Warhammer 40K: Squats Return Before Imperial Guard Get a Good Codex!
Once again the Astra Militarum get the short end of the stick. Let me count the ways.
Last week GW dropped a bombshell. Squats, Aka the Leagues of Votann are coming back. This is all well and good for the Stunties, but it does mean some other armies are seemingly getting pushed to the backburner. Lets take a look.
An Army In Trouble
Let’s be frank here. The Astra Militarum are not in a good place. They haven’t been for a long while. Guard did not do well in 8th Edition. They got an early Codex with some promise, but it never really panned out for them. In the meta Guard armies simply didn’t perform well for the bulk of the edition. A few early builds that showed some promise, either using conscripts or lots of morters got nerfed out. The rest of the army never really preformed well in modern 40K on its own.
That being said, Guard did show up on a lot of tables. Not as their own force but as a supporting force. For a time the Loyal 32 were a nearly must take for a lot of players. Guard also saw a lot of action in larger forces supporting Knights. They had a niche where Guard units could be good, but the Guard as an army were not.
9th Edition Blues
A new edition brought new hope. At the start of 9th I wrote that it looked like Guard should be posed to have their big day. That never happened. Instead Guard, who by all rights, should be doing well in an edition that favors a lot of things they are good at, suck. Running an old outdated book the Astra Milaitrum have sunk to one of the worst armies in the game right now. Core changes also mean that even their usefulness as allies is gone. After all, why would you take Guard when it takes 100 infantry to wipe out a single Marine squad?
At this point the real hope for the army is a new codex. And we knew it had to be coming soon. Almost every codex has either been updated or announced. Guard are one of the few that haven’t been. Indeed they are more or less the only one that hasn’t even been hinted at. So of course loyal Imperial Guard players have been waiting for an announcement. After all, there isn’t anything that could come out and get in the way of a new book.
They Really Went And Did It
They brought back freaking Squats! Sure Guard have an ancient book. They are next to unplayable in the competitive scene. They’ve got a massive line with some amazing new models waiting to be folded in. They’ve got a big fan base. They are a core part of the lore. So of course, instead of giving us the Guard book we need, GW brings back an army dead for 25 years. It makes sense of course, Squats will cause a stir. Guard wont. Guard aren’t sexy. Now, I don’t mind Squats coming back. But it sure does sting a bit to get news of a whole new army coming out, which will clearly push Guard further into 40k’s dark corner of neglect.
No Idea What To Do With Them
The truth is that GW doesn’t seem to know what to do with Imperial Guard. As an army they have fallen so far behind the power curve that they need a pretty major update. No one seems to know how to do that and make them interesting. It has after all been years since Astra Militarum have been good or interesting. I don’t know if GW got stuck trying to make Guard good, gave up and said “screw it lets makes Squats instead” but I like to think it happened that way.
In many ways its easier to bring in a whole new and interesting army that rework an old tired one. Rumors support this, saying that the design team seems at a loss for what to do with Guard. How do you make a Guardsman relevant in 9th Edition? Maybe we will find out down the line, until then players just have to solider on and hope for a good outcome.
Let us know if you thin Guard will ever be good, down in the comments.
