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

===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.