The Hammer of the Emperor; Imperial Guard Part 1 Infantry.

This post is written by a guest author, introduced as Tactician Delta in a previous post. He has been a Guardsman for around 4 years and knows quite a bit about the inner workings of the Imperial Guard. This is the first installment of a multi-part series that we will be doing that focuses primarily on the Imperial Guard. How it will work is Tactician Delta will create the basic structure of a list then elaborate on the inner workings of how those units are supposed to act together. After he gives the tactical advice I will then give a response from a space marine perspective. There will be something to be learned here for both veteran and neophyte players.

HQ: CCS - Total: 190 Lord Castellan Creed Dedicated Transport Chimera

Troops 1: 260 Platoon Command Squad: Plasma Pistol/Power Weapon 
Squad 1: 10 guys with lasguns Commissar

Squad 2: Commissar + Plasma Pistol/Power Weapon 

Squad 3: 10 guys with lasguns Commissar

Troops 2: 260 -Platoon Command Squad: Plasma Pistol/Power Weapon 
Squad 1: 10 guys with lasguns Commissar

Squad 2: Commissar + Plasma Pistol/Power Weapon 

Squad 3: 10 guys with lasguns Commissar

Troops 3: 260 -Platoon Command Squad: Plasma Pistol/Power Weapon 
Squad 1: 10 guys with lasguns Commissar

Squad 2: Commissar + Plasma Pistol/Power Weapon 

Squad 3: 10 guys with lasguns Commissar

Troops 4: Platoon Command Squad: 30 

Heavy Weapons Squad: 65 Auto Cannon Heavy 

Weapons Squad: 65 Auto cannon 
Heavy Weapons Squad: 65 Auto Cannon

Total - 1300 points

On dishing it out - Troops in this list are the meat of the army. They will be moving forward and conducting your attack on the enemy army. Always remember to roll any Pinning/Fall back rolls off of the Commissars and the Platoon Leaders in order to keep the line moving forward. Remember back to Band of Brothers and ask yourself what Major Winters would do. Establish a base of fire, maneuver on the enemy, and destroy them with overwhelming fire and massed combat power. Placing six to nine weapon systems just behind your infantry line will provide you with 12-18 shots into the enemies front ranks, cutting down heavy infantry and shredding light vehicles in preparation for your infantry assault. Shooting through your own units provides your enemy with a 5+ cover save and so should be avoided as much as possible, but not at the price of exposing your weapons teams to return fire or quick moving Turn 2 assault units like Bikes, Howling Banshees, Assault Squads, and the like.

On Surviving - When taking withering fire from an opponent do not be afraid to go to ground. Going to ground in the open affords your Guardsmen a 5+ cover save, infinitely better than no save at all to the incoming AP 5/4/3 weapons that most other armies bring to the table. Going to ground in area terrain affords your troopers a 4+ cover save, and going to ground in an entrenched position will provide you with a hefty 3+ save. This rule can be abused by the addition of Camo Cloaks in veteran and command squads affording them a 2+ save! Who thinks Terminators are hot now?! In the following turn issue the “Get back in the fight!” order from your company command squad, which should be slowly following your advance at a safe distance, rallying your men back to their feet and allowing them to move and shoot as normal in that turn.

Orders - Every turn remember to issue your single order from each Platoon Leader to any units within 6 inches of his current position. “First rank, fire! Second rank, Fire!” should always be attempted if enemies are in range, and if not the “Move, move, move!” order should be utilized to provide your squads with a more advantageous position for the next turn. Using Lord Castellan Creed as your company commander will provide you with a model that is capable of issuing up to 4 orders a turn at a range of 24 inches in any direction. If he is located in a Chimera or a Valkyrie transport then the range of his orders should be measured from the hull of the vehicle, squeezing an extra few inches out of the command radius.

On Combat - When your squads are inevitably engaged in combat there are several things that you should remember. When your Commissar rolls his Snap Fire roll he will be able to place any “Hits” he makes on the model of his choosing. Utilize this as an opportunity to knock down the Sergeant, or if the opportunity arises, to deny base to base contact if your opponent is only able to make it with one model. This denies the combat and allows a turn of Rapid Fire shooting and a potential counter charge. When your opponent declares his challenge it should be deflected to the Sergeant in order to preserve your Weapon Skill 4 Commissar and allow him to deal Power Weapon wounds in the coming combat.

Objectives: The platoons are essentially operating independently of each other and should form their guys in an echelon towards the nearest/most dangerous threat and advance towards the objectives, sweep over them, and leave the most injured squads to hold them. Just as you echelon the squads you echelon the platoons in order to keep the most guns towards the enemy. Only move the heavy weapons if they can't hit anything that turn. Response: Alright battle brothers this is a tough nut to crack. There are just so many bodies coming at you that it really makes it hard to prioritize what to take care of first. The first thing that needs to be eliminated is the commissars, remove them and the squads around them are no longer stubborn leadership 9. That in itself is already hard to do since they will smartly be placed in the back of a squad where only precision shots can be fired at them, and then they will probably make their 2+ look out sir if you do hit him. The good news is that while the horde is rather resilient individual squads are not. Look to your war gear brothers because in this case it will save you. Load up on flamers and Thunderfire cannons and watch this horde get ripped apart before it can be effective. The cannon is so versatile with 4 shots per turn that can ignore cover, make it so that a unit hit is passing through difficult terrain, or just insta-killing toughness 3 models you have a round for every stage in the game. 

Combat is your friend, do not be afraid to charge your tactical marines into the fray. As always you need to pick your assaults carefully. Pick out the weakened squads that you can charge and kill in a turn, and where if need be you can refuse a challenge with a power axe wielding sergeant and kill him with your normal guys before he can swing. A terminator squad with two guys with lightning claws would be invaluable against this list. You have stormshields to take on ap2 weapons, thunderhammers to destroy vehicles, and lighting claws to rip through infantry. I would give the sergeant the lightning claws so that he will slaughter anyone that challenges him and he is more survivable because you can look out sir his ap2 wounds onto a stormshield on a 4+. If you can get really lucky you might be able to work the commissars leadership against the squads around him in combat. If you don't kill all of them it saves you from being shot at for a turn by the big guns, then you can finish them off on their turn giving you the chance to shoot and charge a new unit.

Top 3 Units to Take: 
1-Thunderfire Cannons; A unit that has so many different uses to wipe infantry off the board can't be passed up against this sort of list. 
2- Space Marine Bikes- Twin linked bolters, hammer of wrath, great cover saves with turbo-boosting, and toughness 5 makes this unit extremely hard to kill even with mass amounts of las guns going into them.
3- Tactical Marines- A rock hard unit that won't run away and can dish out an incredible amount of return fire.

Thanks for reading, hopefully you got something out of it. Please feel free to leave a comment and if you liked what you read subscribe or hit that "g+1" button. As always have an Emperor blessed day!