2500 anti armor list

I have not so much a tough time beating imperial guard just that I can't... Whenever I play against one it always comes down to the wire and I'm curious as to what am I doing wrong and what can I change. I do not own any flyers currently so I do realize that this is a major issue. The guard I typically play against is a tank wall with always two vendettas, three leman russ, and plenty of pls/melta vets in chimeras. Normally an Ork player may have trouble finding spots in his deployment zone because of how many orks he has, this player finds trouble finding spaces in deployment zones due to how many tanks he has. He also likes to run a conscript squad in front of them all so he gets a cover save. Marbo is always and in play and so are two masters of ordnance.

My list and reasons for picking and playing certain units.

Hq:
Archon w/ Aegis defense line w/ Icarus las cannon. 260
(I have never found a use for an archon. I like to make use of his Bs of 7 for this.)

The decapitator 140

Lelity Hesperax 175

Elites
5xTrueborn 4 blasters and a haywire grenade in a venom. 177

5xTrueborn 4 blasters and a haywire grenade in a venom. 177
(I used to take a darkl ance but having to snap shot it every turn wasn't working as effectively as tossing a haywire grenade)

9x Hekatrix blood brides 3 hydra gauntlets, haywire grenades raider w/ flicker field. 235

Troops
10x Kabalite Warriors Dark lance Blaster, raider w/ flicker field. 220

10x Kabalite Warriors Dark lance Blaster, raider w/ flicker field. 220

10x Kabalite Warriors Dark lance Blaster, raider w/ flicker field. 220

10x Kabalite Warriors Dark lance Blaster, raider w/ flicker field. 220

Fast Attack

5x Scourges 2 haywire blasters, blast pistol. 145

5x Scourges 2 haywire blasters, blast pistol. 145

9x Reavers 3 blasters cluster caltrops 263

Heavy Support

Talos Pain Engine w/ TW - Haywire Blaster. 105

Talos Pain Engine w/ TW - Haywire Blaster. 105

Talos Pain Engine w/ TW - Haywire Blaster. 105

2,498


I like to keep a "One lance per 100 points" basis. I would have more, but I really really like haywire blasters due to consistency. Lelilth and her Wych cult were an afterthought. I really have nothing else to fill the points except maybe more Kabals, but I wanted a good warlord and a close combat unit to help deal with the conscripts and anything that pops out of the chimeras. Also I have never used the decapitator, I want to use him for a quick "Slay the warlord" type deal. I also think it would be funny to have marbo pop up then put him behind marbo.

If I had flyers I would go for voidravens. They feel better with their lance cannons and higher armor. I don't particularly know which is better of the two flyers but I like the voidraven.

I chose the talos pain engine's in place of ravager's because the last time I used them they soaked a lot of fire. They would not die. So if I can do that again enough to drop the flanks of the tanks I feel them being worthwhile.

I like the trueborn mini gun unit. (five trueborn in a venom kitted to drop tanks or to drop infantry) It's been really effective and does me well.

I always take 4 kabalite warrior squads in gun boats because I feel that is a solid core. If you think I should have more infantry and that this is my issue I want to know.

So what can I change vs. Imperial guard? I feel this is as effective as I can get.

Allies come to mind. A Farseer with Divination powers can help your Dark Lances hit/Ignore Cover and so on and a fire dragon squad with an exarch make excellent Aegis gun emplacement shooters (BS5 + Crack Shot + Tank Hunter is better then Archon BS7 IMO). Also wych squads with haywire grenades make great cheap anti-tank squads (and will eat guardsmen for breakfast). He's pretty much going to have to shoot them down or they will kill a tank each on the charge.

Also remember that at 2000+ points you get another force organization chart. Cut the fat from the list (the special characters, the flickerfields on the raiders, the blood brides, ect...) and you can afford a few more squads (6x ravagers/talos/blasterborn squads/whatever) which will help with target saturation.

Also I don't think those scourge are legal. The Blast Pistol (not worth the cost IMO) is only available to the squad leader so you'd need to pay for the squad leader first.

with the large amount of tanks grouped close together, you should give taking a Voidraven or Razorwing a serious thought as the large blast str7 would be able to strip off some serious hullpoints from the right angle, and the fact that you can shoot two of them at range 48" is just blood on the cake, oh and two DL's if you're in range or maybe 2 VL's and a mine for later, depends on your preference. but even if they do focus their fire on it (a crap load of fire) for 175 points that easily worth it if you take off 1 hull point on half of his vehicles and set up your units for the next turn by getting in as close as possible, the more you limit his movement, the better. Drop some of his front tanks to make it harder to get at you, while your units can use the destroyed tanks as cover as they get closer, (possibly wyches?) Just in case of something like this I've been running a Voidraven and a Razorwing both with 2 shatterfield missiles in my 2k army BRING THE PAIN.

He did just say in his post that he would run a voidraven if he had one but he doesn't so...

Anyway, thinking more on HQ choices it seems to be me that the Baron makes the most sense to counter a tank heavy force. The Baron gives you a much better chance of getting first turn advantage (killing their stuff before they can fire/get cover is important) and makes the squad he's joined to that much harder to kill by boosting their cover saves. And heck if it does come down to his attacking a tank the Baron is an impressive (for DE) Strength 6 on the charge. Oh and he's dirt cheap for what he gives.

You know, every time I field my Reaper I can see my IG friend think "dammit".
With 2.5k and if you would like to actually kill those armored things, use your double FoC and get more long range anti tank that can work it's magic on turn 1.

The reaper is a hullstripper like no twin linked HW talos. One initial 36 S7 AP3 shot. Roll a D3, add that many hitting Storm Vortex HW ( with 2-4 glancing aaand 5-6 penetrating) rolls more. So if you hit and roll a 2 on the D3 you immediately "almost" wreck a 3HP vehicle. Now the penetrating on 5-6 is just icing on the cake.

If the reaper lives after armor is dead, you can fire a Storm Vortex Haywire S5 AP4 large blast with pinning (penetrating on 5-6).

Just ask your friend if you can proxy 3 raiders with sails as FW Reapers and we'll see what you think of em.
I think twin linked HW Talos is NOT going to cut it.

I also agree that Eldrad ally farseer with fire dragon exarch behind his aegis and quad gun would be sweet!

Now I almost see all venoms with single blasters as distraction units, BUT 18" is close and you are very vulnerable up close with bolters or whatever.. The reapers will do their work, if you could proxy 6 reapers (raiders with sails) instead of 3 that would make his tanks go boom boom! I'm sure he would cry on how many you actually blow up. Potentially 1 S7 + D3 36" haywire that penetrates on 5-6 from every reaper... Now don't forget them to move them an inch every turn so you get your f5+ jink save.

Could someone mathammer the reaper because my practical experience with it is so far from the common advice (always take ravagers). Sorry, I'll make a proper post on it in tactics..

Your best tool against Mech IG are, surprisingly, Wyches with Haywire grenades. Usually they will get ignored, but once you assault and absolutely wreck his tankline, he won't be laughing then.

You need more lances imo,

i would run with vect (let them go first all the time he steals initiative on a 4, my friends hate this!), and a haemi with venom blade and liquifier gun.

troops

2 x 5 wracks
5 x 5 man wyche squads with haywires in a venom (no dual cannon as the extra shots are wasted against guard)

elite
4 x 4 blasterborn in venoms (16 x 30" lance shots turn 1, 6" move, 6" disembark, 18" range).
4 x incubi

heavy
4 x ravagers dark lances ( 12 x 48" lance shots, 12" move, 36" range).
2 x razorwings with DL, SC and 4 x Shatterfield missiles.

My tactics would be let them go first as you will probably steal the initiative, deploy like you are going first anyway very agressively with all troop carrying units as far forward as possible.
Start the wracks on objectives in ruins if you can, if they get shot at put them to ground for 2+ cover. With feels no pain they will stick around for a while.

Turn one as you should be going first move everything forwards, wyche venoms 12", Trueborn 6" then disembark the trueborn 6" making sure they are in range of his tanks.
Move ravagers into good positions for rest of hs vehicles.

Fire all lance weapons first, 28 in total! go flat out with the wyche venoms into his lines close as possible to vehicles you have not destroyed they will get 4+ cover for going flat out . He wont fire his large blast weapons close to his own vehicles due to risk of destroying them. This should leave your wyches relatively free to assault turn 2.

Vect and the incubi+haemi should be relatively free to wander across the table unchallenged, he wont be looking at them when he has all the rest to deal with.

You should easily weather a round of shooting, then jets should come in to add to the fire power.

Its fun to play like this and he wont be expecting it, if your shooting goes well you should have it in the bag.

you could always go for wyche venom spam and have an entire army of wyche and bloodbride venoms, at that many pints you could have 12 x wyche venoms and 4 x bloodbirde venoms, 16 units full of haywires with 4+ cover sat right next to his tanks .