So, I’ve been a little negligent on this, and meant to respond quite a while ago to this post by my friend MadPersian, who is recently getting back into the game and building an Imperial Guard list. Unfortunately, I find my friend has been unduly influenced by the internet (no, not me, I’m different) and I feel he has been misled to some degree. Let’s see what his list looks like, and his reasons: (I have edited this slightly for easier commenting, original post can be found HERE)
There are some basic list building guidelines I have read that I tried to follow:
- Able to threaten any unit;
- Mobile scoring units;
- Saturation;
- Redundancy; and
- Duality.
OK, some notes here:
- The following list doesn’t really accomplish that, it’s way too focused “killing rhinos”. Not everything is about rhinos
- SUre, IG can do this well
- Saturation is good, but it’s really about providing mutliples of a particular threat: Such as Saturating tank targets, or fast assaulters, or mass troops. I’m not sure this list does that.
- So here’s a key thing that bugs me about internet spam lists: Redundancy does not mean that everything has to be spammed. You can have multiple units that do the same job without necessarily having multiples of the same unit in most codexes, and your list will usually be stronger for it.
- I assume Duality means “able to take on more than one type of unit?” I’m not sure I like that philosophy, for the most, part, I usually prefer units that are fairly specialized in to one role. ”Multi-purpose” usually means you’re overpaying for whatever purpose you have at that time. Still, “Multi-purpose” means a certain bit of fail-safe, and that’s good, but I’m not sure this list accomplished this.
This is my raw attempt at a list I am hoping to refine into a fearsome tournament list.
HQ Company Command Squad, Company Commander, 3 x Veteran with Meltagun, 1 x Astropath + Chimera Transport, Multi-laser, Heavy flamer -> 55 Pts. - – - > 165 Points Troop Veteran Squad, Demolitions, 3 x Veteran with Meltagun, Veteran Sergeant + Chimera Transport, Multi-laser, Heavy flamer -> 55 Pts. - – - > 185 Points
OK, here’s is spammy problem number one: Why all the Heavy Flamers? I can understand having a couple Heavy Flamers scattered around, that’s just a good hedge. But why does every single Chimera have one? Think of all that heavy bolter fire you’re giving up! The heavy Bolter Bolter also has much better synergy with the multi-laser with similar range, and similar preferred targets. Whenever a unit has weapons that want different engagment ranges, targets, or modes (Short vs long, infantry vs. vehicles, assault vs heavy) you’re creating inefficiency. I suppose this is the “Duality” you were talking about in #5. A little bit of that is fine, just like a melta in a tac squad, it protects you against certain bullshit, keeps the enemy honest. But we’re talking you might 1 or 2, even 3, not the whole damn army. So much fire power wasted!
