Close Combat – Every Guard Commanders worst Nightmare
You know, it’s a pretty solid principle that it doesn’t matter how hard you hit if you’re dead before you get a chance to swing. This is the basis for success or failure in an Imperial Guard Army. If your forces are overwhelmed by the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, your Big Guns will never be able to deliver a knock-out punch. You lose. If your enemy’s assault force is shot to pieces before it reaches your lines, likewise, they’ve lost. You win. No one, and I mean no one, wants to get into a gunfight with the Imperial Guard. If you can force your opponent’s hand, you’ve already got the hard part of the battle taken care of.
Step number one on the road to surviving the assault portion of the enemy army is to slow them down. In third edition 40K, the transport is key to any assaulting army’s success against the Imperial Guard. Every assault-based army (Tyranids excepted, we’ll discuss them later) is going to have at least three transports. If more then one of these buggers reaches your lines intact it could spell a quick end for our heroes. More then anything else, those transports must be stopped. Fortunately, the Imperial Guard army has plenty of units perfect for doing just that:
Fire Support Heavy Weapons Squads
For a mere 80 points the Imperial Guard can field a squad of three Heavy Bolters, even with their less then perfect aim, that will generally spell trouble for the light transports employed by most assault armies. Why Heavy Bolters instead of Autocannon? First because of the increased cost, but more dubiously because those Autocannon are going to find their way into your general infantry squads where they are cheaper and better protected courtesy of the additional human shielding of an Infantry Squad. Lastly, your enemy will ignore the Heavy Bolter teams in favor of firing at the larger weapons, be they Autocannons, Missile Launchers, or Lascannons. They’ll eventually learn the error of their ways, but it’ll be far too late by then. Better yet, they won’t learn. They’ll convince themselves that you’ll never get “that lucky” with your heavy bolters again. After a bout six trips to the woodshed, be amazed if they haven’t started adding Heavy Bolters to their own army…priceless.
Infantry Squad Heavy and Special Weapons
Your infantry squads get autocannons ten points cheaper then the fire support squads. Tack on a plasma gun for some additional high strength firepower and you’ve got three or four strength 7 shots sure to put a nice size hole in the enemy’s dreams. Team that with the added levels of protection you gain courtesy of the “ablative” guardsmen that fill out the squad and you’ve got a real winner. An Infantry Squad with an Autocannon and a plasma gun weighs in at a mere 83 points. Fantastic!
Chimera Transports
One word – Multilaser. Never allow yourself to make the mistake your enemies invariably will. The Chimera is not an APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier) like the Rhino. What it is, is an IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle) akin to the Razorback. The difference appears subtle, but when the firing starts, there is nothing subtle about it. Like the fire support teams these guys can lay down a bunch of medium strength firepower, especially if you include an Autocannon firing from the squad inside. Tack on an H/K missile and your Chimera will suddenly cease to be a joke. On the survivability side, the Chimera’s 12 front armor makes it very durable. The same weapons you are using to tear up your enemy’s transports will ping harmlessly off the front of your IFV. This means the enemy needs to make a very tough decision. Do they let loose their big guns on your “transports” or do they fire on the Battle Tanks. Not an easy choice, I’ll discuss why later.
Sentinel Squadrons
Again, the Multi-laser makes an appearance. I can not emphasize enough how awesome this weapon is in the role of light vehicle killer. Nevertheless, I put the Walkers at the bottom of the list because of their pathetic armor and the propensity of most commanders to field the Sentinels forward of their lines, which, in my opinion is a big mistake. At the very least, they are a mobile gun platform and the ability to move without losing any firepower is excellent.
Pick and choose form the list above, but don’t forget you’re not dealing with Marines here. Your boys will miss. If you have six units from the list above you should be ok, seven is wonderful, eight or more and you may start getting into overkill in all but the largest games. Sounds like a big investment? Well, bear in mind that if the enemy gets to you before you want them to you may never be able to recover. Then point it out, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Which brings us to step number two in dealing with the assaulting elements of an opponent’s army - Plugging the gaps. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. With the Imperial Guard this can have devastating effects. The Emperor wants results not excuses, so the Imperial Guard Commander needs to accept that inevitably the enemy will get into close combat. Even a single marine can kill or drive off dozens of Imperial Guardsmen. Without a doubt this is where the Imperial Guard are at their absolute weakest. The strength of the Guard is in its guns. Once the enemy is involved in an assault, the guns of the Guard are useless. So what does the Guard Commander do? Throw in the towel as soon as the first punch is thrown? I don’t think so.
Responding to an assault with a Guard Army just takes a whole lot more patience and tactics then with other armies. While most armies could counter-attack with overwhelming force, the Imperial Guard are generally left responding with stop-gap measures. Any assault unit that can be forced to make a Sweeping Advance into your guns is good as dead. Any assault unit that can be tied up for the course of the battle is even better – assault units are notoriously expensive, your counter-attack units will probably cost half as much. Our goal here is not necessarily to win the assault when we counter-attack (although that’s always a nice bonus). What we really need to is tie-up that assault unit and wear them down so that when they do get loose, and they most likely will, it’s too late for them to have a devastating effect on our battle plans. When it comes time to put your proverbial finger in the dyke, here’s what you might use:
Ogryn
Expensive as all get out (well in Imperial Guard Terms), but if you want one unit that will tie up the enemy these goliaths are it. Against marines and orks their strength and toughness make for brutal combats that can drag out for turns giving you time to redeploy or concentrate your fire on the other elements of the enemy force. Against the likes of the Eldar, it becomes even more enjoyable as Brute strength often crushes subtle skill. Oh the memories of a unit of Banshees beset by a squad of Orgyn, those poor pathetic Elves…ah, but I digress. Be sure to put these boys in a Chimera for the double benefit of transportation and safety from small arms fire until they are needed. Word of Warning: watch out for marines with Powerfists, they kill Ogryn dead.
Rough Riders
These guys are the classic one-hit wonder. Armed up with their explosive hunting lances these guardsmen are devastating if, and only if, they get to charge the enemy. It’s Russian roulette in my book with the Rough Riders. The biggest problem being that there is no way to conceal the Rough Riders from in-coming fire short of keeping them out of line of sight. This can be very limiting with respect to where they can strike. Second, after just one game’s encounter with your Rough Riders your opponent will know just how effective they are and will take whatever steps are necessary to eliminate them. I’d definitely reserve the Rough Riders as an aesthetic choice, but to each their own.
Command HQ
This one may seem counter-intuitive at first, but the Imperial Guard Command HQ has the potential to be absolutely devastating in Close Combat. You just have to be very, very careful about picking the fight. First, if your CHQ is going into combat, make sure it does so against an opponent you can soften with some shooting first. You’ve only got five models, four of which are very likely to be dead before the fight actually starts. Your commander needs all the help you can give them. What about the command unit itself, which weapons should we take? Well if your gearing up for an assault role with your CHQ, you need look no further then the trusty flamer. Get every trooper in the squad a flamer. Then get the Captain a power weapon. You should be able to paste any average marine squad you pull up to with 15-20 hits from the flamers. With half of those wounding even the Powered Armor folks need to start paying attention. As an added bonus your opponent will think they WANT you in hand to hand combat so they will inevitably leave someone for you to engage with your Captain, Fantastic. And of course, you need to be sure
to put this unit in a Chimera for early-turn firepower, maneuverability, and the ever-valuable protection from small arms fire. Want that one last kicker? Upgrade your Captain to a Death World Veteran, then watch the looks on those marine faces as you hit their precious boys on 3’s…. heh, guarenteed to get you 3 points worth of enjoyment.
Take two of the above units for your response team and you’ll be fine. Once you’ve whittled down or (gasp) actually defeated the small portion of the enemy that has made it into your lines you should be able to get back to the business of destroying the enemy piecemeal. Remember that the keyword in response to an assaulting unit is not destruction, it’s containment. An enemy assault element that survives the battle, but spends every turn locked up in combat with your Ogryn was just as good as dead.
Finally, step three in the three-step process, knowing how to direct your fire. This one can take nerves of steel at times. When a squad of Berzerkers has just chewed up one of your squads and made a sweeping advance into another, the obvious response is to blast away at them until there are none left - Big mistake. That squad may just have to take its medicine. The Emperor thanks them for their sacrifice. You need to make sure you’re getting the most out of your guns. If saving that squad costs you a Battle Tank, you need to let the squad die.
So how do you know what to fire at? That’s relatively easy, the tricky part is knowing WHEN to fire. Seems obvious, no? Fire when your turn comes up … well that’s not exactly what I mean. You have 6 Heavy Bolters, 3 Multi-lasers, 2 Autocannons, 4 Lascannons, 2 Missile Launchers, and a Battle Cannon. What gun do you fire first? Well since we’re looking at stopping the assault wave of the enemy we’ll discuss directing fire for the first couple of turns which will make all the difference between life and death for the majority of your army (aka the grunts). While the knee-jerk reaction is to blast away with the Ordnance, you’ll find that most opponents will find a way to deny the penetrating hits of your big guns. Even if they don’t do so, you’ll only score that vicious Obliteration about 1 time in 10. Instead, check out the armor on your enemy’s transports and your enemy’s troops. Open fire on the nearest transport with the lowest strength weapons that can glance the armor, if two weapons are close, like the heavy bolter and multi-laser, go with the one that doesn’t negate armor saves. For example, when fighting marines, open up on the Rhinos with your Multi-lasers first, the Heavy Bolters may be of use later in the turn for ferreting out scouts. Keep firing at the same target until the vehicle has been stopped – Stunned or Immobilized is fine, Destroyed is even better – and then move on to the next one. Work your way through your weapons from lowest strength to highest, but always save the Ordnance for last.
Once you’ve got the transports stopped, you’ll probably find yourself two-thirds of the way through your heavy weapons. Now open fire with the big guns. If it’s the first turn and the enemy can’t reach you with any assault troops on their next move, fire at any troops you’ve just forced out of their transport, If your opponent was relying on their assault element, watching them be destroyed in detail can be devastating for morale. Missile Launchers, Lascannons, and the Ordnance make short work of Marine Squads trying to huddle behind the wreckage of their transport. Strangely this doesn’t stop even the most experienced commander from huddling his boys together behind their doomed transport. I say strange because, you are FAR more likely to obliterate a squad of Marines once your multi-lasers have busted them out of their protective Rhino shell. Likewise, the Heavy Bolters that could not be put to good use against the Eldar Wave Serpents work wonders on the Banshees that were formally protected inside. If the enemy IS still going to be able to assault you, keep going with your fire until you’ve stopped all the transports.
I can not stress enough that a single intact squad of assault troops can put a serious divot your plans. By firing up the ladder of your weapons you can make sure that you eliminate the enemy threat with the least amount of force necessary. Firing a battle cannon at a smoked rhino is exactly what your opponent wants you to do. Firing that same battle cannon at the squad that had to dump out of the rhino, they will not be so pleased with. You’ll never get that shot if you don’t watch your firing.
While we’re on the subject....
Part 3 - The Big Guns - or things that go BOOM! in the night
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