Tactica Imperial Guard: Heavy Support

Ladies and Gentlemen ... the moment you've all been waiting for:  Tactica Imperial Guard, Heavy Support!!!  The fifth and final episode in the Tactica Imperial Guard series, we're now going to look at the big beasts of the Imperial Guard.

We sat through silly horses, we sat through puny weapons teams and we sat through weak infantry.  Space Marines laughed, Eldar mocked and Necrons just ignored us.  Now they shall know fear, for it is upon them!

Sorry, got a bit carried away there.  Here we go ...

Heavy Support

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Leman Russ.  The standard Leman Russ, point for point, is the best tank in the game.  End of.  Best possible front armour and appreciable side armour, massive long-ranged ordnace gun and powerful sponson options.  Its only real disadvantage are its poor rear armour and high profile, and at 150pts a squadron is going to take up a large chunk of your army.

But that's fine - this is why you've been saving your points!  The Imperial Guard do tanks well, so all things being equal you need one squadron of these beasts.  Before we consider the many many variants, a quick word on the models.  The kit has had a fairly extensive upgrade but the actual model remains pretty much the same.  It's a timeless design, if a little pricey now, and the kit now comes with a range of weapon options which gives you some of those valuable extra bitz.

• Exterminator - an excellent choice for those facing light infantry or massed armies, of course (especially kitted out with extra Heavy Bolters).  But those autocannons also give it decent punch against targets up to and including Space Marines.  Use it defensively where it can select targets at leisure rather than rushing in and getting surrounded, where it can't shoot its way out.

• Vanquisher - Wow!  My favourite Guard armoured unit.  Although they've lost their versatility a bit, since now they can only fire Vanq shells - before they could still use an ordnance shot.  No matter - the Vanq will automatically at least glance Av 10, and you'll be unlucky if you don't regularly get 13 or 14 with it.  Dependable AT sniping - a good choice as a 'sergeant' in a squadron - two others and one of these.

• Eradicator - Hmmm.  My first instinct is to say 'no' since the Hellhound does the same job for cheaper.  But it can be useful for clearing buildings since its armour makes it a bit more suitable for close-in support.  Consider it if you're on a Cityfight board - otherwise flamers and Hellhounds can probably do the same job, and you'll need the Eradicator's space for other tanks.

• Demolisher - Second favourite tank.  A perfect gun (except for its short range) and a nicely buffed rear and side armour,  ideal for leading charges.  At least two are required to cover the possibility of scatters (I have one Vanq and two Demolishers, all with sponson and hull Heavy Bolters.

• Punisher - Looks impressive (and cool) but only really useful against other Guard.  That lack of any AP is really annoying - consider it a toned-down Exterminator.  (Although, it can be used effectively against (very) light vehicles where the AP doesn't matter, you can just riddle a Grav-Tank with 5-6 glancing hits.

• Executioner - Super plasma cannon, a bit like a Demolisher with more range and less oomph.  That triple shot really helps though - I'd be inclined to stick with the Demolisher though, just to give me the capacity to Insta Kill any regular infantry on the board.

Lethality/Effectiveness *****

Value for money ***

Model coolness *****

If you don't like any of the above, trade in your army and try Eldar or something.

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Ordnance Battery.  Prepare to outmatch your opponent.  No other army in 40K really comes close to besting us in this field - if you want you can lay down a whirlwind of fire such that your infantry won't really need to get their hands dirty (it's a viable list).  That's not to say they're invulnerable - oh no, mounted on generally puny chassis, it's worth protecting them against sneaky drop troops, scouts and cheesy lascannon shots.

All the models here are really beautiful pieces (no bias) and are likely to terrify your enemy to death, even before he's blown to atoms.  They suffer the same problems as the Leman Russes in being about £30 each, making a battery's worth rather pricey.

• Basilisk - My impartial tactical overview is going to be marred here, this is one of my favourite units so I'm struggling to say something bad about it.  The long minimum range is a pain, however, but that's no real drama.  It can be used as a direct fire weapon (in the hope that Leman Russes and the rest of the army will mean your enemy can't spare them any shots).  Its cannon is almost as good as the Demolisher so will comfortably eat power armour.  Of course, protect him from those nasty deep strikers.

• Colossus - Never used this.  From a glance at its codex entry, I'm pretty sure the Basilisk can do almost everything this can, along with DF which the Colossus can't.  The cover saves thing can be useful, but like with the Eradicator it's something your Hellhounds should really be doing.  Again, however, in a Cityfight game they could be invaluable.

• Griffon - The Colossus' smaller, more sensible cousin.  A heavy mortar, cheap as chips, in a carrier with an accurate shot.  Nice short minimum range - I would take at least one, to use as forward heavy weapons teams (like with Sentinels).  Always worth it.

• Medusa - You might think 'ah, super-Demolisher?' - no.  If you think like that it will get killed.  In short, its longer range is more than compensated for by the fact it has to sit right at the back.  Nonetheless it is a hugely powerful gun and a potentially devastating AT weapon.  Again, I think the Basilisk can do most of this chap's jobs (how often do you actually need S10 AP2?  Doesn't 9/3 do fine most of the time?), but undoubtably a devastating weapon.

Lethality/Effectiveness ****

Value for money ***

Model coolness *****

If you listen to me, read 'Basilisk battery' here - but still, lots of flexible options for any force.

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Deathstrike/Manticore.  Bit of an odd one - feels very shoehorned in to be honest but still a rather impressive model.  For something that feels like a last-minute addition to the codex it's a very nice kit that's bound to attract a lot of attention on and off the battlefield.  It's expensive but the potential for destruction is incredible - avoid squadroning because you can't split its fire, and you don't want to sink too many points into it.  If I seem a bit negative it's because (like with the PBS) I'm not a fan of those random units that sometimes work and sometimes don't.

A bit unreliable for me, I need dependability.  If you have points left over for one tank this could well be it.  But why not get another Leman Russ?

Lethality/Effectiveness ***

Value for money **

Model coolness ****

A bit random - potentially game-winning but potentially a total waste of points.

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Hydra.  One that's suffered badly with 6Ed - I've had problems with the rules and shooting at ground targets etc.  Time was this was a perfect way of getting a toned-down Exterminator that could reliably chew up ground units.  

But why oh why didn't it get Interceptor!?!?!?!?  GW gave it Snap Fire on ground targets, probably thinking that an AA tank can't really engage ground targets (obviously never heard of FlaK 88, Flakvierling 38, etc ... )  But then it didn't get Interceptor?!

Come on GW, get your act together!  Unfortunately, I have to score this very poorly because of GW's oversight.  But me and Headologist play with the 5Ed rules for my Hydra and that makes it an awful lot better.

Lethality/Effectiveness *

Value for money ***

Model coolness ****

So frustrating - should be an amazing unit.

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And that's it!  Thanks again for putting up with my opinionated ramblings for five posts.  I'm back to modelling now and have a couple of nice posts with lots of pictures coming up.  Thanks again!

The Colonel