Getting started with Astra Militarum
Today we are talking about Astra Militarum Tactics. If you’re interested in starting an Astra Militarum army you will learn everything you need to know below! We will talk a little bit about what the Imperial Guard is, their play style, and end with a solid 1,000 pt army list.
Who Are The Astra Militarum
The Astra Militarum is the main fighting force of the imperium. Unlike Space Marines or even Tempestus scions, your average guardsman is just a regular infantryman without all the bells and whistles. They don’t have superhuman strength or an entire childhood worth of training, they are just regular people. As a result, they have a rather underwhelming stat-line for the most part. Such as BS 4+ and toughness 3 and a 5+ save. However, this doesn’t matter much to the imperial guard, mainly because of the sheer number of soldiers they can field.
Whereas a space marine chapter will usually have about 1,000 soldiers, your average Imperial guard army will have millions. Thus their greatest strength is in the sheer number of soldiers they can field in any given campaign. Also, worth mentioning, is the vast number of Tanks, Artillery, and support craft they can bring to a fight. Where most armies will have roughly a hundred vehicles at their disposal, the Imperial Guard will have thousands of them. In essence, this proves you don’t have to be a superhuman to win wars in the 42nd Millennium. All you need is enough tanks, artillery, and infantrymen to drown your foe in bullets and bodies.
Astra Militarum Playstyle
As a result, the Imperial guard favors a playstyle that closely mimicks modern military organizations with combined arms. Meaning, they will usually field a mix of infantry, tanks, and artillery. However, there are some exceptions to this as the Imperial Guard features a wide variety of units. Additionally, they can field more tanks and artillery than anyone else in the game. Most armies get one tank for each force organization slot, you can take a whole squad of them. In Conclusion, If you want an entire army of Tanks and Artillery, look no further.
Therefore, we have reflected this in our army list for today, and have included plenty of vehicles.
The Army List
++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium – Astra Militarum) [63 PL, 996pts, 6CP] ++
+ Configuration +
Battle-forged CP [3CP]
Detachment CP [5CP]
Regimental Doctrine: Gunnery Experts, Jury-rigged Repairs
+ Stratagems +
Specialist Detachment [-1CP]: Emperor’s Wrath Artillery Company
Tank Ace [-1CP]
+ HQ +
Tank Commander [12 PL, 179pts]: Battle Cannon, Display Tank Orders. Lascannon, Master Mechanic, Relic: Kurov’s Aquila, Warlord
Tank Commander [12 PL, 179pts]: Battle Cannon, Lascannon. Slow and Purposeful
Tank Commander [12 PL, 179pts]: Battle Cannon, Lascannon
+ Troops +
Infantry Squad [3 PL, 40pts]
. 9x Guardsman
. Sergeant: Laspistol
Infantry Squad [3 PL, 40pts]
. 9x Guardsman
. Sergeant: Laspistol
Infantry Squad [3 PL, 40pts]
. 9x Guardsman
. Sergeant: Laspistol
+ Heavy Support +
Wyverns [18 PL, 339pts]: Emperor’s Wrath
. 3 Wyvern: Heavy Bolter
++ Total: [63 PL, 6CP, 996pts] ++
Astra Militarum Tactics Breakdown
Above all, we need to mention the custom regimental doctrines we chose for this army because we have based the majority of our list around it. First is Gunnery Experts, which will allow us to re-roll one of the dice for the number of shots a vehicle can make. Second is Jury-rigged Repairs, which will let us roll a dice for each vehicle at the start of the turn and on a 2-4 it regains 1 wound, and on a 5+ you regain D3. As a result, we have some of the best tanks you can field in an Imperial Guard army, and we made them both more lethal and more durable.
The Tank Commanders
The first part of the Army is going to be the Tank Commanders, which will be out 3 HQ choices. These are going to be our hammer units that can take on our opponent’s elite units and tanks. Additionally, we have given two of our Tank Commanders some tank ace upgrades. Also, One of which will reduce damage received by 1 and the second one will allow a commander to re-roll wound rolls of a 1 if it doesn’t move too fast in its movement phase. Thus, our warlord will be an absolute nightmare to kill, and the other tank commander will be able to wound targets more reliably.
Unfortunately, the third tank commander won’t be able to get an upgrade since there is a limit on how many tank aces you can have. However, it is still a fantastic unit in its own right and will be able to do a lot of damage.
The Wyverns
The second part of the army is our 3 Wyvrens that will all go into one heavy support slot. The Wyverns have a very important job in this army, and that is to shred infantry units. With 4D6 shots that can target units it can’t see, we can effectively remove our opponent’s infantry units while hiding safely behind cover. In other words, we can shoot at them with a total of 12D6 shots that re-roll wounds, and they won’t be able to shoot back at us. Moreover, we can spend 2 Cp to fire one of them twice. This is because we took the Emperors Wrath Artillery detachment, giving us a whopping total of 16D6 shots. Similarly, we can spend 1Cp to have one of them halve the movement of an enemy unit. preferably something fast and dangerous in melee combat like Custodes bikers.
The last part of our Astra Militarum tactics is our 3 squads of Infantrymen. That is to say, they are cheap and disposable screening units that we will use to protect our valuable tanks and artillery. Additionally, if the game is going well we can have the squads move up the board and grab objectives.
In Conclusion
This army is really fun and focuses on maximizing the firepower from tanks and artillery. Moreover, it utilizes some of the new rules that came in psychic awakening and allows us to play an army of tanks. Which, if we are being honest, is one of the coolest things about playing the Imperial Guard. Additionally, if your opponent is playing Orks or Tyranids, they will absolutely hate your guts and you will likely table them. We also have some Battlereports with Astra Militarum you should check out by clicking here and here.
If you’d like a breakdown of the advanced tactics and strategies for Astra Militarum, painting tutorials from a Golden Demon winner, secret battle reports and tons more consider becoming a Nights at the Game Table Member today. Click on this link to learn more,
If you want to talk to the Nights at the Game Table team and discuss this article and everything Warhammer with them join Game Talk For Gamers.
don’t know what Warhammer 40k is and how to play it? Then check out the video that we made here just for you.
If you already know how to play the game and you’d like a free guide that teaches you how to paint professional-looking miniatures, advanced tournament tips from a 40k World Champion, how to find more time to play, and simple methods to get cheap miniatures click here.
As always thanks for reading!
Special thanks to Games Workshop for the use of their images and for making the best game ever!
