Warhammer 40K: Well If GW Is Going To Take My Advice, Here’s How To Fix Guard

Here are a few ways I think GW can fix the Astra Militarum. 40K needs the Armored Fist of the Emperor back on the tabletop!

Everyone knows that Astra Militarum, the Imperial Guard to us old timers, are in trouble. I’ve written about it a few times. GW has buffed them twice now in Balance Dataslates. This is all to the good I think. Interestingly, to toot my own horn here, it appears as if in the latest Dataslate GW has taken some of my advice. A while back I wrote that Infantry Squads should cost a base of 60 pts and get free weapon upgrades. GW has done exactly that now, taking my advice and putting it into action.

Now obviously I can’t know for sure they took my advice in particular. They might well have come up with the idea on there own (it is not after all horribly original). Either way, its cool to see something I suggested put into action. So if by any chance they are listening to your humble servant, here are four more ideas they (you) can feel free to steal.

4. Bring Back Platoons

First off, lets 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 only 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 large beefy formation, as they should be. I think there are some really cool things GW could do with platoons.

3. Reward Formations

Another thing I think that would be good for Guard, is to somehow reward fighting in formation. This ties in with some of what I said above in platoons. It’s not a super new idea either. Back in the day Guard had rules for it, like Close Order Drill. In WFB The Empire had the detachment rules that rewarded formations. Even modern GSC has rules that reward specific positioning. I think some rules that rewarded this would make sense and be good for the army.

2. Make Combined Arms

I’m not 100% sure how you would do this, but I think some rules that benefited combined arms would be cool. In real-life battles it’s common to see tanks and infantry working together. The two types of troops complement and assist each other. In 40K this isn’t really true.  They normally tend to just exist in parallel, but not actively buff each other. I think it could be cool to see some rules benefiting using infantry and tanks together.

Oh, you wanted examples? Maybe a rule granting Infantry Squads +1 LD if they are within 6″ of a Leman Russ. This would represent the Infantry being cheered by having tanks nearby. Maybe a rule letting Leman Russ tanks ignore cover when targeting units within 6″ of an infantry squad. This could represent infantry acting as spotters or flushing enemies out of cover for the tanks. This is another idea I think that could set the army apart – and represent their regimented training.

1. For God’s Sake Add In Lascarbines

I’ve already talked about how Lascarbines, as shown off in the Gaunt’s Ghosts unit might be a thing in a new IG book. I’d really like to see this be a thing in the new book. As well as just adding carbines I’d like some changes, as I discussed, made to las-guns as well. I think this could really shake things up. On a personal note Lascarbines are something I added to the BoLS Macharian Crusade play aid we put out some 10+ years ago, back in the early days of the site. Having them make it into the core Codex would be pretty cool on a personal level.

Let us know what you’d do to fix the army, down in the comments!

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.