Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard (section)

===HQ=== 
*'''Company Command Squad:''' This squad provides leadership to the many. It orders around those who can order around others. This unit gets orders. It gets an ample selection of gear, and extra dudes. This includes a 20pt large blast, penalize the enemy reserve rolls and bonuses to your own. This unit can have its leader switched out with other named leaders with awesome powers and gear. Simply because most other HQ choices lack the capability to survive on their own, either due to lack of invulnerable save and/or relatively weak statline in comparison to HQs of other factions, this should be your HQ of choice. The only sad part is that you can only take two of them up to 2000 point level. If you want to kit out one, do note that the Company Commander buys his equipment ( Krak grenades, carapace armor, camo gear ) separately from the veterans, and for a different - more expensive - price. Do not skip this because it may invalidate your army list. Also NEVER forget buying camo gear for the commander if the rest of the squad has it, else he'll get focus fired.
**'''[[Creed|Ursarkar E. Creed]]:''' For a decent point cost, one Company Commander may be upgraded to Creed. Creed is pretty nifty for a couple of things now, although he can't do his classic Tactical Genius-ing any longer (at least, not without the right Warlord Trait). <s>Instead, he has a massive 24" command bubble</s> he's only a regular 12", can issue 3 orders per turn, AND gets two Warlord Traits (which he can roll on two different charts for), ''AND'' rerolls all failed orders. His two hotshot laspistols now mean that he benefits from Gunslinger. Do note that since a roll cannot be rerolled more than once, his special rule prevents him from benefiting from vox-casters. Thus, if you have no other officer in your army ( Full vet' or mechanized ), of his cost of 80 can be deduced the cost of all vox-casters you would have taken, making him fairly cheap in this configuration.
***'''Sergeant Kell:''' Kell now can only be used by a force that already contains Creed and acts more like a bodyguard than a support unit. He can still allow units to use his leadership ( 8 - useful when trying to order squads without leaders that wouldn't otherwise benefit from a commissar, like special/heavy weapon teams or ratlings ) in an Order test and he now automatically succeeds LoS! rolls if the wound is allocated to him instead of another member in the unit (i.e. Creed). He can also auto-pass Glorious Interventions (which he must perform when possible). His cost includes a Regimental banner, both a power fist and a power sword and 2 wounds.
**'''[[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken]]:''' The new Codex gave Straken a couple of nice buffs with Monster Hunter and Smash he can now hold his own against armored units and MCs, and all units within 6 inches of him gain Furious Charge and Counter-Attack. ''(Keep a few Ogryns or Bullgryn near him to make the most of this bubble.)'' With 3+1 attacks basic, at S6, I3 and AP2: Straken makes Hammernators crap their metal pants. Of course, he is unlikely to survive unless his squad is optimized for such an occasion, so it would be a good idea to have 3-4 Melta Guns (being able to bring down some terminators before an assault far outclasses the extra attack from the pistol) and Nork Deddog to accompany him. Alternatively with Implacable Determination, his command squad has Relentless (allowing Relentless Snipers/ Plasma Gunners or a Relentless Lascannon/ Autocannon for some dakka then charge action) This way, you can charge most CC units and get away with it. Eldar, Dark Eldar and Necrons may give you trouble though. Also, you may have to bite your tongue if you come up against a squad full of power weapons, i.e Space Marines. Instead, pull back, shoot them to pieces, and then throw a pie plate on top of them because otherwise, you'll be forced to challenge them and he's not gonna survive that. Don't forget you can always measure their threat distance to be sure.
**'''General Myndoras Odon (Forge World):''' Patton of 40k. Killed a bunch of Eldar on some ice ball then died next campaign when his transport flipped. A kinda cheap upgrade to a CCS (not counting the upgrades to the squad, Odon is only 30 points) but the gear on his squad is chosen for you: krak grenades, a vox, a meltagun & a reg banner. You can still pick advisors so stick at least a MoO with him for laughs as he can't take a heavy weapon. He's sorta a poor man's Creed. With the same standard orders, the same Ld & can give up to 3 orders per turn, he but trades Creed's ability to re-roll orders for a double order radius of 24". He's not a tactical genius but he re-rolls Seize the Initiative. If you have points to spare, give whatever you plan to order a vox. Oh & he can take a dedicated Chimera or VALKYRIE! Take the Valk & let some vet/spec wep squad jack it. Take him as one CCS & Creed/Kell in another for two massive order bubbles with bubbles of re-roll morale/pinning.
**'''Colonel 'Snake' Stranski (Forge World (IA1)):''' Mechanised, scoring command squad. 225 points for the Colonel, 4 vets and their Chimera and, as above, you can't choose the upgrades for the squad or transport (Med-pack and lasgun, vox and lasgun, 2 meltaguns). The Colonel has a nice little rule - when firing from the Chimera, his 2 plasma pistols count as Twin-Linked.
**'''Nork Deddog:''' Nork is one o' da smartest Ogryns. He and da commanda have a bond. When he dies, he attacks every bad guy trying to hurt the commander. If your command squad is going to be in the fray of battle, take this somewhat expensive body guard. Now gets along well with Commissars ( But using Summary Execution in a CCS is a VERY bad idea anyway ) to the point they can never execute him. Now he also gets FnP, HoW, Stubborn, and can sacrifice his regular attacks (including the ones he gets when he dies) to perform a headbutt that has a profile of S+3, AP3, and Concussive. (Yes, this means he can now ID a Space Marine Captain.) Like Kell, he also has to make Glorious Interventions and automatically passes them.
** '''COMPANY COMMAND ADVISORS'''
***<b>Officer of the Fleet:</b> <u>Why <b>AREN'T</b> you using these?!</u> Officer of the Fleet is a great asset to add to a command squad. Apparently astropath/officer combos were too much trolling, so now the Officer must pass a command test to either give you a +1 to your reserves or force a -1 on enemy reserve rolls, and could seriously jeopardize their [[Just_As_Planned|well-thought schemes]]. However, he won't stop drop pods and if the enemy doesn't reserve anything you've wasted the points.  So a bit more random and forces you to choose buff or bane.  Still an auto-include. In combat, the Officer is as good as dead - use him as another warm body to stop a shot for your commander in the back of the squad. Amazingly enough, he counts as a character for the purposes of challenges and Glorious Intervention. If reserves are all rolled and your Company Command is engaged - hell, why not? Challenged by a Daemon Prince? Yeah, the Officer of the Fleet just drew his rapier. If by some hilarious chance, the enemy fails to inflict any wounds in challenge, you may end up rolling over them if you have Regimental Standard (so you will count as winning the close combat). He is also a massive fuck you towards Daemons players.
***<b>Astropath:</b> New codex changed shit, so now instead of granting you a +1 to your reserves, the Astropath now serves as your only source of Telepathy. Dominate (24'') is good if you luck out and get it; if not, Psychic Shriek (12'') will be fun if you get a chance to use it. Really, though, his major point is to add a 5+ Deny the Witch to the unit. Alternate Tactic: With the arrival of the new psychic-heavy 7th Edition, Astropaths have become the ultimate troll machines. Malefic Daemonology fits them particularly well if you field Catachan's Man of Adamantium with two heavy weapons. As the squad keeps moving towards whatever it wants to kill, your 25-point Astropath can keep summoning Daemons in front of the squad as meatshields (bonus points if they are Plaguebearers). And then when you get close to the squad you want to kill *BAM* BLOODTHIRSTER/GREAT UNCLEAN ONE INYAFACE! Straken and his buddies can keep him alive, and then let the mother of all charges ensue. Bloodthirster + Straken CCS, both charging at something or another. That's gonna hurt, all because of your little 25pt Astropath.
***<b>Master of Ordnance:</b> (NOT TACTICALLY ADVANTAGEOUS AT ALL. TAKE FOR ADDITIONAL LOLZ)This guy is like a tiny Basilisk. Once per turn he is able to call down a Basilisk-type attack on the enemy, always subject to scatter - 3D6" and "only" 2D6" when scoring a hit - through you can still substract his BS if you have LoS. Not very good unfortunately, but can be fun for spamming pie plates. However, since the bombardment has an unlimited range, if you place Master of Ordnance <s>correctly</s> ANYWHERE, it can be used to troll Ork and Tyranid swarms with a Strength 9 plate of instant death (which can now ignore cover with orders), since it's likely to land on something or other. <s>He can't aim the big guns at something else than what the rest of the CCS is firing at</s> "Smite at Will" order gives split fire to get around this. Again, once in close-combat or perhaps, if your Company Command Squad gets dismounted or shot at, just push him in front of a bullet. He's useless if there's nothing to shoot at or if you have to run around since it can't be fired on the move. <s>Also remember that your Company Command Squad can give itself the order "Bring it Down!" making his blast twin-linked (re-roll scatter), which can provide some insurance that it'll land somewhere you want it.</s> Was a great tactic until the new codex fucked it up. Now the shots will just land fuck knows where and there's not much you can do about it, unless you want to have a primaris psyker babysit them with prescience - which is a viable option, but you are bound to resent the inflated point cost and hassle of it all.

*'''Lord Commissar:''' Lord Commissar is a Independent buffed out Commissar, the key ability of him makes everyone around him LD10 and Stubborn. And that is [[awesome]]. The main issue is that he is a kill point himself and he takes away a slot of HQ for more Company Command Squads. Let it not be said that he doesn't have his own uses, though. You want a blob-platoon to do REALLY well? Bind 'em into one giant squad, put a Lord Commissar in there and run it all over the place killing everything in sight. Seriously. 30 guys means 3 Sergeants with Power Weapons, 60+ attacks on the charge and a Lord Commissar with a Power Weapon as gravy. Combined Squad of 50 lead by Lord Commissar is likely to make the opponent cry. It's also Stubborn, so watch your friends complain about how the squad is still coming at them despite missing half of the guys once in it. If you're feeling particularly threatened, stick him in the middle of a Combined Squad so he will never be shot at (except by Snipers and Characters who rolled 6 to-hit), and you can ignore challenges in favor of a slightly less potent Leadership of generic Commissars in the squad - particularly useful, as unlike Chaos Champions and such, you will lack the capability to take damage that will easily go through your armor (Initiative 3 forcing you to take first hits doesn't help much, either). For this same reason, using Lord Commissar to keep Conscript Squads useful is not a good idea. Just be aware that he can't be Warlord if you've taken any Company Command Squads.
**<b>An important note regarding Summary Execution! -</b> now when you use it, you have to roll a d6- on a 1-2, your opponent gets to choose who gets BLAMed instead of you. It's not a pretty sight when you accidentally execute the guy with the meltagun right when a tank is bearing down on you. 

*'''[[Commissar Yarrick]]:''' Awesome, fluffy man. Costs quite a bit but far less than what he cost in 5th ed codex. Very close combat oriented. He can come back from the dead... a lot. He has some nifty gadgets. Yarrick also has a reputation of being nasty as crap in close combat; he can take on Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka one-on-one and have a fighting chance of coming out on top. He's got an official Power klaw, a decent WS, he's got Eternal Warrior and his come back from the dead bullshit, and is a senior officer. Additionally, his Baleful Eye(counts as a Heirloom) now acts like a hotshot laspistol and he carries a power field for a much-needed 4+ invulnerable save (also a Heirloom). However, he is no longer Fearless ( And doesn't get Stubborn in return ) and can be overrun in close combat with some bad Ld rolls. Furthermore despite now being able to issue orders like an Officer, he cannot be your warlord if you have another Senior Officer in your primary detachment due to the ''chain of command'' rule. But if he is your warlord he has a Draconian Disciplinarian warlord trait negating somewhat the loss of fearless rule. He can also Summary Execute (not that it fits his fluff, but whatever) so use that to your advantage as well. If you take Yarrick, you better take him as a warlord. Otherwise he ends up as an expensive Commissar with few of the perks of a Commissar. Want a CCS too? Creed doesn't have the Senior Officer rule, so if you have both, you can choose your warlord!

*'''Tank Commander:''' The Tank Commander is a whole bucket of fun for any mechanized army. An upgrade to any Leman Russ, he changes the type of that unit to HQ from Heavy Support, has BS4. Awesome. He can be a Warlord (Regardless of Ld since he hasn't any stat except BS, through he acts as Ld9 for the purpose of orders), and is a character, so gets precision shots and Look Out, Sir! (as the rule does not exclude tanks for whatever reason.) Look out Sir! only works on wounds (unsaved or otherwise), so yeah. Still awesome. Must have 1 other Russ in his squadron and up to 2. Awesome. Issues a special set of orders to himself and his squadron, as described in the "Orders" section. And he only costs 30 points (not counting the cost for the tank squadron itself). Awesome. Overall, the Tank Commander is a very good, but extremely expensive option as he and his Squadron can very easily soak up points rather quickly. Do note that the Tank Commander's Leman Russ cannot leave the unit, even if Immobilized, and cannot join any other.
**'''Knight Commander Pask''': The Guard's tank ace has some new tricks that give whatever tank he's riding in a bigger boost than that of a basic Tank Commander. Pask's tank can reroll to penetrate armour, and it also gains additional bonuses depending on the tank:
***Leman Russ, Vanquisher, Demolisher, and Eradicator can reroll to-hit rolls. In the case of all but the Vanquisher, this will be the scatter dice.
***Exterminator and Punisher gain Rending.
***Executioner gains an alternate firing profile: 36" S7 AP2, Heavy 1, Large blast, Blind, Gets Hot! 
***Just be warned, Pask is usually unnecessary, not bad by any means, but not something to be put in unless you have the points spare, or if you are planning something specific for him. He's also an extra 40 points ontop of the 30 points you already paid for your commander, plus the Russes you must buy.

====Regimental Specialists====
0-3 of each of these units that don't take up any slots. All are independent characters.

*'''Primaris Psyker:''' Can upgrade to Mastery Level Two, comes with free force weapon, cheap and has access to Divination. Whats not to like? Keep in mind that the new Force Staff rules make the Psyker strike at Strength 5, with AP 4, and with Concussive Force (Thunder Hammer rules). Gone are Lightning Arc and Nightshroud making him even more of a support character. Oh, and now he gets access to Divination. Enjoy your twin-linked everything. Gets executed in case of Perils of the Warp if there is a Commissar(-lord) in the same squad, so no FnP save and the fact he has 2 wounds ( His stats are surprisingly good, maybe because GW forgot to change them with the step down from the HQ FoC slot ? ) won't save him.  Also, don't forget he's Ld 9.  If you fancy using Heavy Weapon Teams, but [[Rage|hate]] how often they ignore your orders, just attach and [[Troll|enjoy]]. '''Alternate Tactic:''' Take the man in a 50-man Conscript Squad, and give him Malefic Daemonology. Create the ultimate tarpit by conjuring Plaguebearers, try out a hammer-and-anvil tactic with Bloodcrushers or Plague Drones,or woe betide the enemy who finds a Primaris Psyker with Sacrifice killing 3-point Conscripts to summon Heralds of Tzeentch. Cue brutal psychic dakka for minimal cost.

*'''Ministorum Priest:''' These guys are your cheap unit buffers. They are Zealots (Fearless and Hatred) and they can use war hymns in the assault phase to additionally augment their unit (reroll to wound, reroll failed saves, or grants the Preacher Smash, which is hilarious, albeit for the most part impractical). Rerolling Saves in assault is really handy in fact, since re-rolling 5+ saves is nearly equivalent to power armour, anything without a Power Weapon (Orks without Choppas / Berserkers without Chainaxes) will find the Guardsmen tough to shift. The hymns now affect Ogryns - and bullgryns. These guys are best used in an offensive units, since Fearless does prevent you from going to ground (don't put them in a blobs hiding in cover with objective or units behind aegis lines). A source for yet another plasma gun in your list.  Just beware Ld 7.  Don't rely too heavily on those hymns. Note however that because of the exact wording of the hymns, he can try using an hymn at every assault sub-phase he is '''locked''' in combat, not '''engaged'''. Thus, as long as his unit is fighting in assault, he gets to throw an hymn at '''every''' sub-phase.
 
*'''Techpriest Enginseer:''' Like your Basilisks, Hydras and any other vehicle? Then the Enginseer is a must have. The Techpreist Enginseer has gone from being the least valid HQ in the codex, to an auto include for many builds. His main strength is his ability to "fix" immobilized and weapon destroyed results. Oh, and he can also give vehicles Hull Points if they've lost any... FUCKING AWESOME! The only real down-side with him is that he has a little problem keeping up with some faster moving units (Hell Hounds and Chimeras mostly) but he can always run his little mechanical legs or if you want, buy him some fucking transport. Servitors are also better; and by better, we mean half the price, nice. Take him with 4~5 servitors and watch "Robe"o-Cop (see what I did there?) <s>kick some ass</s> Fix things to kick ass for him; still pretty bad ass. 
**The Enginseer can now skip its shooting phase to grant a vehicle Power of the Machine Spirit for one turn. Hilarity ensues if you use this with a Baneblade.  Does that actually do anything? Allows Leman Russes with Ordnance primary weapons - Regular & Demolisher - to fire one more weapon at full BS, as opposed to snap shots. This would allow these LR to truly - or at all - benefit from a hull-mounted Lascannon or Heavy flamer - Or sponson Multi-Meltas/plasma cannons, but only one out of two would be affected <s>No. Leman Russ are heavy tanks. This means they fire ALL GUNS at full BS including your ordinance weapons.</s> Ordnance weapons make you fire all other weapons as snap shots. Heavy allows you to always count as having remained stationnary, which allows it in no way to ignore the Ordnance restriction - if it would, the same would apply, in a lesser extent, to any other type of vehicle, which would make the rule totally useless.  However, a Vanquisher can now slap on a trio of heavy bolters and, thanks to PotMS, actually do what you'd think it naturally would.  Put the right guns on the right targets.
**'''Trojan Support Vehicle (Forge World):''' This ammo carrier can be purchased as Techpriest's dedicated transport. It has cardboard armor despite being built on Chimera chassis, and is armed with only hull mounted heavy bolter. But that's not the point. The point is that it can bestow Preferred Enemy (Everyone!) rule to a single tank or artillery model in 6". This works best with things which pack a lot of dakka - like Leman Russ Punisher. Also good for re-rolling gets hot on plasma Russ.

*'''Commissar:''' Not ''exactly'' 0-3 like the other advisors, nor are they Independent characters, however you get one per '''Company''' or '''Platoon''' Command squad in your army for 25pts. He can be attached to pretty much any squad other than Ratlings or Psykers but has to stay there for the entire battle. He grants the squad Stubborn (so don't bother with Ogryns) and can '''OPT''' to summarily execute a squad member to automatically pass a Ld test after rolling for one. The freedom to put them in any unit you like gives you the flexibility to add a little melee / morale boost to any squad that you might not put a different advisor in.  Don't forget that Commissars can swap their bolt pistol out for a bolter.  Unless you want your Commissar getting an extra attack in melee, adding to the squad's ranged dakka isn't a terrible idea.