Palladian Assault Weapons
Afternoon everybody! Hope all's well. Over here I've been ploughing through a few of my distractions for the last couple of weeks and I have an upcoming post on some more Force on Force miniatures. But having finished my latest model I decided to work on something a bit new to me.
Assault weapons.
Strangely enough, I never ever used to take assault weapons in my Guard armies. It was a long-standing belief that assault and heavy weapons should be concentrated into Special and Heavy Weapons Squads, where their firepower could be brought to bear on a single target. I abandoned this doctrine when I decided to take heavy weapons in the squads to help them outshoot Space Marines (my most common opponent). The rest of the firepower would come from humble lasguns.
That tactic has worked fine - except in this Guard army I don't even have any Special Weapons Squads. I decided to rectify this and get a few to add to my squads - also, the six men I freed up by replacing them with assault weapon troopers would give me the rump of another squad, maybe we could have a 4-squad platoon ...
This is rare in being a decision not influenced by fluff. I do play to win, and I enjoy the tactics of the game but I don't spend hours poring over army lists to pick the best of my options. I usually just pick what's 'realistic' in terms of the fluff - but my anti-tank capability is seriously lacking. The packs from GW come with a meltagun and a flamer - I plan to give each platoon two flamers and two meltaguns, then have the squads move around in pairs. One for anti-tank, the other for anti-infantry.
So what are all the Guard players' thoughts on assault weapons? Worth it? Or just wasted points - they are after all just carried by T3 Guardsmen. Incidentally I took the opportunity to take some detailed photos of the uniforms and paint job - despite the special weapons they have standard uniforms and I've realised there aren't many photos on the blog of the humble infantrymen in my army (this is their step-by-step).
Thanks for reading chaps and chap-ettes, hope to see you again here soon.
The Colonel
I tend to run my special weapon squads with 2 flamers and a demo charge. fantastic for jumping out the back of a vendetta and laying down a punishing firestorm. They clock in at the same cost as marbo and put out greater firepower on their turn of arrival, as well as being more survivable with 6 bodies instead of 1 model with 2 wounds.
ReplyDeleteFlufftastically, the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer specifically instructs all ranks to recover assault weapons and use them as they are harder to replace than the humble but blessed Lasgun; So with an eye to the wound allocation rules, the last surviving non-sergeant in the squad should be the smuck with the assault weapons.
ReplyDeleteI can almost imagine squad members tossing the weapon back to the next man as they are hit. So they are never wasted points, from that POV.
You bastard. I take exactly the same approach to games, I'm not interested in the slightest in spending hours optimally tweaking a list, but similarly I try and take a force that has some semblance of tactical ability.
ReplyDeleteIn this case the tactical choice can be reflected in the fluff as doctrinal change that has been circulated out due to some incident or event. Or as Zzzzzz says, there's a precedent already in the Uplifting Primer.
Game-wise, flamers are splendid for snapfire upon receiving charges from what I've heard. Coupled with your in-squad las/auto cannon it offers up more tactical options for each squad and makes them less reliant upon other squads for particular tasks.
ReplyDeleteFluff-wise, I couldn't imagine why your own boys would deny themselves the use of these fine powerful weapon options. Unless there is some sort of budget issue whereby specialist weaponary is far too costly to distribute on a regular basis?
(and this from a non-player, ha!)
I pretty much give out special weapons as standard to my Guardsmen, but I have an irrational fear of running out of anti-tank, and try and make sure almost every unit has something that can scare a tank...
ReplyDeleteI love grenade launchers. Love them. Can barely get enough of them.
ReplyDeleteI know there was a stupid-mad rush in 5th edition to arm every last guardsman with a meltagun, but for me I just love grenade launchers. And I'm lucky with them.
My almost immutable platoon load-out - for the last ten years - has been thus:
HQ with 3 grenade launchers (now 3 gren and flamer)
1 section with a plasma gun
2 section with a melta gun
3 section with a grenade launcher.
In previous codices I used special weapon squads a little and remnant squads with a flamer (6 guys with a single flamer for just 36pts? - yes please!), but in the current incarnation each of my three platoon also has a SWS:
1Pl: gren/gren/flamer
2Pl: melta/melta/demo (75 wasted points but good for a laugh!) and
3Pl: gren/gren/flamer.
HOWEVER, I do get annoyed that (a) the special and heavy squads (y'know - the ones with the special/heavy weapons and ammo) don't get access to transport, and - worse - (b) that although HEAVY squads have access to krak grenades, SPECIAL WEAPON SQUADS DON'T!
How baffling is that?!
The only proper Guard army that I played was different incarnations of Cadian Regiments, but I loved special weapons in squads, and quite enjoyed special weapons teams. With the regular squads I always went with flamers or grenade launchers, but for the special lads I tried to give them a loadout that reflected a task or objective in mind. Squads designated as tank killers would be armed with melta guns, squads with plasma guns would be dedicated priority target eliminators, and of course suicide units armed with flamers and demo charges. Always extra fun when they managed to complete their objective for the game.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all those comments guys - I think I'll do a big joint reply.
DeleteReading all the responses I think what I might do is put flamers in my ordinary squads. They have krak grenades which is enough to stop tanks getting too close too easily, and Dai that snapfire thing is a definite win. I'll then probably pool all the meltaguns together and make some melta/demo charge squads for coolness value, from what everyone says they seem to be quite fun. As Responsible One says, that does leave my squads a little short of AT, but hopefully the HBs can fend off ligher vehicles and my lascannon emplacements will stop the majority of them. The main AT in my army is the Vanquisher. Drax, I do love grenade launchers for their versatility and to pot the Mordian grenade launchers look really sweet. I may have to make a spot in my SWSs for them.
As for the issue of interchangeability, I think people have hit the nail on the head, you'd just pick the other bloke's gun up. But for my archaic, reactionary Palladians I think they might have some stupid rule that says soldiers can only be trained on one weapon. Too much knowledge is a dangerous thing - the Palladian's real motto!