Greetings fellow guardsmen! This announcement is just an update of the new units for the Imperial Guard and their various traitor variants. In addition, a few characters have been added.
I was finally able to get my hands on the new kits and see what needed added. The list is in no particular order.
Loyalist Imperial Guard Codex, Chaos Traitor Guard, and Genestealer Codex saw the addition of pintle Heavy Flamers and Multilasers on the Malcador variants and Mars Alpha Leman Russ.
Loyalist Imperial Guard Codex, Chaos Traitor Guard, and Genestealer Codex saw the addition of Dozer Blades for Malcador variants and Mars Alpha Leman Russ.
Loyalist Imperial Guard Codex saw the addition of Combat Engineer equipment. They now have the option to take pistols and/or Brutal Weapons as additional wargear. They may also take a Cyclops demolition tank, which saw a minor stat line revision (and subsequent point change per the formula).
All Imperial Guard variants saw the addition of the Hedgehog Launcher on the Field Artillery Battery. In addition, minor revisions were made to better internally balance the many gun options available now. Once again, the points changed per the formula and underwent mathhammer tests.
The Field Artillery can now be equipped with:
- Griffon Heavy Mortar: A powerful medium artillery that drops S6 AP4+ 5″ Blast templates with Pinning. Designed to be general purpose and kill light to medium infantry.
- Heavy Lascannon: A beefed up Lascannon that is S10 AP1+ with Ordnance, Monsterbane, and a boosted range. This is the only option that does not have Indirect fire capabilities.
- Bombast Field Gun: A stronger hit than the Griffon Mortar but with less area of effect. S8 AP3+ 3″ Blast with Monsterbane and Pinning. For those of you wondering, the Krieg siege cannon uses this profile (same barrel length, just has a muzzle brake on the end and uses the same shell from the other kit).
- Hedgehog Launcher: A terrifying weapon that uses the Apocalypse Barrage template. It has the lightest payload of all the options but saturates huge areas for sweeping light infantry away. S4 AP6+ and Pinning.
- Malleus Rocket Launcher: Basically a twin linked Nebelwerfer, this artillery option brings twice the fire power of the Griffon Mortar at the lose of Pinning and a massive increase in points.
- Heavy Quad Launcher: It was recently brought to my attention that this gun used to have a special 4 piece template that would daisy chain the impact hits based on the previous one. While really cool, due to availability and streamlining I’ve left it as a four shot Heavy Mortar that is carried by vintage infantry Mortar Teams. It can’t cover the same area as the Hedgehog, but it has the potential to strike small elite units with more hits than any of the other options. Naturally it is another Pinning weapon with S5 AP5+.
Loyalist Imperial Guard and Chaos Traitor Guard Rough Riders saw the new option of swapping their Chainswords for Power Swords. In addition, they and the Company Command Squad can take Genetically Engineered Steeds that grant an additional Wound at the cost of Outflank.
Cadian Shock received an updated Arminka Lesk Datasheet. It now has the option for a Promotion as well as Demotion, and she can add her Hell’s Last command unit as you see fit. This lets her bring up to her full command staff, each with special abilities.
- As before, her Demotion changes her weapons.
- Promotion improves her stat line and ups the number of Orders she can cast per Turn.
- Commissar Shand is a potent fighter that will not perform Summary Execution on Arminka, but rest of everyone else is fair game like normal.
- Talbeas is a Minostorum Priest that carries a Standard. Between her Standard and Abilities, she can throw four Auras a Turn!
- Sergeant Grawnya was a tricky one. In lore she is a liaison for a mixed regiment slapped together due to high casualties. For the first time ever, she allows you to take a SECOND Regiment rule! Cadian Shock is the primary Regiment still, restricting regiment character options to just Cadian.
- Jaromir is a tough soldier with potent short range weaponry. He exists as a minor meat shield for the squad.
- The entire special Command Squad can join other units as if they were all Independent Characters! This is the only Command Squad at this time that can do that in A4R.
Catachan Jungle Troopers saw Guardsman Marbo turn into a Lord of War Slot! Heavily ramped up, he can rival the upcoming Eldar Pheonix Lord changes and Imperial Assassins. We felt he has always lagged behind and felt very vulnerable instead of a lore accurate one-man army. While he still needs to be careful how he operates, he is capable of slaying giant monsters, assassinating characters, and if he played his cards right go back into Reserve on the next turn to keep the enemy guessing!
Death Krop of Krieg now has Lord Mashall Dreir as an option to lead their force, in addition to their old Marshall. Dreir is a potent commander that gives strong charge bonuses to all friendly Steed models within 12″ as a True Aura instead of the typical Aura that only affects one unit. His lore is rather light at the moment, but he is a formidable commander that has a strong impact on the field not unlike Lord Castellan Creed or Iron Hand Straken.
In other Guard news, Tau traitor guard are far more limited but will see a major overhaul thanks to a bunch of FW model and datasheet references I found. This will be coming out shortly.
News updates like this will be coming out fast and furious as I try to get the last paperwork squared away for A4R. This is happening for several reasons, one being that I have received a ton of new player demo game requests in the local area. In order to accommodate everyone, I am looking at launching a Slow Grow campaign to help ease the large influx of A4R players into the game with some fun narratives!
The other reason is the original startup I have been working for a tabletop game is ready for some long serious work. I will always of course continue to support A4R, and once I can finally be fully caught up, I will have a much easier time staying on top of new releases. Stay tuned for more details!
As always, happy wargaming! May you find your particular flavor of rules or lore setting that itches that scratch.
Alternate 40k Rules 