Imperial Guard Tactica

The Imperial Guard is not the easiest army to win with, nor is it the most difficult. The guard is blessed with large numbers of figures and a guard army can put out a prodigious amount of firepower. Few armies will outnumber the guard (Tyranids and the Lost and the Damned are the only two that stand a chance) and only the Tau and Eldar have any hope of winning a shootout with the guard.

On the downside, only the Tau are worse in close combat than the guard making it very hard for the guard to take objectives except by pounding seven shades of brick dust out of the opposition and taking the ground unopposed. The Guard is armed with the lasgun, which has to be the least impressive weapon in the game. Their flak jackets allow only a paltry 5+ save which most other army's weapons are free to ignore. The way the guard wins is by numbers. One lasgun is a joke, two dozen aren't as funny.

So why bother with the guard? Well, in addition to the eye candy and modeling aspects (which are well covered in the Codex) best reason is that the best army guard is one that is well SITED - Sizeable, Infantry-heavy, Tank-heavy, Easily customized and Diverse

Sizeable

The large formations are the heart and soul of the guard. Large numbers of riflemen forcing large numbers of saves on their opponents is the key to any guard victory. Because the guard is also fragile, size matters. If your opponent outnumbers you or can out shoot you then the guard is toast. Fortunately, this is rare.

When selecting your force quantity matters more than quality. Guardsmen are never going to inspire fear in your opponent. No matter how much you tool them up, they will never be a match for a Space Marine nor will they outshoot a Tau or beat a Genestealer in close combat. However, if they can point three lasguns at those same foes for each model the enemy has, they may just come out on top.

This is why a pack of wolves can hound a bear to death, even though the bear is more than a match for any one wolf, two or three wolves will take the bear down. Likewise, one chaos space marine will defeat any single guardsman but three or four guardsmen will take out that marine. If you can out number your enemy by 2-3 to 1, you have a chance to win. The more you outnumber the foe, the better your chances are. The quality of any one guardsman is irrelevant, you will swamp the enemy with numbers.

You get the numbers by emphasizing vanilla guardsmen with support elements in dedicated platoons or support squads. It is not worth it to take carapace armor since a platoon so equipped will cost 60 points more than one with regular armor - for the same price you can get an additional squad which can attack as well as defend.

Time is gained by making the enemy work at getting to you. You can do this by claiming the high ground and digging in behind cover. When you are defending an objective this is a perfectly valid tactic. Deploy as far away from the foe and make him come to you shooting seven shades of brick dust out of him as he comes. However, when you have to take an objective, this isn't going to do it. You have to move, which is why you concentrate your support weapons in support squads or support platoons so your regular guardsmen can advance under their covering fire and still lay down withering fire as they advance.

Another tactic worth considering is the concept of the oblique order. The oblique order (also known as the declined or refused flank) is a military tactic where an attacking army focuses its forces to attack a single enemy flank. The force commander concentrates the majority of his strength on one flank and uses the remainder to fix the enemy line. This allows a commander with weaker or equal forces to achieve a local superiority in numbers. The commander can then try to defeat the enemy in detail. It was the most famously used by the armies of Frederick II of Prussia. Oblique order required disciplined troops able to execute complex maneuvers in varied circumstances.

In the oblique order attack, commander of the army would intentionally weaken one portion of the line to concentrate their troops elsewhere. They would then create an angled or oblique formation, refuse the weakened flank and attack the strongest flank of the enemy with a concentration of force. Once the critical flank was secure, the commander would wheel their troops 90 degrees to roll up the enemy line and the angled formation would continue to advance. On occasion both commanders would attempt the same tactic (e.g. the Diadochi trying to replicate Alexander's tactics).

The advantage of this tactic is it allows you to concentrate the full weight of your army against a portion of your enemy's force thus maximizing your advantage of numbers. Additionally, most of your opponents will have not heard of the tactic (or even if they have, they won't understand how it is executed) giving you the advantage of surprise. I happen to be a big fan of the tactic. While it isn't a slam dunk guarantee of victory, it has won me more games than it has lost. The risk is that your enemy may outflank you by breaking through the declined flank into your rear. I had a Tau air cavalry army do precisely that to me once and my guardsmen got spanked by aggressive Tau.

Typically, I place my support platoon in the refused flank and concentrate my armor in the oblique with my riflemen holding the center and advance at a 45° angle to my enemy's main line crushing his flank and then rolling up the line to sweep him from the field. This works very well against Eldar, Dark Eldar, Orks and other relatively fragile foes as they crumble rather quickly when hit with such a hammer blow. Marines (Loyalist and Traitor), Tyranids and Tau are more resilient, but if you can maintain overwhelming local superiority while pinning potential reinforcements with your support element you still should come out on top.

Infantry Heavy

Infantry is the guts (literally and figuratively) of an Imperial Guard army. Assaulting with Guards is rarely a winning tactic (except against Tau - who are the only army the Guards can spank in close assault). Standing off and shooting is a good defensive tactic but when you must advance you will need your infantry. Infantrymen can go anywhere (more or less) and take advantage of any available cover. The oblique order (q.q.v.) is one way to maintain local superiority and momentum against a qualitatively superior but numerically inferior foe - the most common situation guardsmen find themselves in.

Large numbers of infantry are key to any winning guard force 2-3 platoons of 25-35 troopers each are the core of any guard force. My own Ice River Guards are based on three infantry platoons. Two rifle platoons and a support platoon. Ideally I will advance through obstructed terrain to take advantage of cover while using the light infantry doctrine to best effect while my support platoon holds down the refused flank from a position of cover.

If you take nothing else from this article, remember don't skimp on your infantry. Take as much as you can and still leave a few points for a few heavies to crack the big beasties.

Tank Heavy

There are some units that a lasgun just can't handle. Heavies, monstrous creatures, greater daemons and the like. For that you'll need some armored support. I have used one of my support choices for my support platoon, the other two are generally taken by a Demolisher Infantry Combat Vehicle and if I have the points, a Griffon Self-Propelled Heavy Mortar. This lets me engage enemy heavies at a reasonable distance with good survivability (better armor than a Leman Russ for the Demolisher and the ability to attack from cover for the Griffon). Besides, a guard company without armor is like a day without sunshine.

 In addition to the armor, I like to include a sentinel squadron or two armed with lascannons for tank hunting or autocannon for taking out monsters or tough enemy units (if facing high density low toughness foes like gaunts, other guards, or lost and the damned I go for heavy flamers). If I have the points, I will add a hellhound simply because they are good for tying down many times their points value and forcing saves on tougher foes like marines or eldar.

Easily Customized

You can tweak your force by using doctrines. There has been a lot of discussion about which doctrines are best but I feel that you should choose your doctrines (if you choose to use them at all) based on your own playing style and not someone's clever notions of mini-maxing your force. I decided on what sort of army I wanted and picked my doctrines to match.

I tend to avoid doctrines that must be applied to every unit in the army since that reduces my flexibility. I avoid carapace armor (I can get an additional squad for each platoon for the same points) preferring restricted troops and regimental organizations (no points cost) and I never leave home without Iron Discipline - it's like 'and they shall know no fear' for guardsmen. and at 5 points per officer it is the best value in the game. I chose Light Infantry to give my troops an edge when attacking through obstructed terrain and the ability to take sniper rifles for taking out enemy characters and heavies. With these tweaks I can still field over 100 models giving me that all important tactical mass a guard army needs to prevail.

Diverse

The guard is also a visually striking army, large numbers of infantry backed by lots of tanks and heavy weapons with lots of characterful officers and commissars add a lot of color to the force as well. The sheer number of regiments in the guard (there are millions) means the sky is the limit for modeling options. Games Workshop makes figures for the Steel Legion, Cadian Shock Troops, Catachan  Jungle Fighters, Mordian Iron Guard, Tallarn Desert Fighters, and of course, Valhallan Ice Warriors. In addition you can make Guardsmen out of Empire Handgunners (Warhammer Fantasy), Necromunda Gangers and if you are willing to mix and match even Brettonian men-at-arms can be the basis for guardsmen.

If you are not worried about tournament legality (not all of us play in the tournament circuit after all) you can look to dozens of different manufacturers. Men with guns are common in many wargaming lines. You can look to Warzone figures (often available at cut rate at your FLGS or on Ebay). I have used Wazone figures as the basis for my Traitor guard. Add some scratch built AFVs and we are good to go!

Rackham  is a French company that makes some very nice figures for their AT-43 game and their figures come pre-painted which is a real time saver. I especially like their Red Blok line of figures but all of their production is rather nice. Rackham's pre-painted plastics are about the same price as most other company's pewters so they are a little on the pricey side but then again your time is worth something too.

The Light Mobile Infantry figures by Mongoose Publishing make fine guardsmen (the inclusion of a FedNet camera crew is nice touch), if you choose the Carapace Armor doctrine, their standard Mobile Infantry figures are also usable. Mongoose also makes pre-painted ultra-modern figures for the Royal Army, USMC, PLA and Middle-Eastern irregulars. The Middle-Eastern irregulars also have 'technicals' (civilian trucks armed and armored in a makeshift fashion) that would make them a good choice for a genestealer cult force. They cost about the same as Rackham's pre-painted line, so they aren't cheap but as I said your time is worth something too.

In addition to this, Guard armies can include Ogryns and Ratlings. They can also incorporate sanctioned pyskers, priests, commissars, and engineseers all of which offer lots of modeling options. This diversity allows you to make your guard army versatile and capable of contesting any battlefield against any opponent..

New Advantages for the Imperial Guard in the 5th Edition

Much whining has been leveled against Annihilation missions for being unfair to the Imperial Guard. The supposed counterpoint of the Guard having a lot more troop choices has similarly been beaten to death. While an Imperial Guard army built to be effective in all missions will inherently have more KP than a similarly built army of any other race or force, the difference isn’t that great for most armies, and can be overcome by simply killing every opponent model. Similarly, a Guard army could have a massive number of troop units on the field, but at a cost of very limited ability to kill enemy units. Since I know some set of players will want to discuss these issues, I brought them up so we can set them aside and get on to what matters – why the Imperial Guard is one of the strongest armies to take in Fifth Edition.

Advantage #1
True LOS benefits those with the greatest range the most. We have the potential to have the most long range firepower of any force, so get those tanks out there.

Advantage #2
A 4+ cover save is very easy to come by for infantry. This makes our gun lines roughly twice as survivable, while providing no benefit at all to MEQ against AP4 or worse weapons. Buy lots of Autocannons and Heavy Bolters, and generate armor saves.

Advantage #3
Doctrines allow us to deploy all our infantry advantageously. Drop Troops is now incredibly useful, and Light Infantry means that you can almost always set up your weapons to have good targets from turn 1 on (not in Dawn of War), or flank in to threaten distant objectives and weapons. No other army has as many deployment options as the Imperial Guard, so use these to your advantage.

Advantage #4
Hellhounds.

Advantage #5
Changes in blast weapons favor low ballistic skill shooters. There are no more partial hits for blast weapons. All blast templates now scatter, which means our frag missiles are more likely to hit something. Mortars kill more Orks than battle cannons.

Advantage #6
Wound allocation makes our weapons better, while providing less benefit to our enemies. Since our opponents rarely do enough wounds to hit every model in a unit (and when they do, the unit is usually completely wiped out anyway), we don’t end up with a lot of special models killed early. Conversely, we tend to do a lot more wounds, so our MEQ opponents end up with more chances to lose specials models earlier.

Advantage #7
The changes to close combat improve our ability to kill MEQ. Now that a very small squad of MEQ can generally defeat any Guard unit in close combat in a single close combat phase and cannot consolidate into a new close combat, we are no longer forced to have counter charge units around to try and keep a single assault squad from rolling down our entire line. This means the points we spent on Rough Riders and other tricks are now available for even more guns.

Advantage #8
The last and most important advantage of the Imperial Guard is one we've had since Third Edition. Nothing in our army is a lynch pin, either in points or effectiveness. Use the inherent expendability of our men and machines ruthlessly, and you will find yourself winning a lot of games against any opponent.

Unit Building in 5th Edition

HQ

High Command – With the advent of true LOS, this needs to be in cover if you want it to survive. I admit to being somewhat old fashioned and insisting on having an HSO, so I use medic and standard and a mortar and hide them. A probably more cost effective use is to treat this unit as simply another Platoon Command, and arm it similarly. Iron Discipline is a no brainer for 5e.

Advisors – None are worth the points for 5e.
 

Commissars – Loved them in 4e. In 5e, counter shooting is more cost effective than counter charging, and they were too expensive anyway, so they’re out.

Priests – Too expensive and of limited use for a Guard army, even in 4e. In 5e, they are just a point sink.

Sanctioned Pyskers – I have honestly not taken one of these since 3e.

AT Support – Deploy AT to either have side shots against vehicles facing your tanks or into the lines. If going for the side shots, it is best to remember to go to ground.

Lascannon – At 36 points a platform, these are 18 points per hit if they get 4 turns of shooting per game. Pricey and always a high priority target, I find them to be a bad choice.

Missile Launcher – Dropping down to only 31 points a platform, these seem to be a worse choice than the Lascannon. I have found that they are a far less attractive target than the Lascannon teams, and thus wind up doing a lot more damage for me during a game. Never use them against AV 14, unless there is nothing else to shoot at. If you face tight formations of enemy troops or the enemy has cover, fragmentation missiles can do wonderful things.

FS Support – Deployment is very dependent on enemy forces. Generally these are just strengtheners for your gunline.
Autocannons – The best direct fire support weapon of the lot. Great light vehicle killers and they reliably put wounds out on nearly everything all game long. Deploy centrally so that they have targets every turn.

Heavy Bolters – Very good for hosing down enemy speeders and assault forces. Good to have in your force, and best in support of your main concentration, wherever that may be.

Mortar Squads – These are fantastic killers in 5e. The ability to ignore intervening cover makes them murderous from behind your own troopers in the gunline, and they can pin as well. 80 points is a bargain for these relative to other weapons for 5e.

Sentinels – If you are going to take Sentinels, I would take them as an HQ squadron.

Special Weapons – Not worth the slot, in my opinion. If you take them, the Demo Charge is a given, and I would take Flamers. Also, you almost have to go with Drop Troops, as the scatter of the Demo Charge makes these very dangerous for counter shooting purposes.

Elite

Hardened Veterans – These are great as a small squad with 3 BS4 Meltaguns. Use them either to flank/deep strike and blow up vehicles, or hold them in reserve to counter shoot enemy assaulters. Give them Shotguns to replace Lasguns.

Ratlings – These little buggers draw a lot more fire than their damage output merits, but against anything that isn’t fearless a chance to pin is a chance to pin. Take them in squads of 8 or more, and place them in cover.

Ogryns – Sadly, Ogryns still have no place on the field. They are too expensive, too fragile, and too ineffective in killing MEQ to be worth fielding.

Storm Troopers – Taken in small squads with two BS4 melta/plasma guns, these are many players shooting units of choice. Grenadiers are best done mounted in Chimera, whereas normal Glory Boys make good flankers. I avoid deploying them as simple gunline units, as their lack of range means that take too many hits before they get to do anything. It is better to keep them in reserve than start them on the field.

Techpriest Enginseers – I had to open the book to even remember these exist. I guess 5e vehicle survivability makes them better, but going from abjectly horrible to just really bad doesn’t make them a good purchase. If you intend to use one, place it so that it is in BTB with a couple of Russes (or triangle it to a Basilisk as well) and give him 3 or 4 technical servitors.

Troops

Infantry Platoons – Never underestimate the good old Lasgun. In 5e, these are your objective takers, so keeping one or two in reserve to move towards objectives on your side late in the game is a good idea. Flanking or deep strike are your best options to threaten enemy objectives, as marching across the field just provides most enemies with free assault and consolidation moves. Always build them with a special weapon, and remember that 3 squads getting a Lascannon mean that you are not taking a 4th squad with a Meltagun.

Infantry Platoon Command – The ability to concentrate special weapons in these squads gives them a lot of value as counter shooters. I’m particularly fond of the 4 flamer squad in a Chimera. After the enemy assaults the smoke Chimera that is blocking their advance, they are nicely piled up to take enormous numbers of flamer hits. Officers always get power weapons, as these are the only bargain weapon in our Armory.

Armored Fist – Grenadiers or command squads in Chimeras are better for the purpose, and we need more Troops infantry units, so these are unattractive in 5e.

Conscripts – If you really want to see something funny, watch what happens to a 50 man Conscript squad with attached Independent Commissar that is hit by a 20+ mob of Slugga Boyz. Their use as tar pits is sharply reduced by the 5e morale rules, they are a lot easier to massacre with the 5e blast, multiple template, and casualty rules, so you are better off with more infantry squads.

Fast Attack

Hellhound – True LOS means that these monsters have more targets. I’ve found that one of them is an enormous fire magnet, and more is a good thing.

Sentinels – These are not as good as Hellhounds for the FA slot, but still a great choice. If you take drop troops, these can be used to deep strike as well as to flank, and a well-positioned Multilaser or Autocannon equipped Sentinel stands a fair chance of popping a key enemy vehicle, or at least shaking it on those crucial turns 2-4. Another great use is flanking into large enemy infantry units from the rear and pulling them away from their advance. A Heavy Flamer Sentinel kills Orks with the weapon and likely kills more from the explosion, and even more critically pulls them away from where they want to be. Great choices if you do not have the points to buy Hellhounds for the FA slots.

Rough Riders – As a counter charge unit, these are the best the IG has for 5e. With true LOS, they can be hit almost anywhere on the board, so keep them in reserve unless you have a heavily urban board with intact walls to hide behind. I don’t take these as they are less survivable, less threatening, and less deadly than a Hellhound in almost all cases.

Heavy Support

Basilisk – True LOS means these are easier to shoot at in 5e, so park a Russ in front of them, and/or get them behind a hill. True LOS means they can also see most of the board, which means they can fire in LOS and indirectly outside of 36”. This means they are as accurate as firing directly, but ignore intervening cover and hit vehicles on the side armor. Shooting Predators in this fashion makes them expensive Rhinos, so the Basilisk is very good.

Leman Russ Battle Tank – The removal of partials and downgrading of defensive weapons transformed the LRBT from a Heavy Bolter platform to a Battle Cannon platform, so peel off those sponsons and let the Ordnance fly.

Leman Russ Demolisher – Oddly, the rear 11 AV is more important to this vehicle that the great cannon. Fearlessly drive Demolishers towards opposing Land Raiders and Terminators, and watch them scramble away.

Heavy Weapon Platoons – I would only taking these if I were restricted from taking tanks for some reason. They are expensive and inefficient.

Disciplines

In terms of Doctrines, Drop Troops, Light Infantry, and Iron Discipline give you the most bang for your buck, as they provide a lot of maneuver options and let small units recover. Cameleoline is a good choice as well, but tends to be much less effective as the game goes on. All the others are personal choice issues.

As far as allies go, an Inquisitor Lord or GK with psychic hood are reasonably common and useful choices. Placing a Daemonhunter Inquisitor with Mystics in a transport behind your Demolisher tends to scare off those pesky Terminators. There are too many solid DH/WH ally choices to consider in this already overlong piece, so I’ll leave it at that.

Related Pages

Up
House Gilead
Doctrines
Units
Equipment
Battle Honors
Uniforms
House Rules
Tactica
New Gear
New Troop Types
Adapted Troops