Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Imperial Guard (section)

=====Xenos=====
*'''Craftworld Eldar:''' The pointy-eared bastards used to be a thorn in our side with Wraithlords and Wraithknights that we could not damage, Wave Serpent Spam, and Scatter laser Jetbikes that could instantly wipe a maxed out horde of combined squads or conscripts in editions past. Now, they're a thorn in our side because we can't even hit the bastards with the stacking of negative to-hit modifiers. At the Guard's near- universal BS4+, all they have to do is stack 3 modifiers (a point fairly easily reached on several Eldar units) and [[Rage|your shooting attacks will automatically miss]]. Take a Hell Hound or three, and a Valkyrie shoved full of either flamer special weapon squads, an equally kitted out squad of Tempestus Scions or Krieg HWTs with Heavy Flamers to circumvent the modifiers (Alaitoc's modifier only works over 12") and nuke the squishy T3 bastards. Here are some Aspect Warriors that can also give us trouble; Howling Banshees, when spammed, are also ideal at taking out our units since they can reliably wound us on 4+, and CANCEL OUT OVERWATCH. Shining Spears are speedy bastards that mulch our infantry with their 4 Shuriken Catapult shots and their Star Lances. Swooping Hawks can delete entire hordes of guardsmen by deep-striking in and dumping 40 lasblaster shots at them, plus they can deal mortal wounds whenever they arrive from reserve or move over your units. Striking Scorpions also like to attack from reserve and are a bit hardier than the average Eldar unit with their 3+ saves, and they specialize in taking out cover-camping units by having +1 to hit against enemies in cover. The technically weakest Aspect Warrior you'll face are the Dire Avengers with their 18" range Assault 2 Shuriken weapons. They're technically the weakest since they're all about ranged fire power but the DA only have a pitifully short 18" range. However, they have quality and quantity of shots on their side, plus their surprising speed with Battle Focus. It should also go without saying that Fire Dragons up close and Dark Reapers will do a number on your armor. Seriously, a unit of fire dragons with the right buffs (guide and Doom) stand a very good chance of seriously crippling or destroying a Baneblade in a single turn. Characters to beware of include any Autarch with a Banshee Mask that cancels overwatch, and any Eldar Psyker character. Take Sniper Rifles to eliminate their characters and just like you, their squishy units will become a lot less impressive without support.
*'''Dark Eldar:''' Covens no longer fuck us over 100% thanks to the "everything can wound anything" rule now. Notice "100%", since the bastards now get an invulnerable save making them tough on your lascannons, plasma guns, and anti-vehicle/monster weapons. Kabalites in Boats and Wyches with their insane close combat attacks are top notch against us. Flamers are, and always will be, your friend against these slippery fuckers, and be sure to bring some Hydras along to punish the fact that all their vehicles {{WH40kKeyword|FLY}}. Depending on the Kabal obsession, the infamous Agents of Vect stratagem has an 83% chance of denying a stratagem of the opponent's choice, costing you a key re-roll or a regimental-specific stratagem such as overlapping fields of fire. There's no way you can stop this, other than hoping the opponent lacks the 4cp necessary to pull it off or rolls a 1 (unless s/he elects to re-roll it and then blow 5cp like a dunce and have a 1/36 chance of getting another 1 anyway). Be warned, like the Imperium's Scions Dark Eldar are ''very'' adept at punishing careless plays since Dark Eldar like Nids were trash for so long that any long-term players tend to be tactical geniuses.
*'''Harlequins:''' Well, these guys are just bad news. With flip belts that can launch these bastards over screening units and terrain in the movement phase, Genestealer-level close combat attacks, -1 to hit modifiers, 4+ Invulnerable saves, and access to a multitude of leadership debuffs, you're in for a tough fight. Again, bring flamers, auto-hitting weapons and lots of screening units spread out so they have no space to finish their moves over them. Since these guys like to drive around in Venoms, an absolutely filthy tactic would be to surround the vehicles with Infantry Squads or Conscripts in a 1.5-2" range (can't go within 1" in the movement phase), and shoot your flamers and other weapons into them. If you destroy the transport, the clowns inside have no room to disembark within 3" of the craft and stay more than an inch away from your models and instantly die, even if that squad has a stupid Faolchu's Talon relic. A unit to watch out for is the Death Jester. He can snipe characters with his Shrieker Cannon, so either block LoS whenever you can or get an Ogryn Bodyguard/Nork Deddog to tank the hits for you.
*'''Ynnari:''' This eldar army will behave very largely the same as any one of the other elf armies mentioned previously, only with a particular predilection towards melee-focused lists. The good news is that their out-of-phase actions are a thing of the past, so you won't need to worry about double tapping Fire Dragons or Dark Reapers anymore. The bad news is that the melee potential of units like Wraithblades or Troupes is effectively maximized if they soulburst, meaning they will ''absolutely'' slaughter units whole-sale if they make it into combat. Bringing a decent degree of heavy armor is advised since outside the larger Wraith units, most of their piddly S3/4 melee attacks will just ping off without dealing much damage. Flamers are also a strong charge deterrent, but beware of units like Howling Banshees or Autarchs who can disable your overwatch. Focus on whittling them down at range wherever possible as well; outside allied detachments, Ynnari detachments don't have much incentive to natively invest heavily in dedicated gunline units due to the inherent lack of support available to them anymore. Just like when dealing with Craftworlders, key targets include any psykers or the Ynnari characters, as they provide a significant amount of support to their units (like healing/rezzing wounded/dead models, providing re-roll support, etc).
*'''Necrons:''' In a sentence, play for KEEPS. Reanimation Protocols doesn't trigger if the unit in question has been wiped out to the last man, so keep shooting until every last tin man is a pile of scrap. Don't fight in half-measures, or you're going to lose a lot of effectiveness. Versus vehicles, your meltas and lascannons are going to lose a lot of effectiveness when Quantum Shielding triggers - bypass it with Battle Cannons and Earthshakers, which roll D3 for damage instead. Defensively, Necrons have strong anti-tank but it has weak range (with a few exceptions), and besides their fliers they're relatively slow. Bring long ranged heavy guns and protect them so they can knock out the bigger problems on the board. Lastly, Powers of the C'tan ''HURT'' - and they're not psychic powers, so they can't be denied! Bring down any dead gods that happen to be around before they can be a serious threat to you. Walk through the shadow of the valley of death, but fear no evil, because you brought artillery.
*'''Orks:''' First, shake hands with your opponent and thank him for keeping this hobby fun. Then, crack open a beer. Finally, STAY OUT OF MELEE! Even your dedicated melee troops are going to struggle against the green tide - Mob Rule makes Ork mobs effectively immune to morale, and while they don't have good quality units, they do have a LOT of them. You may actually lose out on model count and board control, depending on what he brought. Orks depend on movement tricks in order to get close and bypass their shit movement of 5". Ther "Ere We Go USR allows them to re-roll either one or both dice for a charge roll allowing them to pull of charges from a surprisingly long distance. A stratagem to look out for is Unstoppable Green Tide, which lets an Ork player restore and outflank an Ork Boyz squad to its starting strength if it loses half or more of its starting number once a game. And unlike the Valhallan stratagem [[Rage|they get to do it without needing reinforcement points]]. Don't fight in half measures, fight in just-under-half measures or go for the wipe. Pick your objectives and play hard for them - don't spread yourself too thin. And then crack open another beer with the boyz. 
*'''Tau:''' Like Craftworld Eldar, these guys used to be a thorn in our side with markerlight spam that took away cover, Pulse Rifles that shredded our infantry from 30" away, and Riptide spam that made a mockery of our tanks. They too got hit with the nerf bat in the edition shake-up, but they still can put out a lot of hurt at range. The Bork'an sept will give you trouble since it adds 6" to the range of all rapid fire and heavy weapons in their army, meaning they can easily play keep-away while dumping shots into you. Their infantry are superior to yours, with 4+ armor and S5 guns that mercifully no longer wound on 2+ and ignore armor, but they can easily put out 3 shots a guy when within 15" (18" with Bork'an rifles) with an Ethereal and Fire Blade next to them. Handle that combo as you would any other aura-based list and either play keepaway and/or nuke them before they get to shoot. Another unit to watch out for are the Shield Drones and their ridiculous Savior Protocols which let them make a 4+ Look Out Sir to all battle suit units. Any T'au player worth their salt will spam them for that reason. This will have to force you to put any high-volume volleys of shots into those flying roombas before you point your Lascannons and other high-damage weaponry at the battle suits. If you can, a Psyker with the Nightshroud power will do you wonders since the T'au tend to have a mediocre ballistic skill value of 4+ without markerlights or Commander units. Also, remember to issue the order "Strike and Shroud" to any Leman Russ you can for that exact same reason. Finally, if you have Artillery you can one-up the T'au since most of their ranged weapons require LoS, so hiding your vehicles becomes EXTREMELY important.
*'''Tyranids:'''Once one of the crappiest armies in the game from 5th-7th edition, the Bugs got a massive boost in 8th Edition. One of the few armies in the game that can out-horde you, along with Orks and an Imperial Guard mirror match. Termagaunts can spam S4 shots like no tomorrow at range, and Hormagaunts while being only T3 have a 6" pile-in and consolidation move. Nidzilla is no longer the almost complete joke it once was, Hive Tyrants and Carnifexes now wreck face for their point costs. Now, let's get one thing straight, Genestealers are bad news, period. With enough attacks to literally clean that maxed out conscript squad in one fight phase, charging after advancing, and overrunning into your close-by squads, they're easily one of the few units that hard-counter Guard, even with the cheese we can bring. This just becomes ridiculous when you factor in how Genestealers can reach super-sonic speeds (Hive Fleet Kraken trait with the Opportunistic Advance Stratagem, Hive Commander ability from the swarmlord that lets them move again). They can also hide in reserve thanks to their infiltration nodes (but at least you get 1 turn to spread your stuff out to prevent over-runs due to the new FAQ on reserves). The best way to win against Tyranids? Take a dedicated close combat unit such as Crusaders or Bullgryns and hide them behind your squads until they've moved up into position. Another good suggestion: Hellhounds. The inferno cannon has EXACTLY the right statline to maximize effectiveness vs a genestealer (wounds on 3s and just enough AP to force that invuln save) and throws out enough hits to be a serious problem for them. Hit them again when they charge, then hit them ''again'' if they fail to kill you, because Hellhounds laugh at the wound table. And if they ''do'' kill you? Command re-roll your explode dice and take a few bugs with you. If you really feel up for the challenge, Catachans are S4 in melee. Combining Straken, a Priest, and the Emperor's Conclave specialist detachment will give your average guardsmen serious counter-charge potential. Or, since positioning requires brainpower you could just take the Valhallan doctrine and [[Skaven|shoot the bugs that are tied up with your conscripts in close combat.]] Side note target the things give  Trynaid-1 to hit first if possible. Simple put if will allow other guns be more account once they are removed. 
*'''Genestealer Cults:''' Positioning, positioning, positioning. These guys are always unpredictable. For one thing, these guys can bring a Guard detachment (and even without doing that, borrow a few Guard units), so don't be surprised to see Leman Russes and Chimeras. Even without that, these guys will obliterate any opening you leave in your backline, so screening units are a must. Kelermorphs are utterly fucking broken, especially against Guard characters in particular, needing only two or three unsaved wounds to kill most everyone outright, so you'll probably want to include an Ogryn Bodyguard or Nork Deddog in your list if you expect to see one. If you can position your characters to be more than 12" away from any potential deep strike zones while still giving your front line units their needed buffs, you'll be able to keep your officers safe-ish. You usually don't want to be in melee with these guys, but if you bring Bullgryns, you can make your opponent generally regret taking an ambush-themed army once you get those countercharges in. Expect to see more Achilles Ridgerunners now that they've been rebalanced, too. But if you really want to screw with your GSC-playing opponent, bring Scions in Valkyries as a Tempestus Drop Force and fly around the board with them, where you'll be relatively safe from just about everything your opponent is going to deep strike and generally immune to charges. Then, once they come in at the end of the third turn, disembark and shoot them down - they're only T3 like you are, for the most part.
{{Warhammer_40k_Tactics}}

[[Category:Imperial Guard]][[Category:Warhammer 40000 Tactics(8E)]]