40K Deep Thought: On Vehicle Squadrons and their Pitfalls
So I’ve been poring over some recent tournament results and listening to many of the Ardboys results, and some things are starting to gel in my mind. First of all, Imperial Guard are still ruling the roost post Blood Angels, but I think I’ve got a handle on what the root cause of their dominance is… Vehicle squadrons.
Now first things first, there is nothing wrong at all with the power level of the more recent codices. Blood Angels are STRONG. Very strong, with a mix of speed and assualt power, mixed in with some fantastic ICs. The Space Wolves are probably ther kings of swarming foes with their multiple HQ powerhouses, but at the end of the day, it still looks like that old chesnut, the fully mech Guard fortress is still king of the castle.
Over and over, the tournament results are showing that the other armies just don’t have the firepower to kill enough of a fully meched up IG guard on turn 1, even if you DO get the jump on them. Then the return volleys are just devastating. As we saw at Adepticon, there is a lot of nuance and player skill involved in managing the wall of steel, so it’s not an auto-win button, but with a couple dozen games under your belt, even newer players are routinely spanking vets with the devastating volleys from mulitple vehicle squadrons that the codex allows.
And there is the problem I see: you aren’t seeing huge amounts of the Imperium’s workhorse, the humble Leman Russ these days, but instead the “rarer” cheaper vehicles like Medusae, Manticores, and the like who can dish out far more punishment per point than the Russ, yet are just as vulnerable in assault (AV:10 on the rear).
Its leading me to wonder what the codex would play like and the metagame would feel like if only the Leman Russ was available in squadrons of 3, perhaps with the other cheaper vehicles being singles, or pairs at most. The vehicle squadron rules do look balanced on paper, but in practice have little effect if that wall of steel gets the jump on you from 48″ away, or just weathers the generally weak firepower most armies can project in a single turn at that range against it. Normally by the time you can get into the 12″ through assault range band, versus a good IG player, its far, far too late.
~Taking a look at the Imperial Guard codex, is there a single thing that you think could help restore a sense of balance to the metagame and end the walls of mechanized steel we see all to often these days?
