The Battle Barn

Gentlemen,

I'm building up my first real guard army centered around 4 units of veterans (Two x3 Melta & 2 x3 Plasmas) two of whom ride in Vendettas and two going in Chimeras. Everything else is kind of flexible but I already bought the stupid expensive Forge World hostile environment torsos and meltas/plasmas and I'm going to use them by god.

So here's my list. It's only been played once and it got eaten by tyranids because I got a wee bit overzealous with the scout moves and well...

Feedback por favor!

HQ:
Company Command Squad (5) Power Fist, Meltagun, Chimera - 160

Troops:
Veterans (10) Power Weapon, Meltagun x3 - 100
Veterans (10) Meltagun x3, Chimera - 155
Veterans (10) Plasma Gun x3, Grenadiers, Chimera - 200
Veterans (10) Plasma Gun x3, Grenadiers, Bastone - 215

Heavy Support:
Leman Russ Executioner (1) Plasma Cannons - 230
Leman Russ Exterminator (1) Heavy Bolters - 170
Collossus (1) - 140

Fast Attack:
Vendetta (1) - 130
Vendetta (1) - 130
Sentinels (3) Autocannons - 120

They may have been eaten, but hey, at the very least all that plasma gave my termagants some serious indigestion afterwards. =]

That is a really, really close range guard army. In my experience guard should not be close range unless they have a ton of shots. With that said about how big of an army do you plan on making? That would help in knowing what you will probably need.

Needs more deathstrikes!

As a Warboss who loses to a IG vet army on a weekly basis i can only tell you what i dislike seeing the most. Throw dat big boom demo charge on those vets and get yourself some of them dakka-dakka Hydra's. Them dakka-dakka Hydra's are a great buy to, they hardly cost any teeth. We boyz mostly dont care about them big tankz they cost lost of teeth for what they do. Oh yeh them Psyker battle squads basicly cheat and make all me boyz run. Oh yeh get that silly Power Klaw off your Bossman. A str6 Klaw isn't going to do your meat bags much good and the points could be used for more dakka.

WAAAAGH

Translation:

Buy some hydras. Be warned - they are cheap on points, but hurt the wallet badly.
Use demo charges on the vets. I dunno if 120 points for 4 demo charges would be worth it, but having two in your army would be handy (I'd say one in a melta squad and another in a plasma squad).
Also the power fist is a dumb option. Yeah it's strength 6, but it goes last (doesn't matter too much for guard) and that 5 points can probably be used elsewhere for a nice bonus.

My advice is possibly get the regimental advisors and use all 3. If you don't want to use all 3 then definitely at least use the astropath and the officer of the fleet. The OttF is a pain for armies like daemons and blood angels (even with DoA) and the astropath is a great option since it looks like a third of your army can out flank. Coming in on turn 2 on a 3 and being able to re-roll what side the sentinels and vendettas come in on is very, very handy.

A few other side notes.

Flesh out your artillery squadron. More big guns are needed in this list. Yeah it's supposed to be a fast hitting list, but artillery support is always handy. Also you should possibly get a stock leman russ as well. Then squadron those Russes if you are going to buy hydras. Yeah your fire is really diversified then, but it's good for wound allocation against that squadron.

Another note is double check the points on your Leman Russ Exterminator. Last I checked it costs only 145 points base and those heavy bolters only cost 20 points. So unless my memory is bad you're cheating yourself 5 points from that tank and another 5 points from that power fist. Which could either be another power weapon, two voxes (damn handy if your guys are busting tanks and are close to the CCS for orders), some melta bombs, or hell even a heavy stubber on a vehicle for extra shots on the move.

Hikaru is correct 120 points for dem big demo bombs is alot. But ya gota remember all them little squishys now have bombs for close combat. Now all them Dread's the Mech boyz spent so much time working on have to fear charging them.

According to the dex an exterminator is 150, so 170 with the sponsors is accurate.

Heavy Support has definitely been my problem area with this army. I agree that its range is a problem, cc armies abound and I definitely need more boom boom at the far end of the range spectrum. Assuming I cut the Executioner and the power fist I've got 245 points to play with. I could swap the two grenadier slots for Demo at a wash too.

With that 245 you guys suggest Hydras, a stock leman, and more artillery?

How many points are you planning on playing with? 1500, 2000, 1850, 2500, etc.?

This list is 1750. I'll probably wind up at 2000 eventually.