The Breakdown Episode 3: Orders

Listen up everyone, I'm only going to say this once so PAY ATTENTION!

Now that I have got my daily dose of yelling out of my system, lets get on to the third installment of the Breakdown. Today as you may have guessed I'm going over the Order system in the new Imperial Guard Codex! Lets get right into it,

Basically there are 8 orders in this book, 3 basic, 3 advance, and 2 specialty orders. They are given by Company Commanders, Platoon Commanders, or Special Commanders (Creed, Strake, Al'Raheem etc..) There is a command radius for each one, that you must keep in mind, and also how many that can be given, if your curious to know what I am talking about go buy the new codex and follow along.

The order system works like this, at the start of your shooting phase (very important to remember!) You select one FRIENDLY (this is a HUGE argument at the local store) and choose what order you want to give to them! You check range, check to see if the order went through, and if the order was successful, act upon that order IMMEDIATELY! Then after that issue is completed, move on to any further orders. There is also the ranking system to remember, for obvious reasons, Creed would give an order before some chummy Platoon Commander. So you have to keep in mind of your commanders on the field!

Here are the orders and how they should be used!
Bring It Down! The strongest way for this order to be maximized is by prioritizing your weapons on the table, then what the opponent has that do the most damage to your men. Then take down whatever it is and then Lather, Rinse and Repeat.
Fire on my Target! This order is very strong for 5th edition, because everything gets a cover save now! Great for large amounts of fire, firing across the battlefield into a squad of anything advancing or holding an objective.
Get Back in the Fight! This is the backbone for the guard! Make any unit on the table act like a Space Marine and come back onto the fight? Sounds good to me, and when your Veterans with Forward Sentries went to ground to hold onto that objective for one last time, and then to pop back up and fire back? Sounds great to me! So always keep this one in mind for that squad falling back, never just pick up a squad because it is falling back (unless the rules state otherwise)
First Rank, FIRE! Second Rank, FIRE! Ask me what my favorite order is, and I will tell you the one that makes a lasgun deadly. I absolutly love this order! Yes we can all agree that the lasgun is weak, no argument there, but when you fire it with a volly of shots it can make even a Terminator shake in his 2+ armor. So go ahead load up on guardsmen, throw them into a squad of 50 and wait until you see the orks nasty bugers on their face, and then give this order, wait about 20 mins for dice rolls, and say goodbye to that squad of orks. Great order if you ask me. Now here is the local quesiton, does this confer to a HOT-SHOT LASGUN? I say no, it's to powerful, and broken. Others say yes, because why would they change it from a Hellgun to that? So we need a judgement quick! This book really needs a house/store FAQ so that there is always a standard if you ask me!
Incoming! This order is only good with the order I stated earlier, I really don't use it often because I normally have Vets hold objectives with 3+ cover saves. The thought of making a 50 man squad with a Commissar then giving this order seems like it would be fun for turn 5 just to see my opponent's face in pure frustration!
Move! Move! Move! This order is best for moving your units quickly accross the battlefied. I really don't rely on this one except for maybe turn 1 or 5 depends on a lot.
For the Honour of Cadia! A brilliant order from Creed! I use this order on so much to counter that ork assault, so they know what it is like to be on that receiving end of the assault. But here is where the Allies come into play, say I want an assassin to go and assault an enemy, can I give this order to them or not? If so I am dusting of the Daemon Hunter's codex.
Like the Wind! So with this order you can keep everything in your army mobile, outflank with the user's ability. Then throw some Lascannons in the mix and you will blast up some tanks, then throw them into cover and everything will be good!

The order system in my opinion is good, not perfect unless you use Creed AND Kell. Read the codex and you figure out why. I used them quite a bit at the tournament saturday, and I can say that they add some good varitey to the mix with Guard now. So be even more afraid of the shooting phase of the most powerful army in the galaxy! (when it comes to shooting, thats right Tau I went there)

At ease everyone!

Ace

Necrons: Overpower?

Hey guys finally was able to sit down and change the screen name lol. Anyway I played a 2500 point game against a SM player today. Completely wiped the board with him..... It made me feel a little guilty about how powerful Necrons are at higher point limits. I'm currently trying to find a way for them not to be as broken. I have considered simply taking less points but I'm not sure thats the answer....maybe WBB on 5+?

Lets Talk Tactics: The Gun-line

Welcome everyone to Let's Talk Tactics,
I'm your host this evening Ace.

Today's topic is the Gun-line. The lets make rows of men with guns, a hell of a lot of guns, face off against another army.

When you say Gun-line to someone the first thought in their mind is Civil war gun lines firing off into one another. Take that concept and mix it with some heavy weapons and you have a good gun line. When you do a gun line, make sure you know your ranges, and take guns that will complement one another. Like say start with a Melta gun in the front line, so you can check 12" and vice versa, with a Lascannon in the rear, to check 48". Use those ranges to get a better glimpse of what can shoot that turn. Last thing you need to do is have your lascannon be out of range by a foot and try to call a heavy bolter to the same target, then kick yourself because you should have known that. The next advantage is using it in a bait and tackle system, but your expendable men up in the front (conscripts, kroot, scouts, guardians, hormogaunts ect..) then pray that they can make their points back, by killing a couple of men at least before they are expended. If done correctly then when they are done assaulting, or shooting that squad you light them up with the wrath of the rest of your army. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Also another good way to set up is a symmetrical pattern, if you place a squad of anti-tank on one side of the board, place another about in the same position on the opposite side of the board! That way you break tanks into a flank, other wise they are going to be pummelled by a volley of anti-tank weapons. This works well with any other type of unit, and it could be done to force them into a cross fire or even ambush, its all based on how you play and how your opponent thinks! How you deploy your forces is a pretty big factor in how you will do in the battle. Try to control where your opponent will move their forces, if they move it around the big weapons then it must be important, if they go straight for it then they probably dint need that piece or is trying to make it easier for the next turns.

When playing an assault strong army, gun-line will do good when they hit. Just draw a line in your head at the beginning of the game and say if they get past that line then they will be hit by this, and so on and so forth. So me being a guard player I would put regular infantry up front with lasguns, and shoot at the upcoming orks, after they get done with that squad they would be lit up by bolters and such.

When playing a shooting army, gun-lines can lead to a very boring battle, or a very epic battle, it all depends on how the dice roll. But this would be done good with the symetric gun-line.

When playing mechanized list, try to make a spear head to force them into a flank, or an ambush, do not attempt to move into firing range or any such rash movements, take out the tanks, then move onto the men, 6" a turn is better than 12-24" a turn.

But thats the basic tactic of the day, I will get more into this list as I further break it down.

Until the next time!

Ace