5 Things to Know About: Mech Guard

In this post, I present the first in what will become a series of brief articles on the very basics of certain units, styles or strategies. For the first, Mechanised Guard:

1) Cover Your Flank: Despite better front armour than many transports, Chimeras only have AV10 to the side and rear. What this means is you should be doing your best to keep them out of assault, and try and keep the flanks covered, or they are going down fast. If you can do so, try and block Line Of Sight with some to others, so that the minimum side armour is showing.

2) Plasma or Melta: This debate is at the heart of mech lists, as plasma weapons have the advantage of longer range (so less chance of being caught in Close Combat) and more shots when they do get close, and they are better on overwatch. However, they can harm the guardsmen and lose firepower fast with some unlucky rolls, so some do not like relying on them (personally I find them fine, and the Grenadiers upgrade can prevent some damage). Melta, on the other hand, is devastating at short range, but you are really putting yourself at risk of being charged. You'll have to experiment to find your own preferred ratio, but I like plasma:melta 2:1 most of the time.

3) Mechvets Are Defensive: Despite their considerable firepower, mechvets are far better as a rapid-reaction force than an aggressive force, as they are great on overwatch (fire normally, Overwatch for vehicle, disembark when destroyed, fire normally, overwatch again) and their mobility allows you to react to incoming threats and pick your targets.

4) Specialisation is Key: Specialisation is essential for mech lists, as your limited model-count means you need each unit to focus on one thing and do that. A punisher should take Heavy Bolter sponsons, for more anti-horde, while a Vanquisher should take Plasma Cannon/Multi-Melta sponsons for more Anti-Tank. The same goes for Special Weapons in vet squads, and anything else. Making a unit for every occasion is making a unit waste half its firepower regardless of the target.

5) Play the Mission: At the end of the day, your immense firepower is wasted unless you can win on objectives, so in the final turns you should be doing everything you can to take objectives, including sacrificing firepower. For example, on Turn 5, you can disembark onto an objective, and then move the chimera to block LOS to them. This will probably lose the chimera, but might win the mission.

All these articles will be uploaded in the 'tactics' section of the site for future reference.