Imperial Guard Veterans

Hey, folks!
It's been a while since I posted anything, and I apologize for that.
Anyway, I figure I'll try to get back into posting more commonly with an extra-long article about the best of the worst. The Imperial Guard Veterans.
In the Imperial Guard 4th edition codex, when everything died a lot and sucked horribly, there was one unit that the guard player could always count on. That unit was the Hardened Veterans. This unit stood out in the terrible 4th edition codex because not only did the Hardened Veterans have a BS of 4, but they could have up to 3 special weapons, as well as a single heavy weapon. Now, unless you are pretty darn new to 40k, you should know that 3 special weapons is no joke. That can be a very excellent amount of firepower if used correctly. Now, I can honestly say that every single guard player I knew had a squad of these boys for the extra meltas, plasma guns or flamers. However, there were several drawbacks that prevented this unit from being completely amazing. The first, is that veterans were (understandably) in the elites section. The second, and most painful drawback, is that a player could only have a single squad of Hardened Veterans. With this, the Imperial Guard codex continued to be terrible for a long while.
In May of 2009, when the 5th edition codex came out, Imperial Guard players noticed that Veterans were now a troops choice, and there was no 0-1 limit. In addition to this, Games Workshop decided not to nerf the Veterans unit in any way, but reduce the cost of each model instead. With this, veterans basically took over the Troops portion of the Imperial Guard force organization slot. After over a year, people still mostly ignore platoons of infantry and penal legions.
Now, lets go into the unit and the upgrades it can take...

-They can all take shotguns (I wouldn't. First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! is too magical to waste.)
-One can have a vox for 5 pts (That would be a no as well. Vox casters used to be great. Now they suck. 'Nuff said.)
-Up to 3 can have special weapons (This means flamers, grenade launchers, snipers, meltaguns and plasma guns. Always spam out on special weapons. This is the most valuable part of the veteran squad.)
-Can have a heavy weapon team (Mortar, missle launcher, lascannon, heavy bolter or autocannon. Not as mandatory as the special weapons, but it can boost your firepower a bit.)
-Squad can have carapace armor for 30 pts (Too expensive. Maybe if you need to fill up points.)
-Squad can have camo-cloaks and snare mines for 30 pts (Again, too expensive. Your guardmen will die, and this won't help that much.)
-Squad can have meltabombs and a single demolition charge for 30 pts (Still expensive, but possibly worth it. If you have 30 extra points, get this.)

Now, for the final part of this article, I will go over my favorite layout for the Veteran Squad.
I always take mine like this, atleast 3 squads:

10 man Veteran Squad, 3 have meltaguns, 2 form an autocannon team. In a chimera transport with a multilaser and a heavy bolter- 165 pts

With this layout, you can sit back and blast the enemy with 8 medium strength shots per turn. Between the multilaser, the heavy bolter and the autocannon shooting from the hatch, you will be able to water down heavy infantry squads, decimate light infantry, and even destroy light transports. The best part, when the enemy begins to close in, you can roll up the chimera and blast them with your 3 meltaguns. Those 3 meltaguns will easily blow up any tank, and easily finish off a squad if it had already been weakened.
There you have it! A cheap, amazingly versatile gunboat basically.
Hope you enjoyed this article, I will be posting more from the IG and Eldar codex soon, hopefully.
Happy hunting!