h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I used to not be a fan of space marine scouts - though, that may well have come about because blood angel scouts have the typical problem that they have a one in six chance of charging towards the nearest enemy unit, which is not good for scouts

This was until I realise I could use a very small unit of scouts and equip them with a homing device, sneak it into the middle of the battlefield and bring down a host of deepstrike units exactly where I wanted them

Guardians cost more solely than imp troops solely because they had a higher iniative - in close combat they would have a slight advantage, but that's it

One thing I can't understand about tau units is that tau have (generally) really low iniative, but they don't get frag grenades, they get photon grenades, that revert models in cover back to their original init - which still puts them ahead of Tau

Ah, that's very handy!

Thing is that I found my Guardians are pretty much dead before they enter close combat.

Well, Tau as such are not *meant* to get into close combat. Only Kroot go to close combat voluntarily.

I can definitely see that flaw with guardians

Tau are indeed not meant to enter close combat - but why issue them with grenades that don't help at all when they're supposed to be better than frag grenades, that mean both sides fight at once - which would be helpful for them

With elder, what i've seen of games with them (i've never played in one) - you have several tough, big, units/figures that suck in fire while everything else manouvers around

One benefit of blood angels is that they share the space marine automatic regroup rule, and they also can't fall back from close combat (at least in my edition) - i think its supposed to be the compensating of the fact that your troops occasionally screw up your formation for the hell of it

I think imp guard could actually be very good against tau - actually better in combat, with enough of them to soak up the fire and reduce it - vehicles cheaper so easy enough to trade to knock out tau vehicles
And since Tau pretty much Have to get an etherial to stop themselves running away they stand a massive risk of being hammered by imp arty

I think my favourite Eldar unit are the Swooping Hawks. They do seep strike, attack, and in the next round they are gone again and can then strike somwehere else.
I guess you are right about the Eldar, they've got a few big things with the units kind of moving around them.

I must say I have no idea bout the grenades of the Tau. But Tau will get new stuff, too, so let's see. For me the best thing of the Tau is the marker light. I can't remember which weapons use it but once an enemy unit has a marker they don't need line of sight to hit.

Really? That seems excessively good - but in a game with heavy cover the tau could slaughter any other vaguely shooting force - maybe the imp guard would get hammered then

The imperial guard used to have a flamethrowing tank based on a chimera hull

But it just enjoyed blowing up - 11,11,10 armour, open topped, and any glancing hit was automatically upgraded to a penetrating hit

I never played one, but I'm interesting to see what those who played it found it like

Ah, interesting, Eldar have vehicle upgrades for exactly the reverse: they reduce the damage of a hit. Crew stunned for instance will be reduced to crew shaken.

yeah, both space marine and normal imp guard vehicles can have extra armour, for a few points, that does that - I always do it for my vehicles, it's just such a massive difference

Though, personnally as an unsubtle person, I'd rather be able to shoot than move, but still

For my Eldar I like to get vehicle upgrades. All in all I tend to upgrade my miniatures quite a lot, so they get quite expensive.

This conversation really makes me want to go on painting. And I still have quite a lot to paint.

I have such a lack of manual dexterity, i don't like to buy new units - but since me and sis bf are both quite happy to accept stand in units, it's not such a concern

Talking to one of my friends who used to play Chaos Space Marines - who can apparently use other army's tanks - which could have been quite helpful to grab a few of the imp guards ones