Episode 149: So You Want to Start an Army – Astra Militarum
This week is a bit of a three-fer; we started off with one of the armies we’ve put off in our “So You Want to Start an Army” series with the Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum, all with the help of Puck from the Renegade Open. Then we added in an interview with Puck and Dave about this year’s Renegade Open, with registration now open for that event. And then… GW dropped a massive bomb on us by finalizing the rumors and hints that had been bubbling up – a new edition of 40K is coming soon. We dig into that (with Dave as our 5th chair), and then continue with the mission as planned! All that, plus Midwest Conquest updates, hobby progress, and of course, your listener mail!
00:00:00 – Cold Open
00:00:43 – Intro
00:01:47 – News and Releases
00:45:11 – Listener Mail
01:59:41 – Sponsor: KR Multicase
02:00:47 – Interview: Puck and Dave from the Renegade Open
02:27:07 – Sponsor: GameMat.eu
02:28:12 – Main Topic: So You Want to Start an Army: Astra Militarum
03:25:06 – Hobby Progress
03:42:16 – Outro
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:45:21 — 154.9MB) | Embed
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Link: Midwest Conquest 2017
Link: UnderCon 2017
Link: The Renegade Open 2017
Sponsor: KR Multicase
Sponsor: GameMat.eu
Theme: Metal Slug 2: Super Vehicle-001/II ‘No Need to Reload’ by RoeTaKa, courtesy of OCRemix.
4 Replies to “Episode 149: So You Want to Start an Army – Astra Militarum”
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I wanted to touch on the Militarum Tempestus segment, as I felt it was rather lacking.
MT and AM have some key things to keep in mind:
MT and AM Orders do not work cross codex, you can’t have a MT Command Squad order a Blobsmen Squad and likewise can’t have your Company Command Squad issue Ignore Cover or Tankhunters to your Melta Scions.
MT Orders typically bestow a USR on a squad:
Twin-Link all weapons
Preferred Enemies (All)
Crusader
All Hotshot Lasguns and Hotshot Laspistols gain Sniper and Pinning, but only fire a single shot, the squad additionally cannot charge.
Fleet
Against Monstrous Creatures or Vehicles, gain Rending
Rules as Written, MT Commissars cannot execute AM models and his 6″ Leadership bubble only targets Codex: Militarum Tempestus models, however he maintains Stubborn and is an Independent Character. This means he’s not as good at morale, but is harder to snipe out compared to AM Commissars and can more freely move squad to squad. MT Lord Commissars are strictly inferior to AM Commissars, and should not be taken in my opinion given the option. No access to Relics, weaker upgrades, his morale boost is more efficient as a Guard unit over Tempestus.
HOWEVER: Because a mixed unit counts as all it’s factions you can take a 25-point MT Commissar, put it in something like a Devastator Marine Squad with Lascannons, and then Order it from your Command Squad to benefit from the USRs. AM can technically do this too, but basic commissars are not IC, so they can’t leave their squad. You’d have to do this with Lord Commissars at 65 pts minimum.
The Command Squad can order itself! I don’t think this was mentioned but it’s amazingly powerful. 4 Plasma Guns and a Krak Grenade from the Tempestus Prime with Preferred Enemies is *terrifying*. I think I remember reading somewhere that Preferred Enemies is almost always better than Twinlinking (Pretty much only when targetting vehicles is when you want Twinlink.)
The Taurox (not prime) is not a fast Vehicle, I think that was said in the interview and wanted to point out that only the Taurox Prime is Fast and BS4, the Taurox is no more mobile than the Chimera and is also BS3.
Something I’ve been doing for my ITC league is a Blob of Guardsmen, a Blob of Conscripts, and two separate Hellrain Brigades; stashing the Commissar in the back of the blobs. I then get all the respawns I could want, ’cause of how hard the commissars are going to be to take out. This usually takes the form of 5 man squads with 2 Melta guns.
I *loved* this episode though, I don’t want you guys to think otherwise! I just wanted to expand on the section that Puck admitted he wasn’t as familiar with.
Hey William!
Thanks for your comments. Yes, the Militarum Tempestus is definetly a weak spot in my IG knowledge. But I am working on that … they are allied to my Baronial Court at the moment.
~ Puck
And thank you for that tip about the Forge World artillery crew! I didn’t even know that was a thing.
And a delightful thing it is…
Also I have no idea why I thought your name was Puck. Maybe too much DotA?
Eh, I don’t know how you can make the claim that the ‘tournament scene’ has been keeping 40k alive. If anything I think 40k has survived, despite, the tournament scene… the style of disgusting play and list-building, seen at the LVO for example, has driven many folks far far away from 40k.
Don’t sleep on Pinning either, it’ll keep units from firing Overwatch and let you assault them in terrain without an initiative penalty (not that AM are assaulting all that much, but against Tau… …).
Anyway pretty good segment on Guard. I would’ve liked to hear more fluff, but I don’t really know jack about IG so this was all very informative and helpful. I always thought an Inquisition plus IG force would be really fun to play from a thematic perspective but perhaps I’ll wait to see how things shake out in 8th.
Building, painting and then transporting, unpacking, moving and firing that many models is an obstacle that all ‘hoard’ armies face (I know from nids) and that’s pretty much what has kept me from IG in the past. I wish there was a true “combat patrol” style skirmish bigger than Kill Team / Shadow War but smaller than 40k that would be a good entry for these sorts of armies.
Do you have any links/tutorials to what you did with the Pringles/etc cans for terrain? I’ve collected several myself in anticipation for Shadow Wars.
Thanks for what you guys do.