Last Stand: General for dummies

Overview

This guide will overview the tactics and principles of the Imperial Guard Lord General class

Preamble

A small hokku about the Imperial Guard:

TACTICS ARE IRRELEVANT/
THE COMMAND DOES NOT CARE/
YOU WILL DIE FOR THE EMPEROR.
(OR DIE TRYING).
***

Why did I write this guide?

Why did I write this guide?

Ups and downs

• High ranged damage, second only to Tau;
• Loyal soldiers ready to protect him;
• Sweet turret;
• Fires a sniper rifle with one arm, doesn’t even use the scope;
• Best quotes in the game.

• Terrible mobility, and his only escape move (at level 20) is buggy and unreliable.
• Very squishy
• Loyal soldiers are somewhat stupid, they enjoy eating grenades and have irrational fears of cover.
• Terrible melee, don’t be fooled by the fact he has swords and melee wargear in his loadout screen.

How to level: Gameplay and gear tips

First: RANGED GENERAL BEST GENERAL
Just believe me on this one and never take swords in your hands. Never.
Of course, seeing your squishy having 200 armor and 4.0 regen may inspire you, but only until you get into the action. Trouble will start around wave 7 (Bloodied Collosseum) and won’t stop until your shameful display is over, which usually happens on wave 10, but may go up to 16-19, depends on your team.

What CAN you do with melee general?

• Solo 1 wraithlord
• Solo 2 big nobs at once
• Stuff

What CAN’T you do?

• Be useful

Alright, mister best general. What do I use?

The Deadly Sniper Rifle is available from the start, and, frankly speaking, is the only reliable and balanced enough weapon. Most of you won’t need anything else, but I will give the detailed overview of the weapons later on.

How do I play?

You don’t. Of course, if by “playing” you don’t mean “sitting on my expensive bionic ass half-asleep 95% of my time“.
Since your chances to run away in case of melee trouble are almost negative, consider the following:

• Dig a hole Find a corner
• Hide in it Surround yourself with turrets and meat shield
• ???
• Cry Get coffee

Bonus points if your corner is close to the building cover, where you can probably (but unlikely) hide, when diarrhea strikes the trouble hits you.

Wait, can’t I just sit in the building?

No.

Gear: Weapons

From left top to right bottom:

• Useless Sword of the Who Cares
  Does decent damage but suppression will murder you, melee doesn’t work with squishy heroes.

• Bolter
  I know they are supposed to rip away a limb with one bolt, but this one is very sick, apparently. Don’t use it. Has life steal ..awesome.. 5% of 4 is, well it’s low, don’t even bother, that’s assuming the bullets hit. Completely innefective to armor.

• Flamethower
  With range and damage like that, might as well go melee and be of more use. (All the way from -1 to -0.99). Perhaps its only saving grace is when paired with guardsman – you have a viable way of clearing banshee/elder guard swarms, imperial guardsman and tyranid hormagaunts/termigaunts. don’t even think this will do anything to space marines or ‘nid warriors/raveners.

• [DLC] Ornate Vostroyan Shotgun
  You know Vostroyans are shaped after Russian Empire, right? So just like that, the shotgun is beautiful and impressive, but does not work. I mean hot damn, I like almost-oneshotting wraithlords with it’s ability, but I also want something longer-range and higher-damage than a smoothbore weapon. Hey guys, M2 called, it’s about your “shotgun”.

• Exhilarating Oversized Kitchen Knife
  Slices tomatos in half! Ability is as useful and effective as a wet fart, +50 armor is actually really good but you can’t do decent damage to anything.

• Grenade Launcher
  Bit hit and miss with this one. With guardsmen the knockback is really excellent, but melee heroes such as tyrant and space marine will hate you as they actively chase their targets across the map. its secondary skill is a huge aoe stun lasts about 2 seconds but is difficult to lead moving targets, very effective to shoot at your feet when swarmed by melee. Great to stun clones on wave 16 colliseum. Keep in mind it’s also extremely power hungry. You need to pair this with regen armor as you won’t be able to recast missing squad members and use its ability.

• Plasma Gun
  Its… okay. Really, I like it. Problem is, Deadly Sniper Rifle is better. But the good thing is, Guardsmen can equip 2 plasma rifles and 0 sniper rifles (or shotguns, on that matter). I have a somehow viable loadout in the corresponding section.

• Deadly Sniper Rifle
  • Gives a MAJESTIC energy regen of 1.0 => Better than plasma rifle
  • Ability less powerful than shotgun’s, but like three times longer range (and more spammable, due to regen) => Better than shotgun
  • Everything else is utter crap => BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE

Gear: Armor

From left top to right bottom:

• Cadia Pattern Carapace Armor
  • TURRET: NONE
  • +High defence
  • +Fair energy regen
  • -No turret

  Summary: if turret is irrelevant (you move constantly), take it. But usually, it’s the opposite. Is essential if you take grenade launcher or plasma gun.

• The Black Plate
  Armor for the melee general. Enough said. Nuh-uh. While melee general is useless beyond reasoning, this armor may be not. If you equip it on the Anvil, it may give you an edge versus hordes of melee units Anvil throws at you. Nevertheless, ranged units still do exist, nevermind that you can be knocked back, and you are still going to die in melee, albeit slower.

• Master-Crafted Carapace Armor
  • TURRET: HEAVY BOLTER
  • +Turret suppresses
  • +You cannot be suppressed
  • +Good armor value
  • -Obviously bad versus vehicles

  Summary: pretty noice

• Mordian Pattern Carapace Armor
  • TURRET: HEAVY PLASMA
  • +Turret fire leaves covers
  • +Splash damage (insignificant)
  • -Covers are actually a con. More covers -> drastic FPS drop around wave 10 and fatter enemies.
  • -Surprisingly low damage.
  • -Low armor value

  Summary: don’t.

• Armageddon Pattern Carapace Armor
  • TURRET: VANQUISHER CANNON
  • +High concentrated damage
  • +Long range
  • -Worst armor value of all

  Summary: acceptable, but watch out, your life will be shorter and more painful. A tactic with 3 of these spawn camping all gates from one side of the map exists, feel free to post your experience.

• Artificier Carapace Armor
  • TURRET: MISSILE
  • +Turret knocks back
  • +You cannot be knocked back
  • +Good armor value
  • +Fair damage to vehicles and better accuracy
  • -BUG: rockets often fail to fly through open wave gates

  Summary:

Gear: Accessories

From top left to bottom right:

• Honorifica Imperialis – YES
  Boosts your survival, sweet thing.
• Duelist Honors – NO
  MELEE PEASANT ALERT
• [DLC] Ursidae Trophy – YES
  Fatten yo turrets, fatten yo infantry.
• Refractor Field – NO
  Good until anything else.
• Repair – NO
  Just reinstall the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ turret.
• Reinforce – NO
  Just reinstall the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ infantry.
• Commissar – YES
  Boost yo infantry.
• Sergeant – YES
  Fatten yo infantry.
• Take Aim! – YES
  Boost not only your infantry, but your allies.
• Rocket Run – YES OH MY GOD-EMPEROR
  IT’S THE APOCALYPSE
• Medallion Crimson – YES
  Boost ALL your damage.

****Stream of consciousness beyond this point****

Medalion Crimson should be with you all the way to the top due to, well, damage. Rocket Run shouldn’t be equipped on level 19 – you would have trouble with energy without Stormtroopers – but who am I kidding? You will equip it anyway.

You should keep the Sergeant in most cases, because personal durability is nice and all, but let’s picture an angry Wraithlord/Carnifex/Dreadnought/Imperator-class Titan charging at you. While the Honorifica Imperialis can save you, Sergeant-boosted infantry is likely to do better, at least buying you more time. Don’t forget that sarge’s boost applies to EACH infantryman in the squad, while the medal boosts only YOURSELF.
However, you may use medal. Find the balance yourself, for Emperor’s sake.

Sergeant vs. Ursidae Trophy
While the trophy gives 15 health to each infantryman, Sergeant gives them 100 armor and +2 HP regen, let alone he’s quite a fighter himself. Both are extremely good with guardsmen. Ursa is not so good with Oggryns.
The extra 150 turret health from trophy is nice, but mostly irrelevant in ranged fight, and if the enemies have started raping your turret in melee, something is going wro~

I will give some more tips for the accessories when we get to the next section.
****End of stream****

Gear: Commander Items (Infantry)

Look at dem bad boys

• Guardsmen
  Nope guys, air support is not coming. Even if it would, it’d probably do rocket run over your asses, since I have another few hundred thousands of you. Oh, and if any of you dies, I will probably kill all the rest and get myself new ones. Questions?
  Guardsmen are individually weak:
  but there are 6 of them! Give them Commissar and Sergeant, and they will become *very* formiddable. Take Plasma Gun – they will take two and the rape ensues.

• Catachan Devils
  They knock infantry back and throw very powerful (but rare) grenades. Give them Commissar, Sergeant if necessary.

• Oggryns
  Fat, stupid, melee. Don’t get me wrong, they can shoot, but its probably because their fat fingers are bolted to the trigger. So, when some stormboyz land in on your head, WHO YOU GONNA CALL? Your teammates to resurrect you, since your oggryns are probably across the map, happily bludgeoning some irrelevant ork shooter. Give them Commissar and take Honorifica Imperialis instead of the Sergeant.

• Stormtroopers
  Once I told my buddy, Admiral Spatian of the Battlefleet Scarus, that the ordinary Guardsman shoots better than a Stormtrooper. He laughted so hard he started a Thracian massacre. But, apparently, Relic has no pals in Departmento Munitorum, so they made Stormtroopers as we see them – helpless. Commissar does not help one tiny bit, and the Sergeant only prolongs their agony. Honorifica Imperialis may be taken in his place.
  B U T!
  • Since Stormtroopers are horrible fighters, Lord General had to learn a Retreat ability, allowing him to run across the map lightning-fast and take reduced damage while at it.
    BUG: When crossing the yellow cover, (or in some other vague cases) our guy will stop.
  • Reduced energy usage is vital, despite the Sniper Rifle energy regen. Should I really say why? Spoiler: Rocket runs

TL; DR: Loadouts!

• Deadly Sniper Rifle
• Artificier Carapace Armor
• Medallion Crimson
• Sergeant
• Rocket Run
• Strormtroopers

GAMEPLAY: Self-explanatory – rocket run, rocket run, rocket run. It takes a fair share of practice to learn how to land it good, and learn waves layout.
PROTIPS:

• Learn when and where the sweetest enemy packs come out;
• Read the Rocket Run section.

• Plasma Gun
• Cadia Pattern Carapace Armor
• Take Aim!
• Commissar
• Sergeant
• Guardsmen

GAMEPLAY: Boost your Guardsmen. Note that Take Aim! is expensive, and you have little energy regen. Time it good. Note that take aim lasts as long as its skill c/d so if you have access to enough energy regen you can keep it up indefinitely.
PROTIPS:

• Boost your allies, depending on the situation.

Disclaimer: It’s hard to recommend anything outstanding, really, since there is little to no choice.
Some general hehe tips apply.

• Bolter turret until Rocket turret. Vanquisher, although viable, lowers your life expectancy.
• Sniper rifle is your one and only.
• Same goes for Medallion Crimson.
• Guardsmen are controversial, since they require Sergeant for a basic survival and a Commissar to rock.

PROTIPS:

• Use High-Powered Shot to help your teammates (or yourself) in trouble. Usual targets, besides immediate threats:
  • Melee enemies closing in on ranged ally;
  • Long-range support (Shurikens, Zoanthropes);
  • Vehicles
    Yes, mighty Baneblade’s arch-enemy is a sniper. Or Tau with his rocket barrage. Filthy Xenos, always ruining our Machine Spirit.
• Always have your minions between enemy and yourself;
  This also applies at the start of a wave, as the closest unit will draw initial aggro. (except stormboys – their AI always jumps to farthest enemy present)

Suggest away! If we consider your loadout reasonable******, it will be placed here.

*explaining your loadout helps a lot
**if your loadout contains “sword” in any form, pls no
***I expect suggested loadouts to vary only slightly, since general doesn’t have many options in items by design

Suggested by: M’aiq the Liar
Level: 19+

• Cadia Pattern Carapace Armor
• Deadly Sniper Rifle
• Rocket Run
• Oggryns
• Commissar
• Sergeant

Originally posted by M’aiq the Liar:

With this build you can still use Rocket Run fairly often. By the time Rocket Run cools down. You will only need to wait like 1 or 2 seconds to use it again. I like Oggryns best, despite their bad AI. I just summon a new squad near me if I need them.

I say: Viable. Although one should take extra caution when rocket running, cause they wouldn’t be able to resummon oggryns for a while. Your ability to spam High-powered shot would also be damaged.

Suggested by: ExiaRS #wengerout
Level: 20

• Ornate Vostroyan Shotgun
• Cadia Pattern Carapace Armor
• Honorifica Imperialis
• Medallion Crimson
• Take Aim!
• Storm Troopers

Originally posted by ExiaRS #wengerout:

Your job is to abuse Take Aim! and kill any heavy armored unit with Slug. Should I said Wraith Lord is almost dead with one Slug? Storm Troopers are used because of bonuses but they are ok for distracting weaker enemies, too.

I say: Essentially, you try to compensate the lack of regen on a shotgun by abandoning turret. That would make shotgun better no doubt, but yourself? Anyway, this seems viable and since General has precious little options, every viable loadout is a gift.
You could take other commander item, although your energy usage would further suffer, to lower the level plank to 18, and even further — if you swap Take Aim with a Commissar.

Level: 15?

• Flamer
• Cadia Pattern Carapace Armor
• Honorifica Imperialis
• Sergeant
• Commissar
• Guardsmen

Originally posted by ExiaRS #wengerout:

Camp at left or right building in the front of gates. Anvil buildings can sustain a huge amount of damage. Before wave, stand in the front of gate. Flamer goes through wall so you can easily kill any mob before they can touch you and your Guardsmen. I prefer left gate. Why? After you kill mob retreat between rocks and tank wreckage. When rocks are destroyed I move to right gate and mostly camp just outside building after killing initial spawn. When things get bad, run inside building.

I say: I have mixed (mostly bad) feelings about flamer. However, using Rocket Run roflstomping build on Anvil takes a good team, a luxury you can rarely afford. So go ahead, execute your Second Amendment rights and use a flamer. Still, there is a lot of cornerstones and precise control about that build. Like some gates spawn last, in which case they wouldn’t have time to close before the next wave (if they would spawn first). Some mobs like avatar and SM tank require a lot of personal (anti-armor) attention, and again, you have no turret — to spam Guardsmen, probably, — so I urge you to know what you are into before outfitting your LG like that.

Appendix : Rocket Run

Bread-and-butter ability of any self-respecting level 20 general (and 19, arguably).

This section explains how to use it to minimize risks and downsides, also including some concrete situations.

• The ability requires 2 clicks – they are used to form a segment for a Valkyrie gunship to perform a run.
• The segment is fixed length; the distance between the clicks does not matter.
• It takes about 1.5 seconds after your second click for a Valkyrie to appear.

• The red flares mark the damage area only roughly; I suspect they mark a bomb drop exact locations, but this calls for confirmation. Anyway, there is a small damage-dealing distance around the flare rectangle.
• The direction of a bombing run DOES matter – enemies, who can be knocked back, WILL be knocked back and dragged along the way.
  Enemies far enough from bombing line will just be knocked away from it and receive mediocre damage.
• Vehicles are not impressed by the run, since they are unknockable, and the Rocket Pods are a shrapnel weapon. Could’ve as well give them Hellfury Missiles, because, you know, fire

• Rockets leave yellow covers. Covers in large quantities are bad – they cover enemies and reduce game performance. (If any of your teammates has a slow computer – better leave, because his lags are your lags. One for the game devs.) SEGA actually did something to the game so it’s no longer synchronized to all players. They’ve introduced a new type of individual lags however.
  Best solution is to chose one gate and rocket run only it.
• Only when your team’s survival depends on it, you may rocket run an area outside the gates.
• Your teammates would be DYING to thank you if you did a run over them (especially knockable ones). However, if they are about to die anyway, and are surrounded by a lot of sweet, sweet enemies – why not? Just don’t misjudge.

BC

• Wave 8 : No RR required – just use High-Powered Shot on each Zoanthrope
• Wave 9 : If you manage to RR over first large banshee wave fast, your CD will end just in time for the second wave.
• Wave 10 : Run over either one of two marines/scouts gates, or conserve until marines 4-pack gate (they open last)
• Wave 11 : RR over one stormboys gate (stand as far away as possible, so they wouldn’t jump)
• Wave 16 : Bomb the copies from the green cover as soon as they appear, then shoot your copy. Unless there is a Tau with a shield drone, that is. In that case, stay far away from the copy gates, preferably around the building with the rest of your team.
• Wave 17 : Don’t be tempted to run over melee gaunts – wait until large ravener packs. This will ease out the pressure on your team a great deal.
• Wave 19 : RR the marine packs – one will appear from the Terminator gate, a few seconds after the guy himself.
• Wave 20 : Don’t rush to the copies – remember that your copy can easily oneshot you.

Anvil
Don’t go there, man. Anvil is a silly place for a general. Unless you feel suicidal and/or know what you are doing.
If you coordinate with your team and decide to stay in one gates, maybe then you have a chance. In that case, timing and map awareness really matter.
Other option includes standing in the top of the map and use buildings actively. Turret and good teammates are imperative. Rocket run, however, is not. (heresy, I know right?)

Summary

Play safe, don’t disregard your team, and whatever you do, don’t be that guy with a sword!
DA[fc09.deviantart.net]