good suggestion: flamers. I've long ignored using them since the two guys I play with use Chaos or Dark Angels. But I have plenty of them built up so I'll try 'em out.

Ah yes...shooting. Nobody does it better than the Guard. Especially my army what with all the tanks. And that's my basic strategy. Shoot the crap out of everything. And it works. I just hate the inevitable hand to hand. That's when things get bad for me. But if I take some Templars to even up the points (I've been known to play with them having a huge points advantage over me) that can even things up. I'm loathe to bring them to the battle though. And if I due I plan to just take units that my Guard has no capability for: fast attack. Assault squads and bikes.

How best to use a Manticore though? I'm a little worried that it has the limited ammunition thing. But with that potent missile it has I'm hoping it'll rip holes in their army. These guys tend to pack their guys close together on the table so I make good use of those big markers. I was considering replacing my Basilisks entirely with Manticores. Then I learned you don't get Manticores in a squadron.

[Kawauso]

Template weapons like flamers really are always good, even against MEQ. It's the number of hits you can usually get out of one weapon.

My vanilla Marine army was something I started just on a lark with the intention of lots of flamer/melta stuff, and I quickly learned to respect flamers and their ilk. Give 'em a shot and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[Admiral Kenaris]

I understand your reluctance to engage in close combat as a guardsmen but if cost is no object (being an Apoc. game) you can put together a pretty dangerous unit. Company Command squad with Straken, Jarran Kell, medic, and two bodyguards. Buy carapace armor for the squad as well. Now add ministorum Priest with or without eviscerator. Mainly you just want the re-roll misses on charges. You can add Yarrick to this unit for some extra beat stick. He can always detach and go his own way if you need to assault a different unit or a vehicle.

The Straken command squad is Fearless, has Furious Charge, Counterattack, Feel no Pain, the bodyguards give you some wound soak to protect Straken and you have a number of weapons that can really hurt some people. Straken is strength 7 on the Furious Charge and negates armor. Kell can swing with power weapon or power fist and even swing at initiative 5 with strength 4 power weapon on Furious Charge. If you give the Priest an Eviscerator that's another powerfist basically and of course there is what Yarrick can do.

The only problem with an assaulty IG is that they are still gonna take some licks. The unit described above can do some damage on a charge but it will still take losses and your ability to make additional charges will be hampered. In the right spot however they can turn some Space Marine players upside down frowns upside down.

[Grenadier]

Having played using a Tau army briefly you'd think I'd have learned the value of flamers. In one game my opponent swooped in with a Landspeeder armed with a heavy flamer and roasted all but one member of a squad of Firewarriors dug in behind some cover. I was horrified of course but somehow failed to value these weapons. In my limited experience using them against Space Marines I considered them to not be very effective. I guess it's all about the AP value and armor saves huh?

Oh, my Chaos opponents never used daemons in our past fights. The inclusion of them is a new thing for me to face. So I'm very concerned about this. According to them they can "daemon bomb" me and basically have my units tied up in hand to hand combat in the first turn. If this is true, are the daemons a problem for the Guard? Would my intercept reserves rule from my Fleet Officer affect this any?

[Root]

The Manticore is nasty, just shoot it at heavy armor tanks or clumps of demons and you'll be fine. Dont worry about the limited ammo, its Apocalypse. Either they'll die or the game will end long before you run out of middles. Don't bother firing it at anything with power armor or better, aim for the land raiders and such. Also don't squadron stuff in Apocalypse and don't bother trying to take melee oriented units in the IG. Bring the Templars if you want melee power, the IG stuff that's good is way too points inefficient.

[Grenadier]

Good advice. See, I would have thought the Manticore would be great for whomping exposed clumps of Marines. Popping their armor is just as valuable though because my many tanks can chew up the infantry. And I find that the Imperial Guard allied with the Black Templars make an excellent combination as each makes up for the others weakness. What the Templars lack in firepower the Guard makes up for. And what the Guard lacks in hand to hand the Templars excel at.

I really need to add some proper fast moving fast attack to my Guard though. I'm thinking the Hellhound with the chemical weapon cannon.