Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Renegades and Heretics (section)

====Nor Are They Chaos Marines====

An important point about Guard is that they are not Space Marines, thus they are not as useful in certain situations, namely close combat. Similarly, Renegades, Master of Renegades options notwithstanding, are not Chaos Space Marines. Your assault units are just not of the same caliber, quality armor saves are at a premium, and your specialist assault kit is better suited for taking on vehicles than other infantry. But it’s not all bad news.

First off, you can run away whereas CSMs and their squishier compatriots can’t. Unlike CSMs, your characters never have to accept challenges they don’t wish to fight. More to the point, although not as uneventful as it is with Skaven, if done right, the penalties for refusal are of no consequence. For best results, lead from the rear, and always aim to put at least 3 ranks of infantry between your Champion and the point of contact. Also, Fearless is at a premium, so a judicious use of Our Weapons are Useless can keep pointless slugfests to a minimum (keyword here is "pointless"; sometimes, standing your ground is exactly what you want). Lastly, as you aren’t beholden to the whims of the Dark Gods in quite the same way CSMs are, you can focus on roles they aren’t optimized for. 

*While not as talented offensively or defensively as their CSM/CD brethren, units with the covenant of Khorne are a bit better at abating assaults, especially against slower MCs.
 
*Nurgle covenanters are marginally more durable than their fellow Renegades, but the goal in taking that covenant is to get Plague Zombies (or Blight Drones), not making tougher troops.
 
*Slaaneshi mortals are going to be either your mountain of attacks that get stuck in reliably, or your last turn Hail-Mary objective grab, but all things being equal, a metal box is more efficient at doing the latter, especially flying boxes.
  
*Tzeentch always has a plan, and in this case, the plan involves making your infantry blobs give Tau a run for their money in the shooting department. Even without Militia-Training, you out-shoot most armies when getting charged, using Skyfire weapons to shoot at infantry, or trying to pot-shoot down flyers. (Remember: Interceptor no longer lets Skyfire shoot ground targets at full BS anymore, so Renegades are one of only <s>three</s>four armies that can fire Interceptor attacks at more or less full BS). You're snapfiring at BS2 - introduce some Valkyries to your autocannons.