Warhammer 40K Doctor: Fixing Imperial Guardsmen
Let’s take a look at how to fix the humble Imperial Guardsperson.
The Guard Infantry Squad, and the guardsman are iconic parts of 40K. They make up the core of one the game’s central armies. In a lore sense they are one of the most common combatants in the galaxy and can be found everywhere. However, right now they kind of suck. Guardsmen and the lasgun in particular are mostly irreverent in the current game and don’t have a strong place. Today let’s take a look at how to fix them up.
A Better Lasgun
I’ve mention similar things before, but I think one of the ways to make Guard Squads better, and more interesting is to give them some better weapon options. Overall I don’t really think the base statline for Guardsmen should change. Its been human average for pretty much all of 40K history and it should stay that way. But the guns can get a bit of a rework. If I had it my way infantry squads would get two weapons to pick from.
One would be Lascarbines. This weapon has already been introduced into 8th with the Guant’s Ghosts unit. It’s a nice weapon with a good rate of fire and in a vacuum is better than the current Lasgun. The other option would be a Lasgun, which I’d have keep its current stats, with the exception that it would go to Rapid Fire 2. That makes each weapon a viable choice. The Lasgun giving you more shots a close range, but the carbine offering more shots on the move. Each would have good pro’s and cons. Together it would have the effect of upping the fire output of a Guardswoman. It’s also logical, Lasgun in the lore have a much faster rate of fire than say Botlers.
Bring Back Platoons
Next I’d bring back the old Platoon system. For newer players, this was something Guard had prior to 8th Edition. It allowed them to take a character, Command Squad and several Infantry Squads, including Special Weapon and Heavy Weapon squads – all in one force org slot. Bringing this back would have a few benefits. The first being that it would allow Guard to get around the rule of 3 limitations on some units, like Heavy and Specials Weapons squads by making them Troops. The current limit is a bit ridiculous for these weak support units. However since they would be part of a platoon you also couldn’t spam them.
Another bonus would be adding some uniqueness into Guard. Platoons were a cool thing they did that was different. I’d like to see that again. 
I also think it allows for some cool new rule ideas, and maybe some changes to orders. You could for instance give units in platoons a new keyword <platoon>. When the platoon is added to your army all the units in the platoon must replace that with “first platoon”, “second platoon”, etc.. Each platoon must have its own designation. Using the key word rules you could make each platoon its own mini sort of detachment. You could then change orders to be when the platoon commander issues one all units in the platoon (in range maybe) benefit from the order, rather than just one of them as is now. This would simplify Orders by having them affect larger blocks of your army, and reward players for using their guard in formation, as they should be. I think there are some really cool things GW could do with platoons.
Keep Them Cheap, And Give Them Free Heavy Weapons
Guard are pretty mediocre when it comes to base stats. That should not change. The key isn’t to make the unit super strong with stats, but make them relevant enough that good tactics and army buffs make them a threat. They need to stay kind of bad on their own, but they also need to stay cheap. The normal guardsman should probably cost 4-5 pts. Not more.
However you then come to the issue of specials and heavy weapons. Guard squads should have these in them, as a core part of the unit. However in 9th these single model in a unit kind of upgrades have become far less relevant. With most armies fielding whole units of heavy or specials weapons, single ones with bad BS don’t matter much. It’s even worse when it’s on unit that dies when just about anything give it a bad glance. People just aren’t paying 20 pts for a gun, that might, if they are lucky, get off one shot with a 50% chance of hitting. It’s not a good investment. As a result you normally see Infantry Squads being run naked – lasguns only. That is, without any upgrades, just taken for cheap bodies to hold objectives. It’s a sad state for the Astra Militarum, who above all has seemingly endless infantry and weapons.
I think a way to fix this would be to give Infantry Squads weapons for free. What if you basic Infantry Squad just cost a flat 60 pts. This is more than it should, as being honest Guardsmen aren’t worth 6 pts a model in 9th. However lets also say for that 60pts you got you choice of any heavy and special weapon you wanted. One of each for free. This could give Infantry a pretty good discount on the weapons. It would also encourage players to actually take them, if they are free most units would include them. Overall this would push the army to better represent what it should be. It would also give infantry some free extra punch without breaking the bank.
Let us know how you would fix Infantry Squads, down in the comments!
