For the first time in my 40k history I find myself in the curious position of not only having interest in a newly (re-)released army, but also having the disposable income to buy a ticket to ride the bandwagon. $300 and several Bartertown trades later, I can now admit that I’ve gone and built a mechanized Imperial Guard army.

Why did I choose IG? Obviously it’s not for the models. The old school WW1 army men theme is fun, but not particularly interesting. Mostly it has to do with fielding lots of tanks and artillery. But that’s not the only reason.

When the IG book was released there was lots of rabble about how overpowered the army is, which is typical for any codex release, and then there were the contrarians who point out that everyone overestimates the potential of new armies which inevitably end up being balanced. I usually find myself arguing in defense of the latter, however I firmly believe that the IG codex is hard. Not just hard, not even just rock hard, but fucking titanium hard. This is one army that I don’t think is going to sink to the level of mediocrity. And it takes the mech metagame to a whole new level by scaling twice as well as any other army thanks to the copious vehicle squadron options.

My first attempt at the army was as follows:

HQ
175 – Company Command Squad (Astropath, meltagun x4, Chimera w/ HF)

TROOPS
155 – 10 Veterans (meltagun x3, Chimera w/ HF)
155 – 10 Veterans (meltagun x3, Chimera w/ HF)
135 – 10 Veterans (grenade launcher x2, Chimera w/ HF)
70 – 5 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers (meltagun x2)
70 – 5 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers (meltagun x2)

FAST ATTACK
130 – Vendetta Gunship
130 – Vendetta Gunship
130 – Vendetta Gunship

HEAVY SUPPORT
160 – Manticore
140 – Colossus
300 – 2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks

Total: 1750

From the very start I knew that the core of my army would be Veterans in Chimeras. The first draft had 4 units, but I nixed one in favor of IST after stealing borrowing the idea from Edwin’s list posted on Yes the Truth Hurts. The potential to use the Vendetta 24″ scout move to get an alpha strike against Land Raiders with IST meltaguns is just too good to pass up. Also, the obvious alternative was to use Hellhounds/Devil Dogs, however this would result in an army far too similar to my LS-heavy Vulkan marines and for the sake of diversity I chose to pass.

Unfortunately, my experience with IG so far has not conformed to my expectations. However, in my defense, I’ve only been able to get a scant handful of games in since assembling the list a month and a half ago. I have no qualms about retreating from a position in the face of contrary evidence and reasoning, but it’s not time to throw in the towel just yet. I’ve confidently been able to attribute each and every poor outcome to either mistakes in strategy or list building, both of which are correctable.

A brief run-down of my games thus far:

Game 1: IG versus Kris’s Salamanders

I expected this one to be a fairly even match because Kris is a very savvy player and he has an optimized list which can hold its own against IG, but it turned out that I was my own worst enemy. We randomly decided on Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment.

I won the initial roll-off and, given that it was an objective mission, opted to take second turn out of habit. This was a mistake that was subsequently compounded by electing to deploy my entire army on the board, rather than hold in reserve and take advantage of my Astropath.

The game opened with Kris using his pair of dakka predators to go 4/4 with penetrating hits from their autocannons on my Valkyries, crippling my return firepower. We managed to pummel each other until I was left with a just couple of IST’s to contest my own objective. Fortunately, I had also killed most of Kris’s Troops, so I barely managed to eek out a draw.

Lesson learned: Take first turn.

Game 2: IG versus Charlie’s Nob Bikers

Charlie’s Ork army has traditionally given my Salamanders a lot of trouble because of my reliance of Drop Pods, however I was able to turn the metatable on him this time around with my mech IG list. As predicted, my army completely stomped his Orks even with the unfavorable Dawn of War deployment.

The game was more or less over before it began. Charlie deployed his two Nob units and a Warboss while I held everything off the board, and he used his first turn to turbo-boost toward my board edge in order to limit the amount of shooting I’d be able to do before facing multi-charges. I brought in everything on the first turn and repeatedly tank shocked one Nob unit with Chimeras until it finally failed its Ld test. The other unit was subjected to two battlecannons, a Manticore, 9 twin-linked lascannons, and 10 meltaguns.

With Charlie’s core completely dismantled on the first turn, he threw in the towel.

Lesson learned: Mech IG > Orks.

Game 3: IG versus Bob’s Ultramarines

This match taught me more about the dynamics of my army’s tactics as opposed to general strategy (despite some truly abysmal rolling). For reference, it was an Annihilation mission with Pitched Battle deployment.

Bob’s army is led by Cassius and relies heavily on Tactical Squads in Rhinos (and one in a Drop Pod). It also features a melta Dread in a second Drop Pod and some bikes. I think Bob reads this so perhaps he can chime in with the exact list.

In any event, I again relied on habits developed by years of playing Space Marines and was overly aggressive with my infantry. Instead of listening to my own advice and staying put in my transports I got out on several occasions to maximize firepower and extend my melta range. In each and every case this turned out to be a mistake, and Bob was smart to charge even lone tactical marines into full units of Veterans, each time winning, breaking, and killing my units in the sweeping advance. Without any counter-attack option, I was at his mercy. I ended up losing by about three points.

Lesson learned: Stay in the damn tanks.

Also: Not having counter-attack is bad.

Following my match with Bob I decided to alter my list, albeit slightly.

The decision was made to trade my Astropath for a Master of the Fleet since I generally want to be taking first turn. If I will the roll-off I’ll go first, and my opponents will likely give me the first turn in objective-based missions if they win. I imagine many enemies will attempt to mitigate the damage received by my opening volley by holding their units in reserve, the act of which is severely punished by my MotF.

By applying a -1 modifier to reserve rolls, the Master increases the likelihood of enemy reserves arriving piecemeal, which I should have no problem dealing with in most situations (see a forthcoming battle report against James’s Crimson Fists for an example). While I think the Astropath is excellent (in larger games I would take both), the MotF fits my build better.

Game 4: IG versus Matt’s Chaos (dual lash)

Full battle report in the works. Stay tuned.

Game 5: IG versus Fareed’s Space Marines (Crimson Fists)

Fareed plays a a Drop Pod army that wasn’t really optimized for tournament play until more recently. There are still some tweaks to be made, but this list was much stronger than its previous incarnation. It features Kantor leading 2 full  Sternguard units loaded with meltas and combi-meltas, 3 Tactical Squads, and an Ironclad in pods. For some mobile firepower it also includes 3 Attack Bikes with (MM x2, HB x1).

The mission was Seize Ground with Pitched Battle deployment. I won the roll-off and gave Fareed first turn while keeping my army in reserve in order to avoid losing half of my vehicles to meltaguns on the first turn (both Sternguard units were to be separated into combat squads). My reserve rolls without the Astropath were poor, however I’m not sure it was a bad strategy. 12 point-blank meltaguns would have been bad news on turn 1.

I managed to kill almost all of Fareed’s army, however he managed to hide a tac squad behind a large terrain feature and squat on an objective. I managed to secure my own, and a third was contested by a handful of surviving marines and my Imperial Storm Troopers who had just been shot out of their airplane. Result: Tie game.

I made some mistakes, but in general I was forced to play cautiously because my lack of any assault troops to mop up units and intimidate basic infantry from throwing grenades at my tanks and charging headlong into my puny guys.

Lesson learned: Even Imperial Guard needs assault units.

Next up: battle report for my game against Matt’s dual lash Chaos army, giving my IG some close combat punchiness, and laying the smackdown on James and his Crimson Fists.