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It's been a while without any posts again (at least for my recent standards). To be honest, I didn't do much this last week. I've been recovering from my illness so I wasn't in the mood to do anything hobby related.  My painting has fallen way behind and I really need to pick up the pace and get some stuff done. I've been painting my Manticore since August! Only thing I've really done was to slightly tweak  my list to what I think works a bit better.

This is what I've been using in my recent games with some slight variations here and there. The army has performed very well this far. I've only lost one game out of fifteen which is pretty good considering I'm fairly new to playing with heavily mechanised Imperial Guard. However the sucsess, there are some units that aren't quite working for me yet. Following this, are a few changes I want to apply to the list and try to make it stronger.

Company Command Squad: I think with the current setup (4 meltaguns) I am using this unit too recklessly. I mean they are pretty good at taking down Land Raiders in the first turn (4 twin linked BS4 melta shots)  but they (and their Chimera) will usually die in the exchange (5 guys in the open, not much chance of survival). This can be worthwhile if your enemy is using the LR to move a very expensive death-star unit around (7 TH/SS Termies + SC for example). I am not a very big fan of the "eye for an eye" approach though and I think that the CCS is far to valuable to waste in the first turn even if it takes down with it something more expensive.

Hanging out in the back (like real military commanders) is the best choice in my opinion. I will give them a Chimera so they don't have to stay in the open. Meltaguns have to go and I will replace them with a Lascannon. The veterans have BS4 so they are quite reliable to hit things. Now, even if the Chimera explodes I can easily distribute the wounds between the commander and the un-upgraded veterans (maybe one to the heavy weapon team too if the wound is below S6) so I won't lose the Lascannon  (in the previous case I was losing too many meltaguns to explosions). And most importantly, the CCS will probably survive until the last turns of the game and enhance the rest of my guardsmen with its Orders. So I will be losing a bit in the Alphastrike department but it will give me a much stronger endgame.

Platoon Command Squad: Same here applies as for the CCS. Running them with 4 flamers can work really well against a mass of low Toughness and Armour bodies, but they are very likely to die in return. I will keep them back as well and give them an Autocannon (since they are BS3). Commander can help with his orders and help in the last turns. Won't be giving any easy Kill Points this way too.

Infantry Squads: My main issue with this guys is that they are not very reliable. In many games their Chimeras would blow up and half the squad died in the explosion (and to add some insult to injury the unit would fail their Morale check a few times). Since they are my main scoring units (Veterans die too often since they have to get close to the enemy with their meltaguns) I have to make them more durable and more reliable. Thus I am thinking of dropping their Chimeras and get two more infantry squads. The setup would be:

Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Commisar

Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Meltagun

Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Meltagun

Infantry Squad, Autocannon

Now, since the guys are from the same platoon they can combine together and form a 40 man strong blob. They will all benefit from the Commisars Leadership. This will make them double effective since they have more chance of successfully receiving their Orders (usually "Bring it down" for their Autocannons) and almost never failing their Morale checks (stubborn, Ld 9 with re-roll). This gives me great tactical flexibility. This super unit will become a great objective holders since it is very difficult to move them off the objective or kill them off. They can receive a charge from an elite close combat unit (assault termies, sanguinary guard etc.) and get stuck in combat for several turns until they all die. Plus they can protect my tanks, like the way described in this excellent article by Kirby. I've also included a couple of meltaguns there just in case a vehicle comes too close and tries to tank shock my blog. One thing I am not sure of is if Chimeras can get a cover save from Guardsmen standing in front of them. What do you think?

So this is pretty much what I got to change with the list. I got a few points left also so I am pondering of what to get with them. I could either give Demolitions to one of my Veteran squads (for multi charging vehicles in an Alphastrike) or getting a Master of Ordnance since my CCS won't be moving around much. Comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.