How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Love The Guard

Every day is a holiday, every formation is a parade, every meal is a banquet. I love the Guard!

This blog talks a lot about elite Marines and cheaty Eldar. It's time to look at the real men of the 40K universe, the Imperial Guard.

It takes a special kind of crazy to charge into hand-to-hand combat wearing armor that was inadequate tens of millenia ago, and carrying a gun more suited to grilling dinner than killing your average ceramite composite armored radically bioengineered Space Marine. If you're that kind of crazy, the Tallarn 21st is the place for you.

I've played all sorts of IG lists, but the shooty lists never really excite me. Sure, any IG list is going to have Ordnance and a lot of shots - even pricey Guard are cheaper than normal Marines. But nothing beats jumping on a Deathwing Terminator Squad and crushing them in close combat. Here's the 21st at 2000 points:

Army List

HQ

Colonel Raz-Aziz (HSO, plasma pistol, power weapon, Medallion Crimson), Standard Bearerer, Medic, Plasma Gunner, Redshirt, Commissar (pistol, power weapon)

Autocannon Support Weapon Platoon

Heavy Support Weapon Platoon (2 Missle, 1 Lascannon)

Sentinel (closed top, autocannon)

Troops

Infantry Platoon HQ - JO (pistol, ccw), Melta Gunner, Medic (melta bombs), 2 Vets, Commissar (pistol, powerfist)

Squad 1 - Vet Sarge (storm bolter, melta bombs), Missle team, Plasma Gunner

Squad 2 - Vet Sarge (storm bolter, melta bombs), Missle team, Plasma Gunner

Squad 3 (HF)- Vet Sarge (pistol, ccw, meltabombs), Melta Gunner, Commissar (pistol, powerfist, Macharian Cross)

Armored Fist (HF)- Vet Sarge (pistol,ccw, melta bombs) Melta Gunner, Commissar (pistol, powerfist) in Chimera (multilaser, hull heavy flamer, smoke, armor)

Heavy Support

Leman Russ Battle Tank - (hhb, shbx2)

Leman Russ Demolisher - (hhb, shbx2)

Basilisk - (indirect fire)

Fast Attack

Hellhound - (armor, smoke)

Sentinel - (closed top, autocannon)

Sentinel - (closed top, autocannon)

Doctrines

Hardened Fighters, Close Order Drill, Light Infantry, Iron Discipline, Drop Troops

Every unit that can take any discipline except Hardened Fighters has it. (HF) denotes Hardened Fighters.

Summary

This list gives me 15 scoring units, heavy infiltration and drop potential, 2 Commissars with WS5 powerfists, adequate templates, and reasonable AT assets. Focusing on the mission objectives, I can usually kill off nearly every opponent model (and 80% of mine), and end up in control of all objectives by turn 6. The Hellhound is the single biggest killer in the army. The Sentinels dropping almost on top of the enemy are deadly to any S3 opponent, and have very much earned their keep by tying up Marine Dev Squads for most of many games. The Basilisk encourages my opponents to close, and the rest of the army performs best at close range. COD means that my infantry are L9, which isn't shabby at all for guys in tee shirts.

This army is diametrically opposite from the standard Guard army. I don't want to line up and shoot until one of us is dead, I'd lose that battle with Orks. But even my regular opponents tend to forget that, and go into automatic 'I'm fighting Imperial Guard, so I must close' mode, and boy do I love that. At last year's Adepticon, my Armored Fist charged and killed 2 Deathwing Terminator Squads, and badly mauled a third.

The guard do everything worse than their opponents. That's what makes them the most fun of all. Join the Guard, see the Universe. Contact your local recruiter today!