What’s up fellow nerds? Mr.MoreTanks back, sorry I’ve been MIA, life has been crazy between graduating college, moving, and a brief but brutal stay in the hospital that I’ve only recently gotten back onto the 40k horse. Here’s n accounting of my BAO experience! Be sure to check out the Tactics Corner for more great tournament reports.
So with BAO 2015 a wrap, I ended with the same record as I did last year; 3 – 1 – 1. This time though, I ended up around 20th as opposed to 10th place. Now I wasn’t bitter, I did snag best Imperial Guard player, along with a bitchin’ Sentinel. My list was fun but lacked the excitement that I had about my army last year. I felt like I had a lot of useful tools for the meta out there, but knew that I was at a significant disadvantage compared to a lot of 7th ed books. Here’s my list;
IG – CAD
Yarrick – Warlord
Ministorum Priest
2 x Psykers
PCS w/ 4 flamers
40 man lascannon blob
PCS
40 man lascannon blob
Vets w/ 3 meltaguns
Wyvern
Cult Mech – Allies
Dominus Tech-Priest
2x Destroyers w/ grav cannons and blasters
BA – Flesh Tearers Strike Force
Libbie
Tact Marines in a pod w/ melta-combi and meltaguns
4x Drop Pods
Nothing crazy, but with 5 drop pods that have meltaguns and gravcannons spilling out and gunning stuff apart, and 2 lascannon blobs that more often than not have ignore cover, I felt like I could finish in the top 10% at BAO. Even though I didn’t finish as high as I wanted, I had a blast playing against all of my opponents.
As I looked over the top lists as the rounds progressed further, I saw that the top codexes had by and large very similar aspects. They had formations. For those of us who lack books with formations and dataslates, yet still are committed to our codexes, how do can we players lacking the magical support of these mysterious formations and dataslates keep up on the competitive scene? Short answer, I don’t think too many codexes can, it’s more a few players that can pull it off, but I still can think of a couple tricks up my sleeve to keep me competitive with the other mediocre players with delusions of grandeur.
- CADs – Formations and dataslates add huge killing power to already some of the best codexes out there. With the importance of securing objectives in the ITC format and games in general, you need to have whatever few models you have left holding those objectives. Though the Battle Company has made the CAD’s specialty a lot less significant, the CAD still has some good stuff going for it compared to many formations and dataslates.
- Allies – Virtually no army can handle everything that the game can throw at it at this point. You can build all comer lists to a degree, but it’s getting harder and harder. Allies really help to mitigate this issue. If your army lacks bodies, use your allies to add some numbers to your deployment zone. Or adding some fast mobile units really help stagnant armies, etc, etc.
- Play to your strengths – The ITC gives you two missions to play that thankfully are equally valued. They are drastically different, Eternal War missions and Malestorm missions call upon different strengths for armies. While it is possible to win both, many armies really struggle to do so. As a Guard player, I know that the Malestorms for me are all but unwinnable, especially if I don’t bring something like SM bikes as allies. So then I simply play to my strengths, attrition, and Eternal War missions are great for attrition. Giant blocks of Ob Sec troops can grind out dozens of enemies. I grab those objectives at the end of the game and refuse to let them go.
- Forgeworld – Man, I love Forgeworld. It’s gotten so much better and balanced over the years. It really helps to strengthen the weaknesses in my army. Now, Imperial and Chaos players definitely reap the benefits of FW, though a few units creep into a lot of the other races as well. Malenthropes, IA13, and more. If I’m not careful with this part, it could quickly turn into a list of how awesome FW makes it to be a Guard player, so I’ll end the rambling here. FW often can be the tools to shore up the weaknesses in your army to help you keep up with the insanity of 7th ed.
- Use the board – Controlling the board and using the terrain to your advantage can be the difference between winning and losing a game for many armies. Though tournaments work hard, usually, to create balanced symmetrical tables, often there are some deployment zones that are far more appealing than others. I promise if you watch the top players on the top tables of the big events across the country, 90% of the time, the player who wins will be the player who has controlled the middle of the table throughout the game. Choosing where the battle takes place and who gets to use the big blocky piece of terrain can be invaluable. Great chess champions know that the center of the board is a crucial part of victory.
- Place your objectives with a plan – The ITC sets guidelines for where you need to place your objectives, but for the smart player, this can quickly become a useful tool, as opposed to a burden. Know the limits of your movement, especially late game. Know the range of your opponent’s guns, and which units are a threat to what you will be using to go get your strategically places special circles at the end of the game.
- Knowledge is power – With countless new formations coming out, dataslates as far as the eye can see, and new codexes with weapons unlike anything else out there, not only do you need to know your codexes so you can always know which tools you have at your disposal to crush your enemies; but you need to know what all of other units in the game do so you can smash them to bits. If you can never be surprised, it can give you a huge leg up against opponents hoping to “gotcha!” Don’t be dumb, know your enemy so you can pick the battles that you will win.
Not a fool proof list by any means, but if you don’t want to give up what you love, hopefully there are a couple of ideas or points here that may be able to help you out. I think that the Imperial Guard, Dark Eldar, and Orks (Pajama Pants is an anomaly), are by and large spoiler codexes, resigned to messing up stronger lists and codexes on the way up. I’m not saying that great players can’t win these codexes, or other books, but these and other 6th ed books, or books lacking formations and dataslates, aren’t out of the game yet. At the end of the day, more than anything else, the general is the one who makes an army succeed. Even if you’re using all of the nasty and awesome new toys, codexes, and more, these tips are worth keeping in mind to. May the dice be ever in your favor fellow gamers.
i agree with your assessment. 7.5 codices have been awesome compared to tame 7.0 codices and certainly 6th edition.
Thanks for the inspiration, im currently starting up gaurd and im having trouble with them. Im thinking Death Riders to make my list good, Some people tell me no, but then again, these are the same telling me Tau is useless.
BTW, this is my WIP list
Artillery List from hell
Death Rider special Detachment
Death Rider Command Squad
Death Rider Colonol
Death Rider Squadron
Death Rider Squadron
Elites Death Korps Artillery
Thudd guns x3
Death Korps Artillery
Heavy Mortar
IG Allied
Yarrick
Priest
IG Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command squad
Flamers
Infantry Squad
Lascannons
Infantry Squad
Lascannons
Infantry Squad
Lascannons
Infantry Squad
Lascannons
Conscriptsx40
Sabre defense platforms
Artillery Carriage
Vendetta
I like the direction of this list. I haven’t ever tried the Death Korps Cav units, so I’m not sure how well they’d do. My gut makes me feel as though they die fairly quickly which can be an issue.
You got dat Sentinel, bruh!! =P
I think his list needs more deathstars, Reece you’re an expert on the subject surly you could help him 😉 lol
I’m gonna try to turn it into an ironstrider or something.
I’m looking forward to seeing more formation choices too! My 555th Cadian Regiment has not yet been fielded in 7th – but when it does, the lists will have to deal with S7 spam, rerollable invisible jinking units!
Astra Militarum have a load of formations in one of the Shield of Baal books don’t they? I think it might be Leviathan.
There are some, they’re pretty weak. The lack of dataslates and formations that help out the Guard are pretty limiting for competitive play. The Guard don’t have anything like the Firebase, let alone anything like the Decurion detachment
I always loved my Squat-Vets and 3 Deathstrikes on a Skyshield. I may have to rebuild that, ‘twould be mighty awesome with Wolves or Iron Hands to spearpoint.
Good job dude! Fun riding down with ya!
I agree and think guard do suffer in mission based games which ITC is heavily favored towards. I still think guard can be some of the scariest lists but in terms of having some rocks to your scissors they definitely exist.. nice writeup bud <3
It’s really the Maelstrom more than anything- Guard have the bodies to win the attrition war and with a melee blob advancing forward they can easily get onto (and control) the middle objectives, but they struggle to get onto the enemy side of the field in the early/mid game, which can cost them a lot of objective points. Combining them with an “reach out and touch someone” kind of army, like Scatter Bikes, Drop Pods, etc, seems like the optimal solution.
Or I guess just concede Maelstrom and focus on winning primary and tertiaries? It’s not undoable.
With the addition of Big Game Hunter, King of the Hill and Table Quarters the chances of winning tertiary objectives are pretty small. All 3 make running blobs unfavorable.
Actually, Big Game Hunter isn’t usually too bad, blobs are pretty hard to kill.
With massed bolter fire, scat packs and flyrants blobs melt pretty quickly if they are your main workhorse and you don’t get any psychic buffs. The buffs are harder to pull off too with the changes to psychic tests.
What would we want the formations to do though?
Have the Steel Legion formation give us free chimeras?
Valhallan formation gives a new version of “send in the next wave”?
The biggest issue with IG is their utter lack of mobility. You can try to take enough artillery to blast the opponent off the table, but that further kills your ability to score maeltrom due to the guns being stationary.
On the other hand drop pods can land anywhere and go after your artillery. If you try to bubble wrap you’re committing even more units to turtling and ceding control of the board.
You nailed it right there. Currently the stand and shoot style does not mesh well with ITC formatting or even book missions with Maelstrom cards since a large part of that is going out and securing objectives. Sure the guard can take Chimeras and Touroxen (?) but neither are particularly hardy with the 12 10 10 and 11 11 10 respective armor values. The fact that the vehicles are death traps for whatever is inside one they explode is another issue entirely (you’ll lose at least half the squad randomly).
The problem isn’t even that they are so weak so much as they cost so much. Chimeras aren’t cheap. Even Tarouxes aren’t that cheap considering their stats. If Guard could run Rhinos, that would be heaven. Cheap and disposable like Guardsmen, I could flood the board with them.
For Maelstrom, what about using the Death Rider squadron from the Krieg siege list to bring some objective secured cavalry that can hit pretty hard?
>Place your objectives with a plan …Know the range of your opponent’s guns, and which units are a threat to what you will be using to go get your strategically places special circles at the end of the game.
>Controlling the board and using the terrain to your advantage can be the difference between winning and losing a game for many armies.
Two very strong pieces of advice here. Lot of other good notes as well, but these two in particular are easy to forget- where the terrain and objectives are and where your opponent is relative to you are absolutely clutch.
I completely agree. One of my absolute weakest areas in the game is deployment and objective placement. The guys at the top tables aren’t the ones that usually say ‘I’ll just take this table side since I’m standing here’ or are haphazardly throwing objectives onto the table without careful consideration.
I absolutely agree with everything and a good read.
Having actively played guard since 4th edition, I actually feel like they are fielding the strongest codex yet…well apart from the happy slug-fest that 5th edition codex was (what a great book).
But, the last 8 games I played, winning 4 out of the 8, and only 1 by Maelstrom objectives, told me something. The other 3 wins came from killing my opponent of the board, while he was a good chunks of objective points ahead of me.
The other 4 lost, were close ones, in terms of objective points, but YES, the mobility is simply not there. In addition, even when I was zooming around with taurox primes, tauroxes and chimeras…the amount of high strength, grav rule, haywire etc. shooting that is out there, makes a quick buck off your transports.
Also, troops are squishy, and armies like admech, that can dish out as much anti-infantry shooting like a 50men guard blob with orders, with MUCH better hit probability furthers the demise.
On the other hand, I have always been a player that loved challenges, and I look at the codex power creep as just a part of the fluff 40k world, in where factions are expanding, developing and matching their technology to counter threats they are dealing with… nothing ever stands still in war.
One thing though, guard would be perfect for formation rules… I mean come on…it’s the guard!
I am hopeful and anxious to see some of the new formations that the Guard may finally get. Creed with a ton of infantry to order around would be super cool.
Plus, some artillery batteries would be sweet.
Yeah, I’ve found that guard really struggle at maelstrom. I’ve mostly played in maelstrom (out of the book) environments since 7th dropped, and my IG really struggle at it.