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Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Wolves(7E)

2012-11-11T18:13:57Z

91.152.169.235:

This is the latest Edition's tactics. [[Warhammer_40,000/5th_Edition_Tactics/Space_Wolves|5th Edition Tactics are here.]]

==Why Play Space Wolves==

*Why you should play them: Awesome Space Vikings with a thing for wolves. They told both Girlyman and the Inquisition where they can stuff it, value individuality and heroic antics above all, distrust Psykers and their warp-craft and specialize in close combat.

*Why people actually play them: <s>They're cheaper Speehs Muhrines with arguably the single most broken psychic power in the game</s> A whole lot of reasons:

**Special Wargear and units unavailable to any other marine variants.
**Powerful HQ characters, both special and standard.
**All the close-ranged firepower you expect from marines, backed by excellent h2h ability.
**Motherfucking SPACE VIKINGS!
**All the Wolf you could ever wolfy wolf wolf.
**The third army you can make all-Terminator, the other two being [[Dark Angels|Hooded Faggots]] and [[Grey Knights|Silver Mary Sues]].
**They hate losing

==Unit Analysis==
===HQ===
'''Note:''' Unlike other armies, Space Wolves can take '''two''' HQ units per HQ slot, giving them access to 1-4 HQ units in a standard force organization chart.
*'''Wolf Lord:''' This guy is pretty much a Space Marine Captain, but he has an extra attack and can take better (albeit more expensive) wargear. He can be tooled out to be a total hand-to-hand combat monster, but gets expensive very quickly; be careful not to go overboard. A good rule of thumb is "boys over toys:" take a cheaper HQ and more troops.
*'''Wolf Guard Battle Leader:''' Bog-standard "cheap" version of the Wolf Lord with a few less options. He's a fine HQ for low-point games, but Rune/Wolf Priests are almost always better choices. He is slightly better at close combat than the others, with one more attack and one higher initiative. However, the free wargear and squad-enhancing abilities of the Wolf Priest and the psychic abilities and psychic defense provided by the Rune Priest more than make up for that difference.
*'''Rune Priest:''' These are your Librarians. They don't have many wargear options, and most of their psychic powers are shooting attacks... But they're pretty good shooting attacks. One of the most infamous is Jaws of the World Wolf, which forces an Initiative test which automatically kills the target if failed--useful for character and Monstrous Creature sniping. Living Lightning, meanwhile, has ''unlimited'' range and can land as many S7 AP5 hits as a Fire Warrior squad. The non-shooting psychic powers (Tempest's Wrath and Storm Caller) provide some nice utility, but you really take these guys for the force lightning. They also give you access to the Rune Staff, which is arguably the best psychic defense in the game, after the psychic hoods nerf in sixth edition. The Chooser of the Slain is also well worth considering for the [[Rage|RAAAAGE]] it will make infiltrators feel. In short, a tough character with access to two of the best psychic powers in the game, as well as the best psychic defense currently available.
*'''Wolf Priest:''' This guys is, for all intents and purposes, a Space Marine Chaplain, with more options. The Sagas are the only really note-worthy options available to him. (Though a Wolf Tail Talisman can come in handy). Oath of War isn't as useful as Liturgies of Battle on the charge(as it doesn't apply to everything) but you do get its bonus beyond the first round, so it's about even. In the end, he's not that useful, not being as killy as the Wolf Lord nor providing for the whole army as the Rune Priest.

The Space Wolves also have access to several special characters:

*'''Logan Grimnar:''' <strike>The Greatwolf himself</strike> OBLIGATORY 200+ PTS. NAMED CHARACTER. He is pretty great. Lets you take Wolf Guard as Troops (should you so desire), Gives everyone within 18" +1A once per game, gives a bonus (that you can choose each turn) to the squad he joins, and is a pretty nasty h2h fighter, complete with good gear, Eternal Warrior, and the ability to let nearby friendly units reroll failed morale, an ability quite useful to the painfully-average LD units of the Space Wolves. He is quite expensive though, more expensive than two discount characters, and good at little beyond bashing people in the face, so consider him carefully...
*'''Bjorn The Fell Handed:'''Poor old Bjorn. On the one hand he's an Armor 13, Venerable Dreadnought with an Invulnerable Save. On the other hand he's within a handful of points from the most expensive characters in the game, becomes an objective when killed, and '''cannot''' be put in a drop-pod. At first glance this makes him look like an overcosted dread that's bad at doing a dread's job, but Bjorn's real value is in bolstering/defending a shooty-wolf army. Ancient tactician means you go first 75% of the time, which is huge. Saga of majesty means he can chill with Long Fangs and fire off a plasma cannon while giving them rerolls on leadership and being in a good position to defend against assault units. He tarpits like a motherfucker and even if he does manage to get himself killed (somehow) being near your gunline means his death will be at worst a minor inconvenience or at best a positive benefit.
*'''Njal Stormcaller:''' Expensive, fragile, potentially game-changing. He's a good psyker, but his real power comes from his "Lord of the Storm" rule. Read it carefully, most of the effects require him to have LOS to his targets (with the recent FAQ, he can't hide in a bawks and use his rule anymore). Njal also suffers from the inherent randomness of his power, it may well do nothing for the first two turns, by which time it may be too late for it to impact the game in any meaningful way. Keeping him in reserve (perhaps by Drop Pod) can help keep him alive until his power can get over a 3, and actually do something of note. He does also comes with the very useful Saga of Majesty, and a significantly improved psychic hood, which adds to his value.
*'''Ulrik the Slayer:''' He's a Wolf Priest with the Stat-line of a Wolf Guard Battle Leader, who allows any friendly unit that can draw LOS to him to re-roll failed morale tests. Handy, may-or-may not be worth his points. Your mileage may vary.
*'''Canis Wolfborn:''' Yes, his name really is "'''Wolf''' '''Wolf'''born". He also dual-wields '''Wolf''' claws (a weapon unique to the Space '''Wolves''') while riding a gigantic thunder '''Wolf''' , and wearing a '''Wolf''' tail talisman, and a '''Wolf'''tooth necklace. He may also be accompanied by up to 2 Fenrisian '''Wolves'''. He is marked with the Saga of the '''Wolf'''kin (Notice a pattern yet?) and is responsible for at least 80% of the Space '''Wolf''' rage threads on /tg/. He's quite nasty in hand-to-hand combat (for his point cost) and has an interesting special rule: Lord of the '''Wolf'''kin - This rule allows all units of '''Wolves''' within 12" to use Canis' leadership.
*'''Bran Redmaw (Forgeworld):''' A new special character added in the latest Imperial Armour book. For 210 points you bring home a common Wolflord with Rune Armor, Wolftooth Necklace, a Belt of Russ and a special +1S power weapon that rerolls to wound. Also, he gives a single Grey Hunters pack Infiltrate and Behind Enemy Lines, and has a special Saga of the Hunter that extends to any Fenrisian Wolves unit he joins, but that's not why you take him. His main selling point is the "Curse of the Redmaw". From turn 2 onwards, before movement, you must roll a d6 and add the number of friendly units locked in combat: on a 6+ (reduced by 1 each turn, until you need only a 3+), he transforms into the big daddy of all Wulfens. He gains a Mephiston-like statline, counts as a Monstrous Creature and keeps the Necklace and all his old special rules, plus Fleet, Eternal Warrior, Feel no Pain and Furious Charge. Yup, you can still Outflank him. Yup, you can stick him in a normal unit to ensure nobody will ever want to charge it. Yup, your opponent will do the impossible to blast him off the board before he goes all werewolfy on his ass.
*'''Ragnar Blackmane:''' A Wolf Lord who was promoted straight from Blood Claw to Wolf Guard, and the youngest Wolf Lord ever, Ragnar is an all or nothing h2h unit. He boasts an impressive stat-line, has a Frost Sword, gives his unit 1d3 extra attacks on the charge instead of the original 1, gives his unit Furious Charge, can give every unit within 12" of him Furious Charge, and has Saga of the Warrior. In exchange, however, he wears simple Power Armor, and has a 4++ save, and doesn't have Eternal Warrior, making him extremely fragile. He will also probably be the focus of your opponents h2h attacks, so don't expect him to live very long. He will wipe out shooty units in a single turn, but against lots of power weapons (I'm looking at you, Grey Knights), Ragnar will go down. But he will probably take a few models down with him. Either you love him or hate him. Nice in drop-list with a lot of grey hunters.

===Elites===
*'''Wolf Guard''' - Your Veterans. They can take all sorts of wargear, from simple power swords and plasma pistols up to Frost Blades and Terminator Armor. You can even stick them in bikes or on Jump Packs. However, their most unique ability is to second themselves off to another unit, such as Long Fangs, Grey Hunters, and Blood Claws, albeit one per squad. Versatile, powerful, customizable. You can't go wrong. Or a good squad of these with a wolf lord and wolf priest can take any land raider as a dedicated transport.
**'''Arjac Rockfist''' - One Wolf Guard per army can be upgraded to Arjac Rockfist, a Terminator Wolf Guard with a Storm shield and a S10 Thunder Hammer that he can throw before he charges. He's great at popping vehicles and mashing Independent Characters and Monstrous Creatures, but he's only useful in melee; make sure you stick him in a Land Raider to make sure he gets into combat safely. Still, he's cheaper than a Wolf Guard Battle Leader with the same wargear (Although your average Battle Leader doesn't have access to Saga of the Bear)
*'''Dreadnought''' - It's a Dreadnought, it's not much different from Dreadnoughts of other Marine armies. A good way to put some mobile heavy weapons on the field, and a close combat monster with its Dreadnought CCW.
*'''Venerable Dreadnought''' - 60 points more than the normal Dreadnought, has 1 WS/BS more, and forces your enemy to reroll vehicle damage, and can take the Saga of Majesty, but is otherwise identical to the standard Dreadnought. Horribly overcosted, and generally not worth the point tax. If you go for this you might as well take Bjorn.
*'''Space Wolves Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought''' - It's a Contempter, so you know it's awesome already. 13/12/11, Atomantic Shielding, fleet, WS5, S7 - yeah you've seen this before; sadly not as good as the Contemptors from other chapters. You can load this bro with a handful of the Contemptor goodies, but we recommend a chainfist or the Kheres Assault Cannon plus a carapace-mounted cyclone launcher if you have the points to spare; for this small sacrifice in options (no heavy conversion beamer, no targeting upgrades, no graviton guns or plasma blasters either) you get access to either a Wolf Tail Talisman or a Wolf Tooth Necklace for bouncing psychic powers or hitting on 3's always ever, respectively. It also costs 10 pts more than a Contermptor from a [[Matthew Ward|Wardex]], but for that ten point bump you get yourself a free Night Saga:
**'''Saga of the Black Call''' - Furious Charge. Not so good anymore thanks to 6th edition.
**'''Saga of the Forsaken One''' - Counter-attack at LD10. Could be useful.
**'''Saga of the Iron God''' - +1 on the damage charts against enemy walkers (now we're talking)!
*'''Lone Wolf''' - A 20-point kamikaze model (seriously, he gives your enemy a kill point if he ''survives'' the battle, but not if he dies) with Eternal Warrior and Feel No Pain, that can take pretty much any wargear he wants. Great for [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|drawing retarded amounts of fire away from your other units.]] Load him for bear (TDA+SS+Chainfist), send him against the biggest enemy you can find, and hope he goes down swinging.
*'''Iron Wolf''' - Your Techmarine. Can be useful on a Thunderwolf running around with Cyberwolves as a mini-Thunderwolf Cavalry squad of sorts.
*'''Wolf Scouts''' - For some reason, the Space Wolves are one of only two Marines armies where the Scouts are still Elites, the other being the hopelessly outdated [[Dark Angels]]. They're also more expensive, but have WS/BS 4 because they're experienced warriors rather than neophytes. In addition, they can take flamers, meltas, and plasma guns, in addition to plasma pistols and/or power weapons. Good for surprise attacks against a vulnerable flank, but they can be overwhelmed easily thanks to their light armor. Also make very good snipers because of the extra BS skill. Give them a meltagun, a Power Fist + Combi-melta Wolf Guard Pack Leader, and hope you don't get 1 or 2 on the outflank roll.

===Troops===
*'''Grey Hunters''' - Ultrasmurfs wish their infantry were as good as these. Mostly the same as regular Tactical squads, minus a heavy weapon, but so much more nasty in Close Combat. Their basic profile gives them a close combat weapon and a bolt pistol along with their bolter. Yes. They get TWO weapons for close combat. Also they can get one special weapon and if you have ten you get one special weapon for free so 2 meltas for only 5 pts and plasma for 10 pts and flamers for FREE.
*'''Blood Claws''' - Unlike Grey Hunters, they gain +2 Attacks instead of the usual +1 on the charge (which unfortunately does not stack with Counter-Attack), but must forgo their shooting and charge if they are within 6" of an enemy unit (unless a Wolf Guard is seconded to them, so do this if you can). Get a squad of 14, give them a fist and a meltagun. Attach a Wolf Priest. Load them up in your Land Raider ''Crusader'', and then send this neat little package of violence at the nearest enemy. If you don't have a Land Raider of any kind, don't bother with the Blood Claws. They're not worth using in any other way, and even then, one Land Raider can be easily delayed (just park a Land Speeder in front of it).
**'''Lukas the Trickster''' - One Blood Claw per army may be upgraded to Lukas, who comes equipped with a Wolf Claw and a Plasma Pistol. Attacks against Lukas (only Lukas himself, not his squad) must be rerolled if they hit, and he can suicide-bomb if he's removed as a casualty for whatever reason, taking out whatever he's in base contact with, including Titans (yes, it's an instakill, not even the "D3 structure points" rule can save them) and transport passengers, according to the FAQ. Good stats and a nice way to put some more special weapons in your Blood Claws, but his points cost and negative effect he has on Leadership make him a dicey proposition- much like his personality in the fluff, really.

===Fast Attack===
*'''Fenrisian Wolf Pack''' - Cheap beasts, but not super-killy compared to other units in the list and can be gunned down easily due to their terrible 6+ save. They're basically [[tarpit|tarpits]] to use to tie up big units in assault until your Terminators or Thunderwolf Cavalry can get to them. Also, cannot hold objectives ever. Taking Canis Wulfborn makes them troop choices. No, they're still not going to hold objectives.

*'''Land Speeder squadron''' - Basically the damn same as the Land Speeders in the Space Marine codex. If you run one, run two, same as other vehicles. Do not squadron them up if you have slots to spare (you die on 4+ in a squadron). The key feature of these fuckers is that you can speed 'em around the field fast enough that they always get their 3+ cover save from moving flat out. If you're lucky, you can get people to waste a turn or two shooting at these while your real vehicles are getting shit done un-impeded. Of course, if your enemy ignores them, then you probably get a chance to pop something with your Multi-meltas, so you might win either way. Deepstriking also works, providing there is space for that. Outfitting them in a way other than MM/HF or HB/Typhoon ML is [[heresy]].

*'''Skyclaw Assault Squad''' - Blood Claws with jump packs, good for delivering a power fist into the enemy and generally being a damn nuisance. However, their low WS/BS means they could be overwhelmed by more elite assault units; make them go for weaker targets, where their mobility and sheer number of attacks will hurt the most.

*'''Swiftclaw Biker Squad''' - Blood Claws on bikes, with all the WS/BS 3 goodness that implies. Because they have a close combat weapon and a bolt pistol, they get +1 Attack compared to other Marine bikers, and twin-linked weapons help to offset BS3. An attack bike with a multimelta will help with any tank problems you might have. Like Skyclaws, these guys are great at keeping your enemy distracted and making attacks of opportunity. Just avoid getting them bogged down in melee and they'll be fine.

Note: On average, all of the *claw units are not worth it if you want to win, as they're overcosted. Use them in fun/casual games only.

*'''Thunderwolf Cavalry''' - These are probably the best-in-slot for Fast Attack choices. <strike>Kit them out for wound allocation (one with a meltabomb, one with a thunder hammer, etc.)</strike> (With the new wound allocation rules, the aforementioned wound allocation shenanigans are not longer valid. Just bring vanilla TWC with maybe a stormshield or two and a thunderhammer) and they're basically Nob Bikers with a potential 19-24" assault threat. Remember to bring a couple of Storm Shields along to cope with those pesky melta/lascannon shots.

===Heavy Support===
*'''Land Raider''' - Schizophrenic AV14 box. You should take a Crusader instead.
*'''Land Raider Crusader''' - The golden cow of Land Raiders. Pintle-mounted Multi-Melta plus the sheer bullet rape spewed out by this thing will lay a hurt on squishy things in its way, or stupid Guard or Ork drivers who decide to pull up next to it.
*'''Land Raider Redeemer''' - You're better served by a Crusader. While they burn MEQs, this variant suffers from not doing anything before it reaches the frontlines, and it needs to be in melta-range to fire. Melta = death, so take a Crusader instead. Also, it's a pain to use both their flamers
simultaneously <strike>and devastatingly</strike>.
*'''Long Fangs Pack''' - Take Devastators, get rid of the regular Bolter Boys and give the heavies Split Fire. Long Fangs are the most popular tank-hunting choice of the Space Wolves Heavy choices, and are easily paired up with the more mobile Dreadnoughts to bash in the METAL BOXES. Running them with Missile Launchers is recommended, with an occasional Lascannon thrown in if you have points to spare. <s>Missile launchers also have the added bonus of being able to send fliers packing.</s> Flakk Missiles have not been added for Space Wolves in the errata, so you're going to want to park a Long Fang squad behind a Quad-Gun Defense Line.
*'''Predator''' - It's a Predator. Duh. Not worth it in a Space Wolf army, you'd better served with Fangs instead. If you, for some reason, want to use one, keep it cheap and arm it with HB sponsons. Sit back and pound the enemy, or provide AV13 for your bawkses.
*'''Vindicator''' - It's a Vindicator. Low side armor, single hull-mounted gun, short range and a possibility to scatter on your own Wolves. Bad, bad, bad.
*'''Whirlwind''' - It's a Whirlwind. Not much else needs to be said.

===Dedicated Transports===
*'''Rhino''' - 35 points for a metal box that keeps your Grey Hunters safe, makes them a lot more mobile, and meltagun tanks out of the top hatch...hell, why not?
*'''Razorback''' - The best friends of your Long Fangs. LasPlas, while the most expensive, is THE shit, since it has two good guns (so Weapon Destroyed won't cripple it) that punch through medium armor and heavy infantry alike. Take three-four or go the whole cog (aka Razorwolves, famous for fielding 8-10 LasPlases at 2k pts)
*'''Drop Pod''' - Drop Pods are your best friend from high school who married your sister and parties with you every weekend. Okay, maybe I blew the point, but Drop Pods and Space Wolves are a classic combo. The '''Drop Pod Assault''' Special rule means that half of your pods have to deploy in your first turn (round up if you have an odd number of pods). This has a few different uses: Mess with your enemy's head by Deep Striking Grey Hunters in a place where it's not expected. Deep Strike Long Fangs or Dreadnoughts into prime places for popping enemy vehicles. Deep Strike your HQ, his squad, and several supporting squads to put a heavy hammer somewhere. FYI, the other half of your pods come down normally. Make sure you keep this rule in mind when you're writing the army list, so you can figure out how you want to deploy for best effect and capitalize on it when you are at the table. Again, it is better to either mount up all your squads in Pods or none, as one-two Pods can be easily countered and made useless by a good player. '''(DISCLAIMER: GTFO AND AWAY FROM THE DROP PODS IN A KILL POINTS GAME. DROP PODS CAN EXPLODE WHEN SHOT AT AND DEAL HEAVY DAMAGE TO YOUR INFANTRY IF THEY ARE TOO CLOSE.)'''

==Building your Army==

Start with a Battleforce and a spare box of Space Wolves or Space Wolves Terminators to make your HQ and Wolf Guard. Rune Priests are easily made from plastic parts, and with the new SW stuff, the same goes for Wolf Priests (if you field them, which you shouldn't). If you can, exchange the Drop Pod sprue for a Rhino, as with Gay Knights around Deep Strike is at best unreliable. Better to go with an old-fashioned Metal Bawks. Buy another one when you can, and that will net you 2 mechanized Grey Hunter squads and some support. Taking hold of meltagun and missile launcher bitz is paramount, as the SW Pack box only comes with two Plasmaguns. With these core units, you may then proceed to buy anything else you wanted. A good idea is to buy a Space Marine box (or even a Battleforce) and use your remained bitz to make Marines wolfy. Dem vanillas (speaking Tactical Squad) also have sum good bitz (and more bolters/bolt pistols for your Hunters), and a Missile Launcher/Flamer to boot.

In a short time, you will need armor support. Dreadnoughts are a better and cheaper early investment than Predators, so one or two Dreads to carry your heavy guns (twin Autocannons or Multi-meltas) should do you well until you learn what exactly you want to do with your army. You may skip this part, of course, if you managed to get enough Missile Launchers so you can build a decent number of Fangs.

==Tactics==

Space Wolves' strength is not in close combat, but rather in spamming shooty units and using assault defensively; making big expensive CC units is fail. Their Terminators are too expensive, and while you can easily build an army to use big units of [[Furry|Thunderwolf Cavalry]] their Ld8 sucks wolf-cocks when it comes to getting Tank Shocked repeatedly and their 3D6 Fall Back move means they're likely to run out of play if there's anything nearby to stop them regrouping.

Instead of shitty combat units, bring a few small Grey Hunters packs with a single Meltagun, a Wolf Standard and a [[METAL BOXES|Rhino]] to ride in, some Wolf Guard with Combi-Meltaguns to lead them, a Rune Priest HQ to [[Matt Ward|shit on Blood Angels flying Dreadnoughts and Grey Knights' magic tanks]], then spend the rest of your points on Missile Launchers, Lascannon/ Plasma Gun Razorbacks, and Land Speeders with [[Multilasers|Multimeltas]]. The Meltagun Grey Hunters and Land Speeders go forward, everything else is fire support.

The basic gist; [[Reasonable Marines|shoot big guns at tanks until infantry falls out, and when infantry falls out use Rapid Fire Boltguns, Frag Missiles, Plasma turrets, Rhino Storm Bolters, and anything and everything else to drop them]]. Thanks to Counter-Attack your units are as good when defending as they are when attacking, which means where other Space Mehrens need to work out how to get their dumb asses into combat from the back of a Rhino, your Hunters can quite happily roll up to some schmuck, Rapid Fire him with their Boltguns, then sit beside their Metal Bawks and eat the charge next turn, at which point you pop your Yiff Standard and beat face.

What Spess Wulfs in this configuration don't have in any real form is mobility; at least not beyond the 12 inches your Rhinos can take you. Then again, who the fuck needs mobility when you have 15 Missiles, 5 Lascannons, 8 Meltaguns, 10 vehicles and 50 Marines? At 1500 points. Fuck you and your Dreadknight.

[[Category: Warhammer Tactics]]

Death Korps of Krieg

2012-11-10T20:46:45Z

91.152.169.235:

[[Image:Krieg_trooper.gif|frame|<s>Yes, they have faces.</s> THEY HAVE FACES?!?!?]]
The '''Death Korps of Krieg''' is an [[Imperial Guard]] unit which hails from the planet of [[Krieg]]. They like entrenchments and gasmasks and are know for their iron discipline and suicidal tolerance for casualties. In fact they will take any objective/vanquish any enemy as long they have enough men to throw in the meatgrinder. What's the difference between other Guard units you ask? Those motherfuckers don't even give a shit. They're some sort of badass human lemmings.

Also, forgeworld has models that cost approximately 3 souls of firstborn children each, but you knew that already.
Also also, Krieg means god damn WAR in German.

==Background==
===The Civil War===
Some time ago Krieg was a pretty sweet planet to live on, until the heretical dickwad of a Planetary Governor decided to detach from the [[Imperium]]. Needless to say the loyal citizens wouldn't let the rebel scum get away with that and a bloody civil war broke out. The loyalists were severly outnumbered though and only managed to seize control of a single hive called Ferrograd, due to the fact that a loyal Krieg Imperial Guard regiment under the command of a Colonel Jurgen was there, waiting to depart. While getting some turnips out of the basement Jurgen tripped over some nukes and decided to even the odds by blowing the world back to the stone age. Afterwards, after just 500 years of continual terrible war, the loyalists managed to lay Krieg back into the paralyzed lap of the Emperor. Today the citizens of Krieg celebrate the day their hero Colonel Jurgen destroyed their planet's ecosystem on "Jurgen Day", when everybody digs out entrenchments and practices NBC weapons drills, just like every other day.

===The Death Korps===
[[Image:Zapp.png|frame|The man who's inspired leadership has famously led the Death Korps from victory to victory]]
The inhabitants of Krieg are mad sorry for their disgraceful past and try to make up for it by being the baddest motherfuckers since the [[Empra]] himself. In fact they've been so successful in producing hardass guardsmen that the Adeptus Mechanicus Biologis gave them some pills that make their women hornier and more fertile, so that they can produce even more top notch cannon fodder, which is important, because Krieg is a radioactive shithole, and most of them are sterile. So sterile that most Kriegers are born of complex gene-cloning. Their society is _absolutely_ militarized. Children are being born only to be filled with the guilt of their ancestors, trained and sent to die for their Emperor. Contrary to other less <strike>brainwashed</strike> loyal units they're truly happy to do so and would die with a smile on their lips for the glory of the Emperor, if they'd ever smile. Srsly, those guys are like stone cold. You'd rather chat with a necron than a Krieg trooper. They dont even have names. They're for example called Trooper #1337 or Major Alpha both to underscore what expendable clones they are and because they don't give a flying fuck about anything else than marching, dying gloriously and shooting heretics in the head. As such gung-ho individuals they technically dont even have the need for commissars, since their deserting rate is practically zero and the officers will happily execute their soldiers themselves if need occurs. Commissars that are sent their way are usually sent in to say "Captain I know you want your charge in and stab those Orks in the face with your bayonets, but if you do that maybe one in ten is getting out of that alive. The Emperor needs you alive and we are going to goddamn wait until a situation comes where we can have enough survivors for the next battle and if you order a charge, it's blamming time for you."

The Munitorium has a hard on for these guys because unlike guardsmen from other places they always obey orders to the letter, <strike>even</strike> especially when it means dying in droves.

===See Also===
* [[Love and Krieg]], and its various spin-offs.

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Regiments}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]

Leman Russ Battle Tank

2012-08-07T20:49:34Z

91.152.169.235:

The biggest pain in the ass, for points, a player will encounter when fighting the Imperial Guard, the Leman Russ Battle Tank is so reliable and hard-hitting that it is named for the rapetastic Space Wolf Primarch, [[Leman Russ]]. The Leman Russ is widely considered one of the most religiously useful vehicles the Imperial Guard have on the tabletop, boasting both heavy firepower and good utility; it is easily one of the best tanks for cost in Warhammer 40K tabletop, and its ability to [[rape]] [[Necron]] and [[Space Marine|SPESS MEHREEN]] players through judicious use of ordnance and weapons fire make this thing a complete pain in the ass to deal with. Heavy-as-hell front armor (superior to all Space Marine tanks barring the Land Raider) and reasonable side armor make these a tough nut to crack (just don't let them get shot from behind), and the ability to fire their main gun (even if that main gun is an ordnance weapon) if they move slowly makes them capable of delivering serious punishment - and that's before their ability to pack on Heavy [[Bolter]]s, Plasma Cannons, and Multi-Meltas is factored in.

==At 500 Points, Fucking Cheese==
A lot of players used to field nothing but low-level infantry squads and a Leman Russ, due to its low points cost, in 500-point games. This practice continues today (though it's more commonly seen with the Imperial Guard [[Manticore Rocket Launcher]] nowadays), and has been known to induce [[Butthurt|ragequits]]. Shit got worse, boys. If the Imperial Guard was not balls-to-the-wall enough now, Leman Russes can be SQUADRONED in threes. Three Leman Russes per Heavy Support slot. NINE TOTAL.

I love the smell of cheese in the morning.

Example:

'''HQ'''
*Company Command Squad

'''TROOPS'''
*2x Veteran Squad

'''HEAVY SUPPORT'''
*2x Leman Russ Battle Tank

490 points of pure goodness.

==Flavor of the Week==
There are a dizzying number of Leman Russes with tons of different payloads. The most common variations seen in the tabletop game are as follows:

'''Leman Russ Battle Tank'''
The original boasts a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter and a Battle Cannon by default, the latter of which is widely regarded for its ability to fuck up squads of Space Marines and Necrons. It can swap the Heavy Bolter for a Lascannon and add a Pair of Heavy Bolters, Plasma Cannons, or Heavy Flamers in a set of sponsons, making it good for blasting the fuck out of just about anything that pisses it off.

'''Leman Russ Vanquisher'''
The Leman Russ Vanquisher trades out the Battle Cannon for a heavy-duty anti-tank gun that will usually let it one-shot enemy vehicles at long range. If a Lascannon or Battlecannon just isn't doing it for your tankhunting purposes, and you don't really feel like grabbing a Melta, this weapon will more than adequately fill the need. The downside is that it doesn't have any blast effects from its main gun (so consider the Plasma Cannon options for this thing). While getting all lascannons for it's sponson and hull guns may seem like it would make for a great tank killer there are very few times you will encounter enough monstrous creatures or heavy vehicles for this to be really efficient outside of an apocalypse game against a mech, armored, or zilla army (vehicle heavy, tank heavy, or monstrous creature heavy). However, when adding Pask this tank has been known to cause rage with its stupid BS 4, + 1 armor pen etc. The space commies can say all they want with their rail gun heresy, but this is the best tank hunter in the game and with plasma, a beast at killing smurfs. <strike>MON KEIGH TANKS SUCK! grafitied in scorch marks by Fuegan the Burning Lance</strike> that little bitch Fuegan's got nothing on this bad boy.

'''Leman Russ Exterminator'''
This tank is so awesome that it was once part of the Space Wolves army list. If you aren't quite sold on the [[Hydra Flak Tank]]'s ability to rape infantry and light vehicles, there's always the Exterminator, which uses a twin-linked Autocannon with a doubled fire rate as its main gun. One of several vehicles capable of driving [[Ork]] or [[Tyranid]] players into a frothing, white-hot [[RAGE]] when used with Heavy Bolter Sponsons, the Exterminator's main drawback is that it relies on its sponson/hull weapons to deal with enemy heavy armor (unless you're using Pask, in which case the Autocannons will often suffice).

'''Leman Russ Eradicator'''
Fuck your cover saves. The Eradicator has a short-range gun that ignores cover saves. It's a little weaker than the Battle Cannon in every stat (lower strength, shorter range, worse AP), but is still a respectable tank, especially against Eldar or any unit that is trying to take advantage of the Small Targets or Stealth rule. It's otherwise basically the same as the regular version, range and power aside.

'''Leman Russ Demolisher'''
The first of the "Reinforced" Leman Russ models (they have additional rear armor), the Leman Russ Demolisher packs a short range gun that is much stronger than the normal battle cannon and virtually guaranteed to threaten entire formations with the instant death rule should it shoot. It kind of sucks at anything but line-breaking, but there's little question that it does it better than the SPESS MEHREEN Vindicator, which is pretty hilarious when one thinks about it.

'''Leman Russ Punisher'''
About as close to "enuff [[Dakka]]," as the Imperial Guard can get without bringing in Titans or Baneblades, the Punisher boasts a S5 AP- main gun that has a fire rate of Heavy 20. The range is poor for a vehicle weapon, but the fact that one of these things can crank out more firepower than an entire squad of guardsmen under a Rank Fire order is absolutely hilarious; normally only Orks with Shootas get to roll this many dice. When backed up with other weapons, the Punisher can basically destroy huge numbers of troops at once, though it lacks AP. Use against MC's and terminators and watch them save 15 rolls

'''Leman Russ Executioner'''
Jokingly called the "Leman Russ Trollface" or "Leman Russ Blast Template Dropper" by some players, the Executioner is the bane of [[Ultramarines|Smurfs]] everywhere, for it packs a Plasma Cannon that fires in 3-round bursts and lacks the 'Gets Hot' rule. For maximum hilarity, pair with Plasma Cannon sponsons (ergo allowing 5 Plasma Cannon shots a turn from one vehicle) and try not to laugh when killing about double the tank's point cost in heavy infantry every turn. <s>For maximum hilarity, employ against [[Grey Knight]]s and vaporise the majority of a Terminator squad in a round before asking: "Problem, [[Indrick Boreale|SPESS MEHREENS]]?"</s> Motherfucking [[Matt_Ward|Ward]] and Plasma Syphons!
* It should be noted that Plasma Syphons make plasma weapons BS1 - which just makes Plasma Cannons scatter harder - they still fire. So if you win at scatter, the templates are still there and still likely to fuck over something somewhere. Besides, you can still use these to fuck over Chaos Space marines, other Space Marine armies, Nidzilla armies, Chaos Daemons, and Necrons. Indeed, it can fuck up Blobanids, Guardblobs, Blobtau, or Orkblobs with equal ease by dumping templates on them. (Data for effectiveness on [[Loli|Moeblobs]] pending.)
*<s>enjoy glancing yourself to death with gets hot on tanks in 6th edition.</s> While the Plasma Cannon Sponsons that any Leman Russ tank can take now have the Get's Hot! rule, the Executioner Plasma Cannon does not, leaving the vanilla Executioner in the exact same shape it used to be (except somewhat better now that it can a bit more effectively be used as light AT thanks to how blast rules have changed).

==And Commanders Too==
'''Knight Commander Pask'''
Not really a Leman Russ but an upgrade therefore, [[Knight Commander Pask]] raises the BS of any Russ he's placed in to 4 and improves their AP, ergo making the tank more accurate. Widely considered conditionally broken against some factions when paired with a Punisher, Executioner, or Exterminator. Pask is known for killing Titans with a Leman Russ and refusing to drive a [[Baneblade]] in favor of one. His balls of steel rating is thusly considered somewhere between [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs]] and [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken|Colonel "I tore a Landshark's throat out with my teeth" Straken]].

==FORGE WORLD LOVE==
GW's specialist subsidiary Forge World made a couple of their own Leman Russes. They also pimped out the appearances of several types.

'''Leman Russ Conqueror'''
A Forge World creation, made during the days when a Leman Russ had to stay still to fire its fucktastic Battle Cannon. With the Lumbering Behemoth special rule for all Russes, there's not much point to a Conqueror except to look different. All it does is fire a standard Battlecannon pieplate to a shortened range of 48 inches, with the profile of Heavy 1. In standard games on a 4x6 foot table the shorter range doesn't matter. One thing worth noting about the Conqueror is that it does the same thing as a standard Russ for 20 points cheaper. Forge World still supports this tank in their FAQ's.

'''Leman Russ Annihilator'''
Specialized anti-armor Leman Russ based on the Space Marine Predator Annihilator. It trades off a template for precision Twin-Linked Lascannons. This version rolled out with the Death Korps of Krieg army, and was very popular before 5th edition changed the way a Leman Russ works. Since moving and shooting is no longer a problem, the Annihilator is pretty much pointless, but still effective. Forge World no longer supports this tank in their Apocalypse books.

==Wargear/Configuration Breakdown==
In general, you shouldn't put Multi-Melta sponsons on a Leman Fucking Russ. Despite the superiority of Melta-type weapons in 5th edition, it's extremely points-hungry and the only Russes that can really make use of it are the Punisher or Demolisher, in which case the former shouldn't be gunning at vehicles in the first place and the latter has a better weapon for serving that exact same fucking purpose. It's genuinely not worth it and is a much bigger waste of points than simply inefficient choices (such as Ogryns). A few players swear by them, but in general the Multi-Meltas are a waste of points that could have gone towards vastly better equipment for your tanks.

The Hull Heavy Flamer and sponson Heavy Flamer should also be avoided. There are dozens of better ways to get cover hate on the battlefield ([[Chimera]]s and [[Hellhound]]s coming readily to mind), and it removes your Heavy Bolter, so don't go with it. The Hull Heavy Bolter is always a good thing, however, and the Hull Lascannon is virtually always a good option for extra punch (generally shouldn't be used on a Vanquisher though). Again, if you really hate fucking cover, you have the Leman Russ Eradicator; I mean, it's why the fucking thing exists.

Sponson Bolters are generally a take 'em or not, nobody gives a shit, because it's ''20 fucking points'' for a pair of 'em and worst case scenario they add to the hull Heavy Bolter in slinging fucking shots downrange anyway, which can help a lot when fucking up [[Tyranids]] and is especially nice to have with Pask in play. It's as much as 6 extra shots, so it's not bad. They're less useful on the Punisher (which is already spraying out 23 shots by default) and Demolisher (which really doesn't need much to help the fucking Demolisher Cannon), and many players scream with [[Rage|irritation]] if they're used on them, but they remain effective and they're not a huge investment, so use them if you fucking feel like it. It's not like the Dozer Blade is any better. The points difference isn't fucking anyone.

The Plasma Cannon Sponsons, however, are a different fucking story. These need to be on the right fucking tank or they're a waste of points. They generally do better on the likes of the Exterminator and Vanquisher, giving blast effects to tanks that otherwise wouldn't have it. It's especially good on the Executioner, however, adding 2 more Plasma Cannons to the existing 3-round burst of the main gun and adding yet more raep to the firestorm. There is possibly no tank better at gangraping Tyranids and Necrons than this configuration - and god help anything in its way if it has Pask as well. In other words, whatever you put them on, make them fucking count. They aren't very good on the standard Leman Russ (because its ordnance 3 basically eclipses anything a Plasma Cannon can do). The Eradicator can make ''some'' decent use of it, mostly because its Nova Cannon doesn't pack the AP of the Battle Cannon and ergo makes a nice support weapon for dropping into a crowd that would otherwise be able to deal with the Nova Cannon. Games Workshop has a notoriously raging [[Matt Ward|hard-on]] for equipping them on Demolishers and Punishers, but this is actually a fairly bad idea; these two tanks are almost invariably better off charging headlong into the enemy's face, where they won't be firing the Plasma Cannons anyway (at least the Heavy Bolter sponsons can work with the hull Heavy Bolter and pick off stragglers after the initial insert-gun-into-face maneuver). So put these on Executioners, Exterminators, and Vanquishers only for best results - these tanks are the ones that make the best use of them.

For wargear, it's generally a good idea to avoid the pintle mounts. They simply aren't of use on a vehicle that is bristling with fucking weapons in the first place, and it's extremely hard to envision an environment wherein a player screams ''"Man, a Storm Bolter on my Leman Russ would have been the absolute BOMB right now!"'' The [[Stubber]] can be somewhat useful if only due to its range, but generally isn't simply because - again - every reason you'd use the damned thing already is covered by its fucking baseline weaponry.

The Hunter-Killer Missile is... questionable. Its unlimited range can seriously fuck with players not expecting it and it makes a good option for accosting artillery (this is actually a halfway decent choice with Pask by the way), but Chimeras and Sentinels are widely (and rightly) considered the best platform for this secondary weapon, whereas the Leman Russ is often rightly considered a somewhat wasteful (if potentially useful) platform for the weapon. Pask abuse aside, the Hunter-Killer missile generally isn't useful for Leman Russes simply because you don't need a Krak missile when any of these tanks can pack anti-vehicle punch in the form of its turret weapon or Lascannon (the latter of which any Russ can get).

Whilst he's pricey, Pask himself deserves special note - he is a great upgrade, since he makes a Russ BS4, and lets it get extra armor penetration with every weapon - including Hunter Killer Missiles and sponson weapons. This makes the Exterminator and Executioner usable for tankbusting, and pretty much guarantees first-round kill potential for the Vanquisher. He also turns the Punisher into a rape machine. He is an expensive upgrade for a tank, so again, make sure that whatever you put him in, it gets used.

==Tactics==
First and foremost, note the tank's armor ratings. It's dirt cheap, its BS is average, but it's armor value on the front is 14 and its side armor is reasonable (13). Its rear armor, however, sucks and can be damaged by many regular infantry weapons. Keep them facing the enemy at all times and do your best to keep their backs covered - you can't afford to let some dick jump infantry behind one and play catch-the-fucking-meltabomb. Treat them well and they'll treat you well.

Second, three of the Leman Russes - the Demolisher, Punisher, and Executioner - have additional rear armor. This is not enough to make them invulnerable but what it does mean is that it's no longer threatened simply by being completely surrounded by regular infantry (Hormagaunts for example). This is important for the Punisher and Demolisher, which have to get close, but the Executioner is just more survivable since it generally shoots from afar. AV 11 still isn't very good, so 'bear in mind the first example on this list and ''keep the front facing the fucking enemy''.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:LRPun.jpg| The Leman Russ Punisher. DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA for Guard.
Image:LRExec.jpg| The Leman Russ Executioner, known for making marines break out in hives.
Image:LRErad.JPG| FUCK YOUR COVER SAVES DAWG I HAS AN ERADICATOR
Image:LRBattle.gif| Even the basic Leman Russ is better than your army's tanks.
Image:LRDemo.gif| If the Leman Russ Demolisher hasn't absorbed at least 6 attempts to destroy it by turn 2, you're doing it wrong.
Image:LRVanq.jpg| When you need to fuck up a [[Land Raider]], accept no substitutes.
Image:LRExterm.jpg| The Exterminator likes to party. At 500 shots per minute.
Image:Pask.jpg| Knight Commander Pask is in dire need of some juvenat drugs. Jesus.
</gallery>

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Vehicles]]

Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Grey Knights

2012-08-05T12:30:08Z

91.152.169.235:

{{MattWard}}
This is the latest Edition's tactics. [[Warhammer_40,000/5th_Edition_Tactics/Grey_Knights|5th Edition Tactics are here.]]

==Why Play Grey Knights==
It's a Codex by the [[Mat Ward|Mattard]] meaning that it includes units stolen from other Codexes and turned up to eleven. If you enjoy Power-Armored [[Creed]] and gigantic [[Dreadknight|baby carriers]] this is the army for you.

Have you ever wanted to field an army composed entirely of Psykers and/or Terminators? Have you wanted to field an army with units so expensive that even Space Marines will outnumber you? Do you like to buttfuck daemons and hunt Chaos all day? Do you like to hop on the bandwagons of the newest codex so other players don't know how to properly counter your army yet? If you said "yes" to the first three questions, Grey Knights are for you. If you said "yes" to the fourth question, Grey Knights are PERFECT for you!

Alternatively, you're a vet, or you remember the days before this horrid codex. You'll find the Grey Knights to be easily one of the most expensive armies per-model, and sometimes grueling to play in a way that doesn't turn any gaming circle against you, but there's an army worth playing in there. All you need is a copy of the 3rd edition codex, the skills to splice fluff from the 3rd ed into the latest codex, and a sharpie to blank what remains and offends the senses, but can't be pulled out and replaced.

As far as apocalypse goes, you're pretty much boned there unless you take silly amounts of Jokaero, whose lascannons are pretty much your only bet against the Superheavy vehicles that will be stomping around the gameboard (or daemonhammers with hammerhand, discussed later). As for fliers, your only chance is to throw up as many high rate of fire weapons into the air as possible and hope something hits. Much like Chaos. It is however, hilarious to see a single PAGK one shot An'ggrath in melee.

==Unit Analysis==
Note, nearly all Grey Knight units have Nemesis Force Weapons, they are considered power weapons and after invulnerable saves are taken they take a psycic test. If passed any models are instant killed. Against multi-wound daemon, all unsaved wound result in them having to take a leadership test and are removed as causalities if they fail, though they're more likely to go down normally than for this to happen. All Grey Knights also have Preferred Enemy against Daemons.

Should be note that you can use a force weapon or hammerhand, not both.

Grey Knights don't have access to most the standard wargear of other marine armies. Their upgrades for their infantry are mostly limited to their exclusive wargear. These are their close combat weapons, all of which follow the above rules for Nemesis Force Weapons in addition to whatever else they do.

Nemesis Force Sword: Standard weapon for the codex, and augments the minimum number needed on an invulnerable save in close combat by 1 (this is probably why the Grey Knights can't use storm shields, do you honestly want to face a squad with a 2++ save?). This can be replaced with the following:

Nemesis Daemon Hammer: Standard thunder hammer plus Nemesis Force rules. It's cheap to add to a squad, so it doesn't hurt to take one.

Nemesis Force Halberd: Adds +2 initiative to wielder. Purifiers have these flying out of their asses. The only time you probably won't want them is against Orks, Imperial Guard, or Necrons, since your base initiative is generally higher than their's.

Nemesis Force Falchions: Gives an extra attack, nothing special.

Nemesis Force Warding Staff: Costs a lot of points and you only get one per unit, it gives the wielder a 2+ invulnerable save in close combat. Your enemy is usually going to avoid fighting you in CC so this isn't worth taking.

The Grey Knights all start with storm bolters, which squads and characters can spend points to buy psybolt ammo to give it an extra point of strength (this also applies to vehicles). They can be replaced with the following:

Psilencer: Nice silencer pun, asshole. Fires off six shots a turn at strength 4 and wounds daemons on a 4+ if whatever you'd roll otherwise wouldn't get a better roll. Let me tell you why you will never take one: First of all, it is meant to help you wound high toughness Greater Daemons, all of whom have toughness 6. The other two GK special weapons, the Incinerator and much beloved Psycannon, both wound these kinds of models on a 4+ or more already so the Psilencer's killing power is completely redundant.

Incinerator: Strength 6 AP 4 flamer. Not a bad choice, but generally overshadowed by the psycannon. Hilariously destructive against Blobguard, Blobtau, and Blobanids though, fire it and watch instant death melt those hundreds of units away. I've seen just a few incinerators table hormagaunt spam lists with ease.

Psycannon: Has two firing modes; whatever a model uses depends on whether or not it move that turn. In the latter mode, it fires as an assault cannon but is strength 7, and is always fired like that if the model using it is in terminator armor. Is by far the most used of the ranged weapons.

===HQ===

*'''Lord [[Kaldor Draigo]]''' - HE MAKES IT HAPPEN - The obligatory "super special character who costs more than a Land Raider" of this Codex. Creed has donned his <strike>robe and wizard hat</strike> Terminator armor and gotten hold of some of the shiniest toys mankind has to offer, making him a respectable fighter, nearly impossible to kill (2+ armor, 3+ invuln (his weapon follows rules for regular force weapons rather than Nemesis Force ones), Eternal Warrior) and a nightmare against any dedicated Daemon player, or any psykers because he becomes strength 10 when fighting either (even the Swarmlord should fear him). Additionally, if you ever wanted to field a 1,000 point army consisting of 14 models, he makes Paladins Troops. On the other hand, he sucks in the shooting phase, with just a storm bolter and an anti-daemon/psyker shooting attack that he hardly needs against either. However, now he'll have serious trouble with trying to take on other Terminators as his force weapon is AP3 to which Termi's and their equivalents can take their 2+ save against.

*'''Grand Master Mordrak''' - A Grey Knight Grand Master with a Daemonhammer, who can perfectly deep strike on turn one. Mordrak is unique in that he isn't an Independent Character; instead, he's always accompanied by a unit of up to 5 <strike>Daemons</strike> '''Ghost Knights'''. Ghost Knights are standard GK Terminators who can't take any upgrades at all, apart from a Brotherhood Banner or alternate Nemesis weapons, but they get +1 to cover saves (mostly useful against plasma/melta), and can spawn more if Mordrak takes a hit. However, if Mordrak dies, the entire unit dies, so watch out for units that can pick their targets.

*'''Brother-Captain Stern''' - A solid close-combat character, pretty much a standard Brother-Captain with a force sword, with two gimmicks. His first gimmick is the Strands of Fate ability, in which he can reroll a single to-hit, to-wound, or saving throw per turn; however, for every such roll you take, your opponent also gets to make the same kind of roll. Don't go abusing it or a canny opponent will use it to screw you over. His second gimmick is his psychic power Zone of Banishment, which makes Stern forgo his normal attacks, but causes every unit within 6" of him (friend and foe) to make a Strength test or be instantly removed as a casualty (and Daemons have to reroll this test if successful). This can be very risky if he's got a squad following him (as any respectable Independent Character should), but it makes him an absolute rape-train against tarpits.

*'''[[Castellan Crowe]]''' -Your average Brotherhood Champion with some extra toys and +50% points also. Sacrifices Force Weapon for <strike>a Daemon sword</strike> a stick that's considered a normal weapon, rends on 4+, and makes units assaulting you gain Furious Charge and re-roll to hit (Yes, he buffs your ''enemy'' if ''they'' charge ''you''; this increases the chances of being able to Heroic Sacrifice [[Abaddon|something really nasty]] if you deploy him right). In 6-th edition 4+ rending is EXTREMELY cool, because this one of the few non-monstrous AP2 (most of the times) close combat weapon without that "unwieldy" bullshit, and it autowound ANYTHING up to and including biotitans on 4+. Not really worth it unless you're planning on bringing massive amounts of Purifiers (which he makes Troops), which you should really consider doing, since Purifiers are the shit. In short if you want to [[cheese|spam psycannnons from hell to breakfast]], Crowe is the tax GW makes you pay for [[cheese|that tactic]]. Otherwise, you should be looking elsewhere.

*'''Grey Knight Grand Master'''- Your big customizable HQ choice. Grand Strategy gives a special skill to D3 of your units, and he can be kitted out to take on practically anything. Not much else needs to be said other ''than this makes a nameless character better than [[Creed]]''.

*'''Grey Knight Brother-Captain''' - Pretty much the same as a Grand Master, with the same options. Only difference is that he doesn't have Grand Strategy, can't take Psy Mastery Level 2, has one less BS, and is 25 points cheaper. Is mostly overshadowed by other choices, many players will gladly spend the extra points for Grand Strategy, and if they don't want to spend as much they'll usually get an Inquisitor.

*'''Brotherhood Champion''' - The only Grey Knight (as in, not an Inquisitor) HQ choice to not wear Terminator armor (so he can fit in Rhinos and Razorbacks). The Brotherhood Champion causes the unit he's in to re-roll failed rolls to hit on the charge, so he's the closest thing to a Chaplain the Grey Knights get, and also gets to re-roll his failed rolls to wound. He's also unusual in that he [[The Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic|doesn't attack normally and he has to pick one of three stances in the assault phase]]. "Sword Storm" has the Champion make a single attack against every enemy in base contact with him (so stick him in the thick of it); "Blade Shield" means he does not attack but can reroll any saving throw he's called upon to make (worthless, you're supposed to kill the enemy, not wait for them to kill you); and "Rapier Strike," which performs D3 Initiative 10 attacks (+1 if he charged) to any Independent Character or Monstrous Creature in base contact. If he dies in melee combat, then he can perform a psychic test to perform one final attack against another enemy model; if it hits, the enemy dies, no saves allowed. He only has one Wound, too, which means he may very well end up using this attack. Can be useful as an expensive "torpedo" unit against ''even more expensive'' enemies like Tyranid critters.

*'''Librarian''' - Psychic specialist, wears Terminator armor and has a psychic hood. He can take as many psychic powers as he likes and can be upgraded to cast up to three of them per turn, but you have to pay for each psychic power you take, so don't take anything you won't need. He has access to Smite and Vortex of Doom from the standard marine Codex, and a ton of other choices that make him a deadly HQ in any phase:
** Quicksilver, which makes a target friendly unit within 6", including the Librarian and the one he's attached to, Initiative 10 (you probably won't use this too much because of the initiative bonus granted by halberds, but you might hand to take against high initiative units like Wyches and Genestealers).
** Might of Titan which gives an extra point of strength to the Librarian and any squad he's attached to and lets them roll an extra D6 when rolling for penetration, which stacks with Hammerhand (so whatever the Grey Knights hit dies, no matter what it is).
** Warp Rift, which uses a template that forces everything caught in it to take an initiative test or they die, and vehicles suffer an automatic penetrating hit.
** Dark Excommunication, which negates all demonic gifts in base contact with Librarian before blows are struck, as if daemons weren't screwed enough already, this keeps them from hiding behind Blessings of the Blood God.
** Sanctuary, now effects all enemies and makes any enemies with 12" of the Liberian that want to assault any Grey Knight codex units (this includes non-Grey Knights) take a difficult terrain test and a dangerous terrain test.
** The Shrouding, gives a unit within 6" stealth, and if it isn't in cover it receives 6+ cover.
** The Summoning, pulls any friendly unit except for vehicles (unless they have right upgrade) to the Liberian using Deep Strike Rules.

*'''Inquisitor Torquemada Coteaz''' - Completely different from the Daemon Hunters Codex in both fluff and gameplay, but is known the less still loved. Torquemada - do not beg him for mercy. Torquemada - do not ask him for forgiveness. Let's face it - you can't Torquemada anything! - The big bad Inquisitor, with a master-crafted Daemon hammer, a psyber-eagle (which is apparently more lethal than a storm bolter), and some nasty psychic powers. If an enemy unit arrives from reserve within 12" of him, he and his unit can shoot at it, even if it's not his turn. He also makes Inquisitorial Henchmen Troops and removes the limit you have on them, so you can easily make a Grey Knights army without any actual Grey Knights. And the cherry on top? You get all of this for a paltry 100 points.

*'''Inquisitor Karamazov''' - Hang on, isn't this guy Ordo Hereticus? What's he doing here? He's no longer a Monstrous Creature anymore, despite his size, but he does have the statline of one, and has a master-crafted multi-melta (that he can fire on the move and assault in the same turn) and power sword, and an orbital strike beacon (that he can fire on a friendly unit to prevent scatter). However, he can't embark on transports and has no Invulnerable save; a single S10 hit is all that's needed to end Krazypantsoff's purges. Which, honestly, [[railgun|you can't really blame the Tau player for enjoying]]. He's an Independant Character, so you can join him with some shootty unit and PURGE EVERYTHING with orbital strikes. And he also has a nice set of grenades...

*'''Inquisitor Valeria''' - An Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with lots of nifty toys to play with. In addition to a laspistol (lol) she has a [[Blame!|Graviton Beamer]], a S10 AP1 Pistol(!) that can be fired once per game. She also carries a power weapon that lets her roll an additional two attacks, but makes her attack herself if she rolls a double for those two. Her Hyperstone Maze can instantly kill any Independent Character or Monstrous Creature, provided they roll over their remaining Wounds on a D6. Finally her last piece of special wargear means that successful saves against her attacks have to be rerolled. She's pretty reliant on chance, but her scary-good wargear makes up for her unimpressive statline.

** Note on regular Inquisitors, all three versions have much lower stat-lines than the Grey Knight HQs, but they're incredibly cheap points wise, especially given their options.

*'''Ordo Malleus Inquisitor''' - Compared to the other two, he gets Terminator Armor, Incinerators and Psycannons, Psybolt ammunition, Empyrean brain mines, the Hellrifle, a [[Heresy|Daemonblade]] that lets the player rolls 2D6 for a random ability, and Nemesis Daemonhammers. Could probably benefit the most from being made a Psyker.

*'''Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor''' - Compared to the other two, he gets Inferno Pistols, Condemnor Boltguns, Thunder Hammers, Null Rods, and Psyocculums. Probably the shootiest of the three, surprisingly.

*'''Ordo Xenos Inquisitor''' - Compared to the other two, he gets Needle Pistols, Scythian Venom Talons, Conversion Beamers, Digital Weapons, Rad and Psychotroke grenades, and the Ulumeathi Plasma Siphon, which is useful for defending against plasma-happy units. Unfortunately it won't bother plasma cannons that much and meltas will be completely unaffected. Good for going after lighter units. The horrible abomination called the Grey Knights FAQ allowed Ward to fix his shitty little siphon so he could give the Tau a little bit of the old butthurt for making the Ultramarines get off of their asses to actually do something.

*'''Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Hector Rex (Forgeworld)''' - This is one buff Inquisitor. Unlike a majority of Inquisitors (well, humans overall), Rex is as strong as your average Space Marine which is shown on his profile with him being S4 (though he remains T3 like the rest of the average humans, a tear shed in pity). Equipped with Artificer armor, Storm Shield, a bolt pistol, and a Nemesis Force Sword that requires no worse than a 4+ to wound a Daemon, Rex seems like the poor man's Draigo (though model wise he's Draigo superior, the badass looking mofo he is). He also has Psyker Mastery Level 2 along with 3 Psychic powers available to him (Sanctuary, Holocaust, and Dark Excommunication to be exact), Stubborn, and let's you take a unit of Henchmen that doesn't take up a Force Org. slot. At 175 points, he's not too shabby. Also, fluff wise, this guy is arguably the biggest badass in the Imperium, he fricking flipped off An'grath before fighting one on one, and beat him!

===Elites===

*'''Techmarine''' - While not worth it for their vehicle-repairing abilities in any codex, they have easy access to Rad and Psychotroke grenades on a Power Armored body. Stick one in with an assault unit and enjoy the results. They remain a great source of multiple flamer attacks boasted by a ton of melee attacks, so don't underestimate them if you need some cheap additional melee punch. If you actually want to make use of their repair ability putting them in a Stormraven is your best bet, since they've been recently FAQ'd to allow internal repairs.

*'''Purifier Squad''' - Super-PAGKs, Purifiers get cheaper special weapons, Fearless, and replace Warp Quake with the Cleansing Flame psychic power, which causes additional wounds to all enemy models in combat on a 4+ (but allows armor saves). These guys can probably benefit the most from a Razorback.

*'''Venerable Dreadnought''' - A more powerful Dreadnought, 60 points more expensive, but with better WS/BS and the ability to force your opponent to reroll vehicle damage. However, it competes with many other choices for the Elites slot; you may have to settle for the standard garden-variety Dread if you run out of room.

*'''Paladin Squad''' - Super-Terminators, Paladins get +1 WS, +1 Wound, the Holocaust psychic power, and can take an Apothecary for 75 Points or master-crafted weapons for 5 points each. Powerful, but extremely expensive and don't score unless you take Draigo. Steer clear of anything that inflicts Instant Death: A single Demolisher Cannon shot can ruin this expensive squad's day in a heartbeat.

*'''Assassins''' -The assassins were "fixed" in 5th ed, meaning that they lost most of their special powers. Instead they got a statline that could make a [[Eldar|Phoenix Lord]] green with envy (WS and BS 8, S and T 4, 2 wounds) and are actually viable to play now.
**'''[[Callidus]] Assassin''' - Her phase sword no longer ignores Invulnerable saves, but does inflict Instant Death. The Neural Shredder also tests against the enemy's Leadership rather than Toughness. Send her against big multi-wound thickies with poor leadership (Ogryns, Ork Nobz, etc.).
**'''[[Eversor]] Assassin''' - Comes with melta bombs, a lightning claw, and a Poisoned (2+) AP2 pistol. Pretty much guaranteed to cause some damage, and get shot to death the very next turn unless your opponent is a blind dumbass. '''Alternate strategy:''' Use this guy like [[Dark Eldar|Wyches]] and bog him down in close combat with a squad he will win against but wont kill in one turn. Easily allowing you to massacre weaker squads packed together (Those devastators should probably have been spread out, but your opponent didn't think about that, did he?) And then continue on the rampage like nothing happened.
**'''[[Culexus]] Assassin''' - Forces Leadership tests on people shooting at him, and can't be shot at if they fail this test. His gun fires faster if there are psykers around him. Good thing the Grey Knights are pretty much all psykers...
**'''[[Vindicare Assassin|Vindicare Assassin]]''' -You can no longer shoot units in combat or your own units. You can however:
***Allocate wounds he inflicts.
***Ruin any Inv. save wargear within 36" and in LoS on a roll of 2+, plus a wound on a 4+.
***Wound on 2+.
***Deal 2 wounds.
***Penetrate vehicles on 4d6. This has become a favored tactic (along with hip-thrusting, hump-catting, and bear-blasting) for taking care of AV14 vehicles that you can't simply spam to death with psycannons.
** The Vindicare is probably the one you'll use the most since he's one of the few decent long range options the Codex has.

*'''Inquisitorial Henchmen''' - Your Inquisitor's band of ragtag misfits, think of them as the Inglourious Basterds ''IN SPACE!'' Coteaz can make them Troops, but really, why aren't these guys Troops as standard?
**'''Arco-Flagellant''' - Puts out 4 S5 attacks per turn (that unfortunately allow armor saves) and has Feel No Pain. Good for being used as beatsticks against low-armor units, such as Orks or lesser daemons. Can glance light vehicles to death in a heartbeat.
**'''Banisher''' - He can take an Eviscerator, and forces Daemons within 6" to reroll their invulnerable saves. Otherwise, his statline is nothing special.
**'''Crusader''' - Comes with power weapon and storm shield, use them to suck up wounds that would otherwise be unsaveable. Not so good for offense, having only 1 attack, but at least they're cheap.
**'''Daemonhost''' - Fun the same way that Orks are, being unreliable but interesting.
**'''Death Cult Assassin''' - If you use Crusaders for defense, you use these girls for attack. S4, 3 power weapon attacks (4 on the charge) and 5+ invuln saves, they can dish out the hurt (not so much anymore as power weapons are AP3), but they can't take it.
**'''Inquisitorial Servitor''' - Well-armored and start with power fists, but are better when outfitted with heavy weapons. A cheap way to put some plasma cannons onto the field.
**'''Jokaero Weaponsmith''' - Space Monkeys that make your guns better! Yay! Also, their digital weapons can function as either a multimelta or a lascannon (and a heavy flamer, too, but who cares), making them one of two anti-armor units in the codex. Unfortunately, suffer when taken in bulk, due to being expensive and having mediocre BS.
**'''Mystic''' - Good for one thing and one thing only: Preventing deep-strikers from scattering. You shouldn't need more than one or two.
**'''Psyker''' - S10 Ap1 Large Blasts. The Vindicator wishes it could do this shit. Unfortunately you need eight of them to pull off such a powerful attack, and really when has daisy-chaining eight psykers together ''ever'' been a good idea? You know, aside from the Grey Knights.
**'''Warrior Acolyte''' - Glorified Guardsmen. They're cheap, expendable, and they can have their wargear customized:
***Any of them can swap out their usual wargear for boltguns, storm bolters, or hot-shot lasguns.
***Up to three can take meltaguns, plasma pistols, power swords, combi-weapons, etc. You can kit them out to deal with nearly anything.
***Carapace armor doubles their cost, and power armor more than triples it, but makes them a lot more survivable.

===Troops===

*'''Grey Knight Terminator Squad''' - Terminators as Troops, a Marine fanboy's dream come true! Oh, wait, you could do that with Dark Angels the whole time. And have them in the Elites as well. Anyway. Dead 'ard, killy, and ''scoring'', these guys are great for wrenching objectives from your opponent's grip. However, they will get expensive very quickly, especially if you take too many of them. Unlike PAGKs, Terminators don't lose their force weapons if you give them special weapons, like psycannons or incinerators, and Termies are Relentless, so they can be kitted out for shooting without losing any assault power. They even have grenades. Just about the only thing these guys ''don't'' have are Storm Shields (though a Force Sword gives them a 4+ invuln save in close combat so quit your bitching). New edition pimped them as all 2+ units! Now they can't be killed in initiative order with power weapons, so they are even better in close combat than they used to be.
**'''Justicar Anval Thawn''' - A Fearless Terminator Justicar with a force halberd who can stand up again on a 4+ if he dies. However, after he dies, he's a separate unit, and with only one wound he'll just end up as target practice for a Guardsman with a plasma gun. Might be good for one last "Fuck You" to the enemy, but at 75 points for a unit that isn't that much better than a standard Terminator Justicar (who is free) you're the one getting fucked. He's been slightly buffed now that he gets those character benefits and gives Fearless to the squad, but his only real use is still to force opponents at an objective to sit there and babysit him, lest he get up and claim the objective when they leave.

*'''Grey Knight Strike Squad''' - Your basic Power-Armored Grey Knights. While they're not as durable as GK Terminators (who also share the Troops slot) and have 1 Attack instead of 2, they're cheaper (You can take two PAGKs for the cost of one GK Terminator), you can fit these guys in a Rhino, which gives them some much-needed mobility, and they can Sweeping Advance, which Terminators cannot do. They also have the "Warp Quake" psychic power, which fucks up deep-strikers. Use these guys against hordes and other lighter units while your Termies handle the big guys. Keep in mind that taking a special weapon like a Psycannon or an Incinerator will cost you a Force Weapon attack or two, so think wisely.

===Dedicated transports===

*'''[[METAL_BOXES|Rhino]]''' - Look, Rhinos! RHIIIINOS! Our Grey Knights are hiding in MEHTAL BAWKSES, the cowards! THE FOOLS! Pretty much a must for PAGKs, they give Strike Squads, Purifiers, and Purgation Squads some much needed mobility. Cannot carry Terminators, so leave these at home if you plan to take a lot of them.

*'''Razorback''' - A Rhino with a big gun on the back. Good for providing fire support for PAGKs of all kinds.

*'''Inquisitorial Chimera''' - Pretty much only good for Inquisitors and their henchmen, you shouldn't need more than one or two unless you want to field a no-GK army. In which case you may as well be playing Imperial Guard, although they can take Terminator's in them! BAWKSES, FOR TERMINATORS!

===Fast Attack===

*'''Stormraven Gunship''' - Flying Land Raider, covered in guns, good for transport and blowing shit up. Use them to drop Interceptors and Dreadnoughts into your opponent's midst. Also, it can take a teleport homer, which allows you to zip around and safely deploy reserves in addition to its transport capabilities. Finally, unless you're bringing lots of Jokaero, this is your only method of getting effective anti-armor into your list. Seriously consider taking as many of these as you can afford to. However, instead of the badass Bloodstrike Missiles you get Mindstrike Missiles, so your only tank-killing goodness comes from Multi-Meltas and Typhoon Missile Launchers. Alternatively, you can fit it with Psybolt Ammunition for an extra 20 points and turn the twin-linked Assault Cannon into a S7 AP4 with Rending that can at least glance (if not penetrate) Landraiders and Monoliths on one out of 6 hits. And with the flyer rules (shooting four weapons at full BS, not counting the one extra from Power of the Machine Spirit), the hurricane bolters (at S5 due to the Psybolt ammunition) become a great way to tear through light vehicles and infantry.

Alternatively, you can fit it with Psybolt Ammunition for an extra 20 points and turn the twin-linked Assault Cannon into a S7 AP4 with Rending that can at least glance (if not penetrate) Landraiders and Monoliths on one out of 6 hits. And with the flyer rules (shooting four weapons at full BS, not counting the one extra from Power of the Machine Spirit), the hurricane bolters (at S5 due to the Psybolt ammunition) become a great way to tear through light vehicles and infantry.

*'''Grey Knight Interceptor Squad''' - Your only other Fast Attack choice, these are just PAGKs with teleporter packs that make them look like something from a cheesy '50s sci-fi movie. Ask the enemy to take them to their leader.

===Heavy Support===

*'''Purgation Squad''' - Your Devastators. A PAGK Strike Squad that can take four heavy weapons without restriction, instead of one per five models. Park them in cover or they will die. Oh, and due to Astral Aim, they don't even need line of sight to their targets anymore (but the targets will get a 4+ cover save). Incinerator's work wonders here, seeing as they ignore cover saves.

*'''Dreadnought''' - It's a Dreadnought, what's not to like? Autocannons with psybolt ammunition make for surprisingly nice long-ranged anti-tank (two twin-linked Autocannons with Psybolt ammo is 10 points cheaper than a twin-linked Lascannon) but the Assault Cannon is better for close range. It's no slouch in melee either (unless the DCCW was exchanged for another gun). However, it shares the common Dreadnought weakness of meltas and monstrous creatures. Psyfleman dreads are the bane of transports, pumping out FOUR count them, FOUR s8 shots at long range. 3 of these plus 3 Venerable psyfledreads can blow apart anything below AV 13 to bits without breaking a sweat.

*'''Nemesis Dreadknight''' - Xzibit's take on Power Armor, this unit alone is probably responsible for at least 30% of the [[rage]] directed against the Grey Knights. A mechanical Monstrous Creature with a 2+ armor save and a 5+ invulnerable save, this thing is designed to take on Greater Daemons, Tyranid bio-monsters, and the like. Slap three on the field and watch your opponent complain incessantly. However: 130 points seems cheap, but keep in mind that this means it will have no upgrades or ranged weapons at all; ranged weapons cost 30+ points apiece, and the Teleporter costs 75 points. Close combat upgrades are the cheapest and may help in melee, but you'll be down -1 Attack for close combat for giving up one of your doomfists. You may as well, because you don't get any real benefit from Doomfists - they're Dreadnought Close Combat weapons, and so a Monstrous Creature can't use them to buff himself to Strength 10. It's purely there because Games Workshop didn't want to give him one of the other Nemesis Force Weapons to make him Initative 6, Strength 10, 4+ Invulnerable save, or anything else (because giving him Falchions is stupid, and giving him any other weapon is overpowered). The Teleporter does not make them lose Monstrous Creature status. Watch out for Necrons and Gargoyles, they will ruin your shit. He also is the only one non-fearless MC in entire 40k, so beware the IG psyker squad on Chimera, or even paired with Hellhound, because it could tank shock this guy, and chase him in 6’, for no regroups allowed. Be afraid of Dark Eldar players, their Venoms, Warriors, Hellions and Scourges can drop a surprising amount of poisoned shots on your Dreadknights in one turn, Blasterborn squads will rape a Dreadknight unless you take the Field. Even still just don't take it against Dark Eldar armies PERIOD. Even 10 Wyches pistoling this guy to death will kill him.

*'''Land Raider/Crusader/Redeemer''' - The choice of Space Marines everywhere for Terminator transport, the Grey Knights Land Raiders are similar to the Land Raiders used by everyone else. The standard "Godhammer" pattern is schizo, the Crusader has the best transport capacity, and the Redeemer is excellent for mowing down swarms of troops. In 6-th ed. defense weapon rules are gone, so don't fear to take Psybolt ammunition for the Crusader. Unlike other Marine Chapters, you get Psycannons instead of Assault cannons, meaning you have longer range and higher strength, for no penalty.

===Apocalypse units===
'''GREY KNIGHTS THUNDERHAWK GUNSHIP (Forgeworld)''': Like regular Thunderhawk, BUT EVEN BETTER. It can replace ALL of its four twin-linked heavy bolters for twin-linkerd Psycannons for 20 pts only. Trololo. Just remember, thet with 6-th ed there would be A LOT more skyfire weapons all around.

==Tactics==

===Anti-Armor Tactics===
While anything AV 10-<s>12</s> will pose about as much challenge to your psycannons as wet cardboard, AV 13-14 can be a problem. You don't have many good options for tank hunting and its important to choose the right one. The first option is <s>[[cheese|MOAR PSYCANNONS]]. Even AV14 will eventually falter under a hail of S7 rending shots, this just isn't the most efficient use of them.</s> not to use Psycannons primarily as anti-armour because Rending is Hail Mary faggotry even with 4-8 shots per unit, so instead invest in some Dreadnoughts with Psycannon Bolts and Twin-Linked Autocannons. 4 twin-linked S8 shots per turn per Dread is enough to push damage past most cover saves (unless you have some fucker with a GK Librarian giving everything Stealth) and is good for most vehicles between AV10 and 12; for everything else, there's Meltaguns. Your second option is a Vindicare. His special penetrating shot will allow you to neutralize <s>armor early on</s> one tank per turn at best assuming it fails it's cover save at <s>long range</s> 36 inches which is not really long range. It <s>can be</s> is fragile and too expensive, but this has come out as the favorite choice for most <s>armies</s> cockmonglers. The third choice, if by some exceptionally <Strike>bad</strike> manly choice you've built a Coteaz army, is to use [[Jokaero|laser apes]]. Since their digital weapons can count as both lascannons and meltas (among others) they are equipped to deal with just about any situation. They also have special Monkey Powers which make ordinarily-nasty weapons even nastier. Rending Multimeltas with 36" range? Yes please.

You can also spam Razorbacks with lascannons, but your best bet is to just bite the bullet and bring Coteaz with a bunch of Meltagun Henchmen in Chimeras and use them like Imperial Guard Vet squads. Using Coteaz also lets you bring Death Cult Assassins, which you should due to dual-wield Initiative 6 power weapons that murder most everything in close combat and also DAT ASS. Run them in Chimeras so you can team them up with a Librarian for maximum rape-train (+2 Strength with 2D6 for armour penetration = they will kill Walkers as well as everything else, including Paladins).

===Glance to the death!===
In new edition autocannons are even more cheesy then they used to be cause now venichles have HP, which they loose with EVERY glance. So take your dreads and glance LRs to death. Watch your opponents crying. Plasma-henchmen and psycannons are nice in glancing AV 10-12, and even 13. Enjoy.

===Army variants===

*'''Draigo's Shiny Dozen:''' Take Draigo, take 2-3 squads of Paladins as troops with diverse wargear, don't forget the psycannons and maybe a Psyfleman dreadnought or 2, a Landraider is useful, but you will lose something for it. Below 1,500 points you will literally have roughly 12 models on the field. This army is good for newbies as it does not require many time and money to build it.

*'''Coteaz Leaf Blower:''' Remember those annoying as fuck leaf blower lists that finally made IG in 5th edition an army to be feared for the first time in 40k? Well Coteaz can imitate these lists, using GK Psyfleman Dreadnoughts, Henchmen squads of Jokaero spamming lascannons/meltas and Warrior Acolytes packing meltaguns/flamers in Chimeras acting as MechVets. There aren't really any extras you can add to this as you're taking full Troops and Heavy Support slots, if you have spare points grab a Vindicare assassin and GK Veteran Psyfleman Dreadnoughts to max out that long-to-mid range anti-tank. Advantages over the IG variants is the stupidity of lasermonkeys, GK vehicles using Fortitude and Vindicare Assassins. The disadvantages are that people already hate you for being GK, anything that can get to close combat will auto-win, although this really shouldn't happen, only Vanguard Veterans and CSM Lesser Daemons can assault the turn they deepstrike to the best of my knowledge, everything else needs to survive for at least one of your shooting phases, that said watch out for Dark Eldar Wych lists, if you're too far forward they can pull of their first turn assault shenanigans, so against DE army that is Wych heavy(unlikely as it is) use your Chimeras as a buffer against them, also keep your dreadnoughts back as they can assault them, avoid being shot due to being in CC and thanks to Haywire grenades they have a reasonable chance of beating it and then moving onto your less resilient squads.

*'''Purifires:''' This is the way many people love to play GK in Russia. They fill out their troops choices with 5-6 Puries with psycannons on las-plas razors, one pack include 8-9 Purifiers and Libby which ride a Land Raider or Stormraven to rape everything in CC. Garran Crowe (which is motherfucking badass and has a cool look) is taken as HQ. Psyflemen dreads are used as heavy support. So you can have motherfucking gunline which deals with almost any armor and not to suck in HtH.

===What to buy===
every time you buy Grey Knights, Ward gets a raise. Buy more Coteaz, and get some Sisters of Battle to provide the Inquisitorial Henchmen, thereby denying Ward his money.

Also, if you want there's a better way to use Grey Knight without having to buy their specific models. The Space Marines have a chapter similar to the Knights and it's called the Exorcists. Check them out on the Warhammer40kwikia for a complete history. Basically, they are a secret project conducted by the Inquisition in which they have the Marines possessed and later exorcised so they can gain a resistance to Chaos. Plus they are invisible to all the Daemons except the ones who are incredibly powerful. They have a mutual respect going on with the Inquisition and apparently team up with them on various occasions. This gives players a fluffy reason to field them with Inquisitors on the field. So there you have it, buy Space Marine models, paint them in Exorcist colors, and make Matt Ward cry.

For people NOT interested in being butt-hurt over the latest codex and instead just want to play /TheGame/, a good starting choice is, of course, a couple squads of either GKTs or GKSSs, depending on your financial restrictions and what amount of points you're looking to start with. For the recently-inducted, 500-750 pt. games are a good way to get your feet wet, and thus you will probably want to go for a pair of GKSSs and a Librarian [whose psychic attacks are fuck-right devastating]. A good expansion will be with Terminators and one of the more specialized HQ units, or if you're looking to have some diversity, an Inquisitor and their retinue. Invest in at least one Stormraven, a Dreadknight, and either a Rhino or a Land Raider, depending on the balance of power-armor units to terminators, respectively. And of course, be sure to ignore the people rolling their eyes for selecting the Grey Knights; Matt Ward's silliness aside, the Grey Knights ARE a pretty fuckawesome army list with a good aesthetic design for the hobbyists and, with practice and patience, can efficiently lay waste to anyone they stand against. If you balk at the Grey Knights fighting something other than daemons, well...if you look hard enough and scream you battle litanies loud enough, ANYTHING you set in front of your Knights on the tabletop will look like a daemon.

[[Category: Warhammer Tactics]]

Dark Heresy

2012-07-31T14:27:34Z

91.152.169.235:

{{Game Infobox
|name = Dark Heresy
|picture = [[Image:DHlogo.gif|200px]]
|type = RPG
|system = d%
|playno = 3+
|time = 10+ minutes
|publisher = Fantasy Flight Games
|authors = Owen Barnes, Kate Flack, Mike Mason
|year = 2008
|books = Dark Heresy Core Rulebook
}}

'''''Dark Heresy''''' is an RPG set in the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' universe. It is to 40k as ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'' is to ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'', and indeed uses a very similar system.

Basically you're fucked like in [[WFRP]], only instead of dying from blood poisoning caused by a dirty pitchfork you get to have your innards blown across the wall and then subsequently set on fire by a plasma gun (probably your own). This is if you are lucky. All kinds of worse things can happen - being eaten by xenos or hungry daemons, afflicted by Chaos mutation, and if you are especially unfortunate... *gulp* .... surviving to reach Inquisitorhood. It has the best critical hit charts ever made. You don't even need the rest of the game (although it is all good, it's just a LOT). Just start a campaign, wing it, and whenever anyone gets a good hit, roll on the critical hit charts. Holy fucking hell, did boiling bone marrow just turn my femur into a frag grenade? Fuck.

All player characters are supposed to be human acolytes working for the [[Inquisition]], although they may come from many different vocations. From the feral world warrior to the hive ganger, from the inducted Guardsman to the detached Sister of Battle. However, whilst the official adventures focus on inquisitorial investigations, the authors themselves have acknowledged the ease of relocating the game's focus to other aspects of the 41st millennium, such as an [[Imperial Guard]] platoon where all player characters are soldiers in one of the many warzones.

Some anons have expressed dislike towards Dark Heresy due to the limited power-level, as the current official ruleset does not allow players to assume the roles of [[Space Marine|Spess Mehreens]] or any aliens, since those characters <strike>(with the exception of Squats)</strike> would simply be unfit for this kind of gameplay. So, if you want to play Spess Mehreens, Farseers or Fire Warriors, ''Dark Heresy'' might not be for you - get yourself the respective first-person shooters or gb2[[Exalted]]. Or better yet, [[Mutants and Masterminds]]. (Or you could just get the Inquisitor, Rogue Trader, or Deathwatch additions to fulfill your Mary/Marty Sue/Stu fantasies. You're still not going to get to play as xenos though, you filthy heretic. Unless you're a kroot merc or [[Awesome|fighty Ork pirate]] in Rogue Trader. And, even then, the rest of the group will have to be pretty lax and reasonable about the heresy of working with xen-{{BLAM}})

However, there are also several player-created supplements dealing with additional career paths like Adeptus Astartes or xenos races like Orks. Check the Dark Reign link at the end of the page for this kind of material, should playing ordinary people with [[Imperial Guard|balls of steel]] be beneath your dignity.

[[Image:DarkHeresyCore.jpg|thumb|right|Actual DH cover]]
[[Image:Tgdhcover.jpg|thumb|right|Alternate DH cover]]

==Careers==

Including the Inquisitor's Handbook supplement, the playable character classes and career trees are:
*'''Adept''' (Lexograph or Logister) - The brains of the party, quite useful when it comes to knowledge.
*'''[[Sisters of Battle|Adepta Sororitas]]''' (Famulous, Hospitaller or Battle Sister) - Nuns with guns.
*'''Arbitrator''' (Enforcer or Investigator) - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aaubVlhNK4 Judge Dredd] in space. 'Nuff said.
*'''Assassin''' (Nihilator or Infiltrator) - They kill stuff, either fast and bloody or slow and painful (depending on career).
*'''Cleric''' (Confessor or Zealot) - Clerics of the [[Empra]]. Imagine a priest with a sawn-off shotgun.
*'''Guardsman''' (Stormtrooper, Officer or Sniper) - See [[Imperial Guard]]
*'''[[Psyker|Imperial Psyker]]''' (Savant or Scholar) - Can try to channel the chaotic energies of the warp, usually with [[not as planned|mixed results]].
*'''Scum''' (Ganger or Fixer) - The rogues of 40k actually have a skill called "blather".
*'''Tech-Priest''' (Technomancer or Omniprophet) - Borg clerics of the Omnissiah.

Although all characters need to be human, their origins may vary wildly. To give just a few examples: feral world people tend to behave like Conan whilst hive-worlders could best be compared to Shadowrun characters, and the Schola Progenium produces fanatical Nazi zealots. Voidborn characters are usually just strange because of their pale skin - good luck convincing that angry mob over there your friend isn't a mutant.

[[Image:DH flow.jpg|thumb|right|Accurate depiction of a ''Dark Heresy'' game.]]

==Important Things to Remember==

*[[Grimdark|Grim darkness]] is grim.
*Nobody expects the Imperial [[Inquisition]].
**Not even the [[Inquisitor]].
*When the [[Psyker]] attempts to use his [[not as planned|powers]], knock him out.
*That guy over there looks strange. He is probably a heretic.
*'''USE COVER!'''
*'''USE GRENADES TOO!'''
*You're probably fucked anyways.
*If you meet a Chaos Space Marine; you're already dead, you're just too stupid to realize it yet.

==How To Survive A Firefight==
Dark Heresy has something of a reputation for being highly lethal - your average starting character has somewhere between 9 and 14 wounds at most, and most rifle-class weapons do 1d10+3 damage on a hit - but assuming your GM isn't a complete dick and your characters fight intelligently, you can generally come off very well against most varieties of human opponent, and careful planning and equipment selection can even the odds even when fighting against xenos or demons.

Crucially, nobody takes as much damage as you might assume at first glance. Although the listed damage of weapons seems high compared to a character's total wounds, your toughness bonus and armour points both considerably reduce incoming damage. A starting Guardsman ignores between 6-8 points of damage from every attack, and that's assuming he's standing in the open like a gormless idiot. On top of this, one of the most commonly forgotten aspects of the Dark Heresy combat system is that everyone gets one Reaction per round, which can (among other things) be spent at any time to attempt to dodge or parry an attack, completely negating it. Although the odds of success aren't always fantastic, it's better to try and dodge that shot or parry that axe than sit there and take it!

Equipment selection is also very important. Although badass characters can indeed be very dangerous even with poor gear, even a low-rank inexperienced character can dramatically improve their combat effectiveness by making prudent choices when it comes to their loadout. If an acolyte cell plans together and chooses their equipment to complement each other, they can make themselves very deadly as a team. For a start, a set of Guard Flak armour is inexpensive, commonly available, comfortably wearable by all but the most unusually weedy characters, and dramatically improves your resilience to incoming fire. Any cell of acolytes that expects serious combat should be able to at least equip all its members with a set of Guard Flak, if it can't afford anything better.

When it comes to weapons, anyone can and should carry a few grenades if at all possible. Even for a character with low ballistic skill and no proficiency with grenades, all you need to do is land them reasonably close to whoever you're trying to hit. Depending on the precise situation, you might even be able to get away with dropping them on unsuspecting opponents from above or letting them roll down slopes to your foes, and they have the potential to injure multiple enemies at a time. Used properly, then can help turn the tide in a battle where you find yourself outnumbered.

The cell's primary firearms should be chosen to work well together. Weapons that can fire fully-automatic and weapons that have the Accurate quality are generally your best choices. A good hit with a full-auto burst can do serious damage to enemies, but by far their most important aspect is the ability to lay down Suppressive Fire. Crucially, even if you have terrible ballistic skill and no training with the weapon you're using, your ability to suppress enemies is completely unhindered. Your burst of fire almost certainly won't hit anything, but the difficulty of the test your foes must make to resist being pinned is unchanged regardless of how well you can aim. This can give less combat-oriented careers, such as the Adept, an important role to play when it comes to a fight, where they might otherwise have been reduced to hiding behind something heavy and occasionally plinking away with some crappy pistol.

High BS characters can be quite dangerous with fully automatic weapons, but should give serious consideration to using Accurate single-shot weapons, especially if they've picked up the Talents for making Called Shots at reduced penalty. Not only does an Accurate weapon grant an additional bonus to your chances to hit if you take the time to aim it, it can do extra dice of damage on a good shot - unlike a full-auto attack, this is a single hit that does more damage rather than multiple hits that are each individually subject to reduction by the target's toughness and armour. This makes Accurate weapons great at punching through the damage reduction of particularly tough enemies, particularly if combined with the Called Shot to aim for a part of the target that is less well armoured or isn't in cover properly. With appropriate weapon modifications (such as the Red Dot Sight) and a Half Action to aim, the acolyte is looking at at least a +30 bonus to hit. Most firefights will take place well within an Accurate weapon's effective short range, raising that bonus to +40.

Combine these two classes of weapon within your group, and you'll have some acolytes that lay down suppressive fire and force enemies into cover and some who can take accurate potshots at the suppressed enemies to take them down with little fear of receiving effective return fire. Any foe who manages to find cover sufficient to shield him from all shots can probably be reached with a well-placed grenade.

A good rule of thumb for any firefight is that if you're not in cover, all you should be doing is trying to change this state of affairs. Even if you're a tough guy in decent armour, the small amounts of damage that come through will add up if you're under fire by a lot of enemies. Take cover as quickly as you can whenever you can, and you drastically increase your odds of survival. Just as importantly, you must not be afraid of running away! The feeling that the group has to defeat every encounter that comes their way leads to many deaths. Sometimes, retreating in order to fight again some other day, hopefully better prepared, is the best option. If the fight isn't going your way - you're getting surrounded, taking too many injuries, or running out of munitions - make a break for it.

A cell of acolytes is at its most dangerous if it can prepare the area of the fight beforehand. Your role doesn't always have to be offensive, kicking in the cultists' door and firing wildly, hoping for the best; if you can figure out some way to lure your enemies to a carefully prepared killing zone (for example, your cell might pose as black market merchants with whom your enemies try to trade for supplies in order to bring them out of hiding), you hold a significant advantage. Heavy cover can be prepared in advance, with machine-gunners ready in hiding to cut down unsuspecting foes; scenery where enemies are likely to try and take cover once the fight begins can be rigged with booby traps or remote-detonator explosives. You can also position your group to surround the enemy and possibly attack from above, making it very difficult for them to find effective cover in the first place.

In conclusion, equipment and cohesive tactics are what make or break an acolyte cell in a serious firefight. Although having experience, high skills and plenty of talents helps, a lack of these is more than made up for by pimped out gear and a good plan. If you have both, your cell can become a force to fear even for very well trained and equipped enemies.

==Sample Combat==

The party of bold/stupid/adventurous and ignorant members (perfect =][= material really) was investigating a psychic disturbance up on a large hillock of shale and scree. Upon getting most of the way up, the Arbites slips arse over head on loose scree and goes tumbling down, taking the Scum with him in the process in a manner which would please the chaos gods with its twisted irony... despite the Arbites denying it was deliberate as they tumble down together.

Both him and the Scum are really busted up in a tangled mess of broken bones, skulls and dirt at the bottom of the hill. The well-intentioned but stupid Psyker decides to save the day by announcing that he'll fix them up, and before Angry Nun can finish screaming out "no don't the veil is weak here!" he's happily botching a power roll.

"A Horror of the ruinous ones appears!" 
Arbites promptly passes out in fear 
Scum runs screaming, defecating and hobbling 
Tech Priest runs behind the truck, soiling his robes 
Psyker runs screaming so he can die tired 
Angry Nun gets angry(er) 

DING DING 
Round One! 
Horror sets Psyker on fire and sets off in pursuit 
Angry Nun hauls out 10G sawn-off and holy plasms of banishing, begins chasing the Horror (bold and stupid!) 
Psyker burns a bit but is still mostly functional at running 
Tech Priest snaps a shot off at the horror with las-carbine, doesn't do very much, resumes hiding 
Scum: "Weeeeza gunna diiiiiie!"; runs screaming for cover 
Arbites: "zzzz" 

DING DING 
Round Two! 
Horror lands a good old fire-bolt to the back of the Psyker and sets the truck on fire 
Angry Nun scores a good hit with some banishing water and hurts the Horror a bit 
Psyker is in a fair bit of pain, still on fire and running around going "Ow! Ow! Ow! Oh God-Emprah it burns!" 
Tech Priest notices the sacred machine is in pain and needs fixing 
Scum does what scum do and hides under the truck 
Arbites: "zzzz" 

DING DING 
Round Three! 
Horror bolts the Psyker a bit more 
Angry Nun grievously hurts the Horror a bit more 
Psyker is still on fire and roughly at about 0 wounds and about to go into criticals, agony level of about 8/10 
Tech Priest is doing badly at putting fire out 
Scum catches fire underneath the truck 
Arbites: 'zzzz' 

DING DING 
Round Four! 
Horror blows the foot off the Psyker with a bolt 
Angry Nun is busting up the Horror pretty good, but a bad roll on the dice means a lot less damage than hoped (even after a re-roll on a fate point) 
Psyker, still on fire, minus foot and now crawling in agony 
Tech Priest managing to get the truck fire under control 
Scum rolls around on fire 
Arbites wakes up, shrieks a bit and passes out again 

DING DING 
Round Five! 
Horror lands another bolt... 
Angry Nun snaps off some serious pain on the Horror, he's looking very wobbly now 
Psyker detonates in a shower of meat, shrapnel, armour and exploding munitions; the area is now safe, except for the Horror 
Tech Priest gets injured by chunks of Psyker 
Scum gets injured by chunks of Psyker, continues burning 
Arbites: 'zzzz' 

DING DING 
Round Six! 
Angry Nun vs Horror at the same initiative 
Angry Nun pulls trigger on sawn-off shotgun 
Horror lets loose with a Psychic Scream 
Angry Nun falls down on 5pts of Fatigue, Horror explodes in shower of gibs and returns whence it came 
Psyker rains down on the landscape in burning chunks 
Tech Priest puts the Scum out 
Scum is much happier now that he's not on fire anymore 
Arbites: 'zzzz' 

==Software==
*[[Servitor_Bot|An IRC bot with DH functions coded by /tg/ anonymous.]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffgforums/forums/show/53.page Official Forums from FFG]
*[http://www.darkreign40k.com Dark Reign, a ''Dark Heresy'' fansite with lots of additional material.]
*[http://darkheresy.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Heresypedia, another fansite for ''Dark Heresy''.]
*[http://1d4chan.org/stuff/darkheresytraits.xls A spreadsheet listing traits and at what rank they can be taken for the various classes.]
*[[The Guy Who Cried Grendel]]
*[http://www.cold-moon.com/40k/40kRP/DHCampaign/CharacterSheets.htm The character sheets, available for printout. You know, because copying breaks the rulebook's poor little spine.]

==Crit Tables==
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
|- valign=middle align=center
!Method / Location !! Leg !! Head !! Body !! Arm
|- valign=middle align=center
! Rending
|[[Image:DH CH rending leg.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH rending head.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH rending body.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH rending arm.JPG|thumb]]
|- valign=middle align=center
! Impact
|[[Image:DH CH impact leg.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH impact head.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH impact body.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH impact arm.JPG|thumb]]
|- valign=middle align=center
! Explosive
|[[Image:DH CH explosive leg.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH explosive head.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH explosive body.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH explosive arm.JPG|thumb]]
|- valign=middle align=center
! Energy
|[[Image:DH CH energy leg.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH energy head.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH energy body.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH energy arm.JPG|thumb]]
|}

[[Category:warhammer 40,000]]
[[category:roleplaying]]

Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard

2012-07-26T20:44:56Z

91.152.169.235:

This is the latest Edition's tactics. [[Warhammer_40,000/5th_Edition_Tactics/Imperial_Guard|5th Edition Tactics are here.]]

==Why Play Imperial Guard==

When recruits are inducted into the Imperial Guard, they are given four things. Their regulation flashlight (commonly referred to by the troops as "lasguns" for some reason), their regulation cardboard box (which certain regiments have taken to cutting up and wearing into battle, calling it "flak armor"), a large stack of toilet paper (which the recruiters refer to as the "Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer"), and ''the regulation extra large wheelbarrow'' that allows them to cart their ''massive brazen balls'' into battle.

From a gameplay perspective, the Imperial Guard army is a flexible force known for having either hordes of cheap infantry, waves of tanks, or a medium in between. The army is easy to learn while having a lot of options and tactics being discovered frequently (melta veterans in Chimeras are not the sole option in the Guard army after all).

That's why you play the Imperial Guard.

Additionally, you are the second most powerful army in Apocalypse, and the standard by which all other apocalypse armies are measured. You are absolutely spoiled for forgeworld choices with everything from the dinky little lightning fighter to the unholy rape machine that is the Imperator Class Titan. And why is Chaos better than you? Because of a small footnote by the side of the Vindicator Linebreaker Formation. In short, it details that Chaos armies may use ANY AND ALL Imperial Datasheets as long as they have spieks on them. Building your Lightning Fighter wing? Chaos get that with their Hell Talon support. Imperator Titan? Chaos can subvert one with fuckhueg spikes. Fortress of Arrogance? Chaos Yarrick makes you his bitch. Daemon Lords? You don't get those. For once, Chaos is the one giving not receiving.

So the only way to be better than the Imperial Guard in Apoc is to use Imperial Guard units plus daemonic bullshit. Still a win for IG.

==Unit Analysis==

===HQ===
*'''Company Command Squad:''' This squad provides leadership to the many. It orders around those who can order around others.This unit gets orders. It gets an ample selection of gear, and extra dudes. This includes a 30pt template weapon, penalize the enemy reserve rolls and bonuses to your own. This unit can have its leader switched out with other named leaders with awesome powers and gear. This should be your HQ of choice. The only sad part is that you can only take two of them.
**'''[[Creed|Ursarkar E. Creed]]:''' For a decent point cost, one Company Commander may be upgraded to Creed. Creed is pretty nifty for being able to use a lot of douchebaggery with his Tactical Genius special rule. But he should be known for his massive 24" command bubble and his 4 orders per turn. Seriously. You don't have to use his ability to run a Leman Russ into their flank, you can also send your tanks in with a Scouts rule BEFORE MOVEMENT. No one expects it, and it can help you get the drop on enemies or even force someone's hand. If you have the first turn, you can position your Leman Russ tanks to do some serious damage to the enemy line, or even move your Heavy Weapons squads into a position. Technically, after they get their scouts moves, they can fire. Creed might be fun for being a dick, but when you're running a solid force, he is an excellent asset for any force that might need a bit more mobility in their army list. But outflanking with a [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord Titan]] certainly helps too.
**'''Sergeant Kell:''' With him at Creed's side, all squads can use Creed's leadership (10) for any orders he issues to them. Kell himself is kinda tough too, and comes with a Power Fist. You shouldn't take Creed without Kell.
**'''[[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken]]:''' In 6th, Straken has been considerably buffed, being one of the only units in the game that has a CC weapon that ignores all armour saves now that power weapons are only AP3, and most AP2 CC weapons are I1. Straken makes Hammernators crap their metal pants. Of course, he is unlikely to survive unless his squad is optimized for such an occasion, so it would be a good idea to have 3-4 Melta Guns and 2 Bodyguards or Nork Deddog to accompany him. This way, you can charge most CC units and get away with it. Pansies, Dark Pansies and Space Egyptians may give you trouble though. Also, you may have to bite your tongue if you come up against a squad full of power weapons, i.e Space Marines. Instead, pull back, shoot them to pieces, and then throw a pie plate on top of them. Don't forget you can measure their threat distance to be sure.
**'''Nork Deddog:''' Nork is one o' da smartest Ogryns. He and da commanda have a bond. When he dies, he attacks every bad guy trying to hurt the commander. If your command squad is going to be in the fray of battle, take this somewhat expensive body guard. Doesn't get along well with Commissars, so be careful if you take them both.
** '''COMPANY COMMAND ADVISORS''' (WHO THE HELL FORGOT THESE?!)
***Bodyguard: He's just a little Sergeant, but if you want to wreck shit with an suprising-as-hell assaulty command squad, add two of these to Straken (if you don't take Nork) and watch the other player's reaction when the little man-things suddenly start whipping everything else. Comes armed with a close combat weapon and laspistol, basically being a sergeant without any extra options.
***Officer of the Fleet: Why AREN'T you using these?! Officer of the Fleet is a great asset to add to a command squad. The Officer forces a -1 on enemy reserve rolls, and could seriously jeopardize their well-thought schemes. However, he won't stop drop pods and if the enemy doesn't reserve anything you've wasted the points. In combat, the Officer is as good as dead. A massive fuck you towards Daemons players.
***Astropath: Why AREN'T you using these?! The Astropath is the best advisor, along with the Officer of the Fleet, and the two added together make for serious [[troll]]ing. While the Officer of the Fleet forces the enemy's reserve rolls to be higher, the Astropath makes YOUR reserve rolls lower. So while the enemy is butthurt about not getting his precious reserves, suddenly yours are arriving on the table much more easily. If you take Storm troopers, you NEED this guy. In combat, the Astropath is as good as dead.
***Master of Ordnance: This guy is like a tiny Basilisk. Once per turn he is able to call down a Basilisk-type attack on the enemy, subject to scatter. Not very good unfortunately, but can be fun for spamming pie plates. However, since the bombardment has an unlimited range, if you place Master of Ordnance correctly, it can be used to troll Ork and Tyranid swarms with a Strength 9 plate of instant death.

*'''Lord Commissar:''' Lord Commissar is a Independent buffed out Commissar, the key ability of him makes everyone around him LD10 and Stubborn. And that is [[awesome]]. The main issue is that he is a kill point himself and he takes away a slot of HQ for more Company Commanders. Let it not be said that he doesn't have his own uses, though. You want a blob-platoon to do REALLY well? Bind 'em into one giant squad, put a Lord Commissar in there and run it all over the place killing everything in sight. Seriously. 30 guys means 3 Sergeants with Power Weapons, 60+ attacks on the charge and a Lord Commissar with a Power Weapon as gravy. It's also Stubborn, so watch your friends complain about how the squad is still coming at them despite missing half of the people once in it. If you're feeling particularly threatened, <strike>equip him with a camo cloak and attach him to a fifty-man squad for instaStealth</strike>. Doesn't work anymore, shit got FAQ'd. Camo cloaks don't give Stealth anymore, they just improve the bearer's cover save by 1.
*'''[[Commissar Yarrick]]:''' Awesome fluffy man. Costs quite a bit. Very close combat oriented. He can come back from the dead... a lot. He has some nifty gadgets. Yarrick also has a reputation of being nasty as crap in close combat; he can take on Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka one-on-one and have a fighting chance of coming out on top. He's got a power-<s>fist</s>klaw, a decent WS, and he's got Eternal Warrior and his come back from the dead bullshit. Due to a technicality, the Fortress of Arrogance, alongside Old Man Yarrick, is available to Chaos forces in Apocalypse.
*'''Primaris Psyker:''' Puts out fucking good punch in the form of Lightning Arc, has a decent stat-block, and all for a nice low price. Solid overall stats with minimal upgrades needed out-the-box, which makes him damned efficient. While considered to be at its best in small games, where a player can take two and run them around firing 4d6 S6 lightning blasts everywhere, the real punch in the Primaris comes from his cost and the availability of Nightshroud, which can protect critical units for a turn and help fuck with enemies trying to damage mission-critical targets like artillery vehicles or commanders. Also offers a Force Weapon, for dissuading CQC attackers, since players will be hesitant to send a killy IC into combat against a squishy guard unit if it means they could lose it to a Force Weapon strike. Like the Lord Commissar, the Primaris frequently isn't as useful as a standard Command HQ, but can still be fuck-mothering useful if you use its abilities to their fullest. In 6th edition he can be doubly powerful because of his ability to take a psychic power from a discipline.
*'''Ministorum Priest:''' This guy is somewhat iffy. His abilities are mostly all effective, but he costs 60 points when he is at his peak. Put this guy in a huge squad of Guardsmen. Make them stubborn as shit, and for the low cost of 15 points, you can be the new owner of a two handed giant chain-sword counted as a Chainfist, very useful for a blob squad that can only have power weapons. Still, not as effective as a Lord Commissar in this regard, but he doesn't take an HQ spot and can help your guardsmen to not get stomped in a single charge.
*'''Techpriest Enginseer:''' Sadly, not that many people use it. There can be a point to bring a techpriest and some servitors if you have a mech-heavy list, but most cases than not, he won't see any action, as he can't really keep up with vehicles, is pretty vulnerable to incoming fire, and more expensive than he's really worth. His biggest use is actually when he's paired up with a squad of gun servitors; they count as carapace armored and it's a reasonably cheap way to get a plasma cannon onto the field. It's not terribly points-efficient, but is a useful method to get some extra heavy weapons if you absolutely, positively need them, so don't forget about 'em. They can alternately work as a close-combat squad, but the squad itself is small and tends to be vulnerable - so it's generally better to load it up for fire support if you wanna use one.

===Elites===
Just to let you know, the IG Elite choices are the worst section of units in the codex. They cost a lot point wise, and model wise. If you like fluff, you might enjoy a few of these. If you like to fuck with your opponent and laugh your ass off, these may be for you.
*'''Ogryn Squad:''' Big meaty men things with pretty awesome assaulting guns, <s>Terminator</s> Marine equivalents of a kind. Assaulty wall of meat that crumples most things it collides with, including blobs and tarpits. Lovable to the end, which will be soon, seeing as these guys are a firing magnet and usually don't fit into Chimeras - expect them to footslog if you take a full squad. Keep them the fuck away against anything that could Instant-Death them, and get them into melee as soon as possible. However, even there they might have some problem against opponents like Necron Warriors, but at leas they will be keeping them busy and away from glancing your Leman Russ tanks into scrap.
*'''Ratling Squad:''' Those guys are snipers - and while cool in theory, they wound '''everything''' on a 4+ - even against Gaunts or Grots. Even with rending, you should have Meltas or Lascannons to take out big things, not a paper thin squad of inbred midgets. Also most competitive armies have Fearless, so say goodbye to your beloved pinning. Ratlings are just too soft (T 2 so fucking bolters, flayers, and shootas will instagib them) and too cowardly (LD 6) to really have a place in the guard. If you want snipers, you're better off using Vets, Command Squads, Special Weapon Teams, or Vindicare Assassins like in [[Dawn of War]] (Just use the Allies rule, explained better further on). Just Say "No" to inbred space hobbits.
*'''Psyker Battle Squad:''' A full Psyker Battle Psyker Squad in Chimera costs like a Leman Russ, while not having the same degree of survivability. Psychic Defenses can give them trouble, as do many other issues. So why bother taking these poor saps?
**The first reason would be if you wish to take a Large Blast, but don't have left-over Force Organization slots in your Heavy Support Section. A reason for this would be should your army choose to take Manticores or Hydras. Depending on the foe at hand, and your ability to throw other high-priority threats (including Veteran Squadrons or Vendettas), you *should* be able to afford keeping them disembarked in cover, where they now have the option to benefit from Orders, "Fire on My Target" turning them into a wannabe Eradicator...
**The most popular reason these Psykers get taken is because of Weaken Resolve. The ability to lower enemy Leadership for the remainder of the game turn has a lot of utility, both offensively and defensively. <s>The most common use of it is to set a unit up for being Pinned/Routed by Manticores. One common mistake people forget is that Stubborn only negates this power when it comes to '''Morale''' checks; Stubborn does nothing to protect against Pinning checks for Pinning Checks are not Morale Checks;</s> Stubborn applies to Morale AND Pinning tests now. However, Stubborn is not very common. Also, the ability to reduce the Leadership of an enemy psyker can cripple the enemy's plans; a Zoanthroape unit, or Lash Prince is far less likely to successfully cast its powers when hit by Weaken Resolve.
*'''Storm Trooper Squad:''' <s>In general, they are inefficient at general-purpose duty and are best-used at higher points-levels. Their main selling point, that they have AP 3 weapons by default, is negated by their low Strength, proliferation of cover, and the fact many Marine armies rely on dirt-cheap transports. Combine with having less Special Weapons than a normal Veteran Squad and things look grim. That said, they do have their role depending on the build you want to go for. They can choose to Deep Strike (and reroll Scatter) or Scout. For lower point levels, this doesn't matter as much, as one can use Veterans and Valkyries/Vendettas as part of the "Scout Rush", but one only gets 6 Veteran squads max. Storm Troopers can provide a Scouting/Outflanking Chimera if need be (which can be useful if you intend to outflank Vendettas, for they can be used in tank-shocking anti-outflank screens out of the way), additional Deepstrikers that aren't dependent on Grav-Chute Insertion and additional Melta support, or as Infiltrators to negate anti-Scout-rush tactics (the Krootscreen being the premier example). So they *can* have a role depending on the army build you go for, but not as mainstay units.</s> These guys are incredibly underrated and from the stricken out section you can see why people might think that. However, consider this: for 15 points more than veterans, you get non-scoring (what, you expect to use Stormtroopers to camp objectives?!) rerollable deep strike melta with AP3 guns and 4+ saves that can buy chimeras and give them to special weapons squads which can't buy their own. Never let anyone tell you these guys are bad. If you're facing a gun line army, deep strike behind it and kill their fire support. If you need them to, they can scout instead or outflank. They may be expensive but when it comes down to it, if you take even one infantry platoon (so, always then) then you want these guys. Do remember that since they are likely to fight alone and without any support from Independent Character traits, they can get stomped in an assault as easily as a basic guardsman, and unless you sink points into them, you won't have many Stormtroopers in the squad to begin with.
*'''[[Sly Marbo|GUARDSMAN FUCKING MARBO]]:''' Rambo is a strange unit in and of himself. There can only be one. He is 65 points, the same cost of a bitchin' 10 man squad with a grenade launcher and a power weapon. And Rambo is a kill point that you practically give your opponent. On the other hand, he is the shit. He swoops in and drops a pie plate of death anywhere on the board (str8 ap2). But beware, He can only throw the demo charge 6 inches. If unlucky on the dice rolls, Rambo himself can fall to his own demise from this attack. If he can last the next turn, he can fuck some units up in close combat until he dies a fucking glorious death, surrounded by the dead bodies of enemy squads he got to assault. If Lady Luck and Admiral Awesome are on your side you should take him. If you don't, you can go join the unmanly players at the not imperial guard table. Its up to you.
** With the coming of 6th edition, Sly has gotten both better and worse at the same time. First of all, he is a Character - that means that he can allocate some of the wounds, meaning that the opponent cannot just allocate everything to bodyguards and save his character from quick and painful death. This makes Marbo one of the few great character/command squad assassins. Hell, he doesn't even have to enter assault - a single lucky shot may allow you to immediately take out the enemy Squad leader, who is probably the character you were gunning for. If your opponent is foolish enough, he may try to charge you (although a few units like bikes, do get a single I10 attack, so beware) making your life easier, as your 5 (4A + Pistol), 2+ wounding attacks (at I5, letting you strike first most of the time) cut down the opponent. Considering that many squads won't even be able to wound him once, you can wipe out entire squads. However, if the enemy chooses shoots you, you are going to run into problems.
** And here comes the negative part - while in Assault, Sly can crush entire squads through the sheer close combat power, he lacks the capability to take those attacks. Beside WS5 that let's you evade most of the assault-based attacks, Sly has a statblock that befits a Guardsman (2 wounds and high initiative notwithstanding). Instant Death is very much a thing and most ranged weapons (including lasguns) will wound with ease. Even worse, Marbo's only save is 5+ armor save (dont forget he's got stealth). And he can never join a squad to take hits for him. This is even worse when you are charging a big enough squad - while Overwatch means that entire enemy squad is BS1, considering the possibility of Flamer Weaponry/lucky shots, it's quite possible for Marbo to die before he reaches the enemy. If you are lucky, he'll live through with just one wound. And then die to a lucky Fire Warrior or Kroot. If you are unlucky, his Assault roll might not be enough to reach the enemy, and he'll stop right in front of the opponent's gun barrels.
*'''Hades Breaching Drill (forgeworld):''' Remember the Tyranid Mawloc? Well the IG looked at it and said "we need something like that but even ''more'' destructive." Yes this thing has rhino armour and 2 HP, but when it comes in it puts a fucking pie plate blast with S10 AP1 melta. This little fucker even destroy terrain, like D-strength blasts in Apocalypse. And then your vets pop out of the holes it leaves behind. The ultimate fuck you towards gun lines. Once it enters, it can go around blasting people with it's meltadrill, but it's probably going to die afterwards...assuming anything is left standing. And on top of this, drill only ''counts'' elites: it don't take up the slot in force organization.

===Troops===
*'''Infantry Platoon:''' Cheap core of army. Consists of a multitude of parts and options. Think of it as a force organization chart in your force organization chart, so you can write yo list while you can write yo list. Can add on extra squads of heavy and special weapons. Though those count as kill points so its risky to take the special weapon squads when you could use your Platoon command squads to do the same work for you. You could also put your heavy weapons in Infantry squads.
**'''Platoon Command Squad:''' This unit can be tricked out much like the CCS (barring options for Camo-Cloaks or Carapace), yet do not have the accuracy of Veterans. Additionally, the Platoon Commander is less efficient at issuing orders. There are two unique Platoon Commanders, each which can be taken as replacements to the standard ones; they provide a degree of specialization.
***'''Captain Al'rahem:''' Al'rahem is the long-standing rival to Ursarkar Creed, laughing at the former's antics. Creed can Outflank a Leman Russ or Scout some Hellhounds forward. Al'rahem always Outflanks his entire platoon. Order-wise, he replaces the standard Platoon Command orders in favor of '''Bring it Down''' and his unique order '''Like the Wind.''' This ability allows a Guard unit to shoot, then move d6 inches, as though it were running with Fleet of Foot; uses for this would be allowing a unit to spread out after disembarking, peel back away from enemy units, hug cover with small Grenade Launcher teams, or to help your get into assault faster. Ultimately though, Al'rahem is for players who *really* love Outflanking. On a final note, while he *does* have a cute Power Weapon with the potential to get lucky and one-shot an enemy model, the squishy nature of his squad makes using his unit for assassin duty very risky; if you *really* wish to use him in such a manner, a Priest is a must.
***'''Commander Chenkov:''' Do you want to take that point? I mean, REALLY take that point? Seriously, how many dudes do you want to throw at that point? Chenkov can throw that many guys at the point, AND MORE. Including him is a fun way for your Conscripts to get some action, as well as make you just move your little boys 7-12 inches every turn, never shoot their guns, and charge, because boy, is that the only thing he does well. Chenkov lets your Conscripts come back from the dead, well, only if the whole platoon gets wiped out, but if you get sick of waiting you are allowed to just destroy them yourself. It's a lot of awesome for a lot of points. You can drown your enemy in so many bodies it isn't even funny (for them, at least). The only problem is getting them into the fight.<strike> Keep lots of Chimera on hand for this guy, if you want to use him at all.</strike> What the fuck, why? Conscripts come in 20-50 man squads, so they can't fit in Chimeras, and you can't get anything else Send in the Next Wave.
**'''Infantry Squad:''' If you play blob guard, this is going to be your bread and butter, if you play a balance of blob and mech, you are still going to take these dudes. They are paper thin, only hit half the time, and they run away if it can't be helped. But its for fucking sure that they can be made a monster. They can become Stubborn and get a Ld of 9 with a Commissar, the squad can be combined with other squads of the same kind to make huge tar pits. With 30 men, first rank fire second rank fire can make them fire 84 shots in one turn. That's a whole lot of diddley. They can take a heavy weapon and a special weapon. This can be combined to make many different options. A basic set up would be a grenade launcher, to be able to move and shoot a very versatile weapon. On top of that, If the squad is going to be a gun line, add in an Autocannon. You could also take a Priest with an Eviscerator to give the squad a Power Fist, and rerolls on the charge, because a squad that big is going to be charged eventually. You can get plenty of Power Weapons in there as well, for the Sergeants and Commissars. But there is a common misconception that you can have Power Fists in the squad, the only one you could is an Eviscerator.
**'''Conscripts:''' A platoon may take one unit of Conscripts, or human Grots as they're affectionately called. If there is anything thinner than paper, it would be Conscripts. Good thing there are a lot of them... They are one point cheaper than a regular guardsman, so only take them if you are full of the others (how did you do that) or if you are using Chenkov's "Send In the Next Wave".
**'''Heavy Weapon Squad:''' This is where the awesome firepower comes from. Some don't like them because they die rather quickly if they can be seen. But if you buy HWS instead of putting HW in your IS they can target big things and not waste the lasgun fire. Lascannons are nice here. In fact the only one that isn't that good to take here is the heavy bolter. They are a Kill Point and 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.
**'''Special Weapon Squads:''' <s>The only use of these I see are units that stop back the wave of Close combat, and demo charges. But Marbo does that so much better...</s> So much wrong. It's a 65 point team of meltaguns. Fuck everything else, find them chimeras and drive them forwards so they can be a super cheap but less accurate vet squad. There is only 6 of them, but they can bring specialized firepower when it's needed.
*'''Veteran Squad:''' Key to most mech lists. Slightly superior to regular guard and have an even better selection of gear. Stick in chimeras and try to see lady luck take them from you. Only downside to this squad is that you only have six troop choices. You could also do the smart thing and mix 2-3 vet squads with an infantry platoon, giving you unholy amounts of melta, chimeras and bodies everywhere. They're <s>weaker</s> generally less specialized than storm troopers, but they score. Always take at least two.
**'''Gunnery Sergeant Harker:''' <s>Not recommended. Removes Veteran Squad's ability to buy 4+ armor save, and only gives Feel No Pain and Relentless to himself. Grants no bonuses to close combat. His best use is to make a squad full of Assault-type weapons and to kite the enemy. Still, a waste of 55 points, since he is the opposite of flexible, and isn't really recommended. You don't need another Heavy Bolter on the field, and an additional chimera does a better job than Harker could ever achieve.</s> He gives the squad stealth, move through cover, and infiltrate. Together with an autocannon/heavy bolter team and 3 plasma guns this makes a very nice thorn in the enemy's backside. Use his squad to claim an objective and sit on it all the game and rain death on whatever comes in range.
**'''Sergeant Bastonne:''' Expensive at 60 points, but comes with Carapace and a Power Weapon. He can also give any order to his own squad, meaning that he can switch between shooting and running efficiently. The power weapon will let you do some damage in Assault, but that's not your primary goal with Bastonne's Squad. Remember that he is still affected by Incompetent Command, though and can only issue orders after everyone else already did.
*'''Penal Legion Squad:''' You have to roll a d6 to see what these prisoners are good at. You don't have that kind of extra change to throw at lady luck during a game. This squad of cons can go fuck themselves. And even if you roll what you want it's still shit. Melee with a1, s3, i3 and ws3 still sucks even with rending. Compare to a orkboy and burst in tears.
**If you still want to try them out though and have points to waste (what is wrong with you?!), you can have some fun with those guys. Gunslingers can hug cover and exploit the range of their 24 inch assault 2 lasguns. If they get shot at, they have stubborn. Still, their only use is to shoot up and then tie down choppy squads for a turn or two. And that's not really worth the 80 points.
**Knife Fighters are even more luck-based, but since they Scout (and therefore can Outflank), they can end up taking down some expensive target. With a charge, that's at least 3 auto wounds that can ruin some expensive, low number squad's day. Don't forget to evade your opponent's raging fists if you end up shanking his foot slogging Terminator unit in the first round. Still, the cons lack the staying power, and are likely to get killed to a man the moment enemy retaliates. Again, not really worth the points, especially since you are playing Guard and every point counts.
**Psychopaths are trash, and you might as well just remove the squad as casualties if that's how they roll.

===Dedicated transports===
*'''[[Chimera]]:''' This is the gem of the [[Metal_Boxes|MEHTAL BAWKS]] world. It makes the Guard competitive at high end play. Always replace the hull mounted heavy bolter with a heavy flamer to discourage people from charging you. There's no reason not to unless you're sat still and if you're sat still, buy anything else instead. You also get a turret-mounted [[Multilaser|multilaser]] by default, which is pretty good against anything infantry short of anything with Space Marine stats (and even Marines will go down eventually).
** Cheap. (point-wise) You can spam them, get lots and lots of multilasers (it will please you) and a solid wall of AV12 metal.
** Makes otherwise-slow Guardsmen mobile.
** You can fire all your important shit (special weapons, aka melta and plasma) out the top hatch. Letting you fry while staying safe from retaliation. Heck, Commanders can even give orders out the top hatch.
** They also count as tanks, meaning that once your troops are on the point, you can tank shock the enemies off it and even crush some Ork vehicles and scare off the mobs.

===Fast Attack===
*'''Scout Sentinel Squadron:''' Weak armor, going to die second turn most probably. Fun choice of weapons. Key part here is they have Scout. So three Sentinels coming from the side or scout into cover blasting away causing havoc in the enemy ranks. But still. They are going to die. They are open topped. They are going to die. They have 10 armor. They are going to die. But they may as well take a tank or two down with them. If you want to be insane, Heavy Flamers all around can result in hilarious infantry murder. Most of the time you'll take them as a 40 point autocannon on legs.
*'''Armored Sentinel Squadron:''' Armored heavy weapon pretty much. Can move around and fire, unlike heavy weapon teams but you only get one for a similar price. Can do decent in close combat, unlike heavy weapons. Even better choice of awesome weapons compared to Scout Sentinels, such as plasma cannons (but you'll never pick anything other than autocannons, otherwise you'd pick a vendetta, right?). <strike>Can be used to keep mobs in the inverse Tarpits, if going gets tough, and guardsmen are in danger..</strike> Not anymore.
*'''Rough Rider Squad:''' Poor misbegotten Rough Riders. Yes they're cavalry, yes they're dirt cheap, yes they can be virtually guaranteed a 24" charge range if you use '''Move! Move! Move!''' on them...and they are ultimately a one-trick pony that is difficult to hide in cover, is fragile in close combat, near-useless against actual dedicated assault troops (go ahead and charge Genestealers with them...), and should they be tarpitted, die. Perhaps the only way to reliably use them is with Creed, Glory for Cadia and all. And for that investment, couldn't one buy another Hellhound? Alternatively, you can use them as a one-time anti-vehicle suicide squad, since Sergeant can carry Melta Bombs. Still, you can probably find a much better Fast Attack slot choice.
**'''Mogul Kamir''' When you first see him, Mogul doesn't look that bad. An improvement over a Sergeant he replaces, with a Bolt Pistol instead of a LasPistol, 3 attacks + 1d3 attacks on the charge due to his Cyber-Steed. He grants Furious Charge and Fearless to his unit. And he isn't that expensive for a an upgrade character. Then you notice that he basically has "Rage" rule, and with 6th edition, Rage is a good thing. Beside lacking Melta Bombs, using Mogul Kamir will help Rough Riders not to tard out too early. So, you can actually afford to have one unit of Rough Riders for fluff reasons (they are still inferior to everything else on Fast Attack list, though).
*'''[[Hellhound]] Squadron:''' The Hellhound tank variants give you access to Fast Tanks. This can have its advantages, as you use them for movement-blocking, tank-shocking, or blasting enemies to oblivion. A low profile makes finding cover for it relatively easy, though cover-hugging isn't exactly the best use of this tank. There are three variants, each with a unique turret weapon, and the choice of hull-mounted Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer, or Multi-melta.
**The standard '''[[Hellhound]]''' is a very handy infantry-killer. If they're not Marine-equivalents (and even they will be hurting once the wounds pile up and they start failing saves), and not in a transport, they will die. The range of the Inferno Cannon means that you can expect them to hit enemy infantry starting on turn 1 (move 12", fire 12", cover another 8" with flame template). Ran in support of longer-ranged anti-tank weapons for popping enemy transports, Hellhounds can also serve to finish off units from disembarked vehicles. As a general rule however, the Hellhound does best with a Multi-melta, for it can only fire one weapon at Cruising speed anyway. Using Creed to outflank a squad of these is hilarious against horde armies. Do it.
**The '''[[Hellhound|Banewolf]]''' sacrifices the range of the Hellhound for a poisoned AP 3 flamer template. Banewolves will kill any infantry short of Terminators or similarly tough units. Their armor and speed give them unparalleled ability to be used for flushing enemy infantry from cover. This said and done, this may be the one variant you can afford to specialize; because the Chemical Cannon is a Defensive Weapon, adding a Hull-mounted Heavy Flamer means you're moving 12" and throwing out two really mean flame-templates. This tank is the epitome of offence over defence, on one hand, it can destroy an entire SM tactical squad in one turn, on the other hand, it can easiy be put down by a Lascannon head-on. They are well known for making Tyranid and Chaos daemon players cry as you gib their monstrous creatures with as much ease as their cannon fodder. But then again, what doesn't make Tyranids and Daemons cry in 5th edition?
**The '''[[Hellhound|Devil Dog]]''' is the last one out, eschewing a short-range flamer, for a Melta Cannon. This weapon is unique in 40k, for being a blast weapon with the Melta rule. Partials do benefit from the melta die of course, meaning that these tanks are great for sending into the center of an enemy armored formation and intimidating your opponent into breaking up, lest he find himself losing multiple tanks! Alternatively, assuming one has reliable long-ranged anti-tank, the Devil Dog can be used for finishing off survivors of destroyed enemy transports. Add a hull-mounted Heavy Flamer, and the Devil Dog can flush troops out of cover (though not as efficiently as the Banewolf). While not a flashy vehicle, it gets the job done. Probably the best variant for most games. <strike>Enjoy arguing over how the melta rule works with scattering blasts though.</strike>
*'''Valkyrie Assault Carrier Squadron:''' Goddamnit, why don't you have one? A Valkyrie is relatively expensive flying Chimera,it is well worth it. It has BY DEFAULT Extra Armor in its profile, which means the bad bitch can never be stunlocked. If you keep your Valkyries Turbo-boosting around the table, it's rare for them to die. Keep them alive to support your armor with a hard-hitting blast from its Multiple Rocket Pods. Valkyries eat infantry and shit brass and work best with Stormtroopers or Veteran Squads, deep-striking the squad in the most annoying place possible, and then flying off to rain hell on the enemy. Unfortunately, it's totally outclassed for anti-infantry by the Hellhound. That said, it does upgrade to the...
*'''Vendetta Gunship Squadron:''' 3 twin-linked Lascannons. Fast skimmer. Carries Guardsmen. Outflanks or gets into perfect firing position with Scout USR. Relatively cheap. There is no better option for fielding mobile anti-tank than this behemoth. Base height can be an issue as the only cover save you'll ever see is from Flat Out movement, but AV12 front/side arc and it's default Extra Armor help to mitigate this drastically. Why would anyone every field a valkyrie over this monster?
* FORGE WORLD:'''Vulture Gunship:'''Essentially a 40k Apache helicopter, comes with a nose mounted heavy bolter, and 4 wing pylons that are divided into two sets of 2 pylons that give space for two twin-linked weapons (one pylon on each side per weapon). This machine is very modular, able to adapt to ANY situation, Green Tide getting you down? Well, instead of two twin-linked weapons, you can actually attach a twin-linked punisher cannon!!! The ammo boxes do take up the other two pylons, but twin-linked means 15 shots hit instead of 10 (on average). Other weapons that only take up one of two spaces include:
**Lascannon
**Autocannon
**Missile launchers
**Multiple rocket pods
**6 Hunter-killers (not twin-linked, 3 per pylon)
**6 Heavy bombs (again 3 per pylon, but one pylon dropped per turn as apocalyptic barrage (3))
**Multilasers
**Hellstrike missiles (not twin-linked, 1 per pylon)
**And of course, the single twin-linked Punisher Cannon
I would personally recommend <s>buying</s> spending too much on all possible weapons and not gluing them in place, maybe use magnets or some other such method, just make sure you can change the vulture's armament easily to ensure it is never left wanting in a battle. Because the main strength of the Vulture is its adaptability.

*<s>You don't really need a Vulture. Valkyries and Vendettas are terror enough.</s> THOSE WORDS ARE BLASPHEMY!!!! <s>btw Vultures are Heavies, not Fast...</s> Actually, in the book, Apocalypse II, they were changed to Fast Attack.

===Heavy Support===
*'''[[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Squadron]]:''' Leman. Fucking. Russ. It's a big tank. Holds the proud title of best tank in the galaxy for it's size and cost. Side effects include: templates, lots of dice, lots of AV, lots of choices. As an addition, Knight Commander Pask can be added to any one tank that you field. He'd a nice little upgrade to the BS, helps reduce drift, and he's a tank killer. Put him in a Demolisher, Vanquisher, Executioner or Punisher for the best bang for your buck. Though, nothing is wrong with putting him in a Battle Tank.
**'''Leman Russ Battle Tank:''' Thus he comes in many flavors the basic tank is the most useful. With his STR8 AP3 72" gun and thick armor, he is good against anything for decent points. This is your runner-and-gunner, your go-to tank, and the majority of your Leman Russ pool at any time should be these or Executioners.
**'''Leman Russ Exterminator:''' Armed with a 4 shot twin-linked autocannon means this thing is death incarnate for carapace armour and light vehicles, arm with 3 extra heavy bolters for beautiful infantry shredding, if you feel like it, add Pask, and watch it destroy Predators and Falcon grav tanks with ease. Pity it's worse value than a Hydra really.
**'''Leman Russ Vanquisher:''' A Melta with a devastating range. Thus a bit costly for 1 shot at BS3 (works well with Pask, but only useful against vehicles). Not very useful really considering the amount of melta you should already have.
**'''Leman Russ Eradicator:''' Kind of a Hellhound that hits worse, is slower but better armored. And you can add a Lascannon for versatility. Strange tank that eats your enemies' cover saves. Consider for Cities of Death games.
**'''Leman Russ Demolisher:''' For +15 pt to the basic Russ you get a cannon that lays waste of everything on the battlefield and immunity vs s4 melee units. Thus sometimes 24" is too close at the enemy. The Demolisher is tried and true, and should ALWAYS lead the armored charge into the enemy. Works great alone, works even better in three's.
**'''Leman Russ Punisher:''' Shares the cons but only few of the pros with the Demolisher (it does keep the additional back armor, which helps). Heavy 20 may sound cool, but on average, you end up with 10 S5 hits with no AP (making it difficult to even glance vehicles to death, but why would you target vehicles anyway?). Everything except Grots is butchered better with the cheaper and better ranged Battle Tank. However, unlike most Russes, it gets better if you sink the points in it: Kit one out with Pask and a full triple H. Bolter set, at which point the machine will 1-shot anything from terminator squads to full-up mobs every turn, and will stop 'nidzilla in it's tracks through sheer dice output. Well, that or you'll be killed by the enemies anti-tank and waste 250 points on something the rest of your army should be doing anyway. By far the coolest looking though.
**'''Leman Russ Executioner''' Oh hell... what a devastation. This thing lays waste to whole terminator squads and no matter what the enemy has - this one will hurt badly. The only problem might be that he is a bit costly and if the enemy has nothing with 2+ the battletank is the better choice per pts. Same might be true if the enemy has 2+ - the Demolisher (who can also, you know, demolish tanks) might be a more priceworthy alternative. However, if you have spare points - take one. Even against those [[Plasma|plasma]]-[[Matt Ward|syphoning]] [[Grey Knights|assholes]] take one and pray for the Emperor's blessing on your scatter dice.

*'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Ordnance Battery]]:''' "Infantry win firefights. Tanks win battles. Artillery wins wars," or so the old saying goes. The Imperial Guard is noted for being able to bring really big guns to the battlefield, their firepower able to remove small sections of the opponent from the playing field. This said and done, the Imperial Guard artillery units are slow (sometimes outright static) and fragile for their cost due to being Open-Topped, a drawback which becomes increasingly noted should one wish to take artillery in a Squadron (and with the exception of the Griffon, Ordnance has the same cost issues with squadron up vehicles); this said, one can remove the Open-Topped Status. Artillery in itself will not make a Guard army due to its fragile nature, but they provide excellent firepower should the rest of the army be able to protect them. There are numerous artillery-pieces available, including the following:
**'''[[Basilisk]]:''' Jokingly called the penis-enlargement gun by veteran Guard Players, the Basilisk is noted for having a really big gun. This gun is also known for being long-ranged, having the option for direct or indirect fire, and having AP 3 (meaning it can kill Marines in the open, or pummel Crisis Suits). However, having the worst minimum-range requirements has the potential to often relegate the Basilisk to being a direct-fire weapon, a task the Medusa tends to do better in most cases for a marginal upgrade in cost; this said, the Basilisk's direct-fire does have a longer range than the Medusa. Unless it's apocalypse, you don't need more than 36" though, so get a Medusa.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Colossus]]:''' Games Workshop has a checkered history when it comes to Marine-Killer weapons. Their emphasis on certain units being designed for killing Marines in the open, has lead to horridly inflexible units like Vespids, Flash Gitz, Thousand Sons, and now the Colossus. At first glance, the Colossus looks like a fun gun. With the ability to ignore cover, and Marine Power Armor saves, it will utterly devastate Marines should it land properly. On the other hand, having a wide minimum range and the inability to fire directly means the Colossus falters against a lot of Marine Armies. With the exception of some foot-slogging Space Wolf armies, many Marine armies are very fast, and noted either for operating as a mechanized army, fighting by Drop Pods, speeding forth towards your lines on Bikes, deepstriking in by Jump Packs, or otherwise excelling at fighting at short range. While the Colossus can be used for indirect-combat if kept isolated from the rest of the battleline with an infantry unit or two to watch over it, it isn't too popular in tournament armies for this reason.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Griffon]]:''' The cheapest artillery-piece the Guard get, the Griffon is also the most accurate on most accounts; the ability to reroll Scatter Dice is a handy ability in most cases. Like the Colossus, the Griffon is unable to fire directly, yet its shorter minimum range makes it more usable against rapidly advancing armies. Should a player wish to take a Griffon (or a pair of them, which isn't as point-intensive as squadding the other artillery), they work as part of a handy one-two combo for finishing off infantry from a destroyed transport, or in support of Hellhound-equivalents being used to Tank-shock enemy infantry into clustered formations.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Medusa]]:''' A pure direct-fire weapon, noted for having Strength 10 and AP 2, the Medusa is arguably the most popular form of Ordnance on account of its raw firepower. While having the same issues with accuracy most blast weapons have, whatever it hits will suffer on account of it. For those who wish to trade accuracy and flexibility for raw tank-busting firepower, the regular firing mode can be replaced with Siege Shells, turning the Medusa into a heavy tank hunter. With an AP 1 blast template, and the normal Ordnance bonus replaced by rolling 2d6 for armor penetration, even partials have the potential to kill enemy vehicles, and the threat of losing multiple vehicles to a well-placed shot does a lot to intimidating opponents to spread their vehicles out. This said, like with the Devildog's Melta Cannon, the accuracy issues inherent with the Medusa mean it tends to work best in support of, rather than being the primary source, of ranged anti-tank.

* '''Heavy Artillery Battery (forgeworld):''' This is artillery variants pf Basilisk and Medusa, and in 6-th ed artilley is awesome (until someone charge it). They are immobile, and need crew which could be killed (though, they use gun toughness 7 against enemy shooting), but they are also cheap. And for being non-vehicles, they ''can'' take orders. Earthsakers and Medusas with "Bring it down!" and "Fire on my target!" could make miraces if used properly. Or die pointlessly, if used unproperely. Oh, and dont forget, that they only have ld7 with no sarge or comissar options, so you NEED a lord-comissar or Kell to make them listen to your orders.

*'''[[Hydra Flak Tank]]:''' A relatively popular vehicle for a key reason. Providing dual twin-linked Autocannons and a Heavy Bolter at an extremely efficient price, even before you take it's ability to ignore cover generated by Turbo-boosting or moving Flat-out, the Hydra is great for reliably dealing with enemy light vehicles at range, or disabling/stunlocking medium armor until Meltagun infantry can get close to finish the job. A squad of these is excellent for chipping away at Monstrous Creatures, and unlike many other vehicles, squadding the Hydra won't be excessively expensive. On the other hand, it competes with other popular Heavy Support options, and like all Autocannon units is useless against AV 14. If Hydras are taken, make sure that your list has the means to deal with these other threats. That said, for the same price as a Leman Russ, you're getting 8 twin linked autocannon shots that shoot 72" and can always get cover from (but still fire over) chimeras. 2+ saves give you trouble, but really that's always true unless you've got access to, say, a lot of melta, plasma and AP1/2 template weapons. Easily the best choice for most armies <s>- go buy some. Now.</s> <s>'''Hurr, it's Forgeworld only!'''</s> Grab an Aegis Defence Line, plant the quad-gun on the back deck of a Chimera for a quick and dirty Hydra.
** In other news, since the coming of 6th edition and increase in staying power of the fliers, Hydras are recommended to scare off those who try to exploit their new capabilities, since targeting computer rules still apply, making them an effective counter. For extra confusion, Hydra Autocannons are list as only Skyfire, but Immobile Hyrda Guns from Forgeworld have the additional interceptor rule...more GW screw-ups. Its for this reason that you should take an Aegis Defense Line or Bastion with Quad Gun instead.

*'''[[Manticore Rocket Launcher|Manticore Missile]]:''' Mixed-bag. Good for the points, bigger blast range then hell, but can't <s>really shoot every turn</s> deal with marines. Drop it back by your Basilisks or Heavy Weapons. Good points are simple: They're not open-top, compared to artillery. They've got HUGE blast ranges and they can virtually ensure that you're going to be making people spread out their firepower, great for you to focus on one group at a time. Downsides are just as bad as the upsides though. Limited ammo CAN be a problem (rarely). Spreading people out causes you to lose a lot of their effectiveness. Seriously, it can only shoot 4 out of 5-6 turns (unless your opponent isn't retarded, in which case it'll be gone a great deal sooner). Overlooked a lot, but can be powerful on those first few crucial turns. On a high note, these things DEMOLISH Necron Warrior elements.

*'''[[Deathstrike Missile Launcher|Deathstrike]]: ''' The Deathstrike Missile Launcher tends not to be taken in a lot of tournament builds, being viewed as too unreliable a weapon. Its main selling point is that it eventually fires a Strength 10 AP 1 superlarge blast (to put this in context, while a normal Ordnance Blast has a 2.5" radius, a Deathstrike Missile has a radius of 4-6" depending on the luck of the die), ignoring cover, and operating at full Strength against any and all vehicles caught in the explosion; should it go off, it has a high chance of devastating the opponent. On the other hand, it's chances of properly firing are random at best, and it won't be firing on turn 1, and the Deathstrike is a one-shot weapon. It mostly gets used either for casual games on account of this unreliability, as a gamble, or for psyching the opponent out into spreading his forces out. But if you're a favored champion of the dice gods, received the blessing of Admiral Awesome and the benediction of Lady Luck and have balls of ceramite, you might just hilariously wipe half of your opponent's forces early in the game. In 2k+ games, combine 3 Deathstrikes with 4 units of demo special weapons squads in vendettas and watch your enemy's face drop as he realises he the might of pie plates as he has to deal with either 3 nukes or 12 S9 AP2 large blasts+12 twin linked lascannons on turn one. Unless you get first turn of course, in which case he has to deal with 3 nukes having already been hit by 12 blasts...

===Fortifications===
*'''Aegis Defense Lines:'''In case you forgot to get a Hydra, Aegis will help you out with annoying fliers. In addition, you get a nice piece of cover for Guardsmen, which you can use as a forward assault base of sorts. Pretty cheap point-wise, and can be a good choice if you want to have some foothold without turning into gunline guard.
*'''Skyshield Landing Pad:'''On one hand, you practically give your Guardsmen an ''Invulnerable Save''(!) - on the other, you don't have many units you can deepstrike, and shooting up the enemy after outflanking is just what guard does. A bit of a mixed guard, but you are certainly within gunline guard territory.
*'''Imperial Bastion:'''Ridiculously cheap, can mount a Quad Gun that can pop transports and flyers, gets 4 free heavy bolters which can be legally placed all on one facing, gives your men the advantage of height and cover, and if you play air cavalry the Comms upgrade is a must, letting you modify your reserve rolls by +1.
*'''Fortress of Redemption:'''Expensive both in points and actual cost, this huge model doesn't exactly bristle with guns as you would expect - but now you are able to dominate everything on the table - tanks will be sniped with the '96 lasgun, fliers will be decimated by BS4 AA guns (you did garrison veterans in there, right?), and everything else will have to eat Heavy Bolters. And that thing launches missiles. Oh, and all Imperial units get various buffs and saves, meaning that this thing is the ultimate say in the world of gunline guard. If you never had given anyone a reason to field a Super-Heavy in a non-Apcalypse game, congratulations, you have done it.

===Apocalypse units===
**'''Marauder Bomber:'''Heavy bomber, imagine the massive bombers that dropped massive amounts of bombs on cities during the Second World War, the Marauder is basically the same thing, but with much bigger and less dinky and useless guns. Also happens to share the same name as one too. It's not good for its point cost though, even in apocalypse. Those bombs just don't hurt tanks.
***'''Maurauder Destroyer''' Heavy attack plane. While the standard Maurauder is the Imperium's B17, this one is basically a flying Manticore with three twin-linked autocannons on its nose. Instead of bombing, this sucker flies in and strafes with craptons of fire and flies away. Better than the bomber in every way (looks, armour, actual AA mount guns, horrific bombing runs).
**'''[[Baneblade]]:'''ECKSMETALBAWKS HUGE KILLDOZER WITH A FUCKTON OF GUNS. Orgasms aside, the Baneblade is one of the most feared tanks the Imperium and Chaos posers have to offer. Sporting a Baneblade cannon, co-axial Autocannon, Demolisher Cannon, two Lascannons, three twin-linked heavy bolters, and optional pintle mounts AND optional Hunter-killer missile, it's a rolling fortress of death. Comes standard with three structure points, AV14 front and AV12 side armor. Can be commandeered by a Commissar to REALLY motivate your troops.
***'''Hellhammer:''' Baneblade without the Baneblade cannon. <strike>This has, instead, the Hellhammer cannon (equivalent to the Eradicator cannon)</strike> The Hellhammer cannon is shorter ranged but has a smaller template, better strength and AP. But why take this when the Stormsword right down the corner is so much better?
***'''Banehammer:''' Fun for trolling mech armies with it's Tremor cannon. With a 60" range and S8 AP3, the Tremor cannon may not seem like much, but that's when it's special rule "Earthshock" come in. Everything within 4d6" of it's 7" blast gets caught within a shockwave zone which is treated as dangerous terrain to vehicles and difficult to all else. Not the best super heavy to take, but is fun.
***'''Banesword:''' Designed especially to reach out and fuck someone's day over. With a range of 180" on it's main cannon (called the Quake Cannon) as well as S9 AP3, Barrage, and 10" Blast, someone is going to have a really bad day. And for shits and giggles, you can kill that annoying Tau player's army 2 tables over.
***'''Stormsword:''' Best at street fighting and siege warfare, what this bad boy lacks in range (a sort of pathetic 36") is made up for in firepower. It's cannon launches a enormously painful S10 AP1 10" blast primary weapon shot which denies cover saves and instagibs vehicles on a 3+ and is at the very least ripping off a weapon, and will turn anything with less than T5 inside out. So in other words, it's a great way to say screw you to that annoying as fuck Vindicare assassin camping in those ruins. The blast template is in fact so huge that it is actually physically incapable of missing it's original target with it's main cannon, which is awesome. Firing this thing once can wipe it's cost in units off of the gameboard, which is even more awesome. Pretty much everything you love about the Leman Russ Demolisher is taken up to eleven on this baby. If you can get these guys in range, they will never fail to impress with the incredible amounts of destruction they will unleash.
***'''Doomhammer:''' This super heavy isn't sure if it's supposed to be a scary ass tank or dedicated transport... but does decent as both. With a transport capacity of 25 models, it certainly isn't too shabby especially with it's fire points (well, fire point really) allowing 10 models to blast away from it. It also counts as open topped for (dis)embarking purposes. It's primary cannon (named the Magma cannon - yeah, it's the Volcano cannon's baby bro) has a range of 60" and is S10 AP1 5" blast. So yeah... Something caught between a Stormsword, Stormlord and a Shadowsword... So for a jack of all trades, this is a decent choice (though the Baneblade is probably better at it).
***'''Shadowsword:''' Like the Baneblade but instead of a turret and hull weapon, mounts a fuckhuge Volcano cannon (yes, it is as powerful as it sounds). The volcano cannon is range:120" S:D AP1 large blast. The Titan killer and possibly one of the most useful Baneblade-based vehicles.
***'''Stormlord:''' Shadowsword chassis with Vulcan Mega bolter instead of Volcano cannon (Yes, the mega bolter is as insane as it sounds, imagine a vulcan minigun with Heavy Bolters for each barrel), the mega bolter is range:60" S6 AP3 type: heavy 15, and if the stormsword doesn't move, it can fire twice at different target, or the same target. However, the most lulzy thing about this beast is that it can transport FORTY troops. 20 of which can fire from a rear mounted firing platfotm. To really maximise it's epic lulz potential, team up with a Space Marine player and let him shove 20 devastator Marines in it. For obvious reasons, this thing will then be chucking out more fire than an entire Imperial Guard regiment.
**'''Malcador:''' Basically a bigger Leman Russ, half the size of a Baneblade. Like the Russ, it has a Battlecannon, but has the option for sponson heavy stubbers or sponson lascannons. Malcadors have a limited turret traverse, due to their weird design.
***'''Malcador Defender:''' Instead of a Battlecannon, has a bunker on the top with five heavy bolters and a demolisher cannon in the hull.
***'''Malcador Annihilator:''' Has a twin-linked lascannon turret weapon, and a hull-mounted Demolisher cannon.
***'''Malcador Infernus:''' Take a Malc, throw out the turret and give it a titan-sized Inferno Cannon. It's a GIANT flamethrower tank, like a Hellhound on steroids. Also has sponson weapon options.
***'''Valdor Tank Hunter:''' Like a smaller Shadowsword, or specifically, like a bigger Destroyer Tank Hunter. It has a fuckhuge laser cannon. No sponson weapons.
***'''Minotaur Artillery Tank:''' Basilisk on crack. Carries two [[Basilisk]] cannons on a Malcador hull.
**'''Macharius Heavy Tank:''' Comparable to the Malcador, except with moar gunz. Standard Macharius has two sponsons and a TWIN. LINKED. BATTLE. CANNON. Unlike the Malcador, the Macharius has a full 360-degree traverse so it can fire in any direction from its position. Also has hull-mounted twin linked stubbers in the front.
***'''Macharius Vanquisher:''' TWIN. LINKED. VANQUISHER. CANNONS. Also has sponsons on either side. Hull-mounted heavy stubbers also.
***'''Macharius Vulcan:''' Mother of god. For ultimate cheese, get a Stormlord with Vulcan mega bolters, and get a couple of these to roll with it. This Macharius has a Vulcan Mega Bolter on its turret, plus the sponsons and hull heavy stubbers.
***'''Macharius Omega:''' A Macharius assault tank, basically. Has no turret for its PLASMA BLASTGUN. Has sponsons weapons also.
***'''Gorgon Assault Carrier:''' The ultimate party bus. The Gorgon can transport entire platoons instead of just a single squad. Has two twin-linked heavy stubber turrets on the very back, and has the option of either sponson-mounted weapons or twin-linked mortars. One thing to note is that the Gorgon is permanently open-topped.
***'''[[meme|CRASSUS ARMORED ASSAULT TRANSPORT]]:''' Picks up where the Gorgon slacked off. Has two heavy bolters on its nose, sponson weapons and it's completely closed. Unknown carrying capacity, but it must be huge. It's pretty much the IG's equivalent of a land raider, and like the Predator vs Leman Russ, the CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT is more powerful, more durable, and generally better at it's job, which is hilarious when you think about it.
***'''Praetor Armored Assault Launcher:''' OMG. Like the Minotaur is a super-[[Basilisk]], the Praetor is a super-Whirlwind. Its backside houses a multiple-rocket launcher, also has two heavy bolters on the nose. Unknown if sponsons are allowed.
**'''[[Warhound Scout Titan]]:'''Buy three!!!!!!!!!! Can equip two arm weapons, give it two Turbo-Laser destructors and watch the fireworks as it kills everything
**'''[[Reaver Battle Titan]]:'''Buy one!!!!!!!!!!! Gets two arm weapons and one carapace weapon, uses the same weapons as a Warlord (spare two).
**'''[[Warlord Battle Titan]]:'''FUCKING MAKE ONE!!!!!11111!!!!!11!!1!!!!11!!!!!11!!!!111 One of these, will obliterate it's cost in say, predator annhialators or baneblades, without a freaking scratch. It mounts two of the Warhound's weapons on its back and two of its own weapons on its arms, which pack more range and fire more shots each turn.
**'''[[Imperator Battle Titan]]:'''If you play one of these, just give up... I mean, the other titans scaling up add on gun, but this God-Machine carries six carapace weapons (use the Warlord's weapons for that, there's not point using the Warhound's), and it's two arm weapons, and even it's weakest arm gun will at the least through out 6 strength 8 AP3. There is no safe place against it, its weapon's range let it hit anything. Even if the enemy team fills every square inch of the board with anti-tank guns, this thing will come out on top without taking so much as a glancing hit to it's armor with all the void shields they need to get through. Load up on laser blasters for the carapace and vengeance cannons for arms and this can let loose an insane TWENTY-SIX destroyer shots. They're never going to get up close for melee either, because even if the enemy can avoid getting vaporized by its guns, if the titan moves, everything except gargantuan creatures and super heavies within 12 inches counts as going through difficult terrain. NOTE: You will never get a model for this thing, not in a thousand years, but you can [[proxy]] one, just ask your two meter (seven foot) pal over and get him to cosplay.
**'''Lightning Fighter:'''A nippy little air fighter, small armament, and not great armor, but fast and fairly cheap.

==Tactics==
Tactics for the Imperial guard have been expanded upon through out the years resulting in a plethora of different stratagems. First to explain a few of the different rules of the IG and there different uses. As well as some army compositions and strategies.
===Orders===
The order system, though new to guard, has become one of the most important and most raged about addition to the IG codex. When You are about to declare a Ld check for an order, get your troll face on. The fact is, is that sisters are only decent now because of faith points. In a few years the same will be said about guard and the orders system. With orders your lasguns become 30-50% more effective. You get rerolls for cover and armored/monstrous enemies. When you go to ground with an order, you go to ground like no other son of a bitch. Your run move is guarantied to be decent. Some call it broken, but you can not give orders to those inside vehicles. So the most broken list of guard currently, can not make full use of them. Anyway, orders are the shit. And you don't even need lady luck on your side. With the right vox system and use of other leaders Ld *COUGH* commissar *COUGH*, you should be able to roll a savings grace.

The orders are as follows:
*'''Bring it Down!''' - Allows an ordered squad to count their weapons as twin linked when engaging a Monstrous Creature(s)/Enemy Vehicle(s). Best used for Heavy Weapon Teams, especially if they use scatter weaponry.
*'''Fire on my Target!''' - Allows you to force the enemy to reroll cover saves. Not very useful unless you are fighting against basic Ork boyz mobs or Tyranids, who usually have to live and swear by cover.
*'''Get Back in the Fight''' - Let's you basically get an assaulted squad back in the fight. May get you a lucky extra shot, or force the enemy to waste their assault against a leftover squad rather than another, juicier target. Useful when you are not taking Commissars for the squads.
*'''First Rank, FIRE! Second Rank, FIRE!''' - Your most frequently issued order, Rank Fire basically gives you guardsmen an additional shot. This however only affects ''standard'' lasguns, so every other weapon shoots normally. Still, there are few things that match the expression of the opponent's face when you get to roll 28 dice at the same time, which means that even at BS3 and Strength 3, the enemy is in the sea of possible pain. Use with combined squads for extra hilarity, and don't forget to ask your opponent if you can borrow his dice.
*'''Incoming!''' - Turns your normal cover save into a 3+. Sit on an objective and make Death Guard jealous.
*'''Move! Move! Move!''' - Practically gives you the 4 inches of running. Useful when you really need to relocate your troops in response to the enemy.
*'''For the Honour of Cadia!''' - Creed's special Order. Throws the ordered unit into combat with additional special rules applied to them for the turn. Really, this is only useful to send Rough Riders to their deaths more efficiently.
*'''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2TFWZWgtUs Like the Wind!]''' - Practically let's you run and shoot. Not as useful in 6th edition, but is still able to provide sufficient annoyance to the enemy.

===Army variants===
*Blob guard
Blob guard is a rather simple concept. Have more bodies than your opponent has bullets. The fact is, is that IG has access to guardsmen that can be as cheap as 5 points. You will overwhelm them in model count, in deaths a turn, in shots fired, you will have at least twice as many heavy weapons as they will. All of their anti-tank weaponry that was meant to take out the 150 point Leman Russ? It killed a guardsman with a lasgun, good job. The problems that come with such an awesome army composition is the lack of speed and how effective the enemies anti-infantry will be against you. A decent thousand point list might consist of 2 20 man combined squads with a commissar and priest each, about 9 or so heavy weapons, and your three or so command squads loaded out with special weapons. Works best in a Cities of Death game, all that cover, all those cover saves, your men will live a bunch longer and confound the enemy to no end.
*Mech guard
Mech explores the wonder of armored vehicles. The core of the army would be a command squad and 2 squads of vets all in chimeras. And the rest would consist of anything from Leman Russ tanks to vendettas, to artillery, fast attack choices, or more chimeras.
*Melta vet spam guard
Put vets in Chimeras. Give them meltas. Fill up Force organization troop chart. Do same with Company Command Squads and Storm Troopers.
*Hammer and Anvil Guard
This army is for those who can't choose between the two. A main force hits head on while supported by tanks and artillery, and vets come in from a supporting side. As they say, hit from the air, sea, and ground. A list might include, A command squad, along with a squad of vets in a Chimera, A squad of 20-30 men with a commissar and priest, a Leman Russ variant, and a Basilisk.
*Artillery apocalypse
Take a few infantry squads with just standard guardsmen, say around 20-30 troopers, do not upgrade at all, these are meat shields. Fill up your remaining points with the Imperium's single most destructive medium, Basilisks, "But wait!!" you say "Baneblades/Titans/Shadowswords are more destructive". And yes, you'd be right, HOWEVER, when you have, say, 1,000,000 Basilisks per battle titan, well, you get the picture. Whilst your enemy is dossing around trying to kill your infantry, your many Basilisks pound them into dust, AP3 and large blast means all standard infantry fall like chaff to these bad boys, whilst str 9 means most man-sized units suffer instant death. This mind-blowingly massive amount of firepower is, however, completely useless if the crew is being hacked to pieces by deep striking terminators or some other such buttholes. So this formation is best for large, pitched, foot-slogging battles, where your foes will be lucky to even reach your infantry lines if you've spent half your points on Basilisks.
===Allies===
If you're still using the now-old Codex: Witch Hunters or Codex: Daemonhunters and you want to use allies, good god do so. For the price of a fully-kitted Veteran squad, you can have an entire 10-woman Sisters squad with all their needed gear PLUS the cost of a Rhino for them. Suddenly your army has 3+ saves and BS4 Bolters to backup your lasgun spam and 5+ armor save.

If you're lacking punch for some reason, consider using the old Allies rules. Sisters and Grey Knights can introduce a world of hurt most people don't expect from a Guard army. This writer knows from experience that Valkyrie-borne Sisters plus a Canoness make a superior, cheaper alternative to expensive Veterans or Stormtroopers doing the same thing.

EXCITING UPDATE: With 6th edition rules, any Imperium army can ally perfectly with Guard. (Except Grey Knights, which can still ally but nobody likes them. Ha.) Every single Space Marine (all variants) and Sisters of Battle unit is available to back up your Guard, and Grey Knights, Eldar, Tau, Orks, and Chaos (in case you're feeling heretical) can be used as well, but no one likes them. You can also ally with Necrons if you're don't care about logic and just want to make opponents cry at the amount of firepower you're going to put out every turn.

===What to buy===
The battle force. This gives you two squads of 10 and a leader pack, as well as heavy weapons and a sent. This will be helpful if you are going blob or mech. You can make them vets for a quick 500pt army. You can even save the heavy weapons for vehicle modifications later when you buy tanks of you go for mech.
Next thing would most likely be a Leman Russ and two chimeras if going mech,and another battle force if you are going blob.

Also if you dip, or one of your friends dip, ask them for the metal lids to the tobacco containers. These are the exact size of the heavy weapons base. Making it extremely easy to take advantage of all the heavy weapons in the pack. Just use the bending knee for the dude shooting, and put the other dude as a standing man. Green stuff some sandbags or a wall to take place of the tripod stand.

As far as organizing your army, you ought to know better that you don't have to pimp out every platoon FULL of men. Usually, two large Platoons decked out will do the job, but let's calculate the body count if you spammed evey slot.

HQ: CCSx2 (24 models; Commissar, Chimera, and all Advisors, including Officer of the Fleet and Astropath, which are MANDATORY) 
Priest x5 
Techpriest x2 (With 10 servitors. Give 'em ALL plasma cannons. Because you can.)

Elites: Stormtroopers all around, bitches (30 models)

Troops: 6x FULL Infantry platoons (6x6-man CCS + Chimeras, 30x11-man Infantry squads + Chimeras, 30x6-man Heavy squads (it's two guys on one base, be glad I'm not counting the gun model), 12x6-man Special squads, and 6x50-man Conscript squads. 954 models, bitch)

Fast: 3x Rough Rider squads (30 models)

Heavy Support: 9x Leman Russ EXECUTIONERS WITH FULL PLASMA-SPONSONS (STFU. You want them)

Grand total: 1064 models, INCLUDING Chimeras. Yes. You can have one-thousand models on the table. THIS IS THE GUARD. OUR INFANTRY ARE BLOBS. 
Want MORE INSANITY? For an extra 500 points you can make those 300 Conscripts UNDYING MONSTROSITIES! This is also mandatory, no exceptions.

But unless you're a millionaire or you've been in the Guard since 2nd edition, you aren't pulling this off.

Ideal generalized army list that you should start with:

HQ: 1x CCS

TROOPS: 2 Infantry platoons of two Infantry squads each

FAST ATTACK: Scout Sentinel x2, Valkyrie and Hellhounds if you wish.

Once your army has reached this point, start looking at where you want to go with it. You'll have a decent base for starting the typical MechVet army that is shining right now. If you want to get Leman Russes, get three, split between two Battlecannons and a Demolisher. Max out melta. It's the best thing in the game currently. Just do it.

[[Category: Warhammer Tactics]]
[[Category: Imperial Guard]]

Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard

2012-07-23T20:56:54Z

91.152.169.235:

This is the latest Edition's tactics. [[Warhammer_40,000/5th_Edition_Tactics/Imperial_Guard|5th Edition Tactics are here.]]

==Why Play Imperial Guard==

When recruits are inducted into the Imperial Guard, they are given four things. Their regulation flashlight (commonly referred to by the troops as "lasguns" for some reason), their regulation cardboard box (which certain regiments have taken to cutting up and wearing into battle, calling it "flak armor"), a large stack of toilet paper (which the recruiters refer to as the "Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer"), and ''the regulation extra large wheelbarrow'' that allows them to cart their ''massive brazen balls'' into battle.

From a gameplay perspective, the Imperial Guard army is a flexible force known for having either hordes of cheap infantry, waves of tanks, or a medium in between. The army is easy to learn while having a lot of options and tactics being discovered frequently (melta veterans in Chimeras are not the sole option in the Guard army after all).

That's why you play the Imperial Guard.

Additionally, you are the second most powerful army in Apocalypse, and the standard by which all other apocalypse armies are measured. You are absolutely spoiled for forgeworld choices with everything from the dinky little lightning fighter to the unholy rape machine that is the Imperator Class Titan. And why is Chaos better than you? Because of a small footnote by the side of the Vindicator Linebreaker Formation. In short, it details that Chaos armies may use ANY AND ALL Imperial Datasheets as long as they have spieks on them. Building your Lightning Fighter wing? Chaos get that with their Hell Talon support. Imperator Titan? Chaos can subvert one with fuckhueg spikes. Fortress of Arrogance? Chaos Yarrick makes you his bitch. Daemon Lords? You don't get those. For once, Chaos is the one giving not receiving.

So the only way to be better than the Imperial Guard in Apoc is to use Imperial Guard units plus daemonic bullshit. Still a win for IG.

==Unit Analysis==

===HQ===
*'''Company Command Squad:''' This squad provides leadership to the many. It orders around those who can order around others.This unit gets orders. It gets an ample selection of gear, and extra dudes. This includes a 30pt template weapon, penalize the enemy reserve rolls and bonuses to your own. This unit can have its leader switched out with other named leaders with awesome powers and gear. This should be your HQ of choice. The only sad part is that you can only take two of them.
**'''[[Creed|Ursarkar E. Creed]]:''' For a decent point cost, one Company Commander may be upgraded to Creed. Creed is pretty nifty for being able to use a lot of douchebaggery with his Tactical Genius special rule. But he should be known for his massive 24" command bubble and his 4 orders per turn. Seriously. You don't have to use his ability to run a Leman Russ into their flank, you can also send your tanks in with a Scouts rule BEFORE MOVEMENT. No one expects it, and it can help you get the drop on enemies or even force someone's hand. If you have the first turn, you can position your Leman Russ tanks to do some serious damage to the enemy line, or even move your Heavy Weapons squads into a position. Technically, after they get their scouts moves, they can fire. Creed might be fun for being a dick, but when you're running a solid force, he is an excellent asset for any force that might need a bit more mobility in their army list. But outflanking with a [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord Titan]] certainly helps too.
**'''Sergeant Kell:''' With him at Creed's side, all squads can use Creed's leadership (10) for any orders he issues to them. Kell himself is kinda tough too, and comes with a Power Fist. You shouldn't take Creed without Kell.
**'''[[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken]]:''' In 6th, Straken has been considerably buffed, being one of the only units in the game that has a CC weapon that ignores all armour saves now that power weapons are only AP3, and most AP2 CC weapons are I1. Straken makes Hammernators crap their metal pants. Of course, he is unlikely to survive unless his squad is optimized for such an occasion, so it would be a good idea to have 3-4 Melta Guns and 2 Bodyguards to accompany him. This way, you can charge most CC units and get away with it. Pansies, Dark Pansies and Space Egyptians may give you trouble though. Also, you may have to bite your tongue if you come up against a squad full of power weapons, i.e Space Marines. Instead, pull back, shoot them to pieces, and then throw a pie plate on top of them. Don't forget you can measure their threat distance to be sure.
**'''Nork Deddog:''' Nork is one o' da smartest Ogryns. He and da commanda have a bond. When he dies, he attacks every bad guy trying to hurt the commander. If your command squad is going to be in the fray of battle, take this somewhat expensive body guard. Doesn't get along well with Commissars, so be careful if you take them both.
** '''COMPANY COMMAND ADVISORS''' (WHO THE HELL FORGOT THESE?!)
***Bodyguard: He's just a little Sergeant, but if you want to wreck shit with an suprising-as-hell assaulty command squad, add two of these to Straken (if you don't take Nork) and watch the other player's reaction when the little man-things suddenly start whipping everything else. Comes armed with a close combat weapon and laspistol, basically being a sergeant without any extra options.
***Officer of the Fleet: Why AREN'T you using these?! Officer of the Fleet is a great asset to add to a command squad. The Officer forces a -1 on enemy reserve rolls, and could seriously jeopardize their well-thought schemes. However, he won't stop drop pods and if the enemy doesn't reserve anything you've wasted the points. In combat, the Officer is as good as dead. A massive fuck you towards Daemons players.
***Astropath: Why AREN'T you using these?! The Astropath is the best advisor, along with the Officer of the Fleet, and the two added together make for serious [[troll]]ing. While the Officer of the Fleet forces the enemy's reserve rolls to be higher, the Astropath makes YOUR reserve rolls lower. So while the enemy is butthurt about not getting his precious reserves, suddenly yours are arriving on the table much more easily. If you take Storm troopers, you NEED this guy. In combat, the Astropath is as good as dead.
***Master of Ordnance: This guy is like a tiny Basilisk. Once per turn he is able to call down a Basilisk-type attack on the enemy, subject to scatter. Not very good unfortunately, but can be fun for spamming pie plates. However, since the bombardment has an unlimited range, if you place Master of Ordnance correctly, it can be used to troll Ork and Tyranid swarms with a Strength 9 plate of instant death.

*'''Lord Commissar:''' Lord Commissar is a Independent buffed out Commissar, the key ability of him makes everyone around him LD10 and Stubborn. And that is [[awesome]]. The main issue is that he is a kill point himself and he takes away a slot of HQ for more Company Commanders. Let it not be said that he doesn't have his own uses, though. You want a blob-platoon to do REALLY well? Bind 'em into one giant squad, put a Lord Commissar in there and run it all over the place killing everything in sight. Seriously. 30 guys means 3 Sergeants with Power Weapons, 60+ attacks on the charge and a Lord Commissar with a Power Weapon as gravy. It's also Stubborn, so watch your friends complain about how the squad is still coming at them despite missing half of the people once in it. If you're feeling particularly threatened, <strike>equip him with a camo cloak and attach him to a fifty-man squad for instaStealth</strike>. Doesn't work anymore, shit got FAQ'd. Camo cloaks don't give Stealth anymore, they just improve the bearer's cover save by 1.
*'''[[Commissar Yarrick]]:''' Awesome fluffy man. Costs quite a bit. Very close combat oriented. He can come back from the dead... a lot. He has some nifty gadgets. Yarrick also has a reputation of being nasty as crap in close combat; he can take on Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka one-on-one and have a fighting chance of coming out on top. He's got a power-<s>fist</s>klaw, a decent WS, and he's got Eternal Warrior and his come back from the dead bullshit. Due to a technicality, the Fortress of Arrogance, alongside Old Man Yarrick, is available to Chaos forces in Apocalypse.
*'''Primaris Psyker:''' Puts out fucking good punch in the form of Lightning Arc, has a decent stat-block, and all for a nice low price. Solid overall stats with minimal upgrades needed out-the-box, which makes him damned efficient. While considered to be at its best in small games, where a player can take two and run them around firing 4d6 S6 lightning blasts everywhere, the real punch in the Primaris comes from his cost and the availability of Nightshroud, which can protect critical units for a turn and help fuck with enemies trying to damage mission-critical targets like artillery vehicles or commanders. Also offers a Force Weapon, for dissuading CQC attackers, since players will be hesitant to send a killy IC into combat against a squishy guard unit if it means they could lose it to a Force Weapon strike. Like the Lord Commissar, the Primaris frequently isn't as useful as a standard Command HQ, but can still be fuck-mothering useful if you use its abilities to their fullest. In 6th edition he can be doubly powerful because of his ability to take a psychic power from a discipline.
*'''Ministorum Priest:''' This guy is somewhat iffy. His abilities are mostly all effective, but he costs 60 points when he is at his peak. Put this guy in a huge squad of Guardsmen. Make them stubborn as shit, and for the low cost of 15 points, you can be the new owner of a two handed giant chain-sword counted as a Chainfist, very useful for a blob squad that can only have power weapons. Still, not as effective as a Lord Commissar in this regard, but he doesn't take an HQ spot and can help your guardsmen to not get stomped in a single charge.
*'''Techpriest Enginseer:''' Sadly, not that many people use it. There can be a point to bring a techpriest and some servitors if you have a mech-heavy list, but most cases than not, he won't see any action, as he can't really keep up with vehicles, is pretty vulnerable to incoming fire, and more expensive than he's really worth. His biggest use is actually when he's paired up with a squad of gun servitors; they count as carapace armored and it's a reasonably cheap way to get a plasma cannon onto the field. It's not terribly points-efficient, but is a useful method to get some extra heavy weapons if you absolutely, positively need them, so don't forget about 'em. They can alternately work as a close-combat squad, but the squad itself is small and tends to be vulnerable - so it's generally better to load it up for fire support if you wanna use one.

===Elites===
Just to let you know, the IG Elite choices are the worst section of units in the codex. They cost a lot point wise, and model wise. If you like fluff, you might enjoy a few of these. If you like to fuck with your opponent and laugh your ass off, these may be for you.
*'''Ogryn Squad:''' Big meaty men things with pretty awesome assaulting guns, <s>Terminator</s> Marine equivalents of a kind. Assaulty wall of meat that crumples most things it collides with, including blobs and tarpits. Lovable to the end, which will be soon, seeing as these guys are a firing magnet and usually don't fit into Chimeras - expect them to footslog if you take a full squad. Keep them the fuck away against anything that could Instant-Death them, and get them into melee as soon as possible. However, even there they might have some problem against opponents like Necron Warriors, but at leas they will be keeping them busy and away from glancing your Leman Russ tanks into scrap.
*'''Ratling Squad:''' Those guys are snipers - and while cool in theory, they wound '''everything''' on a 4+ - even against Gaunts or Grots. Even with rending, you should have Meltas or Lascannons to take out big things, not a paper thin squad of inbred midgets. Also most competitive armies have Fearless, so say goodbye to your beloved pinning. Ratlings are just too soft (T 2 so fucking bolters, flayers, and shootas will instagib them) and too cowardly (LD 6) to really have a place in the guard. If you want snipers, you're better off using Vets, Command Squads, Special Weapon Teams, or Vindicare Assassins like in [[Dawn of War]] (Just use the Allies rule, explained better further on). Just Say "No" to inbred space hobbits.
*'''Psyker Battle Squad:''' A full Psyker Battle Psyker Squad in Chimera costs like a Leman Russ, while not having the same degree of survivability. Psychic Defenses can give them trouble, as do many other issues. So why bother taking these poor saps?
**The first reason would be if you wish to take a Large Blast, but don't have left-over Force Organization slots in your Heavy Support Section. A reason for this would be should your army choose to take Manticores or Hydras. Depending on the foe at hand, and your ability to throw other high-priority threats (including Veteran Squadrons or Vendettas), you *should* be able to afford keeping them disembarked in cover, where they now have the option to benefit from Orders, "Fire on My Target" turning them into a wannabe Eradicator...
**The most popular reason these Psykers get taken is because of Weaken Resolve. The ability to lower enemy Leadership for the remainder of the game turn has a lot of utility, both offensively and defensively. <s>The most common use of it is to set a unit up for being Pinned/Routed by Manticores. One common mistake people forget is that Stubborn only negates this power when it comes to '''Morale''' checks; Stubborn does nothing to protect against Pinning checks for Pinning Checks are not Morale Checks;</s> Stubborn applies to Morale AND Pinning tests now. However, Stubborn is not very common. Also, the ability to reduce the Leadership of an enemy psyker can cripple the enemy's plans; a Zoanthroape unit, or Lash Prince is far less likely to successfully cast its powers when hit by Weaken Resolve.
*'''Storm Trooper Squad:''' <s>In general, they are inefficient at general-purpose duty and are best-used at higher points-levels. Their main selling point, that they have AP 3 weapons by default, is negated by their low Strength, proliferation of cover, and the fact many Marine armies rely on dirt-cheap transports. Combine with having less Special Weapons than a normal Veteran Squad and things look grim. That said, they do have their role depending on the build you want to go for. They can choose to Deep Strike (and reroll Scatter) or Scout. For lower point levels, this doesn't matter as much, as one can use Veterans and Valkyries/Vendettas as part of the "Scout Rush", but one only gets 6 Veteran squads max. Storm Troopers can provide a Scouting/Outflanking Chimera if need be (which can be useful if you intend to outflank Vendettas, for they can be used in tank-shocking anti-outflank screens out of the way), additional Deepstrikers that aren't dependent on Grav-Chute Insertion and additional Melta support, or as Infiltrators to negate anti-Scout-rush tactics (the Krootscreen being the premier example). So they *can* have a role depending on the army build you go for, but not as mainstay units.</s> These guys are incredibly underrated and from the stricken out section you can see why people might think that. However, consider this: for 15 points more than veterans, you get non-scoring (what, you expect to use Stormtroopers to camp objectives?!) rerollable deep strike melta with AP3 guns and 4+ saves that can buy chimeras and give them to special weapons squads which can't buy their own. Never let anyone tell you these guys are bad. If you're facing a gun line army, deep strike behind it and kill their fire support. If you need them to, they can scout instead or outflank. They may be expensive but when it comes down to it, if you take even one infantry platoon (so, always then) then you want these guys. Do remember that since they are likely to fight alone and without any support from Independent Character traits, they can get stomped in an assault as easily as a basic guardsman, and unless you sink points into them, you won't have many Stormtroopers in the squad to begin with.
*'''[[Sly Marbo|GUARDSMAN FUCKING MARBO]]:''' Rambo is a strange unit in and of himself. There can only be one. He is 65 points, the same cost of a bitchin' 10 man squad with a grenade launcher and a power weapon. And Rambo is a kill point that you practically give your opponent. On the other hand, he is the shit. He swoops in and drops a pie plate of death anywhere on the board (str8 ap2). But beware, He can only throw the demo charge 6 inches. If unlucky on the dice rolls, Rambo himself can fall to his own demise from this attack. If he can last the next turn, he can fuck some units up in close combat until he dies a fucking glorious death, surrounded by the dead bodies of enemy squads he got to assault. If Lady Luck and Admiral Awesome are on your side you should take him. If you don't, you can go join the unmanly players at the not imperial guard table. Its up to you.
** With the coming of 6th edition, Sly has gotten both better and worse at the same time. First of all, he is a Character - that means that he can allocate some of the wounds, meaning that the opponent cannot just allocate everything to bodyguards and save his character from quick and painful death. This makes Marbo one of the few great character/command squad assassins. Hell, he doesn't even have to enter assault - a single lucky shot may allow you to immediately take out the enemy Squad leader, who is probably the character you were gunning for. If your opponent is foolish enough, he may try to charge you (although a few units like bikes, do get a single I10 attack, so beware) making your life easier, as your 5 (4A + Pistol), 2+ wounding attacks (at I5, letting you strike first most of the time) cut down the opponent. Considering that many squads won't even be able to wound him once, you can wipe out entire squads. However, if the enemy chooses shoots you, you are going to run into problems.
** And here comes the negative part - while in Assault, Sly can crush entire squads through the sheer close combat power, he lacks the capability to take those attacks. Beside WS5 that let's you evade most of the assault-based attacks, Sly has a statblock that befits a Guardsman (2 wounds and high initiative notwithstanding). Instant Death is very much a thing and most ranged weapons (including lasguns) will wound with ease. Even worse, Marbo's only save is 5+ armor save (dont forget he's got stealth). And he can never join a squad to take hits for him. This is even worse when you are charging a big enough squad - while Overwatch means that entire enemy squad is BS1, considering the possibility of Flamer Weaponry/lucky shots, it's quite possible for Marbo to die before he reaches the enemy. If you are lucky, he'll live through with just one wound. And then die to a lucky Fire Warrior or Kroot. If you are unlucky, his Assault roll might not be enough to reach the enemy, and he'll stop right in front of the opponent's gun barrels.
*'''Hades Breaching Drill (forgeworld):''' Remember the Tyranid Mawloc? Well the IG looked at it and said "we need something like that but even ''more'' destructive." Yes this thing has rhino armour and 2 HP, but when it comes in it puts a fucking pie plate blast with S10 AP1 melta. This little fucker even destroy terrain, like D-strength blasts in Apocalypse. And then your vets pop out of the holes it leaves behind. The ultimate fuck you towards gun lines. Once it enters, it can go around blasting people with it's meltadrill, but it's probably going to die afterwards...assuming anything is left standing. And on top of this, drill only ''counts'' elites: it don't take up the slot in force organization.

===Troops===
*'''Infantry Platoon:''' Cheap core of army. Consists of a multitude of parts and options. Think of it as a force organization chart in your force organization chart, so you can write yo list while you can write yo list. Can add on extra squads of heavy and special weapons. Though those count as kill points so its risky to take the special weapon squads when you could use your Platoon command squads to do the same work for you. You could also put your heavy weapons in Infantry squads.
**'''Platoon Command Squad:''' This unit can be tricked out much like the CCS (barring options for Camo-Cloaks or Carapace), yet do not have the accuracy of Veterans. Additionally, the Platoon Commander is less efficient at issuing orders. There are two unique Platoon Commanders, each which can be taken as replacements to the standard ones; they provide a degree of specialization.
***'''Captain Al'rahem:''' Al'rahem is the long-standing rival to Ursarkar Creed, laughing at the former's antics. Creed can Outflank a Leman Russ or Scout some Hellhounds forward. Al'rahem always Outflanks his entire platoon. Order-wise, he replaces the standard Platoon Command orders in favor of '''Bring it Down''' and his unique order '''Like the Wind.''' This ability allows a Guard unit to shoot, then move d6 inches, as though it were running with Fleet of Foot; uses for this would be allowing a unit to spread out after disembarking, peel back away from enemy units, hug cover with small Grenade Launcher teams, or to help your get into assault faster. Ultimately though, Al'rahem is for players who *really* love Outflanking. On a final note, while he *does* have a cute Power Weapon with the potential to get lucky and one-shot an enemy model, the squishy nature of his squad makes using his unit for assassin duty very risky; if you *really* wish to use him in such a manner, a Priest is a must.
***'''Commander Chenkov:''' Do you want to take that point? I mean, REALLY take that point? Seriously, how many dudes do you want to throw at that point? Chenkov can throw that many guys at the point, AND MORE. Including him is a fun way for your Conscripts to get some action, as well as make you just move your little boys 7-12 inches every turn, never shoot their guns, and charge, because boy, is that the only thing he does well. Chenkov lets your Conscripts come back from the dead, well, only if the whole platoon gets wiped out, but if you get sick of waiting you are allowed to just destroy them yourself. It's a lot of awesome for a lot of points. You can drown your enemy in so many bodies it isn't even funny (for them, at least). The only problem is getting them into the fight.<strike> Keep lots of Chimera on hand for this guy, if you want to use him at all.</strike> What the fuck, why? Conscripts come in 20-50 man squads, so they can't fit in Chimeras, and you can't get anything else Send in the Next Wave.
**'''Infantry Squad:''' If you play blob guard, this is going to be your bread and butter, if you play a balance of blob and mech, you are still going to take these dudes. They are paper thin, only hit half the time, and they run away if it can't be helped. But its for fucking sure that they can be made a monster. They can become Stubborn and get a Ld of 9 with a Commissar, the squad can be combined with other squads of the same kind to make huge tar pits. With 30 men, first rank fire second rank fire can make them fire 84 shots in one turn. That's a whole lot of diddley. They can take a heavy weapon and a special weapon. This can be combined to make many different options. A basic set up would be a grenade launcher, to be able to move and shoot a very versatile weapon. On top of that, If the squad is going to be a gun line, add in an Autocannon. You could also take a Priest with an Eviscerator to give the squad a Power Fist, and rerolls on the charge, because a squad that big is going to be charged eventually. You can get plenty of Power Weapons in there as well, for the Sergeants and Commissars. But there is a common misconception that you can have Power Fists in the squad, the only one you could is an Eviscerator.
**'''Conscripts:''' A platoon may take one unit of Conscripts, or human Grots as they're affectionately called. If there is anything thinner than paper, it would be Conscripts. Good thing there are a lot of them... They are one point cheaper than a regular guardsman, so only take them if you are full of the others (how did you do that) or if you are using Chenkov's "Send In the Next Wave".
**'''Heavy Weapon Squad:''' This is where the awesome firepower comes from. Some don't like them because they die rather quickly if they can be seen. But if you buy HWS instead of putting HW in your IS they can target big things and not waste the lasgun fire. Lascannons are nice here. In fact the only one that isn't that good to take here is the heavy bolter. They are a Kill Point and 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.
**'''Special Weapon Squads:''' <s>The only use of these I see are units that stop back the wave of Close combat, and demo charges. But Marbo does that so much better...</s> So much wrong. It's a 65 point team of meltaguns. Fuck everything else, find them chimeras and drive them forwards so they can be a super cheap but less accurate vet squad. There is only 6 of them, but they can bring specialized firepower when it's needed.
*'''Veteran Squad:''' Key to most mech lists. Slightly superior to regular guard and have an even better selection of gear. Stick in chimeras and try to see lady luck take them from you. Only downside to this squad is that you only have six troop choices. You could also do the smart thing and mix 2-3 vet squads with an infantry platoon, giving you unholy amounts of melta, chimeras and bodies everywhere. They're <s>weaker</s> generally less specialized than storm troopers, but they score. Always take at least two.
**'''Gunnery Sergeant Harker:''' <s>Not recommended. Removes Veteran Squad's ability to buy 4+ armor save, and only gives Feel No Pain and Relentless to himself. Grants no bonuses to close combat. His best use is to make a squad full of Assault-type weapons and to kite the enemy. Still, a waste of 55 points, since he is the opposite of flexible, and isn't really recommended. You don't need another Heavy Bolter on the field, and an additional chimera does a better job than Harker could ever achieve.</s> He gives the squad stealth, move through cover, and infiltrate. Together with an autocannon/heavy bolter team and 3 plasma guns this makes a very nice thorn in the enemy's backside. Use his squad to claim an objective and sit on it all the game and rain death on whatever comes in range.
**'''Sergeant Bastonne:''' Expensive at 60 points, but comes with Carapace and a Power Weapon. He can also give any order to his own squad, meaning that he can switch between shooting and running efficiently. The power weapon will let you do some damage in Assault, but that's not your primary goal with Bastonne's Squad. Remember that he is still affected by Incompetent Command, though and can only issue orders after everyone else already did.
*'''Penal Legion Squad:''' You have to roll a d6 to see what these prisoners are good at. You don't have that kind of extra change to throw at lady luck during a game. This squad of cons can go fuck themselves. And even if you roll what you want it's still shit. Melee with a1, s3, i3 and ws3 still sucks even with rending. Compare to a orkboy and burst in tears.
**If you still want to try them out though and have points to waste (what is wrong with you?!), you can have some fun with those guys. Gunslingers can hug cover and exploit the range of their 24 inch assault 2 lasguns. If they get shot at, they have stubborn. Still, their only use is to shoot up and then tie down choppy squads for a turn or two. And that's not really worth the 80 points.
**Knife Fighters are even more luck-based, but since they Scout (and therefore can Outflank), they can end up taking down some expensive target. With a charge, that's at least 3 auto wounds that can ruin some expensive, low number squad's day. Don't forget to evade your opponent's raging fists if you end up shanking his foot slogging Terminator unit in the first round. Still, the cons lack the staying power, and are likely to get killed to a man the moment enemy retaliates. Again, not really worth the points, especially since you are playing Guard and every point counts.
**Psychopaths are trash, and you might as well just remove the squad as casualties if that's how they roll.

===Dedicated transports===
*'''[[Chimera]]:''' This is the gem of the [[Metal_Boxes|MEHTAL BAWKS]] world. It makes the Guard competitive at high end play. Always replace the hull mounted heavy bolter with a heavy flamer to discourage people from charging you. There's no reason not to unless you're sat still and if you're sat still, buy anything else instead. You also get a turret-mounted [[Multilaser|multilaser]] by default, which is pretty good against anything infantry short of anything with Space Marine stats (and even Marines will go down eventually).
** Cheap. (point-wise) You can spam them, get lots and lots of multilasers (it will please you) and a solid wall of AV12 metal.
** Makes otherwise-slow Guardsmen mobile.
** You can fire all your important shit (special weapons, aka melta and plasma) out the top hatch. Letting you fry while staying safe from retaliation. Heck, Commanders can even give orders out the top hatch.
** They also count as tanks, meaning that once your troops are on the point, you can tank shock the enemies off it and even crush some Ork vehicles and scare off the mobs.

===Fast Attack===
*'''Scout Sentinel Squadron:''' Weak armor, going to die second turn most probably. Fun choice of weapons. Key part here is they have Scout. So three Sentinels coming from the side or scout into cover blasting away causing havoc in the enemy ranks. But still. They are going to die. They are open topped. They are going to die. They have 10 armor. They are going to die. But they may as well take a tank or two down with them. If you want to be insane, Heavy Flamers all around can result in hilarious infantry murder. Most of the time you'll take them as a 40 point autocannon on legs.
*'''Armored Sentinel Squadron:''' Armored heavy weapon pretty much. Can move around and fire, unlike heavy weapon teams but you only get one for a similar price. Can do decent in close combat, unlike heavy weapons. Even better choice of awesome weapons compared to Scout Sentinels, such as plasma cannons (but you'll never pick anything other than autocannons, otherwise you'd pick a vendetta, right?). Can be used to keep mobs in the inverse Tarpits, if going gets tough, and guardsmen are in danger.
*'''Rough Rider Squad:''' Poor misbegotten Rough Riders. Yes they're cavalry, yes they're dirt cheap, yes they can be virtually guaranteed a 24" charge range if you use '''Move! Move! Move!''' on them...and they are ultimately a one-trick pony that is difficult to hide in cover, is fragile in close combat, near-useless against actual dedicated assault troops (go ahead and charge Genestealers with them...), and should they be tarpitted, die. Perhaps the only way to reliably use them is with Creed, Glory for Cadia and all. And for that investment, couldn't one buy another Hellhound? Alternatively, you can use them as a one-time anti-vehicle suicide squad, since Sergeant can carry Melta Bombs. Still, you can probably find a much better Fast Attack slot choice.
**'''Mogul Kamir''' When you first see him, Mogul doesn't look that bad. An improvement over a Sergeant he replaces, with a Bolt Pistol instead of a LasPistol, 3 attacks + 1d3 attacks on the charge due to his Cyber-Steed. He grants Furious Charge and Fearless to his unit. And he isn't that expensive for a an upgrade character. Then you notice that he basically has "Rage" rule, and with 6th edition, Rage is a good thing. Beside lacking Melta Bombs, using Mogul Kamir will help Rough Riders not to tard out too early. So, you can actually afford to have one unit of Rough Riders for fluff reasons (they are still inferior to everything else on Fast Attack list, though).
*'''[[Hellhound]] Squadron:''' The Hellhound tank variants give you access to Fast Tanks. This can have its advantages, as you use them for movement-blocking, tank-shocking, or blasting enemies to oblivion. A low profile makes finding cover for it relatively easy, though cover-hugging isn't exactly the best use of this tank. There are three variants, each with a unique turret weapon, and the choice of hull-mounted Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer, or Multi-melta.
**The standard '''[[Hellhound]]''' is a very handy infantry-killer. If they're not Marine-equivalents (and even they will be hurting once the wounds pile up and they start failing saves), and not in a transport, they will die. The range of the Inferno Cannon means that you can expect them to hit enemy infantry starting on turn 1 (move 12", fire 12", cover another 8" with flame template). Ran in support of longer-ranged anti-tank weapons for popping enemy transports, Hellhounds can also serve to finish off units from disembarked vehicles. As a general rule however, the Hellhound does best with a Multi-melta, for it can only fire one weapon at Cruising speed anyway. Using Creed to outflank a squad of these is hilarious against horde armies. Do it.
**The '''[[Hellhound|Banewolf]]''' sacrifices the range of the Hellhound for a poisoned AP 3 flamer template. Banewolves will kill any infantry short of Terminators or similarly tough units. Their armor and speed give them unparalleled ability to be used for flushing enemy infantry from cover. This said and done, this may be the one variant you can afford to specialize; because the Chemical Cannon is a Defensive Weapon, adding a Hull-mounted Heavy Flamer means you're moving 12" and throwing out two really mean flame-templates. This tank is the epitome of offence over defence, on one hand, it can destroy an entire SM tactical squad in one turn, on the other hand, it can easiy be put down by a Lascannon head-on. They are well known for making Tyranid and Chaos daemon players cry as you gib their monstrous creatures with as much ease as their cannon fodder. But then again, what doesn't make Tyranids and Daemons cry in 5th edition?
**The '''[[Hellhound|Devil Dog]]''' is the last one out, eschewing a short-range flamer, for a Melta Cannon. This weapon is unique in 40k, for being a blast weapon with the Melta rule. Partials do benefit from the melta die of course, meaning that these tanks are great for sending into the center of an enemy armored formation and intimidating your opponent into breaking up, lest he find himself losing multiple tanks! Alternatively, assuming one has reliable long-ranged anti-tank, the Devil Dog can be used for finishing off survivors of destroyed enemy transports. Add a hull-mounted Heavy Flamer, and the Devil Dog can flush troops out of cover (though not as efficiently as the Banewolf). While not a flashy vehicle, it gets the job done. Probably the best variant for most games. Enjoy arguing over how the melta rule works with scattering blasts though.
*'''Valkyrie Assault Carrier Squadron:''' Goddamnit, why don't you have one? A Valkyrie is relatively expensive flying Chimera,it is well worth it. It has BY DEFAULT Extra Armor in its profile, which means the bad bitch can never be stunlocked. If you keep your Valkyries Turbo-boosting around the table, it's rare for them to die. Keep them alive to support your armor with a hard-hitting blast from its Multiple Rocket Pods. Valkyries eat infantry and shit brass and work best with Stormtroopers or Veteran Squads, deep-striking the squad in the most annoying place possible, and then flying off to rain hell on the enemy. Unfortunately, it's totally outclassed for anti-infantry by the Hellhound. That said, it does upgrade to the...
*'''Vendetta Gunship Squadron:''' 3 twin-linked Lascannons. Fast skimmer. Carries Guardsmen. Outflanks or gets into perfect firing position with Scout USR. Relatively cheap. There is no better option for fielding mobile anti-tank than this behemoth. Base height can be an issue as the only cover save you'll ever see is from Flat Out movement, but AV12 front/side arc and it's default Extra Armor help to mitigate this drastically. Why would anyone every field a valkyrie over this monster?
* FORGE WORLD:'''Vulture Gunship:'''Essentially a 40k Apache helicopter, comes with a nose mounted heavy bolter, and 4 wing pylons that are divided into two sets of 2 pylons that give space for two twin-linked weapons (one pylon on each side per weapon). This machine is very modular, able to adapt to ANY situation, Green Tide getting you down? Well, instead of two twin-linked weapons, you can actually attach a twin-linked punisher cannon!!! The ammo boxes do take up the other two pylons, but twin-linked means 15 shots hit instead of 10 (on average). Other weapons that only take up one of two spaces include:
**Lascannon
**Autocannon
**Missile launchers
**Multiple rocket pods
**6 Hunter-killers (not twin-linked, 3 per pylon)
**6 Heavy bombs (again 3 per pylon, but one pylon dropped per turn as apocalyptic barrage (3))
**Multilasers
**Hellstrike missiles (not twin-linked, 1 per pylon)
**And of course, the single twin-linked Punisher Cannon
I would personally recommend <s>buying</s> spending too much on all possible weapons and not gluing them in place, maybe use magnets or some other such method, just make sure you can change the vulture's armament easily to ensure it is never left wanting in a battle. Because the main strength of the Vulture is its adaptability.

*<s>You don't really need a Vulture. Valkyries and Vendettas are terror enough.</s> THOSE WORDS ARE BLASPHEMY!!!! <s>btw Vultures are Heavies, not Fast...</s> Actually, in the book, Apocalypse II, they were changed to Fast Attack.

===Heavy Support===
*'''[[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Squadron]]:''' Leman. Fucking. Russ. It's a big tank. Holds the proud title of best tank in the galaxy for it's size and cost. Side effects include: templates, lots of dice, lots of AV, lots of choices. As an addition, Knight Commander Pask can be added to any one tank that you field. He'd a nice little upgrade to the BS, helps reduce drift, and he's a tank killer. Put him in a Demolisher, Vanquisher, Executioner or Punisher for the best bang for your buck. Though, nothing is wrong with putting him in a Battle Tank.
**'''Leman Russ Battle Tank:''' Thus he comes in many flavors the basic tank is the most useful. With his STR8 AP3 72" gun and thick armor, he is good against anything for decent points. This is your runner-and-gunner, your go-to tank, and the majority of your Leman Russ pool at any time should be these or Executioners.
**'''Leman Russ Exterminator:''' Armed with a 4 shot twin-linked autocannon means this thing is death incarnate for carapace armour and light vehicles, arm with 3 extra heavy bolters for beautiful infantry shredding, if you feel like it, add Pask, and watch it destroy Predators and Falcon grav tanks with ease. Pity it's worse value than a Hydra really.
**'''Leman Russ Vanquisher:''' A Melta with a devastating range. Thus a bit costly for 1 shot at BS3 (works well with Pask, but only useful against vehicles). Not very useful really considering the amount of melta you should already have.
**'''Leman Russ Eradicator:''' Kind of a Hellhound that hits worse, is slower but better armored. And you can add a Lascannon for versatility. Strange tank that eats your enemies' cover saves. Consider for Cities of Death games.
**'''Leman Russ Demolisher:''' For +15 pt to the basic Russ you get a cannon that lays waste of everything on the battlefield and immunity vs s4 melee units. Thus sometimes 24" is too close at the enemy. The Demolisher is tried and true, and should ALWAYS lead the armored charge into the enemy. Works great alone, works even better in three's.
**'''Leman Russ Punisher:''' Shares the cons but only few of the pros with the Demolisher (it does keep the additional back armor, which helps). Heavy 20 may sound cool, but on average, you end up with 10 S5 hits with no AP (making it difficult to even glance vehicles to death, but why would you target vehicles anyway?). Everything except Grots is butchered better with the cheaper and better ranged Battle Tank. However, unlike most Russes, it gets better if you sink the points in it: Kit one out with Pask and a full triple H. Bolter set, at which point the machine will 1-shot anything from terminator squads to full-up mobs every turn, and will stop 'nidzilla in it's tracks through sheer dice output. Well, that or you'll be killed by the enemies anti-tank and waste 250 points on something the rest of your army should be doing anyway. By far the coolest looking though.
**'''Leman Russ Executioner''' Oh hell... what a devastation. This thing lays waste to whole terminator squads and no matter what the enemy has - this one will hurt badly. The only problem might be that he is a bit costly and if the enemy has nothing with 2+ the battletank is the better choice per pts. Same might be true if the enemy has 2+ - the Demolisher (who can also, you know, demolish tanks) might be a more priceworthy alternative. However, if you have spare points - take one. Even against those [[Plasma|plasma]]-[[Matt Ward|syphoning]] [[Grey Knights|assholes]] take one and pray for the Emperor's blessing on your scatter dice.

*'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Ordnance Battery]]:''' "Infantry win firefights. Tanks win battles. Artillery wins wars," or so the old saying goes. The Imperial Guard is noted for being able to bring really big guns to the battlefield, their firepower able to remove small sections of the opponent from the playing field. This said and done, the Imperial Guard artillery units are slow (sometimes outright static) and fragile for their cost due to being Open-Topped, a drawback which becomes increasingly noted should one wish to take artillery in a Squadron (and with the exception of the Griffon, Ordnance has the same cost issues with squadron up vehicles); this said, one can remove the Open-Topped Status. Artillery in itself will not make a Guard army due to its fragile nature, but they provide excellent firepower should the rest of the army be able to protect them. There are numerous artillery-pieces available, including the following:
**'''[[Basilisk]]:''' Jokingly called the penis-enlargement gun by veteran Guard Players, the Basilisk is noted for having a really big gun. This gun is also known for being long-ranged, having the option for direct or indirect fire, and having AP 3 (meaning it can kill Marines in the open, or pummel Crisis Suits). However, having the worst minimum-range requirements has the potential to often relegate the Basilisk to being a direct-fire weapon, a task the Medusa tends to do better in most cases for a marginal upgrade in cost; this said, the Basilisk's direct-fire does have a longer range than the Medusa. Unless it's apocalypse, you don't need more than 36" though, so get a Medusa.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Colossus]]:''' Games Workshop has a checkered history when it comes to Marine-Killer weapons. Their emphasis on certain units being designed for killing Marines in the open, has lead to horridly inflexible units like Vespids, Flash Gitz, Thousand Sons, and now the Colossus. At first glance, the Colossus looks like a fun gun. With the ability to ignore cover, and Marine Power Armor saves, it will utterly devastate Marines should it land properly. On the other hand, having a wide minimum range and the inability to fire directly means the Colossus falters against a lot of Marine Armies. With the exception of some foot-slogging Space Wolf armies, many Marine armies are very fast, and noted either for operating as a mechanized army, fighting by Drop Pods, speeding forth towards your lines on Bikes, deepstriking in by Jump Packs, or otherwise excelling at fighting at short range. While the Colossus can be used for indirect-combat if kept isolated from the rest of the battleline with an infantry unit or two to watch over it, it isn't too popular in tournament armies for this reason.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Griffon]]:''' The cheapest artillery-piece the Guard get, the Griffon is also the most accurate on most accounts; the ability to reroll Scatter Dice is a handy ability in most cases. Like the Colossus, the Griffon is unable to fire directly, yet its shorter minimum range makes it more usable against rapidly advancing armies. Should a player wish to take a Griffon (or a pair of them, which isn't as point-intensive as squadding the other artillery), they work as part of a handy one-two combo for finishing off infantry from a destroyed transport, or in support of Hellhound-equivalents being used to Tank-shock enemy infantry into clustered formations.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Medusa]]:''' A pure direct-fire weapon, noted for having Strength 10 and AP 2, the Medusa is arguably the most popular form of Ordnance on account of its raw firepower. While having the same issues with accuracy most blast weapons have, whatever it hits will suffer on account of it. For those who wish to trade accuracy and flexibility for raw tank-busting firepower, the regular firing mode can be replaced with Siege Shells, turning the Medusa into a heavy tank hunter. With an AP 1 blast template, and the normal Ordnance bonus replaced by rolling 2d6 for armor penetration, even partials have the potential to kill enemy vehicles, and the threat of losing multiple vehicles to a well-placed shot does a lot to intimidating opponents to spread their vehicles out. This said, like with the Devildog's Melta Cannon, the accuracy issues inherent with the Medusa mean it tends to work best in support of, rather than being the primary source, of ranged anti-tank.

* '''Heavy Artillery Battery (forgeworld):''' This is artillery variants pf Basilisk and Medusa, and in 6-th ed artilley is awesome (until someone charge it). They are immobile, and need crew which could be killed (though, they use gun toughness 7 against enemy shooting), but they are also cheap. And for being non-vehicles, they ''can'' take orders. Earthsakers and Medusas with "Bring it down!" and "Fire on my target!" could make miraces if used properly. Or die pointlessly, if used unproperely. Oh, and dont forget, that they only have ld7 with no sarge or comissar options, so you NEED a lord-comissar or Kell to make them listen to your orders.

*'''[[Hydra Flak Tank]]:''' A relatively popular vehicle for a key reason. Providing dual twin-linked Autocannons and a Heavy Bolter at an extremely efficient price, even before you take it's ability to ignore cover generated by Turbo-boosting or moving Flat-out, the Hydra is great for reliably dealing with enemy light vehicles at range, or disabling/stunlocking medium armor until Meltagun infantry can get close to finish the job. A squad of these is excellent for chipping away at Monstrous Creatures, and unlike many other vehicles, squadding the Hydra won't be excessively expensive. On the other hand, it competes with other popular Heavy Support options, and like all Autocannon units is useless against AV 14. If Hydras are taken, make sure that your list has the means to deal with these other threats. That said, for the same price as a Leman Russ, you're getting 8 twin linked autocannon shots that shoot 72" and can always get cover from (but still fire over) chimeras. 2+ saves give you trouble, but really that's always true unless you've got access to, say, a lot of melta, plasma and AP1/2 template weapons. Easily the best choice for most armies <s>- go buy some. Now.</s> <s>'''Hurr, it's Forgeworld only!'''</s> Grab an Aegis Defence Line, plant the quad-gun on the back deck of a Chimera for a quick and dirty Hydra.
** In other news, since the coming of 6th edition and increase in staying power of the fliers, Hydras are recommended to scare off those who try to exploit their new capabilities, since targeting computer rules still apply, making them an effective counter. For extra confusion, Hydra Autocannons are list as only Skyfire, but Immobile Hyrda Guns from Forgeworld have the additional interceptor rule...more GW screw-ups. Its for this reason that you should take an Aegis Defense Line or Bastion with Quad Gun instead.

*'''[[Manticore Rocket Launcher|Manticore Missile]]:''' Mixed-bag. Good for the points, bigger blast range then hell, but can't <s>really shoot every turn</s> deal with marines. Drop it back by your Basilisks or Heavy Weapons. Good points are simple: They're not open-top, compared to artillery. They've got HUGE blast ranges and they can virtually ensure that you're going to be making people spread out their firepower, great for you to focus on one group at a time. Downsides are just as bad as the upsides though. Limited ammo CAN be a problem (rarely). Spreading people out causes you to lose a lot of their effectiveness. Seriously, it can only shoot 4 out of 5-6 turns (unless your opponent isn't retarded, in which case it'll be gone a great deal sooner). Overlooked a lot, but can be powerful on those first few crucial turns. On a high note, these things DEMOLISH Necron Warrior elements.

*'''[[Deathstrike Missile Launcher|Deathstrike]]: ''' The Deathstrike Missile Launcher tends not to be taken in a lot of tournament builds, being viewed as too unreliable a weapon. Its main selling point is that it eventually fires a Strength 10 AP 1 superlarge blast (to put this in context, while a normal Ordnance Blast has a 2.5" radius, a Deathstrike Missile has a radius of 4-6" depending on the luck of the die), ignoring cover, and operating at full Strength against any and all vehicles caught in the explosion; should it go off, it has a high chance of devastating the opponent. On the other hand, it's chances of properly firing are random at best, and it won't be firing on turn 1, and the Deathstrike is a one-shot weapon. It mostly gets used either for casual games on account of this unreliability, as a gamble, or for psyching the opponent out into spreading his forces out. But if you're a favored champion of the dice gods, received the blessing of Admiral Awesome and the benediction of Lady Luck and have balls of ceramite, you might just hilariously wipe half of your opponent's forces early in the game. In 2k+ games, combine 3 Deathstrikes with 4 units of demo special weapons squads in vendettas and watch your enemy's face drop as he realises he the might of pie plates as he has to deal with either 3 nukes or 12 S9 AP2 large blasts+12 twin linked lascannons on turn one. Unless you get first turn of course, in which case he has to deal with 3 nukes having already been hit by 12 blasts...

===Fortifications===
*'''Aegis Defense Lines:'''In case you forgot to get a Hydra, Aegis will help you out with annoying fliers. In addition, you get a nice piece of cover for Guardsmen, which you can use as a forward assault base of sorts. Pretty cheap point-wise, and can be a good choice if you want to have some foothold without turning into gunline guard.
*'''Skyshield Landing Pad:'''On one hand, you practically give your Guardsmen an ''Invulnerable Save''(!) - on the other, you don't have many units you can deepstrike, and shooting up the enemy after outflanking is just what guard does. A bit of a mixed guard, but you are certainly within gunline guard territory.
*'''Imperial Bastion:'''Ridiculously cheap, can mount a Quad Gun that can pop transports and flyers, gets 4 free heavy bolters which can be legally placed all on one facing, gives your men the advantage of height and cover, and if you play air cavalry the Comms upgrade is a must, letting you modify your reserve rolls by +1.
*'''Fortress of Redemption:'''Expensive both in points and actual cost, this huge model doesn't exactly bristle with guns as you would expect - but now you are able to dominate everything on the table - tanks will be sniped with the '96 lasgun, fliers will be decimated by BS4 AA guns (you did garrison veterans in there, right?), and everything else will have to eat Heavy Bolters. And that thing launches missiles. Oh, and all Imperial units get various buffs and saves, meaning that this thing is the ultimate say in the world of gunline guard. If you never had given anyone a reason to field a Super-Heavy in a non-Apcalypse game, congratulations, you have done it.

===Apocalypse units===
**'''Marauder Bomber:'''Heavy bomber, imagine the massive bombers that dropped massive amounts of bombs on cities during the Second World War, the Marauder is basically the same thing, but with much bigger and less dinky and useless guns. Also happens to share the same name as one too. It's not good for its point cost though, even in apocalypse. Those bombs just don't hurt tanks.
***'''Maurauder Destroyer''' Heavy attack plane. While the standard Maurauder is the Imperium's B17, this one is basically a flying Manticore with three twin-linked autocannons on its nose. Instead of bombing, this sucker flies in and strafes with craptons of fire and flies away. Better than the bomber in every way (looks, armour, actual AA mount guns, horrific bombing runs).
**'''[[Baneblade]]:'''ECKSMETALBAWKS HUGE KILLDOZER WITH A FUCKTON OF GUNS. Orgasms aside, the Baneblade is one of the most feared tanks the Imperium and Chaos posers have to offer. Sporting a Baneblade cannon, co-axial Autocannon, Demolisher Cannon, two Lascannons, three twin-linked heavy bolters, and optional pintle mounts AND optional Hunter-killer missile, it's a rolling fortress of death. Comes standard with three structure points, AV14 front and AV12 side armor. Can be commandeered by a Commissar to REALLY motivate your troops.
***'''Hellhammer:''' Baneblade without the Baneblade cannon. <strike>This has, instead, the Hellhammer cannon (equivalent to the Eradicator cannon)</strike> The Hellhammer cannon is shorter ranged but has a smaller template, better strength and AP. But why take this when the Stormsword right down the corner is so much better?
***'''Banehammer:''' Fun for trolling mech armies with it's Tremor cannon. With a 60" range and S8 AP3, the Tremor cannon may not seem like much, but that's when it's special rule "Earthshock" come in. Everything within 4d6" of it's 7" blast gets caught within a shockwave zone which is treated as dangerous terrain to vehicles and difficult to all else. Not the best super heavy to take, but is fun.
***'''Banesword:''' Designed especially to reach out and fuck someone's day over. With a range of 180" on it's main cannon (called the Quake Cannon) as well as S9 AP3, Barrage, and 10" Blast, someone is going to have a really bad day. And for shits and giggles, you can kill that annoying Tau player's army 2 tables over.
***'''Stormsword:''' Best at street fighting and siege warfare, what this bad boy lacks in range (a sort of pathetic 36") is made up for in firepower. It's cannon launches a enormously painful S10 AP1 10" blast primary weapon shot which denies cover saves and instagibs vehicles on a 3+ and is at the very least ripping off a weapon, and will turn anything with less than T5 inside out. So in other words, it's a great way to say screw you to that annoying as fuck Vindicare assassin camping in those ruins. The blast template is in fact so huge that it is actually physically incapable of missing it's original target with it's main cannon, which is awesome. Firing this thing once can wipe it's cost in units off of the gameboard, which is even more awesome. Pretty much everything you love about the Leman Russ Demolisher is taken up to eleven on this baby. If you can get these guys in range, they will never fail to impress with the incredible amounts of destruction they will unleash.
***'''Doomhammer:''' This super heavy isn't sure if it's supposed to be a scary ass tank or dedicated transport... but does decent as both. With a transport capacity of 25 models, it certainly isn't too shabby especially with it's fire points (well, fire point really) allowing 10 models to blast away from it. It also counts as open topped for (dis)embarking purposes. It's primary cannon (named the Magma cannon - yeah, it's the Volcano cannon's baby bro) has a range of 60" and is S10 AP1 5" blast. So yeah... Something caught between a Stormsword, Stormlord and a Shadowsword... So for a jack of all trades, this is a decent choice (though the Baneblade is probably better at it).
***'''Shadowsword:''' Like the Baneblade but instead of a turret and hull weapon, mounts a fuckhuge Volcano cannon (yes, it is as powerful as it sounds). The volcano cannon is range:120" S:D AP1 large blast. The Titan killer and possibly one of the most useful Baneblade-based vehicles.
***'''Stormlord:''' Shadowsword chassis with Vulcan Mega bolter instead of Volcano cannon (Yes, the mega bolter is as insane as it sounds, imagine a vulcan minigun with Heavy Bolters for each barrel), the mega bolter is range:60" S6 AP3 type: heavy 15, and if the stormsword doesn't move, it can fire twice at different target, or the same target. However, the most lulzy thing about this beast is that it can transport FORTY troops. 20 of which can fire from a rear mounted firing platfotm. To really maximise it's epic lulz potential, team up with a Space Marine player and let him shove 20 devastator Marines in it. For obvious reasons, this thing will then be chucking out more fire than an entire Imperial Guard regiment.
**'''Malcador:''' Basically a bigger Leman Russ, half the size of a Baneblade. Like the Russ, it has a Battlecannon, but has the option for sponson heavy stubbers or sponson lascannons. Malcadors have a limited turret traverse, due to their weird design.
***'''Malcador Defender:''' Instead of a Battlecannon, has a bunker on the top with five heavy bolters and a demolisher cannon in the hull.
***'''Malcador Annihilator:''' Has a twin-linked lascannon turret weapon, and a hull-mounted Demolisher cannon.
***'''Malcador Infernus:''' Take a Malc, throw out the turret and give it a titan-sized Inferno Cannon. It's a GIANT flamethrower tank, like a Hellhound on steroids. Also has sponson weapon options.
***'''Valdor Tank Hunter:''' Like a smaller Shadowsword, or specifically, like a bigger Destroyer Tank Hunter. It has a fuckhuge laser cannon. No sponson weapons.
***'''Minotaur Artillery Tank:''' Basilisk on crack. Carries two [[Basilisk]] cannons on a Malcador hull.
**'''Macharius Heavy Tank:''' Comparable to the Malcador, except with moar gunz. Standard Macharius has two sponsons and a TWIN. LINKED. BATTLE. CANNON. Unlike the Malcador, the Macharius has a full 360-degree traverse so it can fire in any direction from its position. Also has hull-mounted twin linked stubbers in the front.
***'''Macharius Vanquisher:''' TWIN. LINKED. VANQUISHER. CANNONS. Also has sponsons on either side. Hull-mounted heavy stubbers also.
***'''Macharius Vulcan:''' Mother of god. For ultimate cheese, get a Stormlord with Vulcan mega bolters, and get a couple of these to roll with it. This Macharius has a Vulcan Mega Bolter on its turret, plus the sponsons and hull heavy stubbers.
***'''Macharius Omega:''' A Macharius assault tank, basically. Has no turret for its PLASMA BLASTGUN. Has sponsons weapons also.
***'''Gorgon Assault Carrier:''' The ultimate party bus. The Gorgon can transport entire platoons instead of just a single squad. Has two twin-linked heavy stubber turrets on the very back, and has the option of either sponson-mounted weapons or twin-linked mortars. One thing to note is that the Gorgon is permanently open-topped.
***'''[[meme|CRASSUS ARMORED ASSAULT TRANSPORT]]:''' Picks up where the Gorgon slacked off. Has two heavy bolters on its nose, sponson weapons and it's completely closed. Unknown carrying capacity, but it must be huge. It's pretty much the IG's equivalent of a land raider, and like the Predator vs Leman Russ, the CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT is more powerful, more durable, and generally better at it's job, which is hilarious when you think about it.
***'''Praetor Armored Assault Launcher:''' OMG. Like the Minotaur is a super-[[Basilisk]], the Praetor is a super-Whirlwind. Its backside houses a multiple-rocket launcher, also has two heavy bolters on the nose. Unknown if sponsons are allowed.
**'''[[Warhound Scout Titan]]:'''Buy three!!!!!!!!!! Can equip two arm weapons, give it two Turbo-Laser destructors and watch the fireworks as it kills everything
**'''[[Reaver Battle Titan]]:'''Buy one!!!!!!!!!!! Gets two arm weapons and one carapace weapon, uses the same weapons as a Warlord (spare two).
**'''[[Warlord Battle Titan]]:'''FUCKING MAKE ONE!!!!!11111!!!!!11!!1!!!!11!!!!!11!!!!111 One of these, will obliterate it's cost in say, predator annhialators or baneblades, without a freaking scratch. It mounts two of the Warhound's weapons on its back and two of its own weapons on its arms, which pack more range and fire more shots each turn.
**'''[[Imperator Battle Titan]]:'''If you play one of these, just give up... I mean, the other titans scaling up add on gun, but this God-Machine carries six carapace weapons (use the Warlord's weapons for that, there's not point using the Warhound's), and it's two arm weapons, and even it's weakest arm gun will at the least through out 6 strength 8 AP3. There is no safe place against it, its weapon's range let it hit anything. Even if the enemy team fills every square inch of the board with anti-tank guns, this thing will come out on top without taking so much as a glancing hit to it's armor with all the void shields they need to get through. Load up on laser blasters for the carapace and vengeance cannons for arms and this can let loose an insane TWENTY-SIX destroyer shots. They're never going to get up close for melee either, because even if the enemy can avoid getting vaporized by its guns, if the titan moves, everything except gargantuan creatures and super heavies within 12 inches counts as going through difficult terrain. NOTE: You will never get a model for this thing, not in a thousand years, but you can [[proxy]] one, just ask your two meter (seven foot) pal over and get him to cosplay.
**'''Lightning Fighter:'''A nippy little air fighter, small armament, and not great armor, but fast and fairly cheap.

==Tactics==
Tactics for the Imperial guard have been expanded upon through out the years resulting in a plethora of different stratagems. First to explain a few of the different rules of the IG and there different uses. As well as some army compositions and strategies.
===Orders===
The order system, though new to guard, has become one of the most important and most raged about addition to the IG codex. When You are about to declare a Ld check for an order, get your troll face on. The fact is, is that sisters are only decent now because of faith points. In a few years the same will be said about guard and the orders system. With orders your lasguns become 30-50% more effective. You get rerolls for cover and armored/monstrous enemies. When you go to ground with an order, you go to ground like no other son of a bitch. Your run move is guarantied to be decent. Some call it broken, but you can not give orders to those inside vehicles. So the most broken list of guard currently, can not make full use of them. Anyway, orders are the shit. And you don't even need lady luck on your side. With the right vox system and use of other leaders Ld *COUGH* commissar *COUGH*, you should be able to roll a savings grace.

The orders are as follows:
*'''Bring it Down!''' - Allows an ordered squad to count their weapons as twin linked when engaging a Monstrous Creature(s)/Enemy Vehicle(s). Best used for Heavy Weapon Teams, especially if they use scatter weaponry.
*'''Fire on my Target!''' - Allows you to force the enemy to reroll cover saves. Not very useful unless you are fighting against basic Ork boyz mobs or Tyranids, who usually have to live and swear by cover.
*'''Get Back in the Fight''' - Let's you basically get an assaulted squad back in the fight. May get you a lucky extra shot, or force the enemy to waste their assault against a leftover squad rather than another, juicier target. Useful when you are not taking Commissars for the squads.
*'''First Rank, FIRE! Second Rank, FIRE!''' - Your most frequently issued order, Rank Fire basically gives you guardsmen an additional shot. This however only affects ''standard'' lasguns, so every other weapon shoots normally. Still, there are few things that match the expression of the opponent's face when you get to roll 28 dice at the same time, which means that even at BS3 and Strength 3, the enemy is in the sea of possible pain. Use with combined squads for extra hilarity, and don't forget to ask your opponent if you can borrow his dice.
*'''Incoming!''' - Turns your normal cover save into a 3+. Sit on an objective and make Death Guard jealous.
*'''Move! Move! Move!''' - Practically gives you the 4 inches of running. Useful when you really need to relocate your troops in response to the enemy.
*'''For the Honour of Cadia!''' - Creed's special Order. Throws the ordered unit into combat with additional special rules applied to them for the turn. Really, this is only useful to send Rough Riders to their deaths more efficiently.
*'''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2TFWZWgtUs Like the Wind!]''' - Practically let's you run and shoot. Not as useful in 6th edition, but is still able to provide sufficient annoyance to the enemy.

===Army variants===
*Blob guard
Blob guard is a rather simple concept. Have more bodies than your opponent has bullets. The fact is, is that IG has access to guardsmen that can be as cheap as 5 points. You will overwhelm them in model count, in deaths a turn, in shots fired, you will have at least twice as many heavy weapons as they will. All of their anti-tank weaponry that was meant to take out the 150 point Leman Russ? It killed a guardsman with a lasgun, good job. The problems that come with such an awesome army composition is the lack of speed and how effective the enemies anti-infantry will be against you. A decent thousand point list might consist of 2 20 man combined squads with a commissar and priest each, about 9 or so heavy weapons, and your three or so command squads loaded out with special weapons. Works best in a Cities of Death game, all that cover, all those cover saves, your men will live a bunch longer and confound the enemy to no end.
*Mech guard
Mech explores the wonder of armored vehicles. The core of the army would be a command squad and 2 squads of vets all in chimeras. And the rest would consist of anything from Leman Russ tanks to vendettas, to artillery, fast attack choices, or more chimeras.
*Melta vet spam guard
Put vets in Chimeras. Give them meltas. Fill up Force organization troop chart. Do same with Company Command Squads and Storm Troopers.
*Hammer and Anvil Guard
This army is for those who can't choose between the two. A main force hits head on while supported by tanks and artillery, and vets come in from a supporting side. As they say, hit from the air, sea, and ground. A list might include, A command squad, along with a squad of vets in a Chimera, A squad of 20-30 men with a commissar and priest, a Leman Russ variant, and a Basilisk.
*Artillery apocalypse
Take a few infantry squads with just standard guardsmen, say around 20-30 troopers, do not upgrade at all, these are meat shields. Fill up your remaining points with the Imperium's single most destructive medium, Basilisks, "But wait!!" you say "Baneblades/Titans/Shadowswords are more destructive". And yes, you'd be right, HOWEVER, when you have, say, 1,000,000 Basilisks per battle titan, well, you get the picture. Whilst your enemy is dossing around trying to kill your infantry, your many Basilisks pound them into dust, AP3 and large blast means all standard infantry fall like chaff to these bad boys, whilst str 9 means most man-sized units suffer instant death. This mind-blowingly massive amount of firepower is, however, completely useless if the crew is being hacked to pieces by deep striking terminators or some other such buttholes. So this formation is best for large, pitched, foot-slogging battles, where your foes will be lucky to even reach your infantry lines if you've spent half your points on Basilisks.
===Allies===
If you're still using the now-old Codex: Witch Hunters or Codex: Daemonhunters and you want to use allies, good god do so. For the price of a fully-kitted Veteran squad, you can have an entire 10-woman Sisters squad with all their needed gear PLUS the cost of a Rhino for them. Suddenly your army has 3+ saves and BS4 Bolters to backup your lasgun spam and 5+ armor save.

If you're lacking punch for some reason, consider using the old Allies rules. Sisters and Grey Knights can introduce a world of hurt most people don't expect from a Guard army. This writer knows from experience that Valkyrie-borne Sisters plus a Canoness make a superior, cheaper alternative to expensive Veterans or Stormtroopers doing the same thing.

EXCITING UPDATE: With 6th edition rules, any Imperium army can ally perfectly with Guard. (Except Grey Knights, which can still ally but nobody likes them. Ha.) Every single Space Marine (all variants) and Sisters of Battle unit is available to back up your Guard, and Grey Knights, Eldar, Tau, Orks, and Chaos (in case you're feeling heretical) can be used as well, but no one likes them. You can also ally with Necrons if you're don't care about logic and just want to make opponents cry at the amount of firepower you're going to put out every turn.

===What to buy===
The battle force. This gives you two squads of 10 and a leader pack, as well as heavy weapons and a sent. This will be helpful if you are going blob or mech. You can make them vets for a quick 500pt army. You can even save the heavy weapons for vehicle modifications later when you buy tanks of you go for mech.
Next thing would most likely be a Leman Russ and two chimeras if going mech,and another battle force if you are going blob.

Also if you dip, or one of your friends dip, ask them for the metal lids to the tobacco containers. These are the exact size of the heavy weapons base. Making it extremely easy to take advantage of all the heavy weapons in the pack. Just use the bending knee for the dude shooting, and put the other dude as a standing man. Green stuff some sandbags or a wall to take place of the tripod stand.

As far as organizing your army, you ought to know better that you don't have to pimp out every platoon FULL of men. Usually, two large Platoons decked out will do the job, but let's calculate the body count if you spammed evey slot.

HQ: CCSx2 (24 models; Commissar, Chimera, and all Advisors, including Officer of the Fleet and Astropath, which are MANDATORY) 
Priest x5 
Techpriest x2 (With 10 servitors. Give 'em ALL plasma cannons. Because you can.)

Elites: Stormtroopers all around, bitches (30 models)

Troops: 6x FULL Infantry platoons (6x6-man CCS + Chimeras, 30x11-man Infantry squads + Chimeras, 30x6-man Heavy squads (it's two guys on one base, be glad I'm not counting the gun model), 12x6-man Special squads, and 6x50-man Conscript squads. 954 models, bitch)

Fast: 3x Rough Rider squads (30 models)

Heavy Support: 9x Leman Russ EXECUTIONERS WITH FULL PLASMA-SPONSONS (STFU. You want them)

Grand total: 1064 models, INCLUDING Chimeras. Yes. You can have one-thousand models on the table. THIS IS THE GUARD. OUR INFANTRY ARE BLOBS. 
Want MORE INSANITY? For an extra 500 points you can make those 300 Conscripts UNDYING MONSTROSITIES! This is also mandatory, no exceptions.

But unless you're a millionaire or you've been in the Guard since 2nd edition, you aren't pulling this off.

Ideal generalized army list that you should start with:

HQ: 1x CCS

TROOPS: 2 Infantry platoons of two Infantry squads each

FAST ATTACK: Scout Sentinel x2, Valkyrie and Hellhounds if you wish.

Once your army has reached this point, start looking at where you want to go with it. You'll have a decent base for starting the typical MechVet army that is shining right now. If you want to get Leman Russes, get three, split between two Battlecannons and a Demolisher. Max out melta. It's the best thing in the game currently. Just do it.

[[Category: Warhammer Tactics]]
[[Category: Imperial Guard]]

Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard

2012-07-18T21:14:57Z

91.152.169.235:

This is the latest Edition's tactics. [[Warhammer_40,000/5th_Edition_Tactics/Imperial_Guard|5th Edition Tactics are here.]]

==Why Play Imperial Guard==

When recruits are inducted into the Imperial Guard, they are given four things. Their regulation flashlight (commonly referred to by the troops as "lasguns" for some reason), their regulation cardboard box (which certain regiments have taken to cutting up and wearing into battle, calling it "flak armor"), a large stack of toilet paper (which the recruiters refer to as the "Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer"), and ''the regulation extra large wheelbarrow'' that allows them to cart their ''massive brazen balls'' into battle.

From a gameplay perspective, the Imperial Guard army is a flexible force known for having either hordes of cheap infantry, waves of tanks, or a medium in between. The army is easy to learn while having a lot of options and tactics being discovered frequently (melta veterans in Chimeras are not the sole option in the Guard army after all).

That's why you play the Imperial Guard.

Additionally, you are the second most powerful army in Apocalypse, and the standard by which all other apocalypse armies are measured. You are absolutely spoiled for forgeworld choices with everything from the dinky little lightning fighter to the unholy rape machine that is the Imperator Class Titan. And why is Chaos better than you? Because of a small footnote by the side of the Vindicator Linebreaker Formation. In short, it details that Chaos armies may use ANY AND ALL Imperial Datasheets as long as they have spieks on them. Building your Lightning Fighter wing? Chaos get that with their Hell Talon support. Imperator Titan? Chaos can subvert one with fuckhueg spikes. Fortress of Arrogance? Chaos Yarrick makes you his bitch. Daemon Lords? You don't get those. For once, Chaos is the one giving not receiving.

So the only way to be better than the Imperial Guard in Apoc is to use Imperial Guard units plus daemonic bullshit. Still a win for IG.

==Unit Analysis==

===HQ===
*'''Company Command Squad:''' This squad provides leadership to the many. It orders around those who can order around others.This unit gets orders. It gets an ample selection of gear, and extra dudes. This includes a 30pt template weapon, penalize the enemy reserve rolls and bonuses to your own. This unit can have its leader switched out with other named leaders with awesome powers and gear. This should be your HQ of choice. The only sad part is that you can only take two of them.
**'''[[Creed|Ursarkar E. Creed]]:''' For a decent point cost, one Company Commander may be upgraded to Creed. Creed is pretty nifty for being able to use a lot of douchebaggery with his Tactical Genius special rule. But he should be known for his massive 24" command bubble and his 4 orders per turn. Seriously. You don't have to use his ability to run a Leman Russ into their flank, you can also send your tanks in with a Scouts rule BEFORE MOVEMENT. No one expects it, and it can help you get the drop on enemies or even force someone's hand. If you have the first turn, you can position your Leman Russ tanks to do some serious damage to the enemy line, or even move your Heavy Weapons squads into a position. Technically, after they get their scouts moves, they can fire. Creed might be fun for being a dick, but when you're running a solid force, he is an excellent asset for any force that might need a bit more mobility in their army list. But outflanking with a [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord Titan]] certainly helps too.
**'''Sergeant Kell:''' With him at Creed's side, all squads can use Creed's leadership (10) for any orders he issues to them. Kell himself is kinda tough too, and comes with a Power Fist. You shouldn't take Creed without Kell.
**'''[[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken]]:''' Is frighteningly good at close combat - in fact, he's the best that the Imperial Guard has - even Yarrick is not this balls-out powerful in close-combat. Strength 6 with no initiative penalties and strikes as a Chainfist, makes any squad he's in Fearless and any squad he's near gets both furious charge and counter-attack. He's also a senior officer, and is the only goddamned special commander other than Creed and Yarrick who gets a refractor field. He's also the only goddamned unit that isn't a Techpriest with Power Armor. Straken alone will seriously make enemies think twice about getting anywhere NEAR his squad, and his ability to bolster his squad's close-combat capability can make armies that otherwise might be willing to charge into close-combat against shooty squads (most infamously Raptors and Assault Marines) give pause; Guardsmen may not be hugely effective, but when you throw furious charge and counter attack on the sons of bitches, that many close-combat attacks is going to fuck some shit up. Recommended. Alternatively, whack him in a Valkyrie, scout move, disembark and charge on 1st turn. Watch as your opponent goes ape-shit looking for a rule saying you can't do this (you can and should).
**'''Nork Deddog:''' Nork is one o' da smartest Ogryns. He and da commanda have a bond. When he dies, he attacks every bad guy trying to hurt the commander. If your command squad is going to be in the fray of battle, take this somewhat expensive body guard. Doesn't get along well with Commissars, so be careful if you take them both.
** '''COMPANY COMMAND ADVISORS''' (WHO THE HELL FORGOT THESE?!)
***Bodyguard: He's just a little Sergeant, but if you want to wreck shit with an suprising-as-hell assaulty command squad, add two of these to Straken (if you don't take Nork) and watch the other player's reaction when the little man-things suddenly start whipping everything else. Comes armed with a close combat weapon and laspistol, basically being a sergeant without any extra options.
***Officer of the Fleet: Why AREN'T you using these?! Officer of the Fleet is a great asset to add to a command squad. The Officer forces a -1 on enemy reserve rolls, and could seriously jeopardize their well-thought schemes. However, he won't stop drop pods and if the enemy doesn't reserve anything you've wasted the points. In combat, the Officer is as good as dead. A massive fuck you towards Daemons players.
***Astropath: Why AREN'T you using these?! The Astropath is the best advisor, along with the Officer of the Fleet, and the two added together make for serious [[troll]]ing. While the Officer of the Fleet forces the enemy's reserve rolls to be higher, the Astropath makes YOUR reserve rolls lower. So while the enemy is butthurt about not getting his precious reserves, suddenly yours are arriving on the table much more easily. If you take Storm troopers, you NEED this guy. In combat, the Astropath is as good as dead.
***Master of Ordnance: This guy is like a tiny Basilisk. Once per turn he is able to call down a Basilisk-type attack on the enemy, subject to scatter. Not very good unfortunately, but can be fun for spamming pie plates. However, since the bombardment has an unlimited range, if you place Master of Ordnance correctly, it can be used to troll Ork and Tyranid swarms with a Strength 9 plate of instant death.

*'''Lord Commissar:''' Lord Commissar is a Independent buffed out Commissar, the key ability of him makes everyone around him LD10 and Stubborn. And that is [[awesome]]. The main issue is that he is a kill point himself and he takes away a slot of HQ for more Company Commanders. Let it not be said that he doesn't have his own uses, though. You want a blob-platoon to do REALLY well? Bind 'em into one giant squad, put a Lord Commissar in there and run it all over the place killing everything in sight. Seriously. 30 guys means 3 Sergeants with Power Weapons, 60+ attacks on the charge and a Lord Commissar with a Power Weapon as gravy. It's also Stubborn, so watch your friends complain about how the squad is still coming at them despite missing half of the people once in it. If you're feeling particularly threatened, <strike>equip him with a camo cloak and attach him to a fifty-man squad for instaStealth</strike>. Doesn't work anymore, shit got FAQ'd. Camo cloaks don't give Stealth anymore, they just improve the bearer's cover save by 1.
*'''[[Commissar Yarrick]]:''' Awesome fluffy man. Costs quite a bit. Very close combat oriented. He can come back from the dead... a lot. He has some nifty gadgets. Yarrick also has a reputation of being nasty as crap in close combat; he can take on Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka one-on-one and have a fighting chance of coming out on top. He's got a power-<s>fist</s>klaw, a decent WS, and he's got Eternal Warrior and his come back from the dead bullshit. Due to a technicality, the Fortress of Arrogance, alongside Old Man Yarrick, is available to Chaos forces in Apocalypse.
*'''Primaris Psyker:''' Puts out fucking good punch in the form of Lightning Arc, has a decent stat-block, and all for a nice low price. Solid overall stats with minimal upgrades needed out-the-box, which makes him damned efficient. While considered to be at its best in small games, where a player can take two and run them around firing 4d6 S6 lightning blasts everywhere, the real punch in the Primaris comes from his cost and the availability of Nightshroud, which can protect critical units for a turn and help fuck with enemies trying to damage mission-critical targets like artillery vehicles or commanders. Also offers a Force Weapon, for dissuading CQC attackers, since players will be hesitant to send a killy IC into combat against a squishy guard unit if it means they could lose it to a Force Weapon strike. Like the Lord Commissar, the Primaris frequently isn't as useful as a standard Command HQ, but can still be fuck-mothering useful if you use its abilities to their fullest.
*'''Ministorum Priest:''' This guy is somewhat iffy. His abilities are mostly all effective, but he costs 60 points when he is at his peak. Put this guy in a huge squad of Guardsmen. Make them stubborn as shit, and for the low cost of 15 points, you can be the new owner of a two handed giant chain-sword counted as a Chainfist, very useful for a blob squad that can only have power weapons. Still, not as effective as a Lord Commissar in this regard, but he doesn't take an HQ spot and can help your guardsmen to not get stomped in a single charge.
*'''Techpriest Enginseer:''' Sadly, not that many people use it. There can be a point to bring a techpriest and some servitors if you have a mech-heavy list, but most cases than not, he won't see any action, as he can't really keep up with vehicles, is pretty vulnerable to incoming fire, and more expensive than he's really worth. His biggest use is actually when he's paired up with a squad of gun servitors; they count as carapace armored and it's a reasonably cheap way to get a plasma cannon onto the field. It's not terribly points-efficient, but is a useful method to get some extra heavy weapons if you absolutely, positively need them, so don't forget about 'em. They can alternately work as a close-combat squad, but the squad itself is small and tends to be vulnerable - so it's generally better to load it up for fire support if you wanna use one.

===Elites===
Just to let you know, the IG Elite choices are the worst section of units in the codex. They cost a lot point wise, and model wise. If you like fluff, you might enjoy a few of these. If you like to fuck with your opponent and laugh your ass off, these may be for you.
*'''Ogryn Squad:''' Big meaty men things with pretty awesome assaulting guns, Terminator equivalents to an extent. Assaulty wall of meat. Lovable to the end, which will be soon, seeing as these guys are a firing magnet. Keep them the fuck away against anything that could Instant-Death them, and get them into melee as soon as possible. However, even there they will struggle against Necron Warriors...
*'''Ratling Squad:''' - Snipers, cool in theory, but everything wounds on a 4+, even against Gaunts or Grots. You should have Meltas or Lascannons to take out big things, not a paper thin squad of inbred midgets. Also most competitive armies have Fearless, so say goodbye to your beloved pinning. Ratlings are just too soft (T 2 so fucking bolters, flayers, and shootas will instagib them) and too cowardly (LD 6) to really have a place in the guard. If you want snipers, you're better off using Vets, Command Squads, Special Weapon Teams, or Vindicare Assassins like in [[Dawn of War]] (Just use the Allies rule, explained better further on). Just Say "No" to inbred space hobbits.
*'''Psyker Battle Squad:''' A full Psyker Battle Psyker Squad in Chimera costs like a Leman Russ, while not having the same degree of survivability. Psychic Defenses can give them trouble, as do many other issues. So why bother taking these poor saps?
**The first reason would be if you wish to take a Large Blast, but don't have left-over Force Organization slots in your Heavy Support Section. A reason for this would be should your army choose to take Manticores or Hydras. Depending on the foe at hand, and your ability to throw other high-priority threats (including Veteran Squadrons or Vendettas), you *should* be able to afford keeping them disembarked in cover, where they now have the option to benefit from Orders, "Fire on My Target" turning them into a wannabe Eradicator...
**However, the most popular reason these Psykers get taken is because of Weaken Resolve. The ability to lower enemy Leadership for the remainder of the game turn has a lot of utility, both offensively and defensively. The most common use of it is to set a unit up for being Pinned/Routed by Manticores. One common mistake people forget is that Stubborn only negates this power when it comes to '''Morale''' checks; Stubborn does nothing to protect against Pinning checks for Pinning Checks are not Morale Checks; finally, even against Fearless foes, the ability to reduce the Leadership of an enemy psyker can cripple the enemy's plans; a Zoanthroape unit, or Lash Prince is far less likely to successfully cast its powers when hit by Weaken Resolve.
*'''Storm Trooper Squad:''' <s>In general, they are inefficient at general-purpose duty and are best-used at higher points-levels. Their main selling point, that they have AP 3 weapons by default, is negated by their low Strength, proliferation of cover, and the fact many Marine armies rely on dirt-cheap transports. Combine with having less Special Weapons than a normal Veteran Squad and things look grim. That said, they do have their role depending on the build you want to go for. They can choose to Deep Strike (and reroll Scatter) or Scout. For lower point levels, this doesn't matter as much, as one can use Veterans and Valkyries/Vendettas as part of the "Scout Rush", but one only gets 6 Veteran squads max. Storm Troopers can provide a Scouting/Outflanking Chimera if need be (which can be useful if you intend to outflank Vendettas, for they can be used in tank-shocking anti-outflank screens out of the way), additional Deepstrikers that aren't dependent on Grav-Chute Insertion and additional Melta support, or as Infiltrators to negate anti-Scout-rush tactics (the Krootscreen being the premier example). So they *can* have a role depending on the army build you go for, but not as mainstay units.</s> These guys are incredibly underrated and from the stricken out section you can see why people might think that. However, consider this: for 15 points more than veterans, you get non-scoring (what, you expect to use Stormtroopers to camp objectives?!) rerollable deep strike melta with AP3 guns and 4+ saves that can buy chimeras and give them to special weapons squads which can't buy their own. Never let anyone tell you these guys are bad. If you're facing a gun line army, deep strike behind it and kill their fire support. If you need them to, they can scout instead or outflank. They may be expensive but when it comes down to it, if you take even one infantry platoon (so, always then) then you want these guys. Do remember that since they are likely to fight alone and without any support from Independent Character traits, they can get stomped in an assault as easily as a basic guardsman, and unless you sink points into them, you won't have many Stormtroopers in the squad to begin with.
*'''[[Sly Marbo|GUARDSMAN FUCKING MARBO]]:''' Rambo is a strange unit in and of himself. There can only be one. He is 65 points, the same cost of a bitchin' 10 man squad with a grenade launcher and a power weapon. And Rambo is a kill point that you practically give your opponent. On the other hand, he is the shit. He swoops in and drops a pie plate of death anywhere on the board (str8 ap2). But beware, He can only throw the demo charge 6 inches. If unlucky on the dice rolls, Rambo himself can fall to his own demise from this attack. If he can last the next turn, he can fuck some units up in close combat until he dies a fucking glorious death, surrounded by the dead bodies of enemy squads he got to assault. If Lady Luck and Admiral Awesome are on your side you should take him. If you don't, you can go join the unmanly players at the not imperial guard table. Its up to you.
*'''Hades Breaching Drill (forgeworld):''' Remember the Tyranid Mawloc? Well the IG looked at it and said "we need something like that but even ''more'' destructive." Yes this thing has rhino armour, but when it comes in it puts a fucking pie plate blast with S10 AP1 melta. This blast dont halves strength on partilas and even destroy terrain. And then your vets pop out of the holes it leaves behind. The ultimate fuck you towards gun lines. Once it enters, it can go around blasting people with it's meltadrill, but it's probably going to die afterwards...assuming anything is left standing. And on top of this, drill only ''counts'' elites: it dont take up the slot in force organisation.

===Troops===
*'''Infantry Platoon:''' Cheap core of army. Consists of a multitude of parts and options. Think of it as a force organization chart in your force organization chart, so you can write yo list while you can write yo list. Can add on extra squads of heavy and special weapons. Though those count as kill points so its risky to take the special weapon squads when you could use your Platoon command squads to do the same work for you. You could also put your heavy weapons in Infantry squads.
**'''Platoon Command Squad:''' This unit can be tricked out much like the CCS (barring options for Camo-Cloaks or Carapace), yet do not have the accuracy of Veterans. Additionally, the Platoon Commander is less efficient at issuing orders. There are two unique Platoon Commanders, each which can be taken as replacements to the standard ones; they provide a degree of specialization.
***'''Captain Al'rahem:''' Al'rahem is the long-standing rival to Ursarkar Creed, laughing at the former's antics. Creed can Outflank a Leman Russ or Scout some Hellhounds forward. Al'rahem always Outflanks his entire platoon. Order-wise, he replaces the standard Platoon Command orders in favor of '''Bring it Down''' and his unique order '''Like the Wind.''' This ability allows a Guard unit to shoot, then move d6 inches, as though it were running with Fleet of Foot; uses for this would be allowing a unit to spread out after disembarking, peel back away from enemy units, hug cover with small Grenade Launcher teams, or to help your get into assault faster. Ultimately though, Al'rahem is for players who *really* love Outflanking. On a final note, while he *does* have a cute Power Weapon with the potential to get lucky and one-shot an enemy model, the squishy nature of his squad makes using his unit for assassin duty very risky; if you *really* wish to use him in such a manner, a Priest is a must.
***'''Commander Chenkov:''' Do you want to take that point? I mean, REALLY take that point? Seriously, how many dudes do you want to throw at that point? Chenkov can throw that many guys at the point, AND MORE. Including him is a fun way for your Conscripts to get some action, as well as make you just move your little boys 7-12 inches every turn, never shoot their guns, and charge, because boy, is that the only thing he does well. Chenkov lets your Conscripts come back from the dead, well, only if the whole platoon gets wiped out, but if you get sick of waiting you are allowed to just destroy them yourself. It's a lot of awesome for a lot of points. You can drown your enemy in so many bodies it isn't even funny (for them, at least). The only problem is getting them into the fight. Keep lots of Chimera on hand for this guy, if you want to use him at all.
**'''Infantry Squad:''' If you play blob guard, this is going to be your bread and butter, if you play a balance of blob and mech, you are still going to take these dudes. They are paper thin, only hit half the time, and they run away if it can't be helped. But its for fucking sure that they can be made a monster. They can become Stubborn and get a Ld of 9 with a Commissar, the squad can be combined with other squads of the same kind to make huge tar pits. With 30 men, first rank fire second rank fire can make them fire 84 shots in one turn. That's a whole lot of diddley. They can take a heavy weapon and a special weapon. This can be combined to make many different options. A basic set up would be a grenade launcher, to be able to move and shoot a very versatile weapon. On top of that, If the squad is going to be a gun line, add in an Autocannon. You could also take a Priest with an Eviscerator to give the squad a Power Fist, and rerolls on the charge, because a squad that big is going to be charged eventually. You can get plenty of Power Weapons in there as well, for the Sergeants and Commissars. But there is a common misconception that you can have Power Fists in the squad, the only one you could is an Eviscerator.
**'''Conscripts:''' A platoon may take one unit of Conscripts, or human Grots as they're affectionately called. If there is anything thinner than paper, it would be Conscripts. Good thing there are a lot of them... They are one point cheaper than a regular guardsman, so only take them if you are full of the others (how did you do that) or if you are using Chenkov's "Send In the Next Wave".
**'''Heavy Weapon Squad:''' This is where the awesome firepower comes from. Some don't like them because they die rather quickly if they can be seen. But if you buy HWS instead of putting HW in your IS they can target big things and not waste the lasgun fire. Lascannons are nice here. In fact the only one that isn't that good to take here is the heavy bolter. They are a Kill Point and 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.
**'''Special Weapon Squads:''' <s>The only use of these I see are units that stop back the wave of Close combat, and demo charges. But Marbo does that so much better...</s> So much wrong. It's a 65 point team of meltaguns. Fuck everything else, find them chimeras and drive them forwards so they can be a super cheap but less accurate vet squad. There is only 6 of them, but they can bring specialized firepower when it's needed.
*'''Veteran Squad:''' Key to most mech lists. Slightly superior to regular guard and have an even better selection of gear. Stick in chimeras and try to see lady luck take them from you. Only downside to this squad is that you only have six troop choices. You could also do the smart thing and mix 2-3 vet squads with an infantry platoon, giving you unholy amounts of melta, chimeras and bodies everywhere. They're <s>weaker</s> generally less specialized than storm troopers, but they score. Always take at least two.
**'''Gunnery Sergeant Harker:''' <s>Not recommended. Removes Veteran Squad's ability to buy 4+ armor save, and only gives Feel No Pain and Relentless to himself. Grants no bonuses to close combat. His best use is to make a squad full of Assault-type weapons and to kite the enemy. Still, a waste of 55 points, since he is the opposite of flexible, and isn't really recommended. You don't need another Heavy Bolter on the field, and an additional chimera does a better job than Harker could ever achieve.</s> He gives the squad stealth, move through cover, and infiltrate. Together with an autocannon/heavy bolter team and 3 plasma guns this makes a very nice thorn in the enemy's backside. Use his squad to claim an objective and sit on it all the game and rain death on whatever comes in range.
**'''Sergeant Bastonne:''' Expensive at 60 points, but comes with Carapace and a Power Weapon. He can also give any order to his own squad, meaning that he can switch between shooting and running efficiently. The power weapon will let you do some damage in Assault, but that's not your primary goal with Bastonne's Squad. Remember that he is still affected by Incompetent Command, though and can only issue orders after everyone else already did.
*'''Penal Legion Squad:''' You have to roll a d6 to see what these prisoners are good at. You don't have that kind of extra change to throw at lady luck during a game. This squad of cons can go fuck themselves. And even if you roll what you want it's still shit. Melee with a1, s3, i3 and ws3 still sucks even with rending. Compare to a orkboy and burst in tears.
**If you still want to try them out though and have points to waste (what is wrong with you?!), you can have some fun with those guys. Gunslingers can hug cover and exploit the range of their 24 inch assault 2 lasguns. If they get shot at, they have stubborn. Still, their only use is to shoot up and then tie down choppy squads for a turn or two. And that's not really worth the 80 points.
**Knife Fighters are even more luck-based, but since they Scout (and therefore can Outflank), they can end up taking down some expensive target. With a charge, that's at least 3 auto wounds that can ruin some expensive, low number squad's day. Don't forget to evade your opponent's raging fists if you end up shanking his foot slogging Terminator unit in the first round. Still, the cons lack the staying power, and are likely to get killed to a man the moment enemy retaliates. Again, not really worth the points, especially since you are playing Guard and every point counts.
**Psychopaths are trash, and you might as well just remove the squad as casualties if that's how they roll.

===Dedicated transports===
*'''[[Chimera]]:''' This is the gem of the [[Metal_Boxes|MEHTAL BAWKS]] world. It makes the Guard competitive at high end play. Always replace the hull mounted heavy bolter with a heavy flamer to discourage people from charging you. There's no reason not to unless you're sat still and if you're sat still, buy anything else instead. You also get a turret-mounted [[Multilaser|multilaser]] by default, which is pretty good against anything infantry short of anything with Space Marine stats (and even Marines will go down eventually).
** Cheap. (point-wise) You can spam them, get lots and lots of multilasers (it will please you) and a solid wall of AV12 metal.
** Makes otherwise-slow Guardsmen mobile.
** You can fire all your important shit (special weapons, aka melta and plasma) out the top hatch. Letting you fry while staying safe from retaliation. Heck, Commanders can even give orders out the top hatch.
** They also count as tanks, meaning that once your troops are on the point, you can tank shock the enemies off it and even crush some Ork vehicles and scare off the mobs.

===Fast Attack===
*'''Scout Sentinel Squadron:''' Weak armor, going to die second turn most probably. Fun choice of weapons. Key part here is they have Scout. So three Sentinels coming from the side or scout into cover blasting away causing havoc in the enemy ranks. But still. They are going to die. They are open topped. They are going to die. They have 10 armor. They are going to die. But they may as well take a tank or two down with them. If you want to be insane, Heavy Flamers all around can result in hilarious infantry murder. Most of the time you'll take them as a 40 point autocannon on legs.
*'''Armored Sentinel Squadron:''' Armored heavy weapon pretty much. Can move around and fire, unlike heavy weapon teams but you only get one for a similar price. Can do decent in close combat, unlike heavy weapons. Even better choice of awesome weapons compared to Scout Sentinels, such as plasma cannons (but you'll never pick anything other than autocannons, otherwise you'd pick a vendetta, right?). Can be used to keep mobs in the inverse Tarpits, if going gets tough, and guardsmen are in danger.
*'''Rough Rider Squad:''' Poor misbegotten Rough Riders. Yes they're cavalry, yes they're dirt cheap, yes they can be virtually guaranteed a 24" charge range if you use '''Move! Move! Move!''' on them...and they are ultimately a one-trick pony that is difficult to hide in cover, is fragile in close combat, near-useless against actual dedicated assault troops (go ahead and charge Genestealers with them...), and should they be tarpitted, die. Perhaps the only way to reliably use them is with Creed, Glory for Cadia and all. And for that investment, couldn't one buy another Hellhound? Alternatively, you can use them as a one-time anti-vehicle suicide squad, since Sergeant can carry Melta Bombs. Still, you can probably find a much better Fast Attack slot choice.
**'''Mogul Kamir''' When you first see him, Mogul doesn't look that bad. An improvement over a Sergeant he replaces, with a Bolt Pistol instead of a LasPistol, 3 attacks + 1d3 attacks on the charge due to his Cyber-Steed. He grants Furious Charge and Fearless to his unit. And he isn't that expensive for a an upgrade character. Then you notice that he basically has "Rage" rule, and with 6th edition, Rage is a good thing. Beside lacking Melta Bombs, using Mogul Kamir will help Rough Riders not to tard out too early. So, you can actually afford to have one unit of Rough Riders for fluff reasons (they are still inferior to everything else on Fast Attack list, though).
*'''[[Hellhound]] Squadron:''' The Hellhound tank variants give you access to Fast Tanks. This can have its advantages, as you use them for movement-blocking, tank-shocking, or blasting enemies to oblivion. A low profile makes finding cover for it relatively easy, though cover-hugging isn't exactly the best use of this tank. There are three variants, each with a unique turret weapon, and the choice of hull-mounted Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer, or Multi-melta.
**The standard '''[[Hellhound]]''' is a very handy infantry-killer. If they're not Marine-equivalents (and even they will be hurting once the wounds pile up and they start failing saves), and not in a transport, they will die. The range of the Inferno Cannon means that you can expect them to hit enemy infantry starting on turn 1 (move 12", fire 12", cover another 8" with flame template). Ran in support of longer-ranged anti-tank weapons for popping enemy transports, Hellhounds can also serve to finish off units from disembarked vehicles. As a general rule however, the Hellhound does best with a Multi-melta, for it can only fire one weapon at Cruising speed anyway. Using Creed to outflank a squad of these is hilarious against horde armies. Do it.
**The '''[[Hellhound|Banewolf]]''' sacrifices the range of the Hellhound for a poisoned AP 3 flamer template. Banewolves will kill any infantry short of Terminators or similarly tough units. Their armor and speed give them unparalleled ability to be used for flushing enemy infantry from cover. This said and done, this may be the one variant you can afford to specialize; because the Chemical Cannon is a Defensive Weapon, adding a Hull-mounted Heavy Flamer means you're moving 12" and throwing out two really mean flame-templates. This tank is the epitome of offence over defence, on one hand, it can destroy an entire SM tactical squad in one turn, on the other hand, it can easiy be put down by a Lascannon head-on. They are well known for making Tyranid and Chaos daemon players cry as you gib their monstrous creatures with as much ease as their cannon fodder. But then again, what doesn't make Tyranids and Daemons cry in 5th edition?
**The '''[[Hellhound|Devil Dog]]''' is the last one out, eschewing a short-range flamer, for a Melta Cannon. This weapon is unique in 40k, for being a blast weapon with the Melta rule. Partials do benefit from the melta die of course, meaning that these tanks are great for sending into the center of an enemy armored formation and intimidating your opponent into breaking up, lest he find himself losing multiple tanks! Alternatively, assuming one has reliable long-ranged anti-tank, the Devil Dog can be used for finishing off survivors of destroyed enemy transports. Add a hull-mounted Heavy Flamer, and the Devil Dog can flush troops out of cover (though not as efficiently as the Banewolf). While not a flashy vehicle, it gets the job done. Probably the best variant for most games. Enjoy arguing over how the melta rule works with scattering blasts though.
*'''Valkyrie Assault Carrier Squadron:''' Goddamnit, why don't you have one? A Valkyrie is relatively expensive flying Chimera,it is well worth it. It has BY DEFAULT Extra Armor in its profile, which means the bad bitch can never be stunlocked. If you keep your Valkyries Turbo-boosting around the table, it's rare for them to die. Keep them alive to support your armor with a hard-hitting blast from its Multiple Rocket Pods. Valkyries eat infantry and shit brass and work best with Stormtroopers or Veteran Squads, deep-striking the squad in the most annoying place possible, and then flying off to rain hell on the enemy. Unfortunately, it's totally outclassed for anti-infantry by the Hellhound. That said, it does upgrade to the...
*'''Vendetta Gunship Squadron:''' 3 twin-linked Lascannons. Fast skimmer. Carries Guardsmen. Outflanks or gets into perfect firing position with Scout USR. Relatively cheap. There is no better option for fielding mobile anti-tank than this behemoth. Base height can be an issue as the only cover save you'll ever see is from Flat Out movement, but AV12 front/side arc and it's default Extra Armor help to mitigate this drastically. Why would anyone every field a valkyrie over this monster?
* FORGE WORLD:'''Vulture Gunship:'''Essentially a 40k Apache helicopter, comes with a nose mounted heavy bolter, and 4 wing pylons that are divided into two sets of 2 pylons that give space for two twin-linked weapons (one pylon on each side per weapon). This machine is very modular, able to adapt to ANY situation, Green Tide getting you down? Well, instead of two twin-linked weapons, you can actually attach a twin-linked punisher cannon!!! The ammo boxes do take up the other two pylons, but twin-linked means 15 shots hit instead of 10 (on average). Other weapons that only take up one of two spaces include:
**Lascannon
**Autocannon
**Missile launchers
**Multiple rocket pods
**6 Hunter-killers (not twin-linked, 3 per pylon)
**6 Heavy bombs (again 3 per pylon, but one pylon dropped per turn as apocalyptic barrage (3))
**Multilasers
**Hellstrike missiles (not twin-linked, 1 per pylon)
**And of course, the single twin-linked Punisher Cannon
I would personally recommend <s>buying</s> spending too much on all possible weapons and not gluing them in place, maybe use magnets or some other such method, just make sure you can change the vulture's armament easily to ensure it is never left wanting in a battle. Because the main strength of the Vulture is its adaptability.

*<s>You don't really need a Vulture. Valkyries and Vendettas are terror enough.</s> THOSE WORDS ARE BLASPHEMY!!!! <s>btw Vultures are Heavies, not Fast...</s> Actually, in the book, Apocalypse II, they were changed to Fast Attack.

===Heavy Support===
*'''[[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Squadron]]:''' Leman. Fucking. Russ. It's a big tank. Holds the proud title of best tank in the galaxy for it's size and cost. Side effects include: templates, lots of dice, lots of AV, lots of choices. As an addition, Knight Commander Pask can be added to any one tank that you field. He'd a nice little upgrade to the BS, helps reduce drift, and he's a tank killer. Put him in a Demolisher, Vanquisher, Executioner or Punisher for the best bang for your buck. Though, nothing is wrong with putting him in a Battle Tank.
**'''Leman Russ Battle Tank:''' Thus he comes in many flavors the basic tank is the most useful. With his STR8 AP3 72" gun and thick armor, he is good against anything for decent points. This is your runner-and-gunner, your go-to tank, and the majority of your Leman Russ pool at any time should be these or Executioners.
**'''Leman Russ Exterminator:''' Armed with a 4 shot twin-linked autocannon means this thing is death incarnate for carapace armour and light vehicles, arm with 3 extra heavy bolters for beautiful infantry shredding, if you feel like it, add Pask, and watch it destroy Predators and Falcon grav tanks with ease. Pity it's worse value than a Hydra really.
**'''Leman Russ Vanquisher:''' A Melta with a devastating range. Thus a bit costly for 1 shot at BS3 (works well with Pask, but only useful against vehicles). Not very useful really considering the amount of melta you should already have.
**'''Leman Russ Eradicator:''' Kind of a Hellhound that hits worse, is slower but better armored. And you can add a Lascannon for versatility. Strange tank that eats your enemies' cover saves. Consider for Cities of Death games.
**'''Leman Russ Demolisher:''' For +15 pt to the basic Russ you get a cannon that lays waste of everything on the battlefield and immunity vs s4 melee units. Thus sometimes 24" is too close at the enemy. The Demolisher is tried and true, and should ALWAYS lead the armored charge into the enemy. Works great alone, works even better in three's.
**'''Leman Russ Punisher:''' Shares the cons but only few of the pros with the Demolisher (it does keep the additional back armor, which helps). Heavy 20 may sound cool, but on average, you end up with 10 S5 hits with no AP (making it difficult to even glance vehicles to death, but why would you target vehicles anyway?). Everything except Grots is butchered better with the cheaper and better ranged Battle Tank. However, unlike most Russes, it gets better if you sink the points in it: Kit one out with Pask and a full triple H. Bolter set, at which point the machine will 1-shot anything from terminator squads to full-up mobs every turn, and will stop 'nidzilla in it's tracks through sheer dice output. Well, that or you'll be killed by the enemies anti-tank and waste 250 points on something the rest of your army should be doing anyway. By far the coolest looking though.
**'''Leman Russ Executioner''' Oh hell... what a devastation. This thing lays waste to whole terminator squads and no matter what the enemy has - this one will hurt badly. The only problem might be that he is a bit costly and if the enemy has nothing with 2+ the battletank is the better choice per pts. Same might be true if the enemy has 2+ - the Demolisher (who can also, you know, demolish tanks) might be a more priceworthy alternative. However, if you have spare points - take one. Even against those [[Plasma|plasma]]-[[Matt Ward|syphoning]] [[Grey Knights|assholes]] take one and pray for the Emperor's blessing on your scatter dice.

*'''[[Imperial_Ordnance|Ordnance Battery]]:''' "Infantry win firefights. Tanks win battles. Artillery wins wars," or so the old saying goes. The Imperial Guard is noted for being able to bring really big guns to the battlefield, their firepower able to remove small sections of the opponent from the playing field. This said and done, the Imperial Guard artillery units are slow (sometimes outright static) and fragile for their cost due to being Open-Topped, a drawback which becomes increasingly noted should one wish to take artillery in a Squadron (and with the exception of the Griffon, Ordnance has the same cost issues with squadron up vehicles); this said, one can remove the Open-Topped Status. Artillery in itself will not make a Guard army due to its fragile nature, but they provide excellent firepower should the rest of the army be able to protect them. There are numerous artillery-pieces available, including the following:
**'''[[Basilisk]]:''' Jokingly called the penis-enlargement gun by veteran Guard Players, the Basilisk is noted for having a really big gun. This gun is also known for being long-ranged, having the option for direct or indirect fire, and having AP 3 (meaning it can kill Marines in the open, or pummel Crisis Suits). However, having the worst minimum-range requirements has the potential to often relegate the Basilisk to being a direct-fire weapon, a task the Medusa tends to do better in most cases for a marginal upgrade in cost; this said, the Basilisk's direct-fire does have a longer range than the Medusa. Unless it's apocalypse, you don't need more than 36" though, so get a Medusa.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance|Colossus]]:''' Games Workshop has a checkered history when it comes to Marine-Killer weapons. Their emphasis on certain units being designed for killing Marines in the open, has lead to horridly inflexible units like Vespids, Flash Gitz, Thousand Sons, and now the Colossus. At first glance, the Colossus looks like a fun gun. With the ability to ignore cover, and Marine Power Armor saves, it will utterly devastate Marines should it land properly. On the other hand, having a wide minimum range and the inability to fire directly means the Colossus falters against a lot of Marine Armies. With the exception of some foot-slogging Space Wolf armies, many Marine armies are very fast, and noted either for operating as a mechanized army, fighting by Drop Pods, speeding forth towards your lines on Bikes, deepstriking in by Jump Packs, or otherwise excelling at fighting at short range. While the Colossus can be used for indirect-combat if kept isolated from the rest of the battleline with an infantry unit or two to watch over it, it isn't too popular in tournament armies for this reason.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance|Griffon]]:''' The cheapest artillery-piece the Guard get, the Griffon is also the most accurate on most accounts; the ability to reroll Scatter Dice is a handy ability in most cases. Like the Colossus, the Griffon is unable to fire directly, yet its shorter minimum range makes it more usable against rapidly advancing armies. Should a player wish to take a Griffon (or a pair of them, which isn't as point-intensive as squadding the other artillery), they work as part of a handy one-two combo for finishing off infantry from a destroyed transport, or in support of Hellhound-equivalents being used to Tank-shock enemy infantry into clustered formations.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance|Medusa]]:''' A pure direct-fire weapon, noted for having Strength 10 and AP 2, the Medusa is arguably the most popular form of Ordnance on account of its raw firepower. While having the same issues with accuracy most blast weapons have, whatever it hits will suffer on account of it. For those who wish to trade accuracy and flexibility for raw tank-busting firepower, the regular firing mode can be replaced with Siege Shells, turning the Medusa into a heavy tank hunter. With an AP 1 blast template, and the normal Ordnance bonus replaced by rolling 2d6 for armor penetration, even partials have the potential to kill enemy vehicles, and the threat of losing multiple vehicles to a well-placed shot does a lot to intimidating opponents to spread their vehicles out. This said, like with the Devildog's Melta Cannon, the accuracy issues inherent with the Medusa mean it tends to work best in support of, rather than being the primary source, of ranged anti-tank.

* '''Heavy Artillery Battery (forgeworld):''' This is artillery variants pf Basilisk and Medusa, and in 6-th ed artilley is awesome (until someone charge it). They are immobile, and need crew which could be killed (though, they use gun toughness 7 against enemy shooting), but they are also cheap. And for being non-vehicles, they ''can'' take orders. Earthsakers and Medusas with "Bring it down!" and "Fire on my target!" could make miraces if used properly. Or die pointlessly, if used unproperely. Oh, and dont forget, that they only have ld7 with no sarge or comissar options, so you NEED a lord-comissar or Kell to make them listen to your orders.

*'''[[Hydra Flak Tank]]:''' A relatively popular vehicle for a key reason. Providing dual twin-linked Autocannons and a Heavy Bolter at an extremely efficient price, even before you take it's ability to ignore cover generated by Turbo-boosting or moving Flat-out, the Hydra is great for reliably dealing with enemy light vehicles at range, or disabling/stunlocking medium armor until Meltagun infantry can get close to finish the job. A squad of these is excellent for chipping away at Monstrous Creatures, and unlike many other vehicles, squadding the Hydra won't be excessively expensive. On the other hand, it competes with other popular Heavy Support options, and like all Autocannon units is useless against AV 14. If Hydras are taken, make sure that your list has the means to deal with these other threats. That said, for the same price as a Leman Russ, you're getting 8 twin linked autocannon shots that shoot 72" and can always get cover from (but still fire over) chimeras. 2+ saves give you trouble, but really that's always true unless you've got access to, say, a lot of melta, plasma and AP1/2 template weapons. Easily the best choice for most armies <s>- go buy some. Now.</s> <s>'''Hurr, it's Forgeworld only!'''</s> Grab an Aegis Defence Line, plant the quad-gun on the back deck of a Chimera for a quick and dirty Hydra.
** In other news, since the coming of 6th edition and increase in staying power of the fliers, Hydras are recommended to scare off those who try to exploit their new capabilities, since targeting computer rules still apply, making them an effective counter. For extra confusion, Hydra Autocannons are list as only Skyfire, but Immobile Hyrda Guns from Forgeworld have the additional interceptor rule...more GW screw-ups.

*'''[[Manticore Rocket Launcher|Manticore Missile]]:''' Mixed-bag. Good for the points, bigger blast range then hell, but can't <s>really shoot every turn</s> deal with marines. Drop it back by your Basilisks or Heavy Weapons. Good points are simple: They're not open-top, compared to artillery. They've got HUGE blast ranges and they can virtually ensure that you're going to be making people spread out their firepower, great for you to focus on one group at a time. Downsides are just as bad as the upsides though. Limited ammo CAN be a problem (rarely). Spreading people out causes you to lose a lot of their effectiveness. Seriously, it can only shoot 4 out of 5-6 turns (unless your opponent isn't retarded, in which case it'll be gone a great deal sooner). Overlooked a lot, but can be powerful on those first few crucial turns. On a high note, these things DEMOLISH Necron Warrior elements.

*'''[[Deathstrike Missile Launcher|Deathstrike]]: ''' The Deathstrike Missile Launcher tends not to be taken in a lot of tournament builds, being viewed as too unreliable a weapon. Its main selling point is that it eventually fires a Strength 10 AP 1 superlarge blast (to put this in context, while a normal Ordnance Blast has a 2.5" radius, a Deathstrike Missile has a radius of 4-6" depending on the luck of the die), ignoring cover, and operating at full Strength against any and all vehicles caught in the explosion; should it go off, it has a high chance of devastating the opponent. On the other hand, it's chances of properly firing are random at best, and it won't be firing on turn 1, and the Deathstrike is a one-shot weapon. It mostly gets used either for casual games on account of this unreliability, as a gamble, or for psyching the opponent out into spreading his forces out. But if you're a favored champion of the dice gods, received the blessing of Admiral Awesome and the benediction of Lady Luck and have balls of ceramite, you might just hilariously wipe half of your opponent's forces early in the game. In 2k+ games, combine 3 Deathstrikes with 4 units of demo special weapons squads in vendettas and watch your enemy's face drop as he realises he the might of pie plates as he has to deal with either 3 nukes or 12 S9 AP2 large blasts+12 twin linked lascannons on turn one. Unless you get first turn of course, in which case he has to deal with 3 nukes having already been hit by 12 blasts...

===Fortifications===
*'''Aegis Defense Lines:'''In case you forgot to get a Hydra, Aegis will help you out with annoying fliers. In addition, you get a nice piece of cover for Guardsmen, which you can use as a forward assault base of sorts. Pretty cheap point-wise, and can be a good choice if you want to have some foothold without turning into gunline guard.
*'''Skyshield Landing Pad:'''On one hand, you practically give your Guardsmen an ''Invulnerable Save''(!) - on the other, you don't have many units you can deepstrike, and shooting up the enemy after outflanking is just what guard does. A bit of a mixed guard, but you are certainly within gunline guard territory.
*'''Imperial Bastion:'''It's rather expensive, but it's 14 AV all around and has a 96' Lascannon that fires on user's BS. Place a Veteran Squad inside, and watch your opponent breaking down into sobbing as you snipe his vehicles, while waves of his attacking infantry die to metric [[gargant]]load of Heavy Bolters. You can use one of those to protect your Basilisk Squadrons, while they pummel your opponent into thin dust.
*'''Fortress of Redemption:'''Expensive both in points and actual cost, this huge model doesn't exactly bristle with guns as you would expect - but now you are able to dominate everything on the table - tanks will be sniped with the '96 lasgun, fliers will be decimated by BS4 AA guns (you did garrison veterans in there, right?), and everything else will have to eat Heavy Bolters. And that thing launches missiles. Oh, and all Imperial units get various buffs and saves, meaning that this thing is the ultimate say in the world of gunline guard. If you never had given anyone a reason to field a Super-Heavy in a non-Apcalypse game, congratulations, you have done it.

===Apocalypse units===
**'''Marauder Bomber:'''Heavy bomber, imagine the massive bombers that dropped massive amounts of bombs on cities during the Second World War, the Marauder is basically the same thing, but with much bigger and less dinky and useless guns. Also happens to share the same name as one too. It's not good for its point cost though, even in apocalypse. Those bombs just don't hurt tanks.
***'''Maurauder Destroyer''' Heavy attack plane. While the standard Maurauder is the Imperium's B17, this one is basically a flying Manticore with three twin-linked autocannons on its nose. Instead of bombing, this sucker flies in and strafes with craptons of fire and flies away. Better than the bomber in every way (looks, armour, actual AA mount guns, horrific bombing runs).
**'''[[Baneblade]]:'''ECKSMETALBAWKS HUGE KILLDOZER WITH A FUCKTON OF GUNS. Orgasms aside, the Baneblade is one of the most feared tanks the Imperium and Chaos posers have to offer. Sporting a Baneblade cannon, co-axial Autocannon, Demolisher Cannon, two Lascannons, three twin-linked heavy bolters, and optional pintle mounts AND optional Hunter-killer missile, it's a rolling fortress of death. Comes standard with three structure points, AV14 front and AV12 side armor. Can be commandeered by a Commissar to REALLY motivate your troops.
***'''Hellhammer:''' Baneblade without the Baneblade cannon. <strike>This has, instead, the Hellhammer cannon (equivalent to the Eradicator cannon)</strike> The Hellhammer cannon is shorter ranged but has a smaller template, better strength and AP. But why take this when the Stormsword right down the corner is so much better?
***'''Banehammer:''' Fun for trolling mech armies with it's Tremor cannon. With a 60" range and S8 AP3, the Tremor cannon may not seem like much, but that's when it's special rule "Earthshock" come in. Everything within 4d6" of it's 7" blast gets caught within a shockwave zone which is treated as dangerous terrain to vehicles and difficult to all else. Not the best super heavy to take, but is fun.
***'''Banesword:''' Designed especially to reach out and fuck someone's day over. With a range of 180" on it's main cannon (called the Quake Cannon) as well as S9 AP3, Barrage, and 10" Blast, someone is going to have a really bad day. And for shits and giggles, you can kill that annoying Tau player's army 2 tables over.
***'''Stormsword:''' Best at street fighting and siege warfare, what this bad boy lacks in range (a sort of pathetic 36") is made up for in firepower. It's cannon launches a enormously painful S10 AP1 10" blast primary weapon shot which denies cover saves and instagibs vehicles on a 3+ and is at the very least ripping off a weapon, and will turn anything with less than T5 inside out. So in other words, it's a great way to say screw you to that annoying as fuck Vindicare assassin camping in those ruins. The blast template is in fact so huge that it is actually physically incapable of missing it's original target with it's main cannon, which is awesome. Firing this thing once can wipe it's cost in units off of the gameboard, which is even more awesome. Pretty much everything you love about the Leman Russ Demolisher is taken up to eleven on this baby. If you can get these guys in range, they will never fail to impress with the incredible amounts of destruction they will unleash.
***'''Doomhammer:''' This super heavy isn't sure if it's supposed to be a scary ass tank or dedicated transport... but does decent as both. With a transport capacity of 25 models, it certainly isn't too shabby especially with it's fire points (well, fire point really) allowing 10 models to blast away from it. It also counts as open topped for (dis)embarking purposes. It's primary cannon (named the Magma cannon - yeah, it's the Volcano cannon's baby bro) has a range of 60" and is S10 AP1 5" blast. So yeah... Something caught between a Stormsword, Stormlord and a Shadowsword... So for a jack of all trades, this is a decent choice (though the Baneblade is probably better at it).
***'''Shadowsword:''' Like the Baneblade but instead of a turret and hull weapon, mounts a fuckhuge Volcano cannon (yes, it is as powerful as it sounds). The volcano cannon is range:120" S:D AP1 large blast. The Titan killer and possibly one of the most useful Baneblade-based vehicles.
***'''Stormlord:''' Shadowsword chassis with Vulcan Mega bolter instead of Volcano cannon (Yes, the mega bolter is as insane as it sounds, imagine a vulcan minigun with Heavy Bolters for each barrel), the mega bolter is range:60" S6 AP3 type: heavy 15, and if the stormsword doesn't move, it can fire twice at different target, or the same target. However, the most lulzy thing about this beast is that it can transport FORTY troops. 20 of which can fire from a rear mounted firing platfotm. To really maximise it's epic lulz potential, team up with a Space Marine player and let him shove 20 devastator Marines in it. For obvious reasons, this thing will then be chucking out more fire than an entire Imperial Guard regiment.
**'''Malcador:''' Basically a bigger Leman Russ, half the size of a Baneblade. Like the Russ, it has a Battlecannon, but has the option for sponson heavy stubbers or sponson lascannons. Malcadors have a limited turret traverse, due to their weird design.
***'''Malcador Defender:''' Instead of a Battlecannon, has a bunker on the top with five heavy bolters and a demolisher cannon in the hull.
***'''Malcador Annihilator:''' Has a twin-linked lascannon turret weapon, and a hull-mounted Demolisher cannon.
***'''Malcador Infernus:''' Take a Malc, throw out the turret and give it a titan-sized Inferno Cannon. It's a GIANT flamethrower tank, like a Hellhound on steroids. Also has sponson weapon options.
***'''Valdor Tank Hunter:''' Like a smaller Shadowsword, or specifically, like a bigger Destroyer Tank Hunter. It has a fuckhuge laser cannon. No sponson weapons.
***'''Minotaur Artillery Tank:''' Basilisk on crack. Carries two [[Basilisk]] cannons on a Malcador hull.
**'''Macharius Heavy Tank:''' Comparable to the Malcador, except with moar gunz. Standard Macharius has two sponsons and a TWIN. LINKED. BATTLE. CANNON. Unlike the Malcador, the Macharius has a full 360-degree traverse so it can fire in any direction from its position. Also has hull-mounted twin linked stubbers in the front.
***'''Macharius Vanquisher:''' TWIN. LINKED. VANQUISHER. CANNONS. Also has sponsons on either side. Hull-mounted heavy stubbers also.
***'''Macharius Vulcan:''' Mother of god. For ultimate cheese, get a Stormlord with Vulcan mega bolters, and get a couple of these to roll with it. This Macharius has a Vulcan Mega Bolter on its turret, plus the sponsons and hull heavy stubbers.
***'''Macharius Omega:''' A Macharius assault tank, basically. Has no turret for its PLASMA BLASTGUN. Has sponsons weapons also.
***'''Gorgon Assault Carrier:''' The ultimate party bus. The Gorgon can transport entire platoons instead of just a single squad. Has two twin-linked heavy stubber turrets on the very back, and has the option of either sponson-mounted weapons or twin-linked mortars. One thing to note is that the Gorgon is permanently open-topped.
***'''[[meme|CRASSUS ARMORED ASSAULT TRANSPORT]]:''' Picks up where the Gorgon slacked off. Has two heavy bolters on its nose, sponson weapons and it's completely closed. Unknown carrying capacity, but it must be huge. It's pretty much the IG's equivalent of a land raider, and like the Predator vs Leman Russ, the CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT is more powerful, more durable, and generally better at it's job, which is hilarious when you think about it.
***'''Praetor Armored Assault Launcher:''' OMG. Like the Minotaur is a super-[[Basilisk]], the Praetor is a super-Whirlwind. Its backside houses a multiple-rocket launcher, also has two heavy bolters on the nose. Unknown if sponsons are allowed.
**'''[[Warhound Scout Titan]]:'''Buy three!!!!!!!!!! Can equip two arm weapons, give it two Turbo-Laser destructors and watch the fireworks as it kills everything
**'''[[Reaver Battle Titan]]:'''Buy one!!!!!!!!!!! Gets two arm weapons and one carapace weapon, uses the same weapons as a Warhound.
**'''[[Warlord Battle Titan]]:'''FUCKING MAKE ONE!!!!!11111!!!!!11!!1!!!!11!!!!!11!!!!111 One of these, will obliterate it's cost in say, predator annhialators or baneblades, without a freaking scratch. It mounts two of the Warhound's weapons on its back and two of its own weapons on its arms, which pack more range and fire more shots each turn.
**'''[[Imperator Battle Titan]]:'''If you play one of these, just give up... I mean, the other titans scaling up add on gun, but this God-Machine carries six carapace weapons (use the Warlord's weapons for that, there's not point using the Warhound's), and it's two arm weapons, and even it's weakest arm gun will at the least through out 6 strength 8 AP3. There is no safe place against it, its weapon's range let it hit anything. Even if the enemy team fills every square inch of the board with anti-tank guns, this thing will come out on top without taking so much as a glancing hit to it's armor with all the void shields they need to get through. Load up on laser blasters for the carapace and vengeance cannons for arms and this can let loose an insane TWENTY-SIX destroyer shots. They're never going to get up close for melee either, because even if the enemy can avoid getting vaporized by its guns, if the titan moves, everything except gargantuan creatures and super heavies within 12 inches counts as going through difficult terrain. NOTE: You will never get a model for this thing, not in a thousand years, but you can [[proxy]] one, just ask your two meter (seven foot) pal over and get him to cosplay.
**'''Lightning Fighter:'''A nippy little air fighter, small armament, and not great armor, but fast and fairly cheap.

==Tactics==
Tactics for the Imperial guard have been expanded upon through out the years resulting in a plethora of different stratagems. First to explain a few of the different rules of the IG and there different uses. As well as some army compositions and strategies.
===Orders===
The order system, though new to guard, has become one of the most important and most raged about addition to the IG codex. When You are about to declare a Ld check for an order, get your troll face on. The fact is, is that sisters are only decent now because of faith points. In a few years the same will be said about guard and the orders system. With orders your lasguns become 30-50% more effective. You get rerolls for cover and armored/monstrous enemies. When you go to ground with an order, you go to ground like no other son of a bitch. Your run move is guarantied to be decent. Some call it broken, but you can not give orders to those inside vehicles. So the most broken list of guard currently, can not make full use of them. Anyway, orders are the shit. And you don't even need lady luck on your side. With the right vox system and use of other leaders Ld *COUGH* commissar *COUGH*, you should be able to roll a savings grace.

The orders are as follows:
*'''Bring it Down!''' - Allows an ordered squad to count their weapons as twin linked when engaging a Monstrous Creature(s)/Enemy Vehicle(s). Best used for Heavy Weapon Teams, especially if they use scatter weaponry.
*'''Fire on my Target!''' - Allows you to force the enemy to reroll cover saves. Not very useful unless you are fighting against basic Ork boyz mobs or Tyranids, who usually have to live and swear by cover.
*'''Get Back in the Fight''' - Let's you basically get an assaulted squad back in the fight. May get you a lucky extra shot, or force the enemy to waste their assault against a leftover squad rather than another, juicier target. Useful when you are not taking Commissars for the squads.
*'''First Rank, FIRE! Second Rank, FIRE!''' - Your most frequently issued order, Rank Fire basically gives you guardsmen an additional shot. This however only affects ''standard'' lasguns, so every other weapon shoots normally. Still, there are few things that match the expression of the opponent's face when you get to roll 28 dice at the same time, which means that even at BS3 and Strength 3, the enemy is in the sea of possible pain. Use with combined squads for extra hilarity, and don't forget to ask your opponent if you can borrow his dice.
*'''Incoming!''' - Turns your normal cover save into a 3+. Sit on an objective and make Death Guard jealous.
*'''Move! Move! Move!''' - Practically gives you the 4 inches of running. Useful when you really need to relocate your troops in response to the enemy.
*'''For the Honour of Cadia!''' - Creed's special Order. Throws the ordered unit into combat with additional special rules applied to them for the turn. Really, this is only useful to send Rough Riders to their deaths more efficiently.
*'''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2TFWZWgtUs Like the Wind!]''' - Practically let's you run and shoot. Not as useful in 6th edition, but is still able to provide sufficient annoyance to the enemy.

===Army variants===
*Blob guard
Blob guard is a rather simple concept. Have more bodies than your opponent has bullets. The fact is, is that IG has access to guardsmen that can be as cheap as 5 points. You will overwhelm them in model count, in deaths a turn, in shots fired, you will have at least twice as many heavy weapons as they will. All of their anti-tank weaponry that was meant to take out the 150 point Leman Russ? It killed a guardsman with a lasgun, good job. The problems that come with such an awesome army composition is the lack of speed and how effective the enemies anti-infantry will be against you. A decent thousand point list might consist of 2 20 man combined squads with a commissar and priest each, about 9 or so heavy weapons, and your three or so command squads loaded out with special weapons. Works best in a Cities of Death game, all that cover, all those cover saves, your men will live a bunch longer and confound the enemy to no end.
*Mech guard
Mech explores the wonder of armored vehicles. The core of the army would be a command squad and 2 squads of vets all in chimeras. And the rest would consist of anything from Leman Russ tanks to vendettas, to artillery, fast attack choices, or more chimeras.
*Melta vet spam guard
Put vets in Chimeras. Give them meltas. Fill up Force organization troop chart. Do same with Company Command Squads and Storm Troopers.
*Hammer and Anvil Guard
This army is for those who can't choose between the two. A main force hits head on while supported by tanks and artillery, and vets come in from a supporting side. As they say, hit from the air, sea, and ground. A list might include, A command squad, along with a squad of vets in a Chimera, A squad of 20-30 men with a commissar and priest, a Leman Russ variant, and a Basilisk.
*Artillery apocalypse
Take a few infantry squads with just standard guardsmen, say around 20-30 troopers, do not upgrade at all, these are meat shields. Fill up your remaining points with the Imperium's single most destructive medium, Basilisks, "But wait!!" you say "Baneblades/Titans/Shadowswords are more destructive". And yes, you'd be right, HOWEVER, when you have, say, 1,000,000 Basilisks per battle titan, well, you get the picture. Whilst your enemy is dossing around trying to kill your infantry, your many Basilisks pound them into dust, AP3 and large blast means all standard infantry fall like chaff to these bad boys, whilst str 9 means most man-sized units suffer instant death. This mind-blowingly massive amount of firepower is, however, completely useless if the crew is being hacked to pieces by deep striking terminators or some other such buttholes. So this formation is best for large, pitched, foot-slogging battles, where your foes will be lucky to even reach your infantry lines if you've spent half your points on Basilisks.
===Allies===
If you're still using the now-old Codex: Witch Hunters or Codex: Daemonhunters and you want to use allies, good god do so. For the price of a fully-kitted Veteran squad, you can have an entire 10-woman Sisters squad with all their needed gear PLUS the cost of a Rhino for them. Suddenly your army has 3+ saves and BS4 Bolters to backup your lasgun spam and 5+ armor save.

If you're lacking punch for some reason, consider using the old Allies rules. Sisters and Grey Knights can introduce a world of hurt most people don't expect from a Guard army. This writer knows from experience that Valkyrie-borne Sisters plus a Canoness make a superior, cheaper alternative to expensive Veterans or Stormtroopers doing the same thing.

EXCITING UPDATE: With 6th edition rules, any Imperium army can ally perfectly with Guard. (Except Grey Knights, which can still ally but nobody likes them. Ha.) Every single Space Marine (all variants) and Sisters of Battle unit is available to back up your Guard, and Grey Knights, Eldar, Tau, Orks, and Chaos (WTF??) can be used as well, but no one likes them. Also Necrons, but they get along with Guard even worse than Chaos (again, WTF??). Traitor Guard you fool

===What to buy===
The battle force. This gives you two squads of 10 and a leader pack, as well as heavy weapons and a sent. This will be helpful if you are going blob or mech. You can make them vets for a quick 500pt army. You can even save the heavy weapons for vehicle modifications later when you buy tanks of you go for mech.
Next thing would most likely be a Leman Russ and two chimeras if going mech,and another battle force if you are going blob.

Also if you dip, or one of your friends dip, ask them for the metal lids to the tobacco containers. These are the exact size of the heavy weapons base. Making it extremely easy to take advantage of all the heavy weapons in the pack. Just use the bending knee for the dude shooting, and put the other dude as a standing man. Green stuff some sandbags or a wall to take place of the tripod stand.

As far as organizing your army, you ought to know better that you don't have to pimp out every platoon FULL of men. Usually, two large Platoons decked out will do the job, but let's calculate the body count if you spammed evey slot.

HQ: CCSx2 (24 models; Commissar, Chimera, and all Advisors, including Officer of the Fleet and Astropath, which are MANDATORY) 
Priest x5 
Techpriest x2 (With 10 servitors. Give 'em ALL plasma cannons. Because you can.)

Elites: Stormtroopers all around, bitches (30 models)

Troops: 6x FULL Infantry platoons (6x6-man CCS + Chimeras, 30x11-man Infantry squads + Chimeras, 30x6-man Heavy squads (it's two guys on one base, be glad I'm not counting the gun model), 12x6-man Special squads, and 6x50-man Conscript squads. 954 models, bitch)

Fast: 3x Rough Rider squads (30 models)

Heavy Support: 9x Leman Russ EXECUTIONERS WITH FULL PLASMA-SPONSONS (STFU. You want them)

Grand total: 1064 models, INCLUDING Chimeras. Yes. You can have one-thousand models on the table. THIS IS THE GUARD. OUR INFANTRY ARE BLOBS. 
Want MORE INSANITY? For an extra 500 points you can make those 300 Conscripts UNDYING MONSTROSITIES! This is also mandatory, no exceptions.

But unless you're a millionaire or you've been in the Guard since 2nd edition, you aren't pulling this off.

Ideal generalized army list that you should start with:

HQ: 1x CCS

TROOPS: 2 Infantry platoons of two Infantry squads each

FAST ATTACK: Scout Sentinel x2, Valkyrie and Hellhounds if you wish.

Once your army has reached this point, start looking at where you want to go with it. You'll have a decent base for starting the typical MechVet army that is shining right now. If you want to get Leman Russes, get three, split between two Battlecannons and a Demolisher. Max out melta. It's the best thing in the game currently. Just do it.

[[Category: Warhammer Tactics]]
[[Category: Imperial Guard]]

Cadia

2012-06-30T20:48:08Z

91.152.169.235:

Cadia is an Imperial Guard fortress world located within high proximity to the Eye of Terror. Due to large Xenos mobilization, it has become a fortress world and a strategic gem for the [[Imperium of Man]]. On another note, that place is a hellhole. Avoid if at all possible. It ''might'' be a good vacation spot if you '''LIKE''' trenches filled with bodies and tracer fire lighting up your hotel room... on second thought fuck that shit!

==The Planet Itself==
Fortress. That's the one word that can sum up the planet of Cadia. Since it's close neighbors to [[Chaos Space Marines|those nice boys]] from [[Eye of Terror|across the street]], Cadia always needs to be on active defense. All the time you have your Lasgun shouldered and are twitching from a combination of going 47 hours without sleep and being raised to be paranoid as fuck.

As far as geography goes, Cadia holds a temperate climate not unlike the Holy Hiveworld of Terra. 70 percent of its surface are covered in bodies of water, and its landmasses are covered with bodies of guardsmen. Think Yorkshire but with more laser guns and fewer [[Tau|Chinese]].

==Cadia and you==
First, let me start with saying that it sucks to live on Cadia. Oh, you think where you live sucks? Live in a crime infested ghetto or something similar? A couple drive by shootings and a stolen TV are ''nothing'' compared to how much it sucks to live on Cadia. Why does it suck you ask? Oh, not much of a reason at all. Just the fact that it's like, six feet away from the [[Eye of Terror]] (It also sucks to live ''there'', but for many reasons other than Cadia).

==Cadia: A very, ''very'' shitty place to live==
It just sucks to live on Cadia, period. Yes, there are several manly, redeeming qualities (see below) about the planet, but if you live on Cadia you're too busy replacing the batteries in your [[Lasgun|flashlight]] to notice. A short list includes, but is not limited to:

*Being drafted before you can walk, learning to shoot before you can count, and getting thrown in the the meat-grinder (mostly figuratively, sometimes literally) by age 16.
*Marauding bands of [[Chaos Space Marines]] and assorted [[Heresy|heretics]] trying to kill you.
*Random WAAAGH!!!s of [[Orks|greenskins]] trying to kill you.
*Stealthy platoons of [[Eldar|Space elves]] trying to kill you.
*Your own superior officers trying to ki-*[[Commissar|BLAM]]*
*No privacy whatsoever for your entire life.
*Constant fear of death before you reach puberty.
*Constant fear of death after you reach puberty.
*Superior officers barking orders down your neck for the 10-16 years that you're alive.
*No time to screw around, you're always on duty.
*The top fashions in Cadia are camo patterns and body armor.
*[[Heresy]] cults springing up by the dozen every week.
*[[Chaos|Voices]] keep telling you to ditch the duty and [[Slaanesh|relax]].
*The fact that the planet's main export is Soldiers should clue you in.

Seriously, it just sucks to live there, just take my word for it. Avoid prolonged stays on Cadia at all costs.

==Redeeming Qualities==
Yes it sucks to live on Cadia, sucks beyond all Hell, but there are several reasons why it's one of the most awesome places in the Imperium.

===Cadian Shock Troopers===
First and foremost, the finest (and perhaps most numerous) breed of the [[Imperial Guard]] are born, trained, and live on Cadia. You see the Cadian as the common model for your generic, garden variety guardsmen figurine, and as such they are the most easily recognized. They fight tenaciously for the [[Empra]] and die with the same degree of vigor. Manliness is never in short order here on Cadia, making it one of the most awesome planets around.

Their elite troops are the Kasrkins, basically the elite of the elite of the Guard. Only [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] are better. But the Kasrkin are probably scarier than the Spess Mehreens anyway, because they do about the same on the battlefield, without wearing a concrete wall on every inch of their body and not having mini-rocket launcher guns, no, they're just humans with balls of steel, both of which have their own pair of balls of steel.

===Creed===
[[Creed|CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!]]
This article has infiltrated your computer. You just got tactical geniused.

===Reproduction===
Birth rate and recruitment rate are synonymous. And if you see [[Grimdark|how many men and women die on the battlefield every day]]... better start doing your part for the Imperium. On Cadia, you're encouraged to fuck around wildly and have your partner push out the kid in a barracks to increase efficiency in recruiting.

===Violet Eyes===
Ever fancied having more eye color than is standard for man? Move to Cadia and your kids will likely get glowing purple/violet eyes

===The Place of Lorgar's Enlightenment===
Perhaps the greatest reason for Cadia's importance is that it is, in many ways, the birth place of the [[Horus Heresy]]. It was on Cadia the forces of the Word Bearers met with Ingethel the Chosen and were inducted to the service of the Great Powers. As such, Cadia holds tremendous ideological importance and sentimental value for the Champions of Chaos.

===Canada?===
Some think this is Canada. (IN SPAAAAAACE!!!) A Canada where Canadians are too busy dying to play hockey and drink maple syrup. This is bullshit. NOTHING gets between a Canadian and his hockey and maple syrup covered beavers ([[User:Munch munch|I]] would know, being a Canadian.) However, The Eye of Terror could easily pass for Quebec. Their best generals (Ursarkar Creed and Arthur Currie) do bare some resemblance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Currie
[[category:Imperial]][[category:warhammer 40,000]]

Warhammer 40,000 6th edition

2012-06-30T20:43:49Z

91.152.169.235:

[[File:40K 6th rulebook.jpg|thumb|350px|The fact that the [[Space Marines]] are on the cover is no surprise. The fact that it's the [[Dark Angels]] instead of the [[Ultramarines]] is.]]

Apparently, we'll find out what shit's going down on the 30th.

Wards Ultra cross Tau isn't fluff (yet)

Ward did, however, manage to sneak his ugly mug into the first few pages of the book (god dammit), giving us that cursed endless smile on the "Playing a Game" page (which are, ironically, Blood Angels versus Necrons).

==IT'S COMING!==
A couple of basically confirmed rumors, taken directly from 3++, wich took them from Natfka, wich took them from some rulebook preview. Still take them with a pinch of salt.

; '''Core System'''
*Premeasurement a la WHFB.
*Force Organization Chart is still the same, no percentages.
*New FOC slot called Fortifications, lets you buy special terrain to place on the field. Fortifications range from 50pts pieces of 4+ cover to 200+pts big-ass fortresses. GW swears all options already have a kit available.
*Allies are in. Your army can include an allied detachment, with a limit of 1 HQ, 2 Troops,1 Elites, 1 Fast Attack and 1 Heavy Support, with the HQ and one of the troops compulsory. Alliances are classified by a table (best buds,untrusted etc.) but It's unknown if this will bring actual advantages or limitations. All Codices have been faq'd to hell to prevent certain special character rules from affecting other codices. (IE: Guard orders only work on guard)
*Turn sequence is the same: Move, Shoot, Assault.
*No new phases. No Psychic Phase, Magic Phase, Blowjob Phase or anything. Nothing of nothing.

; '''Movement Phase'''
No changes, move along.

; '''Shooting Phase'''
*Most cover got dropped to 5+, but now you only need to hide 25% of the squad to get the save.
*Rapid Fire weapons can fire one shot at full range even if the unit moved.
*Sniper weapons let the owner allocate the Wound if you roll a 6 To Hit.
*New weapon type: Salvo. Can either stay still and fire max shots at max range or move and fire half the shots at half the range.
*Snap Fire: certain weapons can be fired on the move with BS 1. Blast weapons can never Snap Fire.
*You can only kill as many models in a target unit as you can actually see.
*Wound Allocation rules completely changed. Wounds are taken from the closest unit, no more units with just a SGT and 3 meltas left.
*When firing at a unit partially in cover, you can opt to Focus Fire. You can only kill exposed models, but they don't get a Cover Save.

; '''Assault Phase'''
*Random Charges are in, distance is 2d6".
*Challenges are in.
*Hammer of Wrath: Bikes, Jump Infantry and MAYBE Walkers get an additional I10 attack when assaulting.
*An assaulted unit can elect to Overwatch: simply Stand and Shoot 40k version. Shots are resolved at BS 1 and cannot cause Morale or Pinning Checks. Templates inflict d3 automatic hits.
*A unit can Overwatch only once per turn.
*A unit assaulting multiple enemy units suffers from multiple Overwatches.
*A unit declaring multiple assaults suffers Disoriented Charge (no bonus attack).
*Pile-In is reduced to 3" and is done in Initiative order.
*Units can elect to auto-fail the Morale Check at the end of combat.
*Close Combat Weapons have an AP value. For example, Power Swords are "S: as user" AP3, Power Axes are S+1 AP2 but have an Initiative penality, Power Mauls are S+2 AP4...

; '''Vehicles'''
*Flyers are in, with their own set of rules.
*Vehicles are now limited to move 12", but in the Shooting Phase they can go Flat Out to move a further 6".
*Primary and Defensive weapons are gone. You can fire most of your weapons most of the times, but moving faster will result in less weapons fired at basic BS and more with Snap Fire.
*Fast vehicles can fire more weapons and Flat Out further, Fast Skimmers even more.
*Moving Vehicles count as WS1.
*Skimmers now get Jink, a permanent 5+ cover save, improved to 4+ if they go Flat Out.
*Hull Points are in. They act as a sort of Hit Points for the vehicle. Each Penetrating Hit removes one Hull Point and prompts a roll on the Vehicle Damage Chart, Glancing Hits simply remove the point. a Vehicle out of Hull Points is Wrecked. Most vehicles have 3 with the exception of land raiders (spiky, and non spiky), soul grinders, and defilers which have 4, and some light Chileans which have 2
*Most vehicles have 3 HP, Land Raiders and Monoliths have 4, Flyers have 2.
*New Vehicle Damage Chart: 1-2 Shaken, 3 Stunned, 4 Weapon Destroyed, 5 Immobilized, 6 Explodes!. As said above, only Penetrating Hits roll.
*AP2 weapons get +1 on Chart rolls, AP1 get +2, AP - is no longer -1.
*No more "half strength if the center hole is off".
*Passengers can only disembark if the vehicle moved 6" or less.
*Passengers count as moving if the vehicle moved 6" or less, if it moved more they can only Snap Fire.
*Tanks can get hot.
*stormravens, valkyries and vendettas are now flyers, enjoy not killing them

; '''Psychic Powers'''
*NO PSYCHIC PHASE.
*Psychic powers are cast just like in 5th ed.
*Perils of the Warp ignores Invulnerable Saves.
*All units get a 6++ against psychic powers, psykers get a better save.
*Psychic powers now cost Warp Charges. Wait! Don't run for the hills yet! All powers cost either 1 or 2, and every psyker get a number of Charges to spend equal to their Mastery Level. For example, a level 2 psyker can cast either two Charge 1 powers or a single Charge 2 power.
*Powers are divided in 5 disciplines, each with 7 or so powers.
*There are 6 types of powers: Witchfire (Shooting Attack), Focused Witchfire (attack targetting a specific model), Maelstrom (area of effect), Nova (enemy-only AOE), Blessing (buff) and Malediction (debuff).

; '''Missions'''
*Seizing Initiative and rolling for deployment are the same as 5th ed.
*3 types of Deployment and 6 different Missions, with both Primary and Secondary objectives.
*Primary Objectives are your main goals and award a certain amount of Victory Points. Secondary Objectives are small things (scoring the first Kill Point, getting a unit in the enemy deployment zone) that award a single Victory Point.

; '''Miscellaneous'''
*All ICs can allocate the Wound on a To Hit roll of 6.
*One IC in your army can be nominated the Warlord. the Warlord gets a special benefit rolled on 1 of 3 available tables. Sample benefits include a 12" bubble of Ld10, Feel No Pain or being Scoring.
*Look Out Sir!: Characters and squad leaders have a 50% chance of evading attacks and assigning them to a friendly model within 6". ICs have a 2+ Look out Sir!.
*Monstrous Creatures now can Smash, forfeiting half their attacks to double their Strenght.
*Flying Monstrous Creatures can choose to act normally or to take to the skies. If they choose the latter they can move 24" with the ability to make Vector Strikes (d3+1 attacks against a unit they passed over), either shoot 2 weapons or run 2d6" and cannot assault or be assaulted.
*Deep Strike Mishap is now more forgiving: 1 You're Dead, 2-3 Misplaced, 4-6 Delayed.
*Feel No Pain is 5+ by default, but now works against armor-ignoring wounds.
*Preferred Enemy now lets you re-roll all 1s To Hit and To Wound, both Shooting and in Assaults.
*No Retreat is nowhere to be found.
*Still only one level of Instant Death.
*Rage now gives +2A on the charge.
*Night Vision completely ignores Night Fighting.
*Acute Senses let you re-roll to Outflank.
*Fleet allows to re-roll Run distance, maybe even charge distance.
*Weapons rules are much more generalized: "Rolls 2d6 on Armour Penetration" is now Armourbane, "Strikes at I1" is Unwieldy etc.
*you can buy bastions/buildings, these can give you cover saves ect, as well as special rules, like the Aegis defence line can buy a quad gun with skyfire (you can hit flyers at normal bs) for 75pts
*Warlord traits, the unit with the highest leadership (if 2 or more are equal, you choose)can roll from one of 3 tables (strategic,personal or command, these give the warlord a personal bonus or an army-wide bonus depending on your roll
*Armor and invulnerable saves work against dangerous terrain. (Guess Ward didn't like rolling 1s with his GK termies)

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Warhammer 40,000 6th edition

2012-06-30T20:43:15Z

91.152.169.235:

[[File:40K 6th rulebook.jpg|thumb|350px|The fact that the [[Space Marines]] are on the cover is no surprise. The fact that it's the [[Dark Angels]] instead of the [[Ultramarines]] is.]]

Apparently, we'll find out what shit's going down on the 30th.

Wards Ultra cross Tau isn't fluff (yet)

Ward did, however, manage to sneak his ugly mug into the first few pages of the book (god dammit), giving us that cursed endless smile on the "Playing a Game" page (which are, ironically, Blood Angels versus Necrons).

==IT'S COMING!==
A couple of basically confirmed rumors, taken directly from 3++, wich took them from Natfka, wich took them from some rulebook preview. Still take them with a pinch of salt.

; '''Core System'''
*Premeasurement a la WHFB.
*Force Organization Chart is still the same, no percentages.
*New FOC slot called Fortifications, lets you buy special terrain to place on the field. Fortifications range from 50pts pieces of 4+ cover to 200+pts big-ass fortresses. GW swears all options already have a kit available.
*Allies are in. Your army can include an allied detachment, with a limit of 1 HQ, 2 Troops,1 Elites, 1 Fast Attack and 1 Heavy Support, with the HQ and one of the troops compulsory. Alliances are classified by a table (best buds,untrusted etc.) but It's unknown if this will bring actual advantages or limitations. All Codices have been faq'd to hell to prevent certain special character rules from affecting other codices. (IE: Guard orders only work on guard)
*Turn sequence is the same: Move, Shoot, Assault.
*No new phases. No Psychic Phase, Magic Phase, Blowjob Phase or anything. Nothing of nothing.

; '''Movement Phase'''
No changes, move along.

; '''Shooting Phase'''
*Most cover got dropped to 5+, but now you only need to hide 25% of the squad to get the save.
*Rapid Fire weapons can fire one shot at full range even if the unit moved.
*Sniper weapons let the owner allocate the Wound if you roll a 6 To Hit.
*New weapon type: Salvo. Can either stay still and fire max shots at max range or move and fire half the shots at half the range.
*Snap Fire: certain weapons can be fired on the move with BS 1. Blast weapons can never Snap Fire.
*You can only kill as many models in a target unit as you can actually see.
*Wound Allocation rules completely changed. Wounds are taken from the closest unit, no more units with just a SGT and 3 meltas left.
*When firing at a unit partially in cover, you can opt to Focus Fire. You can only kill exposed models, but they don't get a Cover Save.

; '''Assault Phase'''
*Random Charges are in, distance is 2d6".
*Challenges are in.
*Hammer of Wrath: Bikes, Jump Infantry and MAYBE Walkers get an additional I10 attack when assaulting.
*An assaulted unit can elect to Overwatch: simply Stand and Shoot 40k version. Shots are resolved at BS 1 and cannot cause Morale or Pinning Checks. Templates inflict d3 automatic hits.
*A unit can Overwatch only once per turn.
*A unit assaulting multiple enemy units suffers from multiple Overwatches.
*A unit declaring multiple assaults suffers Disoriented Charge (no bonus attack).
*Pile-In is reduced to 3" and is done in Initiative order.
*Units can elect to auto-fail the Morale Check at the end of combat.
*Close Combat Weapons have an AP value. For example, Power Swords are "S: as user" AP3, Power Axes are S+1 AP2 but have an Initiative penality, Power Mauls are S+2 AP4...

; '''Vehicles'''
*Flyers are in, with their own set of rules.
*Vehicles are now limited to move 12", but in the Shooting Phase they can go Flat Out to move a further 6".
*Primary and Defensive weapons are gone. You can fire most of your weapons most of the times, but moving faster will result in less weapons fired at basic BS and more with Snap Fire.
*Fast vehicles can fire more weapons and Flat Out further, Fast Skimmers even more.
*Moving Vehicles count as WS1.
*Skimmers now get Jink, a permanent 5+ cover save, improved to 4+ if they go Flat Out.
*Hull Points are in. They act as a sort of Hit Points for the vehicle. Each Penetrating Hit removes one Hull Point and prompts a roll on the Vehicle Damage Chart, Glancing Hits simply remove the point. a Vehicle out of Hull Points is Wrecked. Most vehicles have 3 with the exception of land raiders (spiky, and non spiky), soul grinders, and defilers which have 4, and some light Chileans which have 2
*Most vehicles have 3 HP, Land Raiders and Monoliths have 4, Flyers have 2.
*New Vehicle Damage Chart: 1-2 Shaken, 3 Stunned, 4 Weapon Destroyed, 5 Immobilized, 6 Explodes!. As said above, only Penetrating Hits roll.
*AP2 weapons get +1 on Chart rolls, AP1 get +2, AP - is no longer -1.
*No more "half strength if the center hole is off".
*Passengers can only disembark if the vehicle moved 6" or less.
*Passengers count as moving if the vehicle moved 6" or less, if it moved more they can only Snap Fire.
*Tanks can get hot.
*stormravens, valkyries and vendettas are now flyers, enjoy not killing them

; '''Psychic Powers'''
*NO PSYCHIC PHASE.
*Psychic powers are cast just like in 5th ed.
*Perils of the Warp ignores Invulnerable Saves.
*All units get a 6++ against psychic powers, psykers get a better save.
*Psychic powers now cost Warp Charges. Wait! Don't run for the hills yet! All powers cost either 1 or 2, and every psyker get a number of Charges to spend equal to their Mastery Level. For example, a level 2 psyker can cast either two Charge 1 powers or a single Charge 2 power.
*Powers are divided in 5 disciplines, each with 7 or so powers.
*There are 6 types of powers: Witchfire (Shooting Attack), Focused Witchfire (attack targetting a specific model), Maelstrom (area of effect), Nova (enemy-only AOE), Blessing (buff) and Malediction (debuff).

; '''Missions'''
*Seizing Initiative and rolling for deployment are the same as 5th ed.
*3 types of Deployment and 6 different Missions, with both Primary and Secondary objectives.
*Primary Objectives are your main goals and award a certain amount of Victory Points. Secondary Objectives are small things (scoring the first Kill Point, getting a unit in the enemy deployment zone) that award a single Victory Point.

; '''Miscellaneous'''
*All ICs can allocate the Wound on a To Hit roll of 6.
*One IC in your army can be nominated the Warlord. the Warlord gets a special benefit rolled on 1 of 3 available tables. Sample benefits include a 12" bubble of Ld10, Feel No Pain or being Scoring.
*Look Out Sir!: Characters and squad leaders have a 50% chance of evading attacks and assigning them to a friendly model within 6". ICs have a 2+ Look out Sir!.
*Monstrous Creatures now can Smash, forfeiting half their attacks to double their Strenght.
*Flying Monstrous Creatures can choose to act normally or to take to the skies. If they choose the latter they can move 24" with the ability to make Vector Strikes (d3+1 attacks against a unit they passed over), either shoot 2 weapons or run 2d6" and cannot assault or be assaulted.
*Deep Strike Mishap is now more forgiving: 1 You're Dead, 2-3 Misplaced, 4-6 Delayed.
*Feel No Pain is 5+ by default, but now works against armor-ignoring wounds.
*Preferred Enemy now lets you re-roll all 1s To Hit and To Wound, both Shooting and in Assaults.
*No Retreat is nowhere to be found.
*Still only one level of Instant Death.
*Rage now gives +2A on the charge.
*Night Vision completely ignores Night Fighting.
*Acute Senses let you re-roll to Outflank.
*Fleet allows to re-roll Run distance, maybe even charge distance.
*Weapons rules are much more generalized: "Rolls 2d6 on Armour Penetration" is now Armourbane, "Strikes at I1" is Unwieldy etc.
*you can buy bastions/buildings, these can give you cover saves ect, as well as special rules, like the Aegis defence line can buy a quad gun with skyfire (you can hit flyers at normal bs) for 75pts
*Warlord traits, the unit with the highest leadership (if 2 or more are equal, you choose)can roll from one of 3 tables (strategic,personal or command, these give the warlord a personal bonus or an army-wide bonus depending on your roll
*armor and invulnerable saves work against dangerous terrain. (Guess Ward didn't like rollings 1s with his GK termies)

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Warhammer 40,000 6th edition

2012-06-30T20:39:11Z

91.152.169.235:

[[File:40K 6th rulebook.jpg|thumb|350px|The fact that the [[Space Marines]] are on the cover is no surprise. The fact that it's the [[Dark Angels]] instead of the [[Ultramarines]] is.]]

Apparently, we'll find out what shit's going down on the 30th.

Wards Ultra cross Tau isn't fluff (yet)

Ward did, however, manage to sneak his ugly mug into the first few pages of the book (god dammit), giving us that cursed endless smile on the "Playing a Game" page (which are, ironically, Blood Angels versus Necrons).

==IT'S COMING!==
A couple of basically confirmed rumors, taken directly from 3++, wich took them from Natfka, wich took them from some rulebook preview. Still take them with a pinch of salt.

; '''Core System'''
*Premeasurement a la WHFB.
*Force Organization Chart is still the same, no percentages.
*New FOC slot called Fortifications, lets you buy special terrain to place on the field. Fortifications range from 50pts pieces of 4+ cover to 200+pts big-ass fortresses. GW swears all options already have a kit available.
*Allies are in. Your army can include an allied detachment, with a limit of 1 HQ, 2 Troops,1 Elites, 1 Fast Attack and 1 Heavy Support, with the HQ and one of the troops compulsory. Alliances are classified by a table (best buds,untrusted etc.) but It's unknown if this will bring actual advantages or limitations. All Codices have been faq'd to hell to prevent certain special character rules from affecting other codices. (IE: Guard orders only work on guard)
*Turn sequence is the same: Move, Shoot, Assault.
*No new phases. No Psychic Phase, Magic Phase, Blowjob Phase or anything. Nothing of nothing.

; '''Movement Phase'''
No changes, move along.

; '''Shooting Phase'''
*Most cover got dropped to 5+, but now you only need to hide 25% of the squad to get the save.
*Rapid Fire weapons can fire one shot at full range even if the unit moved.
*Sniper weapons let the owner allocate the Wound if you roll a 6 To Hit.
*New weapon type: Salvo. Can either stay still and fire max shots at max range or move and fire half the shots at half the range.
*Snap Fire: certain weapons can be fired on the move with BS 1. Blast weapons can never Snap Fire.
*You can only kill as many models in a target unit as you can actually see.
*Wound Allocation rules completely changed. Wounds are taken from the closest unit, no more units with just a SGT and 3 meltas left.
*When firing at a unit partially in cover, you can opt to Focus Fire. You can only kill exposed models, but they don't get a Cover Save.

; '''Assault Phase'''
*Random Charges are in, distance is 2d6".
*Challenges are in.
*Hammer of Wrath: Bikes, Jump Infantry and MAYBE Walkers get an additional I10 attack when assaulting.
*An assaulted unit can elect to Overwatch: simply Stand and Shoot 40k version. Shots are resolved at BS 1 and cannot cause Morale or Pinning Checks. Templates inflict d3 automatic hits.
*A unit can Overwatch only once per turn.
*A unit assaulting multiple enemy units suffers from multiple Overwatches.
*A unit declaring multiple assaults suffers Disoriented Charge (no bonus attack).
*Pile-In is reduced to 3" and is done in Initiative order.
*Units can elect to auto-fail the Morale Check at the end of combat.
*Close Combat Weapons have an AP value. For example, Power Swords are "S: as user" AP3, Power Axes are S+1 AP2 but have an Initiative penality, Power Mauls are S+2 AP4...

; '''Vehicles'''
*Flyers are in, with their own set of rules.
*Vehicles are now limited to move 12", but in the Shooting Phase they can go Flat Out to move a further 6".
*Primary and Defensive weapons are gone. You can fire most of your weapons most of the times, but moving faster will result in less weapons fired at basic BS and more with Snap Fire.
*Fast vehicles can fire more weapons and Flat Out further, Fast Skimmers even more.
*Moving Vehicles count as WS1.
*Skimmers now get Jink, a permanent 5+ cover save, improved to 4+ if they go Flat Out.
*Hull Points are in. They act as a sort of Hit Points for the vehicle. Each Penetrating Hit removes one Hull Point and prompts a roll on the Vehicle Damage Chart, Glancing Hits simply remove the point. a Vehicle out of Hull Points is Wrecked. Most vehicles have 3 with the exception of land raiders (spiky, and non spiky), soul grinders, and defilers which have 4, and some light Chileans which have 2
*Most vehicles have 3 HP, Land Raiders and Monoliths have 4, Flyers have 2.
*New Vehicle Damage Chart: 1-2 Shaken, 3 Stunned, 4 Weapon Destroyed, 5 Immobilized, 6 Explodes!. As said above, only Penetrating Hits roll.
*AP2 weapons get +1 on Chart rolls, AP1 get +2, AP - is no longer -1.
*No more "half strenght if the center hole is off".
*Passengers can only disembark if the vehicle moved 6" or less.
*Passengers count as moving if the vehicle moved 6" or less, if it moved more they can only Snap Fire.
*Tanks can get hot.
*stormravens, valkyries and vendettas are now flyers, enjoy not killing them

; '''Psychic Powers'''
*NO PSYCHIC PHASE.
*Psychic powers are cast just like in 5th ed.
*Perils of the Warp ignores Invulnerable Saves.
*All units get a 6++ against psychic powers, psykers get a better save.
*Psychic powers now cost Warp Charges. Wait! Don't run for the hills yet! All powers cost either 1 or 2, and every psyker get a number of Charges to spend equal to their Mastery Level. For example, a level 2 psyker can cast either two Charge 1 powers or a single Charge 2 power.
*Powers are divided in 5 disciplines, each with 7 or so powers.
*There are 6 types of powers: Witchfire (Shooting Attack), Focused Witchfire (attack targetting a specific model), Malestrom (area of effect), Nova (enemy-only AOE), Blessing (buff) and Malediction (debuff).

; '''Missions'''
*Seizing Initiative and rolling for deployment are the same as 5th ed.
*3 types of Deployment and 6 different Missions, with both Primary and Secondary objectives.
*Primary Objctives are your main goals and award a certain amount of Victory Points. Secondary Objectives are small things (scoring the first Kill Point, getting a unit in the enemy deployment zone) that award a single Victory Point.

; '''Miscellaneous'''
*All ICs can allocate the Wound on a To Hit roll of 6.
*One IC in your army can be nominated the Warlord. the Warlord gets a special benefit rolled on 1 of 3 available tables. Sample benefits include a 12" bubble of Ld10, Feel No Pain or being Scoring.
*Look Out Sir!: Characters and squad leaders have a 50% chance of evading attacks and assigning them to a friendly model within 6". ICs have a 2+ Look out Sir!.
*Monstrous Creatures now can Smash, forfeiting half their attacks to double their Strenght.
*Flying Monstrous Creatures can choose to act normally or to take to the skies. If they choose the latter they can move 24" with the ability to make Vector Strikes (d3+1 attacks against a unit they passed over), either shoot 2 weapons or run 2d6" and cannot assault or be assaulted.
*Deep Strike Mishap is now more forgiving: 1 You're Dead, 2-3 Misplaced, 4-6 Delayed.
*Feel No Pain is 5+ by default, but now works against armor-ignoring wounds.
*Preferred Enemy now lets you re-roll all 1s To Hit and To Wound, both Shooting and in Assaults.
*No Retreat is nowhere to be found.
*Still only one level of Istant Death.
*Rage now gives +2A on the charge.
*Night Vision completely igbores Night Fighting.
*Acute Senses let you re-roll to Outflank.
*Fleet allows to re-roll Run distance, maybe even charge distance.
*Weapons rules are much more generalized: "Rolls 2d6 on Armour Penetration" is now Armourbane, "Strikes at I1" is Unwieldy etc.
*you can buy bastions/buildings, these can give you cover saves ect, as well as special rules, like the Aegis defence line can buy a quad gun with skyfire (you can hit flyers at normal bs) for 75pts
*Warlord traits, the unit with the highest leadership (if 2 or more are equal, you choose)can roll from one of 3 tables (strategic,personal or command, these give the warlord a personal bonus or an army-wide bonus depending on your roll

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]