At first glance the Imperial Guard look one of the worst armies in 40k; I must admit they do lack in certain areas (which I will hopefully cover later in this article) but they do have many positive features – these include the massed armoured divisions which the imperial guard can field as well as extras such as the Comm links and pre battle barrages and the like.

I will tackle the Imperial guard army in my own unique way looking at each unit individually and assessing them in terms of usefulness (much the same as my Bretonnian analysis). So without further ado I will start with the basics:

The Guardsmen are the basic rank and file troops of any impy guard army – they are the mainstay troops and as with all the things from the outside with a guard army they look weak and below par. You have to consider the troops though. I must admit they are weak and in the terms of 40k are basic cannon fodder (but that’s what most rank and file troops are) but they have their uses – for a start they can be armed to forfil many roles from take and hold orientation to tank destruction. The basic trooper is cheap in points value and so many of them can be taken (ranging from the jungle fighters of Catachan to the Mordian Iron Guard). Let’s take a look at a unit of 10 troopers:

Ok you are looking at a sergeant to lead them- an effective cheap leader model that can be give some wargear but lets turn away form that for a minute. You have the sergeant a heavy weapon and a special weapon in the squad which leaves you with 6 basic troopers (I’m looking at a basic unit here). The heavy weapon can fill many roles as too can the special weapon depending on what you want the squad to do.

A good balanced squad would consist of 1 sergeant, 1 rocket launcher and loader, a melta gun (or grenade launcher is a good option), and 6 basic troopers with auto guns and lasguns.

Right lets see what this basic squad can do:

The sergeant is pretty much normal and can be left to do what sergeants do ( bark orders and to lead the unit) and this is how I usually view them (after all they have nothing too special in their stats apart from leader qualities). The rocket launcher can be very effective at either killing men or vehicles with the use of both frag and krak missiles (not bothering with the other rocket types) ; and this is why I usually field a rocket launcher in my squads – it has the capability to get rid of enemy armour as well as the usual ground cover of enemy troops…this means that the squad isn’t tied down to one role and is very versatile tactically and can cover gaps in your line and un-foreseen events (i.e. A tank getting destroyed so that you can still destroy big targets). (also the rocket launcher as with all the heavy weapons in the imperial guard army can replace the gunner with the loader so it gives you the extra man that can use the rocket launcher and with clever positioning and use should give a longer battle life to the rocket launcher)

The next thing in the squad to look at is the special weapon – a good choice here is either a grenade launcher or a melta gun (baring in mind that I am looking for a balanced squad here). The melta gun has the hitting power to destroy armour as well as troops (a high strength and a blast marker) the only downside to the melta gun is the low range which it has but once in range it has the potential to ruin an opponents plan. The strength of 8 and the blast marker can easily remove closely packed enemy troops and can literally melt through tank armour.

So in a mediocre squad that on first glance looks in-effective we have the potential to kill massed troops as well as two weapons that can take out armour – (not looking to bad now is it? –ed).

Then we have 6 basic troopers (the cannon fodder at first glance). Well what can I say about these? Ok lets look at their plus side – they have the capability to take out other enemy ‘normal’ rank and file troopers – they are all armed with the modest choice of a lasgun or an auto gun and they have usual human stats for WS and BS and so hitting can be a pain – don’t expect too much from the normal guardsman that’s all that there is to really point out about them – they are cheap have nothing too special and so expect little – use them to protect the heavy weapon in the squad and to keep firing at the enemy your looking at a 25% hit ratio with them and about a 5-10% ratio of wounding and killing.

Ok these guys can be effective if used well. They aren’t going to win any fights with a Carnifex but if positioned well can be a real pain for the enemy. Don’t forget that they can infiltrate which means that you can put them behind enemy lines and they can be a nuisance to the enemy. Look at it this way if you put them in the edge of a wood and put them on fire command to keep shooting away at the enemy soldiers your opponent has two options 1) ignore them which is bound to result in a few of his casualties or 2) go in and kill them – with this option it is going to tie down one of his units fire for at least a turn and because they are in a wood perhaps even two…and so for a relatively cheap unit you are in a practically no loose situation – whatever happens they are a big pain to your enemy.

Now these fellas are bad…they have three wounds and a good strength and toughness…they have the potential to stay in a fight as well as give a bit. The ‘ripper’ guns that they carry are interesting – drum fed shotguns – which I have found are good for clearing out enemy squads.

The best tactics which I can offer you with the Ogryns is to march them towards the enemy rank and file and cause some havoc…If anything they will attract fire like pin cushions away from your main units as your opponent wont like the idea of having 5 ogryns wondering around his battle line which will leave you some breathing space.

The other option with the ogryns is to use them as ‘bodygaurds’ to your general and main unit as they can soak up a lot of fire …but unless your opponent is on an assassinate mission (or something of the kind) I see little use for this and from personal experiences I would say that the latter option is better (ie. Have them plod off towards your enemy) A good option also is to put the ogryns into a chimera and send them off to the enemy lines although don’t expect them to reach the other side often – the chimera is an easy target for trigger happy enemy heavy weapon teams.

Hey ho silver! Warhammer meets 40k with these guys…I have never really liked fielding these although brings thoughts of the horse riders from the 1^st and 2^nd world wars…

Ok lets see what they have going for them:

Right they have the hunting lances – ouch now I wouldn’t like one of these stuck into me =( a spear with explosive charges in the end…they have the capability to wound most ‘normal’ enemy soldiers who are wearing modest armour and they are usually armed with suitable HTH weapons…although these guys look fairly impressive from the hand to hand aspect the thing which bothers me about them is that they have to get into HTH in the first place…which means galloping towards a well prepared ( or at least it should be – ed) enemy line and so you can expect little to remain of the squad once it reaches the other side.

Overall the rough riders have their uses but id usually leave them at home.

These troops are the elite of the imperial guard (much the same as the SAS or the marines –ed) they have a slight stat increase over the normal gaurdsmen in the form of a 1 point leadership increase and although this may not sound great it can mean the difference between staying in a fight or running for the hills as battles have shown me.

Another feature of the storm troopers is that they are all veterans and so have veteran abilities (look out in the future for an extension on these –ed) which means it gives for storm troopers a bit more ability.

Another part which the storm troopers have which is fairly useful is the hotshot pack which increases the power of all storm troopers laser weapons by 1 (the hotshot pack has more power –ed) which means Las-pistols and guns have a strength of 4.

Overall the storm troopers are an interesting variant over the normal guardsmen (don’t forget they can be armed the same as regular troops – ed) and they have that little extra that gives them greater hitting power and the capacity to stay in the fight longer. I would usually take at least one squad of these in most battles due to their flexibility (I like the idea of a special unit on the battlefield having their own little objective separate of the army – ie. Take control of a hill to cover the armies advance etc –ed)

Ok now these guys are the meanest that you are going to get with the imperial guard in the form of men. For a start they are excellent leaders for your troops with a leadership of 10 this makes the commissars at their best when at the forefront of the battle fighting up close with the enemy with your squads as their leadership can keep them in the battle almost indefinitely until the last man has been killed (this is especially useful against fear causing enemies –ed)

Commissars have a weapon skill and a ballistic skill of 5 which makes them effective in both hand to hand combat and shooting although they only have a strength and toughness of 4 although if ‘tooled up’ properly a commissar can become lethal up front.

I see little use for commissars being at the back of the army – as you might have gathered I like to stick to the background of an army and as commissars are supposed to be ‘inspirational’ and be up front I like to see them doing this. My view is that is the get killed then they get killed – they would have died serving their cause bravely and heroically, I have little room for cowardice in my army! I am either a win or loose general (usually win- ed) and I like to have an all out well planned offence strategy (unless I am outnumbered) (this probably comes from spending too long with my Bretonnian army!)

So…its basically up to you what you want to do with a commissar (I wouldn’t leave home without one unless it was a small battle) but their stats are tooled up to lead…I usually prefer to have a captain or a secondary commander to look after things in the back to make sure that everything is watertight…which brings out the offensive nature with my tactics.

Overview: This is what the Imperial Guard army is to me – tanks rushing towards the enemy all guns blazing Chimeras dropping off squads of troops deep in enemy lines…etc etc. In this section I will be giving the low-down on each individual tank:

This is the mainstay tank of the imperial guard – it is also a very effective piece of kit on the battlefield.

So what does it have and what can it be used for?

The Leman Russ is standardly armed with a battle cannon, a lascannon, and two heavy bolters – which amounts to quite a formidable force in both temrs of destroying enemy armour as well as taking out massed infantry (if used well).

I feel that the leman russ has to be the top priority for armour in an imperial guard army – it has great potential in almost any situation, and when put into a unit of three your opponent will feel worried and he will focus all heavy weapons on them which will leave the rest of your army free (although the chances are the three leman russ would cause a large amount of damage before they were taken out)

Built upon the basic leman russ chassis the main difference from its counterpart is the demolisher has the extremely powerful demolisher cannon, which is very effective at destroying armoured targets like enemy tanks, and buildings. The demolisher is very much a ‘specialist’ piece of equipment very much orientated toward destroying armour..And so is best suited to this and so you should think carefully before taking one of these into your army…

This like the leman russ has many roles which it can fit into. It is a great troop transporter but it is also armed well enough to look after itself and the squad it was transporting after it has reached its destination…it is armed with a heavy bolter and a multilaser, which are both great weapons for supporting troops with a great killing capability of enemy men…

The chimera is a must have for transporting troops…although you should expect them to take a LOT of fire, but their armour and speed should keep them in the game long enough to fulfil their role.

The basilisk is built on a chimera chassis and so is very flexible. The main armourment with the basilisk is the eathshaker artillery gun which as its name suggests is extremely powerful.

The best role for the earthshaker is to position the basilisk at the back of the table and smash the enemy tanks and buildings to pieces because it is armed with a nifty special rule against armoured targets that gives it a general bonus (see the army book – ed).

Like the demolisher though the basilisk is a specialist piece of kit orientated to destroying armoured targets and as I have said before you need to consider how effective it would be in relation to using a different tank…

When facing an enemy who uses lots of infantry the baby is a must. Armed with an inferno cannon the hellhound is VERY effective at taking out enemy troops and could SERIOUSLY ruin your opponents plans – it has both a high strength and a flamer template which means it has the capacity to take out a large swathe of enemy troops each time it fires.
But again as with all the tanks in the imperial army (apart from the chimera and leman russ) it fulfils a particular role and you need to consider its effectiveness.

The griffon can be very useful if you are good at guessing distances. It has three types of shell which it can fire from the heavy mortar (frag shells, inferno shells, and melta shells) which are useful for killing both infantry as well as armour, and all the shells carry a blast marker which means that they can usually take pout a few things at once.

Another useful feature with the Griffon is that it can fire indirectly (as with most other imperial weapons) which means you can hit enemy that you cannot see and so you can sit the griffon behind a rock for instance which will give it that extra bit of protection – but as stated you need to be good at guessing ranges for it to be fully effective.

Well that’s all I can think of right now …I expect that I will be adding more to this in the future (ie. Best army set-ups for facing different enemies and the like) and I will expand on what I have already written above adding ideas as and when I get them, but as it stands now I hope that it has given you a couple of ideas, and if it has then the purpose of this article has been fulfilled…

Until next time keep rolling 6’s and I hope to see you here at the realm soon…

Copyright A.Blake (GWR) 98 ã none of the above may be copied or edited without the authors prior permission…the above text may only be used for personal purposes only…please mail me at this address for questions or comments referring to the text above: aspirate@aol.com