# A Guide to Imperial Guard Tactical Deployment/Formations



## Djokovic (Dec 22, 2008)

I have seen the tactics of imperial guard discussed through lists, but I would like to start a thread to help new players on how to deploy imperial guard formations.

Here are the most basic infantry formations:

Rank Formation: lines of infantry deployed horizontally. Strong from the front, and very effective with the new consolidation rules. Weakest, expendable units put in front.










File formation: deployed vertically, strong from flanks but vulnerable from front/rear + espcecially vulnerable to flamers.

Loose formation: spread out when the enemy has lots of templates/blast/ordnance

Tight formation: troops tightly packed together so that firepower can be focuses more easily on a specific point.

'H' formation - a rank of troops with files on the flanks. Defensive formation that combines the strengths of both ranks and files.

'n' formation - one rank with many files behind it. Best used as an offensive formation because you can advance across the field without being vulnerable from the flank/front. The way it works is that one or two expendable units in front provide cover to the many files behind.

Layered formation - This involves the use of many ranks of troops, each about 3” away from the one in front of it. The front two ranks should be cheap and expendable (conscripts are great for this). Heavy weapon squads should be placed at the very back of the formation. The basic idea behind this is that an entire army's worth of firing-zones overlap when faced towards a specific direction. What you, as the IG commander, want is for the enemy to have no choice but to make a sweeping advance into the overlapping kill-zone of all the defending troops and invite fire from them all. The front rank takes the brunt of the attacks and provides every infantry squad behind it with a screen through which the enemy may not fire. If it is done correctly, your force should lose 2-3 squads of troops but thoroughly dominate the game. NEVER attack such a formation head-on… you WILL be shot to shreds! This formation is vulnerable to deep-striking units and to flank attacks. When an assault does occur at the front of this formation, you WANT to fail morale checks you make IN YOUR OPPONENTS ASSAULT PHASE!! - If you end up running away in your own assault phase, your enemy will be able to sweep into your second rank of defenders without suffering the consequences of the return-fire.


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## Jezlad (Oct 14, 2006)

Interesting.

Any chance of some images to explain further?

There's a top article crying to be written here.


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## comrade (Jun 30, 2008)

I guess I'll add my old one in here, its a horde Tactica

Sections 

I Basic Horde army list choices (Basic i said, not exact)
II Army Basic Tactics
III Defensive Manuvers


*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*_
The basic choices for an Artillery horde army in my armys image:

HQ: Jr. officer+ Mortars, all the more points to buy conscripts with
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Elites: who needs these? ohh.....wait 3 Inde Comissars for Conscripts! hoorah
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Core:
3 Decently equipped 25 man plattons
3 full 50 man conscript platoon! Lasguns, lasguns, lasguns
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Heavy:
3 Basilisks they blow the s*** outa everything on the table,hidden correctly, they in my opinion are the best tanks in the game.
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Doctrines:
1 Conscripts!
2 independent commissars!
3 Close order drill- Duh!
4 Chem inhalers- For the extra durability
5 Drop Troops- Ok let me explain this first, You will deploy everything except your (Elite) Platoons onto the table, and when you move forward and comence combat with the enemy with the rest of your army, and spread your enemies army, then your real (Elite) troops will show up behind the lines, and screw s*** up, or if your losing, you can just deploy 75 men randomly on the table, and cause the whole game degenerate into chaos!


*[II]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Basic Tactics*

Well can anybody say attrition?!?!? This is not your Moblile tank, fast moving IG army, this is your slow steady bloody methodical IG army, EXACTLY what it should be. Your tactics will run on 3 basic points, Front line, Artillery, Para trooper reserve!

*Front line*
Your fron line should consist of your 100-150 consripts w/ thier comissasr of course, and your Command squad, because it only exists because the book says you have to have it. This part of your Army is your intimidator, lots of men, all moving forward, and never stopping till every last one is cut down, these guys must, must hold, and advance your line without these guys if the enmy breaks through youll only have a few mortar squads and some basilisk to stop them, you dont want this too happen, engage all enemies with this part of your army, and try to spread your units out so that one Conscript squad can entangle multiple units in one charge, this is one of the most sections of your army just entangle, overwhelm, and continue as long as you can.

*Artillery*
These are your basilisks and your mortars, these are pretty basic, support the advance, and with the basilsks take out the heavy stuff, cause those things can take out your front line more than likely, or they can soften up tough enemies,like SMs. Mortars are for pinning! nothing more, they are also useful for nice surprises on enemies who dont see em comin, also effective for assisting infantry advance.

* ParaTroopers *
These are your drop troops there are two ways you can use these men.

A. Surgical- Deploy them where they are needed most, or where the enemy least expects them to come from, or for a break in the line. These are for causing a Decisive Victory, Used well they can turn a tied game effectively towards your side, or can cause a total lose when all your "Good" Troops are killed in one turn.

B. Sabotage - Basic equipped (More Lasguns) Guard droping all over the enmies side of the table, these guys are suppose to die, while causing as much of a mess of an enemies front line as they can, fracturing an enemies front line, killing leaders, assaulting units in bunkers, assualting things they cant hurt just to tie them up, etc... you get the idea, i really like using this type,cause then it causes it to becoe more of a slug fest, remember the enemy cannot just ignore units causing a mess behind his lines, he will have to divert units to stop them causing his line to thin out,making it easier to break through.

*[III]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Defensive Manuvers *

Well not much here except bog the hell out of the enemy advance force, soften them up while they come towards you and drop troops behind thier lines, I have seen a whole Dark Eldar Army get tangled up with 100 conscripts before, effectively being bogged down for 2-3 turns while the rest of thier army was systematically ripped apart by Indirect fire, Ive seen SM armies bogged down for turns by 4pt soldiers, even lose to them, if used correctly this type of IG army can be molded to fit any problem, and situation, and any enemy, It better you have enough men to do it. 


Well I wish you luck my fellow guardsmen, and I hope this has helped somebody out. :salute2: 

---------------------------------Transmission Ended---------------------------------------_


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## Djokovic (Dec 22, 2008)

To add in some images, I will have to download a free trial of photoshop or illustrator.


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## Steel Nathan (Apr 26, 2008)

Or you could just use Paint. It wouldn't look that good as from Photoshop, but it's definitly much better then nothing. And it might even be easier depending on your experience from Photoshop .


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## Jezlad (Oct 14, 2006)

Vassal is the best program on the net for showing formations. You can even show the correct models in the right places.


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## comrade (Jun 30, 2008)

Jezlad, I now dub you the Vassal Spokesman.


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## Djokovic (Dec 22, 2008)

As you can see, I just screenshot/edited/uploaded my first image ever!


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