Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Guard(9E)

This is the current Edition's Imperial Guard tactics. 7th Edition Tactics are here.

Why Play Imperial Guard

When recruits are inducted into the Imperial Guard, they are given four things: their regulation flashlight (commonly referred to by the troops as "lasguns" for some reason,) their regulation cardboard box (which certain regiments have taken to cutting up and wearing into battle, calling it "flak armor,") a large stack of toilet paper (which the recruiters refer to as the "Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer,") and a regulation extra large wheelbarrow that allows them to cart their massive brazen balls into battle.

From a gameplay perspective, the Imperial Guard is a flexible force known for having either hordes of cheap infantry to blast the heretic swine, waves of tanks to flatten the bastards, or both. The army is easy to learn while having a lot of options and tactics being discovered frequently, (Conscript spam is not the most viable option in the Guard army, after all). That's why you play the Imperial Guard.

Important Rules References

• Codex: Astra Militarum is obviously your primary go-to for rules.
  • The FAQ is here.
• Index: Imperium 2 contains the original rules for the majority of the options you'll be considering as an Astra Militarum player; since any datasheet in the Index remains valid if it was absent in the Codex, you'll need to consult it for rules on things like Rough Riders or Power Axes and Power Mauls, and it has the rules for various allies you'll want to consider, like Celestine and the Inquisition.
  • The FAQ is here.
• Index: Forces of the Astra Militarum also contains options of substantial interest, including rules for Death Korps of Krieg and Elysian Drop Troops - this is your source for Forge World rules.
  • The FAQ is here.
• Chapter Approved 2019 is an essential upgrade for all players (especially competitive ones) as it includes all the latest official rules and points updates for most armies (including IG). Don't mix up with the outdated 2017 or 2018 version which you don't need any more.
  • The FAQ is here
• Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good is yet another essential blob of new rules, stratagems, keywords, warlord traits, doctrines, etc.

Special Rules

• Defenders of Humanity: Leman Russes in a Spearhead Detachment, and all Astra Militarum troop choices, have Objective Secured in 8th edition.

Regiments and Regimental Doctrines

These are your equivalent (but different) of Chapter Tactics, Legion Traits, Forgeworld Dogma, you get the idea. If your army is Battle-forged and every unit in the Detachment has the same <Regiment> (with some exceptions, see below), you get one of these rules. You just replace the keyword Regiment for one of the eight listed Regiments their Doctrines you want to use and you'll get the rule.

Custom Regimental Doctrines

With The Greater Good, the IG can follow in the footsteps of several other factions in making their own Regimental Doctrine, combining two of the following rules:

• Agile Warriors: Infantry can re-roll advance dice.
• Combined Auspex: When a vehicle fires Overwatch within 3" of another vehicle from the same Regiment, it hits on a 5+. Half of the Mordian doctrine.
• Disciplined Shooters: Infantry with Rapid Fire weapons fire an extra shot at 18" instead of the usual distance. Half of the Armageddon doctrine. A defensive buff pretending to be a offensive one, as many foes at 18" out won't be able to launch a charge in their next turn, (18" away moving 6" closer gives them a 12" charge)
• Fire from the Hip: Infantry can shoot Rapid Fire weapons after advancing, with a -1 to hit. Before considering this trait remember that there is an order that lets you do this for free with no penalty.
• Gunnery Experts: When rolling to determine the number of shots it fires, a vehicle can re-roll one of the dice. Half of the Catachan doctrine.
• Jury-Rigged Repairs: At the start of the turn, roll a d6 for each vehicle that has lost a wound. It heals one wound on a 2-4, and d3 wounds on a 5+. Who needs Enginseers?
  • Further, you can take Gunnery Experts, and genuinely run some potent vehicles.
  • Stacks with Enginseers: force your opponent to kill the tank or suffer. Double trouble on Atlases; not only can they repair other tanks, they benefit from this Doctrine themselves!
  • While other regiment's tanks may shoot more accurately or more efficiently, this will make your tanks the toughest, forcing your opponent to kill tanks outright, lest you rebuild them with Elmer's glue and MRE wrappers.
• Lords' Approval: Infantry melee weapons get -1 AP if within 9" of an Officer (which includes tank commanders). No matter how many ways you stack the odds in your favor for CC, other CC armies will still smash you ('Nids, Orks, Chaos, naked women with giant chainswords...) You might as well optimize for solid ranged warfare and/or durability of your vehicles.
• Monster Hunters: Heavy weapons inflict 1 mortal wound against Monsters on an unmodified wound roll of 6.
  • This has a more noticeable impact the weaker the weapon's S, AP, and D, especially if you haven't got access to the ability to re-roll successful wounds. Focus on weapons with high A instead - heavy bolters and flamers, gatling cannons, etc.
• Pyromaniacs: Flamers, heavy flamers, and twin heavy flamers re-roll wound rolls of 1. A very nice effect, but irritatingly leaves out vehicle-specific weapons on things like Hellhounds or the Malcador Infernus.
• Slum Fighters: Infantry scores an additional melee hit on an unmodified melee hit roll of 6.
  • See Lord's Approval above. It's cool, but certain aliens are literally bred and evolved to slaughter you in melee. You can fight a little harder and kill a few more with this in melee, but you can do far more at range, out of melee. That said, it works like +1 to hit only better, so it's most noticeable the worse your WS - put this on Conscripts to make them hit like regular soldiers.
• Spotter Details: +6" to the range of heavy weapons with a range of at least 24". Half of the Vostroyan doctrine.
• Wilderness Survivors: Infantry that did not advance get the cover save bonus to their saving throws. Not bad, as you can still move and even get within 12" (or 18" if you combine with discipline shooters (hint hint)) of the opponent and use cover out in the open. In fact, if for some reason you want to charge the enemy, you'll get the bonus against Overwatch shots, and even less likely, if you end up still in combat in the following shooting phase, it'll work on any pistols you get shot with.

Maintaining Regiment Doctrines

Most units in Astra Militarum detachments (excluding Superheavy Auxiliary detachments) benefit from a regimental doctrine if every unit in the detachment has the same Regiment and/or is on the list of units that do not break regimental doctrine. These units include:

• Aeronautica Imperialis. Not "this unit, and that unit", but all Aeronautica units, like Vendettas.
• Militarum Auxilla AKA Abhumans, each and every single one.
• Ministorum Priest and Crusaders. Not Adeptus Ministorum units, just those two.
• Officio Prefectus AKA Commissars.
• Militarum Tempestus units won't prevent your army from getting a Doctrine, but they themselves won't get their Storm Troopers doctrine unless all other units are Tempestus themselves (or people from this list). So, if you want to bring Artillery or other vehicles, you'll need to bring them in a separate Spearhead detachment.
• Scholastica Psykana AKA Primaris Psykers (no relation), Wyrdvanes, and Astropaths.
• Tech-priest Enginseer (either your copy, the elite with Astra Militarum, or AdMech's copy, the HQ without) and Servitors. Not Forge world units, just those three. Remember this is an Astra Militarum Detachment. They DON'T gain a Dogma, NOR AdMech Stratagems, Relics or Warlord Traits. If you want those rules, you can bring them in a separate Vanguard detachment, for all the good it'll do you.

As alluded to above, Superheavy Auxiliary Detachments don't benefit from Doctrines. If you want a LoW with a Doctrine you need to take them in either a Superheavy Detachment (3-5! Lords of War), a cheaper Supreme Command Detachment (3-5 HQs plus 0-1 LoW), or give it the Steadfast Leviathan Tank Ace trait in a Superheavy Auxiliary Detachment.

• The Death Korps of Krieg and Elysia can also be selected as your Regiment, though they do not have a proper Regimental Doctrine. Instead, they get a modified unit and Order selection with several choices unique to them, along with a number of special rules that more or less form a Doctrine. They lack any unique Warlord Traits, Stratagems or Relics, but have access to all the regular ones. Check out their sections towards the bottom of the page for more information.

Warlord Traits

If your Warlord is Astra Militarum, then they may select a Warlord Trait. Your Warlord may only select a <Regiment> Warlord Trait if they are part of that <Regiment>; custom regiments can only take the universal traits (honestly, the best ones are universal so no worries there). Named characters that already belong to a specified <Regiment>, like Creed, Kell, and Straken, may NOT pick from these universal traits and always have the <Regiment> specific Warlord Trait. Brood Brothers can never be the warlord, so don't get any ideas there.

Since they lack the necessary keywords, Scholastica Psykana (Primaris Psykers & Astropaths), Forge World (Enginseers), Adeptus Ministorum (Priests), Militarum Auxilla, and Aeronautica Imperialis (Officers of the Fleet, outside of Elysia) characters can't use these traits.

Universal Traits

As noted above, these only apply to characters with the <regiment> (including militarum tempestus) or officio prefectus keywords, not all astra militarum characters.

1. Grand Strategist: Arguably the best Warlord Trait available to us. Re-roll one failed hit, wound, or save per battle. More importantly, every time you spend a command point, get it back on a 5+. Quite powerful when you have an easy time making Brigades compared to other armies.
   • As of Chapter Approved 2018, you can only recover 1CP per battle round, making this somewhat less impressive. Still, the ability to reroll a save at a critical moment can be a life-saver.
   • This warlord trait is still amazing post FAQ if your spending a lot of your command points before the battle begins which means there is no limit to how many CPs you can recover before the game.
2. Old Grudges: At the start of the game, choose an enemy unit. All Astra Militarum units within 6" of your warlord re-roll failed wounds against that unit. One of the best choices for a Tank Commander thanks to a bigger aura (remember, measure from the hull!).
   • Better than "Bring it Down!" and affecting multiple units, thus letting you order "Take Aim!" for dual re-rolls (static Cadians will re-roll everything!), but against a single enemy unit you have to pick up front. Powerful when nominating Magnus, an allied Knight or other superheavy, or models providing buffs. However, Guilliman and anyone smaller can hide from anything more dangerous than a Ratling, unless you nominate a key element of your enemy's strategy instead, like a deathstar squad or their transport.
3. Implacable Determination: When the warlord and one friendly unit within 3" of them advance, both add 6" to their move instead of rolling.
   • Note the lack of keywords on this one - you can use this to accelerate any friendly.
4. Draconian Disciplinarian: Re-roll failed Morale checks for friendly Astra Militarum Infantry within 6" of the Warlord. Definitely better than a Commissar, rerolling for free instead of at the cost of 1 execution.
   • If applied to an actual Commissar, Summary Execution takes precedence. If the Summary Execution re-roll is also failed, d3 models are slain but the test is considered passed. Now that regular Commissars may not cut it for Conscripts, this is the only area-of-effect source of morale immunity (after 3 cowards) that every regiment has access to.
5. Bellowing Voice: Increase all data sheet ability ranges of the Warlord by 3 inches, aka 9" orders (which won't stack with a Vox-caster) or 9" Commissar auras of Discipline and Summary Execution. Remember named characters and Officers of the Fleet can't get this WT in the first place.
6. Master of Command: Gain the Voice of Command Rule. If you already have it or Tank Orders, issue one extra order instead (Just remember that Tank Commanders don't get the infantry orders). Probably the best trait to have as you can always use an extra order to buff your squishy guardsmen as much as possible.
   • No longer an issue for Yarrick or Lord Commissars. The FAQ says Commissars can issue the basic orders to any <regiment> infantry units, regardless of regiment. This is more special if you have multiple detachments, as Company Commanders may order units only from their own Regiment. So it's not only putting your orders in more baskets, but it carries fewer restrictions (although the Warlord won't have a Regiment-exclusive order). Remember, the Commissar still won't have a <regiment>, so they won't be able to order themselves.
   • Notably more useful in more contexts than the Cadian Warlord Trait, and should usually be preferred to it if you have the choice.

Tank Aces

New for Psychic Awakening, the IG can skip taking a warlord trait and/or use a stratagem to apply a Tank Ace trait to an eligible vehicle. Different vehicles gain access to different abilities. Can not be used for vehicles in a Brood Brothers detachment, sorry GSC. These traits also cannot be given to a named character (in other words, Pask).

Leman Russ Aces

Can be taken on any unit with the Leman Russ keyword. This includes Tank Commanders as well as the Forge World Leman Russ variants (but not the Thunderer or Stygies Destroyer).

• Armoured Rush: May fire the turret weapon even after advancing (and at no penalty, as the weapon remains Heavy). You do sacrifice shooting twice, though, plus your sponsons' fire.
  • Your Punishers and Demolishers can get to the fight earlier, but keep in mind that you'll still need a screen if there's anything that might charge your tank.
• Master Mechanic: -1 to the Damage characteristic of all ranged attacks, to a minimum of 1. Doesn't work in melee.
  • Combine with Jury-rigged Repairs or being Valhallan and a Techpriest to maximize the lifespan of a Leman Russ. Do remember damage that comes from a weapon's special rules will usually not be affected by this: if a D1 ranged weapon deals an additional damage on a wound roll of 6+, this rule will never stop it from dealing 2 damage on a 6+; it modifies the attacking weapon's characteristic, not the amount of damage suffered.
• Slow and Purposeful: Ranged attacks made after moving the model "less than" half its Move (AKA "half its move -0.1 mm") re-roll 1s to wound.
  • While this has the same impact on any gun you shoot, it won't synergize with the same ability from elsewhere, such as Pyromaniacs on a Leman Russ with Heavy Flamers, so just.... don't take both at once.
• Steel Commander: If the bearer is a Tank Commander, it may issue 1 additional tank order. If you're not just cranking every Leman Russ you have into a Tank Commander, this allows them to still order themselves. Finally, something akin to a generic Pask.
• Up-Armoured: 2+ armor save. Demolishers and Punishers will appreciate the 2+ save. Kinda sucks that you can't give Tank Ace traits to Pask, but this will make Tank Commanders live a good bit longer, taking some of the edge off of plasma and lascannon spam.
• Weapon Expert: The turret weapon's AP is improved by 1 (i.e. AP0 becomes AP-1).
  • This is better the worse the weapon's native AP, so Punishers like it more than Exterminators, while a Demolisher will notice the benefit least.

Support Aces

These can be given to any Vehicle unit with the Basilisk, Hydra, Manticore, Wyvern, or Deathstrike keywords. Besides those very units, that means it also applies to the Armageddon Pattern Basilisk, but not the Battery variants.

• Full Payload: Always deal maximum damage on D3/D6 damage ranged weapons. The only D6 damage weapon any of these tanks can take is a hunter-killer missile; otherwise, this is completely worthless on everything but the Basilisk and Manticore, as the Deathstrike, Wyvern, and Hydra all eschew damage rolls altogether.
• Shatterer of Will: -2LD for any unit hit by this ace's ranged weapons. This stacks with other debuffs, but not with itself (so you can't hit a unit twice using the Emperor's Wrath Artillery stratagem and give them -4). Worth a look if you're already stacking these debuffs and were planning on taking artillery anyway, but you probably won't do enough damage with just the artillery to even force a leadership test in the first place (unless you're shooting a Wyvern into blobs of Cultists and Conscripts). Even then, immunity or near-immunity to morale checks is so abundant, this is probably not worth your time.
• Well Stocked Magazines: Re-roll any or all of the dice for the number of shots for weapons that roll. Might be fun on a Deathstrike. Not competitive (only because the Deathstrike can't be guaranteed to shoot over the course of a game), but fun. Worthless on a Hydra, and pretty worthwhile on a Wyvern, but pretty redundant on Basilisks (especially Catachan ones).
  • The effect on a Wyvern is particularly great; the average number of shots a Wyvern fires is 14 base, 15.79 for Catachan, and 17 with this.

Super Heavy Aces

These can be given to any Vehicle unit with the Titanic keywords. This includes Forge World Lords of War, such as the Macharius and Crassus... even the Marauder variants technically can take one, but none of the traits are any good on Marauders for reasons that are obvious once you look at them.

• Hull Down Deployment: Receives the benefit of cover until the first time the tank moves. Now THIS is cheese, man. Stacks with Psychic Barrier, and so long as your opponent doesn't have the ability to ignore cover, enjoy your 1+ save.
• Inspiring Might: Roll 2 dice and choose the result for morale for any friendly Guard infantry within 12". While Baneblade-class vehicles don't care as much about getting into close combat as other vehicles do, you should still be protecting them from deepstriking thunder hammers and rock saws with a screen, and this will help them stick around longer, or support your infantry advance if you're making a brawler tank.
• Steadfast Leviathan: The user can benefit from a Regimental Doctrine even if they're in a Super-heavy Auxiliary Detachment. A small price to pay for the points savings involved. This is cheese, man. Nice way of making that Baneblade you snuck into a 750 or 1000 point list more effective without having to pay a 3 HQ tax. Note that this doesn't grant the Regiment keyword and does not allow a unit without it to benefit (looking at you, Marauder).

Orders

THE Imperial Guard Gimmick, the Orders system grants abilities to your troops to tip the scales of battle! At the beginning of your shooting phase units with the OFFICER keyword and Voice of Command rule may issue an order to friendly infantry units of the same <Regiment> within 6" of them. Krieg Officers are the only ones who can also order Cavalry. Similarly, a Tank Commander with the Tank Orders rule can issue a Tank Order (labeled as such below) to a friendly Leman Russ of the same <regiment> within 6".

Note that Regiment-Exclusive Orders, like Warlord Traits and Relics, but unlike Doctrines, can only be used by their designated Regiment: a custom Regiment, like the Savlar Chem-Dogs, has to play without any exclusive orders at all. A way to step around this problem is to bring separate detachments, each with the Doctrine you want the units to have, which is fluffy (e.g. Prosan 314th is Catachan 182nd & Elysian 90th)...or to talk with your opponent/organizer. This is still supposed to be a game to have fun, after all.

Imperial Guard Orders, both general and regiment-exclusive, can basically be put in four groups: Re-roll Orders, Movement Orders, Extra Attack Orders, and Targeting Orders.

Re-roll Orders

These orders allow a unit to re-roll dice when attacking (attack volume, to-hit, or to-wound). Both "Take Aim!" and "Bring it Down!" are better than "First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire!" when you don't have massed lasguns. Tempestus Scions are an interesting case though, because they can't rapid fire their hot-shot lasguns when they deep strike, and particularly if you're using Vox-Casters, you'll only have 1-4 hot-shot lasguns in the unit, both of which make FRFSRF less than compelling, so think their orders out carefully.

• Bring it down!: Ordered unit re-rolls to-wound rolls of 1 until the end of the phase.
  • When compared to Take Aim!, Bring it down! has the exact same effect on chances of wounding, making the two orders interchangeable, except for cases of Gets Hot! (where "Take Aim!" is better) or auto-hitting weapons (where "Bring it down!" is better), or for special interactions, like Cadian units that don't move.
• Take Aim!: Ordered unit re-rolls to hit rolls of 1 until the end of the phase. Did someone say "Supercharged Plasma"?
  • The main argument for "Take Aim!" is that your guys won't die from supercharges; FRFSRF is a better infantry-killer in the cases written above. Still, your dudes not dying IS argument enough, and even more so when facing the heavier stuff.
• Gunners, Kill on Sight! (Tank Order): This is simply the Tank Order version of "Take Aim!", it just doesn't compete with FRFSRF.
  • Unlike "Take Aim!", however, static Cadian Leman Russes do not upgrade to re-rolling all hits like static Cadian Infantry does, so it doesn't affect them when not moving. Luckily, they have the next order for that.

Movement Orders

These orders allow units to double move or advance/fall back and shoot, not only making transports less necessary but also letting you play with weapon ranges or slipping away from your foe.

• Forwards, for the Emperor!: Ordered unit can shoot, even if it advanced in the movement phase. Heavy weapons will behave like Assault weapons on the advance, while Rapid Fire ones will behave even better, not taking any penalty to hit.
  • Can be used for close play with weapons range: Get your special weapons into Rapid/Melta range without giving up your Lasgun shots (which can be split-fired), or get your Lasguns into 24" range to begin with. If deep-striking infantry arrived within 9+" of your unit, give the order and now they'll need a charge of 9" + your advance", although you'll be firing at a penalty if you do it with heavy weapons, since you moved. Get around corners; it's run & gun, man. If pure speed or rapid firing lasguns is what you're after, "Move! Move! Move!" and FRFSRF will serve you better.
• Get back in the fight!: Ordered unit can shoot, even if it fell back in its movement phase; no penalty, unlike Ultramarines.
  • The main point of falling back is allowing the rest of your army to shoot at the enemy and forcing it to eat another round of overwatch, if at the cost of the retreating squad's shooting. This order waives away that penalty, which can mark the difference when it rallies something like 20 rapid fire lasguns and plasma and flamers (specialists last longer) back against the enemy. Undeniably better than just punching them. HOWEVER, if the retreating squad is a badly mauled handful of survivors and you're forced to choose, you're better off ordering a nearby, healthier squad to FRFSRF: One sgt and three guardsmen don't really bring much back to the fight.
• Move! Move! Move!: Ordered unit must move as if it were in the movement phase, and it must advance and cannot charge. This lets your infantry outrun tanks and assault marines, moving 19" on average. Get where you need to be (or out of dodge) ASAP.
• Full Throttle! (Tank Order): This is simply the Tank Order version of "Move! Move! Move!", and is identical in every other respect. Did you ever expect a Russ to move 27", outrunning Eldar skimmers?.

Extra Attack Orders

These orders are effectively "double phase" orders, allowing a unit to effectively shoot twice (Lasguns & Hotshots) or fight twice, doubling its attack volume.

• First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire!: Your bread and butter. Ordered unit's Lasguns and Hot-shot Lasguns become Rapid Fire 2. That means 4 shots when Rapid Fired, so mind your range! Especially with Scions, who can't Rapid Fire immediately after deepstriking but want the increased rate of fire to proc Storm Troopers more often. While Conscripts have less BS, can only get to 30 and reject orders half the time, 20 Infantry pasted together do the same FRFSRF damage, reliably.
• Fix Bayonets!: May only be issued to units within 1" of an enemy unit. Ordered unit may immediately fights as if it were in the fight phase.
  • Ordering Get Back in the Fight is better on most scenarios: your BS and WS are the same, so two punches are the same as a rapid firing lasgun...but falling back forces the enemy into overwatch again and allows the rest of your army to shoot at them (your squads are never on their own), and special weapons are way better than a bayonet. HOWEVER, a single melee boost like the Priest's or Straken's (preferably both) turns this around: unless you are a Mordian Conscript, punching three or four times is better than rapid firing + overwatch...especially if you're a S4 Catachan. And if you are against a lightweight enemy with bad melee and good shooting, then it becomes a damn good tactic.
  • As the unit is fighting while still in the Shooting Phase, the Cadian Doctrine and Take Aim! will let them re-roll 1s to hit. Likewise, Bring it Down! will let them re-roll 1s to wound.
  • Krieg Cavalry can take orders. They don't pause to think about the considerations of wether to fall back or not, they just attack 8 times a turn.
• Strike and Shroud! (Tank Order): Allows the ordered Russ to both fire its weapons (including Grinding advance) and protect itself with its smoke launchers, as if it had two shooting phases. If you can't avoid retaliation like Tallarns can, you can use this rule to get into a shooting position (you can see the enemy but it can see you too) and cripple the enemy while you survive the return fire. Smoke launchers are One Use, and so is this rule.

Psychic Powers

Guard Psykers are drawn from the Scholastica Psykana, and thus don't have a regiment; however they're the only Psykers with the Astra Militarum keyword, so if you want regiments, doctrines, and all that good jazz without adding another detachment, you're limited to the Psykana discipline. Fortunately for you, it's really good! The rules breakdown is here, but here's some tactical commentary.

• Offensive Powers
  • Terrifying Visions (WC 7): If manifested, an enemy unit with 18" of the psyker suffers -2 to its leadership. One of the hardest powers to channel, with only a 58.33% base chance of success. This, combined with the fact that most of the units you'll cast it on - those with high points-per-model where Battleshock is most painful - are high leadership, have ways around it, or can just deny your powers to begin with, makes it highly situational. That said, you can synergize with other Imperial leadership debuffs like Sicaran Infiltrators, Metallica's -1Ld Stratagem, Space Marine Reivers The Guard (and Imperium) is all about coordination!
  • Gaze of the Emperor (WC 6): With a 72.22% base chance of success and no save of any kind aside from a deny roll, this is a TEQ-buster. It's model-count-dependent, so it's lousy against Characters, but it can wreck small units of high points-per-model troops, or densely packed blobs of cheaper models. Aim carefully - friendly fire is on - and beware the random range!
    • Of note is that it’s the units that suffer the mortal wounds, not the models. This means that you can't snipe out specialists.
    • Because friendly fire is on, you can use this, if you're desperate, to try and detonate your own Hellhound(s).
  • Psychic Maelstrom (WC 7): If manifested, roll a D6. On a 2+, an enemy unit within 18" of the psyker suffers a mortal wound, then you throw another D6. on a 3+, you repeat this process until you fail to deliver a wound. This power is hard to channel, but it can be powerful. This can target Characters, and it's probably best used in this fashion; you've got a really solid chance of scoring at least one mortal wound if you pull it off. As-is, there's no way to add to the roll to wound, but the rule is future-proofed for it; if you do find a way, this power can become a lot stronger. Save a Command Re-Roll for this one - by re-rolling the lowest of two dice you can get it off about 84% of the time.
• Defensive Powers
  • Psychic Barrier (WC 6): If manifested an Astra Militarum unit gets +1 to their saves until the start of your next psychic phase. Channels relatively reliably. The flat bonus to saves can make certain units stupidly durable and it affects Invulnerable saves, too! Going from 3+ to 2+ outright halves wounds taken, before AP. Make sure to cast it on a unit that the enemy can't ignore so they don't just target something else. Good for Scions, since it protects against both ranged and melee. Stack it with Nightshroud on a Baneblade and make your opponent weep salt-water crocodile tears. One of the best powers on the list, right there with...
  • Nightshroud (WC 6): A new power added with the Codex, this is essentially a psychic smokescreen; all ranged hit rolls made towards the targeted Astra Militarum unit subtract 1. Best against low accuracy shooting. Psychic Barrier is better in about 70% of the circumstances you'd be using this, but by RAW it can cause enemy Plasma gunners to blow themselves up, and completely negates '6+ to hit' effects like Necron Tesla weapons. It also stacks with Night Fighting and similar rules.
  • Mental Fortitude (WC 4): AKA 'I'm the Commissar now!' This will go off more than nine times out of ten and makes the unit in question immune to morale. You don't even have to execute anyone! Limited far more by the Psychic Focus rule in matched play - you only get one.

Tactical Objectives

11 - Overkill

1 VP if a ASTRA MILITARUM VEHICLE destroyed an enemy unit this turn, d3 VP if the vehicle in question was TITANIC.

12 - Regimental Pride

1 VP if you slew an enemy CHARACTER with an attack made by one of your <REGIMENT> CHARACTERs this turn. Hope you brought a tank commander, because the odds are pretty nill otherwise.

13 - Chain of Command

1 VP if you issued 3-5 different orders or tank orders this turn, which goes up to d3 VP if you gave 6 or more orders or tank orders.

14 - Troops on the Ground

Score d3 VP if you control 3-5 objectives with INFANTRY units. If you hold all 6 objectives with INFANTRY, it becomes d3+3 VP.

15 - Hammer of the Emperor

1 VP if you destroy an enemy unit that was controlling an objective at the start of the turn.

16 - Death from Afar

1 VP if an enemy unit wholly within their deployment zone at the start of the turn was destroyed by a unit wholly within your own deployment zone this turn.

Stratagems

Universal

Standard strategems that can be used by any and all Regiments.

• Aerial Spotter (2 CP): Use at the start of the shooting phase. A Wyvern or Basilisk can re-roll failed hit rolls in this phase. If you're sitting your artillery still like a good guardsman, this stratagem will bring your hit rate up to 75%. Just imagine a Wyvern with 75% of its average 14 shots hitting (especially since they already reroll failed wounds).
• Consolidate Squads (1 CP): Use this stratagem at the end of your movement phase. Select two Infantry Squad units within 2" of each other that share the same <Regiment>. The selected units combine to form one big unit. Who didn't see this coming? Allows you to sort-of recapture the blob guard armies of yore and use less orders/get more out of buffs, but it'll now cost you command points. Also a good option to 'save' orphaned special and heavy weapons by adding them to less mauled squads. Use this properly and your opponent will tear their hair out trying to kill off the growing pile of heavy and special weapons you're rolling together like a meaty snowball of doom. Combine with your strong morale abilities to ensure special weapons survive all but the heaviest shooting, and fold them into the next squad down the line at your leisure. Them give the whole mass an order and clean up.
• Crush them! (1 CP): Use this stratagem at the start of your charge phase. A Vehicle Unit may charge, even if it has advanced this turn. In addition, all attacks made by the vehicle will hit on a 2+. Remember how the Baneblade family has 9 powerful melee attacks that are reduced in effectiveness by WS 5+? This will fix that in an instant and make sure that even dedicated melee units won't want to get into its newly boosted charging range (Tallarn Titanic units also have their heavy weapons count as assault if they advance... Just throwing that out there). Another clever use of this is to get Sentinels into melee with great reliability. No, they can't fight too good, but that's not the point - the point is its a T6W63+ model fighting, not your flimsy infantry!
• Defensive Gunners (1 CP): Use this stratagem when a charge is declared against one of your vehicles. When it fires Overwatch for the rest of the phase, it hits on a roll of 5 or 6. Mordian vehicle formations can serve as a literal wall of iron in front of your infantry, as the enemy won't be able to slip through them without declaring multiple charges. And you thought charging a Wyvern was already a risky proposition. For further hilarity, use this on a Mordian Malcador Defender, and it will actually shoot more accurately then when it's normally shooting!
• Fight to the Death (1 CP): Any Imperial Guard unit can take a morale test on 1d3 instead of 1d6. You've got plenty of morale improving abilities already, but it's cheap and could be useful in an emergency. Now that commissars got the nerf this one got a lot more useful. You might want to use this stratagem if you’re using infantry or vets and need them to survive morale, and don’t have anything else to buff leadership nearby. It’ll help them survive losing 3-5 guys at once much more easily.
• Fire on my position! (3 CP): Use when the last model is slain from an Astra Militarum unit equipped with a vox-caster, before removing it from the table; for each unit (friend and foe) within 3", on a 4+ that unit suffers 1d3 mortal wounds. Note, specifies unit with a vox-caster, not model (you use it when the unit dies, not the specific model with the caster), and if several models all die together, you can choose which is the last to be removed from the table, to maximize the potential victims of this stratagem. Useful if your squad was wiped by several MSU units and/or characters.
• Go! Recon! (1 CP): Use this stratagem at the beginning of your shooting phase; select a unit of Scout Sentinels. They immediately move 2d6", but cannot shoot or charge this turn. Useful for getting a Scout sentinel to an unguarded objective or out of trouble, but only applies to one unit, and can't be applied to an Armoured Sentinel; sacrificing a turn of shooting makes it extremely situational, and it doesn't even benefit a unit with a chainsaw blade, as they can't charge, either. It does not however, prevent you from popping smoke, which given that you can't shoot anyways, you might as well.
• Grenadiers (1 CP): Use this stratagem before an Astra Militarum Infantry unit either shoots or fires overwatch. Up to ten models in the unit that are armed with grenades can throw a grenade this phase, instead of only one model being able to do so. Vostroyans are better off using Firstborn Pride with FRFSRF for offensive purposes, since it affects more than just 10 models, but this can be a powerful tool for any regiment in Overwatch on a roll of 3 or more (especially Mordians). Bullgryn Frag Bombs can become a hail of bolter shots.
  • Extra powerful in Cities of Death, where grenades both reroll all failed wounds and get the maximum possible amount of hits. That's 60 for ten models.
  • Can also give Scions squads a nasty bite. Krak grenades will do a better job versus tanks than a hot-shot lasgun. 6 of them can supplement the squad's special weapons nicely, especially since scions are out of order range a lot more often.
  • Krieg Combat Engineers are white hot death with this stratagem! The whole squad carries Acid Gas Bombs, AP-2 DD3 Grenades that auto-wound non-VEHICLES. That's not all though! Aside from the squad also carrying Krak Grenades, one can take a Demolition Charge and the Watch Master can also take Melta Bombs, so not even tanks are safe. For 1CP, it's possible to erase nearly any unit stupid enough to get too close.
• Jury Rigging (1 CP): Use this stratagem at the start of your turn. Select a AM Vehicle in your army, that vehicle can't move, charge or pile in this turn but immediately heals 1 wound. Can only be used once per turn. Good for giving that little push into a better health bracket if an Enginseer isn't around (or it wasn't enough), and you can still shoot with the targeted vehicle.
• Imperial Commander's Armoury (1/3 CP): One use only. Use "before the battle" and you may take 1 additional relic for 1 CP, or two additional relics for 3 CP; all relics must be different and given to different characters.
  • "Before the battle" means, surprisingly, "before the battle". Use it to get the Dagger of Outflank before deployment? It works. The Grand Strategist WT needs the Warlord to be already on the field (which won't happen until the deployment phase) to refund your CP, so that won't work. But enemy Kurov's Aquilas do work, since they only need to be written in the enemy's roster, not any "while this Warlord is on the battlefield" limitation. You spend CP and gain extra toys before the battle, simple as that.
• Inspired Tactics (1 CP): An officer can issue 1 more order. You can only bring so many Platoon and Tank Commanders, after all, and not everybody is Creed, Pask or Kell.
• Mobile Command Vehicle (1 CP): Use at the start of a turn; pick a Chimera in your army and until the end of the turn, any embarked officers may issue orders to units outside the vehicle, measuring range from the vehicle. He is also treated as having access to a Vox.
• Opening Bombardment (2 CP): One use only. After deployment but before the first battle round, each enemy unit on the battlefield suffers a mortal wound on a 1d6 roll of 6+. Like Fire on my position, this can be useful against MSU, but less so if they hid themselves inside transports.
• Officio Prefectus Command Tank (2 CP): Commissar Tank! Pick a Leman Russ at the start of the first round, before the first turn - it gives all Astra Militarum units within 6" of it Ld9 for the rest of the game. It also lacks the Summary Execution rule while granting a superior LD buff, so you should always consider taking this stratagem over a regular Commissar. "Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!"
• Splash Damage (1 CP): When attacking with the main weapon of any Hellhound subtype and the target is in cover, you can re-roll the wound roll.
• Strike First, Strike Hard (1 CP): In the shooting phase of the first battle round, select a unit of Armored Sentinels or Scout Sentinels. Their attacks gain +2 to hit. That trio of lascannon Sentinels just got a lot more threatening.
• Take Cover! (1 CP): Use this stratagem in your opponents shooting phase if they target one of your Infantry units. That unit immediately adds 1 to their armor saves until the end of the phase.
• Tank Ace (1 CP): One use only, used before the battle begins. A vehicle from your army (Not a named one though, sorry Pask) gets a Tank Ace ability.
• Vengeance for Cadia! (1 CP): Any Imperial Guard unit can re-roll failed hits and wounds versus Chaos when shooting or firing overwatch. Scary, but keep in mind it affects Vehicles too. From the humble Sentinel to the mighty Manticore and Baneblade, the Stratagem's effects are far more powerful than its cheap cost would suggest.
• Vortex Missile (3 CP): Nuclear launch detected, for when targets require not so much strategy as a "fuck you". Use this stratagem when you get to fire a Deathstrike missile (pay after rolling the 8, before resolving the shot). You can re-roll all failed to-hit rolls with the weapon, and add 1 to the roll made to determine if nearby units within 6" of the target unit are hit (so a 3+, rather than a 4+). If a model is wounded but not slain by the attack, roll an additional die, on a 6 it suffers 1d6 additional mortal wounds. Makes the missile go from 5.25 mortal wounds dealt on the target + 1 to each nearby to 8.46 + 1.72 per each nearby, but the amount of variance is very high, and that assumes you're shooting a parking lot, as single-wound models won't trigger the stratagem's extra mortal wounds.

Psychic Awakening Stratagems

Added in the Greater Good, these stratagems are useable by all Regiments.

• Concentrated Fire (1CP): Heavy weapons team gains +1 to hit and wound when targeting a single enemy unit. Cadian HWTs, especially when under orders, become ruthlessly effective!
• Deft Maneuvering (1CP): Armored Sentinels can pop this when shot at, halves all damage inflicted. Make them the toughest 35 point model in the galaxy bar none!
• Direct Onslaught (1CP): Wyvren or Manticore gains +1 to hit when shooting at a visible enemy.
• Experienced Eye (1CP): When shooting with veterans improve AP of all ranged weapons by -1 for a single shooting phase. Up to 4 AP-1 lasgun shots per veteran? AP 4/5 plasma/meltas? AP 2 Autocannons? Don't forget shotguns!
• Focused Bombardment (1CP): Master of Ordinance's artillery becomes 6 shots rather than D6.
• Furious Charge (1CP): Ogryn models inflict 1MW on the charge for each 4+. Not bad on a bigger unit, since regular Ogryns are reasonably priced.
• Hail of Fire (2CP): When shooting at an enemy VEHICLE a Leman Russ fires max shots with all multi-shot weapons. This seems to be pretty strong. A LR command tank with a Demolisher Cannon should be strong enough to destroy a Land Raider or damage a knight with its main gun only. Then again it needs to be in range for this.
  • Use this stratagem with the relic Battle Cannon, Hammer of Sunderance. A full payload of 12 shots that do 3 damage a piece? Unlike the short-ranged demolisher, you can do this from 72" away. Have fun!
  • Don't forget the Executioner with sponson Plasma Cannons or a Conqueror with triple Heavy Flamers!
• Head First (1CP): +2" to charges after disembarking from a chimera. Useful for a few niche units like crusaders, Ogryns and their smaller cousins, Catachans.
• Psychic Conclave (1CP): Used on a Primaris Psyker (note that this is using the keyword, not the unit name - Aradia Madellan has this keyword and is thus eligible) and Wyrdvane Psykers when within 6" of each other; 2+ to cast and able to manifest 1 extra power each. This is pretty good, as it makes extra smites all the more dangerous after you cast your standard Psychic Barrier and Nightshroud. It also can make Aradia's power go off fairly reliably.
• Relentless (1CP): Non-TITANIC unit may use top bracket of damage table. This is a pretty strong stratagem. Your enemy (almost) destroyed one of your key units? I say fuck him, shoot with full BS anyway! Malcadors like this, as they are some of the largest non-titanic models.
• Rolling Death (1CP): Taurox unit that shoots after moving 1/2 distance or less receives +1 to hit. Better on Taurox Prime than a standard Taurox, obviously It cannot be used on Taurox Prime, obviously.
• Shield of flesh (1CP): Use on Bullgryn unit, when closer to enemy models and within 3" of an infantry unit, that unit is -1 to hit.
• Splash Damage (1CP): Hellhound turret weapons gain reroll wound rolls if the target is in cover. Sadly, notably does not affect the Artemia Hellhounds, since it specifically names the standard variant's weapons.
• Strike First, Strike Hard (1CP): An Armoured or Scout Sentinel unit gains +2 to hit for the first battle round. This might actually might make armored sentinels with Lascannons, Plasma Cannons and Hunter-killer Missiles actually useful!

Rulebook Stratagems

Just in case you forget, the following stratagems can be just as crucial as the ones above, if not more so.

• Command Re-roll (1 CP): Re-roll any single dice. Simple, but probably THE most important stratagem of the game.
• Counter-Defensive (2 CP): Used in the combat phase after an enemy unit that charged has fought. Pick one of your units to immediately attack.
• Insane Bravery (2 CP): Used at the start of the Morale Phase. Automatically pass a morale test for a single unit of your choice. This is one you should save for a Conscript/Combined Squad.
• Prepared Positions (2 CP): Use this at the start of the first battle round, before the first turn. Anything wholly in your deployment zone that isn't Titanic counts as being in cover. Thanks to the vast hordes of infantry that Guard can field - if you're running a brigade then you will be fielding vast hordes - all too often you likely won't be getting first turn, so this is a big help - and remember Vehicles benefit too!

Wargear

Melee Weapons

Most of these are specific to one unit. The ones that aren't are listed below, and may be taken by sergeants and most characters. As of newer codex, Power Axe and Power Maul are no longer available options in Imperial Guard Armory, but you can simply field them using their Index entries. However, none of them will make you great at melee. Almost everything that can take something here gives up a chainsword to do so, although normal Commissars do not.

• Chainsword: Some credit must be given to the old standby. In addition to being free, it gives an extra attack with it. This serves to make units like Rough Riders a lot nastier than they might look from their statline (Rough Riders effectively carry two of these, giving them 2 bonus attacks with this profile), and is why Infantry Squad Sergeants should give all of the other options here a complete miss, unless maybe they have a priest.
• Power Axe: Sorry but its been been placed under Warhammer legends now, although still available for your techpriest Praise the Omnissiah. S+1 AP-2 looks good on paper, and it is, the only problem being it's 5 points instead of 4. But then again, so what? Generally the best option for killing T3, and not bad against T4, it's the take-all-comers option. Catachan Sergeants especially will appreciate these babies, when they suddenly find themselves wounding MEQs on 3+.
• Power Fist: Sx2 AP-3, but forces a -1 to hit on the model using it. Company/Platoon Commanders and (Lord) Commissars won't feel that too much, but Veteran Sergeants may. While expensive, it's cheaper than it was in the Index, and as a result, almost everything that can take this will see the best results from it, in general - the only real exceptions are Veteran Sergeants.
  • The Vostroyan warlord trait makes this deadly, and their relic armour can keep him alive long enough to use it.
  • Catachan Company Commanders are the most obvious choice for a power fist - thanks to "Brutal Strength" you're now S8. Have him order Fix Bayonets to himself and a nearby infantry squad (preferably a combined squad) and put them both in buff range of Straken and a Priest. That's 9x S8 power fist + 54x S4 attacks all hitting on 4+.
• Power Maul/Lance: (legends) Sorry but its been been placed under Warhammer legends now. At S+2 AP-1, this is the best choice if you're fielding a Lord Commissar but want to keep him cheap - it'll outperform the sword for the same cost.
• Power Sword: At SUser AP-3 and 4 points, just not good enough for the S3 models that can mostly take this - and the S4 models prefer the Fist. You should generally avoid this unless you're looking for a budget choice for Catachans or plan on taking one of the numerous relic swords the guard get.

Ranged Weapons

Basic

• Autogun: A Lasgun that cannot FRFSRF, costing the same 0pts. Previously only available to Ministorum Priests, now Veterans can take these for some reason.
• Laspistol: A lasgun Pistol. More of a placeholder than anything else, but it's free. Just about anything in your army that can take something better should, but some things are stuck with one, like the Master of Ordnance.
• Lasgun: Your trusty flashlight hasn't changed. What changed is the way strength rolls against wounds, allowing it to wound T5 on a 5+, and T7+ is no longer immune to them. Paper stats aside, with FRFSRF ordered, treat these as S3 Storm Bolters.
• Boltgun: 1pt allows your sarge/Character to actually contribute to a firefight instead of merely looking cool.
• Bolt Pistol: 1pt for a real pistol. Only advantage over the boltgun is that it can be fired in close combat, if you expect your squishy meatbag Guardsman to be fighting there for some reason. Usually worse than another option, like the laspistol, but there are specific cases where you might contemplate taking one as a deliberate choice, such as on a Tempestor.
• Hot-shot Lasgun: Available to Scions and Krieg Sergeants and Grenadiers. Still sacrifices 6" of range for AP-2, but as the AP system itself changed this bad boy is ever so slightly worse at MEQ hunting now. However, due to that same change, it is now much better at taking apart TEQ, and the change to how cover works also means against low-save armies it comes in handy. A short 18" range makes it unable to rapid-fire right after a deep strike natively, even though its most common carriers love deep striking. Considering the number of mobility options available to users of this weapon though, as well as new regimental rules, and this downside can quickly be mitigated. AP is perhaps the single most important defensive stat (or wounds) in the game and being able to strip it away en masse is awesome.
  • Hot-shot weapons are much better on models riding a Valkyrie, so you can deliver them into range.
  • Post-Greater Good and various point drops, the Hot-Shot Lasgun is a rightly feared weapon. Whether that is it becoming AP-3 or having lasgun range, you have ways and means of making the HSL one of the best infantry killers of any base infantry gun, if not the best.
• Hot-shot Laspistol: What it says on the tin, but only 6" range means you may not even get to shoot it before a charge. Creed has two, just because. Avoid this if you can on the Tempestus Scions and Tempestors that tend to carry these, because you can't deep strike and hit anything with these, but your hand may be forced. If you find yourself within the 6" range to fire it, you may as well just throw a krak grenade instead.
• Plasma Pistol: An actual officer's weapon. Plasma can now be fired safely at S7 AP-3 to deal with infantry, and can be supercharged to S8 and D2 to deal with heavy infantry and even vehicles. However, a Gets Hot now outright slays the shooter, so reserve overcharges for your disposable sergeants instead. No longer overcosted at 5pts, so it's actually worth considering now.
• Shotgun: Still a 12" Assault 2 lasgun that cannot FRFSRF, it now gains Str4 at 6", so it behaves like a bolter when a squad "GBitF!", or when Vostroyans shoot them in melee with "Repel the Enemy!". Available to your Commanders (via the Index) as well as to Veterans, with whom they go well alongside their plethora of flame weapons.

Grenades

• Demolition Charge: Available to Special Weapon Squads (via the Index), Krieg Combat Engies and Death Rider Commanders, this is a brutal single use weapon, letting you make D6 S8 AP-3 DD3 attacks at the standard 6" range. While a no brainer take on the later two, it's more of an alternative side choice for SW Squads, since they keep their lasguns and give up their other weapon options to take them and can only chuck one at a time. Unless, of course, you use the Grenadier stratagem. Sorry but its been been placed under Warhammer legends now, if you want one for your troops you better go join the worshippers of the 4-armed emperor.
• Frag Bomb: Big 'nades for big boys, these are your Ogryn's choice of grenade. It's a Frag that hits like a Boltgun; while inferior to the Ripper gun, it will allow melee built Ogryn Bodyguards and Bullgryn actually to do something in the Shooting phase.
• Frag Grenade: You know what this does and damn near every Infantryman in the Guard carries them. D6 lasgun shots at 6" of range.
  • Note on the maths: if you're able to issue FRFSRF, you're statistically better off taking the flat four lasgun shots over the average 3.5 shots a frag gives you. However, your sergeant will never do worse with a frag when compared to his laspistol.
• Krak Grenade: A bit of a rarity in the guard. Available only to Scions, Kriegers, and Elysian Vet Squads and a few characters. A single S6 AP-1 DD3, might not sound like much, but it'll do a better job then a Frag against tougher multiwound Infantry and Vehicles and can be brutal when combined with the Grenadiers stratagem.

Special

• Flamer: An assault 1d6 S4 that autohits from 8" away. You cannot depend on this weapon alone to beat hordes like it used to with its average 3.5 shots. Still, being an assault weapon that always hits, there's no penalty for advancing and firing, especially for Special Weapon Squads. It's also pretty useful insurance against charges as it always auto-hits during Overwatch and cautious opponents will position their charges at least 9" away to ignore its 8" range, thus degrading their odds of making the charge. Flamers are most effective when taken in Catachan special weapon teams of 3 because they can reroll their D6 shots with Burn Them Out!.
• Grenade Launcher: Not bad, but there are better things available. Krak grenades in particular took a big hit, with insufficient strength, AP and shot volume. Apart from being an assault weapon, you're not getting much besides the frag and krak grenades discussed above.
• Hot-shot Volley Gun: A Militarum Tempestus-exclusive, replacing their access to the Sniper Rifle (also mounted on Taurox Prime APCs). Essentially a bigger Hot-shot Lasgun at Heavy 4 24" S4 AP-2, and Scions have enough BS to hit on 4+ on the move. It cannot be boosted by FRFSRF, but its longer range allows it to more easily proc Storm Troopers' extra shots. This, and not the flamer, is the Scion's response to hordes.
• Meltagun: Good against anything with lots of wounds, not just vehicles. 12" Assault allows it to be fired even if you ran. S8 AP-4 D1d6 makes it more powerful than supercharged plasma and safe. If you manage to get to within 6" and fire it, you roll 2D6 and take the highest. This improves the average damage to 4.47 from 3.5 and also providing more consistent damage output. As of Chapter Approved 2018, you're paying 10 points for regular guardsmen and 14 for anyone with BS of 3+ or better.
  • Note on the maths: On a model with 3+ BS, the meltagun within half range has a slight advantage in terms of average damage dealt per point over a supercharged plasma gun in rapid firing range against T8/3+ targets and TEQ-characters. Guys with a BS of 4+ are almost always better off with plasma (it helps that regular guardsmen are, regrettably, extraordinarily expendable when the gun gets hot).
  • The choice between plasma and melta should be based on what you want your infantry units to be doing. If your dudes are going to be sitting in a static gunline, plasma is probably a better choice. If you are getting your men close to murder tanks, big monsters, and/or armored characters melta can be the better option.
• Plasma Gun: See the Plasma Pistol, but in Rapid Fire. You only need to supercharge against mean bastards, but against mean bastards, you need to supercharge. Given that you have a *huge* variety of ways to re-roll 1's ("Take Aim!", "Born Soldiers", "Harker's Hellraisers", "Hero of Hades Hive", etc.) casualties from supercharging can be easily minimized.
  • Given it has the same 24" range and Rapid Fire profile as Boltguns and Lasguns, Plasma Guns should be the default special weapon choice in most squads. Remember, it is 7 points on BS4+ models (Chapter Approved 2018 only made it 11 points for models that do not have a 4+ BS). As for BS 3+ units (vets, Scions, etc.), there is some room for debate between plasma and melta (see subpoints under Meltagun).
• Sniper Rifle: May target enemy characters even if they aren't the closest model, but with its mediocre bolter-tier stats they're really fishing for Mortal Wounds on 6s to wound. Cannot be taken by rough riders.
  • At just a measly 2 points, it's the cheapest special weapon your squads can buy, but Ratlings can have 5-10 of them, don't have to buy them (citation needed), and have the special abilities to get the most out of them, so if you really want sniper rifles you might as well just get them with the hobbits, or not at all.
  • Command squads with these can be Ordered, which in combination with Cadian 'Take Aim!' makes them hit about 89% of the time. Not as good as Ratlings, since they're vulnerable to return fire and can't scarper back out of LoS, but command squads are more accurate this way. This is, of course, a rather inefficient use of orders, but you may have orders to burn.

Heavy

• Autocannon: 48" Heavy 2 S7 AP-1 D2. Its two S7 AP-1 D2 shots make it not awfully potent. The heavy bolter is generally the superior choice against infantry and the lascannon is the go to for anything with high toughness and multiple wounds. Compared to the also versatile missile launcher, which basically does other weapons' jobs but worse, the autocannon's awkward profile actually does give it a slim band where it's sometimes the best weapon for the job. It's a decent choice for medium toughness units with high invulns like Eldar vehicles and larger Daemons, and it's at its best against 2 wound targets like various bikes and jetbikes, nobz, hammernators etc.
  • Because Guard has access to cheap platforms for weapons, it may be good to specialize your units. However, having a few autocannons can let your dakka focus on the infantry, your lascannons focus on the big guys so you aren't wasting those two on the intermediate targets. And should your enemy not have any medium units, it still won't be left as flatfooted as more specialized weapons would be if they go swarmy or tanky. Chapter Approved 2018 also happened to reduce the cost of these guys.
  • Unbelievably efficient at killing venoms and sky weavers.
• Heavy Bolter: 36" Heavy 3 S5 AP-1 D1. It's still standard on every vehicle in your motor pool, and it's better than the Autocannon against T5 and less (1 W targets), but especially against T4 and T2. The heavy bolter is alright, but nothing to write home about.
  • Interestingly, the AP-1 over the Multilaser makes a double Heavy Bolter Chimera a strong contender now.
• Heavy Flamer: 8" Heavy 1d6 S5 AP-1 D1. Can only be taken by Command and Veteran Squads, but doesn't take up two Guardsmen. This almost strictly better than a Flamer, with the only downside that it can't advance and fire (outside of Tallarn Titanic Vehicles) and it is more expensive(at 14pts).
• Lascannon: 48" Heavy 1 S9 AP-3 DD6. The ever-reliable Imperial tank-buster. The improved strength over Missile Launchers is critical, meaning krak missiles wound on 4s while the Lascannon wounds on 3s. The extra AP doesn't hurt, either. Well, it hurts the enemy, but that's kinda the point, right? At only 15 points it is a considerably effective option.
• Missile Launcher: 48" Heavy D6 S4 AP0 D1 or 48" Heavy 1 S8 AP-2 DD6. Still the Jack of All Trades, still the Master of None. Chapter Approved 2019 dropped the cost to 10 points a launcher.
  • The Krak profile is as point efficient as a lascannon against T8 targets with 5++ saves (like Knights) and generally more point efficient if the target is T7, which is mostly of benefit to the cheap heavy weapons teams. The missile launcher is also without doubt better against hordes compared to the lascannon. Also more useful than the autocannon against a foe who's using one extreme of either swarmy or tanky in an attempt to nullify half your firepower.
  • As of CA2019, this has become very efficient. Only one point more than the Mortar and two points more than the Heavy Bolter, yet much better against vehicles. Five points cheaper than the Lascannon, yet better against hordes.
• Mortar: 48" Heavy D6 S4 AP0 D1, and may fire indirectly. Down in cost, and along with the nerf to the Wyvern this brings it back into the realm of 'good' choices. Because of the revision to the way AP works it's in direct competition with the Heavy Bolter and many vehicles in your motorpool. Becomes extremely valuable in games using a lot of scenery or buildings since it doesn't need LoS to hit its targets.
  • CA2019 has raised its cost to 9 points, an increase of 80%. It is now more expensive than Heavy Bolters and only one less point than a Missile Launcher. It still has a place but it is no longer one of the most effective choices for Guard.

Vehicle

There are many weapons that are only available on vehicles, and other weapons that are also available to infantry have different tactics when mounted. Note, this list is currently incomplete.

• Inferno Cannon:

• Multilaser:

• Multi-Melta:

• Plasma Cannon:

Leman Russ Weaponry

• Annihilator Twin Lascannon: You know it, you love it. Twice the cost of a Demolisher Cannon that trades the flexibility against infantry for a reliable number of shots and twice the range. More exciting then most of the other Imperium forces' versions due to Grinding Advance and Tank Orders, amongst other things. Works wonders as a Cadian tank!

• Battle Cannon: The main gun of your standard Leman Russ. The Heavy D6 S8 AP-2 DD3 profile combined with the being able to fire twice when moving at half speed with no penalty turns these into scary good weapons. While inefficient against hordes, it is able to inflict a respectable amount of damage on basically anything. Grinding advance averages you 7 shots and its profile is verstile enough to threaten just about anything. The Battle Cannon is very much a generalist weapon able to do most battlefield roles but will lose out to more specialised weapons. The main downsides are the variable damage, as you are relying on RNG against low multi-wound models whom you'll either kill outright or scratch them to death in a nonstop battle of attrition, and that it struggles against invulnerable saves which negate the cannon's AP advantage.

• Conqueror Battle Cannon: A Battle Cannon with less range that costs more. However, the gun itself is not important; it's the co-axial Storm Bolter and the associated ability that is the real selling point here. When shooting the main gun at the same target as the Co-axial, you may reroll any and all hits made with the cannon. This makes the Conqueror the most potent and flexible Russ variants this edition. So much so you should be asking yourself 'Why SHOULDN'T I take a Conqueror?' Just keep in mind your Storm Bolter's range is half your cannon's, so you gotta get up close and personal to make the most of this; still though, you'll be performing identically to the battle cannon from 24-48", and significantly better inside of 24".
  • Remember, with a 4+ BS rerolling misses raises your average accuracy from 50% to 75%; a big deal when you are putting out an average of 7 S8 AP-2 shots. This is probably the best all-rounder turret option for your Leman Russes.
  • As a side note, Forge World no long sells these turrets so you'll need to kitbash. The easiest (albeit not at all the cheapest) way is to saw off the barrel of a Vanquisher Stygies VIII Conversion Kit. Alternatively, you could just cut down a storm bolter and attach it to a regular battlecannon turret.

• Demolisher Cannon: Statistically the best tank-buster of all Russ cannons, and easily the most powerful of all the Leman Russ options. At 20 pts, the Demolisher is S10 AP-3 dealing D6 damage. And, as of the latest errata, it is now Heavy D6 at all times, regardless of the number of models in the target unit. The caveat? It has the same range as a lasgun, a 24" bubble of pure unadulterated murder. If you have to choose it's best taken on a Leman Russ rather than a Baneblade/Hellhammer (which won't benefit from "Grinding Advance").
  • • Vostroya Demolishers improve the cannon's range to 30".
    • Catachan Demolishers are probably your best bet as they reroll their D6 shots with "Brutal Strength".

• Eradicator Nova Cannon: Often overlooked. For less points than a Battle Cannon, you lose 36" of range and only hit at S6. In exchange you ignore cover bonuses, ensuring power armor saves on a 5+. This is perhaps the most specialized of all the Leman Russ options, so only consider bringing it against targets that depend on cover saves (Space Marine Scouts with camo cloaks, Eldar Rangers, AdMech with cover canticles, Poxwalkers, Vindicare Assassins, Imperial Guard, etc). Perhaps the best at straight-up murdering GEQs in cover (wounding on 2+ with no save), its extra 12" range edging out the Demolisher Cannon.

• Executioner Plasma Cannon: A plasma cannon with nearly double the rate of fire even before you use Grinding Advance to shoot twice and without a movement penalty. If you fire it on Supercharge - which you should - it will outshine the Battle Cannon easily because of its improved AP and consistent dammage. The Executioner - when supercharged - is actually in direct competition with the Demolisher Cannon in terms of anti-tank. The Demolisher's only improvement against most targets is +2S, which is of dubious utility, given that it costs more and has 66.67% the range. The Demolisher is, point for point, better against heavy targets, but the Executioner is probably the second best all-rounder turret choice (first place being the Conqueror turret, see below).

• Exterminator Autocannon: Costs less than the Battle Cannon and has a consistent four shots instead of the Battle Cannon's 3.5 average. The Exterminator is ostensibly just a pair of autocannons on a Russ. It is inferior against T4, T7, T8, anything with a 5+ or better save, and anything without exactly 2 wounds. The Exterminator Autocannon is an extremely niche choice.

• Vanquisher Battle Cannon: The Vanquisher, a dedicated anti-tank cannon, is proof that GW is incapable of statistics. It performs worse against heavy armor than every Leman Russ turret except the exterminator, (doing 0.93 wounds to another Russ; every other variant manages at least 1 wound). Sad thing is, if GW had given it a flat 2+ to wound against vehicles, S9, or flat 2D6 damage instead of 2D6 drop the lowest, it’d perform better against most vehicles than other Russes. While it is bad, it is the cheapest turret options available.
  • Stygies Vanquisher Battle Cannon: Forgeworld's crack at trying to make the Vanquisher usable. They... did not completely fail. With +1 BS if the tank did not move this turn and a Co-axial Storm Bolter or Heavy Stubber to reroll Hit rolls, it technically has the highest theoretical damage against enemy armor, though only outdoing the Demolisher and Annihilator by virtue of it's Co-axial mount. Even then only under the perfect storm conditions of all your bonuses going off.

• Punisher Gatling Cannon: Tank-mounted BRRRT. Statistically, your best friend against infantry, but it lacks range and struggles against heavy stuff. However, consider grinding advance. While the range is short you will be putting out *40* S5. Virtually no Infantry units in the game can withstand that level of firepower. Additionally, because of the way AP works in 8e the sheer volume of fire can do decent damage against targets that might not immediately come to mind when thinking about a minigun on steroids. This is particularly true if you can get a punisher to hit more that 50% of the time... Looking at you Pask!
  • If you're running Cadian Punishers then the punisher cannon is amazing at causing unsaved wounds for use with the Overlapping Fields of Fire stratagem. Drown the target in dice!

Flyer Weaponry

The following weapon options are exclusively available to the flyers at your disposal:

• Hellfuries: Anti-infantry missiles that are expensive for the amount of shots you get. They haven't found their niche yet.

• Hellstrike Missile: Technically different than the Forgeworld Index. These are the go-to for anti-armor for the Forge World flyiers like Lightnings and Marauder Destroyers.

• Hellstrike Missiles: Hell yeah strikes! Does a good job against any armor, at a cost of 12pts. Heavy 1, S8, AP-2, roll 2d6 pick highest for D, which means at an average of 4.47 damage for each unsaved wound, this is the go to monster/tank/aircraft killer for the Valkyrie.

• Multiple Rocket Pod: Anti-infantry missiles, 16pts for a pair gets you Assault 2d6 with the damage profile of a heavy bolter(and half a shot more on average). Shorter range than Hellfuries, but a better damage profile and more importantly are assault. You're putting these on a flier, so a 36" range really shouldn't be a problem.

• Skystrikes: Cheaper at 15 points each, but only Heavy 1, S7, AP-2, D3 damage. Your dedicated anti-air missile, it gets +1 to hit against flyers but -1 against everything else. The strength here seems to be that you get to take 6 instead of only 4. But the damage for each unsaved wound is an average of 2 compared to Hellstrikes' 4.4. Statistically, they are worse unless you are shooting at very specific targets like jet bikes or battle suits.

• Tactical bombs: Pretty cool. They are cheaper than the missile options and do some serious damage. May be a valid option on a aircraft that can hold its own without extra missile firepower.

Other Wargear

Infantry

• Bullgryn and Ogryn Bodyguards:
  • Bullgryn Plate: Grants the wearer a Sv characteristic of 4+.
  • Brute Shield: Grants the wielder a 4++ invuln.
  • Slabshield: Wielder adds 2 to Armour save rolls, giving them a 2+ save. It doesn't affect invulnerable save as of the October FAQ's.
• Command Squads:
  • Medi-Pack: At the end of the Movement phase, the wielder can select a friendly Astra Militarum Infantry (sorry, Rough Riders, but good news, Ogryn and Ratlings!) unit within 3" and roll 1d6; on a 4+, a unit with a Wounds of 1 gets a slain model back, or for any other value, one model in the unit heals 1 wound. You can't use more than one of these on a given unit each turn, and the wording means you can't bring a Heavy Weapons Squad or Ogryn back from the dead, since you can only heal a damaged one.
    • Note that units don't actually have Wounds characteristics, but that's what the rule says, and there's no FAQ entry; the typical situation where you'd need a ruling comes up with Command Squads (ironic, since they're the ones carrying these things), Infantry Squads, and Veterans squads, since those are the readily available situations where you can have a unit with both a dead 1-wound model and either a dead or an injured 2-wound model; discuss with your opponent, but the most consistent ruling with how medi-packs work in general is that you can target such units with a medi-pack, and choose to either bring back a dead 1-wound model, or heal an injured 2-wound model. The most consistent ruling with how multi-profile units work in general (such as mixed Toughness) is that you use the lowest profile in the unit as the unit's profile value, which would mean you can bring back dead 2-wound models to alive and full health, but can't heal them, when they're in units that also have 1 wound.
  • Platoon Standard: Only carried by Militarum Tempestus Command Squads, all friendly Militarum Tempestus units within 6" of a unit with a model in it with one of these may add 1 to its Leadership when taking a Morale test.
  • Regimental Standard: Carried by non-Militarum Tempestus Command Squads, all friendly <regiment> units within 6" of a model with one of these must add 1 to its Leadership when taking a Morale test - note the very important nerf relative to a Platoon Standard that the aura is emitted by the model, not the unit, and the completely irrelevant nerf that it is a must effect, not a may effect.
• Command and Infantry Squads, Scions, and Veterans:
  • Vox-Caster: This machine is the beating heart of the Orders system. It's greatly simplified from previous editions; if an Officer is within 3" of a model with a Vox, and the target squad also has a Vox (and is of the same <Regiment>), the range of the order is tripled to 18". The important thing to note here is that it means your Officers can improvise their command structure a lot more - any Vox can send, and any Vox can receive, as long as the Officer and target squad share regiments. It is entirely legal - and fluffy - for your Platoon Commander, his assigned Vox operator having been killed, to run to a nearby squad of Tempestus Scions and commandeer their Vox Operator to continue sending orders! This also means you don't need to rely on flimsy four-man Command Squads for your Officers to send orders out; squads of Veterans with sniper rifles and heavy weapons, and even Militarum Tempestus Scions can be used as "command" squads.
• Tempestor Primes:
  • Tempestor Command Rod: Improves Voice of Command from 1x to 2x for these guys; an auto-include, since he holds it in his otherwise mostly useless Pistol hand.

Vehicle

All of your non-Forge World vehicles on treads (so everything except either kind of Sentinel or either kind of Tauros) that isn't a Baneblade variant (i.e. not a Lord of War) has access to this list.

• Augur Array:
• Dozer Blade:
• Hunter-Killer Missile:
• Pintle Heavy Stubber:
• Pintle Storm Bolter:
• Track Guards:

Heirlooms of Conquest

Relics return in the new Codex. Like Warlord Traits, the regiment-specific ones really are regiment-specific, so custom regiments can only use the Universal list, but once again, this list contains the best options anyway, Kurov's Aquila and The Laurels of Command. The only one available to Tank Commanders is the Relic of Lost Cadia (Cadia only); The Tactical Auto-Reliquary of Tyberius has no keyword restrictions beyond being Militarum Tempestus only, but there currently aren't any Militarum Tempestus Vehicle Characters.

• The Blade of Conquest: Replaces a Power Sword. At S+2 AP-4 D1d3 it's better than a Relic blade...but if you want one why not take an actual Relic Blade on a SM (who are much more than just dudes with Str4)? But if you're bent on demonstrating mortal hands are worthy of this Macharian blade, an Armageddon/Catachan/Vostroyan Company Commander with their respective trait, or Lord Commissar, could make something out of it, especially when supported by the usual retinue of Ogryn Bodyguard, Priest, Commissar Yarrick, Bullgryn, Crusaders and Conscripts (plus Straken for Catachans). The Guard may be a shooty army, but mortals can still fight the good fight with blade, boot and bodies. Plus the sword is only 4pts, try having some fun.

• The Dagger of Tu'Sakh: Infantry officers only, per the FAQ. During deployment you can set up the bearer and one INFANTRY unit of the same Regiment (if the bearer has one) in ambush behind enemy lines. At the end of any of your movement phases these units may launch their attack. Set them up within 3" of each other, more than 6" from any battlefield edge, and more than 9" away from enemy units. Surprise Special weapons are always welcome, especially when they're a part of a bigger plan instead of just them.

• The Deathmask of Ollanius: Infantry only; the bearer has a 4++, and once per game, at the start of your turn, can heal 1d3.
  • An Ogryn Bodyguard with a Slabshield and Bullgryn Plate will now have a 2+/4++, massively increasing his durability for non-Mortal Wound threats, risks that are both diminished by it suddenly healing 1d3W, helping the overwhelmed Field Medic.

• The Emperor's Benediction: Replaces a Commissar's or Lord Commissar's Bolt Pistol, giving it +2 shots, -1AP, and +1D. While it can also target Characters like a 12" sniper, it can't do so when the bearer is within 1" of the enemy, unlike the very similar Imperial Fists Spartean relic Bolt Pistol. Still, better than a Plasma Pistol.
• Kurov's Aquila: Officers only (now including Tank Commanders!). Every time your opponent uses a stratagem, roll 1d6, and on a 5+, you gain one Command Point. The only relic available to non-Cadian Tank Commanders. Punish Ultrasmurfs for their recycling command points!
  • Unfortunately, Chapter Approved 2018 has nixed recycling multiple CP - you can only regain one per battle round. Still, being able to get one when your opponent spends is still good and you can combine this with the Grand Strategist warlord trait to have even more chances to reclaim them.

• The Laurels of Command: One of the better relics too! Officers with Voice of Command. When the bearer issues an order to a friendly <regiment> unit within 6" of them, roll a die; on a 4+, the bearer can immediately issue them another order, which does not count against the orderer's maximum, and can trigger Laurels again. Also the only way in the game to stack multiple orders on one unit, though the bonus orders can't be the same as the first (so no, you can't use Fix Bayonets like 10 times if you keep making the roll).
  • Has phenomenal scaling with a Cadian warlord with Superior Tactical Training; every order issued can cause an 'exploding' propagation of orders, easily allowing one man to command very large numbers of units. The easiest way to resolve having both is as follows: 1) Issue an order to unit A. 2) Roll for STT; on a success this order affects unit B as well. 3) Roll for Laurels; on a success, go to 1 for unit A's next order. 4) Repeat the process on an unordered unit.

Orders and the Laurels of Command

When using the Laurels of Command you need to be aware that some orders are better than others, and since rolling a 4+ is no guarantee you should have a priority cycle: "FR,F!SR,F!" -> "Take Aim!" -> "Bring it Down!"; with FftE or GBitF at the beginning as necessary. Some Doctrines add details to this cycle but don't plan on reliably rolling four consecutive 4+s. The cycle modifications are summarised as such:

• Armageddon units may begin the cycle after being ordered to "Mount up".
• Cadia has a better "Take Aim!", but "FRFSRF" is still more powerful than even full to-hit rerolls, so all regiments should order it first.
• Catachans "Fix Bayonets" better, and have Straken. They may also "Burn them Out" of cover first and then begin the cycle if the Laurels activate, without using "Take Aim" if Harker is nearby.
• Militarum Tempestus might need to "Get Back in the Fight" more often than others, due to their shorter ranged weapons. Only against vehicles and monsters is "Elimination Protocol Sanctioned" better than "FRFSRF"...but they have enough melta and plasma that "Take Aim" goes before "FRFSRF" when they supercharge. Otherwise, follow the cycle when trying to proc Storm Troopers. Again, you're already lucky if the Laurels activate in the first place.
• Mordians may Form Firing squads before entering the cycle.
• Valhalla should fall back and "Get Back in the Fight" instead of jumping to "Fire on my Command"...unless they're supporting a unit that cannot do so, like Bullgryn or Rough Riders. Order "Fire on my Command", and then they may want to "Take Aim" before the rest of the cycle, to minimize friendly fire. Or "rough-house playing", as they call it.
• Vostroya has a similar reason to Valhalla to "Repel the Enemy" instead of "Get Back in the Fight". "Repel the Enemy" before "FRFSRF" to shoot four times in combat. Vets with Shotguns have a better reason to Repel instead of GBitF, though they won't FRFSRF.
• The Tallarn Doctrine is essentially FftE always turned on.
• Death Korps of Krieg caught in melee wouldn't fall back because of their better WS: turn your Lasguns into pistols with "Without Mercy", but then go directly to "Fix Bayonets". Death Riders should instead "Fix Bayonets" and then "Duty onto Death".

Specialist Detachments

Specialist Detachments are a type of Detachment added with the Vigilus Defiant campaign supplement and can be unlocked by spending commands points. These Detachments are custom made for specific sub-factions, which grant them access to additional Stratagems, Warlord Traits, and Artifacts through the use of a new, unique keyword. Only specific units within the detachment are affected, and a detachment can only be turned into one specialist detachment. Detachments that are customized for each faction that grant bonuses, does this remind you of anything?

It seems fine thus far, though who knows how the future will unfold. Nothing seems like an obvious meta-breaking auto-take, but they all seem to have a place. Plus they don't really grant bonuses. They just unlock Stratagems, which still cost Command Points to use.

General stratagems

• Field Commander (1 CP): This stratagem bears special mention. For one command point, you can designate a character with a Specialist Detachment keyword and they gain the warlord trait associated with that detachment. Can't be used on named characters or to give your warlord a second warlord trait. Usefulness may vary.

Emperor’s Fist Tank Companies

All Leman Russ tanks, including your Tank Commanders, gain the Emperor's Fist keyword. Never has a keyword been so apt.

Stratagems

• Unyielding Advance (1 CP): No matter how far you moved in the movement phase, the selected Leman Russ may have the full benefit of the Grinding Advance ability by firing twice. While few would think LRBTs needed a mobility enhancement, it does allow for strategic and tactical options without sacrificing firepower. Your short-ranged Russes (Punisher, Demolisher, Executioner) will thank you. Fireball Demolisher tank crews can now get in there and murderburn whole squads with triple heavy flamers and 2d6 Demolisher shells. Take two. Surprise attack with full Russ movement plus 8 inch flamer range. Especially good combined with tallarn's tank order, since it adds about 5" of movement - you can either undo all of it with the 6" from the order if you just wanted the shot but not the positioning, or, of course, you can stack them for about 11" of threat. Also worth noting that Surprise! Russes set up via the Tallarn's Ambush stratagem are considered to have moved their maximum distance making them a good candidate for Unyielding Advance.
• Steel Phalanx(1 CP): Choose an enemy unit. All Emperor's Fist units that charge the chosen unit cause d3 mortal wounds on a 4+ (net average 1 mortal wound, but with a lot of variance). This turns your tanks into pseudo-Carnifexes or Land Raider Crusaders/Redeemers. However, this is usually going to be less useful than Crush Them (although you can certainly stack them), regardless of whether you're trying to tarpit with a nearly dead Leman, or, far more likely, you're the one being charged.

Warlord Trait

• Unflinching Resolve: 6" aura, re-roll overwatch rolls for Emperor's Fist units. Wrap your commander with high volume shot units, Punisher wingmen?
  • Thinking about running a Mordian Emperor's Fist Tank Company? Good news and bad news, but mostly good. You get less relative benefit than everyone else does, because you don't need the ability to re-roll 5s, but the abilities do stack. Remember, it's re-roll, then modify, so when you roll a 5 to hit, choose not to re-roll. Then, when you add your +1 modifier, hey presto. Your Overwatch shots now hit 20/36 of the time (slightly better than half - i.e. better than BS4+ would, shooting normally!). Also stacks with the Defensive Gunners strat, due to the wording on the regiment trait - pop the strat, and your dice will hit showing 4-6 and you can just re-roll 1-3.

Heirloom of Conquest

• Hammer of Sunderance: Replaces a Battle Cannon profile with...a slightly more impressive Battle Cannon profile, with damage set to 3 (for a +1 or *1.5 benefit). Heavy 1d6 (shooting twice with grinding assault) 72" S8 AP-2 D3 can do a lot of damage assuming you don't get screwed by rolls.
  • Remember, this takes up a relic slot, AND you still have to buy the underlying Battle Cannon. Kurov's Aquila will just about always be better. The Laurels of Command (which will also force you to take Master of Command on your Tank Commander) depend a lot on your list, as they don't do nearly as much for Tank Orders as they do for Voice of Command (due to the limited pool - the combo lets your commander choose 1 Tank + 1 (Tank or Voice) each round, and both orders are Laureled). Relic of Lost Cadia is also usually better, but is Cadia only. So... it's alright. Certainly, the game is full of better relics, but hey, it's something. Another thought: 1 CP for a 2d6 dam 3 with 72inch full table range? That’s average 7 shots, around 5 hits at 15 damage a turn at -2 ap? Finally, a good guard tank hunter option. Kills whole squads of primaris and terminators, can one turn destroy beasts and walkers.
  • Modeling tip: Use the best cannon you have in your sprue box to represent it! Go wild with a proper empire cannon, or slap on it the big cannon of the Ogre Kingdoms in a proper custom turret lodging if you really feel that the enemy should taste ornate gothic obliteration. This Anon recommends the Leman Russ Incinerator from the Solar Auxilla line. A slightly cheaper option is to just use the Vanquisher cannon that you get in every battle tank Russ box because you definitely aren't running it as an actual Vanquisher in this edition. Consider the forgeworld Vanquisher turret. Fire!

Emperor’s Blade Assault Companies

For your standard troopers and transports. This affects all Company Commanders, Platoon Commanders, Command Squads, Infantry Squads, Veteran Squads, Special Weapon Squads, Chimeras, and Tauroxes. This one just screams Steel Legion, doesn't it?

Stratagems

• Rapid Redeploy (1CP): Disembark one unit at the end of the movement phase.
• Mechanised Fire Support (1CP): Vehicles within 6" of a charged infantry unit can overwatch and hit on 4+.

Warlord Trait

• Mechanized Commander: warlord can issue orders from inside a vehicle in the same detachment and counts as being within 3" of a vox. This right here makes the detachment pay for itself since it normally costs you one CP per turn to use the Mobile Command Vehicle stratagem to do the exact same thing, and unlike MCV this can also be used from a Taurox.

Heirloom of Conquest

• The Shield of Mortwald: A 3+ Invuln that cannot be re-rolled for any reason, and stops working the first time it fails. Essentially a weaker version of the Drukhari shadowfield. Note that, like the shadowfield, you can choose which save you use. If an uncharged plasma gun hits your tank commander, it’s probably better to take the 1 damage then potentially lose the invuln against something like a melta

Emperor’s Wrath Artillery Companies

Affects Company Commanders, Masters of Ordinance, Basilisks, Hydras, and Wyverns. Looks like the Manticore is out of luck. Grant's the Emperor's Wrath keyword. Cadians and Catachans already love Artillery, so consider those two regiments for this specialist detachment.

If you are considering taking some guard soup to back up a combat army, you could do worse than adding a cheap Basilisk/Wyvern or 2 with this detachment for the sake of ensuring your guys get close enough to use their knives/bayonets/swords/axes/servitors, which is especially helpful to small, 1 wound melee units (here's to you Vanguard Veterans) with high damage output. Failing that, to keep it fluffy, you can do worse than charging in a squad of Arco-flagellants/Crusaders after using the suppressive fire strat. Also, remember that because the unit's movement speed is halved, they are less likely to be able to fall back from your next turn, keeping your combat units from being pew pew'd by enemy guns. Bonus!

Stratagems

• Suppressive Fire (1 CP): lets a Hydra, Basilisk, or Wyvern give up a turn of shooting to suppress an enemy infantry unit in range of one of its guns. Said enemy unit cannot Overwatch and halves is movement speed. This is great for locking down extremely fast units or protect that Ogryn squad from a painful round of Overwatch fire.
• Pounding Barrage (2 CP): One weapon on an Emperor’s Wrath vehicle can shoot twice. Hello, Basilisks. Can combine with the Aerial Spotter stratagem for a healthy 'fuck you' to one target. Costs 4 CP, but it can be an excellent way to spend all those extra CPs you're swimming in when running brigades. Combine with the relic (see below) for some real ground pounding.

Warlord Trait

• Lord of Ordinance: 6" aura. To-wound rolls of 6 improve their AP by 1. Best used on Wyverns. Somewhat good on Hydras. Barely noticeable on Basilisks.

Heirloom of Conquest

• Agripinaa-Class Orbital Tracker: Pick an Emperor's Wrath vehicle within 6" of the bearer during the shooting phase. That vehicle ignores enemy bonuses to cover. If you use it on a Wyvern, you can relive the glory days of 7th Edition where it had ignore cover. This can make a surprisingly big difference, particularly when targeting Elite units with lots of shots, forcing your opponent to make 20 3+ saves on their hidden Dark Reapers a turn can be game-winning. Also a way to reliably dislodge Marines from cover - ap0 weapons let them make a 2+ save. An Agripinaa-boosted basilisk? 6+. Have fun!

Emperor’s Conclave Infantry Companies

Affects Company Commander, Platoon Commander, Command Squad, Infantry Squads, Conscripts, Priests, and Crusaders. Makes your troopers into super zealots. If you somehow want to run melee guard, here you go.

Stratagems

• No Quarter Given (2 CP):Used at the start of the fight phase. Models slain from target unit can pile in and fight or fight again before being removed. Just when that asshole with Genestealers or Orkboyz thinks he's got the better of that Conscript squad, you can try and take as many of them down as possible. You aren't gonna need the 2CPs for morale immunity when the entire unit is wiped, after all. Bear in mind that since it's declared before attacks are made, you can also pay 2CPs to interrupt if another charging unit goes first.
• Sanctimonius charge (1 CP): Used in the Charge phase. Priests that make a successful charge move grant +1 to charge rolls of other Emperor's Conclave units within 12". Shame Ogryns can't benefit from it.

Warlord Trait

• Fiery Denouncer: Re-roll to hit rolls of 1 in the Combat phase for Emperor's Conclave units within 6". This is SCARILY good when combined with Straken and a Ministrorum Priest, even more so if you use a Consolidated Squad of 20+ Catachan troublemakers, instead of an unruly bunch of Conscripts. While this doesn't turn your puny dudes into killer machines, it still makes for a powerful deterrent. You're still a shooty army, but by Sebastian Thor, you WILL make things regret assaulting you.

Heirloom of Conquest

• Litany of the Holy Synod: Emperor's Conclave units within 6" roll 2d6 and use the lowest for morale. In addition, if the bearer dies, pick an Emperor's Conclave unit within 6". For the rest of the battle, they are immune to morale and have +1 attacks.

Militarum Tempestus Drop Forces

Gives Scions, Scion Command Squads, Tempestor Primes, and Valkyries the Drop Force keyword. This detachment is all about flying around in the Valkyrie and dropping hot, sweaty plasma everywhere. Given point changes in Chapter Approved 2018 and the current rules shifting against Deep Strike, this detachment could become very common.

Stratagems

• Precision Drop (1 CP): When models use the grav-chute to disembark from the chosen Valkyrie, they do not have to roll to see if they die. Two Command Squads escorting their Tempestor Primes around? They are safe from random death.
  • Utterly terrifying when combined with orders. Two Tempestor Primes, one of whom is the Specialist Warlord, with two Command Squads, falling out of the sky anywhere on the board within Rapid Fire range, rolling 2s to hit and re-rolling wounds against Monsters and Vehicles? You can drop eight melta shots, or 18 plasma shots (counting the prime pistols), and then hit on 2s with re-rolls to wound against Monsters or Vehicles. That's enough pain to bring down most Lords of War. Don't do this unless you hate your opponent.
  • Now fairly redundant: all Militarum Tempestus got a stratagem in psychic awakening - greater good that does this AND lets you drop within 5" rather than 9.
    • There's a certain Commissar that got a point drop recently who lets you re-roll 1s, and a single Tempestor Prime is capable of issuing two orders for 5 points more... 97% accuracy with a 33% chance of generating an extra attack seems kinda nice...
• Aerial Fire Support (1 CP): When a Tempestus Drop Force Infantry unit is charged whilst within 6" of a Drop Force Valkyrie, that Valk may fire overwatch and hits on a 4+ irrespective of modifiers. Whether this is worthwhile depends on what charges you. Big guys will fear Hellstrikes and Lascannons, horde units will rightly shit their pants at Multiple Rocket Pods and Multi-laser attacks backed by Heavy Bolters in either case. Generally speaking, if you can activate this stratagem you probably should, at the very least it gives one of your Valks a free shooting phase that's immune to modifiers, and at best it might just keep one of your Scion squads alive for another turn.

Warlord Trait

• Grav-Chute Commando: Tempestus Drop Force infantry units that disembarked from a Valkyrie on that turn gain +1 to hit when they're within 6" of the Warlord. Trigger your extra shots with your 100% safe plasma guns on a 5+? Where do I sign up?!?

Heirloom of Conquest

• Cypra Mundi Null-Emitter: If the bearer is targeted or affected by a Psychic Power, the Power can be nullified on a 2+. Useful only if you took extra relics and placed a Tempestor out front of your army against Grey Knights, 1K Sons, and Daemons to block Smites. You know, in case you don't have enough for a Culexus/Sisters of Silence squad who are slightly more survivable. Note that due to the wording, this does not count as denying a Psychic Power from being cast, you're just immune to its effects.

Unit Analysis

• Keywords: Common keywords are Astra Militarum, Imperium, and the placeholder <REGIMENT> which can be substituted for Cadian, Catachan, or the like.
• Sergeants: Like most armies the Guard's infantry (and cavalry) squads have non-commissioned officers leading them. These Sergeants (or Bone'Eads, if you're an Ogryn) have +1 Attack and Leadership over the rest of the squad, and in Infantry squads they swap the longarm of the rest of the unit for a laspistol and chainsword. Infantry Squads, Scions, Veterans, Rough Riders, Ogryns, and Bullgryns all have sergeants in some form, none of whom cost more than the non-Sergeants in the squad with them.

HQ

Regimental

• Company Commander:
• Tank Commander:

Non Regimental

Adeptus Astra Telepathica

• Primaris Psyker:

• Aradia Madellan:

• Uriah Jacobs:

Officio Prefectus

• Lord Commissar:

• Commissar Yarrick:

Troops

Only two choices, though they're good enough. Well, and Tempestus Scions, but those are in their own section.

• Infantry Squad:
• Conscripts:

Elites

Regimental

• Command Squad:

• Master of Ordnance:

• Platoon Commander:

• Veteran Squad:

• Special Weapons Squad:

Forge World

• Atlas Recovery Tank:
• Hades Breaching Drill Squad:
• Salamander Command Vehicle:

No Regiment

Adeptus Mechanicus

• Tech-Priest Enginseer:
• Servitors:

Adeptus Ministorum

• Ministorum Priest:
• Crusaders:
• Gotfret de Montbard:

Aeronautica Imperialis

• Officer of the Fleet:

Astra Telepathica

• Wyrdvane Psykers:
• Astropath:

Militarum Auxilla

Per the current FAQ, this is explicitly not a <REGIMENT>, so you can't e.g. assign it to your Commander.

• Bullgryns:
• Nork Deddog:
• Ogryns:
• Ogryn Bodyguard:
• Ratlings:
• Rein and Raus:

Officio Prefectus

• Commissar:
• Commissar Severina Raine:

Dedicated Transports

• Chimera:
• Taurox:

Forge World

• Centaur Light Carrier:
• Chimera, Gryphonne-Pattern:
• Trojan Support Vehicle:

Fast Attack

• Armoured Sentinels:
• Scout Sentinels:
• Hellhounds:
• Rough Riders:

Forge World

• Artemia-Pattern Hellhound:
• Salamander Scout Tank:
• Tauros:

Flyers

• Valkyrie:

Forge World

• Aquila Lander:

• Arvus Lighter (FW Index: Astra Militarum):

• Avenger Strike Fighter (FW Index: Astra Militarum):

• Lightning Strike Fighter:

• Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter:

• Vendetta (FW Index: Astra Militarum):

• Vulture (FW Index: Astra Militarum):

Heavy Support

This is the meat and potatoes right here. In this slot you will find the absolute best tanks and artillery in the galaxy. Even the humble heavy weapons squad can lay down some serious hurt thanks to just how cheap they are. If you need something, anything, blasted to bits, this is where you can find the units to do it.

• Basilisk:

• Deathstrike:

• Heavy Weapons Squad:

• Hydra:

• Leman Russ Battle Tanks:
  • Exterminator Autocannon:
  • Eradicator Nova Cannon:
  • Vanquisher Battle Cannon:
  • Demolisher Cannon:
  • Executioner Plasma Cannon:
  • Punisher Gatling Cannon:

• Manticore:

Forge World

• Armageddon Pattern Basilisk:
• Carnodon Battle Tank:
• Earthshaker Battery (Forge World Index: Astra Militarum):
• Crew-Served Gun Batteries:
  • Earthshaker Carriage Battery (Forge World Index: Astra Militarum):
  • Heavy Mortar Battery:

• • Heavy Quad Launcher Battery:
  • Rapier Laser Destroyer Battery (Forgeworld Index: Astra Militarum):
• Griffon Mortar Carrier:
• Colossus Bombard:
• Cyclops Demolition Vehicle:
• Hydra Battery:
• Leman Russ Family:
  • Leman Russ Annihilator (Forge World Index: Astra Militarum):
  • Leman Russ Conqueror (Forge World Index: Astra Militarum):
  • Leman Russ Stygies Vanquisher (Forge World Index: Astra Militarum):
• Malcador Tank Family (Forge World Index: Astra Militarum):
  • Malcador Heavy Tank:
  • Malcador Annihilator:
  • Malcador Defender:
  • Malcador Infernus:
• Medusa Family
  • Armageddon Pattern Medusa:
  • Medusa Carriage Battery (Forge World Index: Astra Militarum):
• Sabre Weapons Battery:
• Sentinel Powerlifters:
• Stygies Family:
  • Stygies Destroyer Tank Hunter:
  • Stygies Thunderer Siege Tank:
• Tarantula Battery:

Lords of War

Baneblade Family:

• • Baneblade:
  • Hellhammer:
    • Traitor's Bane:
  • Banesword:
  • Stormsword:
    • Arkurian Pattern Stormsword (Forge World):
  • Doomhammer:
  • Banehammer:
  • Shadowsword:
  • Stormlord:
  • Arkurian Pattern Stormblade (Forge World):
  • Arkurian Pattern Stormhammer (Forge World):
• Macharius Family (Forge World:)
  • Macharius Heavy Tank:
  • Macharius Omega:
  • Macharius Vanquisher:
  • Macharius Vulcan:

• CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT (Forge World):

• Dominus Armored Siege Bombard (Forge World):
• Gorgon Heavy Transporter (Forge World):

• Minotaur Artillery Tank (Forge World):
• Praetor Armored Assault Launcher (Forge World):
• Valdor Tank Hunter (Forge World):

Aeronautica Imperialis

• Marauder Bomber (Forge World):
• Marauder Destroyer (Forge World):

Regiments

Armageddon

In the grim darkness of the far future, what you cannot crush with words you will crush with the tanks of the Imperial Guard!
Armageddon takes strongly after the African-based forces of World War II, particularly the armored divisions; appropriate for their wasteland homeworld. On the tabletop, Armageddon is your premier Armoured Fist Regiment. Most everything about them is dedicated to the fine art of piling out of a Chimera, evaporating some sorry traitor/xenos scum (Orks strongly preferred), hopping back aboard and zooming off to do it again.

Regimental Doctrines - Industrial Efficiency: INFANTRY units with this doctrine may double the number of attacks they make with Rapid Fire weapons (i.e. Lasguns, Bolters, and Plasma guns) at 18" instead of 12". Armageddon VEHICLES treat attacks against them with AP-1 as AP0.

• 18" is a distance that is almost impossible for enemy infantry to cover in a single move-and-charge, instead of the usual 12" that will get you in combat the next turn guaranteed. Increased RF range and good Chimeras will make you a master of positioning (which is paramount in 8E), and in turn you'll get almost double the use for lasguns (and Plasma guns!) than other regiments. Pretty darn solid. Or great, if you can pull off the fire and manoeuvre AFV tactics it calls for. If you can roar up mid board in with a pack of chimerae and hellhounds FRSRF first turn, and fall back holding down the lasgun triggers behind the flaming pillboxes of your flamer transports, pewpewpew murderburning half his troops before they can even make eye contact with any of your big guns or objectives. A bit like kiting, keep falling back so they can’t charge you. Pour on the lasguns.
• While situational, the ability to ignore AP-1 is quite handy against autocannons which are common in take-all-comers lists, and will nicely insulate your light vehicles from attempts to weigh them down under heavy bolters. Light weapons are a joke against your 2+ armoured vehicles in cover.

Warlord Trait - Ex-gang Leader: Add 1 to the Warlord's attack characteristic. In addition, add 1 to all wound rolls made for your warlord in the Fight phase. Outright superior to the BRB warlord trait Legendary Fighter, but of dubious utility since even with this and a Blade of Conquest, you won't be good enough in melee to excuse jumping into it; you'll get a lot more mileage out of combining Grand Strategist with the Armoured Fist stratagem. This, like many of the other Regiment Warlord Traits, are trying to encourage you to make your generally shooty Warlord a more competent melee combatant which is often not a competitive choice, but it can be a fluffy one.

Relics -Skull Mask of Acheron: -1 to enemy Ld within 3" of the wearer, -2 for Orks. Doesn't specify "Infantry" character.

• Fact is, since hordes (like yourself) have ways around morale, inflicting battleshock is better on expensive multiwound models, but those have a naturally high Leadership and -1Ld isn't good by itself. Thus, combine it with your other Imperial stuff: Terrifying visions inflicts -2Ld; Metalica Sicaran Infiltrators allies provide another -2Ld (aura + stratagem) and appear where you need them while moving almost as fast as Rough Riders; while Reivers inflict -1Ld alongside -1 To Hit (Shock Grenades) and have a higher chance to a successfully charge out of a Grav-chute (Black Templar Tactics, Combat squads). You could also use a Dark Angel's Termie Chaplain with the reivers, and blow a CP on another -1 with the eye of the unseen. One such separate detachment is cheaper than 6 Bullgryn, which are basically Maul Terminators now. Reaching -5Ld with Metalica Infiltrators isn't too hard, up to -6Ld with the Reivers. Even Chaplain/Dark Apostle-boosted Primaris/Plague marines will become as cowardly as Conscripts, and they lack Commissars. Disregard the bit about orks, though.

Order - Mount Up!: Targeted unit may shoot and immediately embark as long as they're within embark range and did not disembark in the movement phase that turn.

• In 8E you may embark and disembark regardless of the transport's entry points - as long as it's within 3" you're good to go. This order allows you to use your extra-resilient 4.75-inch-long Chimeras for piggy backing more than 10" a turn without having to use FFtE instead, and it can be combined with both your Armoured fist Stratagem and Industrial Efficiency Doctrine : One turn you can Mount Up! within 3" of the front of your Chimera, the next one disembark (optional Stratagem) within 3" from the other side of it, then move 6" away from the enemy while you also move the Chimera so that it ends up on the other side of the squad. This way you can constantly keep the enemy 18" away, which is extremely hard to cover in a move+charge for most squads, but precisely the range you can Rapid Fire from.
• Also be sure to shoot the Chimera you just embarked on AFTER you issue this order. The Lasgun arrays on your Chimera can only be fired if a unit is embarked; nothing about WHEN that unit embarks. They’re often overlooked but it’s 6-12 extra lasgun shots. Shoot, jump aboard, shoot again.
• This can also be away keep Plasma vets command teams safe for two turns just let fire then order them back into transport. While keep Commissar Yarrick near by for those re-roll ones.

Stratagems - Armored Fist (1 CP): At the start of the shooting phase, select an Armageddon Infantry unit that disembarked from an Armageddon transport this turn. It can re-roll to-hit rolls of 1 until the end of that phase. Best used when coupled with the FRFSRF order. Or triple veteran plasma gun squads and sarge with a plasma pistol? Ooh yeah. Use your Armageddon order to blast away again next turn, to mount up and escape retribution. Great on flanks. Overcharge plasma and shoot up his artillery, dread, other thing you need to die.

Special Characters

Tactical Objectives

Tactics

Cadia

In the grim darkness of the far future, worlds break before the Guard does!
Cadians are the most recognizable Guardsmen at a glance, and even after the destruction of their homeworld, they still make up a huge portion of the Guard forces.
On the tabletop, they benefit from sitting still, which makes them more accurate and has great synergy with Grinding Assault on Leman Russ tanks.
Their unique characters specialize in getting more orders out than normal Commanders or Tank Commanders. Cadia stands (still and gets to re-roll lots of dice)!

Regimental Doctrines - Born Soldiers: All models with this doctrine may re-roll 1s to hit during the Shooting phase if they did not move in the movement phase. If an infantry unit is issued the order "Take Aim!" and has not moved, they re-roll all failed to-hit rolls. Only infantry may reroll failed hit rolls, russes can only reroll ones... but so does your artillery. This means Cadia has almost no use for a Master of Ordnance.

• This makes Cadians second only to Catachans (see below) as the best artillery regiment. Basilisks that reroll 1s are really nice. However, if you're using heavy weapons teams, seek no one else - Cadian lascannons are the most point-efficient anti-tank in the game, and mortar teams can have your opponent wondering where you hid that Thudd gun. Also, plasma guns that didn't move explode less - turns out the secret was to not shake them.
• Do not underestimate the advantage of rerolling failed hits for infantry who are static and ordered to take aim. Guard's greatest shortcoming is their generally meh ballistic skill. Rerolling misses effectively brings you basic guardsmen's 50% accuracy up to 75% - statistically better than having a 3+ BS! Cadians have the best static infantry gunline in the Guard, bar none.
• Combining rerolling on ones with Pask's 2+ and ability to command himself and another russ to "Pound Them To Dust" means that you can mimic the catachan regimental doctrine AND have a 2+ reroll 1's (98% accuracy) all for just 55 pts more than a normal Russ.

Warlord Trait - Superior Tactical Training: Roll a die every time your Warlord issues an Order; on a 4+, the order can affect an additional Cadian unit of the same type within 6" of the warlord.

• A high-risk, high-reward version of Master of Command, statistically multiplying a Commander's number of orders by 1.5. Keep in mind, however, that the rules are "copied" to another unit. This trait helps when you want the units to both FRFSRF, but when you want to issue different orders, then MoC's reliable higher number of independent orders will serve you better.
• STT helps you better the more orders an officer can issue. As such, it's worse than MoC on a Platoon Commander or Tank Commander, statistically equal on a Company Commander, and superior if you have a way to get to 3 or more orders base, which currently requires named characters.

Relics - Relic of Lost Cadia: One use only; unveil at the start of any turn. Until the end of that turn, all Cadian units within 12" of the bearer re-roll both hit and wound rolls of 1; they re-roll all failed hits and wounds against Chaos units.

• Doesn't specify Infantry model either, so it can be given to your Tank Commander to widen the bubble and move it wherever you need to.
• Given that Cadian units already get the primary effect of this relic if they haven't moved, you're primarily going to take it for the bonus effect vs Chaos.

Tank Order - Pound Them To Dust!: Ordered vehicle can re-roll the dice for determining the number of shots for Leman Russ turret weapons until the end of the phase. Combine with Grinding Advance, and your Battle Cannons will be able to blow apart blobs and armor alike, just as they could in previous editions. Because there aren't any Leman Russ turret weapons that roll multiple dice for attack volume, this will behave like the Catachan doctrine, only worse, since it will only buff the turret, not the sponsons; its efficacy depends on your loadout.

• "Gunners Kill on Sight!" is strictly inferior on a Battle Cannon, Eradicator Nova Cannon, or Executioner Plasma Cannon; it is strictly superior on a Punisher Gatling Cannon or Vanquisher Battle Cannon. On a Demolisher Cannon, it is strictly inferior against a unit of 5 or more models, and statistically equivalent against smaller units. For a static Leman Russ, GKoS won't stack, so your best bet for a Russ you're planning on keeping static is an Executioner Plasma Cannon that's going to constantly overcharge, along with a lascannon and a pair of plasma cannons. If you want to keep your Leman Russ more mobile, it's a lot more involved.

Stratagems-Overlapping Fields of Fire (2 CP): When a Cadian unit causes an unsaved wound on an enemy unit, you may use this stratagem and ALL other Cadian units add 1 to hit when firing at that unit. The +1 to hit makes your supercharged army's plasma safe when aimed at the designated enemy. Useful for felling large centerpiece units like Knights or greater Daemons, or pretty much anything that essentially needs to die this turn.

• Gets even better when you consider that this is only restricted by the <Regiment> keyword. Basilisks smacking units from out of sight on 3+, re-rolling 1s, is a glorious thing indeed.
• Very valuable against plaguebearer spam as this means most your army will be hitting them on 5+ instead of 6+, with most your units rerolling 1's,2's and 3's.

Special Characters

HQ

• Knight Commander Pask: A flat upgrade to a Tank Commander, but a pricy one, plus with the fixed WT of Superior Tactical Training (which is less redundant on him than it is on Creed, assuming you brought at least three Russes including him). He has BS2+, which is awesome, and even the underpowered Vanquisher cannon starts to look alright when he's firing it (not really). If you're going to upgrade any of your Leman Russes with extra sponson or pintle weapons or an HK missile, he's the guy to do it to, since he is much more likely to hit something. Probably best used when supported by a Techpriest and sitting still with one of the longer-ranged turret weapons, as he can benefit from re-rolling 1s, shooting his turret weapon twice, and even use the Jury Rigging stratagem if necessary to get back a lost wound. On the other hand, if you can keep him out of the line of sight, he's downright scary in a Punisher.

• Lord Castellan Creed: Though MIA in the fluff (actually in Trazyn's collection, so he'll be back at some point), you can still field Creed as your Warlord, and you should do so if you're running Cadians and want to maximize your order potential and CP benefit. He's only about 25 points more expensive than a bog-standard Company commander, and he gets to give orders at 12" instead of 6" without a vox (and gets one more order a turn). You also get an additional 2 CP if he's your Warlord, which isn't bad. His shooting isn't impressive (two hot-shot laspistols), but hopefully, he never has to fire a single shot or swing his power sword. Unfortunately, gone are the days of outflanking Baneblades. He must take the Superior Tactical Training WT if he's your Warlord, which means he's going to pump out even more orders (and that's before you throw Kell into bodyguard for him). In small games, however, you probably won't have enough units to actually order to get the most of him.

Elites

• Colour Sergeant Kell: KIA in the fluff (RIP, he will be missed), but usable in-game still like Aun'Va, Konrad von Carstein, Vlad von Carstein pre-End Times, and the like. If you have a lot of units on the field and not enough Commanders to give orders, consider taking Kell, as he lets one officer within 6" issue an additional order every turn. He can be taken without Creed now, but that's not fluffy, and you also waste his ability to bodyguard for Creed on a 2+. Also, Cadian units within 6" can re-roll failed Morale tests. Pretty solid, if pricey.
  • Creed always has Superior Tactical Training if he's your Warlord (and you'll always Warlord him, to avoid wasting Tactical Genius), so this brings his average order pool from, statistically, 6, to 8.
  • Now that Pask and Tank Commanders are officers, Kell can support them, too. This brings Pask up to 3 orders (statistically, 6 with Superior Tactical Training), or a regular Tank Commander up to 2 (3 with Master of Command, statistically 4 with Superior Tactical Training).
  • For maximum order output, the Laurels of Command are an order doubler, statistically, just like Superior Tactical Training, which can be combined on a Company Commander with Kell, bringing him from 2 to 3 (Kell) to 6 (STT) to 12 (Laurels), although remember that Laurels and STT proc in opposite ways (STT lets you order more units; Laurels lets you pile additional orders onto the same target, so scales less well without access to useful Fix Bayonets!).

Tactical Objectives
Tactics

Catachan

Hailing from the Death World of Catachan, the Jungle Fighters specialize in particularly gritty theatres of war.

On the tabletop, they hit harder than the usual guardsmen, both in terms of their strength of 4 and their usually better shot output from vehicles. The death worlders also posses some of the best characters and officers, most of which lore wise slay Tyranid type monsters with their bare hands (use caution on the tabletop).

Regimental Doctrines-Brutal Strength: INFANTRY units with this doctrine gain +1 Strength (i.e. S4), plus +1 Ld too if they are within 6" of a friendly Catachan Officer. Furthermore, each time a Catachan vehicle fires a weapon with random shot volume, you may re-roll one die when determining the number of shots that weapon gets. Grinding Advance Russes, dual-flamer Hellhounds/Chimeras, Basilisks etc. are now quite a bit nastier - and remember, overwatch counts as firing a weapon.

• Space Marines can do melee because they're heavily armoured, hit hard, often and can get close surprisingly fast. You merely punch hard - still a shooty army. That being said, what you do have is hordes of infantry with a better wounds-to-points ratio, and can boost them with Straken, Ministorum Priests and "Fix Bayonets!". As in, all those three at once. Now that's proper Catachan melee, and supported by better vehicles, not some Renegade rabble.
• A note on the math - you re-roll only one die, and it's a re-roll, not an additional unkept die, so assuming you do the sane thing and only re-roll 3 down on a 1d6 and 1 on a 1d3, your expected values go from 3.5 to 4.25 and 2 to 2.33, respectively (and if you use a vehicle with multiple dice, the value of the benefit plummets, of course - in those cases, you always re-roll the lowest die, obviously). Earthshaker, Stormsword Siege, and Twin Earthshaker cannons are special; the way you should fire them is to roll the full number of dice, then re-roll the one lowest die, no matter what it is, then drop the lowest dice.

Every example of this Doctrine's effect on vehicle rate of fire (listing an example weapon), assuming you only re-roll when you ought to:

• 4D6 (Wyvern Mortar): 14 -> 15.79 (x1.13)
• 3D6 (Deathstrike Missile): 10.5 -> 12.06 (x1.15)
• 4H2D6 (Twin Earthshaker): 9.34 -> 9.93 (x1.06)
• 2D6 (Twin Heavy Flamer): 7 -> 8.24 (x1.18)
• 2D6 (Inferno Cannon): 7 -> 8.24 (x1.18)
• 2H1D6 (Earthshaker Cannon): 4.47 -> 4.96 (x1.11)
• 2H1D6 (Artemia Inferno Cannon): 4.47 -> 4.96 (x1.11)
• 1D6 (Heavy Flamer): 3.5-> 4.25 (x1.21)
• 3D3 (Volcano Cannon): 6 -> 6.70 (x1.12)
• 2D3 (Neutron Laser Projector): 4 -> 4.56 (x1.14)
• 1D3 (Plasma Cannon): 2 -> 2.33 (x1.17)

As you can see, the greatest impact is on 1d6 weapons - a Leman Russ Battle Cannon's rof*damage goes from 7 to 8.5, while a Demolisher Cannon against a single target goes from 4 to 4.66.

Warlord Trait- Lead From The Front: The Warlord has a 6" Heroic Intervention (double in range and distance as normal). In addition, if your Warlord was charged, did a Heroic Intervention, or was charged himself, then they re-roll failed hit rolls until the end of the turn. While rerolling failed hit rolls is powerful, especially for low WS models, you should remember that you are playing Guard and even with this, you are comparatively weak in assault even if you have a Warlord like Straken in the fight.

Relics - Mamorph Tuskblade: Replaces a power sword. A reskin of the Blade of Conquest at S+2 AP-3 D2, so guaranteed 2D instead of having to roll for it, in case you decide to use a mortal to hunt Primaris. Works similar enough, and you do have Straken.

• Better than the Blade of Conquest against targets with 2W, the same against other stuff. The worse AP isn't that much of a factor.
  • Something to keep in mind is this is a Catachan relic, meaning the wearer Will be S6, something to keep in mind if fighting something like Tyranids.

Orders - Burn Them Out!: The ordered unit can re-roll the dice when determining the number of shots a Flamer or Heavy Flamer has. In addition, enemy units targeted by the models with these weapons in the ordered unit lose the cover bonus to saves for the rest of the phase. Better than Bring it down! on the relevant weapons, but it doesn't buff the other weapons in the squad (other than ignoring cover, which they will on the unit(s) the flamer(s)/heavy flamer targets), which is an issue on squads other than Special Weapon and Command squads, like Veterans. Worth considering if you want to gamble stacking orders with the Laurels of Command, though.

• Note the effect on saves; you don't need to wound, or technically even hit, if the targeted unit has some miraculous way to avoid being hit by a Flamer/Heavy Flamer, for the targeted unit to lose the cover bonus to saves for the rest of the phase. You can use this to turn off cover on something relying on it for durability, like Scout Marines, then actually kill it with the rest of your army. You can remove cover from multiple units at once, too, as you can target more than one unit.

Stratagems - Vicious Traps(1CP): Use this Stratagem when an enemy unit finishes a charge move within 1" of a Catachan unit from your army that is wholly on or within a terrain feature. Roll a dice; on a 4+ that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

Special Characters

HQ

• Colonel Iron Hand Straken: At 75 points, Straken is a considerable investment over a standard Company Commander, but he might just be worth it if you're looking to run an assault army. For one thing, all Catachan units within 6" of him get an extra attack, which can turn even a Conscript squad into a nasty tarpit. His Been There, Seen It, Killed It rule makes him great for charging and finishing off wounded Monster units. He also gets S6 (effectively S7, assuming you take him in a purely Catachan detachment, where he also boosts unit Ld by +1 for being an Officer) and T4 in addition to W5, so he's a bit harder to put down. Consider running him with a Ministorum Priest.

• Sly Marbo: All memes aside, unfortunately, Sly Marbo is not even remotely competitive. While he has the ability to appear 9" away from an enemy and trigger one of three special rules (immediately shoot, which lets him snipe Characters; make a small move and add 2 to his attacks if he charges; or trigger concealed explosives that have a 50/50 shot of dealing mortal wounds), his lack of durability and lackluster weapons (not a single one has any AP) makes him a poor choice overall. He can disappear if there are no enemy units close to him at the start of the Movement phase, but you will never get to use this rule because he will most likely die and also fail to clear out the enemies he charges anyway. If he debuffed enemy leadership, had some way to mitigate armor saves, and could be reasonably expected to stick around for more than a single round, he might be worth it, but he's not.

Another view point. Will most effective way to us Sky Marbo is if you have alliance Militarum Tempestus detachment. Militarum Tempestus able with help Stratagems to get their foot soldiers 6 inch opponent lines means when he deep strike he not be closet model and pistol wounds get six shots and wounds 2 by average going to kill something 2 space marines turn. Doing that two turns make points back and them some. Ideal you have commission Yark with him. Which is likely best way to us him. Were Catachan provide artillery support with Militarum Tempestus will being aim to destroy vehicles.

There other ways using him to. Back other units charging or hide behind them and shooting.

Elites

• Sergeant Harker: Sgt. Harker totes around his Assault 3 Heavy Bolt, Payback, and has a pretty decent statline for a guardsman, think a platoon commander on miral shark steroids. You don't take him for his cool gun or stats though. Harker allows all friendly Catachan units (himself included) within 6" oh him re-roll 1s to hit in the Shooting phase. Every Catachan list should include Harker since he can buff any Catachan, from the lowly Conscript to the mighty Baneblade!

Tactical Objectives
Tactics

Militarum Tempestus

Elite shock troops of the Astra Militarum, they appear on the brink of massacre and turn it into a crushing victory.
On the tabletop, they drop in hot, distribute an unholy amount of plasma, and play in a fast and fragile balance of fire and trying to survive the incoming charge. Uniquely, they have further sub-Doctrines that make them close to being an independent faction in their own right. These guys behave like S3/T3 Marines and favor a very close range play style. They offer little in CC or tanks, but can smoke terminators with ease and favor constant air superiority.

• Regimental Doctrine - Storm Troopers: If a model with this doctrine is shooting a target at half range or less, they get an extra shot for each roll of 6+ to hit, which can't proc itself. Due to the Hot-Shot's range, you can't immediately use FRFSRF Rapid Fire Storm Troopers after an Aerial Drop (more than 9" away) unless they dropped from a Valkyrie, so order Take Aim! instead. This is equivalent to a 7/6 modifier, like Cadia's re-rolling 1s to hit, but requires you to be within half range, rather than standing still.
  • This doctrine is vicious, but hard to get. If understood correctly, drop in with those favourite overcharged plasma and get free shots on sixes? A five man squad shooting two plasma guns and a plasma pistol will likely get one from 5 total shots. Make sure it’s dead.You get +16.67% hits on any unit for which it applies (e.g. it won't apply to weapons that automatically hit); this is not as good as Catachan's trait or Cadia's order to re-roll attack dice for weapons with 1d6 attacks, especially the auto hitting ones, but it's much more versatile than those due to its wide application. Also, it's worth noting that it always works during Overwatch. In exchange, however, you can't have any Fast Attack, Heavy Support, or Lord of War choices in a MT detachment, because those slots only contain Regiment units.
  • Remember, you can use a custom regiment, such as Savlar Chem-Dogs, to pick up this Doctrine, if you want it on general Imperial Guard stuff, but doing so will not get you access to the Militarum Tempestus Warlord Trait, Heirloom, Stratagem, or Order. If you do so, it's best on very long-range weapons, to ensure the target is within range for the buff, such as a Basilisk or Shadowsword or Mortar Team. Stacks with re-rolling 1s to hit or wound multiplicatively, just like those two do with each other, so if you want all three at once, you can combine Yarrick for re-rolling 1s to hit with an order source for re-rolling 1s to wound on an infantry unit (for obvious reasons, you'll want to do this on a heavy weapons squad - all three buffs combined are still worse than FRFSRF on lasguns). The percentage gains from these are 16.67% for any 1, 36.11% for any two, and 58.80% for any three (FRFSRF is a +100% gain, which you can add to the previous three if you're combining them - combining all four will require the Laurels of Command relic).
• Warlord Trait - Faithful Servant of The Throne: Your Warlord can attempt to deny one psychic power per phase as if they were a Psyker. This can be useful, but it is very situational. Its usefulness is further questioned since Astropaths only cost 26 points as of Chapter Approved 2018 and won't break your regiment rules even if you're bringing a Militarum Tempestus detachment.
• Relics - The Tactical Auto-Reliquary of Tyberius: When the bearer uses Voice of Command, they may attempt to issue *one additional order; roll a die before attempting, and on a 2+, the order happens.
  • Can turn your Tempestor Prime into something like a Creed for your Scions. Up to four orders when combined with the Master of Command WT, 5 with Inspired Tactics. No Scion will go unordered.
• Order - Elimination Protocols Sanctioned!: Ordered unit re-rolls all failed wounds, but only against MONSTERs and VEHICLEs.
  • This is situational, but very strong; Scions usually hit on 3s, so the more significant limiter on inflicted damage is usually weapon power (even meltaguns will only damage a tank half the time). Use on squads loaded with meltas (NOT plasma, as you'll be overcharging and you want that re-roll of 1s) to get some extra oomph on a tank or large creature.
  • This also pairs quite nicely with the LAMBDAN LIONS Gifts from the Mechanicus stratagem.

Ordo Tempestus Regiments

Psychic Awakening has given our boys some new flavor. We can now add further extra rules based on specific Ordo Tempestus Regiments, which are accessed by picking one of the new Regiments from below. You can pick one of the following OR Storm Troopers. You may not get both.

• Iotan Dragons - Crack Shots: +6" Rapid Fire (for normal guard, its not that big a deal; for Scions, it makes our guns actually useable on the drop, which is clutch).
  • Relic - The Emperor's Fury: 3-shot Plasma Pistol.
  • Warlord Trait - Precision Targeting: ID units within 6" ignore the bonus of cover against enemies within 18" of the warlord.
  • Stratagem - Drilled to Perfection (1CP): Overwatch on 4's for a single unit for an entire phase.
• Lambdan Lions - Prized Weaponry: -1 AP to all weapons. This doesn't specify only ranged weapons. Hotshot lasguns now tear through MEQs and meltaguns bypass armor saves entirely, but it's most noticeable on your melee attacks suddenly being AP-1.
  • Relic - Refractor Field Generator: 5++ to all LL models within 6".
  • Warlord Trait - Keys to the Armory: LL units within 6" reroll 1's to hit
  • Stratagem - Gifts from the Mechanicus (1CP): 6s to wound for hot shot weapons inflict a mortal wound in place of normal damage for a single unit.
• Psian Jackals - Death From the Dark: Each kill counts as 2 kills for the next morale phase. Terrifying against bigger units.
  • Relic - Hound's Teeth: Chainsword with S+1 AP-2 +3 extra attacks and rerolling wounds vs knife ears. Why are you in melee, against Eldar of all people?
  • Warlord Trait - Skilled Tracker: Redeploy 3 Psian Jackal units prior to the start of the game.
  • Stratagem - Elusive Hunters (1CP): Used after a PJ unit is targetted, models shooting weapons from further than their weapons half range, get -1 to their hit rolls against that PJ unit.
• Iotan Gorgonnes - Resolute Heroism': 6s to hit at the closest enemy unit by infantry score an additional hit. Usually worse than just being Thetoid Eagles or Iotan Dragons - Eagles in particular get this on their vehicles, unlike you.
  • Relic - Blessed Bolt Pistol:12" Pistol 2 S5 AP-2 D2 (D3 vs psykers), keep in mind that psykers are usually characters, food for thought.
  • Warlord Trait - Sanctity of Spirit: Enemy psykers witin 24" will Peril on any double.
  • Stratagem - Daring Descent (1CP): Infantry unit can drop 5" away from enemies; may not charge afterwards. Note that the unit is chosen when setting up in deep strike, not when deploying mid game.Use the stratagem in the movement phase.
• Thetoid Eagles - Predatory Strike: Unmodified 6s to hit at half range score an additional hit. Better than Storm Troopers because it is a straight-up hit instead of a shot (and if you really can get both, they'll stack), and usually better than Iotan Gorgonnes, because you have more control over when it applies (on top of this one working on vehicles). While it can't trigger on 5+s it also can't be prevented from proccing at all either. If you liked Storm Troopers, this is better in everything but a Drop Force (and better for every round after the drop).
  • Relic - Fire of Judgement: 12" Hot Shot Laspistol, Pistol 2 inflicting mortal wounds in place of normal damage. Remember, their doctrine means that 6's proc an extra hit at half range. This thing has the potential to pump out 4 mortal wounds if you get lucky.
  • Warlord Trait - Uncompromising Persecution: Wound rolls of 6 made by TE units using hot shot weapons within 6" of the the warlord are AP-4.
  • Stratagem - Full Charge (1CP): Taurox Prime can reroll hit rolls when shooting at a unit within 12"'.
• Kappic Eagles - Mobilized Infantry: Infantry models can move and shoot heavy weapons without penalty and +1 to hit after disembarking Transports.
  • The second half of this doctrine grants them +1 to hit after disembarking a transport. These guys do for free, what the stratagem can do for only Valkyries. Their WL Trait gives a 24" order bubble and can issue orders from transports. Drop your soldiers out of valkyries and enjoy their plasma shredding while benefiting from an order from downtown. This also gives your warlord a flying, -1 to hit, T7 box for protection.
  • Relic - Distraction Charges: When firing overwatch any KE unit within 3" of the bearer will halve the charge roll if they inflict 1 or more hit.
  • Warlord Trait - Master Vox: 24" order range, warlord may order units when embarked on a transport.
  • Stratagem - Tactical Misdirection (1CP): Use after one of your KE infantry units destroys an enemy unit. All other units suffer from a -1 to hit when shooting unless they target that KE infantry unit or if another unit is closer.

Stratagems

• Superior Intelligence (1 CP): Use this strategy immediately when your opponent has a unit arrive on the battlefield within 12" of a Militarum Tempestus Infantry unit; they may fire at that unit as if it was their shooting phase, with a -1 hit penalty. It allows Tempestus to also work as guardians for your army. Volley gun squads sitting on your objectives, or babysitting your guard artillery? Let them try and sneak deepstrike those termites and it will cost. Even better for volley gun command squads with 16 shots s4 ap-2. Could be useful.
• Point Blank Efficiency (1CP): A Scion unit gains +1 strength to ALL Hot Shot weapons when fired at half range or less. A Strength 4, AP-2 HSLG is literally a Space Marine nightmare. Pairs exceptionally well with Lambda Lions for additional AP or the Gorgonnes for the ability to double tap S4 HSLG out of deep strike. A Strength 5 AP-2 Volley Gun can be devastating.
• Unquestioning Obedience (1CP): Auto pass morale for all scion units within 12" of Commissar or Tempestor Prime.
• Precision Drop (1CP): A Scion unit that Grav-Chutes their way off of a Valkyrie or a Vendetta does not roll to see if they die, and may deploy 5 away from the enemy instead of 9.
• Hammer Blow (1CP): Used after an AERONAUTICA IMPERIALIS model kills one or more models in a units; that unit halves all advance/charge distances and shoots at -1 to hit. Absolute solid gold cheese if you somehow manage to kill something with your Officer of the Fleet’s laspistol.
• Advanced Countermeasures (1CP): Used before the battle, a Valkyrie can switch to hover without losing Hard To Hit for the entire battle.
• Tactical Air Control (1CP): Add 2 for the roll for an Officer of the Fleet's Air Raid; range and LOS is measured from any Scion unit with a Voxcaster.
• Progeny of Conflict (1CP): Gain a warlord trait for any non warlord Scion CHARACTER. Basically an auto-include if you don't already have Grand Strategist, since you get a re-roll fornyour CP and then the added effect of refunding yiur own CPs from stratagems on a 5+ basically for free.
• Killing Zone (1CP): Use after a Scion INFANTRY unit kills 1 or more enemy models, for the rest of the phase all other Scion INFANTRY unit gain +1 to wound when targeting the damaged unit. Give your two battalion Primes plasma pistols and let them roast some measly Boy, with the safe firing mode if you wish. Next trigger this and let your other three, 10 man, quadruple volley gun squads roast another 20 or so. Dont forget orders and the +1 from the Drop Force WT and you stand a good chance of wiping the whole Boyz mob in one go!

Special Units

Special in the sense that you don't need the rest of the detachment to bring them, but then they wouldn't get their regimental doctrines.

HQ

• Tempestor Prime: The Militarum Tempestus version of the Company Commander. Compared to a Company Commander, he has access to only one order (can be improved to two with a 5 pt piece of wargear), has a 4+ save, but loses his 5++, and only unlocks Militarum Tempestus Command squads. That said, he can deepstrike to follow his Scions wherever they go. Being a Militarum Tempestus HQ, he lets you bring a separate Tempestus-only Detachment; this gives them access to their Storm Troopers special rule. Comes stock with a hot-shot laspistol you'll never fire, since it's the same range as his frag and krak grenades, and nothing in the game exists that dies faster to the pistol than it does to one of the grenade choices. You should always swap it for either a better pistol or, more likely, the aforementioned item for +1 order.

Elites

• Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Don't forget about these guys. Like the Veterans in the Command Squad, they have BS 3+ and can take 4 special weapons, but have a 4+ armor save and the old Deep Strike ability. Take 4 plasma guns, Deep Strike them 9" away from your enemies, get your Tempestor Prime to issue them an order and laugh when you overcharge and fire off 8 Strength 8 AP -3 Damage 2 shots in rapid-fire range. You can also load them up similar to the standard Command Squad (medi-pack, voxcaster, and standard bearer, with room for one special weapon), but you'll probably only take the Vox (although it's more efficient to simply land your Tempestor Prime next to a regular squad and use their Vox instead, as you're not giving up any special weapon options that way). The standard's bubble is too small to be worth it and the medi-pack isn't all that great considering you're giving up another special weapon. With that in mind another good loadout is three Volley Guns and a Vox. Drop them in cover alongside your Prime with command rod and issue two orders across the table with some decent long range punch.
  • Remember, just like with standard command squads, you are limited to one Tempestus command squad per Tempestor Prime. Additionally, you may keep your hot-shot lasgun in addition to the hot-shot laspistol and vox-caster/medi-pack if you wish to hold onto some firepower. You may not take a special weapon if you've done this. Note that regular Scions are unaffected by this change.
  • Modeller's tip: To create the voxcaster and still have the lasgun model, simply take the wrapped up lasguns that come with the sprue and glue them onto the model.

Troops

• Militarum Tempestus Scions: Scions can be taken either as a 5-man team with two special weapons, or 10 man squad with four special weapons; you only get 1 sergeant either way, of course, but your sergeant is worse than the regular Imperial Guard get, as it has no access to a bolter - you'll usually end up taking a bolt pistol and chainsword, as a result. They have better BS and Sv characteristics when compared to a Guardsman and their standard issue Hot-Shot Lasgun is mean now. With its solid AP, it can threaten nearly anything. One squad member can take a vox caster and Hot-Shot Laspistol in addition to the standard hellgun. The Tempestor (sergeant equivalent) comes with a Hot-Shot Laspistol (which you'll always replace with a bolt pistol, except for when you really want a plasma pistol) and chainsword, but can take the usual sergeant armaments (except the boltgun). Now 7 points each!
  • Best taken in five-man teams (unless you're short on orders) while spamming as many special weapons as possible. Their special weapon loadouts should be focused - all plasma (including the Tempestor's sidearm), melta, or Volley guns. Mixing and matching reduces their combat effectiveness.
  • Ten-man squads do have their place in terms of order efficiency and the ability to sustain losses without losing special weapons. The fun thing about Scions? Even with a standard loadout they punch very hard and aren't trivial to remove. 70 points for 10 deep-striking, BS3+, SV4+, AP-2 soldiers is pretty radical. Combined with your choice of effective regiment and Scions are extremely dangerous.
  • It's important to note that without the use of stratagems or one very specific regiment, your hellguns cannot deep strike or grav-chute into Rapid Fire range, your meltas can never deep strike into melta range, and hot-shot laspistols cannot deep strike into actual shooting range. The melta thing isn't so bad, but this is still worth keeping in mind. If you're not using the Daring Descent or Precision Drop stratagems, put your melta troops in a transport.

Dedicated Transport

• Taurox Prime: The Taurox's bigger, angrier brother is available exclusively to Scions and Commissars, but man is it worth it. With improved BS and an impressive selection of weaponry for its points, the Taurox Prime is the new king of metal boxes. It won't last long with that toughness, but it'll make back its points in the meantime. For weapons, you should always be taking the Gatling Cannon, the sheer number of shots it puts out makes it better than both other options point for point (except against Land Raiders, where the Missile Launcher is -slightly- better). Similarly, the Hot-shot Volley Guns are always better point for point than the Autocannons.
  • Note: This vehicle is finicky about who can get on it, not just who can bring it; only Militarum Tempestus and Officio Prefectus infantry (and, of course, the Inquisition, using their special rule) can board it. This is theoretically to avoid the scenario where a Commissar, who in the fluff has the authority to command entire armies, should the need arise, can't board a simple armored car, although they're not allowed to bring their Ogryn Bodyguards with them, unlike with a standard Taurox.
  • You should only ever consider taking the Battle Cannon and/or Autocannons if you for some reason need extra range.
  • NOTE: For Inquisition players looking for transports for their inquisitor and henchmen, this is is probably the shooty metal box you're looking for.

Tactical Objectives Tactics

Tallarn

In the grim darkness of the far future, there's the quick and there's the dead.

An anachronistic amalgamation of Laurence of Arabia, Rambo III, Dune, and the North African Campaign.
On the tabletop, they play fast and tactical; with your Ambush stratagem, you can for the most part control the board, or keep important units safe until the opportune time to strike. Just don't expect to have the damage output of our Cadian and Catachan brethren.

Regimental Doctrines - Swift as the Wind: Infantry units with this doctrine can advance and still shoot all weapons except Heavy weapons, and do not suffer the penalty to hit when advancing with Assault weapons (which means they also won't suffer a penalty to hit with Rapid Fire, Pistol, or Grenade weapons after Advancing). Your infantry get to act sort of like eldar, because with you always advancing (and you should) the slowest you'll be is 7". No running about with lascannons, but the extra speed is appreciated. Tallarn vehicles do not suffer the penalty for moving and shooting their Heavy Weapons, making them the only regiment worth considering for a variety of Vehicles (like Sentinels), but do not ignore the penalty for advancing and firing Assault weapons, which is relevant on both the new Hellhounds and the new Baneblade variants. Titanic Vehicles that advance treat all their Heavy weapons as Assault, so everything on them except for storm bolters and that one lasgun can shoot after advancing at a -1 penalty. Assault Baneblade Cannons, anyone?

Warlord Trait - Swift Attacker: Your Warlord and every Tallarn unit within 6" can charge after Falling Back. This makes your melee screens infuriating to fight - start the turn, fall back an inch, Order the unit to Get back in the fight (Laurels for trolling) so they can shoot up the offender alongside the rest of your army, then charge back again if that wasn't enough (though they'll recieve Overwatch), keeping whatever they were in melee with locked in melee still, despite having pulled out for Shooting. It is important to note that this Warlord Trait effects all Tallarn units, not just infantry. Rough Riders benefit from this since they can use their hunting lances only on the charge and any vehicles you may want to charge can use the Crush Them stratagem every turn. This Warlord Trait can be very useful if you plan to be in your opponent's face.

Relics - Claw of the Desert Tigers: Replaces a power sword; SUser AP-3 D2, and can make 2 additional attacks. Unlike the Mamorph Tuskblade, actually is interesting compared to the Blade of Conquest - taking a model from S3 AP-3 to S5 AP-4 is better than A3->A5 against T4 specifically, but worse against T3 or T5 - but you shouldn't be taking this, since Tallarn is all about running circles around your enemy and staying in a gun-battle.

Tank Order - Get Around Behind Them!: The ordered unit can move up to 6" before or after firing, and this does not count against the range calculation for Grinding Advance (turret firing twice). Look at me, Tau: I am the Move-Shoot-Move now. Or, shoot twice while maintaining nearly normal speed (by definition, infinitesimally less than 12"). This can be especially potent on boards with good line of sight blocking terrain; move your 5" from behind a building, do some damage, then retreat 6" back behind cover for a frustrating game of whack-a-Leman-Russ. It can greatly help extend the life of a tank commander, and makes you feel like a tactical genius.

• The 6" movement is crucial here. Grinding Advance activates on movement 5" and under, so you're looking at an extra inch of movement after your Leman Russ' doubletaps. Use that extra inch to your advantage! As mentioned above, it could be used to retreat back into cover, advancing forward to an objective, squeeze yourself next to a screen, or even closing in on something you'd want to hit with your sword.

Stratagems - Ambush (3 CP): Use during the deployment phase. You may set up to three Tallarn units (only one of which can be a vehicle) in ambush. At the end of your movement phase, you may deploy them within 7" of the table's edge and more than 9" from any enemy units; they are treated as having moved their maximum distance. Outflank that Baneblade, you know you want to. Some key things to remember with this stratagem; 1) Vehicle squadrons are a thing, 2) This can be used more than once during deployment, since it is an out of phase stratagem, and 3) Each unit does not need to be set up in any kind of coherency outside of unit and vehicle squadron coherency. Do with this info what you will, and have fun!

Special Characters Fast Attack

• Mukaali Riders: (Open and Narrative Play only.) Bizarre desert space lizard beasts with 2" less movement than traditional Rough Riders, but compensate with better Toughness, Wounds, and 3 extra S5 attacks from Stomping Feet replacing Trampling Hooves.

Tactical Objectives

Tactics

• Tallarn Tank drive-bys: The Psychic Awakening updates have done a lot to buff the Leman Russ, but as with most Guard units, the lackluster 50/50 BS and lack of an invuln in an edition full of AP and multishot AT has made it so that the challenge isn't points cost or weapons, but making the most out of the unit before it inevitably blows up. For 22 points more, consider upgrading your Tank into a Tallarn Tank Commander for the ability to scoot-and-shoot (Using GABT!) while still keeping the Commander's 3+BS. Spend another CP to give the entire detachment's tanks the Emperor's Fist Keyword, which gives access to a 1 CP Strat that will allow you to move your full 10 inches and still doubletap; Spend another 2 CP to use Hail of Fire from the new PA book to bypass the dicerolls on your multishot weapons to fire the maximum number of shots(!) and watch as Tau and Eldar players go green with envy. If you really want to take out that Leviathan or KEQ, give the Tank Commander Hammer of Sunderance for 2 Heavy 6 Shots at S8 AP-2 and flat 3D. While this sounds like a big CP investment, well shut up, you're playing Guard, CP shouldn't really be an issue.
  • When compared to Cadia, Tallarn tanks are a lot more mobile and are a lot less likely to be sitting ducks. Sure,Pask stills hits on 2s and reroll 1s (with two orders), but you can only take one of him, while in a Tallarn list, you can have two Tank Commanders Fire and Fading on 3s. Giving a TC a Warlord Trait can also let them give that second order, if you want.

Mordian

In the grim darkness of the far future, discipline is the only thing keeping terror at bay.
From the night world of Mordia, the Iron Guard wear colorful parade uniforms and fight in carefully constructed formation. Don't be fooled by their colorful uniforms, for they can lay down punishing and well-disciplined fusillades of Lasgun fire.
On the tabletop, they benefit from keeping tight, defensive formations and are capable of assassinating characters with the right order to take out the enemy's chain of command.

Regimental Doctrines - Parade Drill: Infantry units with this doctrine gain +1 Ld if all its models are touching the base of at least one other model in the same unit, and can add +1 to Hit rolls on Overwatch (and their Overwatch hits on 7s too). The same is true for MORDIAN VEHICLES within 3" of each other.

• Positioning is key when using this Doctrine, so put the Special weapons in the middle of the squad and remove the cornermost models of a unit when they suffer casualties, to avoid losing the bonus. For ease, use strips of packing tape sticky-side up; a serried squad of 10 fits perfectly on a strip about 6" long. As a bonus, once it's on the table it's generally quite hard to see; all you get is perfect ranks of blue, red and gold. This is also the one and only instance that using square bases in a 40k game will not result in your immediate and violent demise via your own Shadowsword to the head. Incidentally, if you use the advice of taping your models together with packing tape, this will make your army faster to physically move your models then other Imperial Guard armies with heavy infantry cores.
• Infantry squads in the formation and in Regimental Standard range get better Ld than a Commissar. Furthermore, since the wording is units have +1 Ld (unlike "add 1 to the Ld characteristic" like Catachans), it probably stacks with a Lord Commissar's Aura of Discipline (the unit uses his Ld9, and gets +1Ld on top of whatever Ld it's currently using).
• It makes supercharged Plasma safe when overwatching. Hitting on a 5+ essentially doubles the damage you do in Overwatch. And then the Defensive Gunners Stratagem will let your vehicles overwatch on a 4+, hilariously letting Hydras hit more ground units with overwatch than with normal fire.

Warlord Trait - Iron Discipline: Roll a die for every model that flees from any friendly Mordian units within 6" of your Warlord. On a 4+, that model does not flee. Essentially an aura of Valhallan Grim Demeanour. Mordians do have superior leadership compared to most of their counterpart regiments and Commissars are usable again as of the April of 2018 Big FAQ to further improve a unit's leadership.

Relics - Order of the Iron Star of Mordian: The Mordian infantry bearer gets a 4+ FNP, effectively doubling his wounds, lifting some of the workload from the Field Medic and the Ogryn Bodyguard. Of good use when you absolutely must ensure your Warlord's survival, as regular Company Commanders aren't that special by themselves.

Order - Form Firing Squad!: All of a unit's Rapid Fire weapons (Lasguns, Plasma, and the sergeant's Bolter, if he has one) may target Characters that are in range regardless of whether or not there are closer enemy units.

• When comparing Ratlings to FFS for character sniping purposes, there's a number of things to consider. In favour of using the order all you need to do to use it is bring standard combat capable infantry you'd already want with officers to order them. Clean, simple, and versatile. Much more durable and deadly in close range. However, using Rapid-Fire involves getting your troops to within 24/12" of a character (and closer to its guards) and then firing ON the character using up an order. Using Conscripts involves risk of failure, Infantry poor output, combined squads eats a CP, and Vets are hard to get close enough. That's not to say they can't get the job done, but it will be messy, risks getting you stuck in melee, and is usually not the best use of the units and orders. Ratlings are much more likely to be able to get in range to hit a character without getting bogged down, but if hunted down WILL be destroyed, but at range, will require committing either long ranged weapons or putting units close and personal with your lines. Choose your units accordingly. One might consider using FFS and ratlings to complement eachother. FFS could be used to finish an enemy wounded by Ratlings. Or Ratlings could be used to help manipulate the enemy's behaviour, pushing the characters into the range of Firing Squads, baiting the enemy troops into an ambush, or drawing long ranged fire (usually overkill against them). Even if they're ignored, they'll usually earn back their points chipping away at targets of opportunity.
• The best option is just to put a vet squad loaded for bear in a valkyrie or chimera and give them an officer. Or wait for your opponent's special snowflake characters to come to you, and then melt them with a couple plasma squads.

Comparison table for Infantry/SWS/Vets/Commandsquad/Ratlings vs Commissar/LordC/SMLieutenant/SMCaptain. Militarum squads in the comparison have all the plasma guns they can bring, no Heavy Weapon teams (as to not lose the lasguns), and the sergeant (if available) has a boltgun. Ratlings that pop out of LOS-blockers lower their BS by 1, so they're listed near the Militarum squads that closed to Rapid Fire range. Numbers in bold indicate the target is killed. Keep in mind these numbers are for single squads: your Company Commanders issue two orders each (multiply number by 2), and Infantry squads can also form Combined Squads. Can be combined with Laurels of Command, but only Lasguns will be affected.

Stratagems - Volley Fire (1 CP): Use before a Mordian Infantry unit shoots in the shooting phase; EACH TIME you roll a hit roll of 6+ for a model in that unit, that model can shoot again at the same target, with the same weapon, and these extra attacks cannot proc additional attacks. Better than Stormtroopers since it's firing the weapon again, instead of an extra shot from half range. You're SO combining this with FRFSRF.

• Sadly the September 2019 FAQ now changed it to "one additional hit roll". Still better than Stormtroopers since it's at full range, but we are now reduced to Orks, essentially giving us Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! for the price of 1 CP. And it is only on infantry. And it doesn't automatically hit. Yeah... On the bright side it doesn't specify unmodified hit rolls of 6, so if you really want to make use of the stratagem, you can take Aradia Madellan to give the unit +1 to hit and make it proc on a 5+. Or a Sabre Defense Searchlight, I guess. On the (grim)dark side, -1 modifiers to hit make the whole exercise pointless.

Special Characters

Tactical Objectives Tactics

Valhalla

In the grim darkness of the far future, lasguns are cheap but lives are cheaper.
The other Space Russian regiment, these ones are based on the Soviet Union and, more specifically, the Soviets during WW2.
On the tabletop, they often use infantry squads in combination with their doctrine and Relic to lessen or even ignore morale. Their stratagem is amazing in Open or Narrative play, but not worth it for Matched.

Regimental Doctrines - Grim Demeanour: Infantry units with this doctrine halve (rounding up) the number of models that flee if they fail morale tests, which makes them safer to use without a Commissar, especially Infantry squads with their smaller number and better Ld than Conscripts. Infantry heavy lists will have the flexibility to deploy forces all across the board, and squads with special weapons will be a nuisance until wiped out. Valhallan Vehicles with this doctrine that have damage tables instead count their remaining wounds as double their actual value for the purposes of determining what their characteristics are, meaning you remain at full operational ability for much longer.

• Some wound tables are affected more than others, but 11 wounds goes from 1-2/3-5/6-11 to 1/2/3-11 (meaning a repair on an injured model always improves it), while 26 goes from 1-6/7-13/14-26 to 1-3/4-6/7-26 (meaning you never need more than a full 3 repair to make it better).

Warlord Trait - Tenacious: Warlord gains 5+ FNP, 6+ if it's a Vehicle. Outright replaces the BRB warlord trait, Tenacious Survivor. Makes the Field Medic's and Ogry Bodyguard's jobs a bit easier. Effectively makes your Tank Commander W14, but there are often better things to do with your warlord trait.

Relics - Pietrov's MK 45: The bearer may replace its Bolt Pistol with a better, AP-1 D2 Pistol 2 (as of Spring 2019 FAQ) Bolt Pistol, and prevents friendly Valhallan units within 6" from losing more than 1 model per morale check, effectively turning your Company Commander into a Commissar, reducing your army's dependence on them even further.

• Useful on Conscripts, since your doctrine already diminishes most of the effects of morale on the smaller Infantry Squads in normal circumstances. A damn fluffy Chenkov though. Remember it doesn't affect non-Regimental units like a real Commissar does. Also after FAQ its the only way of getting a pre-FAQ commissar in your army. A solid choice now - a Company Commander with this and Master of Command can walk 120 conscripts across the board and be an incredible pain in the жопа for everyone involved.

Order - Fire On My Command!: The ordered unit can shoot at enemies that are within 1" of another friendly unit, but any hit roll of 1 is resolved as a hit against the friendly unit instead. If more than one friendly unit is present, choose which one gets hit. This order can't be issued to a unit which is itself within 1" of an enemy unit. Kill them all; the Emperor will know His own. Funnily enough, flamers are safe to use since they don't roll to hit. Told you Emps knew His own.

• Tie up a problematic unit with disposable Conscripts, then order your Heavy Weapon Squads to fire on your command...and then you bring the Second Wave - Iron Warriors, eat your hearts out. This order shines when it's YOU who is on the offensive, tying up the enemy with Bullgryn and Crusaders who actually want to be in melee and can't "Get Back in the Fight". Those squads are, in fact, so well armoured (3W/2+ and 1W/3++) they can tank a few Heavy Bolter misses better than Space Marines can tank successful hits. For other non-melee units, just Fall Back; "Take Aim!" and "FRFSRF" do more damage than shooting on allies if the latter's melee isn't anything out of the ordinary.
• Did you notice it only says "friendly units"? THEY DON'T EVEN NEED TO BE YOUR UNITS: Reivers and Infiltrators can easily survive a stray lasgun shot while still spooking -1Ld off the enemy squad, and Vanguard's Rad Saturation lets you hit a weakened enemy (especially if they are next to a Graia warlord), which you can't do otherwise. Multiple detachments! Apologize to your friends! Yay!
• Watch out for supercharged plasma: not only will the firing model be slain by the 1, but a friendly unit will also be hit. Do keep in mind, though, that Crusaders have a 3++ and one can revive on a 2+. Especially useful against Primaris.

Stratagems - Send In The Next Wave! (2 CP): Use this stratagem at the end of your movement phase. Select a Valhallan Infantry unit (no Characters or Consolidated squads) that has been destroyed earlier in the battle. Set it up wholly within 6" of your table edge and more than 9" away from enemy models.This would be amazing, but in Matched Play, this does cost reinforcement points. This is crippling - you have no tactical reason ever to hold back a unit you've already paid for, especially if it only arrives once a friendly identical unit has been destroyed and especially if it only shows up in your deployment zone. A dead crap stratagem that is a gimmicky reserves rule?

Special Characters

Tactical Objectives Tactics

Vostroya

In the grim darkness of the far future, Cossacks get ornate lasguns and more range than your average Guardsman.
One of the two Space Russian regiments, this one is based on the Cossacks and noblemen of the old Russian Empire, with the bling to back it up.
On the tabletop, they have more range than other regiments, and are generally best used as a static or slow moving gunline, enjoying their increased range and strategems.

Regimental Doctrines - Heirloom Weapons: All units with this doctrine extend the range of all Rapid Fire and Heavy weapons with a minimum range of 24" or more by 6". 30" RANGE MULTIMELTAS, as well as Demolishers and Punishers. You also get 42" heavy bolters and plasma cannons, and 54" mortars and lascannons, but that's less impressive. This Doctrine has the greatest impact on 24" guns since the relative buff is greatest on them. Guns with abilities that are relative to their range (Multi-Meltas, Magma Cannons, Rapid Fire guns) end up getting +3" to their half-range profile, a consequence of +6" to their maximum range. Yes, Demolisher squadrons can be a thing. They had that 15 point price drop late 2019 down to around 140 points each? Take three. Always. Blow them up with 30in multimeltas on your tank commanders. Drive them out from cover to king hit counterpunch knights off their feet.

Warlord Trait - Honored Duelist: Re-roll failed hit and wound rolls in the Fight phase for attacks made by your Warlord. Again, a shooty character trying to be in melee. Not terribly competitive.

Relics - The Armour of Graf Toschenko: The wearer gains Toughness 4 and Sv 2+, effectively giving your Company Commander Terminator resilience. Kit him out with Power Maul and Bolt Pistol, along with the Vostroyan Warlord trait and get yourself a cut-rate Terminator for only 35 points. Not a CQC monster by any means but he will hand any errant Sergeant-equivalent his arse on a platter. Though, the best defense is not being hit in the first place.

Order - Repel The Enemy!: Targeted unit can fire any of their weapons at enemies within 1" of themselves, like Pistols can. Doesn't give the actual Pistol weapon type, only the ability; you can still only use one grenade per shooting phase (without spending CP). Get Back In The Fight will usually get the same job done, but sometimes you don't have the luxury of falling back, e.g. you don't have enough space or you would lose control of an objective. In those cases, this can be a lifesaver.

• Combined with the Grenadiers stratagem, this can let a squad tie up the enemy and bite off their nose. A skilled opponent will often charge, wipe the front squad, and then consolidate into CC with the squads behind, ostensibly weakening your shooting. Pop this order, Grenadiers, and Firstborn Pride for good measure, and show him what's what.
• You can also use this to allow infantry squads or veterans to fight alongside proper melee units. Rough Riders, Ogryn types and allies can find themselves wanting help with nothing but guardsmen nearby. You won't be able to use this ability until the turn after they charge, but it can turn a combined squad with flamers or plasmas (and maybe a priest) into decent budget backup, whereas shotgun vets with specials (while crap in melee) will be dangerous to ignore.

Stratagems - Firstborn Pride (1 CP): Used at the start of the shooting phase. Select a friendly Vostroyan unit; they add 1 to all hit rolls. Use this to make your supercharged plasma weapons 100% safe; static Russ Executioners are your best source of plasma. Or have your conscripts shoot like real men (an you can always buff them further to hit on 3s if you take a Defensive Searchlight). Is this the best guard stratagem? So good. Tank Commanders fully kitted? Can all hit on 2s now. Shadowswords? Can all hit on 3s now.

Special Characters

Tactical Objectives Tactics

Death Korps of Krieg

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only death, atonement and trench warfare .
The Death Korps is a somber, fatalistic lot, based roughly on designs from WW1 and the Napoleonic Era. In lore, they fight grueling battles of attrition and slaughter to repay their debt to the Imperium.
On the tabletop, they enjoy shooting at close range and melee with a +3 WS. Additionally, they have access to a number of special weapons and wargear that other regiments do not. They also love artillery.

Restrictions

In addition to their special units and general non-REGIMENT units like Commissars, Tech-Priests and Ogryn, the Death Korps of Krieg can only use the following units:

• HQ
  • Tank Commander (bizarrely, there is no way for a DKoK Tank Commander to show up in a Mars Alpha Leman Russ.
• Elites
  • Atlas Recovery Tank
  • Hades Breaching Drill Squadron
  • Master of Ordnance
• Fast Attack
  • Hellhound
  • Salamander Scout Tank
• Heavy Support
  • Armageddon Pattern Medusa
  • Basilisk
  • Colossus Bombard
  • Cyclops Demolition Vehicle
  • Earthshaker Carriage Battery
  • Heavy Mortar Battery
  • Heavy Quad Launcher Battery (though it is mistakenly called the Quad Launcher Battery)
  • Hydras
  • Malcador Annihilator
  • Malcador Defender
  • Malcador Heavy Tank
  • Malcador Infernus
  • Medusa Carriage Battery
  • Rapier Laser Destroyer Battery
  • Stygies Destroyer Tank Hunter
  • Stygies Thunderer Siege Tank
• Dedicated Transports
  • Centaur Light Carrier
  • Trojan Support Vehicle
• Lords of War
  • Arkurian Pattern Stormblade
  • Baneblade
  • Gorgon Heavy Transporter
  • Macharius Heavy Tank
  • Macharius Omega
  • Macharius Vanquisher
  • Macharius Vulcan
  • Minotaur Artillery Tank
  • Shadowsword
  • Stormsword

They are also unable to take sniper rifles as special weapons.

Special Rules

• Cult of Sacrifice: When taking Morale tests, ignore casualties inflicted in the Shooting phase. This applies to all Infantry units listed above, not just the Death Korps exclusive ones. This rule helps mitigate the punishing effects of morale, which is both fluffy and reduces their dependency on Ld-boosting aura effects.
  • Note that this is casualties inflicted in the Shooting Phase not By Shooting. So DKoK ignore casualties inflicted by Gets Hot!, which is good for Plasma and Carcass spam.
• Death Korps OFFICERS and Watch Masters can take hotshot laspistols and hotshot lasguns in addition to the usual laspistol, bolt pistol, plasma pistol and boltgun (no Shotguns) as well as adding Chainswords to the melee weapons list in addition to the usual Power Weapons. Alternatively, they can take a pair of laspistols, hotshot laspistols or bolt pistols if they leave the melee weapon at home. Heavy Weapon Teams also have access to heavy flamers and twin heavy stubbers as heavy weapons.

Weapons and Wargear

• Acid Gas Bombs: One half of the nightmare that is the Combat Engineer Squad. Besides having AP-2 and DD3, it autowounds anything that isn't a VEHICLE on a 2+; anything that is gets wounded on a 6+. Rumor has it they are filled with the delicious tears of Tyranid players who just had their Hierophant melted into sludge.
• Krieg Combat Shotgun: The other half of the Combat Engie dream team. Has two firing modes: the first, Solid Shot, is as a standard Shotgun, except it's ALWAYS S4, not just within half range. The other half is what everyone came here for, Carcass Shot: +1D over regular shells AND it has the same autowound rule as the Acid Gas Bombs! The downside is that it acts like an overcharge Plasma Gun, killing the bearer on To Hit rolls of 1. Be sure to only use the Carcass shot against something you absolutely need to, like a Greater Daemon or a Carnifex, and strongly consider running Yarrick with the squad to keep them alive!
• Melta Bomb: Reserved solely for the Combat Engineer Watch Master, it's a single 6" range Melta shot. It's dirt cheap at 3 points, a great choice for shoring up the squad's comparative weakness vs VEHICLES and can damn near delete any single low wound model that is unfortunate enough to be within grenadeing range of a Combat Engie squad.
• Mole Launcher: A Krieg Combat Engineer exclusive, courtesy of their short beardy friends, this bad boy has half the range of a regular Mortar and can't attack Fliers, but brings 1 more Strength and AP, along with the unique ability of outright preventing the attacked unit from Advancing. A touch situational but against a melee heavy enemy, this can be a life saver, especially against the likes of large blobs of Ork boys or Chaos Cultists.
• Twin Heavy Stubber: You guessed it, its a 36" Heavy 6 S4 AP0 D1 and exclusive to Krieg Heavy Weapon Squads. Still 8 points despite regular Stubbers getting their price cut down to 2, but if this was 4 points you'd probably never even bother considering any other option. As it is, it's highly comparable to the Heavy Bolter, doing far better against MEQ hordes and evenly vs MEQs, but falling off against super heavy infantry. If you were going to take Heavy Bolters, you're probably be better off taking this instead. Besides, the model looks fantastic.

Orders

The Death Korps of Krieg has a different roster of Orders compared to standard guard and can order Cavalry as well as Infantry.

• Re-roll Orders: Death Korps lose Take Aim! and thus only have Bring it down! as a Re-roll Order. However, except in the case of Gets Hot!, Bring it down! has the same effect as Take Aim!
  • Bring it down!: Ordered unit re-rolls to-wound rolls of 1 until the end of the phase.
• Movement Orders: Same as standard Guard. Death Korps are mostly footsloggers, so a fluffy army will find these more useful.
  • Forwards, for the Emperor!: Ordered unit can shoot, even if it advanced in the movement phase.
  • Get back in the fight!: Ordered unit can shoot, even if it fell back in its movement phase.
  • Move! Move! Move!: Ordered unit must move as if it were in the movement phase, and it must advance and cannot charge.
• Special Orders: Death Korps lose First Rank fire! Second Rank fire! and gain the orders Duty Unto Death! and Without Mercy!
  • Without Mercy!: Lasguns and Hot-shot Lasguns become Pistol 2. While lacking in the sheer number of shots FRFSRF can bring out, it can be quite effective at surprising a melee-happy opponent when your gunline can keep on shooting even in close combat.
    • This is basically your equivalent of FRFSRF, and unless you're under 12", actually gives the same firepower - no range change so you get 24" Pistol 2.
    • However, because you still have access to Get back in the Fight!, overall you're usually worse with these weapons than stock Guard - FRFSRF+GBITF together solve most problems as well as or better than Without Mercy + GBITF. This order is primarily useful on Objectives, where you dare not Fall Back or you'll cease to contest.
  • Fix Bayonets!: May only be issued to units within 1" of an enemy unit. Ordered unit may immediately fight as if it were in the fight phase.
    • This is more useful for Death Korps, as it can be given to their superior dedicated melee units, namely Death Riders.
  • Duty Unto Death!: Any Infantry or Cavalry model in the affected unit slain in the Fight phase makes one last attack. Helps to wring out one last bit of usefulness from a unit that's losing a melee fight.
    • The primary benefit this has over fix bayonets is that it can be used on a turn in which you charge. Still not the strongest order.
    • With Fix Bayonets AND Duty unto Death you can get some/all models in that unit to fight 3 times, which can make consolidating into even a basic infantry unit scary for the opponent. 10 horms dead, 5 genestealers (3.5 with catalyst), 6 bloodletters, 1 Sanguinary Guard, and almost 2 Death Company marines... is a decent use of laurels on a screening unit to hold a line.
    • When using death riders, Duty Unto death is the only way to get extra attacks with the lances. Fix Bayonets can not be used the same turn you charge (shooting is before charging and thus you are not within 1"). Duty Unto death *can* give some extra attacks if some death riders are killed. Otherwise stick to the other orders
    • Due to the poor wording of this rule, one could technically argue that it does not end. However, this will result in a full blown argument on rules, so we advise you avoid doing this if you want to actually play the game.

Warlord Trait

Relics

Stratagems

Tactical Objectives

Units

HQ

• Death Korps Marshal: The equivalent of a Company Commander doesn't come stock with a chainsword (but can take one for free, so he might as well) or shotgun, but he does come with a Krak Grenade and a higher armor save. Additionally, the Momento Mori he can buy forces all weapons that normally roll for damage to treat the roll as a 1, giving him a bit more staying power than normal.
  • Marshal Karis Venner: Your named Character for the Death Korps, he comes with a hot-shot laspistol, powersword, and Momento Mori. He can issue three Orders per turn and lets friendly units within 12" to use his Ld value unless their own Ld is higher. With that Ld aura, you can combine Venner with a platoon and regimental standard for an Ld 11 bubble 12"+ in diameter (depending on what size base you put him on). Basically gives your guys fearless. A little something to remember: RAW states that all friendly units can use Venner's Ld,(within 12") which means that all units in your army use his. That's right. Terminators with Ld 11? Yes, please.
    • If you really want to be cheesy, get him to sit on an Imperial Defence Line for another +1 to his Leadership. This will result in units that need to take at least 7 casualties (and, if they're Death Korps, those loses can't be in the Shooting Phase) to even have a chance of losing models to Morale and, even after taking 9 casualties, will still have a 50% chance of the remaining model holding the line. Finally, if you use the Fight to the Death stratagem, they become immune to Morale completely. And remember, this applies to all friendly units. Have fun with those Leadership 12 Space Marines.
• Death Korps Field Officer: The Platoon Commander equivalent, though he shares the improved armor save with the Marshal and comes with a Marshal's Ld score as well. At 23 points base, possibly the cheapest HQ choice in the game (other regiments have to spend a precious Elite slot on their version of this guy).
• Death Korps Death Rider Squadron Commander: A Field Officer on a horse, with a boost to Toughness and Wounds to go with it. Having the same Augmented Mount ability as other Death Riders helps to increase his durability, and for obvious reasons he's the best choice for getting Orders to your cavalry.

Troops

• Death Korps Infantry Squad: An odd change to basic Guardsmen, Kriegers lose the option to take Heavy Weapon Teams and their Watchmaster uses a lasgun like the regular troops (though he can exchange it for a chainsword and laspistol for free, so it's a non-issue). They also all have WS3+ and can buy a Platoon Standard which buffs all Kriegers within 6" LD by 1. They synergize particularly well with the Death Korps' unique orders - especially when dogpiling on an objective or bubblewrapping precious artillery pieces. Kriegers also come stock with Krak grenades; with the GRENADIERS stratagem you can throw 10 of them at once (though this tactic is more impressive when used on Grenadiers (no acid grenades for the grenadiers) or Combat Engineers' acid grenades).
  • Oddly enough the Watchmaster also has BS3+.(not so odd when you remember that all watchmasters serve in the grenadiers before returning to be promoted.)
• Death Korps Grenadier Storm Squad: A Tempestus Scion squad with deep striking replaced by Cult of Sacrifice and no access to hot-shot volley guns. Unlike with Scions the number of Special weapons Grenadiers can take does not depend on the number of models in the unit so they can unfortunately only have two Specials max. Now with the FAQ update they can take Heavy Stubbers as special weapons, as well as the ability to form a Heavy Weapons team to tote around a Heavy Flamer.
  • Not as good as Combat Engineers in terms of points per wound, but they can get Objective Secured which is probably worth their extra points cost and loss of acid gas grenades. Fundamentally fantastic MSU style, with a heavy flamer, 2 special weapons (probably plasma, maybe melta), and a Watch Master taking up 4 spots in a transport and costing very little points. Shove three squads in a Valkyrie and drop them onto an objective.
    • OR, if you don't want to spend the points on a Valkyrie, chuck these mean machines in a centaur. They are suprisingly mobile, thanks to the 9" scouting move you can do before the game starts. And a bare-bones centaur is only 50 points!
  • Hot-shot laspistols are nice, but your other options are better and two of them cost the same, so always have the Watch Master swap out his weapon - your best bet is probably a hotshot lasgun or bolter (the las has shorter range, but will outperform the bolter unless your target has an invuln save that's equal to their armor, or only one point worse than armor in the case of T6/7), unless you want to fucking commit and get a plasma pistol.

Elites

• Death Korps Command Squad: No heavy flamer, medi-pack, or heavy weapons teams in this command squad, but what you do get is the ability to use the Regimental Standard. It only affects Cavalry and Infantry, but grants an additional attack on top of the Ld bonus, making your troops more effective in close combat.
  • These guys are surprisingly underwhelming compared to Combat Engineers, since you pay the same cost per model and don't get a 4+ save or acid gas bombs; furthermore, they obey the same 2 special weapons per unit limit as the Engineers. Even if you do spam them, you're not going to achieve anything you couldn't achieve only better with Combat Engineer spam, since their standard won't work on Conscripts, they're too slow to keep up with Death Riders, they can't be Medics.... really, there's just about never a good reason to field these guys over Combat Engineers.
• Death Korps Combat Engineer Squad: Shotgun infantry with decent armour. Overall not super inspiring until you see their shotguns have Carcass Shot, which wounds anything (except Vehicles) on a 2+. Carnifex? 2+ Wound. Ogryns? 2+ Wound. You lose the model if you roll a 1 on the hit roll. BUT buff them with a nearby Guilliman (gross, or don't and have some class. You are a Guard player after all, not a WAAC Tau reject left over from 7th) Yarrik and say hello to rerolls of 1 to hit. Carcass Shot vs GEQs, MEQs and TEQs is basically a Plasma Gun with AP 0.
  • These guys are incredible - they cost a point less than Grenadiers for what amounts to the same model with the addition of an acid gas grenade, although they are Elites and hence cannot get Objective Secured. You can keep their shotguns, which, unlike hot-shot lasguns, are worth spending a point on, or swap out for special weapons to demonstrate superiority over Grenadiers - 2 plasma gunners, a boltgun on the sergeant, and a heavy flamer team will get you the same output as a Grenadier squad with the same loadout, except your guys also have acid gas grenades and cost less. The plasma gunners can carry meltaguns instead, of course, and either way can be stuffed in a Valkyrie and dropped in sets of 3 squads directly into your enemy's lap.
  • A bit of MathHammer shows the following averages: 864pts of Combat Engineers will put out 216 shots, hitting on 3s and wounding GEQs, MEQs and TEQs on 2+ with a 5+/3+/2+ save respectively and 2 wounds, killing 640pts/160 models of GEQs, 1040pts/80 models of MEQs and 960pts/20 models of TEQs; while losing 288pts/36 Engineers in return. Thus, ignoring other factors the kills to deaths ratio will always be in your favour by a factor of 585:1300, 360:1300 or 390:1300 respectively and Carcass Shot is most productive when used on MEQs.
• Death Korps Commissar: A basic Commissar. Given all the buffs to Ld you can get with the Death Korps along with their Cult of Sacrifice rule, you can skip him. The models are pretty nice though.
  • As of April 2018, the cost of a Death Korps Commissar has gone down to 15 points, from 30. This makes their base cost the exact same as a normal Commissar as other regiments would take, but with krak grenades, cult of sacrifice, and of course the aura of discipline normally reserved for Lord Commissars. They’ve become a pretty handy Ld buffer for melee.
  • Despite what would be common sense, taking 2 Pistols does not let him Blam twice as many units.
• Death Korps Death Rider Commissar: See above, but with a horse. Forge World doesn't seem to make these models anymore so you'll have to kitbash them.
  • While the Death Korps Commissar and the other Forge World Commissars were FAQed to have the new Summary Execution Rule, the Death Rider Commissar was overlooked. While this is an obvious RAW interpretation, the Death Rider Commissar therefore still only allows a maximum of 1 model to be lost to morale.
  • Same as the foot-slogging Death Korps Commissar, this Commissar got a point reduction to 35 points. They’ve become useful, if not viable, as your Death Riders will be getting stuck into melee.
  • Note: both Death Korps Commissars have the Officio Prefectus and Commissar keywords, and a Summary Execution rule that targets Astra Militarum units, meaning they can be taken in non-Death Korps armies without denying those armies their regiment rules, and can still proc a Psyker's "it's for your own good" rule. However their aura of discipline is Krieg specific so they won't be giving other regiments or auxiliaries ld8. Due to the amount of equipment options Death Korps Commissars have over regular ones (hotshots, dual wielding pistols, carrying grenades that are worth using, and of course being able to mount up) there's a decent argument to be made for taking one of them over a standard Commissar in a non-Krieg army, and absolutely no argument to take a regular codex Commissar in a Krieg army.
• Death Korps Quartermaster Cadre: This is where the Command Squad's Medi-pack went. One creepy guy and up to 4 servitors wielding scalpels that wound non-vehicles on a 2+ and get buffed to WS/BS 4+ and Ld 9 as long as they stay close to him. They also grant nearby Infantry and Cavalry the ability to ignore an unsaved wound on a 6+, making it mutually beneficial for them to stay close to a big squad of infantry.
• Death Korps Death Rider Command Squad: A must-have for any list focusing on Death Riders. Taking this squad along allows them and up to 5 other Death Rider units to deploy via outflanking at the end of any movement phase. Use in combination with the Death Rider officer, above, and a few squads of Death Riders, below, to outflank an entire detachment! Aside from this they're the same as an understrength Death Rider Squad, as they lost the ability to take a Standard.
  • As of the current FAQ, you may only bring one Command Squad or a Rider Command Squad per Death Korps officer, but any type of officer will do.

Dedicated Transport

• Death Korps Storm Chimera: The Krieger approach to warfare is obvious in this armored vehicle's loadout. It gets an autocannon as its turret gun and the option to buy improved armor, which gives it a 2+ save vs weapons of S4 or less and lets it ignore the effects of land mines on a 4+. It's a price hike on the standard Chimera, but it's worth it. Note that it doesn't necessarily have to be used with Death Korps; although it has the Death Korps OF Krieg keyword instead of <REGIMENT>, it specifically says it transports Astra Militarum Infantry, and even mentions it can take Ogryn, so RAW, it's legal to use these to transport regular guardsmen, or even storm troopers.
• Death Korps Centaur Light Assault Carrier: Hoo-boy. This little bugger is magnificent. Sure, it's not as tough or as shooty as a Storm Chimera, but if you pop 5 grenadiers with some meltas or flamers, or 4 (how are you getting a squad of 4 grenadiers? Min is 5(ruled as written, a Grenadier Weapons Team doesn't take up two slots in the vehicles. Only Heavy Weapons Teams are mentioned.)) with heavy flamer/melta or flamer/melta or flamer/sergeant and, optionally, a fifth rider of your choice, such as an Astropath or Primaris Psyker for Smite, you can send this off towards the enemy up to 9" before the game even starts. Imagine your opponent's face when they see this little bundle of hurt rolling towards them. They can ignore it, and have some grenadiers kick them in the arse, or shoot it and ignore the vast majority of your army.
  • Pretty cheap, at 54 points, and 6 wounds in it's still Movement 12, unlike a Chimera, which has dropped to 8 by then. Plus, like the DKSC above, this transport carries any Imperial Guard infantry, not just <REGIMENT> ones.

Fast Attack

• Death Korps Death Rider Squadron: A big step up from the basic Rough Riders. +1 to WS, T, A, and Sv, although the +1A evens out in the wash when you don't charge, as you lack chainswords; regardless, you're much less likely to die before you reach your target, particularly since the Augmented Mount special rule gives you 5+ FNP against S4 weapons and below. Your steed gets 2 extra attacks instead of one and hits as hard as a bolter; this is particularly noticeable when not charging, giving you 4 attacks to a normal Rough Rider's 3, and 2 of those are at +1S. While you don't get a chainsword, you do get krak grenades, which will benefit one model in the unit. While you cannot outflank with this unit (unless you take the Death Rider Command Squad), it is not slowed when charging through terrain, making it easier to attack cover campers. With no access to special weapons, they're much better suited as frontline brawlers - with access to orders, they can be just mean with Fix Bayonets! and Duty Unto Death! (although Fix Bayonets is better in basically all circumstances). Like with most DKoK, they have Cult of Sacrifice as a morale buff.
  • The fact that Death Riders trade their Chainsword for +1 Attacks is a bonus, because they can hit twice with their lance on the charge, instead of the one lance and one chainsword hit that standard Riders get.
  • Use Duty Until Death when you charge, because that's the only order you will get use out of by doing so. If your opponent decides he doesn't want to get slowly pounded down by hard to kill horsies, use Fix Bayonets! to make him understand that melee guardsmen just work.
  • Rough Riders cost 10 points apiece, compared to the DKoK Death Rider cost of 16, which pays for itself in the improved attack volume alone, let alone their many other improvements, like ability to obey orders; their only substantive downside is their inability to take special weapons. Even their sergeant is buffed, as he drops his lance to buy a melee weapon if you want to change his melee up, as opposed to stock, which is forced to carry both a lance and a power weapon if you want that. Consider said swap, as a power axe brings the sergeant pretty close to the lance, but usable in the event you get stuck in. Fix Bayonets!, and you're possibly hitting 6 times with that axe in one turn. Ouch.

Heavy Support

• Death Korps Heavy Weapons Squad: Other than the higher WS, Krak Grenades, and Cult of Sacrifice, they're identical to the vanilla HWS - with the additional option to take heavy flamers. You might need to bring a couple along anyway though since you can't take heavy weapons in your regular infantry squads.
  • Heavy Flamer teams are drastically the most cost effective way to get heavy flamers into your army, so much so that they are actually competitive with flamers (which does not usually happen, due to a heavy flamer costing more than two flamers). This gives them a radically dofferent role from what HWSs are used to, but they can be very effective when carried in a Valkyrie.
  • Heavy Bolters and Twin Heavy Stubbers may compete with each other, as they both cost 8 points each, and are both direct-fire anti-infantry options. Against TEQs (T4 2+), Heavy Bolters win (0.9801 wounds on average vs 0.765 wounds on average). Against MEQs (T4 3+), either option is viable (1.485 wounds on average). Against GEQs (T3 5+), Twin Heavy Stubbers are better (3.9204 wounds on average vs 2.4948 wounds on average). Ultimately, Heavy Bolters are better against enemies with better saves, and Twin Heavy Stubbers are better against enemies with worse saves. The models for either weapon choice are very nice, so you can't lose there.
  • A full squad of mortars actually costs 3 pts less than it does in the AM Codex, although sadly they don't really benefit from Krieg's doctrines
• Death Korps Leman Russ Mars Alpha Battle Tanks: Your favorite battle tank, customizable into any configuration of Russ as you see fit (though the Vanquisher Cannon comes with a heavy stubber instead of a storm bolter as its coaxial weapon), but now with the ability to trade the stock hull-mounted heavy bolter for a multi-melta or a plasma cannon. As an added bonus, its armour save becomes a 2+ against weapons of S4 or lower, so bolter shots won't even faze you. Aside from these things, they're exactly the same as the variants up top.

Tactics

• Outflanking Death Riders *Deathriders are perhaps the single greatest edge you have over any other IG regiment, Rough Riders simply cannot compare (although they do make excellent tank hunters).

Use Flanking Maneuvers to put up to 50 horses in your opponent's backfield for every Deathrider Command Squad in your army. An all Deathrider army is perfectly feasible and highly competitive, though it works best when supported by a horde of infantry and mortar artillery.

• Combat Engineers' Carcass Shot and Acid Grenades make splinter rifles look tame by comparison. If your Engineers get locked in melee (and with a 12" threat range it's going to happen) fall back 6", Get Back In the Fight!", and then use the Grenadiers stratagem to lob 10 Acid Grenades at your opponent.
  • Your Engineers will need a transport, either a Centaur if you're running them in MSU or a Chimera for a full squad and a Field Officer. A Field officer with the The Dagger of Tu'Sakh with a full squad of engineers coming in behind the enemy is very powerful. Just say they tunneled up from below.
• Kriegers are practically fearless thanks to Cult of Sacrifice which makes them immune to morale tests caused by shooting. Put Marshal Karis Venner in range of a regimental standard - he becomes LD10...and so does every infantry/cavalry model within 12" of him. This makes Consolidate Squads not such a terrible idea as morale tests are irrelevant if you're fighting a shooty opponent (Tau, IG, etc).
• Krieg is perhaps the best IG regiment when it comes to melee (other than Catachans). You are also one of the toughest - ultra-high LD + Cult of Sacrifice, Storm Chimeras, Deathriders, and (relatively) cheap infantry hordes mean Kriegers are surprisingly hard to table even against horde-optimized armies.
• Krieg excels in games with heavy terrain like few other armies. Deathriders aren't impeded by charging through cover while mortar artillery ignores cover saves completely. And Combat Engineers are even in better in Cities of Death where they can benefit from Fire In the Hole.*Tunneling Engineers the other great unit we have is engineers, these guys are king at deleting enemy units. Give a field officer the relic dagger (or shovel) and pop up from the flanks and let an enemy unit eat your carcase shot, even taking losses to it overheating its still worth it since you can take out a 200point Terminator squad for only 103points. Scared of losses to 1s you can just put them in a valkrye or chimera with Yarrik, a commisar wl with master of command or an inquistor for that re roll 1s to hit goodness. By far the best way to use them is to get close and use their acid grenades using the grenadair stratagem if you can get them close enough.

Elysian Drop Troops

In the grim darkness of the far future, some times the only way forward is feet first into Hell.
Elysians Drop Troops are the paratroopers of the 41st millenium. Guardsman life expectancy is short as is, and Elysians even more so, but its a job that needs to be done and glory never dies. On the tabletop, Elysians are your airborn support. While they lack heavy armour, their heaviest unit being the Tauros Venator, they make up for it with tactical flexibility and the ability to deploy anywhere they damn well please.

Restrictions

In addition to their unique units, Elysian Drop Troops can only take the following:

• Elites
  • Officer of the Fleet
• Fast Attack
  • Tauros and Tauros Venator
    • Gains aerial drop.
• Heavy Support
  • Cyclops Demolition Vehicle
  • Tarantula Battery
• Fliers
  • Avenger Strike Fighter
  • Lightning Strike Fighter
  • Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter
  • Valkyrie
  • Vendetta
  • Vulture

The following weapons cannot be taken by Elysian Drop Troops:

• Autocannon
• Lascannon
• Power Axe
• Power Maul
• Sniper Rifles are carried by specific 2W 2A Elysian Sniper Squad models, who, like their cousins in the Death Korps not actually named Heavy Weapons Teams, curiously only occupy 1 transport spot on a Valkyrie.

Special Rules

A few rules that are unique to Elysians and have widespread effects concerning many or most units in the army.

• Aerial Drop: You can deep strike any Elysian Drop Troops model, including any kind of Tauros. Just don't forget the limits of doing so in matched play.
  • Remember, this applies to every model with the Elysian Drop Troops keywords, which is everything with either Aeronautica Imperialis or <REGIMENT> you can take, i.e. every in-faction model for you, including e.g. turrets and flyers. Elysia apparently follows Maxim 11: "Everything is air-droppable at least once".
  • Note the wording on this rule and who gets it is rather strange, the unit list states that all Elysian Drop Troops units have this rule, but then adds that Tauros units with the Elysian Drop Troops keyword also get it. Tauros getting aerial drop should have been implied by the first clause of the rule, unless they meant to say that the other units you have in common with regular guard don't get aerial drop. Expect an FAQ, and discuss with opponents before you start deep striking sentry guns and cyclops bombs.
  • With deepstrike rule change, Aerial Drop can't be used until turn 2, so have some durable allies to be your anchor.

• Iron Discipline: All Elysian officers have an aura buff that gives you the ability to re-roll failed morale. Talk about hardcore soldiers when even junior officers of the Elysian army are inspiring enough to make your guys as brave as space marines. Squads that come with a sergeant will be at ld 8 so the enemy will have to inflict some pretty fucking serious casualties before you start suffering significant losses due to morale.
• Strafing Coordinates: This is the officers of the fleet target designation rule. He picks a target within 18" and friendly ELYSIAN DROP TROOPS FLYERS shooting at that target gets to re-roll hit rolls of 1. Not as amazing as before due to only affected FLYERS.

Weapons and Wargear

• Auxiliary grenade launcher: Comes built into your lasgun and boosts the range of frag and krak grenades to 24". It's free, so why wouldn't you take it?
• Breacher charges: Some Elysian squads can take breacher charges. This is what we get instead of demolition charges. Unlike demolition charges, which are powerful, cheap grenades, breacher charges are 5 times as expensive melee versions which don't let you use your ballistic skill. They do cause mortal wounds, but to be frank, if you do the math, the average damage output of these one-shot weapons is not good. Even assuming you get into melee intact, 6 of these (from, say, 2 special weapon squads armed with 3 each) will put out an average of 10.5 mortal wounds. That won't even kill a rhino, and if you want consistent charges, you'd better be willing to invest in a Valkyrie for those two squads. If you don't, you have to realize that your chance of making a charge out of aerial drop is only 10/36 or about 28% chance. If you do invest in the Valkyrie, you are now spending 260-288 points for a one-shot assault unit that does not even do that much damage; you are substantially better off with meltaguns against absolutely anything durable enough to make you reach for breacher charges in the first place.
  • Breacher charges could have been a fun and iconic piece of wargear for Elysians this edition. If they had been 5 points each, or at least auto-hit, they probably would have. Now, instead of throwing a few breachers around your army, making it sort of threatening sometimes in melee, one quickly realizes that a piece of one-use wargear that costs more than 3 plasma guns must have a lot more impact on the game than breacher charges do. Two breacher charges are roughly the same cost as a command squad with plasma guns, and 4 charges are as expensive as a veteran squad with 3 plasma guns and a plasma pistol.
• Lascutters: Elysian Drop Troops can take lascutters (an S9 AP-3 D1d3 melee weapon which can only make 1 attack) as special weapons. From a competitive perspective, these are neither worth the special weapons slots nor the points. Charging from deep strike is about a 28% chance, and charging from Valkyries is expensive. Even if you get your veterans (or whatever squad you put these on) unharmed into melee, it is very hard to imagine a scenario where this would outperform some shooting with a melta or plasma gun. If efficiency is not something that concerns you, it can be quite a bit of fun. Theoretical cool setups include 10 veterans with 3 lascutters, a breacher charge, and a power fist, or 3 command squads with 12 lascutters, or 2 special weapons squads with 6 lascutters.
• Shotgun: Same as the normal kind, but notable for being a special weapon choice you can take.

Orders

Like the Death Korps of Krieg, Elysians have two unique orders.

They give up:

• Forwards, for the Emperor!: Ordered unit can shoot, even if it advanced in the movement phase.
• Fix Bayonets!: May only be issued to units within 1" of an enemy unit. The ordered unit may immediately fight as if it were in the fight phase.

They gain:

• Hold the Line!: The targeted unit ignores models killed during both the Shooting and Fight phases for the purposes of the Morale phase until the next Movement phase. This makes commissars even less useful for Elysians, though you will, in most cases, use the other orders, since your company commanders already grant a re-roll.
• Move and Fire!: All of an Elysian INFANTRY unit's weapons become Assault weapons until the end of the turn. Similar to Forwards, for the Emperor! but also allows Heavy Weapons to fire and move without the normal penalties for doing so. Note that this will make Rapid Fire 1 weapons Assault 1, which is unfortunate, but Heavy, Pistol, and Grenade weapons all get a nice buff. That last is particularly important, given how widespread access is to frag and krak grenades - other regiments have to pay a CP to throw ten frag grenades, you can throw ten frag, krak grenades and a lasgun shot for free!

Units

HQ

• Elysian Company Commander: Compared to the basic company commander, the Elysian version loses the shotgun and chainsword but gains an extra point of Ld and allows friendly Elysian Drop Troops within 6" of him to reroll failed morale tests.
  • You will be forced to take these guys to fill out HQ slots. He is a superior choice to the commissar in most cases and is a damned fine buffing character. We can also assume that he unlocks command squads for us which are quite points efficient. Elysian orders are good and these guys will spread them around to your troops. Has the benefit over Tempestors of both giving two orders and taking a plasma pistol.
  • There are two approaches to taking Company Commanders, take as few as possible or take a lot of them. The first approach gives you more "real" units to aerial drop. The second gives you more command squads and better saturation of orders. I have tried both and will usually land somewhere in between though I think going for a few commanders is probably better.
• Elysian Lord Commissar:This Lord Commissar loses the Power Sword (which is an upgrade, since he can still buy one if you wanted it, and can swap his bolt pistol out for a boltgun), and like the Company Commander he allows friendly Elysian Drop Troops within 6" of him to re-roll failed morale tests as an extra defense against morale checks.
  • Not great for us and you will rarely see any one take a Lord Commissar. He is more expensive than a normal commissar lord but the problem is we do not have conscripts. Since our Company Commanders offer ld re-rolls in addition to being cheaper and giving out orders he is a natural choice. The biggest unit size Elysians have are 10 man squads and while it is quite easy to create theoretical scenarios where a commissar would be better as morale buffing char than a commander it will rarely impact the game in practice. This is especially true when you consider Elysian commanders have a morale buffing order they can drop in a pinch.
  • As with Death Korps Commissars, he can technically be taken by any regiment rather than just his own, of course once again his aura abilities won't affect anyone, not from Elysia, but he can still BLAM regular guardsmen or mercy kill exploding psykers. Probably not worth it considering that, unlike with the Death Korps Commissar, regular Commissar Lords actually do have a non-regiment aura of discipline, and to make matters worse he was not FAQ'd to have the same reduced cost as the codex version, meaning you'll pay almost double the points for him, but if for some reason you wanted a deep striking Commissar with krak grenades and a shotgun, he's here for you.

Troops

• Elysian Drop Trooper Squad: More expensive than basic Guardsmen and also lack heavy weapons access, but have an extra point in Ld and the whole unit can take krak grenades for free. The sergeant can replace his laspistol with a lasgun since the faq.
  • The problem with breacher charges:Breacher charges are super cool but expensive and ineffective, even when we get to use them. 25 points is a lot for a piece of equipment, especially when that equipment is one use only (faq 1.0). Remember that the entire base cost of the squad is only 50 points. Even when we get to use them they don't do that much damage. Since they only work 50% of the time they will score an average of 1.75 mortal wounds on vehicles, buildings, or monsters, and only 1 on everything else. Combined with the abysmal likelihood of making the charge after aerial dropping in, we can only expect to land 0.5 wounds on a vehicle with an infantry squad.
  • Alternate opinion: Our infantry squads are not very tempting compared to other options. If you are going to take them to keep them dirt cheap and expendable because they will not have the punch of veterans or special weapon squads. If you want to have something aerial dropping and killy in the troop slot take some scions. A cheap unit of infantry can be very useful in 8th edition. You can drop them on to objectives, this is especially relevant in progressive scoring missions. You can deploy them as a screening unit for your long-range shooting, and it's not like you can take Conscripts since they're not allowed in the army list.

Elites

• Elysian Special Weapons Squad: Like the vanilla counterpart, but swaps the demolition charge option for breacher charges, and, critically, takes their special weapons in addition to their lasguns - a 6-man vanilla squad is 3 lasguns and 3 specials, but an Elysian Squad is 6 lasguns and 3 specials, all of which can fire in 8E. Good as suicide melta units. Also effective for getting plasma guns into Rapid Fire range; plasma spamming is probably the best option for them if you want to deep strike them, though running them with flamers and meltaguns isn't a bad move either. A cheaper alternative to Veterans if you can ignore the lower BS.
  • Remember, a 3-flamer unit is 6 lasguns and 3 flamers, and very cheap.
  • Alternate opinion This squad suffers badly from sharing a slot with Veterans and Command squads. They have 1 worse BS and can't take heavy flamers. The two things that make this unit unique is the squad size and the ability to take more than one breacher charge. The first is kind of nice if you consider putting them in valkyries or have plenty of elite slots to spare (which is surprisingly rare when making lists at 2k+). If you are putting them in valkyries they get expensive quickly, though. And get the stupid idea of taking two squads with 6 breacher charges in a valkyrie out of your head right now; that is an insane amount of points, and even if you get to dump 6 breachers onto a vehicle, it's only an average of 10.5 wounds. 10.5 wounds and you spent 150 points on breachers, another 60 for the men, and the valkyrie on top of that. Buy something reasonable instead, like melta guns or flamers, if you want to run them in a Valkyrie.
  • If you're spamming aerial drops, this unit is far cheaper than a Veterans squad, making it more efficient for drop-plasma, even after accounting for the Veteran's other benefits, assuming no orders are being handed out to the dropped units; while it is simply worse than a Command Squad, it's also not constrained by Commander count, which Command Squads are and is BS 4+, so Plasma Guns are cheaper. That makes these great in any context where you want to simply drop in some suicide plasma.
• Elysian Veteran Squad: Lost their most important option, forward sentries, so now you longer have any source of homing beacons in the entire codex. Identical to vanilla veteran squads (statline is the same but options/orders differ), but gain deep strike. These guys can take four flamers and jump from a transport into a horde, giving you 3d6 flamer and d6 heavy flamer overwatch hits, or you know, just burn the fuckers if they don't charge you. Giving them shotguns can also be surprisingly effective, especially given how Move and Fire turn grenades into Assault weapons RAW. Note that since the faq the sergeant can take a lasgun and replace it with a shotgun if you want to (fw has confirmed the shotgun swap through email).
  • If you're taking these guys to cram them into a Valkyrie or Vendetta, remember that their Weapons Team does not have Heavy anywhere in its name, so the model only takes up one slot on a Transport, allowing you to fit the entire unit plus three more people on, if you take the Team. Also, a Team with a Mortar ends up running you 2 points less than the pair of Veterans it replaces, which can improve efficiency, although the Team goes from 6 weapons to 1 when pulling off the Assault order trick, which is seldom worth it on its own.
  • Heavy Weapons choice should be Missile Launchers for Anti-Tank, Mortars for Anti-GEQ and Heavy Bolters for Anti-MEQ and Anti-TEQ.
  • Lascutters + breacher charge + power fist is cute and could be fun to play, but the range weapons will put out more damage and can put out that damage reliably. Remember rolling a 9+ to charge is not very likely (you will roll 9 or more in only 10 out of 36 cases) and the breacher charges are crazy expensive for a one-use item that only works in melee. Besides, even when you get there it only deals an average of 1.75 mortal wounds against vehicles, buildings, and monsters, and an average of 1 to everything else. When factoring in the chance to charge out of deep strike this becomes a sad 0.28 mortal wounds on average against infantry. The lascutters are not great either. Str 9 is impressive and so are the d3 wounds. But after taking into consideration your lower chance to hit a melta gun is more reliable, keeps you out of melee (if you want to be in melee you can charge after firing the melta gun) and does more damage.
  • Alternate Opinion: Mathematically, this unit is great at doing aerial drops with 3 plasma/melta + plasma pistol. I would advise staying away from superfluous equipment like breacher charges and taking things like missile launchers and heavy flamers on them without thinking about it. Keep them focused on a task and fairly cheap and they will serve you well. I would also keep them out of transports in general. It is quite tempting to put them with full flamer load out inside a valkyrie but as soon as you do that the price of putting the unit on the board goes through the roof. With the potential of rerolling 1s to hit and to wound from a commander and officer of the fleet, this unit is second in efficiency only to command squads in putting out deadly plasma fire at a cheap price.
• Elysian Sniper Squad: A two wound BS3+ squad with a sniper plus deep strike for seven points each? Quite possibly the best value sniper unit in the game. May have lost the breacher charges and magnoculars for D-99 but got a crazy point reduction so it worked out well. Works wonders with "Move and Fire" (why would you waste your orders on a 21 point unit?) giving you assault snipers negating the move penalty of heavy weapons, combine that with deep strike and you can put these snipers exactly where you want them and dominate the table with them. Feel free to spam vanguard detachments with these guys, a company commander with three units of snipers is 103 points, a great beginning to any Elysian list this edition. You probably have to in order to take a decent amount of them, the Elites slot in your case is crowded as hell.
  • These guys are not bad for the points comparing them to other snipers in the game. Keep in mind though that killing high wound characters with good saves will take a lot of these guys. Roboute won´t lay down just because half a dozen of these squads shoot at him (a bog-standard Astartes captain will take 23 or so sniper shots to bring down). Something like a Commissar on the other hand is possible to kill with a few units. A reasonable expectation of snipers is for them to be annoying for your opponent, sit on objectives, and allow you to aerial drop more veterans.
  • Each of these is like a heavy weapons team (2 wounds, carries an extra lasgun, etc), but because it isn't called that anywhere in its keywords, it will only occupy 1 capacity in a transport, which may be worth remembering.
  • Aerial Drop three units of snipers (9 teams) and 1 officer of the fleet into your opponent's deployment and have a field day as you fuck with his characters with snipers plus an air raid.
• Elysian Command Squad:Super cheap and deadly, the best configuration is generally going to be 4x plasma/melta, with the first being cheaper and generally more useful. Most of the time you are forced to take at least 3 company commanders and you should pretty much always take the maximum allowed of these guys.
  • As of the most recent FAQ, these are now limited to 1 per officer, like all other Command Squads.
• Elysian Platoon Commander:Gets to take melta bombs for free which is cool. Though with only one order and competing with officer of the fleet for the slot you would be hard-pressed to actually find a place for these guys. Officer of the fleet is cheaper, a better buffer in most cases and drops some mortal wounds on the enemy for you. He does unlock more command squads, though, and is passable if you don't intend to run a deep-strike intensive force.
• Elysian Drop Sentinels: They are more expensive than regular guard sentinels but can aerial drop. It's super cool to have your guys dropping in via grav-chutes but beyond the narrative etc applications it's hard to fit them in a list. A better idea is probably taking the regular guard version unless you are dead set on pulling off distracting charges from deep strike. They don't get the cc weapons of normal sentinels though and if you are thinking of investing in a Sky Talon to get them in Ogryns seem like a better choice.
  • Alternate Take: You're deep striking a Multi Melta for 55 points now, which is pretty good. Having 6 wounds on T5 means they are gonna get killed, but a unit of three can force your opponent to completely change their strategy, allowing you to counter their movements. What makes these useful is their ability to stay out of anti deep string bubbles while still firing at full effect, and they will require your opponent to prioritize them. They also possess the scout vehicle rule, allowing you to deploy them on the board and strike hard and fast if you need to. Otherwise, using them as tough(ish) suicide Multi Melta units seems to be the only useful role for them.

Fast Attack

• Tauros Assault Vehicle: BS4+ with either a twinned grenade launcher or a heavy flamer, same stats as the Venator which has worthwhile weapon options. Pass.
  • Another way of looking at it is that in a pure Elysian force this is the cheapest fast attack choice we get. The grenade launcher is no doubt horrible (priced as a lascannon) but the heavy flamer can make for a mobile cheap-ish unit that lets us reserve more veterans and be annoying for the opponent. To be fair, though, taking regular AM scout sentinels is probably a better idea.
• Tauros Venator: Either a twinned multilaser or a twinned lascannon; multilasers can actually annoy 5+ or worse infantry as the laser is S6. Lascannons will usually hit once with BS4+. Ignores movement for Heavy weapons, which means that achieving the 5++ for moving minimum 10" is now worthwhile. Is this Jink brought back in 8th, you ask? Maybe. Three of these pump out the same amount of shots as a Vendetta while being able to move and shoot, as well as having a 5++, for 48 more points. Consider these if you want something meatier than infantry but you can't fit in a flyer. Don't bother putting these in a sky-talon; with the range of these weapons, you want to stay back and harass from a distance.
  • These suffer from the standard problem of anything with twin lascannons, which is that Forge World decided every weapon except lascannons deserved to be less than twice as expensive when twinned due to the inability to fire it at multiple targets - meaning the twin multilaser does cost less than two multilasers, which has a tendency to modify the math on which weapon loadout is the most efficient. At 18 points, the twin multilaser is surprisingly good at busting up TEQs and other 3++ targets where the lack of AP basically doesn't matter, as it delivers a lot of shot volume for the cost.

Heavy Support

• Cyclops Demolition Vehicle:Funnier than when other Regiments take it because unlike them, you can drop this right next to the enemy. You can't drop it close enough to actually threaten them, since it won't explode past 6 inches and you'll be more than 9 inches away, but it's still a very disquieting 60 point ball of worry - and, of course, if you drop it next to some enemy melee units, they really won't want to deal with it themselves.
• Elysian Heavy Weapons Squad: Like Vanilla counterpart, but you gain deep strike, so they become even better. You lose lascannons and autocannons compared to vanilla guard, but with deep strike, you get some free positioning without resorting to transports. Mortars are for blobs and missile launchers deal with armour and monsters. Heavy bolters are meh since tarantulas do the job of two heavy bolter teams but for the double, the wounds, better toughness, and armour save, for three points cheaper in exchange for having to shoot the closest infantry squad, though you were probably using the turret as a distraction anyway. "Move and fire" order combos well, giving you assault missile launchers or mortars. Parking these squads in cover will do worlds of good for them as all three weapons have decent enough range. These will be common as infantry squads lost heavy weapons and vets will be used to deliver melta/plasma/flamers into close quarters environments, where heavy weapons will be a tad out of place.
  • Weapon selection should be Missile Launchers for Anti-Tank, Mortars for Anti-GEQ and Heavy Bolters for Anti-MEQ and TEQ.
  • Mortars are dirt cheap, missile launchers are not. While most opponents will cringe at the idea of throwing their precious shooting at mortar squads (especially when they are hunkered down) engaging missile launchers is a much more palatable activity. From my experience mixing squads to contain 1 missile launcher and 2 mortars seem to work best. Mortars try to deploy out of line of sight while the missile team try to be minimally exposed. Once you start taking fire you can remove the mortars first (or the missile launcher if you have no need for krak missiles). It makes the missiles more cost effective as far as resilience goes.
• Tarantula Battery: Astoundingly cheap, and while you can't give it orders, you can drop it right next what you want it to shoot. It will take the movement penalty to shooting the turn you drop it, of course, but so would a dropped heavy weapons team. The sheer number of twin heavy bolter turrets you can simply drop in your enemy's way is fantastic. These things pack a lot of T5 wounds, providing excellent anchors and speed bumps for whatever your enemy throws at you. Naturally, bait your opponent, then clean house with your dedicated firepower. They are small and love cover.

Flyers

Your flyers are all very tanky, due to Airborne and Hard to Hit, so they are ideal anchors (aside from their cost) - stick them on the table during deployment to soak up and avoid enemy fire, and get ready to surprise your enemy with presents containing violence.

• Avenger Strike Fighter:
• Lightning Strike Fighter:
• Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter: Slight callout here, as it's your only 15 wound plane and has a 6+ regen, so it's definitely your tankiest plane.
• Valkyrie:
• Valkyrie Sky Talon: Fewer options than a basic Valkyrie and you can't take them in squads, but they can transport either a Tauros or 2 Drop Sentinels. Previously you could spam these guys alone, however with their new points increase valks are generally better value. It should be noted that you can use these to shove Heavy Flamer sentinels down your opponent's throat..... but since your sentinels already have both Scout and Aerial Drop, it seems dubious that it would be worth the points. Also works on Heavy Flamer Tauroses, of course, but..... why?
  • If you're planning on taking Multi-Laser and Rocket Pod Valkyries, take Heavy Bolter and Rocket Pod Sky Talons instead. For 2 points less they will kick out an average of 10 Heavy Bolter shots, and a Heavy Bolter is better than a Multi-Laser point-for-point.
• Vendetta:
• Vulture:

Tactics

Tactics

• The CP Battery:
• The Cheapest Brigade:
• Valkyries & Vendettas:
• Gunship fortifications:
• A note on list building:
• Armor:
• The Wall of Dice:

Matchups and Counter-play

These tactics are good and all, but knowing your enemy is important. For simplicity's sake we're going to assume that your and your enemy's list is NOT a soup list, which is the slang term for taking multiple factions that share the Imperial, Chaos, or Aeldari keywords or the like in the same army.

The Imperium

• Space Marines:
• Blood Angels:
• Dark Angels:
• Space Wolves:
• Deathwatch:
• Grey Knights:
• Adeptus Custodes:
• Astra Militarum:
  • Militarum Tempestus:
• Sisters of Battle:
• Imperial Knights:
• Adeptus Mechanicus:
• Officio Assassinorum:
• The Inquisition:

Chaos

One hilarious strategy against Chaos in general is to run the Relic of Lost Cadia, and once per game drop the hammer on these bastards for what they did to Cadia.

• Chaos Daemons:
• Chaos Space Marines:
• Death Guard:
• Renegades and Heretics:
• Chaos Knights:
• Thousand Sons:

Xenos

• Craftworld Eldar:
• Dark Eldar:
• Harlequins:
• Ynnari:
• Necrons:
• Orks:
• Tau:
• Tyranids:
• Genestealer Cults:

<tabs> <tab name="10th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (10th Edition)

General Tactics	General Weapons Terrain
Imperium	Space Marines (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Imperial Agents (Inquisition, Rogue Traders, etc.)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Chaos Titans
Eldar	Eldar (Craftworlds, Corsairs, Harlequins, Ynnari) Dark Eldar
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

</tab>

<tab name="9th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (9th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Tactical Terrain Weapons Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines (Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Space Wolves) Grey Knights
	Adeptus Mechanicus Adeptus Titanicus Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Sisters of Battle
	Adeptus Custodes & Sisters of Silence Inquisition Officio Assassinorum Rogue Traders
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons World Eaters)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Craftworld Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Ynnari
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults
Votann	Leagues of Votann

</tab>

<tab name="8th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (8th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications Apocalypse
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) Adeptus Mechanicus
	Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) Adeptus Titanicus
	Imperial Knights Imperial Guard Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard Thousand Sons)
	Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

</tab>

<tab name="7th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (7th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines (Siege Assault Vanguard) Blood Angels Dark Angels Deathwatch Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Custodes Cult Mechanicus Skitarii Adeptus Sororitas
	Imperial Knights Inquisition Officio Assassinorum
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops D-99)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Khorne Daemonkin Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Harlequins Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids Genestealer Cults

</tab>

<tab name="6th">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (6th Edition)

General Tactics	General Movement Psychic Fortifications
Imperium	Space Marines Blood Angels Dark Angels Grey Knights Space Wolves
	Adeptus Sororitas Inquisition
	Imperial Guard (Armoured Battlegroup Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment Elysian Drop Troops) Militarum Tempestus
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines Chaos Daemons Renegades and Heretics
Eldar	Eldar Dark Eldar Corsairs
Necrons	Necrons
Orks	Orks Ork Dred Mob
Tau	Tau
Tyranids	Tyranids

</tab>

<tab name="All">

Warhammer 40,000 Tactics Articles (All)

General Tactics	General (8th) Movement (8th 7th) Psychic (8th 7th 2nd) Fortifications (8th 7th) Tactical Terrain Apocalypse (8th)
Imperium (8th)	Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd) Blood Angels (8th 7th) Dark Angels (8th 7th) Deathwatch (8th 7th) Grey Knights (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd, AKA Daemonhunters) Space Wolves (8th 7th 6th 5th)
	Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence) (8th 7th) Adeptus Mechanicus (8th 7th) Adeptus Ministorum (Sisters of Battle and minor factions) (8th 7th 6th 3rd, AKA Witch Hunters) Adeptus Titanicus (8th)
	Imperial Knights (8th 7th) Imperial Guard (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Inquisition (8th 7th 6th) Officio Assassinorum (8th 7th)
Chaos	Chaos Space Marines (8th 7th 6th 5th) Death Guard (8th) Khorne Daemonkin - 7th Edition Thousand Sons (8th) Chaos Daemons (8th 7th) Chaos Knights (8th) Renegades and Heretics (8th 7th 6th)
Eldar	Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th) Dark Eldar (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd Revised) Harlequins (8th 7th)
Necrons	Necrons (8th 7th 6th 5th 4th)
Orks	Orks (8th 7th 6th 5th 3rd) Ork Dred Mob - 7th edition (6th 5th) Ork Kult of Speed - 3rd edition Feral Orks - 3rd edition
Tau	Tau (8th 7th 6th 5th)
Tyranids	Tyranids (8th 7th 6th 5th) Genestealer Cults (8th 7th)

</tab>

</tabs>