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

===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.