Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard (section)

====Artillery Vehicles====
If you're going Artillery heavy, you should really consider taking the Regimental Doctrines to support them; Expert Bombardiers + Mechanised Infantry to shove spotters into position while your parking lot hides behind LOS-blocking terrain and uses Pound Them to Dust! to murder your enemies can be a decent plan, although remember Deathstrikes don't roll to hit or wound, so this won't help them at all and neither will Born Soldiers.

Barring the main weapon, all Artillery Vehicles are functionally the same. BS4+/5+/6+, T7, W11, Sv3+, wargear options are: hull heavy bolter or heavy flamer, dozer blade, hunter-killer missile, armoured tracks. 

*'''Basilisk:''' An Imperial Guard classic that is as brutal and point-efficient as ever. 240", Heavy d6+3, S10, AP-3, D2, Blast, Indirect Fire. 9th Ed. has been good for the Earthshaker. S10 and AP-3 makes it stronger than the Manticore against MEQ's, T5, and T9 targets. You're no longer re-rolling the number of shots, but having some consistency is also helpful. 

*'''Manticore:''' Storm Eagles are no longer the big fuck-off missiles of 8th. 120", Heavy d6+3, S9, AP-2, D3, Blast, Indirect Fire, can only be used four times per battle. The Manticore has more Damage, which is only ''usually'' better against units [[Iron Hands|with FNP]], [[Death Guard|Damage Reduction]], [[Adeptus Custodes|3W models and those with an invuln]]. If you're using Born Soldiers, of course, the S difference matters less.  

*'''Wyvern:''' If the Basilisk is death-from-afar, the Wyvern is death-from-not-as-far. 48", Heavy 4d6, S5, AP-1, D1, Blast, Indirect Fire. Because of the wording of the Blast rule, you don't get any benefit when firing against units with fewer than 11 models (6 with Pound Them to Dust!), which is unfortunate. Strictly inferior to its 8th edition rules set, it lost re-rolling to wound. It's still a premier anti-chaff weapon against any T3/4 models. 

*'''Deathstrike:''' This it is. The Big One. No longer a traditional weapon with an effect, firing it is as complicated as the fluff. 1) Pick a missile when deploying. 2) Start an Action in your Command Phase that completes at the end of your turn. 3) Upon completion of said action, place a marker anywhere on the battlefield. 4) In your next turn, either repeat step 3) or in the Shooting Phase, launch your selected missile at the marker and resolve the effects.   
** The Set-Up: This army has a lot of movement-degrading abilities that can slow your opponent down enough to keep them within blast radius's: Mental Shackles (WC6 Psychic Power) and Pinning Fire Tank order (requires 5 or more hits, which is easy to do with heavy bolters/stubbers). Together, you're reducing their movement by 4" and a model will have to move up to 3" + blast radius to escape the blast zone, with typical numbers being less than that. Otherwise use the marker to hold off chokepoints. 
<tabs>
<tab name="Godspear Warhead">
Roll a d6 for every unit within 3" of the marker. 2-3 inflicts 8MW's, 4-5 inflicts 12MW's, and 6 inflicts 16MW's. Because this is so easy to escape, the only practical way to deliver this shot is by physically stopping the enemy from fleeing it - you can't really use it to force an enemy off an objective, as detailed below.  What you ''can'' do is use the marker defensively; park a unit on an objective marker to claim it, then put your warhead marker about 4" away from your unit where you expect the enemy to charge in from ([[Death Korps of Krieg|or closer]] if you're willing to [[Valhallan Ice Warriors|sacrifice your dudes]] and your enemy knows it). Now your opponent is risking a lot of damage if they try to simply clear you off the point in melee.
* The blast range is measured from the centre of the marker, which means you only have 3" to work with. If you place this on an objective (40mm standard) which measures objective control '''from the edge''', any savvy player can move their units to the far edge of that control aura [[Fail|and they'd be safe from getting Nagasakid to oblivion]] because the range to contest the objective is about 3.79" from its centre. 
*The other option is quantity. Three Godspear markers spread evenly around an objective marker creates an exclusion zone such that even the smallest bases in the game, 25mm circles, can't contest the objective without being within the blast radius of at least one warhead marker
</tab>
<tab name="Plasma Barrage Warhead">
Roll a d6 for every unit within d3+6" of the marker, adjusting by -1 for {{W40Kkeyword|infantry character}}s. 2-3 inflicts d3+1 MW, 4-5 inflicts 2d3 MW's, and 6 inflicts d3+3 MW's. This is one for more MSU-built armies to take bits and chunks out of each unit. 
* Drop this on an enemy model with and Aura ability to force it to move. Auras are usually 6" radius and encourage MSU, and this warhead will nickel-and-dime MSU units for generally 1-3 dead models from it.
</tab>
<tab name="Vortex Warhead">
Roll a d6 for every unit within d3+3" of the marker ''at the end of the Shooting phase'' (it deals no damage when you initially "shoot" it) and do not remove the marker. 2-3 inflicts d3 MW's, 4-5 inflicts d3+1 MW, and a 6 inflict 2d3 MW's. Then roll another d6; on a 1-3 the marker goes away, on a 4-6 the marker stays on the battlefield but cannot be moved using the action to move Deathstrike markers, so the marker has a 50% chance of staying. This process (roll for radius, then mortal wounds, then to see if the marker evaporates) recurs at the end of each of your shooting phases.  
* This does help to choke off points of the battlefield, but speedy enemy units will be able to breeze right over the marker in their turn without suffering any damage. 
* The changes are nice because they let you have more control of where and when to shoot, but you're still ultimately playing a chimera with a single-use nuke and that's on the front lines of a much smaller battlefield. You can't always rely on having LOS blocking terrain, and the best use you'll get from Deathstrikes is against other horde armies/castles who can't move enough models out of the way in time, but even then, the Deathstrike is very swingy. Two of the missiles still need to roll for blast radius, rolling a 1 means you managed to miss with a nuclear fucking missile, and then you still have to roll for variable MWs. Even the straightforward 16MW nuke can be avoided simply by moving 3.1" away from the centre of the objective, unless you actively build a list to stack movement penalties.
</tab>
</tabs>