I keep getting pounded by hundreds of Imperial Guard tanks. Barrages are a real pain in the arse. Can somebody please save me?

-- mike rossell (mike@potpig.demon.co.uk), June 07, 1998

Answers

You've got three choices. 1) Match and Call. Translation:Buy your own tanks. It would help to know what army you played so that I could recommend some good tank-hunters. Tyranids just can't do this strategy. 2) However, Tyranids have fun with this next one. Assault Troops with big hand to hand weapons. My favorite are Space Marines with Jump Packs and a variety of weapons (Meltabombs, Power Axes, Power Fists, etc). Genestealers, Carnifexes and Lictors with Sharpened Claws work well too. Tracks are always weak points, but charge in the side if you can (Less Armor). 3) Lots of overwatch and heavy weapons. This is risky and unreliable. Just buy lots of heavy weapons, point them at places tanks are likely to go through, and go on overwatch. Tanks are fairly easy to hit (Large Targets!) and if you shoot at it enough, you're bound to hit something important. However, I should note that this has failed my friend about 5 times in a row.

-- Catalyst (smoon@atsi.com), July 07, 1998.

Listen carefully. The night before you play the git with loads of tanks, you sneak into his house at night, and , and SMASH EM ALL KILL THE TANKS AND HIM AND HIS WHOLE FAMILY. HAHAHAHAH

-- Hater of the imperium. (foo@bar.com), July 20, 1998.

my friend plays a total tank army. Barrage has to be in a commanders sight. Avoid it if possible. Haywire grenades are good cheap characters can use them. Exarchs veteran sergeants. War walkers with two las cans can move 8" then shoot not bad. READ!!!!! You can use melta guns and other move and fire non heavy weapons in hand to hand against tanks. meltas do 8+2d6+d20 armor penetration. Ave. of 24. Terminators warp in w/ thunder hammers nothing better. auto pen. Warp in next to tanks and charge. Space marine dreadnaught w/ two multi meltas will kill more tanks then any thing in the game.

-- Lt. Whoopass (scborne@maroon.tc.umn.edu), August 19, 1998.

Use melta guns in hand2hand thats right meltas against tanks its in the rules. you get an x-tra d20 armor penatration against the tank. If space marines teleport terminators with thunder hammers in and charge tanks + use dreadnaughts with multimeltas they kick tank ass.

-- Lt. Whoopass (scborne@maroon.tc.umn.edu), August 19, 1998.

If you are eldar, try putting in vibro cannons in as many places as possible, then hide your troops.

-- Robin G-B (j.g-b@virgin.net), August 31, 1998.

Big gunz and scary monsters....

....or jsut gett bigger tanks than the other guy has......

-- why (Stip-e@juno.com), September 04, 1998.

Buy a squad of harlequins (as allies if necessary) deploy them as far formard as possible (IE make sure their the closest target to his command squads). Imperial Guard Barrages must fire at the closest target to an officer model. Thanks to the Harlequin Fields models count only as detected, so your opponent has to score a 4+ to hit each harlequin under a barrage template, wound him, and the harlequin is unnaffected by the blast on a 4+. Because harlequins get dispersed formation, you can spread them across the front of your army, 4" apart, so a barrage template is only ever going to hit 1 harlequin. According to the law of avarages, if your opponent has 10 barrages to lay down(he wishes) he only has a 25% chance of taking out each harlequin, less than 2% of taking out the whole squad. At 250 points, their expensive, but your planned army is untouched and your opponents sulking in the corner. Beardy but worth it!

-- Adam Beaney (Dr.Evil@Virgin.net), November 15, 1998.

There are many things to kill tanks, but make sure you concentrate your fire. Don't fire all your heavy weapons at different tanks, make sure each tank is out before you move on to the next. Remember you win by getting victory points, and you get more for the kill as oppossed to the wound. And an immobolie tank can still fire its weapons. don't go for the treads, they are easy to penetrate, but only destroy the tank on a damage roll of 6. using other tanks against imperial guard doesn't always work either. Compare the points values of imperial tanks vs a space marine tank or eldar, usually the imperial tank is cheaper and better. Little hint, demolisher cannons kill other tanks dead! Don't send your predator annihilator up against a siege tank unless you want to get lucky, cause a 3 inch blast template which hits multiple locations and gets +3 to damge roll usually wins. Use hand to hand troops with melta bombs or power fists, multi-meltas, psychic attacks, etc. BTW 3rd edition rules suck!

-- Commissar (commissar@erols.com), December 16, 1998.

Now, I have to be quick, Before the Commisar general hears me, But, Being the Commander of the 24th Draconian Medeum Armor Regiment, (1st division)I may be able to help you.

First of all, It's not about what you use, It's how you use it. (no innuendo intended)An annialator, or, a well place krak missile can be just as deadly, depending on how you use them, of course. for one thing, don't let him get you in the open! Then, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Park a rino in fornt of your predator, just close enouch to make it closer to your enemy. Spread out your heavy weapons so one hit won't take 'em all.

understanding that, now think about terrain. When you know you are going to be faced with an armored assault, use the terrain to your advantage. tanks are big, you can only fit so many through a small space at a time... instant bottlekneck. Deploy your foces somewhere where he will have to come get you, then ambush him there, like in Saving Private Ryan. Use cover to kreep up close with assault troops, and chop him up. In short, treat the masses of tanks like orks, if you bottle them up, you have them where you want them. use your head, not new toys.

-- Lt. Col. Williams (khaldonH@aol.com), April 08, 1999.

Here are a couple of ideas if you're running a dark eldar army. Have a couple of squads of Scourges armed with dark lances (the codex allows up to four per squad) in reserve. they can drop in on the board almost ANYWHERE, whack one or two tanks, and then fly away. I like to wait until the tanks are somewhere that bottles up large portions of the rest of the opposing army, but sometimes you just gotta cripple the damned things FAST. Also, arming one reaver jetbike per squad with a Shredder can be effective. Wait until you're within 36" of the target at the beginning of your turn, then hit the turbo-thrusters. This gets you within range for the shredder and makes your jetbikes invulnerable until you fire on the next turn. After firing (with Shredder and the rest of the squad's weapons), RUN AWAY if there's anything within range that can still shoot at you... Dark Eldar have only one real advantage, and that's speed. Finally, I generally arm my wych squads with both haywire and plasma grenades if I'm going up against a lot of armor (and someimes even if I'm not). It only costs +6pts per figure, and makes them MUCH more effective, especially against armor.

-- Eric Best (eric_best@yahoo.com), May 09, 1999.

what are u thinking u can't stop hundreds of tanks the only way is to get abaddon the despoiler with a massive horde of chaos space marine terminaters armed with melta gun then you can pound the tanks ass's hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha,

any that prooves chaos are the best as they have abaddon the despoiler which kicks total ass, i,ve also got a land raider for my chaos army hahahahahaha they are bad they just kick ass and there as hard as fuck

mess with chaos mess with me!

when the sun was made the first shadow was born

-- mr death (virus2600@40k.org), October 22, 1999.