40K TACTICS: Synergy vs the Imperial Guard
Recently, we had one of our readers recently ask for articles that help on creating combos or how to identify synergy within other army books. Synergy is most simplisticly described as the concept of 2+2=5. It’s how to create a greater sum out by working together with units that can have for a greater effect together.
This can have a big effect in Warhammer and Warhammer 40k games and can help to improve your games greatly. One of the very first things that JWolf, Goatboy and I do usual is sit down with one of the new books together and start looking for combos and here are some off the top of my head.
We had this discussion on the way back from Adepticon on our 20+ hour drive and wanted to share some combos that people probably might haven’t thought of when dealing with Guard. Understanding the advantage of these combos and synergy of units can help out greatly when playing games in your local shop all the way to GT. We are going to try not to focus on Guard in this article as you will be seeing a following article about Guard coming either this week or next week.
Ten Synergistic Combos
1. Pedro Kantor and Khan outflanking.
– This is one annoying combo that is kinda subtle and a lot of people don’t think about. This can be a great combo to use against Mech guard list.
Have Pedro attached to a drop pod that will come in turn 2 and have Khan outflanking in turn 2 at the same time. You have a lot of units in the backfield with +1 attack on top of everything in close range. This is a bit of a trick and doesn’t always work but you will see a lot of guard players start to sweat bullets when they see Kahn with out flanking units entering on the table side Turbo boosting on or in position to Assault, Drop pod with Pedro in the middle supporting your units with +1 attack to the outflanking units.
2. Scout Bikes w/ locator beacon and drop pods
– One of my personal favorite combos out there that very few people use. Bikes can be expensive for what they do no doubt. I like them because they are a highly mobile unit that can infiltrate, scout first turn and get my first turn assault coming where I need it to be. This is a great advantage when playing guard and you get to go first or second and you can put yourself in position to overload a flank and try to collapse a side. This can be a issue when players will reserve off the board but then you are at least putting them on the back end of the table edge.
3. Space wolves- Assault units in Redeemers and wolf scout squads
– You have one unit that is going to be pushing the back field and you are going to have another unit that is pushing the front deployment zone. Forcing the guard player to make choices on where he can go and putting pressure on key units. You are creating a pinch on both sides that forces the player to make hasty or risky decisions which you can capitalize on and carry forward momentum..
4. Fortune with Shining Spears
– We all know about the fortune with seer councils and how that works but when that unit is stuck in a blob or IG or low armor save unit that can be tied up there forever doing tons of wounds but really not killing anything. One thing we have noticed and have seen great success with and also help dealing with low armor save units plus with Hit and run is Shinning spears with hit and run and having a farseer or eldraded cast fortune on them in a wave serpant running up on its side. The Turbo boosting saves will get you there to deliver the first bunch and you can have your farseer cast fortune on them from the wave serpant. It seperates your units forcing your opponent to choose two different units and try to get rid of them but not being able to shut down another target. With str 8 lances and str 6 lances on the charge Shining Spears have a great change of turning most tanks to junk and going stright through other units with out getting tied or locked down in combat.
5. Terrorfexes and trophy racks
– Terrorfexes are small blast templates and you run your raiders right up to the chimera or rhino. YOu use another unit to blast the unit out of the chimera which then they are forced to take a pinning check at -1. If they don’t fail that pinning test you can use the Terrorfexes to shoot the unit that has been forced to disembark. If you hit two or three guys with the terrorfex you will add culimative modifiers to their LD check which will help you to keep them down. This is also a huge help when dealing with such nasty units as Thunderwolf Calvery which are LD 8 base. If you can park a raider next one one of them and hit one or two guys with a terrorfex they could very well be at a LD 5 to pass their check or be pinned.
6.Wierdboy with Tankbustas
-Wierdboy teleporting to the side of a mech guard line or teleporting in the backfield while releasing your squig bombs can play havoc on a mech guard line and and create a lot of synergy between those two units. You help being able to control some of the movement that the tankbustas have and also get them closer to chosen units that need to die
7.Deathleaper and Doom.
-This can be a expensive combo to play no doubt about it but it can have a huge pay off in certain games. Having the ability of deathleaper to lower LD of a key target such as a psyker with a hood that could block Doom’s powers or putting the negative on your opponents HQ can get you a quick Kill and cripple your opponents key player in his army very quickly. On top of Deathleaper being able to contest missions and help support key areas on the field this is a great combo to use.
8. Terivgons+ Termagaunts+Trygon + Zoanthropes in Spore pod
-So this one seems well known for the first part but the second part can be very helpful. Having the tervigons moving forward in the sea of termagaunts that will have furious charge can be a big benefit for at least glancing tanks on AV 10 when they are in melee. The Tervigons can give out FNP to the Trygons when they get close enough or when they pop up. But what you are really doing is forcing your opponent to pick targets and either forcing them to deal with the Zoanthropes or try to bring down the Trygons that are in their face. It is always hard as even guard will usually not have enough guns to kill both units in a turn and will be stuck in a sticky position. This can create a nice combo allowing you to gurantee to get into the enemy lines and start taking down units quickly. Its the theroy of having frontloading units in a way that you hit a stack and it will topple very quickly without being able to recover.
9.Techmarine on a bike with plasma gun bikers in Black Templar Army
-One of my personal favorites too that I used for a long time. Equiping a Techmarine with a Bike and servo-harness with plasma guns gives you 3 shots to add to your BT bikers that also ahve another 3 plasma guns in the unit. The big plus with the techmarine is he has a signum which allows you to reroll misses which can help reduce overheats on your normal plasma guns. It also brings a powerfist to the unit which helps shore some of its CC weakness.Bikes are also base to skirt up the flanks allowing you to get side shots on key targets or chiemras which then allows you to either break down guard or shake key units from returning fire allowing your hammer units to get close enough to unleash the pain.
10. Infiltrating Chosen w/Rhino with lesser deamons packs.
Having a chosen squad with a icon either starting on a table going first in a posiiton that can allow you to move closer can be a huge benefit. Having a good quantity of lesser deamons can allow you to deploy a good amount of units close to a mech guard line to assault. Now that being said they are not super awesome and they might not destory tanks reliable but in reality you want these units to get into the line to tie them up shake and stun units. This buys you time to allow your lines to get closer and tie up the guard guns. Another idea is to allow the Chosen to outflank on the side and then you have the ability to overload the flank with deamons. This can be a issue though as you are depending on reserve rolls but you can mitigate that by having a decent amount of lesser deamons such as 4 packs of 5 if not more.
~If you have found any other successful combo’s that have helped you take down IG drop it in the comment box and let people know. (-Darkwynn, Jwolf, and Bigred)
