Tactica Imperial Guard

[RichBlake]

I fight the type of armies that adapt and learn after each game. The type that has learn that the 1st two shooting phase is essential in beating a mech IG list. Do you guys play against landspeeders, attack bikes, or landraiders? All of these smile when you move 6+d6 towards them because that is 6+d6 less they have to move to get to you. My typical opponent would ignore or swallow the one blast attack and melta it down next turn, this fear factor doesnt exist with the players I play.

Since both land speeders and attack bikes can move 24", then move 12" and fire with 2D6 penetration within 12" your tank will be dead second turn anyway. Sure if you move within 24" they laugh as they can pop you first turn, other then that though you can't move fast enough anyway.When playing against a player using such units I usually offer one of my three leman russes as bait, let him tubro boost first turn, destroy a tank the second turn and then get pounded by the OTHER leman russ and all the guardsmen in the next turn. Let's face it, with turbo boost/flat out those things will eat your tanks alive no matter how still you stay nor how fast you move, so the trick is killing them rather then trying to stay out of range.

Ask yourself this if you were in a mirror match with IG would you be more afraid of the battlecannon or demolisher?

Depends on deployment and if I was using my good list or my fun list list. If I qas using the good list then probably the battlecannon just because it has the range necessary to hit the mobile section of my army no matter what it does, the demolisher I can move around. With my fun list I'd be worried about the demolisher cracking open my AV14 tanks which add much needed muscle.

You can pretend if you want to and say demolisher, but we all know that you would hate to see that battlecannon shooting at your manticore or chimeras every turn.

Yeah but we're IG. What about Marines with their double land raider lists? Or any one with AV13 vehicles? Who are you more scared of then, then guy who's on 5's/6's to glance on 2D6 and pick the highest or 3's/4's on 2D6 and pick the highest?

How about infantry? If you have a lot of 2+ saves in your army, what are you more scared of? The Demolisher at AP2 or the Battlecannon at AP3?

[Reinholt]

Heavy bolters with a demolisher cannon seems like a really poor combination. Against many targets, the heavy bolters would make your shooting less effective, rather than more so, due to the wound allocation shenanigans that mixing S5 AP4 with S10 AP2 allows for.

Firing the heavy bolters is always optional. You can fire the main gun without firing the HBs to prevent an opponent from doing that, if you so desire.

I find the main use of the HBs is that if the demolisher loses the main gun, you still have a heavily armored platform capable of dishing out some pretty serious firepower, and it's a very cheap option.

[Sir_Lunchalot]

I would like the idea of heavy bolters as cheap backup weapons, but I've never had any luck with BS3 heavy bolters. They just don't seem to cause any appreciable casualties. Probably because my opponents are marines, marines, and nob bikers. I take lascanon/plasma for the same reason - the vehicle can suffer a weapon destroyed result and still be very dangerous. Unlike heavy bolters, however, they don't reduce the damage against some targets, they only increase it.

[Juggalo]

Firing the heavy bolters is always optional. You can fire the main gun without firing the HBs to prevent an opponent from doing that, if you so desire.

I find the main use of the HBs is that if the demolisher loses the main gun, you still have a heavily armored platform capable of dishing out some pretty serious firepower, and it's a very cheap option.

Relying on the heavy bolters as a secondary weapon would be fine if you weren't paying for them. Not only do they not cause a lot of casualties (a single heavy flamer shot is more lethal on average), but going stationary at the ranges the Demolisher operates means you will lose your tank next turn to anything with krak grenades or better.

So to me, it just seems like wasted points. The lascannon has synergy with the main gun, and at the very least can contribute to the battle even when the main cannon is not in range. Even just the basic heavy flamer seems a more attractive option over 3 HBs, considering the cost savings. Not to mention that the sponsons are goofy-looking on the tank considering its scale.

Of course, this is coming from someone who far prefers the basic Russ, since I don't need S10 for killing AV14 (got plenty of meltas and the manticore for that), nor do I need AP2 for TEQ (vendettas and plasma-vets handle that just fine). To each his own.

[Colonel Jacka]

Merry Candlemas fellow IG Commanders.

[Jaxell]

Oi, merry candlemass everybody


A few days back I asked about outfitting a Leman russ for use in a small game vs dark eldar, and I would come back to tell how it performed.

I'm say to say, my opponent never got back to me, and I played vs a chaos daemons list instead. Mission rolled for was dawn of war. He got first turn and some pretty good run rolls after deepstriking. And then, my entire army flubbed their nightfighting rolls Not a single shot could be fired. Thanks dice. Turn two, his slaaneshi beasts wrecked the Russ before it could fire a single shot.

So on to the next round where I'll enter another Russ into the game.

[RCgothic]

Sometimes you just can't fight the will of the dice.

[Lord Solar Plexus]

Merry Christmas, fellow Warseerites, and happy gaming, painting and unwrapping of hopefully lots of IG goodies!

That's an unfortunate turn of events, Jaxell. I suppose we've all suffered such a fate before.

On Demolishers, mine are outfitted with hull LC + side PC's. Extremely expensive, extremely threatening but at the end of the day, I've not fielded them since May because of their price tag and the other goodies I needed to try. Their range or main gun had nothing to do with it. I might perhaps take off the sponsons but I'm not sure I like that.

The real disadvantage is when you've blown up what's in front of you it will take a round or two to reposition to the next target

I really really doubt that. When your Demolisher is right in the middle of the board, it is physically impossible for any opponent except a select few forces with a very low model count to have units so far apart, and if he does, they're not supporting each other.

I don't think I've been out of range with a Demolisher ever since the the late 90's. YMMV.

Also you need to get within multi-melta range to shoot.

At 24" a multimelta is only marginally more threatening than a missile launcher so that isn't a problem, and below 12" you can still try to keep up a screen. It's certainly less easy but it's more difficult for your opponent too.

[athamas]

i have seen mention of a pdf tactica or something that isan intro for budding new IG players..

i may have come into the possesion of an heretical IG army.. [well once i have built and painted it.. ] and as such.. a basic guide would be really usefull, any one able to give me a link?

[Da Black Gobbo]

Gents now that the nids have come i'd like to start talking about how to face the new tide of horrors that is about to overwhelm us, i'm wondering if we'll be forced again to field squads of plasma/demoliton vets, what's your take on this? how are we gonna fight the new "pop and charge" lictor?

Cheers and merry xmas!

[RCgothic]

By having whichever squad is charged by it die, and then hosing it down with vengeance in your own turn!

[LordMoriar]

i have seen mention of a pdf tactica or something that isan intro for budding new IG players..

i may have come into the possesion of an heretical IG army.. [well once i have built and painted it.. ] and as such.. a basic guide would be really usefull, any one able to give me a link?

Its in Lord Cooks sig i think. Also on the first post of this tactica thread.

On the subject at hand: Ive run my demolisher faithfully since the last edition. Back then i ran with plasma sponsons so i had something to fire in the first turn(36" range). Worked pretty well and it became pretty much become standard since then. With the new edition(of the BRB also) i started running my demolisher in the same way as before with sponsons, but then went over to just the hull LC.

As we can all agree on, IG lists perform best when upgrades are left to a minimum. Keep all your eggs in plenty baskets. This is the philosophy i have with my demolisher too. Leave the sponsons at home. Any assault pretty much mean the demolisher is dead. Therefore you gotta keep moving to stay as far away form the enemy as possible. This will also make you less vulnerable if assaulted. I always try to deploy far up in my deployment zone in a great position for this reason too. Since im moving i wont get the full benefit of sponsons. Paying 40pts for a single plasma cannon is just to steep for me.

Remember that a demolisher die just as fast against shooting as a standard LR. Since i only run one i want it to stay alive. At 220 points (w/PC/LC) its a no brainer target for any enemy. For the extra points you pay it has to outperform a LRBT. To me, the demolisher does not, but it fits a role my LR just cant fill with s8 ap3 when i face terminators or anything instakillable with s10. Thats what the demolisher is for.

[Lord Solar Plexus]

Precisely my thoughts, LordMoriar, although I must say that a Demolisher will outperform a standard MBT against a few enemy units such as Plaguebearers or Terminators. Perhaps it is just a question of how often one meets these particular units.

"[...] Tyranids are stupid creatures [...] numerous but weak. What do you do when a parasite bites your flesh and sucks your blood? You swat it dead![...] Their [the Lictors'] large size and proneness to panic and shriek in the face of strobing lights negates [their] skill."

The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, Chapter 5, Section 2

Strobing lights?! Heck, set your lasgun to 'disco' and watch them writhe!
---
On a more serious note, anything that can charge after a deep strike is bad news. As I said before, merged stubborn squads are like a freeze ray against anything that can do that. Think of a game of Planetstrike with Daemons as attackers. You let them hit a blob of 30 men and release unit after unit to shoot them to threads. With Nids, this should be somewhat easier, as I don't think they're all going to DS.

[TheMav80]

Does anyone take Heavy Weapon Squads? Seems like a better idea to group your similar heavy weapons so that you can focus fire on the things you really want to kill (like high AV vehicles). At the same time I realize they are much more vulnerable than just having a lascannon in a regular sized squad.

[Raxmei]

Does anyone take Heavy Weapon Squads? Seems like a better idea to group your similar heavy weapons so that you can focus fire on the things you really want to kill (like high AV vehicles). At the same time I realize they are much more vulnerable than just having a lascannon in a regular sized squad.

Just my mortars. Everything else is buried in infantry squads for protection. Heavy weapons squads draw fire and aren't very good at absorbing it. As a matter of tactics I usually want to have some static infantry squads anyway.

[athamas]

Its in Lord Cooks sig i think. Also on the first post of this tactica thread.

thats only got the ever full rapidshare link...

anyone have a normal download link?


nevermind.. saw the megadownload link...

[Awilla the Hun]

Merry Christmas!

I run the Demolisher as the cannon on tracks, with a Heavy Bolter attached. That's all. I pay for the gun, and don't trust its BS for success with much else. Anyway, I have a habit of treating my tanks as shields against small arms fire, with any firepower they produce being a bonus that softens up the enemy for massed bayonet/rough rider charges.

[Sir_Lunchalot]

There should also be a bittorrent link in there as well

[Cole Train]

Hey so I'm new and I've just gone through the book a few quick times and was wondering is there anything that is reasonably good in close combat for us?

[Juggalo]

3+ combined squads with commie and power weapons, benefiting from Straken's auras.

Rough Riders, but only for one assault phase.

Ogryns, but they are really expensive and NEED a standard or Ld aura around.

Other than that, no, you have to invest in allies if you want more CC.