Imperial Guard Rumor Mill

[Andrew]

Another word. Giggity. I'm totally stoked for my little IG force if it hits the shelves similar to this. Should be within a years time as well I think. My stormtroopers will get the awesomesauce they've needed. 13 points a pop, but gained 18" assault 3 hellguns that cause pinning, and infiltrate/deep strike. Aw yea!

Plus an ingenius method of including all of the old tanks without cluttering the book with multiple list entries, among other things. I like it a lot.

[Leudast1215]

Are these serious BETA test rules because these look exactly like the wish lists for IG found on the warseer whining forums... IF these are true I'm equally excited because it means I'll be rewarded for waiting in terms of rule options and new/better toy models to build a genestealer cult with and field IG at the same time, thus getting to play 2 armies for the price of one hopefully as I can throw in a few genestealers/get rid of heavy armor, throw in a few special characters with custom rules and yay cult ^_^. IF again these rumors are true then it gets my hopes up for a revised Tau codex. since GW fired the guy who wanted less options in the codices the latest ones like Orks and Space Marines have kicked ass in the rules/fluff department. IF they follow through with IG in this way I'll be very happy and so will Carl I imagine because he gets to use his forgeworld stuff legally. Also rapid fire 3 lasguns make suns and useful storm troopers are also giggity. also nice to see the leman russ capable of fielding more than one turret. the battle canon was gay making sponsons worthless.

[Andrew]

-3 Leman Russes per HS slot. (requires certain conditions to be met)
- Leman Russes can now move and fire ALL their weapons (including the Battle Canon), regardless of their strength.
-New doctrines, including one which provides +1 to cover and allows firing while going to ground. -New Plastic Command squad.
-Assault 2 Lasguns (probably an upgrade).
-The plastic Valkyrie will cost 60€.
-New plastic Hellhound.

[Leudast1215]

These are straight off Warseer and they're kinda questionable... If all these rumors together are more or less true (especially the valkry) I'll have to start a Guard Army it looks like.

[Andrew]

Almost everything I get is from Warseer, and thus probably true actually. They've rarely been wrong, ever.

[Andrew]

GENERAL RUMORS
-No more doctrines
-Tanks will be in squads
-Many special charaters that will provide army wide rules like those in new SM codex
-Chimera and Hellhound might come in one combo boxed set
-Troop squads may be in the pricerange of 200Pts for 45 Guardsmen
-Many new models

MODEL RUMORS (only a sampling)
-Leman Russ multi-variant all plastic kit
-Hellhound updated
-IG Command Squad plastic kit

(lol! 4 point guardsmen ftw!)

[Leudast1215]

Assuming this has been updated and my memory just doesn't totally suck, I'm surprised that there doesn't appear to be doctrine options available for the standard guardsman and from what's written they cost the same as they do now, but with free frag grenades for the standard trooper (which is useless). Also don't see why a normal guardsman squad can take a chimera but the armored fist variant costs 20 points more? makes no since to me. Otherwise it sounds very very spiffy

[Andrew]

They're actually dropping from 6 to 4, according to my latest post...

[Leudast1215]

oops. I never really thought 6 point guardsman was a problem until orks came out and they're obviously superior to a guardsman in every way. cheaper guardsman is needed, i just hope they price everything else right in the list to be cheaper and make it more effective. crap is still crap whether there's a lot of it or not, it's still just crap.

[RARE CHOICE GAMES]

Yeah but a whole lot of crap makes a bigger stink than a little bit of crap.

[Leudast1215]

true... but it also makes for a crying wallet.

[RARE CHOICE GAMES]

A little Midol will clear up most crying wallet problems...usually.

Anyways I am looking forward to the release of the new imperial guard codex whenever it happens. 40K isnt as good as fantasy game play wise but the miniatures are cool looking and fun to paint.

[Leudast1215]

If anything the game requires more strategy because the game isn't won by how many canons you can fit into a list nor how many magic die/spells you can spam off. Also, unlike Fantasy, gun lines don't work (well) in 40K. EVERYONE HAS GUNS MUWAHAHAHA. What Fantasy does better is the melee/movement/leadership system and the variety of weapons even though most of them wont be taken . Seriously wtf 40k 5th edition if you wanted better combat at least acknowledge that outnumbering/overkill should count for something... gee another advantage for 3+ save armies . If anyone dares tell me Kroot are Tau's answer for melee troops I will slap you.

[siriq]

i remeber a time i sent 6 striking scorpions against 30 kroot and i wiped them out in combat resolution after the first combat phase. Ahh those were the days.

but yes they are your answer to cc, but the thing is they are ment to be a unit to tie up shooty units not cc units.

[Leudast1215]

SLAPPY

your statement would've been correct in 4th edition when combat resolution worked differently. Now it's based purely off the # of unsaved wounds inflicted, which means kroot automatically lose at I3, T3, no frag grenades and no armor save. Therefore, according to 5th edition rules, they might wound a bit, but against 3+ or 4+ save armies they might as well just be removed from the board because said armies are going to automatically kill them first or in retalation then over-run them due to several - modifers to leadership because they have leadership 7 and 28 points for leadership 8 is gay.

In other words they cannot tie up shooty units like in 4th edition due to new combat resolution rules. They're only good now for out-flanking objectives in the later parts of the game and hope no breeze comes their way.

[siriq]

/slap

Im really going to have to disagree, you should be able to tie up shooty units, even in 5th. because shooty units shouldnt do but 2 to 3 wounds. Ive seen them used to good effect in 5th, its just about the dice if your tatics are sound.

also how about those imperial guards

[Leudast1215]

My Guardsman die just as bad, less able to cause wounds than kroot and cannot even outflank or infiltrate. I use em' in my 1500+ point list because I like fluffy Tau of an auxiliary army. Btw please don't insult all Tau players by saying kroot can CC any competent CC unit in the game can survive while the kroot faile their leadership checks from massively one-sided unsaved wounds, unless they're fighting gaunts or non-charging Orks which are not competent CC units... they auto-fail unless they're charging T3/4, 6+ save units cause of they have no armor save or grenades or initiative. CC speed bump was 4th ed, not 5th ed. Again they're late game objective takers, shoot em' and they evaporate. I've used kroot in every 750+ game basically I've ever played, I kinda know how they work.

If you want a CC speed bump in 5th ed for the Tau, look to free Gun Drones or a purchased squad of em' 8 strong. Nobody expects 16 I4 S3 attacks on their space marines, greater daemon or Lysander muwahahaha. Yes I'm claiming Gun Drones in 5th ed are better in CC than Kroot due to I4, Assault weaponry and 4+ armor save.

Anyway back on topic, I hope that the new Guardsman will at least have something to help them out in melee and not encourage the player to equip them as little as possible so they flee from chargers automatically (rather unfair to the other player, hehe).

[Andrew]

At most they'll get grenades, and maybe that free close order drill, but nothing more. It's never unfair to flee, especially if it's part of your strategy. You'd only have like three guardsmen after an assault anyway, so regardless of what they achieve they're probably running.

[Leudast1215]

You're probably right, however, it just seems kinda lame (and I play the all shooting army) to engineer your units to purposefully flee no matter what. It's just completely counter-intuitive to make your units the least surviveable in order that, due to the new or lack there-of consolodation rules, to hope for a failed melee so you get to shoot them again. It also goes against my every instinct for making every unit I have as surviveable as possible because the little space hobbits dont deserve to die (that much).

At the very least with frag grenades Guardsman will now have 4+D6 armor penetration and therefore be able to threaten tanks, so hordes of em' might actually become something to fear a lot like Orks. I can see future Saving Private Ryan moments of infantry vs. tanks ^_^. All goes well until a 20mm canon shows up to spoil the fun...

For that matter, just let IG ride their tanks and you have the option of shooting them off muwahahaha.

[Andrew]

Codex
The IG Codex is slated for release in the first week of May.

There is a new HQ choice referred to as a "Fleet Officer". This fine chap gives you access to different types of orbital bombardments every turn. There are other officer "types" to select from that give other abilites including a Commissar Lord.

Models
New Commissar Lord is available as a new HQ choice with dual models.

Plastic Command Squads; Cadians and Catachans are said to both be getting plastic command squads.

Infantry Squad Recuts; Infantry boxes are rumored to be repackaged as 2 sprues containing eight guardsmen and a single heavy weapon team in each box; similar to what was done to the Eldar Guardian kits.

Plastic Stormtroopers are on the way.

Plastic Valkyrie is on the way. This is said to be a transport option for the Stormtroopers and possibly other select squads. Kits have been visually spotted. The Valkyrie will be interesting as it is said to be a skimmer only in the codex. The idea is that flyers never exist in "straight 40k" so the Valkyrie keeps its flyer/skimmer modes as published only in Apocalypse. Price is said to be £35/US$50, and the kit is fairly large (roughly Land Raider sized)