How to: Hybrid Imperial Guard

So MasterSlowPoke (come on, we all know Scyther was the best) wanted me to go a bit more in-depth on the Hybrid Imperial Guard, so here we are. First, Hybrid IG uses IG tanks & protects them with an infantry bubble-wrap. Read that link for a more in-depth analysis of what bubble-wraps do but quickly the infantry bubble-wrap keeps opponent’s at arms length from the tanks. IG don’t like you getting close to them as they operate at peak efficiency from farther away (long range and lots of blasts combined with some min ranges). Whilst this has been alleviated in the new codex by being able to take hull heavy flamers on every tank chassis for free, IG would still prefer you to die far away and the bubble-wrap infantry platoon allows you to do this.

What then do we want in our bubble-wrap? Infantry platoons are the obvious answer with an attached commissar as you can combine them for a huge footprint and lots of bodies. It’s hard to make the unit move with Stubborn and Ld9 and 30+ members which you can order to ground for +2 to cover or shoot 3-4 autocannons as you see fit with a dash of meltaguns to scare off tank shocking. Plop this in front of your armour and bingo! Protection for ze tanks. This is the hybrid aspect of your army. From that point on you essentially need your downfield fire (you can go pure downfield fire) and/or meltaguns (or you can add in some meltagun Vets through Chimeras or Vendettas).

So with Hybrid IG you’re keeping the opponent at arm’s length with the bubble-wrap and otherwise firing across the table at your opponent, that’s your basic Hybrid IG. This means tanks and units like PBS in Chimeras, Manticores, Medusas, Devildogs and Lemun Russ variants are your best bet all using blast and generally having significant range followed up with Vets or Infantry Platoons in Chimeras. You can add in Vendettas w/Demo Vets for a first turn alpha strike if it’s offered (I prefer this as it can change your opponent’s deployment) or if you won’t be able to get within melta range, leave them in their Chimeras and use Vendettas as fire support whilst pushing the Chimeras midfield as you need. Again, the point of the Hybrid part of IG is to keep your opponent as far away as possible for as long as possible and thus protect your main tanks.

So let’s apply this to an army list.

We want that bubble-wrap so we shall buy them first. Let’s take 3 infantry platoons w/2 meltaguns, 3 autocannons and a commissar. 235 pts. Need the PCS as well. Let’s put them in a Chimera w/an AC for another 105 pts.

We also want 2x PBS in Chimeras to add to our blast fun. Full squad + Chimera is 165 x2 = 330. We also need a CCS (dur) so let’s add one in a Chimera w/AC and 2x meltagun; another 135 pts so we’re sitting at 805 pts atm.

We need to start adding in some heavier hitters but are still short on the Troops so let’s take 2x Vets w/AC, 3 mgun and a Chimera for 330 total; still not at 1k and we’ve got pretty good suppression fire with the ability to move into midfield with meltas if needed. Let’s add some bigger guns.

2x Medusa for 270. I’ve chosen Medusas over Manticores here as I want to pack in 2 squads of Russes if I can and the Medusas can be taken in a squad. We shall then take 2 devil dogs as well for 240. 520 pts left. Not really enough for 4 Russes. Let’s see what we have.

CCS w/2 meltaguns, AC, Chimera

2x PBS w/Chimera

2x Vet w/3 meltaguns, AC, chimera

PCS w/AC, chimera

3x Infantry w/2 meltaguns, 3 AC, Commissar

2x Devildogs

2x Medusas

9 tanks, 7 AC, 6 blasts and 81 infantry. Need to up that across the road reach I think. Let’s skip on the Russes for this list and take another Medusa and 2x Vendettas moving the Devildogs into one squad. 125 pts to play with.

Point playing time! Let’s drop 2 psykers from each PBS and add another PBS for 145. Still have 20 points to play with then. Not going to have enough to give the Vets demo so we’ll add 2 meltaguns in to the PCS so they can move into midfield if needed as well. So let’s see what we ended up with.

HQ -

Company Command squad w/2x meltaguns, AC, Chimera

Elites -

PBS x7 + Overseer w/Chimera

PBS x7 + Overseer w/Chimera

PBS x7 + Overseer w/Chimera

Troops -

Veterans x10 w/3x meltagun, AC, Chimera

Veterans x10 w/3x meltagun, AC, Chimera

Platoon Command Squad w/2x meltagun, AC, Chimera

Infantry Platoon w/Commissar, AC

Infantry Platoon w/meltagun, AC

Infantry Platoon w/meltagun, AC

Fast Attack -

Devildogs x2

Vendetta

Vendetta

Heavy Support -

Medusa

Medusa

Medusa

Totals: 2000 points
Tanks: 14
Infantry: 85

We’ve got 7 AC, 6x TL LC, 7 multi-lasers, 2 melta blasts and 3 S10 pie plates coming downfield on T1. If you get the opportunity you can load those Vets up and alpha strike other wise you use your suppression fire on to stop your opponent’s shooting and Medusas to knock people out of tanks. Once that starts to happen you rain blasts on them. You can move into midfield with your meltaguns or let them splash across your infantry bubble-wrap and mass shoot/flame them next turn (all the Chimeras are ML/HF btw).

The great thing about IG IMO is you can change so many things around and keep a good list so there are a lot of changes that could be made here but I hope that helps explain IG Hybrid a bit better as that was the ultimate goal of this post. So did it do that SlowPoke?