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

The Breakdown Episode 2: Veterans

Hello all,
Welcome to another session of The Breakdown, today I am covering Veteran Squads.

For the past few days I have been contemplating who is the better troop choice? Infantry Platoon Squads, or Veterans. After getting quite a few games in last week running all Veteran list, I have come to this decision. Veteran squads, are there to support the Infantry Platoon with what they lack of. What I mean by this is, you take basic infantry a few heavy bolters, and some plasma guns, now your ready for infantry of all stats, but what about those pesky tanks? Then you put a Veteran squad into play! Just look at the options, do I put them in a Valkyrie and deep strike in 3 meltas? Do I give them forward sentries with a Lascannon and use that BS 4 to its advantage?

Now for all of you out there who are screaming blasphemy at the computer screen saying that the Veteran squads are cheaper and have more room for Bigger toys! That is very true, but what do you need to win? Infantry! Without these guys slugging around and taking fire, you will loose your tanks in turn one or two! We are guard, play as we are meant to be played with lots and lots of men! Make your enemy commander make a decision on who he is going to kill. Don't let it be that squad of tanks coming in his left rear, rather that squad of 3 lascannons that just took down his monolith.

What to equip your Veterans with you say? There is more than enough options to make them good at a particular job! Say 3 meltas, and a power fist throw them in a tank, with Grenadiers and they will mess up any tank within 6 inches. Or (my personal favorite) Forward sentries, 3 Snipers and a lascannon, Sit them on an objective and pin troops or take down a tank! You could get heavy infantry hunters, Power weapon, plasma pistol, 3 plasma weapons, and the rest lasguns, and maybe throw in Bastoone or Harker to give them orders!

More or less what I am trying to say is, don't go crazy and play a guard list with 3 squads of 10 man troops, because if you are playing anything objective wise you are going to get killed. But rather put a third of your points into a strong infantry base! I'm going to try this out along with Necrons on this upcoming Saturday!

Well that was this episode of the Breakdown! See you on the battlefield, and at the next Breakdown!

Ace

Imperial Guard Breakdown: Regimental Advisers

Welcome to the Breakdown,

This is the first one of the series, where I will take one unit from a Codex and break them down. Now this will be the good stuff all the way down to the dirt, so pay attention!

Alright we are all excited to see the new Guard Codex hit the shelves recently. When I opened the pages up it was like being in heaven, finally we would stand a chance in the world, we [Guards players] would be appreciated, and respected for our armies. Then I came across the Regimental Advisers and I was blown away at the way these guys work! Alright lets get into this breakdown.

First we have the Astropath, who essentially is a Veteran guard, with a robe and a staff. What makes this little old man so good is that Valkyrie that is in reserve gets to possibly come in sooner! That's right he adds one to your reserve roll, not too bad. Now if you were to say Outflank that Squad of Penal Legionnaires and they came in on the wrong side of the board, you could re-roll to see what side they come in on. A good guy, fair cost, but you have to ask yourself, what do you want to do with your forces? Do you want something to sit in reserve for a while and provide back up, or do you want to come in turn two with 1500 points of heavy weapons in your opponents face?! Good for a fun game, maybe stay away from him in tournament play. (His brother plays a more important roll in the tournament game)

Second on the list is the Master of Ordance (or for laughs the MOO), wow talk about a guy with a big stick! This guy comes to play with a pet Basilisk and isnt afraid to make it shoot! He can drop a blast any where on the field! Talk about some good anit.....EVERYTHING! For his cost why wouldnt you take two squads of HQ with this guy in there!? Well from playing with him in quite a few games let me tell you why not. HE COULD NOT HIT THE BROADSIDE OF A MONOLITH! I played 5-6 games with him and he hit maybe a fifth of the time he shot! To random for me. If that did not square you away, he cripples your HQ from delivering game turning orders on that squad that you know is 17" away and if you just move them he could save them. But you want to TRY and hit that squad of Devistators.... What to do what to do? Just throw him on the bench for a fun game.

At last we get to my favorite guy in this little gang, Officer of the Fleet. This is the guy to take in any list wherever you go, and for what ever type of game you are playing. (So don't leave home wihtout him!) This guy is a pain in the but for anyone who has anything in reserve! They show up fashionably late, and now they may not come where you need them. Take his brother the astropath and just factor that for the enemy, except... Do the opposite! Thats right turn two they need a 5+ to come in! Good luck to you, and if they roll all of their reserves in then pick up your army shake his hand and say the dice gods must bless you! No real negatives to this guy, except he becomes a point sink if they have no reserves. But in 5th edition, everyone is doing reserves becasue it is the cool thing to do.

Lastly, we have the Bodyguards, these guys are great for bigger HQ squads, or HQ suads that are going to get into some dirty work. If you don't have either put their cost onto some extra armor for your tanks! But a good concept of taking the wound for the general, now throw a medic in there and you have Bodyguard Curtis Jackson!

Thats all on todays plate of the Break Down!

Hope you liked it! Post what you think of the Regimental Advisors!

Ace