Having played Andy and his Nidzilla Hive Fleet on Thursday (full match report to follow), I'm starting to understand better how my Squat Guard army works. Our game on Thursday was my first at 1,750pts - previously I had played at 1,000pts, mostly against Daryl's Daemons army. At the larger points value I was able to bulk up my infantry squad up to thirty men, include a couple of heavy weapons teams and, most critically, use my two counts-as Vendettas for the first time. The big guns on my Ordnance Battery, Manticore and Vendettas worked fantastically in whittling down Andy's horde of Termagants, but I found myself short in two main areas:
1. Midfield infantry
2. Mid-strength anti-MC shooting
MID-TABLE MEDIOCRITY
The first issue is of no surprise at all - Guard are only toughness 3 with a 5+ save after all, so I ought jot to expect too much from them. Of course there is strength in numbers defensively, and a big blob squad can pump out a prodigious amount of strength 3 firing, but if you need to advance on a mid-table objective and fight for it, then Guardsmen of any type just aren't up to the job.
So what is the solution? I've been considering allies of some sort - possibly a unit of Blood Angels assault marines or even Death Company - backed up by a rock-hard elite of Terminators or something equally unshiftable.
MORE BIG GUNS?
The second issue I've found is that whilst my ordnance works fantastically against infantry, I struggle against monstrous creatures. Nearly all of my sixth edition games have been against Daemons or Tyranids, and I have found that I cannot reliably deal with high-wound Daemon Princes, Trygons, Tervigons and the like. I realise that it is just weight of numbers that deal with these, so I am considering increasing the number if heavy weapons squads I have - Autocannon are my preferred choice - which work very efficiently when combined with Bring It Down' from a nearby officer.
Alternatively, I'm thinking a Leman Russ Punisher might be an option. It pumps out twenty S. 5 shots per turn, plus an extra six if you add on Heavy Bolter sponsons on the sides. The downside is that it is a lot of eggs in a single basket, and there's plenty of things in 40k nowadays that eat AV14 for breakfast - and that's before you consider the lighter side and rear armour facings.
HELP!
So my quandary is two-fold: firstly, what do I do about my midfield superiority infantry requirements, and secondly how best can I deal with high-wound models like monstrous creatures and deathstar units like Nob Bikers and Grey Knight Terminators?
It's over to you! Any constructive help you can offer will be gratefully received.