Imperial Armour 13: Renegades and Heretics- Review Part XIII (Troop Choices)

   
Today we are going to skip ahead to troops, and then backtrack to elites. In Imperial Armour 13, the books layout has HQ, Elite, then Troop choices. I think troops need to be looked at first, they are your obsec units and even thought some elites can become troops, I think it's much more important to look at the troops because outside of heavy support they are the 2nd most important part of the force org chart.

Renegade Infantry Platoon
-Slightly different from the AM equivalent, platoons are made of between 3-5 infantry squads. One must be designated as the platoon command squad for no additional cost, this squad may upgrade its renegade champion to a demagogue for free, and upgrade its vox-caster to commend net vox for free.

Renegade Infantry Squad - 30pts

Special Rules: Uncertain Worth, Fanatic (demagogue only)

     Essentially a guardsmen, with one less ballistic skill. 30pts gets you 10, and you can add an additional 10 for the same cost, for every five models you can have a heavy weapon team. The slightly reduced cost means you lose the BS and have no armor, for 5pts the squad can have sub-flak armor. Worth it? Probably, especially if you stack it with a FNP 6+.

     The cannon fodder comes with a close combat weapon, and autopistol/laspistol. You can give them lasgun, autogun or shotgun for free. Militia training is 10pts and increases your bs and ws to a standard guardsmen. Again, worth it for cannon fodder? Personally, I don't think so. Give them the bare essentials and cut them loose, if they die, so what, if they live...Hey, objective secured!

You're BS 2 with no armor save. What do you do? Charge!

Renegade Mutant Rabble- 30pts

Special Rules: Uncertain Worth, Curse of Mutation

     Same stats as the renegade infantry and the same point cost. Plus side...You can take 50 total guys. They come with a autopistol, laspistol, or stub gun, a close combat weapon, and frag grenades. However, you can give them sub-flak armor for 10pts for the entire unit. So 50/10pts, that's pretty dang cheap if you think about it. Just do it, who knows...It might save 4 guys and pay itself back. LOL! Again, just spray and pray. Hope that a few get through, definitely hit or miss considering they could have anywhere from LD 5-10, depending on how well you roll.

Remember that being a mutant makes them reduce friendly models LD -1 if within 6".

Renegade Infantry Veterans- 35pts

Special Rules:  Uncertain Worth

     You get 5 veterans and can add 5 more for 10pts each. You can upgrade a champion. The vets come with a 5+ armor save, same wargear as the others, and have krak grenades too! For every 5 you can take a special weapon.

     You can also give them carapace armor, scout special rule, furious charge, deep strike, or tank hunter. It should be noted that these guys have the SAME stats as standard guardsmen, and cannot take milita training to up their BS or WS, sadly.

Plague Zombie Horde- 30pts

Special Rules: Fearless, FNP (4+), slow and purposeful, warp plague

     Starting with 10 zombies, you can add up to 40 more for 3pts each. ws2, bs2, s3, t3, w1, i2, a1 - The fearless and FNP make the unit totally worth it for taking an objective, sadly they are slow, but you can't have everything. Remember in order to unlock them as a troop choice (or at all) you have to take a demagogue with the Covenant of Nurgle.

Warp Plague: winning close combat allows for D3 more zombies to come to life. Cool.

Conclusions

     Remember why you are taking these troops, they aren't meant to destroy particular units. Sure, give them a melta bomb or something to open up armor, but remember they are purely meant to tie-up the opponents bigger units and hopefully take an objective or two. With their random leadership values it is difficult to know which troop choices will be able to stay in the fight.

     One solution I looked into was using the baneblade's baleful aberration to create a bubble of fearlessness. However, it's a big target and not tough enough. Perhaps taking CSM with fearless characters and splitting them amongst units would be helpful. Remember, every shot the opponent uses on your troops is one less shot at your heavy tanks/guns.