Astra Militarum: Armored Company Rides Again!

One of the coolest things about the new Imperial Guard codex is the Tank Commander HQ choice. Well, at least for me it's one of the coolest things (yes, me tread head). Essentially, you get to field a Tank Commander to lead an armored company in 40k games. While you still need to take compulsory Troops choices, it's no big deal for me as my armored company always has a couple of grizzled veteran panzergrenadier squads to provide infantry support.

The current list for my 4th Company is:

HQ:
Tank Commander in a Leman Russ Vanquisher, with another Vanquisher and an Exterminator in his Command Squadron

TROOPS:
Two Veteran Squads in Chimerae

HEAVY SUPPORT:
An Assault Tank Squadron with a Leman Russ Executioner, a Demolisher and a Punisher
A Tank Squadron with 3 plain Jane Leman Russ
A Flak Battery of 1 Hydra

One of the guys (Joe of DOOOOOOM) suggested I put in 1 Vendetta for air support, and I do have a list that has that, but I really want 9 Leman Russes in an 1850pt list. I'm guessing the armored company would probably suffer against AirCav, FMC or other massive flyer lists, but overall it should be fun.

I've had 2 games with this army so far. The first was against Aiman's Chaos FMC list. I barely won that one, but I discovered later that I was playing it wrong (the current Hydra does not ignore jink saves anymore), so I probably would have lost that one horribly. The second was against Dann's Deldar. That was a pretty close game, and the only reason why I won was because the game ended just as my infantry occupied both objectives.

Anyways, armored company is fun, and the low model count makes for less headache (more on that below) when playing multiple games in a row. At any rate, it also made me realize that my Leman Russ and IG armor collection is in need of some love. Some of the models have been in action since 2000, and there are lots of paint chips, broken bits, missing bits, etc. Also, the last few Leman Russes have had less than standard numbering on them. I've decided to stick to 4th Company and have already ordered new decals for the tanks. So hopefully the armored company will get a much-needed facelift in the next month or so.

I also used my updated standard infantry IG list last Friday. Throughout playing IG since 2000, I've kind of maintained a core "standard" list for my footsloggers. It's based on a couple of principles - lots of infantry (at least 100), highly mobile (only 1 static unit, the lascannon platoon), assault-oriented and no ab-humans.

But this new codex has actually changed the standard more than any of the previous editions. For the first time I'm using psykers (divination for IG is way too tempting), as well as conscripts (needed to maintain the 100-body count somehow - attrition has finally made a mark on the Brandenbergers I guess).

So it is that 105 Guardsmen, 2 psykers, 3 priests, 4 Leman Russ and 2 Vendetta took to the field. It is simply awesome! With a sea of fearless troopers barreling forward, supported by huge amounts of firepower spitting death over their heads into the enemy lines, while overhead heavily-armed gunships provide close air support.

Of course, the classic drawback of the list is also the very same reason why I like it - lots of infantry! I tried playing a second game with it right after finishing one game, but after a couple of turns it got a bit tiring (yes 'ead 'urts). Anyways, I'll be using this list more often in the future and I'm going to build on that stamina to put in multiple games in a row, like in a tournament. Three games in a row sounds daunting. Then again, I can just deploy, move, shoot, and charge. Don't think too much!

Keep them dice rolling dudes!