Editing Last Stand - Lord General (section)

==Progression==
Only one thing can be said to surmise the Lord General's progression: ''"Stick with it; it gets better."''

Starting out, the Lord General is almost embarrassingly bad, and your ability to do much of anything in a fight is severely limited. Generally, your choices at the start of your career are limited to the Vostroyan Shotgun (if you have it), the Deadly Sniper Rifle, or the Inspiring Power Sword. Use any of these three at the start, and build yourself up as you go; this class doesn't even begin to get good until level 5, and with a staggered progression, you're likely to die frequently under the best of circumstances. Soldier on through the time of suck, however, and your patience will be quickly rewarded: Honorifica Imperialis and Refractor Field will help you survive substantially longer, the Medallion Crimson will boost your damage, and the first Turret Armor in the Master-Crafted Carapace Armor means you'll finally have something for the enemies to target that isn't you. Finally, when you hit level 5, you unlock Guardsmen, and for the first time, your build options open up.

At Level 5, you can finally start using your minions and wargear package items to their fullest. The DLC Ursidae Trophy really comes into its own here, since Sergeants won't be available for a while yet. Flamers are particularly nice at this phase of the game, though Bolters are good too, increasing your survivability and are a bit more reliable at whittling down medium-tier threats like Tyranid Warriors and Warp Spiders. For early-game setups, the Bolter Turret, plus Flamers or Bolters and Guardsmen, means a lot of dead mooks and can seriously help tip the tide in your team's favor, especially if they have decent gear themselves. You will, however, lack a suitable means to handle heavier threats for a bit yet, so be smart.

Level 6 through 8 brings in the Protective Sword - which isn't all that good yet - and the Artificer Carapace Armor, which means access to a Missile Turret. This turret doesn't suppress, but does much better damage, can damage vehicles and heavy armor, and has knockback, which makes it very handy when paired with your Guardsmen, especially if they're using Bolters. Soon after you'll get the Sergeant at level 9, which massively buffs your guardsman squad and should be used IMMEDIATELY, regardless of what your Guardsmen are packing. At level 7, you get Repair, but, as has been discussed earlier in this guide, it is not worth using and should be avoided.

Importantly, at level 10, you unlock Catachan Jungle Fighters. These are much stronger than Guardsmen at a glance, boasting better damage output, heightened damage in close-combat, and the ability to periodically chuck demo charges. Though Guardsmen are still highly useful at this phase, this represents another broadening of the Lord General's abilities, as Catachans offer you a way to take a weapon that doesn't have Wargear Package and for your minions to not suffer for the loss. This means you can finally once more take the Sniper Rifle, Shotgun, or one of the two Power Swords without hesitation, since the Catachans won't be hindered by the change in pace. The Heavy Bolter Turret works better at this stage in the game, due to the Catachans' tendency to throw explosives and the fact that literally all the non-wargear package weapons you can use are good against armor on some level or another (either having the Armor Piercing trait, high single-shot damage and the High-Powered Shot ability, or the Solid Slug ability).

With level 11 comes reinforce, and with it, another ability to ignore. Mordian armor comes next, at 12, and though its Plasma Turret seems like a simply grand idea, in practice it's not very good and should generally be avoided unless using it for very specific build loadouts. Level 13 brings you an awesome weapon, however, in the Grenade Launcher, and brings the Guardsmen once more up to the fore. Boasting long range, knockdown, and area-of-effect damage - plus a handy special ability - this upgrade makes Guardsmen much better than anything you've seen thus far - but Catachans remain incredibly handy, so you have legit choices at this stage in the game. The Commissar then comes in at 14, giving you the option of increasing the punch of the Catachans or Guardsmen even further, and giving new life to the flamer and bolter Guardsmen if you were a fan of those in the early game. The Tarantula Missile Turret comes into the fore once more, since now if you use those you can use the added anti-vehicle punch.

Level 15 offers another tactical option: the Ogrin. The fun continues in Sword of Power as you can equip special melee weapons. Team up with the Ogryns and use the Inspiration Sword for powerful attacks or the Shield Sword to avoid being surrounded. You can also buy a shotgun or sniper rifle to give O'Green another boost. Because it doesn't suffer from speed changes like Katakan, and it doesn't stop at anything if you don't like O'Gryn. . . Keep using the Katakana bodyguards as they are completely affected by the equipment you use.

Level 16 brings Armageddon-Pattern Armor and its Vanquisher Turret; if you weren't a fan with how chintzy the Missile Turret can be, you now have an option literally guaranteed to butt-fuck enemy heavy armor, though it weakens your own defenses as part of the bargain, so it comes with drawbacks. Level 17 brings Take Aim!, which lets you buff any of your squads - the benefits of buffing a Grenade Launcher, Ogryn, or Catachan squad is obvious, but the benefits of buffing an allied player or yourself can be even more dramatic. By now, you have choices galore, and this class is starting to become immensely fun to use, as you can see.

Level 18 brings you the final Guardsman weapon in the Plasma Gun. It's not all that great in a vaccuum; its damage is mediocre and it's out-performed by other weapons against lighter armor - but it is easily buffed to hilarious levels by the Commissar, Medallion Crimson, and Take Aim! ability, making it a great choice for this stage in the game and one of the only dedicated anti-armor builds you can field. Here, the Bolter Turret once more shines, since it's the best anti-infantry turret and it holds lower-priority threats in place for you to cut down piecemeal.

Level 19 brings you Rocket Run - your own personal nuke strike. It costs all your energy and takes a very contended-for accessory slot, but the prospect of one-shotting the Wave 16 Bloodied Coliseum heroes makes it worth the price of admission. It's also great for making giant packs of enemies not exist, which is also nice, but - again - its monstrous energy costs hinder how useful this could be.

With level 20, you have Stormtroopers, and with this, your choices have fully expanded, since their presence means lowered costs for what you use. You can now run a build focusing on High-cost nukes like Rocket Run, any of the Guardsman builds, Catachan builds, or Ogryn builds, and have your choice of turret or defensive options. At this point, finally, you have the ability to dick around with this class to its truest potential, and see what this class can really do.