Tactics: The 7th Edition IG Light Infantry Squad

I've held off making recommendations for the new IG codex until now, given that potential changes to the 7th edition rules set could have invalidated my advice. Luckily, the changes were between 6th and 7th were minor in nature (with the exceptions of wound allocation in shooting and the psychic phase). I'm starting my Tactics series with the core of the IG army, the humble light infantry squad.

Armamaent: So many options, so little time!
Infantry Squads remain essentially the same as in the previous codex. Points values for weapons options are different (and standardized across the codex YAY!). With my infantry squads, I like to be a threat to an enemy unit regardless of range or composition.

Multi-threat: The squad can engage vehicles, MCs, and infantry with its heavy and special weapons.
Multi-range: Every squad gets a heavy weapon. You want your units to contribute every round of the game. Also, the enemy WILL get close: either close enough to assault your lines or close enough to hit with flamers.
Modular: You should be able to swap your HW/SW combo for another without adding or subtracting points. I'm not talking about tailoring your list for your opponent, I'm talking about having the flexibility to make changes without reworking your whole list.

I like the following three 25 Point Options (my favorite): Plasma Gun + Autocannon, or Melta Gun + Missile Launcher, or Flamer + Lascannon. The grenade launcher is loved by many IG players, but its a bit of a throwback to 5th Edition days when Plasma Guns couldn't move and shoot 24". My 12+ models with grenade launchers are currently enjoying their retirement in foamville. The Melta + Missile Launcher is a new combo for this edition that I haven't run much before. I'm predicting a rise in AV 14 vehicles being used, and think the Autocannon will be of less use. Glancing vehicles to death is more reliable than getting a penetrating hit this edition.

I like keeping weapon option consistent in a platoon. This way if you blob up, all your weapons will be able to hurt the selected target with the same probabilities, making target selection easier.

Sergeant Options: Power Weapon (axe) vs Bolter

Unfortunately, power weapons for sergeants are prohibitively expensive for a GEQ model's statline. Yes, I know power axes add to the STR of a sergeant, and through buffing you can make your sergeants reroll hits the first round of combat and wounds if a priest gets his buff off. This just isn't points efficient. A power weapon is the same cost as a plasma gun Which one does more damage, especially in an edition that continues to favor shooting over assault? The age of the power weapons IG blob is over.

Instead, make the wise choice of giving your sergeants bolters. Yes, bolters. For a single friggin' point, you get the same STR as a power axe, two "attacks" at 12 inches, and the modeling opportunity to make some cool conversions. You can get 15 of these things (enough for all your sergeants and officers) in an IG army for the price of one power weapon. You tell me, what's the points-efficient choice?

The Blob: How Many is Too Many?

When IG squads gained the ability to blob up several codexes ago, there was much rejoicing, because of the MSU-crushing mission type known as Kill Points. The KP concept was a great equalizer and a necessary design element to reign in abuses by space marine players, but it hit IG armies hard, to the point where games were un-winable.

Blob Basics: 
You decide to blob or not to blob right before warlord traits are rolled. This means that you will usually know if KPs will be part of the mission before you have to make this decision. If you are running a single 50 man blob and KPs aren't the mission objective, it might be worth it to split up. For small games, smaller blobs or individual squads might be the way to go, especially if there are many objectives that need to be claimed.

Running a Battleforged Army makes your blobs super-awesome objective claimers. Even if the enemy has 10 WTF Elite Terminators with Abaddon next to your objective at the end of the game, you still get to claim the objective and make Ollanius Pius proud.

Blob Trade Offs: 
As blob size increases from 20 to 50, the blob gets better in several ways, and worse in several ways:
Positive correlations with Blob Size: Efficiency of orders, war hymns, and psychic buffs, survivability and resistance to 25% morale tests, raw attacks in close combat, volume of fire on a single target.
Negative correlations with Blob Size: Greater size means more enemy units will shoot at it (a blob of 50 becomes a huge fire-magnet), susceptibility to a small assault unit tying up many points in a protracted close combat, reduced ability to claim distant objectives, reduced number of enemy units that can be engaged in a single turn.

A IG commander can deploy 20, 30, 40, and 50 man blobs. Each size has its advantages and disadvantages. My advice is to try each size out and see what works for you. I've tried all sizes and prefer the 30-man unit, and can run 2 blobs in a 1000 point game and 3 blobs in a 1500.

Leadership: Voxcasters, Commissars, Priests, and Primaris Psykers
Blobs need buffs to go from good-to-great. The cheapest way to improve a blob is to make sure they follow orders by having a robust vox caster network. More expensive options are the addition of commissars and primaris psykers for higher leadership values.

Commissars are the classic infantry squad buffer. Since last edition, they transferred stubborn to their blob, and that continues in this edition of the codex. You can't go wrong with adding a commissar to a blob for his LD 9. A commissar might be the one place to take a power weapon in your blob, as his WS 4 makes him better at chewing through WS 3 enemies.

Primaris Psykers are the new hotness, allowing IG to play in the Psychic phase both offensively and defensively. Attaching them to your blobs protects them from many attacks, and makes sure they are in range to cast prescience, forewarning, or perfect timing on your blob. If you already have a commissar in the blob, don't fear the "It's for your own good." Perils is far less of an issue this edition, especially if you manage your warp dice well across multiple psykers. And if the commissar does "BLAM" your psyker, at least he saved some guardsmen from the potential of D6 STR 6 AP 1 hits. The Primaris has LD 9, helping with orders and morale should your commissar buy the farm. His Force Staff (using the GW model) makes him acceptable in close combat with STR 5 and AP 4, instant death if you charged it. I haven't experimented with Mastery level 2 on Primaris Psykers yet. Obviously you get more warp charge and another power in your arsenal. In games above 1500 points its probably worth it.

Priests completes the Emperor's Trinity of blob attachments. They bring fearless, a 4++ personal save, and rerolls-to-hit the first round of combat to the blob, all without taking a check. They also stop you from going to ground. If you think you'll need the blob to go to ground, to hunker down on an objective or whatever, just detach the priest from the unit (he's an IC) in your turn. In close combat, the priest can try to buff your blob (and attached commissar and primaris) with re-rolls to wound. This is very handy for STR 3 models. The other hymns are very situational, as rerolling your 5+ armor isn't going to help you much against power weapons, chainaxes, or MCs. Smash is interesting and could be helpful against a MCs, but on balance the re-rolls to wound are the best bet. The downside of hymns is that in the 7th edition rules (page 13), the test is taken on the priest's LD 7, not the highest LD model in the unit (LD 9 if you have a commissar or primaris). So your hymn may not go off when you need it most. Having a regimental standard in a nearby CCS won't help much either, as you can't get a reroll on that type of test.

The Best Troops in the Game?

I think that IG Light Infantry squads are the best troops in the game. They are points efficent, durable, reliable, can threaten all types of enemy units (even flyers with prescience!), modular, and flexible. Their ownly weakness is their statline, armor, and weak basic ranged and melee attack, all of which have never been something guard players have worried about. Now go forth and overwhelm the enemy!

IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR, LET NONE SURVIVE!

Next time we'll look at Platoon Command Squads and Veteran Squads.

Straken in 6th Edition

Ever since the 5th edition IG Codex was released, Straken has been my favorite HQ choice. He leads from the front lines, transforming all guardsmen within 12" into powerful (for the IG) and resilient assault units. Now with 6th, Straken's role must be reassessed because of the changes to shooting, assault, and his USRs.

Fearless: HUGE bonus to Straken and his combat squad. No longer does he get the shaft for being fearless and taking wounds for being outnumbered.

Furious Charge: Let's get one thing straight: the nerf to Furious Charge hurt Imperial Guard foot lists quite a bit. There is a massive difference between striking simultaneously with Marines, and going after marines have had their way with you. Sure, the +1 to Strength is fantastic, but it does no good if your models die before they strike.

However, most casualties caused by power weapon blobs were, of course, caused by power weapon armed sergeants and commissars. The Look Out Sir rule makes these models highly survivable, so the hit to initiative might not be as bad as it seems.

Counter Attack: Counter Attack actually got much better with 6th Edition. Because of the Overwatch rule, you almost WANT assault units to charge your squads, because you get another round of BS 1 shooting in. Because your lasguns have Rapid Fired for at least another round (remember, move and shoot 24" now), you've already thrown a lot more S3 attacks at inbound assault units than in 5th edition. With Counter Attack, you get MORE S3 attacks. By my math, the best case scenario is that, compared to the 5th, an average guardsmen can throw 3 more S3 attacks before he inevitably sacrifices his life for the Emperor.

My suggestion would be to partner Straken with a Lord Commissar. Because Straken is Fearless, you don't have to worry about Summary Execution, and you can test on LD 10 within 6" for Counter Attack.

Challenges: Challenges add interesting options for allowing a guard commander to sacrifice a Sergeant to, say, a solo demon prince or hive tyrant, and still only lose combat by 1, which can be negated with a platoon or regimental standard. Unfortunately, challenges will make Power Weapon armed Sergeants less appealing, because frequently they will be singled out and be killed before they can strike :( Straken himself, though, can be a BOSS when it comes to challenges. S7 Ignores Armor Saves gonna give most characters out there pause.

BLOB or MSU Platoons: I hate to say it, but the IG BLOB has probably seen its last deployment with me. The Focus Fire rule, changes to Rapid Fire (specifically Rapid firing bolters), wound allocation, and challenges just makes BLOBs a less appealing choice than the redundancy of MSU squads. Straken still benefits MSU infantry squads, because you can gain the benefit of Furious Charge whenever a 10 man squad charges, instead of just the turn your 30 or 40 man blob charges. Because of the utility of the Plasma Gun, it will gain a dominant presence in 10 man infantry squads. The jury is still out on Power Weapon Sergeants.
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A few points from Boxer Saint from Any Given Codex.

IGNORES ARMOR: Straken doesn't use one of the new fancy AP3 'power weapons.' His attacks "ignore armor saves", making him a relatively rare commodity. He still won't be smashing thunder hammer/storm shield terminators to death, but he'll strike fear into terminators without stormshields. Straken users will definitely want to leverage this point.

LOOKOUT SIR: Straken's Look out Sir is on a 4+ since he isn't an independent character, so we'll need to be careful how we place him. Bodyguards make his Look out Sir automatic, if it is allocated to them, so bodyguards are still useful.

CHALLENGES: Bodyguards, Astropaths, Officers of the Fleet, and Straken himself, are all characters. So if there is a baddy that you don't quite want Straken to face, issue a challenge with your Officer of the Fleet instead(who himself went from being a possible liability, to being pretty nifty with the new reserve rules).

FEARLESS: A quick note to fearless, you can't go to ground if you are fearless, so that could hurt your survivability some. (Maybe you couldn't do it in 5th either, so I may be a cheater).

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Conclusion: Straken is still the BOSS. He is still a viable choice to lead your IG foot army. Instead of sitting back and giving PW BLOBs Furious charge like he did in 5th, now he can lead an army of small fireteams, each with Counter Attack and Furious Charge. Let the enemy hit one of your squads to fix them, then charge with Straken in you turn and swamp them with bodies and S7 attacks.

6th Edition: The IG Light Infantry Platoon Part 1

Thanks to Natfka for a great post on the actual changes on the rules from 5th to 6th Edition: Rules From The Rulebook Are Here: Hull Pts, Focus Fire, Assaults, No Psychic Phase and More.

In this post I've attempted to relay my thoughts on how the changes will effect Light Infantry Imperial Guard platoons.

Rule change: Rapid Fire: "Rapid Fire weapons can now fire [I'm assuming one shot] at target 24" away irregardless of moving or not. (or choose to fire twice at target 12" away)

Analysis: Increases the effective range and (rate of fire) for standard line-infantry. This is both a boon and a curse to the Imperial Guard, especially light infantry armies. The advantage of move-and-fire lasguns means that your infantry hordes (MSU or BLOB) can move 6" and fire 24", increasing the effective range of the lasgun from 18" in all previous editions to 30". How this all works with the FRF-SRF order remains to be seen. Ideally we'd be able to get 1 more shot @ 24" even if the squad moved.

As a disadvantage, nearly every other army (MEQ TAU especially, etc) now has greater effective range with THEIR basic infantry, most of which possess the deadly AP 5 characteristic.


With the rapid fire rules changes, the plasma gun becomes a much more attractive option for MSU infantry squads. The main reason I advocated the grenade launcher was the effective range of 30". Now, with the changes to Rapid Fire, the plasma gun has a leg-up over the grenade launcher, with S7 vs S6, a much higher AP score, better anti-vehicle results (AP 2 weapons have a +1 bonus on the vehicle damage chart in 6th edition), and a higher rate-of-fire.

On BLOBS: With the rumored demise of Killpoints, MSU guard armies will be more compeditive in 6th Edition. This is because a guard player can sequentially split fire offensively and force opponents to waste firepower on depleted squads defensively. Of course, by taking MSU infantry squads you open yourself up to morale issues and less-efficient orders. BLOB strengths in 5th Edition were that with one officer, you could give multiple squads of guardsmen FRF-SRF and Ld 9 Stubborn with a Commissar, not to mention the reduced killpoints compared to MSU infantry squads. My prediction: more foot guard players going run to MSU platoons, and relying on IC Lord Commissars and Warlords for Morale purposes. Straken remains competitive without blobs, because he can FURIOUS CHARGE all MSU infantry units in his radius, and CREEEEEEEED! becomes a marginally more attractive option (however, his orders should still be directed at HWTs with Autocannons as a priority).

Rule Change: Overwatch: "Unit can elect to "Overwatch" if being assaulted. Simply a "Stand and Shoot 40K version" - resolved at BS1, Template does D3 hit instead."

Analysis: Another (marginal) boost for MSU infantry squads. Combined with the rapid fire changes (which essentially gives an infantry squad another turn of lasgun fire per game before being eliminated), FRF-SRF, we get a THIRD shooting phase (all-be it at BS 1). Not entirely reliable, but remember that MSU infantry squads are expendable. Note that plasma guns can be fired in Overwatch. I'm not sure if grenade launchers can or cannot be used in Overwatch if firing in frag Blast mode.

Rule Change: Snap Fire: 
"'Snap Fire' allows certain weapon types to shoot even if moving, but with a BS of 1 (ie. 6 to hit)"
"Blast Weapons cannot "snap fire"
"Vehicles movement and weapons. Defensive and Primary Weapons are gone. You can fire all of your weapons at most of the time. But moving faster will result in less weapon fired at basic BS, the rest will be fired at BS1 (Snap Fire)"

Analysis: Now, contrary to what the latest White Dwarf said about the coolest change for Imperial Guard was move-and-shoot lascannons in infantry squads, the actual best part of this is that HB Sponsons and Heavy Stubbers are going to be making a comeback in my armies. But that is for another post. Infantry Squads should be advancing, rapid firing their lasguns and plasma guns, and wasting 25 points on a lascannon which only hits 16.667% of the time is a poor strategic decision. Yeah its cool, but overall I think it will have little effect on army selection.

Just to summarize Snap Fire and Overwatch: these rules are nice, but not something to base your strategy on. BS 1  is just too unreliable to get too excited about.

2000 Point Arborian List

Revised 3/17/2012: Thanks to Kirby at 3++ for the feedback on my list, quoted in his favorite color, and my responses, in Arborian Green
The most obvious thing to say is: needs Chimeras :P but this will probably deter from your theme. Adding Chimeras would give this list a lot more available options in terms of how to manuever and handle the board as most of your firepower (outside of Vendettas) is pretty static. Add in the Vendettas are the only armor you have on the field and they will go down pretty quickly which also leaves all that S6+ firepower to go into your HWTs which will see them bite the dust quicker than you might like. So chimeras, if you can stand to fit them within your theme :P.
Unfortunately, Chimeras are right-out, this being a "Light Infantry" list. I fully understand and comprehend the disadvantages that a no-Chimera list carries. 

Otherwise, drop the Ratlings and Camo Cloaks - not needed.The SWS should really be running meltas + Demo rather than flamers and I wouldn't bother with the Power Weapons on the Platoon Command Squads though without mounting up, Grenade Launchers can work. You're also running two large blobs which is leaving you with only two targets - can't really do much about that without swapping a lot of things around but just bear that in mind - perhaps you'll want to run it so you have three squads of 20 + commissars rather than two squads of 30+. 

I've retooled the infantry squads into three 20-man blobs, each with a Commissar. This means that I've had to drop down to one priest, who I've given an eviscerator and placed in Straken's squad so that his S7 attacks aren't wasted. Dropping the ratlings gave me the points for another Platoon Command squad with 4 grenade launchers, and all three platoon command squads have their power weapons dropped. 

I'll keep the flamers in the SWS for now, as they will 1) most likely be out of range of Straken's Bring It Down order and 2) will cause more damage to their intended targets (small troops units in cover claiming backfield objectives such as Devastators, Long Fangs, Heavy Weapons Squads) than meltas because of their ability to IGNORE COVER SAVES. 

Best of all, I've kept my 130 model count (sans Commissars and Priest attachments)!

Company Command Squad: Straken, Medic, 3 Grenade Launchers, 2 Bodyguards                                                                                            

1 Priest (attached to Company Command Squad)

1 Platoon Command Squad: 4 Grenade Launchers
1 Platoon Command Squad: 4 Grenade Launchers
1 Platoon Command Squad: 4 Grenade Launchers 

                        

2 Infantry Squads (Combined Squad): 2 Meltaguns, 2 Sergeant Power Weapons, 1 Commissar, 1 Commissar Power Weapon     

2 Infantry Squads (Combined Squad): 2 Meltaguns, 2 Sergeant Power Weapons, 1 Commissar, 1 Commissar Power Weapon
2 Infantry Squads (Combined Squad): 2 Meltaguns, 2 Sergeant Power Weapons, 1 Commissar, 1 Commissar Power Weapon 

             

Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 Autocannons
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 Autocannons 
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 Autocannons 
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 Autocannons 
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3 Autocannons                                                  

Special Weapons Squad: 2 Flamers, 1 Democharge (mounted in Vendetta)
Special Weapons Squad: 2 Flamers, 1 Democharge (mounted in Vendetta)
Special Weapons Squad: 2 Flamers, 1 Democharge (mounted in Vendetta)

Vendetta: 2 Heavy Bolters

Vendetta: 2 Heavy Bolters
Vendetta: 2 Heavy Bolters

Total Infantry: 130 (plus 2 commissars and 2 priests)

Obviously the backfield for this army are the 5 autocannon equipped heavy weapons squads, which can dish out a ton of anti-transport firepower. They are also troops choices, which means that they can effectively hold objectives placed into cover, especially in pairs or trios, where their MSU (multiple small unit) nature makes them more survivable than opponents might expect from 6 GEQ models.

The front-field of this army are the three Vendettas carrying three special weapons squads, each with a demo-charge and 2 flamers. Intended to be the first troops to meet the enemy, they take full advantage of the Scout move of the Vendettas, then deploy close enough to make use of their close-range weapons. Being a troop unit, the enemy MUST eliminate them or risk them taking an objective. The Vendettas are the only long-range anti-AV14 in the army and will no doubt draw considerable fire as there are no other vehicles in my army list, but with 3 there should be enough redundancy to get the job (slagging AV14 vehicles) done.

The midfield for this army are two rock-solid power-weapon blob Combined Squads, each with a commissar to make them Stubborn, and a priest to re-roll attacks when the charge. Leading from the front is the venerable Colonel Straken, whose greatest contribution is Furious Charge to the power weapon blobs within 12". Melta-guns in the power weapon blobs help to keep tank-shocking tanks away, and grenade launchers in the three command squads are a 24" move and fire flexible weapon for supporting the infantry charge.