Editing Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Death Korps of Krieg(8E) (section)

==Why Play the Death Korps of Krieg==
If you love WWI and 40k, then you'll love the [[Death_Korps_of_Krieg|Death Korps of Krieg]]. They love trenches, attrition warfare, and everything that the Western Front had to offer. They don't waver when their mates drop dead, in fact, they get happier. Collectively, they want to martyr themselves as a messed up way of saying "sorry" to [[God-Emperor_of_Mankind|The Emperor]]. All in all, they are badasses who shell their enemies into a pulp, then mow down the survivors with hordes of infantry and armour.

On the tabletop, the Death Korps can be played like a normal Imperial Guard army, just with a few unit restrictions, an immunity to casualties taken in the shooting phase, and are strong in close quarters, be that melee, or short-range gunfights (admittedly at a small points cost increase).

===Pros===
*Versatile and strong vehicles.
*Sgts who can actually take lasguns AND have BS3+ - apparently the DKOK are ''more reasonable'' than every other regiment (although odds are you still probably want the chainsword as well)
*You have numerous advantages over standard IG - infantry that are immune to morale tests caused by shooting (which is especially useful in a shooty meta) and have WS3+, which means you are almost impossible to budge off objectives. You also have access to unique units like Combat Engineers, Grenadiers, Deathriders, and various flavors of artillery. 
*DKOK Field Officers are the cheapest HQ choice available to IG, bar none, and unlike normal JO's they don't consume a valuable Elites slot. 
*Deathriders are possibly the ''best'' assault unit available to IG, short of Bullgryns, and put Rough Riders to shame. Hell, they put even ''Death Company'' to shame. 
*Although legit models cost an arm and a leg recast DKOK are very easy to find online (and amusingly are sometimes higher quality casts than Forgeworld, with less bubbles, warping, flash, etc. YMMV). Thanks China.
*DKOK make excellent visual stand-ins for Armageddon Steel Legion, or vice-versa. Which is great because one of your only sources of re-rolling 1's is Yarrick. 
*Hordes of infantry that can be buffed with force multipliers such as Commissars, Astropaths, Priests, and all Commanders.
*Dirt cheap troops means you can laugh off the loss of cheap guardsmen whereas an elite army cannot.
*The removal of platoons means you can get rid of some minor taxes. A little bit of points go a long way.
*Laughably easy to amass command points in a brigade detachment or multiple battalions due to dirt cheap units.
*The new Strength/Toughness and AP mechanics tend to favor hordes, as does the removal of templates. Your opponent won't get more than 6 hits from a flamer or heavy flamer, you actually get a save against both, and that heavy flamer only wounds your boys on 3s.
*You're the best ally army in the Imperium, bar none. It doesn't matter if you're bringing Space Marines, Sisters, AdMech, or [[Brood Brothers|Genestealers]]: you open more doors for more armies than any other army in the game, whether with long-ranged fire support, cheap bodies, or badass flyers.
*Let's state the obvious: Guard is by far one of the strongest armies in the game right now, right up there with Marines, Tyranids, and Death Guard. All those Eldar, Tau, and Necron players who cheesed their way through easy victories with Decurion detachments, Wraithknight spam, and markerlights are crying crocodile tears about how tricky Guard is to counter this edition. You're not invincible, but you are ''very'' point-efficient, and have probably the highest heavy-and-special weapon density in the game; there is almost no unnecessary purchase between you and your big killy guns.
* You have arguably one of the best looking armies in the game, and with awesome fluff to go with it.

===Cons===
*Overall flimsy infantry. What you have in numbers you do not have in resilience; your most common model statline is toughness 3 with a 5+ save. Still some of the toughest models point-for-point, but it practically forces you to buy in bulk.
*DKOK lose access to FRFSRF and Take-Aim, arguably the most useful orders available to IG, and their replacements (Duty unto Death, Without Mercy) are seriously underwhelming. 
*Your standard infantry are slightly more expensive than vanilla IG, and can't take heavy weapons. Granted, you can still bring 100 models for only 500 pts. Amusingly the implication seems to be that the DKOK's lives are actually valued just a little bit ''more'' than a standard Guardsman. 
*Comparatively weak in assault. S3 with 1 attack each is not doing you any favor, even though you hit on 3+. Close combat can still work, but shooting is preferable. Our Infantry squads are still better in assault than Battle Sisters, Guardians Defenders, Termagants or even Tactical Marines point for point. That's before Priests, Fix Bayonets, and regimental standard shenanigans. But squads caught in melee alone will fail anyway because...
*Individual units are weak without support from characters and other squads. Synergy is key. 
*Anti-infantry weapons will destroy your hordes in short order.
*Anti-tank weapons will destroy your tanks in short order.
**Now stop and think about those above three points. Together, they constitute a major challenge when understood in tandem. Enemies can reap bounteous rewards through good target selection against the IG, and it can be tricky to find ways to deny their efforts. Take a typical mixed-unit army, some infantry and some tanks. There will be times when the enemy can pull off a highly effective attack, pointing their dakka at your infantry and their blasta at your tanks. Some units may have to be sacrificed to an effective enemy - let's say a unit of Centaurs against enemy melta fire - if it means guarding a more important yet similarly vulnerable target - your Leman Russes - until you can wheel a more effective counter unit into place - disposable infantry squads. You can only anticipate so much! The standard wisdom when designing an army is to aim for a uniform defensive approach between units, to prevent easy target practice for the enemy. But the IG are very dependent on synergy, so taking an all-infantry or all tank army is also quite risky! Whether it's a mixed army that demands carefully positioning and tough sacrifices, all-infantry that runs the risk of weak output or all-tank brigades that struggle to shoot fast enough, you've always got a catch when constructing your wall of shooty death.
*Playing Imperial Guard can be tedious. Whether its literally counting out ''hundreds'' of dice for shooting (bring bags, and expect to lose some) or spending more than half an hour just deploying your army (movement trays, learn to love them). Fortunately your turns will go by faster once you start piling up casualties.
*Although your units are cheap in points, they're not that cheap in cash, ''especially'' since the Death Korps are a [[Forge_World|Forge World]] exclusive army..
*You're not GW's [[Space Marines|favorite children]], so not only are new models for your army very rare, but your infantry models are mostly outdated as fuck and are rarely in stock. Just thank the Emperor that you don't have to buy pewter models for everything like Sisters players do. (PLASTIC SISTERS COMING OUT B*TCH! YEEAAHH!)
*Unless you keep everything in transports or a tank squad list (and maybe if you're playing against Orks), you're less likely to get the first turn by getting all of your units deployed first since during the roll-off the player who finished deploying first gets +1 to their roll (this is assuming you're using the new deployment method outlined in the Chapter Approved book and confirmed by GW, if you're using the old one you will rarely go first). Plan your strategy accordingly. Of course, you can get away with going tank and transport heavy better than most armies can.
*A fair few Forge World options have been removed from the site, so you'll need to either kitbash, or do some lurking online for them.
*You have to be a drug dealer, organ harvester and a prostitute at the same time if you want to afford an army.