Editing Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard (section)

===Heavy Support=== 

*'''[[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Squadron]]:''' Leman. Fucking. Russ. It's a big tank. Holds the proud title of best tank in the galaxy for its size and cost. Side effects include: templates, lots of dice, lots of AV, lots of choices. As an addition, Knight Commander Pask can be added to any one tank that you field. He'd a nice little upgrade to the BS, helps reduce drift, and he's a tank killer. Put him in a Demolisher, Vanquisher, Executioner or Punisher for the best bang for your buck, though, nothing is wrong with putting him in a Battle Tank.
**'''Leman Russ Battle Tank:''' Though it comes in many flavors, the basic tank is the most useful. With its STR8 AP3 72" gun and thick armor, it is good against anything for decent points. This is your runner-and-gunner, your go-to tank, and the majority of your Leman Russ pool at any time should be either these or Executioners.
**'''Leman Russ Exterminator:''' Armed with a 4-shot twin-linked autocannon means this thing is death incarnate for carapace armour and light vehicles. Arm with 3 extra heavy bolters for beautiful infantry shredding, if you feel like it, add Pask, and watch it destroy Predators and Falcon grav tanks with ease. Pity its worse value than a Hydra really.
**'''Leman Russ Vanquisher:''' A Melta with a devastating range. Thus a bit costly for 1 shot at BS3 (works well with Pask, but only useful against vehicles). Not very useful really considering the amount of melta you should already have.
**'''Leman Russ Eradicator:''' Kind of a Hellhound that hits worse, is slower but better armored. And you can add a Lascannon for versatility. Strange tank that eats your enemies' cover saves. Consider for Cities of Death games.
**'''Leman Russ Demolisher:''' For +15 pt to the basic Russ you get a cannon that lays waste of everything on the battlefield and immunity vs S4 melee units. Thus sometimes 24" is too close at the enemy. The Demolisher is tried and true, and should ALWAYS lead the armored charge into the enemy. Works great alone, works even better in trios.
**'''Leman Russ Punisher:''' Shares the cons but only few of the pros with the Demolisher (it does keep the additional back armor, which helps). Heavy 20 may sound cool, but on average, you end up with 10 S5 hits with no AP (making it difficult even to glance vehicles to death, but why would you target vehicles anyway?). Everything except Grots is butchered better with the cheaper and better ranged Battle Tank. However, unlike most Russes, it gets better if you sink the points in it: Kit one out with Pask and a full triple Heavy Bolter set, at which point the machine will 1-shot anything from Terminator squads to full-sized mobs every turn, and will stop nidzilla in its tracks through sheer dice output. Well, that or you'll be killed by the enemy's anti-tank units and waste 250 points on something the rest of your army should be doing anyway. By far the coolest looking, though.
**'''Leman Russ Executioner''' Oh hell... what a devastation. This thing lays waste to whole Terminator squads and everything else the enemy has - this one will hurt badly. The only problem might be that it is a bit costly, and, if the enemy has nothing with 2+ saves, the Battle Tank is the better choice per points. Same might be true if the enemy has 2+: the Demolisher (who can also, you know, demolish tanks) might be a more price-worthy alternative. However, if you have spare points, take one. Even against those [[Plasma|plasma]]-[[Matt Ward|syphoning]] [[Grey Knights|assholes]] take one and pray for the Emperor's blessing on your scatter dice.

*'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Ordnance Battery]]:''' "Infantry win firefights. Tanks win battles. Artillery wins wars," or so the old saying goes. The Imperial Guard is noted for being able to bring really big guns to the battlefield, their firepower able to remove small sections of the opponent from the playing field. This said and done, the Imperial Guard artillery units are slow (sometimes outright static) and fragile for their cost due to being Open-Topped, a drawback which becomes increasingly noted should one wish to take artillery in a Squadron (and with the exception of the Griffon, Ordnance has the same cost issues with squadron up vehicles); this said, one can remove the Open-Topped Status. Artillery in itself will not make a Guard army due to its fragile nature, but they provide excellent firepower should the rest of the army be able to protect them. There are numerous artillery-pieces available, including the following:
**'''[[Basilisk]]:''' Jokingly called the penis-enlargement gun by veteran Guard Players, the Basilisk is noted for having a really big gun. This gun is also known for being long-ranged, having the option for direct or indirect fire, and having AP 3 (meaning it can kill Marines in the open, or pummel Crisis Suits). However, having the worst minimum-range requirements has the potential to often relegate the Basilisk to being a direct-fire weapon, a task the Medusa tends to do better in most cases for a marginal upgrade in cost; this said, the Basilisk's direct-fire does have a longer range than the Medusa. Unless it's apocalypse, you don't need more than 36" though, so get a Medusa.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Colossus]]:''' Games Workshop has a checkered history when it comes to Marine-Killer weapons. Their emphasis on certain units being designed for killing Marines in the open, has lead to horridly inflexible units like Vespids, Flash Gitz, Thousand Sons, and now the Colossus. At first glance, the Colossus looks like a fun gun. With the ability to ignore cover, and Marine Power Armor saves, it will utterly devastate Marines should it land properly. On the other hand, having a wide minimum range and the inability to fire directly means the Colossus falters against a lot of Marine Armies. With the exception of some foot-slogging Space Wolf armies, many Marine armies are very fast, and noted either for operating as a mechanized army, fighting by Drop Pods, speeding forth towards your lines on Bikes, deepstriking in by Jump Packs, or otherwise excelling at fighting at short range. While the Colossus can be used for indirect-combat if kept isolated from the rest of the battleline with an infantry unit or two to watch over it, it isn't too popular in tournament armies for this reason.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Griffon]]:''' The cheapest artillery-piece the Guard get, the Griffon is also the most accurate on most accounts; the ability to reroll Scatter Dice is a handy ability in most cases. Like the Colossus, the Griffon is unable to fire directly, yet its shorter minimum range makes it more usable against rapidly advancing armies. Should a player wish to take a Griffon (or a pair of them, which isn't as point-intensive as squadding the other artillery), they work as part of a handy one-two combo for finishing off infantry from a destroyed transport, or in support of Hellhound-equivalents being used to Tank-shock enemy infantry into clustered formations.
**'''[[Imperial_Ordnance_Pieces|Medusa]]:''' A pure direct-fire weapon, noted for having Strength 10 and AP 2, the Medusa is arguably the most popular form of Ordnance on account of its raw firepower. While having the same issues with accuracy most blast weapons have, whatever it hits will suffer on account of it. For those who wish to trade accuracy and flexibility for raw tank-busting firepower, the regular firing mode can be replaced with Siege Shells, turning the Medusa into a heavy tank hunter. With an AP 1 blast template, and the normal Ordnance bonus replaced by rolling 2d6 for armor penetration, even partials have the potential to kill enemy vehicles, and the threat of losing multiple vehicles to a well-placed shot does a lot to intimidating opponents to spread their vehicles out. This said, like with the Devildog's Melta Cannon, the accuracy issues inherent with the Medusa mean it tends to work best in support of, rather than being the primary source, of ranged anti-tank.

* '''Heavy Artillery Battery (forgeworld):''' This is Basilisk and Medusa guns without Chimera Chassis. They are immobile, fragile (though not as fragile as orks an eldar artillery with AV11) and need crew (which could be killed), but they are also cheap. And for being non-vehicles, they ''can'' take orders. Earthsakers and Medusas with "Bring it down!" and "Fire on my target!" could make miracles if used properly. Or die pointlessly, if used improperly.

*'''[[Hydra Flak Tank]]:''' A relatively popular vehicle for one key reason. Providing dual twin-linked Autocannons and a Heavy Bolter at an extremely efficient price, even before you take into account its ability to ignore cover generated by Turbo-boosting or moving Flat-out, the Hydra is great for reliably dealing with enemy light vehicles at range, or disabling/stunlocking medium armor until Meltagun infantry can get close to finish the job. A squad of these is excellent for chipping away at Monstrous Creatures, and unlike many other vehicles, squadding the Hydra won't be excessively expensive. On the other hand, it competes with other popular Heavy Support options,  and like all Autocannon units is useless against AV 14. If Hydras are taken, make sure that your list has the means to deal with these other threats. That said, for the same price as a Leman Russ, you're getting 8 twin-linked autocannon shots that shoot 72" and can always get cover from (but still fire over) Chimeras. 2+ saves give you trouble, but really that's always true unless you've got access to, say, a lot of melta, plasma and AP1/2 template weapons. Easily the best choice for most armies <s>- go buy some. Now.</s> <s>'''Hurr, it's Forgeworld only!'''</s>  Grab an Aegis Defence Line, plant the quad-gun on the back deck of a Chimera for a quick and dirty Hydra.

*'''[[Manticore Rocket Launcher|Manticore Missile]]:''' Mixed-bag. Good for the points, bigger blast range then hell, but can't <s>really shoot every turn</s> deal with marines. Drop it back by your Basilisks or Heavy Weapons. Good points are simple: They're not open-top, compared to artillery. They've got HUGE blast ranges and they can virtually ensure that you're going to be making people spread out their firepower, great for you to focus on one group at a time. Downsides are just as bad as the upsides though. Limited ammo CAN be a problem (rarely). Spreading people out causes you to lose a lot of their effectiveness. Seriously, it can only shoot 4 out of 5-6 turns (unless your opponent isn't retarded, in which case it'll be gone a great deal sooner). Overlooked a lot, but can be powerful on those first few crucial turns. On a high note, these things DEMOLISH Necron Warrior elements.

*'''[[Deathstrike Missile Launcher|Deathstrike]]: ''' The Deathstrike Missile Launcher tends not to be taken in a lot of tournament builds, being viewed as too unreliable a weapon. Its main selling point is that it eventually fires a Strength 10 AP 1 superlarge blast (to put this in context, while a normal Ordnance Blast has a 2.5" radius, a Deathstrike Missile has a radius of 4-6" depending on the luck of the die), ignoring cover, and operating at full Strength against any and all vehicles caught in the explosion; should it go off, it has a high chance of devastating the opponent. On the other hand, it's chances of properly firing are random at best, and it won't be firing on turn 1, and the Deathstrike is a one-shot weapon. It mostly gets used either for casual games on account of this unreliability, as a gamble, or for psyching the opponent out into spreading his forces out. But if you're a favored champion of the dice gods, received the blessing of Admiral Awesome and the benediction of Lady Luck and have balls of ceramite, you might just hilariously wipe half of your opponent's forces early in the game. In 2k+ games, combine 3 Deathstrikes with 4 units of demo special weapons squads in vendettas and watch your enemy's face drop as he realises he the might of pie plates as he has to deal with either 3 nukes or 12 S9 AP2 large blasts+12 twin linked lascannons on turn one. Unless you get first turn of course, in which case he has to deal with 3 nukes having already been hit by 12 blasts...