Imperial Guard Allies: My take

Hey all, Kevin here to talk about my oldest army spanning way back to the old times of 3rd Edition, Imperial Guard. Now as an old guard player the ability to use that army as allies makes me a happy camper as I still love to play them and never really get to use them that often. So with the chance at hand I would like to talk a little but about how I am using them as allies.

First of all let me say that my using them to unlock vendettas, melta vets, manticores, hydra's and other very common weapons in the IG arsenal is all fine. Yet I am an old guard player and we did not have as many toys in 3rd edition. So this is a list of what I would be using and how it makes an effective ally choice.

First of all I am known as a blob guard player. A couple units of melta vets in chimeras could be used effectively yet the real advantage lies in blob infantry platoon units. As allies they are not to be the main focus of the army and since we cannot spam other units as well a large 30-50 man blob unit of imperial guardsmen is a highly effective option I would like to promote. They can sit and camp in terrain on objectives and be a pain to push off of the said objective. They also make an excellent tar pit in case we need to hold an enemy back. With my unit of 30 guardsmen being able to take three autocannons and three plasma guns we have an excellent amount of S7 shooting to deal with light vehicles and heavy infantry as an effective fire base. With a platoon command squad nearby, as it cannot be actually inside of the unit, to issue orders this is one option I like a lot. Infantry blobs also unlock heavy weapons squads to be taken as part of the same FOC slot.

So who do we have as our mandatory HQ? Well since we are looking for an economic ally selection a platoon command squad really is not needed with one real infantry unit. It is also a huge points sink. A cheaper choice such as a lord commissar is an excellent choice. Since he will make the blob stubborn and have the ability to reroll leadership he makes a fine, cheap, HQ choice.

So we have our core ally units with the blob unit, heavy weapons teams, and the lord commissar. From here on out be a kid in the candy store as it is all gravy from here. With arguably the best arsenal of any codex out there almost no selection is a bad choice, except maybe scout sentinels.... yet as an old guard player I love me some Leman Russ'. A manticore or a hydra might make more sense but if you want something that is a lot of fun to play lets throw out the infamous Pask Punisher and add plasma cannon sponsons as well as camo netting. A AV 14/13/11 beast that can possibly get as good as a 2+ cover save if behind a bolstered ruin or in night fight this thing is always gets a evil chuckle from me every time I play it. Although it is an expensive 290 point option watch out as this thing can shred almost any infantry unit.

Elites you can play around with but for 65 points Marbo is a steal. He appears just like a death leaper and can drop a demo charge or assassinate anything you need to kill. He also makes a great line breaker unit as you can have him appear in your opponents deployment zone and hide all game.

For my ally guard I would also like to add in a Bane Wolf, of the of the hellhound family. An AV 12/12/10 fast chimera chassis vehicle with a 2+ poisoned ap-3 flamer template is nasty....Although I would add that the throwing ability of a normal hellhound may be more useful...All around an excellent choice in a game supposedly shifting to be infantry based....

So that is what I would take for my ally guard.....probably the best ally army in the game for now....more on this later....