Playing the Sons of Sek as a Guard 'force'

A little delayed, next steps for the Son's.

The good thing about having some painted tanks on the battlefield is that they take up the space of a squad, but take less than half the time that ten guys do, allowing your army's colour scheme to spread across the gaming table nicely. At least you'll feel slightly better about bringing grey or black mini's along.

My principal army since rejoining 40k back in May 2013 has been Space Marines, a 3000 point force of random elements (i.e. no all bike/all Stormtalon/winnerstar force), just a custom force purchased for 'model-love' more than winning intent. 

How can you not love a stompy Ironclad! Tau's bestie.

For the Son's Of Sek, I again purchased for model-lust, more than gameplay intent. The part about playstyle came close behind. Who doesn't love an army full of armour, or a boosted bundle of guardsmen trying to pull down the galaxies super soldiers!

With model-love in mind, these guys came together slowly and with deliberate care. It was only afterwards that you realise just how many boxes of things you need for a coherent force. Boy, point for point, do they cost more than an ebay-and-boxed-starter-set-cobbled-together-army-of-stock-posed clip-togethers. 

Still the best clip-togethers that I've ever had the pleasure of painting though!

Playing them is another fun jaunt, moving from the mobile, adaptable rock of a Marine force to the splashtastic squishiness of Guard. The online community did them justice however, plenty of posts about how the littlest guys mettle being the best factor in lots of games, how you care more about a guy with a bayonet going up against a tau commander with hope in his (and your) eyes.

Sadly, they had me as a Commander behind them, and thus far my Guard tactics have come up against some varied armies.

Heres a snapshot of my guys being shot apart by a tau/tau force.

And heres a snapshot of my guys being torn apart by a necron force.

And here were the casualties I'd taken in a ~2000 pointer game against some Dark Angels (hint; its all of them!)Time to get learning some tactics, we can't be having this!

At the moment, the only way I can field a full Imperial Guard force is with this Yellow beastie.

Other than this, I've been having mixed successes with the classic Guard gunline, playing games as they come around. I've played around 7 now, and have only won 2, and those by little margin.

For HQ, the Command Squad and its upgrades are still the best 30 Points thus far i've encountered. A mini basilisk for 30 points, and then +1 to your, and -1 to your opponent reserve rolls. I've had luck with the Primaris Psyker rules and I've finally got a model together as well so he's in.

For troops, a standard platoon, Chimera on the Platoon Commander, coupled with 2 heavy weapon teams with autocannons and missile launchers. I've been proxying a cultist squad as Veterans with little success, and Penal troops with better luck as Tar pitterss/scary outflankers. 

Elite Stormtroopers dropping in are a distraction at the moment, but they may become more useful without deep striking, possibly outflanking in something like a Chimera or similar.

Fast attack is my Hellhound, configured for a Banewolf for whichever army most suits.

Heavy support is currently the Executioner, plus a Vanquisher, plus a standard Leman Russ. The latter 2 are ebay reclaimed so pictures will emerge soon.

Definitely need some alternative tactics, but firstly I need more models for army options, my eventual aim is to have a massed Chimera charge, which can deposit cackling Veterans onto objectives to hack apart the opposition.

The next report, I'll be playing the force with a Vet squad, and 2 Penal squads, just to see what happens!.