Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard/Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment

Why Play Death Korps of Krieg: Siege Regiment

Death Korps of Krieg: Siege Regiment aren't a competitive army right now they have no flyers or dedicated anti-air, (they do now, better than most armies in the game, even) and their infantry is a bit overpriced, but they are fluffy as hell and their models are among the best if not THE best things Forge World ever made. Kriegers lack many things that make Imperial Guard awesome, like Veterans, Chimeras, Vendettas and Creed, but instead they hold the fucking line like none can, and drown the field in a shit-ton of cheap artillery, oh and did we mention you can take 90 heavy-weapons teams? If you wanted to, you could form one of the greatest human-wave armies in the game, due to a rule that gives them balls of steel on the advance. No longer do Krieg infantry give a fuck about casualties lost to shooting, making their advances almost unparalleled in not giving a shit.

Kriegers specialize in forming gun lines, destroying gun lines and mowing down swarms. Highly mobile, elite armies (such as a Chaos Daemons player using 1,000,000 Flesh Hounds of Khorne, or any good Dark Eldar army) are their absolute bane. They are an archaic, conventional army fighting in paranormal unconventional battles (which kind of adds to their flavour, giving them a unique playstyle and can lead to awesome results).

YOU DON'T KNOW HELL UNTIL YOU HAVE LIVED THROUGH VERDUN VRAKS

The 6th edition revised rules (minus flashy pictures, lore, and a lot of the weapon profiles) are free for download from Forgeworld here: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/d/dkksiegelist.pdf

Death Korps Siege Regiment Rules & Wargear

Special Rules

• Death Korps: All Death Korps have a slightly higher Weapon Skill than other Guardsmen (not that this will matter very often), plus they're immune to Fear and don't take Morale checks due to casualties from shooting. This means, in general, that Leadership is not as big an issue for these guys as it is for other Guardsmen.
• Iron Discipline: Death Korps units within 6" of an Officer (who all have this special rule) get to regroup, even if they've been reduced to 25% of their starting size. Again, this means that Leadership isn't that big a deal for the Kriegers, but they also rely a bit more heavily on their officers.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Death Korps Company Command Squad: Almost the same as normal CCS, but with all the Kriegers' WS4 and Die Hard goodness. If you don't use it to give orders to your artillery units, you're doing it wrong. A good set-up is to put an artillery piece behind an Aegis Defence Line with the CCS. If your ADL isn't modelled to look like shoddy trenches and sandbag walls, you're doing it wrong.
• Commissar-General: New change to the Krieger's special rule makes Kriegers a bit less chunky in close combat, making Commissar-Generals a fair option to exploit that 4 WS and prevent them from getting pinned down. The best use for them is to use his bubble of Ld10 to make artillery units listen to orders.
• Death Korps Quartermaster Cadre: This is the guy who wanders through the battlefield and gathers dead men's weapons, armor, blood and organs, and sometimes he patches lucky guardsmen with said organs and blood. In game terms he gives FNP (only 6+ though) to any infantry squad within 6" of him or his servitors, so he can greatly boost your infantry blobs and gun crews survivability.

Elites

• Death Korps Grenadier Squad: Your Stormtroopers, except they don't deep strike and can take a demo charge (like you don't have enough pie plates in this army). They are also substantially cheaper, at 60 points in the 6th edition update for a five-man vanilla squad compared to 85 points for Stormtroopers, and 12 points for another Grenadier compared to 16 for another Stormtrooper. Can also take Heavy Flamer Teams and Heavy Stubbers for individual Grenadiers. Think less Special Operations, more Shock Troopers.
• Hydra Flak Platform: Just like IG's Hydra Flak Tank, minus the tank part. Only a third of the price of Death Korps air support and can't come in batteries unlike any other Krieg artillery piece. Good at what it's meant to, not much else.
• Death Korps Rapier Laser Destroyer Battery: Big, mobile artillery piece. Can't shoot indirectly, but is generally to be used as an AT weapon. Pretty cheap, survivable rape-cannons that can take orders. 1 in 6 chance of exploding when they die. Only take them if you're lacking anti-tank capacity.
• Death Korps Field Artillery Battery: In the new update, they consolidated the old Heavy Mortar Battery and Heavy Quad Launchers into a single unit. Here's what we said about them before:
  • Heavy Mortar Battery: Dirt cheap immobile Griffon guns. Unlike a Griffon, it lacks the "Accurate Bombardment" rule. It can bring hate on infantry (S6 AP4 is Instant Death for most infantry), but you have...
  • Heavy Quad Launcher (Forge World): Immobile artillery. Dirt cheap and spams enormous amount of anti-infantry blasts with extra -1Ld for pinning test penalty (for total -2). It used to be that they could only fire once per two turns, but that changed with the latest Imperial Armour volume, and 16 S5 blasts would kill a ton of Tyranids, Orks, or other Guard (especially with the "Fire on my target" order), and have a good chance to pin down heavier infantry (like, say, Terminators). Generally considered better than Heavy Mortars, which perform a similar role. While Heavy mortars are good at pie-plating big blobs of enemies, Quad launchers are used for absolutely annihilating smaller blobs/heavily armored blobs. Take them to be nostalgic about the passed times of Thudd Guns.
• Death Korps Combat Engineer Squad with Hades Breaching Drill: Close combat oriented guardsman with shotguns and carapace armor and acid gas grenades which are small blast poison grenades that ignore cover though only one can be used per shooting phase. The main point of these compared to the troop version is the Hades Breaching Drill. Engineers start in reserve and appear on the turn after the hades but can charge after arriving through a Hades hole. Also, Siege Engineers can take the Mole Launcher as a heavy weapon which rolls 2d6 for penetration against structures but the range is a mere 24", so Breach your enemy shortly before or during the main assault then use your new foothold to screw with your enemy for only 15 points more.

Troops

• Death Korps Infantry Platoon: No special weapon squads or Conscripts, but otherwise the same Platoon. Unlike regular guards they are WS4, which boosts their survivability in close combat, but you pay extra 10 pts per squad for this.
  • Death Korps Platoon Command Squad: No Combined squad rule. Use the junior officer to give orders to other units. Could add a commissar but since there is no combined squads and it is not an independent character its usefulness is limited.
  • Death Korps Infantry Squad: No Combined squad rule. Basic ten man squad. Use them as a screen to tie up CC units that get close to your main units.
  • Death Korps Heavy Weapons Squad: 15 more points than the Heavy Support version and again no combined squads make this a weak choice. Krieg has many alternatives for heavy weapons that are better than these but if you have the points or are playing zone mortalis this would allow more heavy weapons teams.

• Death Korps Combat Engineer Squad: Close combat oriented guardsman with shotguns and carapace armor and acid gas grenades which are small blast poison grenades that ignore cover though only one can be used per shooting phase. Yeah, this doesn't seems good, and they will die without taking their points back, but you can use them to tie up enemy shooting squads in close combat. Alternatively you can buy them a Hades Breaching Drill but doing so makes them Elites. Any Engineer squad can be held in reserve and come on any turn when a hades hole is available counting as disembarking. Also, Siege Engineers can take the Mole Launcher as a heavy weapon which rolls 2d6 for penetration against structures but the range is a mere 24", so Breach your enemy shortly before or during the main assault then use your new foothold to screw with your enemy for only 15 points more.

Dedicated transports

• Centaur Carrier: In most cases, the Centaur is not nearly as good as a Chimera: it only has front AV 11, Open Topped, and five-man transport capacity. On the other hand, it's cheap, fast, can transport otherwise-immobile artillery, and one passenger can fire their weapons as part of the Centaur itself (which can be abused with 6th edition's vehicle movement rules to let you move 12" and fire both the Centaur's heavy stubber and a squad weapon, preferably a meltagun, at full BS). They work best with Grenadiers and Command Squads.

• Hades Breaching Drill (Forge World): Remember the Tyranid Mawloc? Well the IG looked at it and said "we need something like that but even more destructive." Yes this thing has Rhino armour and 2 HP, but when it comes in it puts a fucking pie plate blast with S10 AP1 Melta. Remember that its dynamic can and has instantly killed Typhus and will send your opponent into a frothing fit of rage. This little fucker can even destroy terrain, like D-strength blasts in Apocalypse. And then your Engineers pop out of the holes it leaves behind. The ultimate fuck you towards gun lines. Once it enters, it can go around blasting people with it's meltadrill, but it's probably going to die afterwards...assuming anything is left standing. Your opponent will go through heaven and hell just to destroy the metal, rectangular bastard. Only available to Siege Engineers.

Fast Attack

• Cyclops Demolition Squad: Absolutely useless, unless your foe does not know what they do. In this case these little buggers work like mice work against elephants. Otherwise, pass.
• Hellhound Flame Tank Squadron: The Hellhound tank variants give you access to Fast Tanks. This has a lot of advantages, as you use them for movement-blocking, tank-shocking, or simply blasting enemies to oblivion. A low profile makes finding cover for it relatively easy, though cover-hugging isn't exactly the best use of this tank. There are three variants, each with a unique turret weapon, and the choice of hull-mounted Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer, or Multi-melta.
  • The standard Hellhound is a very handy infantry-killer. If they're not Marine-equivalents (and even they will be hurting once the wounds pile up and they start failing saves), and not in a transport, they will die. What's that? You opponent has Rangers/Heavy Weapons Teams/snipers holed up in a building somewhere giving your commanders and high-value units a hard time? The Inferno Cannon laughs at cover. The range of the IC means that you can expect them to hit enemy infantry starting on turn 1 (move 12", fire 12", cover another 8" with flame template). Ran in support of longer-ranged anti-tank weapons for popping enemy transports, Hellhounds can also serve to finish off units from disembarked vehicles. In 6th edition fast vehicles can now fire 2 weapons at full BS at cruising speed, so enjoy the possibilities of hull weaponry combinations. Using Creed to outflank a squadron of these is hilarious against horde armies. Do it - that's an order.
  • The Banewolf sacrifices the extra range of the Hellhound's template for it's own poisoned AP3 flamer template. Banewolves will kill anything without a 2+ save. Their armor and speed give them unparalleled ability to be used for flushing enemy infantry from cover. This said and done, this may be the one variant you can afford to specialize; having a hull mounted flamer gives you the chance to throw two really mean flame-templates. This tank is the epitome of offence over defense - on one hand it can destroy an entire SM tactical squad in one turn. If there is an independent character in the squad, force them to take all the hits for the squad by attacking from their side, melting them alongside anyone else who "Look Out Sir" into their own gooey death. On the other hand - it can easily be put down by a Lascannon head-on. They are well known for making Tyranid and Chaos daemon players cry as you gib their monstrous creatures with as much ease as their cannon fodder. But then again, what doesn't make Tyranids and Daemons cry in 6th edition?
  • The Devil Dog is the last one out, eschewing a short-range flamer, for a Melta Cannon, a blast weapon with the Melta rule. These tanks are great for sending into the center of an enemy armoured formation and intimidating your opponent into breaking up, lest he find himself losing multiple tanks! Alternatively, assuming one has reliable long-ranged anti-tank, the Devil Dog can be used for finishing off survivors of destroyed enemy transports. Add a hull-mounted Heavy Flamer, and the Devil Dog can flush troops out of cover (though not as efficiently as the Banewolf). While not a flashy vehicle, it gets the job done. Probably the best variant for most games that includes vehicles on both sides.

• Death Korps Death Rider Platoon: The first thing you'll notice about the Death Korps' answer to the IG/AM rough riders is that the death riders come in platoons. You get 0-1 command squads and 1-6 squadrons per fast attack slot. This means you can take one unit if you like, or a potential 7 units per slot. That is a lot of horses (but why would you?). Unlike their unloved IG/AM cousins,they also have two attacks base, two wounds (!), 6+ FNP, reroll dangerous terrain tests, and wear carapace armour for a 4+ save (for a negligible points increase), so if you really want to take HORSES IN SPACE, take them from this list.
  • Death Rider Command Squadron: Unlike a normal command squad these guys lack the option for a platoon standard or a vox caster.However, what they do have is a junior officer on a horse, who is capable of issuing orders to the other riders or any squad he happens to be around. The squad can be joined by a mounted Commissar (whose model is awesome), who grants the squad stubborn (meh). On top of that, both the officer and the commissar can take a power axe; this is the only place in the list you can get one of these ap2 beauties. You also get the option to take a demo charge; bit of an expensive delivery method for it, but man do they pack a punch.
  • Death Rider Squadron: Your basic squad; comes with 5 men, can be upgraded to 10, and also has the option for the sergeant to take a power axe and a melta bomb. The melta bomb is probably a bad call; if you charge a tank then you essentially waste your 'first charge only' MEQ-murdering lances on a vehicle, and you probably won't still be alive to use the MB after you charged a different squad.

Heavy Support

• Death Korps Heavy Weapon Platoon: In case you run out of HWT in Troops (how could you?), get yet another 1-3 per HS slot. They are cheaper in this slot by a good 15 points each, but you're giving up those sweet, sweet Heavy Support slots for those extra points.

• Thunderer Siege Squadron: It's a Leman Russ chassis with a hull-mounted demolisher cannon that come in squads of one to three. Unlike LR Demolisher it has no front/side sponsons, but for some reason it's also NOT heavy - meaning you can move it 12" and even flat out another 6" to get round two shot. Obviously this is your Vindicator, and like all IG vehicles its all around better then his SM analog, due to the combination of superior armor and sufficient speed.

• Death Korps Leman Russ Squadron: Leman. Fucking. Russ. It's a big tank. Holds the proud title of best tank in the galaxy for its size and cost. Side effects include: Templates, lots of dice, lots of AV, lots of choices. In 6th edition, Leman Russ lost "Lumbering Behemoth" rule, and became a Heavy vehicle, instead. This means that you are limited to only 6 inches of movement. However, you can fire all your non-ordnance weapons at the same turn, as if you haven't moved, meaning that non-ordnance Russes (Exterminator, Punisher, Executioner, Eradicator, Vanquisher) are made even more rapetastic, at slight disadvantage of Ordnance ones (Battle Tank, Demolisher). Remember this, and kit out your tanks accordingly. Can form squads of upto three tanks.
  • Leman Russ Battle Tank: Though it comes in many flavors, the basic tank is the most useful. With its S8 AP3 72" gun and thick armor, it is good against anything for decent points. This is your runner-and-gunner, your go-to tank, and the majority of your Leman Russ pool at any time should be these or Executioners. Kit em out with heavy bolters all around, since you are going to be forced to snap fire non-cannon weapons, so up the volume of fire.
  • Leman Russ Annihilator: TL lascannon. One shot (2 if given a hull lascannon) is fine but why get that when a vanquisher has better range and armourbane at cost of -1S. If you really don't trust your tanks to hit or plan to aim at flyers take the Annihilator otherwise choose vanquisher.
  • Leman Russ Conquerer: The only non heavy leman russ. It is slightly worse in all ways than a standard leman russ. It is an autocannon that fires one small blast. Only good part is that it comes with a coaxial Storm bolter and doesn't cost more like the following tanks.
  • Leman Russ Exterminator: Armed with a 4 shot twin-linked Autocannon means this thing is death incarnate for 4+ armour and light vehicles. Kit it with 3 extra Heavy Bolters for beautiful infantry shredding. While twice the points and not as long-ranged as a Hydra, it's got better front and side armor and isn't hindered by the lack of the Interceptor special rule (so it can shoot at things on the ground, where majority of enemy forces usually are). It doesn't have Skyfire or a Targeting Computer, so it may be lacking in roles usually occupied by Hydra, but you will still put a big dent on anything you do end up hitting.
  • Leman Russ Vanquisher: A Melta (which always provides +1d6 armour penetration) with a devastating range. Thus a bit costly for 1 shot at BS3. Not very useful really considering the amount of lascannons you should already have, if you use it primarily against vehicles. Give it a Lascannon as well as Plasma Sponson - and you get a unit perfectly fit to fight against Heavy Infantry. The Vanquisher has substantially improved reliability in a Death Korps list because the 6th ed update added co-axial weaponry; you can either grab a heavy stubber or storm bolter for 15 points which if it hits allows you to re-roll failed to-hits with the main weapon. Always pick the Heavy Stubber- the 12" greater range and 3 shots compared to 2 is simply better and remember that the Co-Ax is there to make the main gun more accurate, not be a weapon in its own right.
  • Leman Russ Eradicator: Kind of a Hellhound that hits worse, is slower but better armored. And you can add a Lascannon for versatility. Strange tank that has a weaker version of Battle Cannon that eats your enemies' cover saves. Consider for Cities of Death games or when fighting cover-camping Tau/Eldar. Can be useful for gunline enemies hiding behind fortifications as well.
  • Leman Russ Demolisher: For +15 pts. to the basic Russ you get a cannon that lays waste of everything on the battlefield and immunity vs S4 melee units - though sometimes 24" is too close to the enemy. The Demolisher is tried and true, and should ALWAYS lead the armored charge into the enemy. Works great alone, works even better in threes. You don't really need to upgrade it, since fucking DEMOLISHER CANNON doesn't get much assistance from other weapons, but being able to finish off the scattered survivors by hail of ill-aimed gunfire can also be useful.
  • Leman Russ Punisher: Shares the cons but only few of the pros with the Demolisher (it does keep the additional back armor, which helps). Heavy 20 may sound cool, but on average, you end up with 10 S5 hits with no AP (making it difficult to even glance vehicles to death, but why would you target vehicles anyway?). Everything except Grots is butchered better with the cheaper and better ranged Battle Tank. However, unlike most Russes, it gets better if you sink the points in it: Kit one out a full triple Heavy Bolter set and a Heavy Stubber, at which point the machine will reduce to dust anything, from Terminator Squads to full-size Ork Mobs every turn, and will stop 'Nidzilla in it's tracks through sheer dice output. Well, that or you'll be killed by the enemies anti-tank and waste 250 points on something the rest of your army should be doing anyway. Also, by far the coolest looking Russ. Can also be a fun choice against fliers, if much less cost-effective than the Hydra or Fortifications' Emplacements.
  • Leman Russ Executioner Oh hell... what devastation this brings. This thing lays waste to whole Terminator Squads and no matter what the enemy has - this one will hurt badly. The only problem might be that he is a bit costly and if the enemy has nothing with 2+, the Battle Tank is the better choice for points spent. Same might be true if the enemy has 2+ - the Demolisher (which can also, you know, demolish tanks) might be a more priceworthy alternative. However, if you have spare points - take one (and you should always have spare points for tanks). Even against those plasma-syphoning assholes take one and pray for the Emperor's blessing on your scatter dice. Give it Plasma Sponson, pray to Emperor that you won't overheat, and nothing will get in your way.

• Death Korps Bombard Battery: Sadly changed from a fuckhueg artillery cannon to a Colossus Siege Mortar squadron, it could in theory be useful against MEQs by denying cover and armour saves-but for 140 points on a job that could be done with a HAB much cheaper and with more versatility to boot, it isn't really worth taking unless for some bizarre reason your local Space Marines have forsaken all armoured vehicles and have decided to footslog. Even then, Earthshakers are vastly better.

• Death Korps Heavy Artillery Battery: This is static artillery variants of Basilisk and Medusa and in 6th edition, artillery is awesome (until someone charges it). They are immobile and need crew, which could be killed (though they use gun's Toughness 7 against enemy shots), but they are also cheap. And because they aren't vehicles, they can take orders. Earthshakers and Medusas with "Bring it down!" and "Fire on my target!" could make for miracles on the battlefield if used properly. Or die pointlessly, if used incorrectly. Medusa only squads can be given bastion breacher shells and both versions of the Medusa are direct fire only.

• Imperial Navy Air Support Squadron: Kriegers are finally rolling with the big boys, having various air support options. What's even sweeter about the deal is that your aircraft come in squadrons of three, like Imperial Guard's Vendettas and Valkyries. You can specialize them for an anti-air role, or as a ground-assault plane (why would you do that, that's what artillery is for.)
  • Thunderbolt: Able to deal out the punishment and take a little bit too (not too much though), Thunderbolts are the most versatile of your three options. They do, however, have a very hefty price tag for something you should solely be using for fighter-interception. With that said, it's probably the best option of the three.
  • Lightning: The cheapest option, also the least armored (read: shittily armored). Useful mainly to blow up enemy aircraft and gtfo out of there. Using it for bombing runs is can't-get-changed-for-work-by-yourself retarded.
  • Avenger: With only two hull points, compared to the three hull points of the Thunderbolt for 10 points more, there isn't really a reason to take this aircraft, except for ground-attack. It can't be stressed enough; you don't want to waste your time ground-attacking with aircraft when your artillery is hammering away at the enemy.

Fortifications

• Aegis Defense Lines: Yes. This is mandatory. Whether you decide to use it to fortify your Quad Guns, Earthshakers, or form a gunline with your men, you're going to need this bugger. And if it doesn't look like a trench with duckboards you are doing it WRONG.
• Skyshield Landing Pad: Can offer a defensive strongpoint for a big gun of some kind, due to giving them a 4+ invuln, but for 75 points it isn't really worth it unless you manage to cram three Thudd Guns onto it. Perhaps even dropping a whole Heavy Weapon Platoon onto it could have its benefits (especially if they're all annoying, untouchable lascannons or mortars). However, ideally this should only be used for "fun".
• Imperial Bastion: There's a sick kind of pleasure having a Company Commander standing ontop a bastion bellowing orders to the big guns, while the Master of Ordinance points at things below him and they explode. Good for cinematics, not really for practicality.
• Fortress of Redemption: Kriegers are meant to destroy these kinds of structures, not defend them. Pass. (It helps that it's horrible as well.)

Tactics

Kriegers aren't a good army on their own. On the first few turns they could bring hell on the table - Land Raiders exploding from Medusa shells, Sabres wrecking drop-podded Dreads with interceptor lascannon shots, Hades Drills popping up from under ground, insta-killing anything above them... But the Kriegers quickly run out of steam - Hades Drills and engineers die, and the bulk of enemy army comes too close. Despite their bravery and WS4, meat screens would eventually die and gun crews would follow them. It all would be so sad and grimdark, and you would ask the Emprah "What did I do wrong?", when suddenly a golden light would beam through the skies and a mighty voice would yell "ALLIES, DUMBASS!"

Thats right. Kriegers desperately need allies, due to dominating the rear of the table, front of the table but lacking middle ground presence (and, since they ally like Imperial Guard, you can ally with any army except Tyranids, they even can ally with an Imperial Guard contingent as Battle Brothers) to finish the job. Really ANY ally - a tough formation of meat-screened Krieg artillery is pretty damn scary and would draw all the firepower and all charges, to allow any other allies to come close to enemy deploy and do their job, while the Kriegers die horribly in the name of Emperor. In 2v2 games this works even better, due to a lack of stupid force chart restrictions.

Collecting your army

Funnily enough the Death Korp might be one of the cheaper armies to collect in the game thanks to one thing, the Gorgon Infantry squadron accessory.

Five complete Death Korp squads, the only problem is that they're literally attached at the hip to each other so you need a skilled hand with a hobby knife or a jewelery saw of some kind. dozens of oneline guides exist to help you split the squad apart and even with the best hand in the world you will need green stuff to patch up shoulders, arms, cuffs at the like. but if done correctly you can easily end up with a full infantry platoon of Kreigers for a rock bottom price. (PS: Nickels are about the same size as a 25mm base so you can use them.)

Otherwise, everything else is as expensive as snorting diamonds. (Unless you are from Australia, in which case it's cheaper than normal plastic IG models. Go figure.)

NOPE. FW got sniff of the panty stank this tecnique was emitting and bumped the price of gorgon accessories to 53£ or ~70€ and made them smaller (so that they are only 24mm instead of 28mm) so now you have to buy the actual models with your lifeblood and virgins

What you do is you go to a certain Chinese product site (y.o.y.m.a.r.t) that sells discount GW and FW models. So you get the Gorgon infantry in the RIGHT size, at an EXTREMELY inexpensive price. (Another thing, the resin they use for the Gorgon infantry is very, very hard, anecdotally. Helps if you have diamond cutters or shit like that.) Nope, just got shut down.