The Emperor’s Fist – how new life has come to the Astra Militarum.
The Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard to us old dogs) are my first love when it comes to 40k, so when the War Zone Damocles: Mont’ka Campaign was released in late 2015 year it gave (in my honest opinion) a much needed boost to the current Astra Militarum Codex that is starting to feel it’s age. Included was the Cadian Battle Group and some awesome new formations which are frankly long overdue. One of which is The Emperor’s Fist Armoured Company…which gave me the perfect excuse to build and paint new tanks!! (Like he needed more!!! – Massaen)
Overview
The Emperor’s Fist Armoured Company formation compromises of the following units and special rules;
1 Tank Commander
3 Leman Russ Squadrons
1-3 Enginseers
Restrictions – None
Battlefield Doctrines: If a vehicle from this formation that is within 6″ of an Enginseer from this formation suffers a penetrating hit, your opponent must roll two dice on the vehicle damage chart and discard the highest. This basically gives them venerable rule similar to that of the Space marines Venerable Dreadnoughts
Formation Leader: Any Leman Russ from this formation within 12″ of the Tank Commander from this formation has a ballistic skill of 4. This is huge as it allows for some of the Astra Militarum’s lesser used tanks to be taken for increased accuracy!
Steel Phalanx: If a unit is Tank Shocked or rammed by more than one vehicle from this formation in the same turn, subtract 1 from it’s leadership for the tank shock test or add 1 to the strength of the ram for each vehicle after the first. This is an interesting little rule, that could work under the right circumstances, but in my experience you’re better off shooting whatever you’re attempting to hurt….it’s the Guard way after all!
The Emperor’s Fist On The Table
Well, for a start The Emperor’s Fist Armoured Company isn’t cheap on points. You’re looking at around 670pts if you go absolutely bare bones and take the minimum 5 Leman Russ Eradicator tanks…I wouldn’t recommend doing this!
In my experience you can’t go past Tank Commander Pask as an automatic upgrade to the standard Tank Commander. His warlord trait gives him and his unit preferred enemy and his crack shot special rule allows him to re-roll armour penetration rolls with ALL his tanks weapons. Mount him in a Leman Russ Punisher and his Punisher Gattling Cannon gains the rending special rule. BS4 rounds it out and seals the deal. At 40pts he’s a bargain, I’ve had games where he’s taken 8-9 hull points off an Ork Stompa (that had a 4+ custom force field save too!) and cut enemy tanks to shreds.
As his compulsory Squadron buddies, I’d look at taking a pair of Executioners armed with Plasma Sponsons and hull mounted Lascannons. Pask’s preferred enemy allows them to re-roll their Get’ Hot rolls and the formations BS4 bonus really adds to their accuracy. Using the Split fire order from Pask you can then point these at a unit with 2+ Armour and watch them die to ten S7 AP2 small blasts hitting them!
Now it comes to the tricky part, what to run along close by to get the benefit of the BS4 from the formation. Keeping so many tanks within 12″ of Pask is going to be tricky, especially moving forward to engage units. So I’d look at a pair of Leman Russ Punishers. Use them as close protection for Pask and to counter closing enemy units. You can also use them as blocker tanks.
After that, I’d run with a pair of Leman Russ Exterminators, Leman Russ Battle Tanks or Leman Russ Vanquishers to give some range to the rest of the formation. Start them close by and get the BS4 benefit, but don’t feel obliged to keep them too close to Pask’s 12″ bubble.
Lastly the Enginseer – take two and keep them close. Throw them in a 30 man Infantry Platoon (with a Priest of course) to keep the Enginseers alive for longer. Keep them close to the Leman Russ’ to fix up the damage to the tanks and to keep their Battlefield Doctrines benefit in play.
The Points
Knight Commander Pask – Leman Russ Punisher, Lascannon, Multi Melta Sponsons, Dozer Blade – 215pts
Knight Commander Pasks Squadron – x2 Leman Russ Executioners, Plasma Gun Sponsons, Lascannons – 390pts
Squadron 1 – x2 Leman Russ Punishers – 280pts
Squadron 2 – x2 Leman Russ Battle tanks – 300pts
Squadron 3 – x2 Leman Russ Exterminators, Lascannons – 280pts
X2 Enginseers – 80pts
Total – 1575pts
Not Cheap, and you could certainly trim it down. But put nine Leman Russ hulls on the table and watch you’re opponents face drop… most of them anyway!
And you could make it even more expensive – assuming the points allow it.
Whatever you might think about the Astra Militarum – you can’t deny that this formation creates something special and somewhat unique on the tabletop!
Hey, nice article.
After looking through this tank company article, I think there’s some solid advice there. 1 thing i would point out is those priests also give an astra militarum vehicle within 12″ the power of the machine spirit rule. Pask’s unit with 2 executioners can use this to potentially target up to 4 enemy units in one phase, particularly if u don’t need 6 or my plasma cannon shots into a single target. So makes it even better, especially when the ‘venerable’ rule equivalent makes most perpetrating hits result in a shaken or stunned result.