Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard (section)

===Troops=== 
All Imperial Guard Troop Choices are so versatile, you can write whole separate articles on tactics for any bit of the following alone which we eventually will at this rate! 
*'''A note on Sergeants:''' Every Infantry and Veteran Squad of ten men, with the sad exception of Conscripts, replaces the tenth man with a Sergeant. Sergeants have slightly higher Leadership and an extra attack and eschew the army's preferred longarm (in this case a lasgun) for a pistol-CCW combo. Like many squad leaders, they are also Characters, meaning that a 50-man blob with an attached Regimental Specialist actually has ''six'' Characters instead of one; this is useful for challenges, since for the most part you want to keep your Priest ''out'' of close combat with that Ork Warboss. Also note that guard sergeants are apparently selected not just for their ability to not piss themselves at the first sign of trouble, but also for their aptitude in melee; Sergeants get ''two'' attacks base, which usually goes to three with their pistol-CCW combo. On the charge, they have ''four;'' this makes them ''surprisingly'' mean if you kit them out with power weapons and make sure they actually get into melee.


*'''Infantry Platoon:''' The backbone of the Imperial Guard army, the Infantry Platoon is akin to having a mini-Force Organization Chart inside a single Troops Choice. Beyond a mandatory Platoon Command Squad and two Infantry Squads, an Infantry Platoon can include up to three additional Infantry Squads, up to three Special Weapon Squads, up to five(!) Heavy Weapon Squads, and a Conscript Squad on top! 
**'''Platoon Command Squad:''' The Platoon Squad is a weaker Company Command Squad in that they are only BS 3 instead of 4 and cannot take Advisors, Camo or Carapace. Furthermore, the Platoon Commander can issue a single Order but does NOT have Senior Officer. Remember that their main advantage is they can be kept relatively cheap, free your Company Command Squad to issue the bigger orders and that they can serve in a pinch as a pseudo-Special Weapon Team, providing a cheap concentration of Flamers or Grenade Launchers (or Sniper Rifles if you're feeling cute).
**'''Infantry Squad:''' (2-5) The basic Guardsman squad gives you nine Guardsmen with Lasguns, and a Sergeant with Pistol and Melee Weapon. With cardboard armor and shots that miss half the time, the basic Guard squad does not amount to much. However, their real strength lies in the '''Combined Squads''' special rule, letting multiple Infantry Squads from the same Platoon join together into a single larger unit of up to 50 models; this lets them benefit more from Blessings, Orders, attached Commissars and Priests, and the many other ways that they can be buffed. Assuming two squads can get into rapid-fire range, a single First Rank Fire/Second Rank Fire order would provide 56 lasgun shots, for a whole lot of diddly.
***'''Loadout:''' An Infantry Squad can take a Special Weapon and a Heavy Weapon; Heavy Weapons become more attractive in larger combined squads, since they let a unit maintain a larger coherency chain with heavy weapons in the backfield as the main line advances. That said, due to their BS 3 and inefficiency with Split Fire, the Autocannon/Grenade Launcher is the 'most' efficient option for this unit. For one, the Autocannon and Grenade Launcher cost the same as a single Plasma Gun, will not blow up in the hands of your troopers, and they can become a credible threat against Rhinos&Razorbacks via Bring It Down. A more assault-oriented unit can skip the Heavy Weapons, and just give the Sergeants Power Axes; Unwieldy doesn't hurt as much with base Initiative 3, and Sergeants become surprisingly effective murder machines when assisted by a Priest with Battle Hymns. Finally, it 'is' possible to spend a point to replace a Sergeant's laspistol with a Boltgun, which can help with adding just a little bit of extra punch to your unit.
**'''Conscripts:''' (0-1) Conscripts are tied with Grots for being the cheapest non-Forgeworld models in the game point-wise. 3 points gives you a Guardsman with reduced Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill and Leadership, such that they NEED a Character with good Leadership attached to them should you wish to do much with them. However, being able to field 50 models for every 30 regular Guardsmen has its own advantages, whether you wish to use them as mobile cover, or as a throwaway assault screen. 
**'''Choosing a Character:''' Since Conscripts don't get any loadout options, the main choice you face with them is which character to attach to them. In general, the Priest is the best choice for this unit, since Fearless removes their main weakness to being routed, while Zealot and War Hymns can make them somewhat-threatening in melee. An honorable mention should instead go to the Commissar for smaller squads, on account of having better Leadership, and retaining the ability to Go to Ground on account of Stubborn. Though a Techpriest "can" raise their Leadership to 8, his melee profile is not strong enough compared to the buffs provided by a Priest, and he lacks the Stubbornness.
**Alternate Tactic: Take 50 of them plus a Commissar for 175 points. Don't use them as much for shooting, try to get them as fast as possible close to the biggest, meanest close combat unit the enemy has. Now just sit in front of them. Charging into them means taking 100 lasgun shots in Overwatch (where their shitty Ballistic skill doesn't matter) and spending several turns punching through them. If the opponent doesn't take the bait, throw a frag grenade and charge in. Take two squads with Commissars for 350 points. They will quickly earn their points back tying up those nasty CC threats.
****Building on that alternate tactic above: Having experimented with this I find this is a very effective tactic, especially when up against melee deathstar formations like the Lucifer Armoured Task Force with 48 Assault Terminators. However I would recommend switching out the Commissars for Priests and attaching the Commissars to your Infantry Squads. The reasons being that, firstly, Ministorum Priests will make the unit straight up fearless, good for melee roadbumps and you don't have to bother with the execution. Secondly, you are far, far more likely to be issuing orders to the Infantry Squads rather than the Conscripts. The Priest is an upgrade to Conscript LD but not Infantry Squad LD, where Commissars improve the LD of both, and by switching these around you thereby ensure that both units have better order reliability and that the buffs in question are proportional to their value, as here the Conscripts are only roadbumps. Finally, with the Commissar in the Infantry Squad you can still go to ground in a pinch. Do so behind your conga line of Priest-led Conscripts for a nice cover save if need ever be.
***Alternate Tactic 2: Make them into deathstar. Add allied Liberius Concave with tigrus and 2 terminator Librarians, add 2 Primaris Psykers, 3 Ministorium Priests and here you go: invisible 50 man squad that hits 100 S3 attacks on charge, rerolling hits (zealot), rerolling wounds (prayer), haves 2+ rerollable save (terminator armor hit allocation plus prayers), 3++ rerollable save, 4+ FNP (biomancy) and Rending (Misfortune). There are few melee units that are more deadly than Conscripts. Beware tarpit walkers with AV13 though, they can be problematic but there are few of them, and even fewer that could not be taken out with ranged weapons fire.
***Alternate Tactic 3: You don't have to sink 700+ points into them as suggested above. Take 50 conscripts, add 2 ministorum priests and a single white scars character. My preference is for a techmarine on a bike. At 285 points, think of them as a multi-purpose tool. They can bubble wrap, tarpit, throw a ton of dakka at FMCs or light infantry, or (my favorite) hit and run right into an opponent's backfield with the techmarine's servo arm ready to swing at some sweet rear armor. Think of them as a delivery system. And also consider attaching a Xenos inquisitor with some wacky grenades. You want your opponent shooting at them - if they're shooting at conscripts they're killing 3-point models instead of shooting something else, and all your independent characters can just jump ship onto another squad.
**'''Heavy Weapon Squad:''' (0-5) This is where the awesome firepower comes from. Some don't like them because they die rather quickly if they are in front of the Squad. (AND WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU HAVE THEM THERE?) This can be solved by putting them in ruins or other such cover. But if you buy Heavy Weapon Squad instead of putting heavy weapons in your Infantry Squad, they can target big things and not waste the lasgun fire. On top of this, there is a split fire order to get around this restriction. Lascannons are nice here. Missile Launchers on the surface are good, but Autocannons do their job better due to not scattering and being able to take orders better with more quantity meaning you have 6 shots at S7 instead of 3 shots at S8, and if you need it for anti Armor, Lascannons are universally better for that job anyways. Autocannons are universally good, great for giving Monstrous Creatures and MEQs a hard time (your opponent can only make so many armor saves when your guns wound on 2s for the latter and the former isn't known for fantastic armor) and can put up a good fight against your average transport (especially if you can get a side or rear hit in) and if you kit out a whole HWS with them, they put out enough shots to not make a basic Guardsman's BS3 too terrible and actually have a chance at damaging AV13 with a few lucky hits. In fact the only one that isn't that good to take here is the heavy bolter which not only is already provided by almost every vehicle you can field, costs the same as the Autocannon, and while it does give an extra shot, it has a foot less range and is two strength lower than the autocannon. They'd be worthwhile if they were only 5 points, but they aren't, so pass. They are slower than Sentinels, but they are cheap for what they do (per-model), can be modified to engage any threat, and don't take up an important Force Organization slot by themselves. Don't forget that you can give them a normal commissar or PP and pass checks for those tasty and delicious orders. Also with prescience or BRING IT DOWN order, a full lascannon or Autocannon squad can reliably bring down flyers from the sky. If you are indeed using some combined with orders to boost them, you might as well take a Company standard because they will have to pass a Ld7 ( Unless you stick a PP with them, but it quickly gets expensive ) morale check with their first loss ( Don't be fooled by W2 : Most things that will target you will Instant Death T3 ).
***'''Alternate Tactic''': For the commander on a budget, look to the new Cadian Heirlooms of Conquest for a little gem called Volkov's Cane. for 10 points, orders to units within 6" fail only on a double 6. Your Ld 7 squad now has an effective Leadership of '''11!''' Combine with a Regimental Standard (for a combined upgrade value of 25 points), and the HWS tests on an effective Leadership value of 10/11 on every test that matters. They'll listen, they won't run, and they'll do their job ''properly''.
***Don't take flakk missiles if you weren't going to take a missile launcher normally. They are only slightly better than a group of autocannons against flyers (a squad of autocannons averages 1 hit, flakk missiles 1.5), at a cost of  45 points extra points. That's only 5 points short of a primaris to add on and make those autocannons twin-linked (averaging around 2 hits) and more able to receive orders. Take a Hydra tank instead.
**'''Special Weapon Squads:''' (0-3) A distraction. Six models, three which must take Special Weapons. They lack the Ballistic Skill, ablative wounds or Carapace that Veterans get, meaning this unit has two main uses: As a throwaway piece-trading unit, or as a cheap objective holder. 45 points gets three flamers or Grenade Launchers, or the option exists to give them up to three Demolition Charges, tripling their base price. However, little can compare to three S8 AP 2 Large Blasts causing havoc in the enemy backfield. As they do not get a Sergeant or Vox-Caster, they do not take well to Orders, so plan accordingly. Note that they overlap a lot in cost and loadout choice with the Platoon Command Squad, but are less flexible.
*'''Sabre Gun Platforms (Forge World):''' These guys can replace Heavy Weapon Teams in your platoon. They cost more, but with twin-liked guns they are also deadlier, have skyfire/interceptor, and being artillery, they can [[Tankred|endure]] absurd amount of enemy shooting. On the other hand, they are immobile (but can somehow scout move), and die like bitches when charged by ANYTHING (even Fіre Warriors). Sabre platforms require careful positioning, because of their zero mobility, but they are great source of anti-air and fire support. ALWAYS take a second guardsman for each gun: your enemy can and will outflank Sabres to shoot down lightly armored crew instead of T7/W2/Sv3+ guns.
*'''Veteran Squad:''' Key to most mech lists. Slightly superior to regular guard due to a higher BS of 4 and have an even better selection of gear and options. Stick them in chimeras and try to see where Lady Luck will take them. Only downside to this choice is that you only have six troop choices if you go full Vet before reaching 2000 points (with 60 points for a stock squad, it's a point which can be reached very easily). You could also do the smart thing and mix 2-3 Veteran Squads with an Infantry Platoon, giving you unholy amounts of Melta (Veterans), Chimeras, and bodies everywhere (Everyone). They're generally less specialised than storm troopers, but they score with Objective Secured benefits and can get much more gear. Always take at least two. If you want to make Tyranids players cry more than they already do, take 3 squads, footslog them, and give them each 2 Flamers and a Heavy Flamer; give the other 6 vets shotguns and take the Forward Sentries doctrine, setting them up as assault screens. Your opponent will think twice about sending Genestealers (or, Emperor Forbid, Hormagaunts) anywhere near you. You can also swap out two vets for a single heavy weapons team, so if you love your lascannons and autocannons but hate how often they miss when taken in an infantry platoon, you can stick them here so long as you don't mind wasting lasgun fire. But that's why you have an order that gives a unit Split Fire, isn't it? 
**Note about 6th: Doctrines became even cheaper. If you didn't include them before you have no excuse now.
**Speaking of Doctrines, let's review the choices!
***'''Grenadiers:''' Gives the Veterans Carapace Armor (4+ Save) for 15 points. Increases survivability. Don't even argue, just take it if you're going Mech or using them offensively. Auto-include, however, if you're taking Plasma with your Veterans since 4+ save ensures you don't die if your gun explodes nearly as often.
***'''Forward Sentries:''' For 10 points the squad has Camo gear, which increases their cover save, and snare mines, which cause any enemies charging them to make a disordered charge (so no extra attacks and no furious charge, anathema to Orks, Blood Angel, and Khorne units, they'll die brutally but better them than your 300 point Leman Russ Squadron). Good for for defensive playstyles, holding objectives while maximising your cover saves, and most importantly screening units. You may have to bite your tongue the moment your opponent brings Ignores Cover weaponry.
***'''Demolitions:''' The entire squad gets melta bombs. Remember that only one model can use a Meltabomb per Assault Phase, but having the entire squad carry them means they are safe from having a single model 'sniped out'. Furthermore, the squad gains a single Demolition Charge for additional carnage against a close-up enemy unit. 
**'''Gunnery Sergeant Harker:''' One Veteran Squad can take Harker, and his old buffs have been completely altered. Harker prevents his unit from using the Grenadiers doctrine, making his unit lack the survivability to exploit its massive firepower since Bolters will negate their save. The only thing you're getting is a 55pt relentless Heavy Bolter that has Heavy 3 Rending and a very slightly buffed Sergeant - +1 WS/S and Krak grenades, though using Krak means he doesn't fire his RENDING Heavy Bolter -  which could make for a good frontline Veteran Squad if it wasn't for their lack of a better save than the average 5pts guardman. The one thing that made him just about playable in the old codex was his ability to have veterans that infiltrated and get a 2+ cover save in ruins with forward sentries. In this codex, he has lost this rule completely and swapped his feel no pain for rending - total waste of points.
***'''Note:''' you can nearly take an entire heavy weapons squad of Heavy Bolters or Autocannons for his points cost (Harker hits 2 shots per turn, Heavy Bolter squad hits 4.5, Autocannons statistically have 3 hits but are almost guaranteed to wound). This is better in any circumstance unless playing a list with no platoons.
***'''Another Note:''' If you are the type to use fortifications, nothing is stopping you from using the forward sentries doctrine with Harker. Take him, another Heavy Weapon Team, 3 Snipers, Forward Sentries and park behind an Aegis using one of your remaining 4 vets as the gunner. 3+ Cover, 2 Heavy weapons (3 if you bought one for the ADL), and the safetly of range. Whats not to love?