6th Edition Codex Units: Guardian Defenders

So discussion another troops choice: Guardian Defenders.

So, now they got 1 point increase over last edition. No tbad since now their BS and WS are 4. Other changes are bladestorm rule for shuriken weapons and battlef ocus. Also, now weapon platform is actual model with own stats line. It doesn't change heavy weapons into assault weapon like last edition, but it consifers now relentless rule to operator. Any model in unit can fire support weapon instead his / her shurken weapon so this makes heavy weapon stay in game bit more. You can take shurikencannon, scatterlaser bright lance, starcannon or Eldar Missile Launcher with them. BS4 now actually makes Bright Lances and Missile Launchers viable.

Now you can take 1 heavy weapon platform per 10 guardians.

Compared to Dire Avengers Guardian defenders lose two major points: Range 12 vs. 18" shuriken weapon and have no exarch powers to boost them or units CC. However they can be assigned a warlock from Warlock council. Its pretty random what powers you get but you may get power either conceal them giving them stealth (hello aegis!!!) or improve their armor for 4+. Warlocks can buff unit of guardians pretty nicely, depending on ability you get.

Still they are bit lacklusting in shooting due range. Even battlefocus doesn't help much and their 5+ save will make them take casualties from bolters or equal weapons (they still got plasma grenades so they get stealth against shooting)

Tactics:

I use my guardian defenders as home objective defenders and way back securing my own obejjives or using them as guardian unit for heavy support units prone for infiltrators or spreading my lines and trying to prevent infiltrators or drop pods come out my vulnerable spots. As I run them way behind my other troops I've grown to use Missile Launcher for their s8 ap 3 krak missiles and starshot s4 ap 4 pnning blasts. BS4 makes now single shot weapons more viable than in 4th edition. Bright lance is pretty good choice but for Ap2 I might go for Starcannon. Especially in local metal there's less vehicles now and most vehicles are av10-toav12 so s6 starcannon is pretty good too. Missile is so expensive you may consider wanting to spent 1/4 of units cost to heavy weapon. After all it doesn't get flakk. Scatterlasers have range and s6 heavy 4 weapon its still excellent choice for the guardian defenders.

So guardians are best use to give them long range heavy weapon and shoot beejeesus with it and pray it does some damage, secure your own back line objectives and use area denial unit against drop pods and infiltrators. They're good shield unit for other units too. Still, don't invest too much for them, they're still very brittle but not useless unit. However there are better units to fill troops slot too. But if you have 120 points to spend you can get Eldar Guardian Defenders troops with heavy weapons on field. And even they're weapons are 12" range, they still threat terminators... Somewhat

Of course you could run blob of 20 guardians and 2 heavy weapons spreading out with warlock. Costs like land raider but seriously, you get almost 40 shuriken shots making almost sure that units 5 terminators do not want to approach you without significant support. However Marines Whirlwinds, Castellan Incendiary missiles will hurt and a lot these kinds of formations. But weirdly, so far all marine players that I've played against or in local meta, I am only one with whirlwind in  active use, so yet my guardians have not been receiving end of the whirlwinds. But price drop they got in Dark Angels codex, has given indication that WhirlWinds might get more popular when more 6th edition codexes will come. So guardians: Beware, unless you're riding jetbike...

Yup, with BS4 and the new bladestorm rule I'd say Guardians definitely have became quite useful compared to their former incarnation - I believe I will use them as objective defenders pretty often, probably with a starcannon on the platform.

Thank you for this, very informative. The infiltration/drop pods denial is a great idea, had not considered it at all!

Personally, as soon as I get an eldar force big enough to be either standalone army or allies for my DE, I will use a 10 man unit with a brightlance or starcannon, depending on the enemy.

thejamppa wrote:
Still, don't invest too much for them, they're still very brittle but not useless unit. However there are better units to fill troops slot too. But if you have 120 points to spend you can get Eldar Guardian Defenders troops with heavy weapons on field.

This is where I have a hard time wrapping my head around Guardian Defenders.
1. For 2 more points(122) you can take 6 Guardian Jetbikers with 2 Shuriken Cannons. 4 less wounds, but you get T4, 3+ armor, and the ability to turboboost to take objectives late in the game/stay out of trouble.
2. The 20 man blob Guardian squad may be able to pull off some area denial for drop pod/deep strike threats, but like IG blob squads they suffer from easily being tied up in assault. While the threat of up to 40 overwatch shots seems daunting, a cunning opponent will simply use a smaller bait squad (3 bikes, SM combat squad) before the main cc threat. The large footprint of the squad makes them easy to charge if you are spread out for area denial thereby reducing their effectiveness in close combat. Battle Focus does allow them to move a bit more, but in the end we're talking about a giant unit of 20 bodies.

Don't get me wrong, I like Guardians. I love the models. Hell, I really want to repaint mine, but I'm struggling to see them outside of a glue role. Guardians act well as a unit that supports other units. For instance, Guardians can support a Wraithlord and Wraithguard advancing by providing close AI support. The problem that pops up is the T3, 5+ armor. Without a Wave Serpent I have found them to have major survivablity issues which hampers their effectiveness as a scoring unit. Admittedly my experience with Guardians is limited to the last codex.

10 man + heavy weapon still does more area denial than 6 bikes (if you place them correctly). Also IMHO those two units have very different roles: Defenders are area denial and back line objectives holder / shielding heavy units like Prisms. Besides jetbikes die (well much more easier anyway) if they don't move, Guardians can effectively camp entire game on home objective.

Jetbikes are linebreaker unit and harassment unit due their increased toughness and save. They fill very different job in eldar armies. For me that is. I've played with last 10 games with old codex fielding at least one unit of Guardians and so far they have done much better job than I've hoped. I've once so far lost entire 10 man unit out of 10 games. 3 times guardians actually turned game for me, once securing relic and twice securing objectives I needed for needing for win.

Its still pretty much how your local meta works. Still, my experience from Guardian defender when they were "useless" has been very positive.