Imperial Guard Tactics

Well, since there is no other place to post this I'll post it here. I suggest that this forum name be changed to "Imperial Tactics" so that it can include all forces of the Imperium. So my question is: Does anyone have any tactics or advice they want to give me about the Guard? Specifically an Infantry force.

I do, but I will post later this week, little tired now.

stay put and rapid fire.

anymore tactics besides blasting the enemy to hell and back? I also want to know if anyone has used any of the IG special characters and if they're effective.

Alot of guardsmen with tons of Lascannons and Heavy bolters.
NEVER trust or rely on your guardsmen to do ANYTHING right.

Sorry, I forgot to post here about this. Tomorrow I will try to write something up for ya JC.

OMG OMG OMG 40K has NO tactics!!!!!!!!!

... just kidding. OR AM I?!?!?!

It's got tactics, just relatively simple ones.

here are some tactics when fighting against Orks.

1- dont waste points on heavy bolters/flamers or any multi shot weapon, you need something wth mobility like Lots of lassguns!

2- always place your vehicles all the way to the front and turn them sideways, this way you can make a nice solid wall for your guys to hide behind.

3- Orks are masters of hand to hand, and lets face it, a lassgun is not good for hand to hand, so get rid of the lassguns and equip all your guys with pistol and close combat weapon, this way you have a chance to fight back !

4- Comisars are useless, is only one guy, wth is he gonna do ??

5- Your comander should lead from the front, he has the best stats and can blunt an ork assault.

6 - Basilisks suck now because orks are to fast, that big gun cant hit anything !

7 - Hellhounds are just to fragile, i mean, think about it, do you want to be next to a mobile gas pump when bunch of orks are shooting at you ... HECK NO !

Hope this help some !!

WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!
YOU NEED MORE DAKKA!
Lascannons and Heavybolters... remember that.

Never be afraid to sacrifice a Guard Unit to deny the enemy a charge

no hellhound? no heavy bolters or flamers? wtf?!!!

lol, where the heck do you get this pictures dude ? who the heck would do that to a poor turtle ?

those things are friggin nasty

They'll take a hand off easy.......But I think it was a sadistic fuck who did that to an animal.

that was just wrong, dont hurt the trutle.....first no heavy weapons and hellhounds and now no turtles??? man this place is for the chaos people!

Ok, I think I'll follow Max's IG tactics and not Luis' radical tactics that sound far too heretical and orky. Givng guardsmen close combat weapons for +2 points each???!!! No way! they suck dirty Varghulf nuts at close combat! Orks= close combaty army, IG= shooty army. Lasguns are bound to kill some orks eventually.

I beg to differ. A guard army has the potential to be VERY close combat if it wants to be. However, they do excell best at shooting.

Here are some simple guard tactics that I've seen. I'll make a seperate thread and post some goods soon in more detail.

Mind you, these are just some basic tactics for using your infantry in different roles.

Tactic 1: "Hold the Line"
This is the concept of packing as much firepower into your guard army as possible. You load up each squad with a special and weapon weapon and stick them in as much cover as possible and blast away at anything that moves.
Pros: With this concept the guard can dish out more heavy weapons and just sheer firepower then any other army, strength in numbers.
Cons: Every time you move a squad you sacrifice a heavy weapon shot, which can be vital at times. Extremely stationary army which when playing an objective can put you outa luck real fast.

Tactic 2: "Bait and lure"
Cosmo elluded to this. This is the basic guard bait tactic. You spread out your squads without any heavy weapons (but maybe with a special weapon) but making sure that you have at least 1 squad of just vanilla guardsmen (60 pts). This unit is sent to it's sure and undeniable death by going straight out in the open towards the enemy (especially if they are close combat oriented!) Once your enemy charges in, I mean who can't resist squishing 10 models in one round?, you make sure that your other units are out of any fallout range. Undoubtabley this squad will be all out destroyed, leaving the enemy unit(s) surrounded by all of your guardsmen. Now it's your turn and you rapid fire the shit outa them till they all die of skin cancer.
Pros: Can be very effective, especially if you couple it with the "counter-attack" tactic. Brings your enemy in quickly into rapid fire range for most of your units, which is the guard's strong point.
Cons: You have to sacrifice a squad, all be guardsmen (who are meant to die IMO) and if your opponent doesn't buy the bait then you have to rethink your tactics, but thats just a little con (I like this tactic personally).

Tactic 3: "Counter Attack"
This is an easy way to ultilize your officer squads. You can customize them with assault weaponery (flamers, grenade launchers, etc.) a medic (ignores a wound), and the other guys can have pistol/CC weapons. Also, the officers can take power weapons or power fists. You combine this with a commisar (with PF, only 60 pts and NOT an independent character) or priest (with evisorator) and you've a surprisingly potent unit.
These guys are effective at dealing with anything that gets too close to your squishy guardsmen. They are pretty potent, but die quickly (they're still human) so don't expect them to last long in combat. Against really hardcore CC units they really just stem the tide. They can also push the combat into your opponent's turn (if he charged or if you get the chance) and thus deny them the ability to charge and/or shoot another unit.
Pros: It's really one of the only close combat units you've got (Rough Riders work for this role as well) and can be a nasty surprise for the unweary opponent (not many guard players out there so not much experience).
Cons: Your CC units have less guys but are just as squishy as the 10 man guard units. You have to guard them well. You also can't benefit from the Officer's leadership if he's in CC.


Thats it for now, I'll post more soon. Hope that helps!

Iv'e only ever won once against the IG, and that's because I wiped out his command squad !! ( heh heh necron destroyers ) They usually blast the shit out of me with there basilisks, fry me with there hellhounds, wittle me down further with their sentinels and when close enough shoot the hell out of my remaining squads with there lasguns. So I guess you should have strong command squad and protect it, have at least one basilisk, and a variety of different long range weapons to cause unholy hell on your opponents, and a few mobile units to seize objectives. And a commissar.... because they look COOL !!!

Here's my 5th edition tactic:

I honestly use the "HTL" tactic, with heavy support (mainly LRMBT's supported by at least one artillary piece), make as many squads with lascannons and sniper rifles as possible, and then sit in the farthest corner possible and pound my enemy to dust with templates and pinnings/VGTG

Pros: makes your army very effective against vechile/MC-heavy lists (Mega-Flashlight squads), while maintaining a somewhat good balance with anti-swarm/ infantry-heavy lists(LRMBT's/artillary/Master of the Ordinance)

Cons: it only safe/ effective on maps with alot of LOS, and once your opponent approaches close range, your really risk harming your own units in the various blasts from the tanks, as well as having vulnerable-to-drop-pods-in-the-face syndrom

Not to mention lack of objective-hunting units, which are required in 2/3 of the missions.

Or my personal favorite is lightning strike with stormtroopers. I use a valkeriye for the tactic and its effective enough given the correct mission you give them.

Granted its for objective based play. Run them in on the valk, land shoot have the Valk supporting with small fire weaponry and have your artillery engulfing them. Deploy your army so you can create fire lanes for your heavy weapons so you don't have to re-deploy and lose your heavy shots.

Imo I like taking a squad of tanks. Nothing says F*** You! Like a squad of three tanks rolling at your face.

Granted though its point heavy with all the armor and you'll probably end up fielding small squads of Guardsmen. The bait tactic mentioned earlier with a squad of vanilla guards is awesome, especially if you have heavy weapons set up and roving tanks waiting for the enemy to make a move.