Infantry Squad Heavy Weapons

[battlebrotherjohn]

Just wondering if it is essential to take heavy weapon teams as part of an ifantry squad blob ( approximately 30 strong , with platoon command squad and commisar ).

I plan to max out on the assault weapons ( have not decided on what combination , but a mix of anti-infantry and anti-vehicle ) and take seperate heavy weapon squad ( mainly missile launcher and or lascannon ) .

Is this an effective build ?

( if it helps the local meta game includes lots of loyalist marine armies - mainly Blood Angel , Chaos Nurgle marines , some other IG and Necron armies. All have fliers of some type or other ).

[badgersplatter]

If I think I understand what you're saying correctly: No.

It is not essential to take heavy weapon teams.

It is also a bad idea to mix roles. The whole blob has to shoot at the same thing. When you shoot at infantry, all your anti-tank weapons are wasted points, and vice versa. Since your blob squad will automatically have about 30 anti-infantry weapons, that's a headstart.

[Julian Sharps]

The advantage of Heavy Weapon Squads is that you are getting more heavy weapons for fewer points, and you don't have to worry about wasted lasgun shots against armor. The problem is that they are a high-priority multi-wound model, and tend to be extremely vulnerable to high-strength weapons, especially ones that drop blast markers. Additionally, you can't just build your platoon out of a command squad and a bunch of heavy weapon squads; you need to bring infantry along.

Infantry blobs have the advantage of giving you a lot of ablative troops between your heavy guns and your enemy, allowing them to fire for longer with less risk of getting killed off. Of course, they're significantly more expensive for the number of weapons they bring to bear, but you also have the added advantage of filling out your minimum platoon size requirements. Plus, they have a number of things that make it easier for them to follow orders, including Sergeants, Commissars, and Vox-Casters.

However, you don't need to take heavy weapons in Guard blobs. Some of the more aggressive builds run 20-30 men, a Commissar and a Priest, lugging nothing heavier than flamers and krak grenades. Badger's right about not mixing roles; we're not Space Marines, so we can afford to specialize our units because we can take so many of them. However, if you still can't decide whether you want to go anti-infantry or anti-tank, use grenade launchers. The frag round's decent against infantry, and the krak round's not bad against light armor. Just be sure to have a backup plan in case you fail to do much against your target; against flesh-and blood, your massive quantities of lasguns should be sufficient (although it never hurts to bring along a Battle Cannon or two; those things irritate most Space Marine players to no end), and against armor... maybe give 'em krak grenades. Vehicles are typically vulnerable in an assault (Walkers excepted, of course), and most of them don't have rear armor higher than 11. 10-15 krak grenades should be sufficient to at least cripple anything up to medium armor, but I wouldn't rely on it as a standard battle tactic.

By the way, how do you plan on getting your infantry into assault weapon range?

[badgersplatter]

I've never played a game where the enemy hasn't spent the whole time trying to get in range of my infantry :-)

[battlebrotherjohn]

Thanks for the replies ( I could have sworn my original post made more sense in my head when I was typing it ).

So just to check if I ran a platoon made up of the following squads -

1 x Platoon command squad ( with 3 x assault weapons )
1 x 30 figure blob squad ( with 3 x assault weapons )
1 - 2 x Heavy Weapon Squads ( dedicated long range fire support - autocannon for example )

With commisar and preacher and the squads given extra wargear it should hopefully work ok ?

Big thanks to Julian Sharps for the preacher idea - would fit in with my traitor guard theme .

[Julian Sharps]

If you're going the assault Guard route, you're going to want something more substantial than that. I would suggest taking a Company Command Squad led either bu Straken or Creed, since even the buffs granted by a Commissar and a Priest won't be enough to take down a decent assault unit like Assault Marines or Dark Eldar Wyches. Creed has a special order that gives the unit Fearless and Furious Charge, and Straken has a general Furious Charge area buff (and possibly Counter-attack, although I'll have to check my codex again). Both are excellent options, but in order for Assault Guard to really work, you pretty much need to build your army around it.

[velauzehraptor]

Straken is for assault.

Creed is for orders.

As amusing as Creed is in combat. No.

[Julian Sharps]

Dec 31, 2012 3:20:06 GMT -5 velauzehraptor said:

Straken is for assault.

Creed is for orders.

As amusing as Creed is in combat. No.

As explained above, Creed's special order is ideal for Assault Guard builds, especially now that they did away with No Retreat!, making fearless non-Space Marine units actually viable in close combat.

[verminard]

And don't forget to load up your Sergent and Commissars with power weapons. Axes are amazing (since we usually go last anyhow) and with furious charge you have a whopping S5 AP 2 attack, in a 30 man blob with three Commissars that's 24 attacks at AP2 if they all survive to strike.

[christopher300]

Dec 27, 2012 14:02:47 GMT -5 battlebrotherjohn said:

Thanks for the replies ( I could have sworn my original post made more sense in my head when I was typing it ).

So just to check if I ran a platoon made up of the following squads -

1 x Platoon command squad ( with 3 x assault weapons )
1 x 30 figure blob squad ( with 3 x assault weapons )
1 - 2 x Heavy Weapon Squads ( dedicated long range fire support - autocannon for example )

With commisar and preacher and the squads given extra wargear it should hopefully work ok ?

Big thanks to Julian Sharps for the preacher idea - would fit in with my traitor guard theme .

Helllo

When you say you are giving them three assault weapons what do you mean as in hand to hand weapons or for ezample a melta gun assault type weapon?