Source of all pics in this post

Yesterday I did an analysis on the Necrons in 10th Edition. Now to do the same for Imperial Guard... excuse me... they are called the Astra Militarum now.

So if this is the first time that you are joining me, this is Warhammer 40,000 the tabletop game. In the link above it takes you to a preview of what the Astra Mili-whatsits are going to look like in 10th edition.

But I cover these previews with my own analysis of the rules what I think of them.

So the Astra Militarum. Who are they? In a nutshell they are the basic human army of the Imperium. Not enhanced or bred super soldiers, just ordinary men. They come from every planet with a large enough population. First, the world builds a PDF - Planetary Defence Force. After that, they raise a Regiment of Imperial Guard and tithe it to that region of the Imperium's command structure who will send this Regiment off to join more of its kind in active warzones.

Actively attacking or defending against the enemy the Imperium Guard tend to have an overarching strategy of drowning their foes in their own blood to secure victory! Loss of life expected and well worth the result of an Imperial Victory.

I have some IG myself and I will be building them up based on the 10th edition rules.

Let's get into it!

Astra Militarum Army Rule

First up is the Army Rule. This to me is not new. The Guard have Officers in their ranks and those Officers can issue orders. Apparently there will be some commanders that can issue all of these orders and some can only do some of the orders.

From what I understand the wording on this is better than before. I am not going to bother learning the 9th edition way.

Either way, the Orders give you the ability to boost Movement, Close combat skill, Ranged accuracy, Number of shots, Cover saves and a new thing, improving their Objective Control ability.

There is no preview of Detachment rules. However, there is a HINT below.

Cadian Shock Troops Preview

The new Cadian Datasheet has one major change - They can be fielded in squads of 20 with 2 Sergeants. This is perhaps a throwback to the days of fielding blobs of 20+ Conscripts.

I can't say much about their weapons. All looks fine. Their Vox-Caster ability gives them a 5+ chance to get you 1 CP when they are targeted with a Stratagem and this becomes a 4+ if there is an Officer model within 6" of them.

The real test of how effective these troops are will rely on their points cost and how many of them you can field.

Baneblade Preview

The Baneblade is a Super-Heavy tank, in the Keywords this is now listed as Titanic. In the 9th ed rules this meant a few things regarding how it is sighted on the battlefield.

Other than that, the Baneblade has a serious amount of guns and will not be easily blasted off the board. The massive tank also gives cover saves to models around it if you trace shots across it.

The Baneblade also comes with a variety of different main cannon options which we call Baneblade Variants. More about that below. The main standard gun has a 72" Range, 3D6 Attacks at S12, hitting on a 4+ with AP -2 and Damage 3. Not something that I would want to get hit with every day.

Weapon Spotlights

The Staple of the Guard tanks is the Leman Russ Battle tank and this is the weapons profile for the standard Battle Cannon.

I note a reduction in range from 72" to 48", an improvement in Attacks to D6+3, an improvement in Strength from 8 to 10, this is perhaps to better show its capability as a long range cannon instead of shooting like artillery. An AP of -1 and D3, this tank or a sqaudron of them can put a serious dent into even Terminators.

The Volcano Cannon is a Baneblade main gun variant. Usually this means that the tank with this gun is called a "Baneblade Desolator" or something like that. A massive 96" Range meaning it could be used nicely in large scale games with massive boards.

An insane S24 meaning even a T12 tank gets wounded on a 2+ by this gun. Attacks is D3+1 meaning 2 to 4 shots. It has the Heavy keyword and hits on a 4+ meaning that is the Baneblade remains stationary it will hit on a 3+. I can't see why you would need to move in most games to get range on the target so this should be all the time.

You might even be able to add an Order on the tank to make it 2+ to Hit.

Massive AP -5 with a flat Damage of 12 will make most targets disappear with those 2 to 4 shots each turn!

Stratagem Preview

Lastly we have a Stratagem Preview as well as a hint about Detachments. It say that this is a Strategic Ploy Stratagem for the Combined Regiment.

Knowing Imperial Guard cough cough Astra Militarum army structure in the lore a Combined Regiment is parts of an Infantry Regiment and an Armored Regiment. Meaning that those two Regiments may be other Detachment types that the Militarum can use.

Most likely a Combined Regiment will be focussed on Objective Control and flexibilty. An Armored Regiment will be focussed on the Big Guns Never Tire image and the Infantry Regiment will choke the battlefield with bodies.

Anyway, this Stratagem allows you to bring an unit back to the board. You need to be able to use it immediately after a unit is destroyed however and it needs to be a Regiment unit. This unit is then placed in Strategic Reserve. And this costs 2 CP so you would need to leave that laying around for this to work.

Getting back a big 20 man Cadian Shock Troop squad however, would mean that the Militarum player can be super aggressive with the squad, holding on to the idea to bring them right back again the next turn.

The unit is usually destroyed in the opponent's turn meaning they will arrive back on the field the very next Militarum turn!

A good start for the Guard. We shall see what else they are capable of when we get more rules!

Thank you for reading!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa