Tactica Imperial Guard: Fast Attack

Welcome back all, for part four of five in my ongoing Tactica Imperial Guard series, this time it's Fast Attack.

Before we plunge into the depths of the Codex, you all deserve a quick update as things have been moving over the last few days:

• I've been guest blogging over at DYHAF, with a little spiel on GW and their latest controversy, which I like to call 'Faeitgate'.
• Picked up a cheap Lucius the Eternal model from my local store, which I'm going to paint up and use as a generic bad guy for our campaigns.
• Ordered a bunch more metal IG models now they might well be dying off ... including priests, old commissars, sergeants and demolition charge Catachans.
• Finished a long-time overhaul of my Palladian fluff - expect a post on that soon!

Fast Attack

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Hellhound and variants.  Fast tanks are not what you think of when I say 'Guard', but the Hellhound provides it in spades.  It's quick, and its cannon is relatively long-ranged (for a flame weapon).  It's purely and simply an infantry killer, the lighter the better.  And ignoring cover means you can potentially annihiliate an entire, well dug-in squad in one shot.  Win!

A word on the other two variants (which I've not used yet).  The Banewolf does basically the same as the Hellhound with a much better AP. Consider if you're facing Space Marines, and coupled with a hull flamer it can be very nasty indeed.  The Devil Dog's melta cannon make it good for close-in AT support for advancing infantry.

All these vehicles suffer from having rather weedy armour.  They will pretty easily be blown apart by a Lascannon so make the best use of cover you can.  Charging it out front to get to the enemy (tempting though it is) is a sure way of getting it killed.

The model itself is very nice, it's had a recent upgrade replacing the old metal fuel tanks with a much more modern-looking setup at the back.  All in all, a very attractive piece of kit.  But they cost over £30 each, so a squadron of them would be very VERY expensive.  That's not too much of a problem because a whole squadron would take up so many points that the rest of your army would start to suffer, and they're not tough enough to justify that degree of specialisation.

Lethality/Effectiveness ****

Value for money **

Model coolness ****

One on its own: ideal for toasting out stubborn infantry, who can really ruin your day!

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Sentinels.  Armoured or otherwise, Sentinels are purely and simply a walking Heavy Weapons team.  The unarmoured versions are a lot cheaper in points, but are horribly vulnerable to even bolter fire.  If you want, the unarmoured versions can be used as a quite effective suicide squad, flanking and trying to draw off as much of the enemy as possible.

If you want something that's going to survive, go for the armoured option.  Massively improves it by removing the Open Topped and upping the armour to be bolter-proof - in this case its probably going to need a bit more thought than the above option.  As for weapons, it depends on the enemy of course, but whatever you pick, try moving them up with your infantry squads to give them a move-and-shoot Heavy Weapon capability.  They can also pitch in close combat with some much-needed high strength attacks.  Unlike with Hellhounds I'd ALWAYS recommend getting these in threes, to make them last at least three turns.

The Sentinel models, I think, are really really nice and the kit - although it costs nearly £20 - comes with every possible option so you make a bit of money back on bitz.

Lethality/Effectiveness ****

Value for money ***

Model coolness *****

Walking Heavy Weapons teams - ideal for flanking movements or infantry fire support

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Rough Riders.  A bit of an anachronism really, I'm surprised you can still get these ancient models in the new codex.  Happy, but surprised.  Unfortunately they're not exactly the best unit in the game - with a low toughness and human-level initiative, these guys will only work if you can somehow get them to their target without being shot at at all.  One SM squad doing one round of shooting will probably thin their ranks enough to make them all-but-useless in CC.

You can give them odd upgrades and combinations to make them work - special characters, melta bombs etc - and they'll be okay.  But to be honest, for all that effort and points investment?  Just go with Sentinels/Hellhound.  They are cheap and have the potential for massive charges now, but don't take the risk.

For those less bothered about tactics, they remain perhaps some of the coolest models in the codex and they look rather nice.  They're also ripe for conversion projects, although an individual model cost of £8 makes them very very expensive to buy vanilla.  Honestly, if I fought a Guard army with Rough Riders in I'd be surprised.  But it would be very cool.

Lethality/Effectiveness *

Value for money **

Model coolness ****

Don't have any unique skills, weak, and expensive.  Highly cool, however.

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A word on Valkyries and other flyers.  I haven't ever used them, so I won't comment on them rules-wise.  Anyone who has any experience with them, especially in Sixth, is cordially invited to comment and add their two cents.

Wow, nearly at the end now, just HEAVY SUPPORT to go!  I'll get working on those soon.  And hopefully next week there'll be some posts on those new models I've ordered.  So stay sharp troops, and thanks for reading.

The Colonel