Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Regiment Types (Mechanized)

By: Dark Aeon


Issue #1 – Mechanized Regiments

Mechanized:
A mechanized regiment mounts nearly all of its troops in the ambiguous Chimera APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier). It has been reduced in points since the last codex, and coupled with cheaper troops, I think this option is perfectly viable now a days.

Units to Use:
· Guard Infantry
· Chimera
· Veterans
· Storm Troopers
· Leman Russ
· Command Squad
· Commissars

Units to stay away from:
· Ratlings
· Ogryns
· Rough Riders

Units in between:
· Psykers
· Sentinels
· Artillery batteries

Organization of a mechanized regiment can be difficult. You’ll want to give everyone a chimera, but remember this: Not every unit needs to have a transport! The reason being – during war, sometimes, a chimera team’s APC will get damaged or destroyed, and they’ll fight on foot for the rest of the battle, war, or even entire campaign! If you can’t fit a chimera, don’t remove something you’ll regret removing later to fit it in! Remember that a Leman Russ will always be more useful than a Chimera at killing things, blocking things, and contesting for objectives.

Army List Recommendation
To start, I would get your minimum single platoon – a command squad of 5 men, now available in plastic, 2 squads of 10 guardsmen, and 2 or 3 chimeras (your command squad doesn’t usually need a chimera, nor should you often waste the points on them). Then, get another box of basic guardsmen, and use extra bits from your command squad box and customize them into veterans. Give them a chimera. Finally, to save money, if you don’t feel like buying a whole other command squad, get yourself a Lord Commissar as an H.Q choice. There, you’ve got yourself the start of a Mechanized Regiment!

Weaponry
Mechanized regiments must always be on the move to work effectively. I would stay away from heavy weapons of all types. If you want your infantry to have anti-tank capability, then you should give them melta guns and krak grenades. Veterans can take demo charges. Otherwise, rely on your mass of chimeras to provide you with your heavy bolters (or multi-lasers, as weapon heavy weapon teams cannot even take!), and rely on your tanks to wipe out armour.

Regular squads should take flamers or meltaguns, so that as soon as they get out, they can either pop a tank, or hose an area with promethium. I find this works best, as I’ve played a Mechanized regiment once before. There’s nothing more fearsome than 40 guardsmen and 4 chimera’s getting our, pummeling an enemy with rapid fire lasguns, and then hosing them with 4 heavy flamers and 4 regular ones.

Nasty Tricks
Playing an army where everyone (or almost everyone) rides in a tank, and you’ve got lots of tanks to back you up, can be very “nasty” or “beardy” as Wargame veterans call it. Both nasty an beardy are terms referring to dirty tricks, ways to out-think the system and totally annihilate your enemy using every tactical aspect of your unit.

The best way to obliterate a foe with Mechanized, is to hit them where they least expect it. What I’m getting at, is hit ‘em where it hurts – the shin, the thigh, or the arse.

Take Al’rahem, a Tallarn Captain, as a platoon leader, and as many infantry squads in Chimera’s as you can fit. Al’rahem allows his entire platoon, in fact, he forces them, to outflank, even when not normally allowed to (i.e.: game types sometimes do not allow outflank, infiltrate, or deep strike).

In addition to this, 6 chimera’s arriving on the left and right sides of the board where your opponent won’t think to be defending, you can take Ursarkar E. Creed, and his ability, as mentioned by Reds & Royals in a previous article, allows you to make a single unit or vehicle outflank. Give this to a banewolf, a hellhound, or maybe a Leman Russ Demolisher, and you’ve got a very “beardy” outflanking force on your hands.

Most people would expect a Mechanized regiment to act like Zulu War or American Revolution cavalry unit (or, hell, any old age cavalry unit): a direct front line charge. They’ll never see you coming around his flank.

Strengths:
Strength of Mechanized is in vehicle numbers. Most of the time, Guard is supposed to outnumber the enemy with infantry, but this army is bound to be on equal footing, with more vehicles. With each chimera acting as a pillbox, a transport, and a gun-wagon, you’ve got the most versatile tank army around.

The chimera allows units inside to fire their weapons at enemies outside the vehicle. This means you can put a Psyker battle squad inside a Chimera, and hit the enemy with a strength 9 Ap(d6) blast from the safety of the armoured APC.

Each chimera, if given a stubber, also packs no less than 3 heavy weapons. Coupled with the men shooting their weapons inside, this basic, standard issue transport, becomes a force to be reckoned with!

Also, if playing with water terrain, your APC's can move right over it with no problem.

Weaknesses:
Well, one thing’s for sure: you’ll be low on men! You’ll be more inclined to keep them alive, but still remember – guardsmen die. In droves. And there’s nothin anyone can really do to stop it. They die very easily, they break easily, and they don’t kill very many units on their own.

To compensate for this lack of bodies, you’ll have to keep your men in their transport unless capturing an objective. When they finally disembark, they should be right next to an enemy unit, which has already been pummeled by multi-laser, heavy flamer, heavy bolter, and heavy stubber fire, so as the guardsmen inside can more easily pick them off with their lasguns.

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