OK, last year, I did a tactics article on the assorted units of my Astra Militarum army. This year, I’m zooming out a bit, to talk about how the army feels now. I’ve got a good few games in, less so recently, but I keep my eye on the discourse. Its been a bumpy year for the Imperial Guard. We got a new codex, and it was immediately patched. And then patched again. They took away the basic Infantry Squad. They added a bunch of Kriegers, concepts making the jump from Forgeworld resin to plastic. Tournament win-rates fell, if that’s your thing. So, here’s my big picture thoughts on Codex Astra Militarum. What worked? What didn’t? Was it Kodex Krieg? How did the Balance Dataslates treat the book? For the answers to these and similar questions, read on. This will be a ramble, as I touch on topics as I pass them, and a new detachment was published only weeks ago, so its a bit unfocused.
OK, I’m not gonna beat about the bush. I’m gonna come straight to my key opinion, touch on detachments, especially the new one, before talking about Krieg, and then tanks. With the 10th ed codex, Astra Militarum infantry looks less like one force and more like four in a trench-coat, as dictated by the model range. Something like the four chaos marine factions compiled into one, but omitting the concept of Chaos Undivided. We have Cadian, Catachan, Krieg, and Tempestus forces. Each has its own grunt unit, at least one HQ, and at least one specialist infantry type, Cadians being the Ultramarines of the army. Catachan are currently the least supported, followed by Tempestus, but even then, it's entirely possible run a theme army using the vehicle pool to smooth any rough edges. You know, like marine factions all use Rhinos and that? This is broadly speaking a good thing. Guard players end up with a lot of choices, although I continue the dislike the loss of generic infantry options. The four regiments are very much reactions to the classic Infantry Squad, and now that's gone, so we are obliged to pick the closest regiment that fits. If we had a few more options I'd mind it less, or if one hit the same notes, but right now it feels like a vibes issue, only highlighted by what little background material there is the codex, which still mentions other regiments. From a more mechanical perspective though, these 4 regiments present a lot of redundancy. Guard in general tends to have a lot of good-enough, B Tier units, with those less desirable units mostly being niche vehicles or using unpopular weapons like missile launchers. There's not many bad choices if you know what you are doing. But, because key roles are covered multiple times, two phenomena tend to happen. The first is that people just gravitate towards whichever variant is "best", creating what might be called a mixed regiment or less charitably a Frankenstein's Monster. I find myself doing this a lot, especially in larger battles. The differences between the Battleline units for example are slight but very meaningful in this army, and as there is no generic option, I end up taking a combo-platter of Catachans/Krieg with some Cadians as a side. If I'm taking Heavy Weapons squads though, I'm likely taking Catachans though, as that's the best one for lascannons most of the time and Scout is always handy. Catachans in general are something of a sleeper hit TBH. Similarly, while I don’t field these myself, Kasrkin are the go-to infantry for so many tournament lists that its not even funny. While you can theme your force around a specific regiment as described above, you likely won’t, due to internal balance being what it is.
The second phenomena is that while 10th ed has rather loose army composition as it is, with this redundancy, the Astra Militarum can easily overpower such limitations. If you want a more elite army you can have upwards of 120 special forces dudes without even using the Bridgehead Assault detachment. That was a thing for a hot minute, wasn’t it? Funny they forgot Deep Strike for Scions too, bloody hell. And I'm sorry to make the space marine comparison again, it's gets a bit weird when special forces get outnumbered 3 to 1 by other, but lesser, special forces, ya know? If you just want to Zap Branigan the enemy with endless men, you can have 180 just in the battleline units for 1200ish points. Plus 27 heavy weapon teams for 600ish. Move things around a bit, add Officers, round it up to 2K, and you put them all in the Recon Element detachment for a cover save. Because 200 odd guys is something that's hard to see, OK. Maybe I'm mixing up thematic complaints with mechanical ones here, but I feel that GW's just-what's-inna-box philosophy is generating a few issues, and we might be better off reverting to something like the old doctrine system or what the Militia uses in Horus Heresy. Would it not make more sense to just to treat basic Cadian, Catachan, and Krieg squads as minor variants of the same unit? That bit about Recon Element there ties into a wider complaint with the detachments in the codex; its not that they are necessarily bad, they are very much specialist things, with maybe one good trick or skew build, but these struggle to match Combined Arms in day-to-day play. Lethal Hits is just that good for an army based on shooting. The exception is the new Grizzled Regiment, which increases the availability of Orders and adds a lot of rerolls, plus also a Lethal Hits stratagem for good measure. Grizzled Regiment is probably the best detachment, full stop. This has properly borked the internal balance between detachments, to the point where I suspect nerfs are likely, and I'll be referring to that more later on. Right now? I wonder if its some form of apology, and/or over-correction.
With all that having been said, let's pivot to the main selling point of the codex: the Krieg units and the related Siege Regiment detachment. The amount of patching, release drama and anti-hype around this stuff is a big part of the reason I held off on deep analysis of the codex so long. This was also something I'll admit to being very invested in, to the point of doing a long term project to make these new units. As the big new thing, you'd expect them to push it. You might expect this be the Kodex Krieg in all but name. Did it work out like that? No, not really. But if it had? I probably would not have mourned the loss of the old Infantry Squad as much. Krieg has a very distinctive look, are peak Imperial cannon fodder, and if the mechanics had backed that up I could have lived with it. My gut feeling is that is that Krieg is here and mostly good enough, and doesn’t overshadow existing units. But that’s not the same thing as saying their units are exciting, or that the other regiments are exciting. Once you compensate for retired units… I don’t think anyone’s infantry tactics will have changed that much. Except maybe to put everything in Grizzled Regiment now, but even then old faves like Bullgrin and Rough Riders seem to be back in fashion. Because, with but a single Order, you can make them 2+ to hit with a reroll. Are we sure this was playtested?
Siege Regiment, the de-facto Krieg detachment: I was gonna say this one was OK by the standards of the codex, but then the new Grizzled Regiment dropped and kinda broke the scale. Siege Regiment sets a trend here in that it was patched, probably should have been more properly playtested before hand, and now just gets overlooked. The Creeping Barrage thing was very characterful and desirable at first, but it was modified so much that you'd rarely take it. A penalty to enemy movement is nice, but it only triggers on a 5+, and the number of affected units is capped. An unreliable effect with a small payoff is not great. This relegated the detachment ability to effectively being either ignore cover for three targets or stealth for three units of your choice. That ain't nothing, and it helps with the artillery whom need the buff these days, but it ain't great. The stratagems are a lot more appealing, especially if you like infantry, but perhaps not good enough to replace Lethal Hits. At time of writing, in addition to its own unique strengths like Order economy and rerolls, Grizzled Regiment can do a lot of what Siege Regiment can, its buffs currently affecting artillery, and is the only real alternative to Combined Arms. So Siege Regiment is a thematic pick, but not necessarily a pragmatic one.
Death Riders and Lord Marshall Dreir: I'm not gonna mince my words here, reactive moves are awesome. In an IgoUgo turn sequence this is immensely useful for high level play. The problem is, of course, the inevitable comparison to Attilan Rough Riders. Death Riders move two inches slower and lack the melta lance option, making them far less versatile as a counter charge unit. Rough Riders might plausibly take out a marine unit or damage a vehicle; Death Riders are gonna have a much harder time doing that. The gasmask cavalry do however have decent melee AP via power sabers and their nightmarish mares, so it's not all bad, but definitely a unit that needs finesse to use. The Lord Marshall can further compensate on the charge as he grants Devastating Wounds, and he's not bad in a scrum either. I do wonder why exactly he has three orders though. Mounted units are tricky to position as it is, due to their base size plus movement rules, and he's only got a 6 inch order range, with no way to improve that like the Lord Solar can. The points cost is pretty high too. Overall, unless you really want reactive movement or were working to a Charge of the Light Brigade theme, I don't see why you'd take these. An obvious miss, why hasn't this been addressed in a dataslate?
Krieg Command Squad: You will and should be noticing a pattern of comparison to other, per-existing units or concepts. These guys suffer from that too, and are disliked as they replace a Forgeworld HQ that gave their unit Feel No Pain 5+. Having FNP is far less common in this codex however, and in context the Krieg Command is pretty decent. Basic Krieg squads are about slugging matches on objectives and attrition, and the Command helps that in several ways. They aren't especially adaptable, and the “medic” is forgettable, but they make Krieg blobs a high OC anvil with a lot of power and plasma weaponry. Which then hits and wounds at +1, plus whatever Orders and Stratagems because battleshock is not a factor for them and casualties only make them angrier. The main criticism I would make however is one of omission. Krieg currently lack a second Officer option, and while the Servo Scribe helps with that, Krieg Commands don't have as good an Order economy as Cadians. Which, oddly, makes Cadian Officers better at babysitting artillery and heavy weapons, something you'd expect Krieg to have a talent for. See also: Grizzled Company, where that limitation suddenly vanishes, and you're looking at a critical mass of +1s and rerolls, but that's more a reflection of the detachment than this unit shining.
Krieg Battleline: OK, these aren’t new, but I’m mentioning them anyway. They are still good, see above, but that unit entry was a crime against the English language. And speaking of questionable quality control...
Krieg Combat Engineers: I would dearly love to know what happened with this unit's price. Was this a simple typo, one among a disconcerting number of gaffes? Or did someone honestly think 35 points was reasonable for something that could peak at 12 mortal wounds worth of output? These have been up and down in price since, with the Remote Mine rule nerfed, and honestly I think they are in weird place. They look like they should be the Krieg answer to Kasrkin or Scions, but the most direct comparison is actually the Catachan Jungle Fighters. Think disposable skirmishers. Combat Engineers are currently inexpensive, agile, and potentially very destructive to objective-sitters or careless vehicles, and have a melee option. Jungle Fighters are also those things, just with more bodies, and much more OC. They are much less good with respects to Mortal Wounds, but they have access to the Grenades Stratagem too, and a Vox Unit to potentially refund it. Combat Engineers do have use cases, and if you going full Krieg you will have a good time, but be aware of diminishing returns due to how their Grenadiers rule works.
Krieg Heavy Weapon Squads: These are basically a gimmick. A deeply fun gimmick, especially with the flamer option, but still a gimmick. Most of the discourse around these is about how to ensure those flamers get to fire, possibly via Taurox. That feels a bit more gamey than trench warfare, but OK. Meanwhile, the lascannon option is the undercut by the alternatives, and unless 11th edition mixes things up, there's no pressing need for heavy stubbers. Which is a damn shame.
Artillery Teams: By far the most unique of the Krieg units, Artillery Teams have a rather different footprint and execution than their obvious rival, the Field Ordnance Battery. These present as one model on a single huge 130mm base, as opposed to two on two fairly-huge 100mm bases, which has implications for both positioning and their attacks. Off the bat, the FOB can target two different units and benefit from Blast twice, while Artillery Teams are but one model, but are more durable and actually easier to conceal. The FOB has the best special rule, but Artillery are not as dependent on Orders. Both have some undesirable weapon options, but the FOB has the fewest and the lightest to choose from, while the AT is all indirect and/or heavier. With the Artillery Team currently cheapest of the two, I feel that choosing between is much more like a choice than a foregone conclusion. Which is good. Just pick the one that slides into your army most easily. Either the Heavy Mortar or the Bombast Field Gun, depending on points. Other weapon choices for these units remain a frequent trap however.
So, were the new Krieg units a success? Kinda; nothing leaps out as a must-have, most have a use case, but only the horses seem naff. I just don’t love them. On balance, these are functional, and the internal balance of the faction seems steady. But the amount of rules patching and price changes it took to get here doesn't reflect well in the product as a whole. That said: these are probably more accessible than the Forgeworld versions, at least.
OK, enough about the meat; let’s talk metal. Perhaps paradoxically, the vehicle pool received far less attention for this ruleset, and ended up with a net positive for the treadheads. There is now a tank -centric detachment, Combined Arms loves tanks too, and there is now an Officer version of the Rogal Dorn. That last one now brings the possible number of Dorns in a list to six, which probably would be another balance issue if you could actually fit that on a standard table and terrain layout. There's also an APC detachment, which seems fine, although it's hop-on-hop-off approach isn't my cup of tea. I don't have Kasrkin or any Tauroxes. With the exception of that command tank, the actual datasheets are mostly unchanged, so almost all the work was done at the Detachment level. That new Grizzled Regiment detachment also works great with tanks. Imagine boosted AP and/or ignore cover on every gun a tank has, plus reroll ones, plus an Order. You can do that on a Baneblade too, so I’m totally sure all of that that won’t get nerfed. Anyway, those mostly unchanged datasheets of tanks. This means that what was good before (usually) still is, guard armour always being a strength. Its not like they did something dumb like retire the Infantry Squad.
Wait.
Sorry, I mean the Leman Russ. But there’s a butt-load of stuff left to wither on the vine. GW seems to want to wind back a lot of the more "Apocalypse scale" vehicles game wide, and in the Guard this manifests by superheavies frequently being discouraged in some rules-exclusion-sorta-way, and self-propelled guns still suffering the Indirect Fire nerfs we’ve had since 2024. There's at least a dozen vehicles currently languishing in mediocrity. I don't think many of these were super popular in of themselves, except when fashionably unbalanced, Indirect was nerfed for good reason, so perhaps no harm done. But it was a missed opportunity. I mean, they attempted to make the Leman Russ Eradicator relevant again. They failed, but an effort was there. They didn't fix the Vanquisher though. Or the Punisher. And they broke the demolisher cannon. <sigh> They could have done some point tweaks in December, but they didn't. Instead, Grizzled Company happened, which has the effect of making superheavies and self-propelled guns threatening again, as well as making everything that was already good even better.
Conclusion
As the general tone of this article might imply, I’ve been a bit back and forth on this codex and the current state of the Astra Militarum as a faction. One thread is obvious lack of quality control evident by the amount of rules patching. I’m not gonna begrudge them for fixing mistakes, because once the fix is made, that’s OK. Something is only late until the point it arrives, then it is here. But with the Grizzled Company, I fear such mistakes are being repeated. Remember what happened with Bridgehead Assault? The initial tournament popularity, then nerfs, and subsequent price hikes? If GW does any noteworthy rules patches before 11th edition, I suspect that this detachment will be a focus. Its not Ork Dakka detachment bad, but its early days. Another thread is one of vibes. There is a functional army here, but the connective tissue is kinda absent. Its a bunch of combos and key units, rather than something that looks like a regiment. And given the appeal of guard is military-space-soldier-WWII-fantasy, that’s a bit of a problem. Related to that is how anti-climatic the Krieg units proved to be, although I did set myself up for a fall on that one. Overall though? A good enough codex? A conservative codex. A codex that, like so many in 10th ed, drops a lot of units. Perhaps a codex better for tanks than infantry or artillery, compromised in places, but still very playable. I’m just bitter about the Infantry Squad, I think.
