This is the first in a series of posts about the new guard codex. I had considered several ways to write these articles, from comparing each characteristic with the old edition, to just starting fresh and taking each datasheet as is. In the end I decided to just write my thoughts on each datasheet with only a few references to the old edition. These will be my initial thoughts, on both their usefulness in the new edition, plus any strengths or weaknesses I think they might have. I don't have a deep and vast knowledge of the new edition, in fact I have played no games at this point, so I might be wildly out on my assessments.
To kick everything off I’m going to look at the guards army rule and also the core stratagems. The army rule will be unchanged as we get new detachments, which i will review as and when we get them. The core stratagems i will be looking at through a purely guard perspective and how good or bad they are in that respect.
The core army rule for the guard is called Voice of Command and is the orders system, with a few tweaks, that we have had for a little while now. It has been massively simplified from previous editions, especially the last edition, and while this is good, i think it has taken a lot of the flavour out of the system. There are 6 orders that can affect any Astra Militarum unit, provided that the ordering officer can order those units. In general these order will affect Regiment or Squadron units and some are better than others for those units.
Move! Move! Move! is the first order and adds 3 inches to the move characteristic of the unit. This can be useful for getting units around the board or getting those extra couple of inches on to an objective and doesn’t require you to give up shooting anymore. Most of the time though your not going to be using this one of either type of unit (regiment or Squadron) as the other orders are generally better but it does have its uses and will most likely be used towards the end of the game as units become more sparse and spread out.
Fix Bayonets! is almost useless on squadron units. Increasing the WS of a vehicle is not going to do much to their fighting ability. On a Regiment unit it is also not going to do much but could be useful when going against other not combat armies, such as other guard, Tau or certain GSC and eldar units. In reality, if your close enough to charge, your still going to want to use a different order and shoot, there are going to be very few times when charging a unit is going to be better than shooting it. This is most likely going to be used for defensive purposes, rather than offensive when you know theres a charge coming but, for what ever reason, cant do anything about it.
Take Aim! is one of the better options mentioned above. Adding +1 BS to a unit is very useful and will be one of the go to orders, alongside the next order. Anything that increases the base BS of a unit is better than a simple +1 to hit, as it does not limit the unit to the +/-1 to hit modifiers. This means that it stacks with the Heavy keyword to further increase firepower output. It’s is going to be a toss up between this order and the next as to which to use most turns and will depend a lot on the situation you find yourself in and what you’re shooting.
Front Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! has been around for a long time, in one form or another but always along a similar line. This time it increases Rapid Fire weapons attacks by 1, meaning most will have 2 base and 3 in rapid fire range. This is going to be one of the other go to orders alongside Take Aim! Which one you choose to use will depend on the circumstances but i generally think that volume is better than accuracy.
Take Cover! is also a good order but is, in general, not as useful as the two above. This order also benefits form adding characteristic of a unit, in this case the save characteristic, rather than just the role, so it can stack with things like cover and cannot be ignored by Ignores Cover weapons. If you have a unit at the back that you want to keep alive or maybe a unit on an objective, then this could be a good order, but in general your really going to want to boost the fire power output of the unit rather than the save. It’s going to have its uses but it’s only going to get used occasionally.
Duty and Honour! is the last order and is probably going to be one of the least used. Again why would you want to boost the OC value of a unit to hold an objective when you are really just going to want to try and kill the enemy unit on the objective you’re trying to take. This will have its uses and for some units where you can place two orders on them, it might be useful but boosting the shots and BS skill would be a better combination. A useful but niche stratagem that will have its uses but only very rarely.
Next up are the ten Core Stratagems and as i mentioned above, i will only be looking at these through a guard perspective, so some stratagem that are very useful to some armies may well be almost useless to the guard.
Command re-roll is the basic re-roll ability we all know and love. There is not much to say, other than it will get used often and we’ll all want to use it more than we can.
Counter Offensive is a good stratagem for other armies, for the guard it is next to useless. For some units, such as bullgryn it might be useful but for most units it’s only ever going to get used as a last resort and at 2CP very rarely at that. On a big blob squad it could be useful to use before they get wiped out but even then i think i would rather save the CP for something more useful.
Epic Challenge is another combat stratagem that is almost useless to the guard. Most of our characters are not good in combat and so even spending 1CP on this seems like a waste of time in the vast majority of cases. There maybe the very occasional use for it but they will be very occasional.
Insane Bravery on the other hand is one that may well get used a lot to keep a unit in the fight and holding an objective. Guard have a lot of ways to deal with battle shock but it is probably going to be worth keeping 1CP around for this late in the game as scoring those objectives could be crucial.
The Grenade stratagem is a reasonable way of inflicting mortal wound on your enemy. The grenades keyword is actually quite common in the guard, more common that I thought it would be. For 1CP this could be useful for putting a few extra wounds on a unit or taking the last few of one.
Tank Shock is one that I first thought was a bad stratagem for guard but now I think it’s not too bad. With our tanks being fairly strong, the number of dice being rolled is going to be reasonable and usually higher than the enemy toughness, meaning that extra dice as well. While this wont kill many enemy, were not going to be charging in tanks on a regular basis and if we are its going to be a bit of a last ditch effort to keep them alive and firing, meaning that any extra damage output we can get is going to be good. We’re usually going to be charging the remnants of units, so we may only need a couple of mortal wounds to go through to help finish off the unit. So, while we’re not going to be using this stratagem very many times, it could be really useful on the few times we do use it.
Fire Overwatch has changed from the last several edition and for the better. The base stratagem needs 6’s to hit, however we have a few ways and units that can increase this number to 5’s or even 4’s, meaning that we could do a lot of damage. This stratagem will get used quite a bit i think, as any extra shooting we can get is always going to be useful. In many respects i would spend my 1CP a turn on this rather than the re-roll.
Rapid Ingress is one that could be very useful or completely useless. If you’re running a standard army there are very units that can really make use of this, if you’re running a scion army then you could use this quite a bit to drop in a unit somewhere annoying for you opponent. It is a bit like the Valkyrie ability but not limited to where the Valkyrie is. On the whole you will only use this once in a while as I don’t think the opportunity to maximise its use will come up very often, as scions are not terminators and cannot withstand the same sort of punishment, so placement is going to be very important.
Smokescreen only works on units with the smoke keyword, which is basically vehicles. This is going to be useful in keeping your vehicles alive by reducing the hit rolls and increasing save rolls. Combine this with things like armoured might and you could make a very durable vehicle for a turn. I think this will be useful when used but you’ll have to think very carefully about if and when you choose to use it.
Go to Ground is similar to the guard order Take Cover! but this affects the role not the characteristic so they can stack. This would be useful in a pinch to try and keep some guys alive upping the save or giving them an invulnerable save but overall, guard infantry are basically disposable and there are other things that this CP could be spent on that i think would be a better investment. So keep it in mind for those occasions that you really need to try and keep a some models in a unit alive but on the whole spend the CP elsewhere.
Heroic Intervention is a 2CP stratagem and not much else need be said. There are very very few occasions when you are going to want to charge in a guard character out of turn. There are very few occasions when your going to want to do in it turn! Guard are not made for combat. You can ignore this stratagem.
So overall there are not many stratagem that the guard cant use in one for or another. There a certainly some that will receive more attention that others, namely the three combat stratagems. The main issue is always going to be which to use and when in a game of limited command points. God i miss the old days of 7th and my 24 starting CP and the other 12 I’d regain through the match!
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