Tactica Imperial Guard

[Lord Cook]

I want the vendettas to outflank simply because whenever I don't use them in such a manor (starting them on the table) they seem to get shot down even before my chimeras and LRBT.

You've been scouting them sideways on the first turn so that they get the 4+ cover save before the game starts right?

I will consider using creed. You maybe right at 2,000 points I could probably use his orders. In my next play test I will have to try it out. If I take him though, I pretty much have to take a lord commissar or kell to really use effectively use him.

I would disagree on Kell and the Lord Commissar. The great value of Creed for 90 points is making one unit scout (and by extension, outflank). The orders and improved stats are a bonus. There's no need to throw in additional characters who are very expensive and simply improve on the "bonus" part of Creed's abilities rather than the main show. If you really want to improve on the orders, you'd probably be better off buying a vox network. That would protect you against the genuine threat of a double 6 on your first or second order, and would improve order reliability dramatically. However, I still don't think this would really be worth it.

Officer of the Fleet... I suspect a lot of people will bring reserves for the bonus

In that case, this seems like a rare opportunity in which he might actually be worth it if only for the interference to board edges.

[Commissar Merces]

Thanks again Cook.

Just got my two new vendettas and creed/kell. Excited to use them. Hopefully vendettas/valks will be useful in next edition because I just spent the house on them

[Fithos]

Rumors suggest they will be incredibly useful next edition. Next edition will probably have an emphasis on flyers.

[razormasticator]

I find Creed & Kell well worth it. Especially in Apoc in which I outflanked a HellHammer Superheavy..

[Bunnahabhain]

Creed is well worth it. Flanking, extra orders and range on them...

It is just Kell who is a whacking great points sink of little use.

[razormasticator]

Creed is well worth it. Flanking, extra orders and range on them...

It is just Kell who is a whacking great points sink of little use.

Well you do get the Regimental Standard with him.

[Commissar Merces]

Good to know. I feel a lot better. I got 2 valks Creed and Kell for under $130. Very happy about it.

[Merrywinds]

Hmmm, I have to say that foot guard still seems to do the trick for me, although I have to thank Colshaw for the additional tactics. I played me first game in a LONG while and ended up winning against a pretty mechy Marine army. It was more like a practice game, really, but still, it was fun seeing the look on the guys face as I unloaded 163 pairs of boots on the table. Mobility was not a real issue with correct deployment and priority. It was an objective game with plenty of terrain. I think he had a Lraider, some rhinoes, razorbacks, two tactical squads and some assault marines and termies... If I remember correctly. I had

CCS w/vox, MoO
CCS w/vox

3 Platoons:
PCS w/2 Meltaguns
4 AC/GL squads w/1 Commisar, 1 Vox(3 blobbed, 1 loose)
Lascannon HWT

All in all, a fun game. I almost had him tabled(MoO was an exceptionaly good shot 'till he died) but for some cheeky tacticals hiding on an objective behind the LR wreck... Oh, and it's a lot of fun watching termies choke on guardsmen And a very important note to self:

My opponent shoved a big ass unit of assault marines at the face of my 40 man center firebase blob, smiled cruelly and asked me: "What will you boys say to that?"

"First rank, fire! Second rank, fire!"

[ColShaw]

Glad the foot Guard are working out for you! And a great line.

[Plague Lord]

quick question - can the master of ordnance shoots whilst being in a chimera??

[FraustyTheSnowman]

As long as the chimera doesn't move, yes he can.

[Turbomick]

excel thing is really handy ^_^ i use pen and paper wen im at work ( i get strange looks sat in my digger with an imperial guard codex and a pen and paper) and i can use this wen im at home cheers

[Lord Cook]

All, the new WD has two battle reports, one between IG/GK vs CSM/CD, and the other between Orks and White Scars. Numerous new 6th edition rules are explained. Those relevant to IG armies are summarised below. If stuff isn't on here, chances are that I don't know. These are not rumours, they are only those things specifically written in WD.


Reserves
Reserves arrive from Turn 2 on a D6 roll of 3+.
Flyers always arrive from reserve.

Army Lists
All armies can take allied detachments.
You can buy fortifications as part of your army list. These can come with weapons of their own.
Fortifications include Aegis Defence lines (4+ cover save, 2+ cover save if gone to ground), and Tank Traps (4+ cover, impassable terrain to non-skimmer vehicles).

Moving, Shooting, Combat
Infantry heavy weapons can move and shoot.
Overwatch is back, although works quite differently; a unit that has been charged can shoot their attackers at Bs1. Templates inflict D3 hits.
Charging multiple units at once means you lose the +1 attack for charging. Each defending unit can Overwatch.
Random charge distances appear to be in. Fleet allows re-rolling these.
Vehicles have a set number of Hull Points before being destroyed. Stunned results remove one of these. Don't know about other damage results.
Stunned Dreadnoughts can fire "Snap Shots", needing 6's to hit. This may just be vehicles in general. This appears to be the same rule that Overwatch units use to fire.
It appears you can throw krak grenades (as in properly, like shooting), but the wording is very narrative-based. Hard to tell.

Cover
Craters, woods and other flora are down to a 5+ cover save.
Ruins are still 4+.

Abilities
Primaris Psykers can have two of the new powers at no additional cost. Examples given were "Terrify" and "Puppet Master".
Your commander rolls randomly for an extra ability, having chosen from lists like "Command Traits" and "Personal Traits". One of the command traits was to give your commander's Ld to everyone within 12".
Squads seem to have a "Look Out Sir!" rule, which allows wounds on leaders to be redistributed elsewhere on a 4+.

Foes
Flying Monstrous Creatures can move very fast and attack units under their flight path. Vehicles beware.

Flyers
When shooting at flyers you need a 6 to hit. This doesn't seem to apply to other flyers.
Flyers can switch to Hover Mode, turning them into fast skimmers.
Embarked troops in destroyed flyers suffer a S10 hit, no saves allowed.
Troops can only disembark in Hover Mode.
Valkyries are confirmed as flyers.
Flyers appear to be able to inflict pinning checks via "Strafing Runs".
Flyers have some sort of "Evasion" 5+ cover save, but this only lets them Snap Fire next turn. Evasion works against flyers; don't know about otherwise.

[Hawkkf]

I skimmed one more thing that is good to note for guard players. Templates count for full strength on the entire template, not just the hole. Barring unknown changes to ordnance rules, I would say that the battle cannon can now effectively kill other tanks and possibly multiple ones at once if they are clusterd and there is a good scatter. I would say this puts the final nail in the coffin for the poor vanquisher though unless AP2 means that much more than AP3. Of course there will most likely be an update for forgeworld so we can hope they give it some love as forgeworld is street legal these days.

[Harrold]

How do Hydras interact with fliers? They are both fluff and rules-wise an anti-flier vehicle in 5th. Do we have any word on how they will be able to deal with fliers in 6th?

[russellmoo]

There is rumored to be a rule called "Sky Fire" which allows a unit to shoot at a flyer using their normal BS- which units get this special rule is at this point a guess, however,
I think the hydra is a very likely candidate. Combine this with the hydra's current rules and it should be the best anti-flyer unit in the game.

[Asymmetric]

Someone who has read the rulebook posted these last night over on the tyranid hive forums:

Source: Tyranid Hive

Vehicles
- Vehicles are now limited to move at the maximum of 12" in the Movement Phase (though it can move further in the Shooting Phase if desired)
- Vehicles can opt to move "Flat Out" in the Shooting Phase, adding an extra 6".
- Vehicles movement and weapons. Defensive and Primary Weapons are gone. You can fire all of your weapons at most of the time. But moving faster will result in less weapon fired at basic BS, the rest will be fired at BS1 (Snap Fire)
- Fast Skimmer moving Flat Out can be more lethal (fire more weapons than in 5th and moving faster [12" Normal + 18" Flat Out])
- Skimmer got a cover save called Jink, basically 5+ cover save and improved to 4+ if going Flat Out.
- Vehicles count as WS0 (auto-hit) if stationary and WS1 (3+ hit) if moved. No idea on how Fast or Skimmer will have bonus, as cover aren't used in Assault.
- Flyers are now in, with its own rules.
- Flyers can move very fast and is hard to target (6 only to hit) unless the shooter has Skystrike rules that allow them to shoot flyer at normal BS.
- When moving fast (called "Zooming") Flyers cannot move less than 12" and cannot disembark any models.

Vehicle and Damage
- New Vehicle Damage Chart, one to rule them all. 1-2 being Shaken, 3 Stunned, 4 and 5 Weapon Destroyed and Immobilised, and 6 Explodes! You only roll the table if the shot penetrate the Armour. Wrecks occur only from taking certain amount of Glancing Hits.
- AP 2 weapons add +1 to the chart, while AP1 adds +2.
- AP"-" is no longer -1 on the table.
- Open-Topped is +1 as well.
- No more "Half Strength if the center hole is off", you always use full strength for any blast that hits the vehicle.
- Hull Points - a new style "wound" for vehicles. Any Glancing Hits removes 1 Hull Point, Penetrate Hit removes 1 Hull Point as well as rolling on the Damage Chart above. If reduced to 0 HP, the vehicle becomes Wreck.
- Vehicles has 3 or 4 HP, notable 4 HP vehicles are Ghost Ark, Land Raider, and Monolith. Details can be found in the rulebook appendix.

Vehicle and Passenger
- Passenger can only disembark if vehicle move 0-6".
- Disembarking rules changes, you now place models in base contact with the access point and move up to 6" - this is the furthest distance the unit may move.
- Embarking is pretty much the same.
- Unit count as moving if the vehicle moved 0.1-6", and can only "Snap Fire" if the vehicle move 6.01 - 12"
- Open-topped transport rules are the same (access points and fire points)
- Exploding Flyer that has "zoomed" will result in a S10 no armour save on its passenger. And some sort of S6 Large Blast at any unit under the point the vehicle goes on flame.

I'm going to draw attention to a couple of things:

1) Blast weapons always use full strength against vehicles.
2) AP 2 get's +1 to penetrate, AP 1 get's +1.
3) Glancing hit's cannot stun/shake/weapon destroyed/immb, they just make you lose a hull point. This is bad for medium armour, good for AV14.
4) Vehicles can normally fire all there guns unaffected at low speeds.
5) Melta weapons have become much less reliable, transport distance for troops is down (0-6, 6" disembark) and causalities are always removed from the front.



Now with all that information, picture this.

Leman Russ Battletank/Executioner - 205/245 points.
- Hull Lascannon
- Plasma Cannon Sponsons

This set-up could be massively boosted under the new rules. The tank will fire at full effect all game long against enemies like long fangs until it runs out of hull points something which is pretty difficult to do for most armies, it gets +1 to penetrate with all the plasma/lascannon weapons, blasts hit for full effect, can move and fire all guns (ordnance might work differently but the LR lumber behemoth rule overrules that anyway).

I don't normally run sponsons but under the new rules I can't see a good enough reason not to.

[Commissar Merces]

One thing that I figured out in the latest white dwarf, Andrew Kenrick freaking sucks and is an embarrassment to the Guard name. Every battle I have seen him in has been a brutal lost. White Dwarf needs to get someone else to play guard, but then, I guess that is the least of WD problems since the quality of their product has gone down the crapper.

I will be interested to see how "first rank fire" works in the new rules with rapid fire weapons getting double tap when stationary. My guess? Twin linked when firing 24' and assault 3 when 12'

I am also a bit concerned about flyers having to come in from reserve as my vendettas enjoy being on the board to start the game and blow everything off the board... kind of frustrating but I suppose I will adapt.

I am, however, looking forward to taking my Sisters army along with a guard army. Going to take some sisters and some seraphim in addition to an exorcist. This makes good sense.

[Hawkkf]

Now with all that information, picture this.

Leman Russ Battletank/Executioner - 205/245 points.
- Hull Lascannon
- Plasma Cannon Sponsons

This set-up could be massively boosted under the new rules. The tank will fire at full effect all game long against enemies like long fangs until it runs out of hull points something which is pretty difficult to do for most armies, it gets +1 to penetrate with all the plasma/lascannon weapons, blasts hit for full effect, can move and fire all guns (ordnance might work differently but the LR lumber behemoth rule overrules that anyway).

I don't normally run sponsons but under the new rules I can't see a good enough reason not to.

One source listed that blast weapons cannot snap fire. If this is true then you would be able to move 6" (combat speed) and fire the turret and one of the sponsons normally, while snap firing the lascannon. If you move 6+d6" (cruising speed) then you would only be able to snapfire the lascannon.

On the flip side it was mentioned that tanks can overwatch. So maybe flamer sponsons will be a consideration as they would allow d3 auto hits to units attacking (I assume they have to be in its firing arc). Maybe the punisher gatling cannon will benefit from overwatch the most. A LRPunisher with hull HB and HF sponsons in a squadron with more important tank(s) could act as a damage shield as well as giving some CC defense.

[Fithos]

Also, if ap- doesn't give you a -1 on the chart the punisher can do some damage to tanks. Might in general up its usefulness.