Topic: 1000pt. plan

[TheForceIncarnate]

First let me say I'm very new to 40k and wargaming. I've been playing guard for the last couple of months with literally no success, utilising an immobile gunline strategy. I was getting torn apart by everyone, especially my mates tau. It was fairly disenchanting considering he's been playing for an even shorter time than me. So yesterday I finally won my first game, after experimenting with proxied sentinels and a basilisk.

Here is my new, more mobile 1000pt. list I intend to build and field. Critique welcome but be gentle.

Doctrines:
Deepstrike
Veterans
Iron Discipline
Close Order Drill

HQ: (181)

HQ Command        71pts.               
-JO
-Vet w/ CS
-Iron Discipline
-Missile Launcher

Anti-tank Squad   110pts.
-3 Lascannons

Troops: (447)

Platoon I

Platoon HQ        60pts.
-JO
-Iron Discipline
-Autocannon

Squad I             70pts.
-Heavy Bolter

Squad II            70pts.
-Heavy Bolter

-Squad III          70pts.
-Heavy Bolter

Armoured Fist     92pts.
-Autocannon
-Plasma Rifle
-Veteran Sgt.
-Bolt Pistol

Chimera              85pts.
-Multilaser
-HM Heavy Bolter

Elites: (165)

Veteran Squad I   100pts.
-7 Veterans
-1 Veteran Sgt.
-3 Plasma Rifle
-Bolter

Veteran Squad II  65pts.
-4 Veterans
-1 Veteran Sgt.
-2 Meltaguns

Heavy Support: (125)

Basilisk          125pts.
-Indirect Fire

Fast Attack: (80)

Sentinel          40pts.
-Heavy Flamer

Sentinel          40pts.
-Heavy Flamer


Total:            998pts.


The battle plan is to have the platoon, HQs and Basilisk (out of LOS) forming a fire base while the rest of the army strikes out towards the enemy.

The armoured fist will advance, trying to stay out of LOS of heavy weapons, and attempt to flank the enemy. I claimed victory last night using two heavy flamer sentinels and an armoured fist to flank in a 500pt. game).

The sentinels will deepstrike or advance normally depending on the situation and try to disrupt, assualt and generally kick up a ruckus.

The plasma veterans can choose to infiltrate, deepstrike or footslog as the situation demands. (Just as an aside: Can hardened veterans use nearby officers' leadership and hence benefit from iron discipline?)

The melta veterans will deepstrike behind the heaviest piece of armour on the field and hopefully bring it down. This has proved effective in the two games I have tried it, destroying a hammerhead in one game and disabling it in the next. (One of the melta gunners not only took down the hammerhead but stood his ground as the rest of the squad was cut down around him; then went on to take down a stealth suit as well. Suffice to say he has recieved the appropriate decorations)

And that about sums up the plan.

TheForceIncarnate

[Goodchild]

How good is Drop Troopers aye?
Used well, you can successfully eliminate all your mobility problems.
Good to see your looking at the Guard in different ways 


Now forgive me, for I must rant:

See, the problem I have when facing off against any decent Tau player (like my brother, for instance) is that they remember to move their skimmers every turn, thus reducing all potentially-penetrating hits to glancing hits. This means that risking a single deep-striking unit with meltas won't always work in your favour -and you will probably need to rely on it against the Tau.
Of course, this all depends on whether you are facing a Mechanized or 'static' Tau force, and whether your mate knows about the aforementioned strategy (DON'T TELL HIM lulz)

On the other hand, if you equipped EVERY inf squad with meltas and deep-striked them, then there would be plenty of S8 shots to go round! That is, after you've finished slaughtering his 'Warriors' in melee combat
And you wouldn't have to dedicate your whole army to this plan -that's the beauty of it. You could choose before the game what part of your army you would like to deep strike with, and what part you would like to hold back. (See: "How good is Drop Troopers aye?")

Excluding that, the other option I would consider is replacing the HBs with MLs. They seem to work well en masse against skimmers and can still be used on the Tau rank n' file. 

As a rule of thumb I tend to keep the lascannons on vehicles and MLs with the infantry. I am particularly fond of giving ML squads the 'Light Infantry' doctrine, as this allows me to place them better
That said, I have thought of giving a small Hardened Vets squad a lascannon, along with Light Inf or Jungle Fighters, simply to make use of their BS of 4


Also: The Basilisk is a good option.

Also: I just had a thought:

Have you considered giving it Improved Comms? <== This should help you get those reserves on when you need them and not BEFORE


Also: could you spare some points for a few power weapons -at just 5 points for your JOs -they're a steal!!

 
 
*PS I wrote all that in a bit of a hurry and am clearly on some kind of drug (could you tell by my incessant BLINKING? ). Please ask me if you would like me to explain myself further or clear some things up*

Incessant blinking removed. Please exercise more restraint with smileys. -Pax