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

==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 their different uses. As well as some army compositions and strategies.
*'''General Tips:''' Guard are a shooty army, with an emphasis on top-down command and high-strength, long-range firepower. You will find a few ways to run melee in the codex, but for the most part they're more expensive and less reliable than equivalent units from other codices, and your HQs (with a few exceptions) are comparatively weak, built more to support the rest of the army than fight it out in the front. Your real strength is in turning the battle into a straight slugfest in any way you can, because you WILL win that slugfest - no army puts out more hurt at greater range than the Guard.

===Army variants===

*'''Blob Guard:''' Blob Guard is a rather simple concept: Have more bodies than your opponent has bullets. The fact is, IG has access to grunts that can be as cheap as 3 points (Conscripts, lots of conscripts). 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 few guardsmen with lasguns, good job. The problems that come with such an awesome army composition is the lack of speed and how effective the enemy Anti-Infantry weaponry 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 Weapon Units, and your three or so Command Squads (2 Platoon Command/1 Company Command) loaded out with Special Weapons. Works best in a Cities of Death games: All that cover, all those cover saves, your men will live a bunch longer, and confound the enemy to no end.
*'''Gunline:''' This is a sub-list of Blob guard because of the way Infantry Platoons work; you need to take a PCS and a 20-man blob to get access to those delicious Heavy Weapon Squads. Kit out a CCS with a Chimera, regimental standard and some way of improving the effectiveness of his orders (options include Creed + Kell, a Lord Commissar, Volkov's Cane, et cetera; pick your poison), and plop said chimera behind an Aegis line along with at least two HWS's, usually with lascannons or autocannons. With 'Bring it down!' and 'Fire on my target!' your BS3 guardsmen become seriously dangerous; six cover-ignoring/tank-hunting lascannons can put out a ''lot'' of pain. Combine that delicious 2+ GtG save with 'Get back in the fight!' to keep your fragile dudes alive and shooting, and prioritize enemy cover-ignoring assets for maximum effectiveness.
**'''Warning:''' New FAQ specifies that a unit (and therefore their AoE buffs) are not on-field if they're embarked on a transport. While the Company Commander doesn't give a shit (the Chimera specifically specifies he can issue orders while embarked), this doesn't bode well for your Regimental Standard. You'll have to rely on Commissars, Lord Commissars, and other morale trickery if you don't want to disembark your CCS and make them vulnerable to decapitation strikes.
**'''Alternate Take - The Embedded Gunline:''' Heavy Weapon squads are powerful, but flimsy; a single S6 or better hit can have the squad making morale rolls not to turn tail and run, and without a sergeant they have only a 60% chance to make the roll without help. Besides buffing the squad, the alternative solution is to embed the heavy weapons in your infantry blob instead. A 30-man blob with those 3 autocannons you were GOING to put into a HWS can turn any infantry in range into pancake batter, ''and'' keep their heavy guns alive, both in a ranged firefight and in melee (with a Commissar, 30 attacks can give even space marines second thoughts about charging you, and if you bought flamers they have to eat a Wall of Death to get into melee). Swell the blob to 50 and you get ''5'' heavy weapons, all in a single unit, and unlike the HWS they can take a vox-caster to improve your chance of getting off that order. Add in a Primaris Psyker rolling on the Divination table and you can get off 5 twin-linked, cover-ignoring/tank-hunting lascannon shots a turn; even a Land Raider will have trouble surviving that kind of pain. The one downside to this is that you're going to be wasting a lot of firepower if you have more than one kind of target in range. Even Smite at Will! won't save you; the Split Fire rule only allows one model to shoot at a different target, so 4 of your lascannons are going to be popping grots while only 1 actually points at that wartrukk bearing down on you.
**'''Alternate Take 2 - The Forge World Gunline:''' If you're not going to use your Heavy Support slots for tanks (which you can fit into the HQ slot now, thanks to Tank Commander), or were going to take formations for that anyway, you can bypass the 'blob tax' by taking Guard artillery units. Heavy Mortars, Quad guns, Heavy Artillery Carriages, and the mighty Rapier Laser Destroyer are all options, and in 7th edition they're tough as nails in shooting. Special note goes to the Rapier, which is actually ''cheaper'' than taking a squad of lascannons with an attached Primaris Psyker, and has Ordnance too, which can be combined with 'Bring it down!' for a jaw-dropping ''four'' penetration attempts...''per shot.'' Sure, they can't move too good (or at ''all'' if you took Earthshaker carriages without any towing vehicles), and they're still squishy as always in assault, and you'll need to sacrifice your arm, your leg, and your wallet upon the altar of Forge World to get the models, but the taste of your opponent's tears when you wipe his units off the board from ''across'' the board might just be worth it.
*'''Mech Guard:''' Mech explores the wonders of armored vehicles. The core of the army would be a Company 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 troops in Chimeras. There are few sublists:
*'''Tanks Strong:''' Leman Russes. Leman Russes of all kinds, everywhere. If it exists, there is a Leman Russ created specifically to murder the ever-living shit out of it. Punishers and Exterminators reap infantry blobs. Vanquishers remove tanks from the battle. Eradicators make cover useless. Executioners melt terminators into slag. Demolishers and Battle Tanks are omnivorous in their diet of destruction. Oh, and you can mix and match tanks within their respective squadrons. All squadron members must shoot the same target, remember, so kit them accordingly!! If you want to, add Pask to any of the squadrons for instant HQ. Remember to point your front armor towards the opponent, don't get flanked, don't get too close to melta, and enjoy removing parts of the enemy army every turn. You can keep at least one Heavy Support slot for the sake of Hydras, or if you're feeling ballsy, just rely on the Aegis Defense line.
*'''The Rolling Fortress:''' The capstone of a mechanized army is a Baneblade variant, but if your opponent has any sense he's going to be focusing that machine with everything he's got. So why not make it ''almost invincible?'' Take a Doomhammer or Stormlord (Which you want should depend on whether you want crowd-mulching power or a bit more anti-tank), and pack in three enginseers, all attached to a squad of four servitors. Then load up an entire platoon's worth of heavy weapons teams; lascannons, autocannons, and missile launchers are all options. All nine of your heavy weapons can fire out of the back of the tank (they're single models) and the combined three squads and the enginseer team takes up...drumroll please...twenty-five slots. Now you have a super-heavy, AV14/13/12, 9HP tank with a main gun, five twin-linked heavy bolters, four lascannons, another NINE heavy weapons (which can, in batteries of 3, fire at different targets), and to put the cherry on top, the whole thing regenerates '''3 HP a turn.''' ''(Don't worry if your opponent says a roll of 1 is always a failure, no matter what; BRB states this is for ''saves,'' and the only other roll that has this restriction - Feel no Pain - has a specific FAQ ruling saying so) '' Springing for the Stormlord nets you the capacity and fire points for another two squads of heavy weapons and three gun servitors for a combined total of ''twenty-seven'' guns, on a nearly invincible armored platform. Even D-weapons will have trouble bringing you down. The entire bag will run you just over 900 points (which goes to 965 if you sprang for more lascannons, and more than that with the Stormlord), but it'll take mountains of punishment and deal it out in equal measure. This trick works with any Super-Heavy Transport and anyone who can repair vehicles from inside, but Guard can do it best with their Baneblades' high numbers of fire points and transport capacity, as well as their Techpriests (The Dominus Techpriest is better at it, but as an Allied unit he has to start disembarked).
*'''Flight of the Valkyries/Vendettas:''' 
::[[File:Bols-dp-0426.jpg|300px]]
::You will confuse your opponent when he realizes that on turn one, you will have little more than a Company Command Squad/Tank Commander and Veterans in Chimeras. Maybe you'll shoot an Artillery Strike during your turn. But that doesn't matter. Because, once the second turn comes in, you roll that die, look at your opponent, smirk, and turn on the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPf_PJlJsJQ music]. Vendettas and Valkyries come in squadrons, unlike most other flyers, and you roll for squadrons on one die; the Master of the Fleet, an Aegis Comms Array, and Primaris Psyker with Divination can all help you with the roll. They can't be mixed, unfortunately, so you have to pick either Valks or Vendettas, and with the amount of AAA these days you must make your flyers count; ''don't'' send a flyer onto the board with an empty hold.
**'''On Transport Capacity:''' The Vendetta's reduced transport capacity may have a few new players scratching their heads. You'll want to get the most out of that plane, but 6 models is a really odd number. Fortunately, Guard is ever a versatile army and offers a few possibilities, and more than one of them are viable!
**'''Company Command Squad (5 models):''' Load up with plasma, melta, or flamers and ruin someone's day. Orders make you extra killy, especially since they're Senior Officer orders. However, this is also probably the priciest thing to stuff into the plane; even four flamers is 80 points, and you could do the same thing with a PCS, see below. You're sending a senior officer to die; ''make it count!''
**'''Tempestus Scions:''' Yeah, they can deep strike on their own, but the fewer times you roll for reserves, the less your forces are staggered out, and their Move Through Cover ability prevents casualties from a bad drop. Besides that, you get all the benefits of Scion BS and armor, and if you brought the Command Squad, they can throw out an order, too. Sadly you can't do this with Codex Scions, since as Battle Brothers they can't use Vendettas, but otherwise a decent option. 
**'''Platoon Command Squad (5 models):''' Cheaper than a CCS by a good margin, but has some downsides: you don't get Senior Officer orders, you don't get BS4, and you have to have an Infantry platoon somewhere else in your army. As far as command squads go, this is the 'budget' option; give them 3 flamers, a heavy flamer, and a copy of the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, and kick 'em out the door.
**'''Special Weapons Squad (6 models):''' This is most likely what the Vendetta's new carrying capacity was designed for. 6 men, 3 lasguns, 3 special weapons, no regrets. The cheapest way to drop a lot of flamer templates on an unsuspecting blob, but if you're willing to shell out the points, give them all Demolition Charges. The Demo Charge is ''not'' a grenade, so it's not limited to one per shooting phase. This also means it scatters 2d6"-BS, so there's a good chance your heroic troopers will blow themselves sky-high, but hey, they're Guardsmen. They're used to it.
**'''Cyclops Demolition Vehicle ('2' models):***A subtle option from Forge World. The Cyclops is Extremely Bulky, so with its operator it counts as 6, making it air-droppable - once. Pray you don't fuck up the scatter roll, run this bomb on treads into close quarters during the shooting phase (it ''can'' be ordered, so 'Move! Move! Move!' can help you here), and then set it off during the Assault phase. Then, when your opponent sputters about Assault Transports, remind him that the Cyclops didn't ''charge'' anything - it's a ''bomb'', it can explode whether it's in close combat or not. Good for mulching anything that's not TEQ. There is no official ruling on whether or not the explosion allows cover saves, though; the closest you'll find is the ITC FAQ, which also allows a bunch of other bullshit, so discuss it with your opponent beforehand.
**'''Death from the Skies:''' Valkyries face some changes (and one non-change change). First off, the ''non-change'' is that you can now take them in a Flyer Wing of up to '''four planes''' per Fast Attack Slot, that deploy all at once (which, sadly, means that the Guard trick of rolling for three planes at once in reserves is no longer unique), but don't need to maintain Coherency during the game (not that that's a bad idea). So now your paratrooper drops don't end up deleting each other, and do what they're supposed to, e.g.: grab objectives quickly, which brings us to change number 2: when taken as part of an Air Superiority Detachment, they, being Transports with the Hover subtype, gain Objective Secured. ''Gunships on station, anyone?'' Like most things Guard, Valks have a fairly average Agility of 3, meaning that you have a fair chance of getting in those Break Turns and performing OK in a Dogfight. Pursuit, however, is a stinking 1, so Flat Out moves aren't as satisfying as cooler planes, and Engagement is where you truly lack style, but at least you go before Bombers. Choice of Attack Pattern and Wing Leader Abilities can vastly improve the performance of your aircraft. As Attack Flyers, their Wing bonuses are as follows:
**'''Vigilance Attack Pattern:''' Just a basic BS and Jink booster for your Wing Leader, at the ''cost'' of flying in a diagonal line with both planes flying in the same direction in loose coherency. The other formations give you more to work with, but if you really want to get Air Superiority on the cheap, the bonuses to your Wing Leader aren't a bad deal.
**'''Vehemence Pattern:''' Makes your flying buses Tank Hunters. With 3 Vendettas this is ''terrifying.'' Nothing that flies can survive 9 twin-linked Lascannons that re-roll armor pen; even AV14 will take 3 HP worth of damage, and with AP2 the potential for explosion threatens even Land Raiders and Monoliths.
**'''Intolerance Pattern:''' An extension of Vigilance, adding a third plane to the slash and giving them all Ignores Cover against ground targets. You want this for Valks with lotsa dakka, and your Vendettas can punch through Jink saves.
**'''Unmerciful Pattern:''' Your 3-plane conga line of death, making your Valks marginally faster by doubling their Pursuit value for Flat-Out purposes, and letting you fire 4 weapons with each plane (not really relevant, as you only get 3 unless you spring for Heavy Bolter sponsons) while making a Flat-Out move, at the cost of having to attack the same Ground Target. Each plane after the first adds 1 to it's BS when shooting at the same target, so consider the potential of this for countering Invisibility and other forced Snap-shooting scenarios.
**'''Indomitable Pattern:''' Basically 3 Attack Patterns in 1, granting the benefits of the Vigilance, Vehemence and Intolerance Patterns to your larger flying V. Like most of the big Patterns, this one works best with a mixed loadout.
**'''Omniscience Pattern:''' Probably the most <s>straightforward</s> {{BLAM|HERESY!}}{{BLAM}} simple Pattern in the book, where you line up all your planes abreast, pick what ever unit your opponent brought extra of, and shoot them until their all dead with a tasty Preferred Enemy bonus. Wash, rinse, repeat. Wasted on Multiple Rocket Pods, but great for getting the most out of Hellstrikes and Lascannon.
**'''Fortitude Pattern:''' Form up in a tight box and get a 4++, It Will Not Die and Interceptor. Great for Transporting HVTs, but the Interceptor is wasted on a Flyer without turrets.
**Forge World picks up where GW left off and has errata'd the Vendetta in, bringing it into line with the Valkyrie. It has the same Pursuit and Agility values as its lighter-armed brother.
*'''Vets Meltaspam:''' Put Vets in Chimeras. Give them Meltas. Fill up Force Organization chart under Troops. Do same with Company Command Squads and Storm Troopers. Despite what you may think, you shouldn't really use Gunships for this, since you can't employ the melta drive-bys with them. Unless you predict really high value target with flying transport, in which case take vendetta and put your other CCS in it, loaded up with more meltas. This can be suprisingly cheap; A chimera with a dozer blade carrying a vet squad with two meltaguns is 150 points. For dealing with TEQ and nids, give your vets carapace armor and plasma guns instead, bringing the cost per box to 170 points.
**'''Alternate Take:''' Your vets won't be getting out of the Chimera unless they need to sit on an objective for the rest of the game or something's gone wrong, so give a thought to filling that third special weapon slot with a heavy flamer. For the same price as a meltagun, the squad suddenly has some ''serious'' cover hate, and can overwatch for the Chimera with improved effectiveness (a bolter in the hands of your sergeant can also help here, for just one point), giving that horde of gaunts trying to swarm your metal box some trouble. Then, when they bring down the transport anyway, disembark into a nice favorable position, remind your opponent that he can't consolidate after attacking a vehicle, and ''burn him alive.''
*'''Hammer and Anvil:''' This army is what the majority of pure IG armies will actually look like; a mix. This is fielding a combination of large and small units, infantry and tanks, artillery and aircraft. As they say, hit from the air, sea, and ground. A list in this category looks like a combination of other types of lists mashed together: a CCS with at least one infantry blob to order around, a few Veterans in Chimeras, and a smattering of heavy support; Leman Russes, either with or without the Tank Commander upgrade, a Wyvern, a Manticore, et cetera; a Vendetta might join the fun carrying a Special Weapons squad (or other stuff, see above). Guard are an army with a ''lot'' of viable options at low point levels, and at higher point levels these options stack together very well. With 7th edition and the advent of Allied and Formation detachments, armies like this have become less prevalent, but that doesn't mean they don't work.
*'''Plasma Spam:''' Three squads of two Executioners all with plasma cannon sponsons and you're looking at 30 plasma cannon shots a turn.  If you're playing 1500 points you'll have enough room for two squads of vets and a command squad with some upgrades (Hint: Kurov's Aquila fits very nicely here. If you  throw that command squad in a chimera and keep your Executioners fairly close you can go from loosing 2.5 hullpoints a turn on average to Gets Hot to less than one.) If you run 1850 you can throw in two more Executioners or  two squads of three armored sentinels, with plasma cannons of course. Hell, throw a Techpriest with some plasma servitors in there for shits and giggles. Fuck it give those vets some plasma guns. You're already making every Grey knight player fall to their knees in agonizing pain. Max you're looking at 38 plasma cannon shots under 2000 points. Only thing you're missing is anti AV 14, which can be solved by switching those hull mounted heavy bolters for lascannons.
*'''My Maneaters got lost on the way to Age of Sigmar:''' Space Ogres are cool and due to being able to take them in high squad numbers you ''can'' build a list around them (not a particularly competitive one though). Take a tank commander as HQ along with a squad of Leman Russ Vanquishers with Lascannons, camo Veterans as troops to camp objectives, some Rapier Laser Batteries in HS, and Ogryn's, lots of big fucking Ogryn's! With 3 Elite slots you can fill the majority of your list with ogryn's, though bare in mind that bullgryn's don't have a lot to provide cover for so Power maul/ Vanilla Ogres are best. The tables have turned, your Guardsmen serve Ogryn now! Use your Vanquishers and Laser Batteries to snipe off any Vindicators or S10 blasts in general and to pop transports so your Ogres can get to the supple manflesh that hides inside. A 5-man strong Ogryn squad can put out 40 S5 hits from shooting and charging into combat, so even if your squad get whittled down you can still stomp most tiny humans you encounters and even against TEQ, assuming they have powerfists/thunderhammers and the same unit size, you're ogres will 'statistically' kill 3 of them without losing a single ogre. Don't try this shit again Tau though, with the amount of high strength low AP shooting they innately get you will get your arse handed to you. Can be hillarious against a marine Grav list though. Also, you'll want to add some Psykers and Priests. You need atleast 1 Psykers for Divination on the vanquisher squad, and a Priest in each Ogryn squad you take is a pretty good idea.
*'''FUCK YOU AND YOUR LOGIC:''' This is for all those who have played all or most of the above styles. What you want to do is what you normally wouldn't do, that only just falls short of effective. Then with the last 200 points that you so kindly spared, you have spammed cavalry. Why? Because fuck you and this game. Remember to play [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVg28azacaM this] if it works.

===The Enemies of Man===

Here, we'll talk about what tactical and list-building considerations you'll need to make with regards to your opponent. You won't always know who you're fighting, or what they're bringing to the fight, but when you do, make sure to capitalize on it!
 
'''At present, this list is incomplete. Feel free to add to it!'''

*'''Necrons:''' The tinheads are a hard sell if you like tanks. Their uncharacteristic toughness and ability to eat through Hull Points like popcorn makes a mechanized army a bad idea. However, their lack of range (with a few exceptions, such as the Doomsday Ark) and difficulty with cover saves (they only have a few really good ways around it) makes infantry-heavy armies a reliable alternative. In addition, their Reanimation protocols can be suppressed with high-strength artillery, such as the Leman Russ (Battle Tank and Demolisher, though you REALLY should be wary of getting within two feet of a necron blob with any vehicle), Basilisk, and Manticore/Deathstrike. The Wyvern isn't strong enough to suppress RP, but works around it with sheer wound count. Keep your artillery behind your infantry, keep your infantry in cover, and buy lots of camo netting; your AV won't save you, but your cover saves will!
**Your high-strength Ordnance weapons pull double duty against Necrons thanks to their Reanimation Protocols and Quantum Shielding. Both are powerful defensive abilities that fold easily before heavy enough ordnance; the RP thanks to the above-mentioned Instant Death effect and Quantum Shielding which pops if you manage to penetrate it (meaning a penetration roll of 14). S9 Ordnance/Tank Hunters (Lascannon w/orders) has a 55.5% chance to do so, and S10 Ordnance a 75% chance.
**There are several Necron formations and detachments that grant an army-wide buff to Reanimation Protocols; Decurion, for example. Make no mistake, this is ''bad news'' - it makes every infantry unit, and some vehicles and Monstrous Creatures, 16% tougher against everything you throw at it. You will ''never'' table a Decurion army, and you will need to prioritize your firepower to have control of the game. Bring as much cheese as you can to fight this; your opponent certainly is.
*'''Space Marines:''' Main things to beware of: Drop pods, Thunderfire Cannons, Vindicators, and Land Raiders. 
**The Drop pod can put a squad of meltaguns right behind your tanks, where their armor's weakest; as long as there's one in enemy reserve, keep an eye on the space BEHIND your precious Leman Russes. Keep them hull-down against terrain and other obstacles to force the enemy to work through their much heavier front and side armor, or space out your force to invalidate the flank entirely; a drop pod can't mishap unless it scatters off the board, so be wary. 
**The Thunderfire Cannon can chew through your infantry with terrifying speed, and will ususally enjoy a 3+ cover save thanks to its Techmarine operator. In addition, it's Toughness 7 in shooting; a tough nut to crack. Lascannons, Basilisks, and Battle Cannons are all recommended, hopefully with some orders/divination trickery to beat that cover save. If you somehow get close enough, you can also kill it in melee; the techmarine is tougher than a guardsman, but he's not tougher than ''ten'' guardsmen.
**The Vindicator's danger comes from the fact that it's AV13 on the front, automatically passes Dangerous Terrain tests with its Siege Shield, and packs a Demolisher Cannon, which can reliably punch through the front armor on a Leman Russ, and turn everything else you can field to paste. Put them down before they put YOU down. Also note their side armor is MUCH weaker than their front (full profile 13/11/10) so make use of your long range and mobility. Barrage weapons work too, since they also hit side armor.
**Finally, the Land Raider, which isn't dangerous on its own but is invariably carrying some sort of melee deathstar that'll eat your poor troopers alive. Immobilize or destroy it at the first opportunity, then rain hell on whatever comes out. ''Unless'' it's an Ares or other assault-gun-type variant, in which case ''kill it. Kill it now.''
**'''Grey Knights:''' An Inquisition Chamber Militant force which relies on their psychic prowess, and their monstrous close combat ability. What hits them hard is that they are even more expensive and elite than regular marines, and each loss counts. The presence of a Plasma-wielding Veteran squad in a Chimera would ruin their day, as well as any massed AP2 fire. Against Paladins, bring Meltaguns or a Leman Russ Demolisher to Instant-death the two-wound bastards. In spite of this, beware their psychic powers, especially ''Cleansing Flame'' (dear lord, keep Purifiers at an arm's length) and ''Vortex of Doom'', for both respectively eat infantry and tanks alive.
**'''Dark Angels:''' Like Grey Knights, they bring elite and expensive Terminators, while they have the best bikers in the imperium. Bring Plasma to deal with their inefficiently expensive deathwing and make sure you can get ignores cover on your plasma guns so their Bikers with re-rollable cover saves become fish in a barrel.
**'''Blood Angels:''' The Red Marines of go-fast were built to take on the Guard with their Blitzkrieg tactics. The Lucifer strike force can grant a Land Raider Redeemer with 2 Flamestorm cannons the Fast Vehicle rule. Kiss goodbye to your infantry squads. Their Baal Predators can also do it naturally. Their basic marines get angry when you kill half of their squads, and the survivors will effortlessly curbstomp entire platoons in one round of combat. Again, bringing Plasma weapons against MEQ is key.
**'''Space Wolves:''' Longfangs are pretty brutal with their ability to split-fire, but the biggest threats are the Thunderwolf Cavalry or the Wulfen. A Leman Russ Demolisher will hopefully make quick work of the T5 W2 Thunderwolves, but watch out for the Wulfen! If the Wulfen get into close combat, your units are dead and are too stupid to realize it. Keep wulfen at an arm's length and get them!
*'''Imperial Knights:''' Oh, God-Emperor, what did you do to piss ''him'' off? Unless you have Lords of War of your own, a Knight in most casual games is a rarity, and multiple Knights is almost unheard of. That being said, don't be intimidated. In spite of their size and fearsome D melee weapons, Knights have middling initiative and average attack and WS stats. Throw enough men with meltabombs at them and they ''will'' Crumple. It'll be a lot of men, though; even a crusader hits at S10AP2 in melee and gets the pie-plate-dropping Stomp ability, so you'll take a beating bringing it down. Alternatively, hit them with anti-tank guns from two directions. the Ion Shield can only cover one facing per phase, so simultaneous attacks from multiple sides can work around it. Slugging it out at range, however, will expose you to the Knight's guns, which are powerful ''and'' long-ranged. Avoid using armour against Knights if you can - their weapons are geared towards fighting things as big and nasty as they are (your Russes' AV14 won't help you when your foe can ''pick up the tanks and throw them''). Finally, remember the shield doesn't work in melee. The bigger they are, the harder they...explode, taking a good chunk of your army with them. But hey, at least you killed one!
*'''Tyranids:''' The bugs have a couple of glaring weaknesses that you can exploit quite easily; first, their lack of really good ranged anti-tank weaponry; the Heavy Venom Cannon and Impaler Cannon are hard to field and can't reliably punch through the front plate of a Leman Russ, The Rupture Cannon has poor AP, and the Zoanthrope's powers are short-ranged and must be correctly channeled first. Second, Synapse. Synapse creatures usually have multiple wounds, but with a couple of exceptions they don't reach into the truly difficult-to-kill area of Toughness 6; your tanks and heavy artillery can cut the head off the encroaching swarm from across the board, while flamers, heavy flamers, and rank fire can keep the scuttling masses out of melee. Also, ''always bring AA!'' A Tyranid player that doesn't field a Flyrant is doing it wrong, and that winged terror can wreak havoc on your back line. Hydras, Aegis Quad-Guns, and your friendly every day Vendetta can keep the skies clear.
**'''Genestealer Cults:''' ''Where the hell did THEY come from!?'' Like Tyranids, they rely on cover saves. Unlike Tyranids, they like keeping a bit of a distance so they can return to the shadows and infiltrate onto key objectives. Even worse, their Cult Ambush gives them some ''serious'' mobility, including the possibility of popping up within 3" of a unit and assaulting the turn they arrive. I think I don't need to explain how deadly that can be to instantly tie up a Guard squad, and considering their Acolytes are I4, so even though they're as squishy as you are they are faster, and have rending even if they did not take any close combat weapons. Use large blobs to bubble-wrap your important stuff, and bring that ignores cover to the table via the Leman Russ Eradicator, "Fire on my Target!" orders, and Wyverns.
***A useful trick to help you here is an allied Inquisitor, specifically one Torquemada Coteaz. In addition to being a cheap ML2 psyker and melee beatstick (and his high LD is good, too), he has the ability 'I've been Expecting You', which allows him (and his attached unit) to make an off-turn, full-BS shooting attack against any unit that arrives from reserves within 12" of him. Unlike other anti-reserves trickery this ability doesn't limit itself to Deep Strike or Outflank; it works if you show up near Torquemada, regardless of how. Combine with a 50-man lascannon gunline and watch that 3" Cult Ambush evaporate in a torrent of las-fire. And the cherry on top? He can do this an ''unlimited'' number of times!
***Another potentially useful trick is to take a bare-bones unit of Conscripts and wrap them around your Infantry Platoon or other useful stuff. Unlike the above, the Conscripts will fold the moment the enemy charges them - ''and that's the point.'' Now that squad of Genestealers is right in the open within rapid fire range of your 50-man gunline. 'Light 'em up!''
*'''Tau:''' ''Beware the markerlight, my son! The BS boosted, the cover save denied!'' By far your biggest threat against any Tau player is his markerlights. Most Tau weaponry is AP5 and better, so without your cover saves your troopers will drop like flies. Identify the sources of markerlights and focus them down. Like you, the Tau love cover; get some Orders out and deny them their saves (or, if you fancy some blueberry tears, bring along a Wyvern). Battlesuits are your other major threat, especially the Riptide; massed lascannons, meltaguns, and plasma can wear them down, or a tarpit of troopers with meltabomb-wielding sergeants can overwhelm them. Tau are one of the very few armies you're generally ''better'' than in melee. You'll have a hard time getting ''into'' melee, but when it happens, make the most of it!
**If you're willing to fight cheese with cheese, Riptide spam is handily countered by an allied Armored Battlegroup. The Company Command Vanquisher can take Beast Hunter shells, which are AP2 and inflict Instant Death as a USR; Toughness 6 or no, nothing short of a Stormsurge can take a canister of weapons-grade acid. A co-axial heavy stubber can help you hit, and ABG tank orders can help you deal with cover saves. Give it some cover, camo netting, and a Thunderer Siege Tank as its Troops choice, and the ABG Vanquisher can make back its points in blueberry tears in one or two shots.
*'''Orks:''' Play the ranged game against the Greenskins because melee is going to hurt like a rancid beast. Orks tend to come in two flavours (which often are mixed to some degree): infantry and mechanized. **Against most foot-slogging orks, you want to take volume of shots, blasts, and templates. Anything that can force pinning/leadership/morale tests will help you immensely because mob rule is an ork opponent's greatest friend. Ap 1-3 tend to not be necessary unless your foe is feeling moxious and rolling with mega armour. If mega armour does happen to grace the battlefield, melta and lascannons work better than plasma because Instant Death from doubling toughness not only makes multi-wounds useless but also negates any FnP Painboys can give. If you find yourself in a position where a mob of boyz are preparing to charge, weigh the possibility of how much damage you can do in shooting vs how much you can do in charging them instead. Orks thrive on the first round of assaults and denying them those boons via a preemptive charge can be a very risky but worthwhile maneuver to save your other units. 
**Ork vehicles tend to be rather cheap and soft or hideously expensive and decently armoured. There'll be times when you will think your dedicated anti-armour is overkill and you'd be right. The only vehicles with AV higher than 12 are the (m/g)orkanauts' front and side 13 and the battlewagon's front 14. Their flyers are universally AV 10 all around, so a couple of Hydras will do the job beautifully.
**One of the Orks' most glaring weaknesses, besides being a melee army in a shooting game, is that their ability to deal with high AV vehicles is pretty much limited to melee. Their reliably highest strength guns are 8 with a few variable strength guns that tend not to be taken due to their unreliability. Powerklaws and tankbusta bombs will pose the most dangerous threat to your tanks, but be forewarned that a mob of boyz can wreck most of your vehicles with a fortunate charge against the rear armour. Tankbustas may pose a threat through sheer volume of strength 8 shots they can bring, so deal with them accordingly. Their Lootas have the chance to do horrible things to your lighter armour since they field autocannons en masse. If you can manage to nix their anti-armour early, then the rest of the game should be nothing but a clean up job. That's assuming you are using a mech-list.
*'''Dark Eldar:''' "Fire at my target" on anti-tank and FRFSRF on lasguns are your best friends here. All Dark Eldar vehicles are squishy, but your basic weapons are S3, so no reliable glancing the Marines enjoy. Buy Aegis and do not leave cover for three reasons: both basic Warriors with Splinter Racks and Venoms are capable of inflicting too many casualties on your infantry, most of DE infantry lack Assault Grenades (even Incubi), allowing Guardsmen to strike before them and DE have a lot of Haywire, low AP meltas, lances etc Guard vehicles are vulnerable to. Forget all the jokes about Wyches gathering dust on the shelves - they ARE bad news and with some AP5 weapons they pack can munch even through Combined Squad, especially with a good roll on drugs. If your opponent's playing Covens, you're fucked, because lasguns can't even scratch T7, so best tactics is bringing Psykers with you and give them Force Axes (but you'll wound Taloses and Cronoses on 6's, sooo) or bring a small allied detachment of either Inquisition or Grey Knights with Nemesis Hammer IC to hide in your 50-man blob and introduce those  monstrosities to Force ID, that utterly ignores both their armor and FNP saves. ALternative - a great number of ranged firepower, but those fuckers are '''really''' durable.
*'''Chaos Space Marines:''' They play like their 30k Legionary counterparts, but they're much more schizophrenic in that they're both choppy and shooty but cannot commit to one path at once. However, in spite of the fact that they can be overrun, it is much more likely they'll overrun you. Take any AP3 or AP2 you can, and make sure to take an Aegis Quad gun or a Vendetta since the infamous Heldrake will fly on and threaten your infantry and rear AV with its infamous S6 torrent Bale flamer. Chaos Space Marines now often come in specific legions, similar to Space Marine Chapter Tactics. Here's what each legion in particular brings, alongside their designated Cult units:
**'''Alpha Legion:''' Hordes of cultists and infiltrators galore. You will have a tough time finding the Warlord due to their "kill current warlord and that random champion's the new general" special rule. Get Flamers and ignores cover to deal with the cultist spam.
**'''Black Legion:''' Vanilla Chaos with a bit more of an elite spin on their army. Armless jokes and failure jokes aside, Abaddon the Despoiler is a horrific beatstick and will carve through everything you can throw at him.
**'''Crimson Slaughter:''' Possessed spam out the ass. Also they lack VotLW so forcing pinning tests through orders can help. 
**'''Death Guard:''' Tough as nails with universal +1T and Feel No Pain on all their infantry units. The catch is, they're very slow. Take advantage of that and kite them from a distance, then take the objectives at the last minute.
**'''Emperor's Children:''' A cross between World Eaters and Death Guard in that they're even better in close combat and can be durable as hell thanks to natural 6+ FnP (improved to 4+ with Icon of Excess). Noise Marines are perhaps the biggest threat to your army in the entire Chaos Space Marines Codex since they ignore cover like no tomorrow. Sonic blasters and Doom Sirens pulverize blobs while the S8 Blastmasters do nasty things to tanks. Hit them with Meltaguns and Battlecannons to get around that Feel No Pain quickly!
**'''Night Lords:''' Raptor spam with a penchant for Night fighting and forcing fear tests with a -2 modifier to your leadership. Take searchlights and Ignores Cover to get around the stealth bonuses, and Commissars and Priests are vital to mitigate that -2Ld on Fear tests.
**'''Thousand Sons:''' Very expensive, but good lord they pack a psychic punch! Their AP3 bolters are kind of irrelevant since regular bolters would ignore a guardsman's armor anyway. But that's not what makes the 1K sons a threat; they all have 4+ Invulnerable saves base, your anti-MEQ sources will have to pull double-time in order to eliminate them. Also, Magnus the Red is probably the only named character that can do more damage to you than Abaddon can.
**'''Word Bearers:''' Possessed spam out the ass, with bonuses to using Daemons as allies or to summon through Daemonology. Take some Psykana divisions running Sanctic to counter-act the Daemons. Who needs Grey Knights anyway?
**'''World Eaters:''' Make no mistake, Khorne is still very much relevant. If they get into close combat with you, be prepared to sell yourself dearly. Keep them at arm's length, blow up their transports, and shower them with Plasma guns and Battle Cannons.
*'''Chaos Daemons:''' "A Daemon...they have a daemon!!!" Chaos Daemons are perhaps the Imperial Guard's biggest challenge in that all your high-strength shooting can be nullified by the natural Invulnerable saves gracing the army. Like Tyranids, they field big monsters in the form of Greater Daemons, and their entire army is quasi-fearless across the board. A few universal units to watch out for: Furies, Soul Grinders, and Daemon Princes. The former since in spite of their shit stats they're still quasi-fearless and can force Fear on you. Soul Grinders are a cross between Dreadnoughts and Leman Russes, being a walker that can take a terrifying main gun (Phlegm Bombardment's a Battle Cannon with 1/2 the range, and the Warp Flamer is nasty against infantry). Daemon Princes are scary for the obvious reasons. Here's how you handle specific chaos god units:
**'''Khorne:''' Kill them, ASAP. These guys hit extremely hard on the charge, and come with Power Swords by default. Lock them down and flame them. On the other hand, Fleshhounds of Khorne and Bloodcrushers are really fast and tough multi-wound thickies, but S8+ shooting from Meltaguns,Battle Cannons, Earth Shaker cannons, and/or Lascannons will Instant-Death them. Bloodthirsters are terrifying, but it must be on the ground in order to do anything. Bring anti-air like Vendettas/Hydras/Quad guns and then throw as many bullets at it as you can.
**'''Nurgle:''' These guys are slow, but they're tough and rely on Cover saves due to Daemon of Nurgle's shrouded bonus. Get cover-ignoring weapons out there as fast as you can! Beware of the Great Unclean One and its T7 statline, your lasguns cannot even touch it. 
**'''Tzeentch:''' Psychic power spam par excellence. They cannot fire off that annoying Flickering Fire when locked in combat so this may be one of the few groups of Daemons you want to move up and charge into. Fair warning, it will quickly turn into a battle of attrition as Pink Horrors split into Blue Horrors who split into Brimstone Horrors. Their big unit, the Lord of Change, is a powerful flying sorcerer. Bring that AA and shoot it down.
**'''Slaanesh:''' Terrifyingly quick and terrifyingly powerful. They're even more squishy than Khorne Daemons and cannot easily ignore your armor saves, but with Rending a deep-striking unit of Daemonettes will tear apart your tanks in short order. Bring some flamers to pile on those saves. Their Keeper of Secrets is surprisingly cheap and mobile for a T6 Monstrous Creature, and will kick your shit in if it closes the gap.

===What to buy===

Always start out with what 1̶d̶4̶c̶h̶a̶n̶  literally everyone recommends, 1 HQ 2 Troop Choices, that is, a Company Command Squad or a Lord Commissar (The Power Fist Commissar will suffice for cheap HQ) and 2 separate Squads kitted out as Veterans. However, bundles are your best friend, namely the <s>battle force</s> Defence Force. This gives you two squads of 10 and a leader pack, as well as heavy weapons and a Leman Russ which can be customized into <s>any</s> 4 of its variations and a Chimera. 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 if you go for mech.
Next thing would most likely be another Leman Russ and another Chimera if going mech, and another defence force if you are going blob. If you truly want to go mech though, the Steel Host set gives you 5 Leman Russ Battle Tanks, 1 Hydra Flak Tank and 2 Leman Russ Demolishers if you're willing to sell your arm, leg, kidney, and testicle. Also, the cheap 5-man Guardsmen packs are great for building a 50-man horde (Conscripts anyone?)!
The Armored Fist bundle gives you a discount price for a mechanized Squadron of Veterans too. 

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 you can take smaller platoons in order to get more Junior officers on to the table for more orders. That all said, let's calculate the body count if you spammed every slot.

HQ: CCSx2 (18 models; Commissar, Chimera, and all Advisors: Officer of the Fleet, Astropath and Master of Ordnance which are MANDATORY)<br/>
Priest x3<br/>
Enginseer x3 (With 15 servitors 5 each. Give two per Enginseer plasma cannons. Because you can.)

Primaris Psyker(ML-2) x3

Elites: 3x FULL Militarum Tempestus platoons, plus Taurox Primes for all. Bitches (117 models)

Troops: 6x FULL Infantry platoons (6x5-man PCS + Chimeras, 30x10-man Infantry squads + Chimeras, 30x6-man Heavy squads (it's two guys on one base, be glad I'm not counting the gun model), 18x6-man Special squads, 6x50-man Conscript squads, and 6x Commissars. 960 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: 1,158 models, INCLUDING Chimeras. Yes. You can have one-thousand models on the table. THIS IS THE GUARD. OUR INFANTRY ARE BLOBS.<br/>

But unless you're a millionaire or you've been in the Guard since 2nd edition, you aren't pulling this off. ALSO IT COSTS ~13,870 POINTS TO FIELD ALL THIS SHIT [[Emperor|JESUS]] AAAND you're looking at $7,500+ USD(2015) for all this shit. Start buying lottery tickets if you want to even think about doing something like this.

Ideal generalized army list that you should start with:

HQ: 1x CCS

TROOPS: 2 Infantry Platoons of two Infantry Squads each

When playing Maelstrom:

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

or

When playing standard:

HEAVY SUPPORT: your choice flavor of Leman Russ 

This way, you have fast stuff to grab objectives during Maelstrom, but if you're playing standard missions you have some good backup fire to take out anyone trying to touch your infantry. 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 40000 Tactics(7E)]]
[[Category: Imperial Guard]]
[[Category: Warhammer Tactics/Old]]

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