Militarum Tempestus in Cadian Battle Group

I know, I know. Most competitive players will tell me it's a terrible idea, most people with any idea how to play a Warhammer 40K game properly will advise me against it, and any sensible person will order me to use a Schola Progenium Militarum Tempestus army with its own codex and set of orders, not to mention Objective Secured.

But I'm doing it for fluff, so it's fine. I have also already written an entire post comparing Schola Progenium Militarum Tempestus with Storm Troopers in an Astra Militarum army (argh, that sounds so pretentious, I'm sticking to Imperial Guard). If you've read it, you'll know that I've listed certain advantages for Imperial Guard Storm Troopers. For example, they have more access to more orders, by virtue of the Senior Officer rule for the Company Command Squads, effectively doubling the orders you can get in a Schola Progenium Storm Trooper army, and even unlock a fifth order via a Storm Trooper command squad that doesn't take up any slot in your standard Force Organization Slot! Not to mention, the Imperial Guard orders are not inferior to the Schola Progenium ones, and while the latter has advantages in terms of monster hunting, the former has their own advantages in dealing with mobs, movement and vehicle hunting.

Now keep that in mind, and let's move on to the Cadian Battle Group. I'm of the view that the Command Benefits the Cadian Battle Group provides can actually benefit and maximize the potential of Imperial Guard Storm Troopers. Yes, they probably don't have Objective Secured, but thanks to the benefits they make better killing machines so you can just shoot your enemies off the objectives.

Take the first benefit for example. Your Company Commander gets 24" range to issue his orders, and he gets an extra order - which means a total of three orders just from him alone. Wow. Not to mention, you can take as many Company Command Squads as you want for Battle Group Command to maximize your orders, but obviously you don't need that much. One is actually more than enough for me, but if you'd like, 2 should be fine. What this means is that your Company Command Squad does not need to be so close to your Storm Troopers, as with a regular Imperial Guard Combined Arms Detachment. They can issue orders from far away, from a safe distance without running the risk of getting shot. Just stick them in a Chimera and issue orders from it at a safe distance. Or if you want, use the Emperor's Spear Aerial Company, drop your Company Command Squad into cover (or run them into cover using the Forward, for the Emperor! order) thanks to no scatter, and have them issue orders from 24" away.

The next benefit is that any officer issuing an order gets to roll an extra dice for the leadership test and discards the highest. Everyone has been saying what makes Storm Troopers are their orders, and as I already analyzed, both Imperial Guard and Schola Progenium orders are pretty good, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. This means your orders are more likely to go off! Sure, the Storm Troopers' Schola Progenium orders are awesome, but a Leadership of 9 means there's quite a bit of chance the orders won't go off. With this command benefit, your orders are much more likely to go off, and don't underestimate the value of rolling an extra dice. Sure, you don't have the Rending or Sniping orders, but the Monster and Tank Hunter, Ignores Cover, Split Fire and First rank, fire! Second rank, fire! orders are much more likely to go off than those. And you have a lot more options and a lot more orders available!

The third benefit, while not competitive for anyone else, is a huge plus for me. My Storm Troopers get to re-roll ones for shooting their hot-shot lasguns. They are sharpshooters, thanks to being trained by Cadians, ha ha. With their already decent BS4, that means their chances of missing are pretty small now. Add this benefit to the one above, where your order First rank, fire! Second rank, fire! is much more likely to go off, there's a lot of AP3 shots landing home. Can be devastating, and I can't wait to try it out in an actual game!

Keep in mind, this is for fun and casual games. It's not meant to be competitive, it's not meant to sweep or win tournaments. I can try, but I guarantee I'll be kicked out of the tournament before the preliminary round ends. But this is a very fun, fluffy list with grossly underrated benefits that might actually turn the game around against casual gamers. No, I'm not trying to be a power gamer and bully amateurs (I'm an amateur myself), but at least I can play decent games against say, a Necron Decurion, a Khorne Blood Host, Eldar Warhost (okay, now that's a bit too far), Tau Hunter Contingent or Space Marines Gladius Strike Force. I hope. We shall see. I've to say I'll probably die against my own Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, what with all that Haywire and Imperial Knights stomping over my tanks. Ouch. Ditto if my opponent brings Wraithknights. It'll utterly destroy my Stormsword. The thing with casual games is that probably no one is a jerk to bring four or five Wraithknights or spam 3 Imperial Knights unless they're really desperate (and are willing to lose their friends).

Anyway, for the Emperor! Happy gaming!