Warhammer 40K: Are Astra Miltarium Good Now?
Let’s take a look at the newly buff(ed) Imperial Guard. Post-balance datasheet, do they pass inspection?
The latest balance Dataslate has done a lot to buff Guard. It’s a step in the right direction, but does it make them good? Let’s take a look.
Infantry Points
The first change I’d like to talk about is the change to points in Infantry Squads. This was actually a change I’ve suggested before, and set the unit at a flat cost of 60 pts. All upgrades are now free. On the one hand, it means your cheapest unit, taking the Squad with no upgrades, is gone. On the whole if you are trying to spam mass infantry, that’s going to be as good anymore. On the other hand is does mean upgraded infantry units are cheaper and better. Rather than the Infantry squad being a cheap throw away unit, they will now pretty much always contain a heavy and special weapon, and maybe other upgrades. In the normal course of things having a lot more Lascannons, Plasmaguns and melta guns in your army would make it better.
Hammer of The Emperor
Lets talk about the big change here: Hammer of The Emperor. This is in effect a super-doctrine for Guard. It means that if your whole army comes from the same Regiment that any time a Regiment unit (i.e. not auxiliary, advisors or Scions) makes a ranged attack – a 6 to hit auto-wounds.
This is without a doubt a large buff. It might even be the single most powerful doctrine in the game right now. Given the volume of fire some Guard units put out. For instance a single Infantry squads using lasguns and First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire! against a Marine unit would currently deal 6 wounds (pre saves) to a MEQ units. With the new rules the same unit does 10 wounds, a significant increase. Against a Knight that same Infantry Squad would have done a mere 3 wounds, but will now do 8, more than double the previous amount.
The Best Anti Tank Units?
Arguably this now makes the humble Guardswoman with their Lasgun one of the most points effective anti-tank units in the game. A single Guardsmen getting off 4 Lasgun shots (with FRF!SRF!) has a better chance of wounding (pre-armor save) a Knight than a Marine with a Lascannon does. Guard Lasguns, as we can see above, are almost as effective at killing Knights as they are at killing Marines.
One downside of this is that it kind of undermines the new free weapons upgrades as being a buff. Given the rate of fire of a Lasgun you might be forgiven for wanting more of them at cheaper prices, over heavy and special weapons.
It’s Bad For The Army
The truth is, while this is certainly a buff for the army, I don’t think it was the way to fix Guard. The Astra Militarium have always been an army that relied on weight of fire. This however really pushes it over the top – to maybe an over-reliance. Hammer of the Empire may mean that Guard are now going to prioritize more shots over anything else. It was already kind of trending that way, but its a little sad if you start not wanting to take better, but slower firing weapons. I think basing a whole army around fishing for 6s is kind of boring myself.
Better, But Not There Yet
Overall I think the two changes we’ve discussed, as well as the other changes in the Dataslate do make Guard better. If you wanted to try to run them competitively I wouldn’t think you were quite the glutten for punishment I would have a couple weeks ago (said by someone who has run Guard competitively). On the other hand I don’t think I’m quite ready to say they are good yet. While we need some event data to prove if these changed fixed them, I don’t think they really got to the core issues. Guard remain a fragile army, that is fundamentally playing an older version of 40K. I’m not sure saying “they do 10% more wounds” is quite the perfect fix.
Let us know if you think Guard are good now, down in the comments!
