Friday 25 January 2013

Imperial Blog

Luke here. A break from WFB league games has given me the chance to focus a bit on my Imperial Guard. This was going to be all about the transition from 5th edition to 6th but I feel that whole thing has been done to death on forums all over the place.










A post on how fliers are good, Guard gives great options for cheap objective holders, allies are completely broken, oh and did I mention? Vendettas are really good, is a bit redundant at this point. Instead, I shall share with you some of the progress of my army – with pictures!  (That’s right; I’ve actually started painting something!) I’ll also discuss the thinking behind some of the choices and reflections; post-battles!
The army that I’ve taken the last couple of games is:
HQ
Primaris Psyker, telepathy
Troops
Infantry Platoon:
Platoon Command Squad, flamer x 2, vox caster, Chimera (multi laser & heavy bolter)
Infantry Squad 1, sergeant w/melta bombs and power axe, plasma gun, vox caster, lascannon, krak grenades
Infantry Squad 2 – as squad 1
Infantry Squad 3 – as squad 1
Infantry Squad 4 – as squad 1, commissar w/power axe
Infantry Squad 5 – as squad 1, commissar w/power axe
Veteran Squad, meltagun x 3, chimera (multi laser & heavy bolter)

Heavy Support
Manticore Rocket Battery

Leman Russ Executioner, heavy bolter sides, hull mounted heavy bolter

Space Wolf Allies
HQ
Rune Priest, master of runes, boltgun, runic armour, divination
Rune Priest, master of runes, boltgun, runic armour, divination
Troops
5 Grey Hunters, flamer, razorback w/twin linked lascannon


I dabbled with a big infantry platoon in 5th, but was quite reserved with it; only taking four squads. It was okay as a blob of forty, but that was it. Okay. Even with Commander Straken boosting the unit, it always felt a bit... lacking. With the addition of the new psychic powers, I have maxed the platoon out to fully take advantage of the divination discipline. It has literally transformed the unit. Fifty guardsmen ordered to first rank fire, second rank fire is intimidating. Fifty guardsmen, five firing plasma guns, five firing lascannons ordered to first rank fire, second rank fire, with re-rolls to hit, ignoring cover and forcing the target to re-roll successful  saves is bat-shit crazy! Oh, and the unit can potentially overwatch at full Ballistic Skill, as if normal overwatch wasn’t frustrating enough. With four rolls on the divination table this is very possible. Also, only one of these effects is a malediction and can be stopped by 'deny the witch'; a nice bonus!
The unit is incredibly resilient with 50 bodies, the Rune Priest’s leadership 10 and the ‘stubborn’ Commissars. It’s also not bad in the assault phase with krak grenades and melta bombs versus big monsters, and plenty of expendable bodies to grind down a variety of opponents in combat. The units that would give the blob the biggest problems in an assault are Ork hordes, Tyranid hordes, Death Company, Khorne Bezerkers and ten man terminator units. A special mention has to go to Purifiers because of cleansing flame; but with the Rune Priest’s magic stick, if I’m backed into a corner, I’ve got a 50/50 chance to stop it going off.
So what the new and improved blob squad and chums gives me? A unit that is more than capable of taking the fight to the opponent, and not just for holding a home objective. Think of it like this: The blob dishes out an amazing, to potentially horrendous amount of torrent, decent anti tank and anti AP 2 shooting. It is hard to kill, hard to make run away, tricky to assault and as is no slouch in combat. I genuinely feel the blob can have a pop at (if not outright kill) any unit in the game. The only downsides are it's speed, the 'gets hot' on the plasma guns, and the cost of the unit (665 points!)
Now this isn’t just theoryhammer. I’ve played a couple of games with this list now. In the first game, the blob accounted for 9 Noise Marines in one phase, 8 Raptors overwatched off the table in another phase, and a Decimator Daemon Engine the next, all before claiming an objective. The second game, they took out a Psycannon Dreadnought, a Land Raider, 5 Purifiers, Castellen Crowe, 5 Grey Knights and claimed two objectives. The blob can do it all!
It’s not all about the foot sloggers, though. I'm still using an Executioner - decent anti infantry of all types. The best Leman Russ in the codex, if I may be so bold. Armour 14 is still frustrating for people to crack, even with hull points. The other heavy is a Manticore which I never used much before, but with the new rules for templates against vehicles I feel they are now really worth the points (even if only AP 4) hidden away at the back of the board. 
The Warlord is okay. The access to telepathy to force panic checks or utilise pshychic shriek is nice. There will be games where it's nuts and wipes out a unit of terminators, but most of the time it will be a nice little extra, and I'm fine with that. The main thing is he has 50 guardsmen standing in front of him and that's what matters!

I shall leave you now with a few WIP pictures of my vehicles. I've not been happy with how they're painted for a while, but now I’ve finally decided on a new colour scheme. They aren't finished and I'm going to add some weathering, dirt and decals eventually.  


Stage one: Baneblade brown



Stage two: Aggrax Earthshade.



Stage three: Baneblade Brown drybrush.




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