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First off I guess this is my first post on Dakka Dakka but Ive been visiting the site for a while.

Now I have been collecting and Imperial Guard army for a while now focusing purelly on the fluff and modelling aspect, not a lot of chances for gaming where I am. However I like the gaming aspect and Im interested in desiging an army that if I did game I would be able to. Im not interested in a highly competitive tournament build, just a simple build for fun thats fluffy and can do decent against most enemy forces.

This is a 1,500 build I was thinking of. I was just interested in suggestions, what to change, what to add, etc...

Limits is a fluffy Cadian army. (Designed as an infantry regiment supported with units from an armor regiment)

HQ 95
CCS
- Medic, Vox, Melta Gun

HQ 2 70
Commissar

Elites 180
Kasrkin (10 men)
- Airborne, Grenade Launcher, Melta Gun

Troops 1 100
Veterans
- 3 melta guns

Troops 2 280
PCS
- Medic, Vox, Melta

Infantry Squad
- Vox, Grenade Launcher

Infantry Squad
-Vox, Grenade Launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad
- 2 Autocannons, 1 lascannon

Troops 3 280
PCS
- Medic, Vox, Melta

Infantry Squad
- Vox, Grenade Launcher

Infantry Squad
-Vox, Grenade Launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad
- 2 Autocannons, 1 lascannon

Fast Attack 1 60
Armor Sentinel - Autocannon

Fast Attack 2 60
Armor Sentinel - Autocannon

Heavy Support 1 185
Leman Russ BT
-Lascannon, H Bolter Sponsons

Heavy Support 2 190
Leman Russ Executioner
-Heavy Bolter




What you guys think?

Any suggestions?

Only cause you asked so nicely:

-Medic is not the best for T3 models, as they will be ID rather quckly

-Your CCS should have as many special weapons as possible, and only one type. Dropping the medic will allow you to add 3 more MG's

-If you are going to bring an LC, give him a power weapon so he can bring some power, maybe give him camo cloak dependng on what you want him to do

-Kaskrin/ST are awesome, but sadly mostly a suicide unit. go with 5 men, 2X melta guns and have them drop in and blast enemy armor with their special drop rules, no dex on me right now and I dont remember the specifcs. It looks like you have 10 of these guys so bring 2 squads

-Vets are good as lone as they stay modile. You have them on foot so they are going to be sitting ducks and shot to pieces without a chimera

-PCS, same thing as CCS, one type of special weapons as many as you can, keep them simple. For PCS, I recommend flamers or meltas if you have the points.

-Are you going to blob the squads? If so Commissars to make them stubborn is good. Blobs are best 20-30 men, power weapons where you can, melta bombs are recommended, and melta guns.

-Dont mix HWS so they can focus on primary targets. Lascannons on AV13+ and autocannons on anything less. These are your best bets with Missile launchers having controversial reviews.

-Armored sentinals are not as good as regular ones. They are cheaper, AND they can outflank which makes them a lot better. 2-3 in a squads outflanking with autocannons can cause a lot of pain for your enemy, especially getting rear armor

-For the LR's, the plain old LR is one of the best, keep it simple tho and do not take sponsons or the lascannon, they are points sinks and the LR should move 6" every turn to stay alive. If it moves 6" it can still fire the main gun and the HB. If you just take Regular LR's and drop sponsons and LC and voxes (covered in the next point) you might have enough for a 3rd LR

-Voxes are a lot of points for orders. Orders should not come down to life or death of your guardsmen and are more a bonus. Do not depend on them doing anything, but be happy when they do. If orders fail, the unit can still shoot or run

Hope that helped. It is my opinions and what I have seen work. It looks like you are going for foot guard, so bring as many Platoons and AV14 as you can. Blob your units, and make sure to get the upgraded commissars over the IC so they cannot be targeted in CC. Any questions let me know

I second a lot of what UMGuy said. The Storm troopers are still pretty effective in five man squads with two special weapons. If you mix them up, try and keep their ranges the same, like a GL and a Plasmagun.

The vet squad needs adjusting. On foot they should be in cover, so camo cloaks either with Sgt. Harker or as infiltrators is the way to go. If you equip them with autocannon and sniper rifles you can still keep the cost down.

I do take a LC with LRBT so that they can be extra effective at penetrating armor at a distance. I can see taking sponsons incase you lose the main weapon or if you are taking the punisher varient.

The HQ I would suggest using its higher BS4 and giving it a LC and a Off. of the fleet. You can issue your own orders to help pen. vehicles and help keep those reinforcements away another turn.

Vox casters sound good but they are a bit hit or miss. Also the medic sounds good but they are VERY expensive in a guard army with such a low toughness.

Good luck and I hope you get a couple games in.

I don't really agree that vox's aren't very important. They are worth the 5pts. On the contrary orders can be extremely important - if you are running a large combined squad as a blob of 30-50 men 'First rank fire..' Order can give you an extra 25-45 lasgun shots. That sheer volume of shots is hard to save against, even if you are wearing terminator armour.
Also using the 'bring it down' order to twin-link your BS3 autocannons or lascannons can dramatically improves the odds between popping transports/heavy armour or not.

I don't know how you can claim orders aren't very important to be honest. They are one of the things that has made guard competitive in my opinion. Certainly in my games orders have really given my army the edge at decisive moments. I guess it depends on what kind of army you are running, I don't play Mech but imagine orders are quite useless with Mech lists. But they are far from useless for hyrbid or blob lists.

As for Vets - I'd put them in a chimera with 3 melta or plasma guns and use them in an anti-tank or anti-MEQ role. I haven't really used them in any other role yet, but in a long range role with autocannon and sniper rifles they are probably quite effective as Barathoern says.

Good advice on LRBT's above though that I completely agree with. Though I do take the lascannon on mine. I sometimes don't bother at all with LR as they die very quickly most the time - but that can be a good if it serves as a distraction or bait.

You can blob your men - I usually have a 30-50 man blob depending on how many points the game is. I always have a Lord Commissar attached for the leadership 10 with re-rolls and an extra power weapon. Some people think the LC is a waste of points, I do not, because when it's attached to a power blob it will literately never ever break (with stubborn) and is very very hard to kill. It can absorb massive amounts of damage and wont run away. Essential if you play 'hammer and anvil' style guard.
If you pick Straken for HQ and position him and his CCS within 12" of your blob it gives them counter-attack and furious charge. Always a very nice bonus.
Also good advice to give the CCS a LC for the BS4.

PCS I go with flamers. Tried them with a heavy weapon and it's really not effective and a waste of points.

I wouldn't bother with anything other than autocanons and lascannons as HW choices (I tried missile launchers and feel they have limited value at best). Autocannons hit more often (especially when twin-linked with orders) and the volume of shots if you have 4 or 5 in a big blob can take out AV12 armour (and glance AV13 amour). With 8-10 shots in a 40-50 man blob you are guaranteed to get at least one penetrating hit, and if you twin-link them using the 'bring it down!' order that makes it even more likely, unless you are really unlucky with dice rolls.

I tried HWS but find them a bit of a waste of points. They run away very easily. For the 105 points it costs for HWS with x3 lascannons you could just have a 20 man combined squad with a couple of HW's (AC or LC) for only 10-20 points or so more. Sure, 1 less HW but loads more wounds before they run away so they can actually get some shots off before running away/dying.

Hope this helps!

Good luck!

I just do not feel relying on orders to make your break your list is quite a risk. I do run a hybrid list, and when my orders do go through it is all well and good, but when they dont my army operates just fine. Yes, FRFSRF is great, along with BiD and FoMT. But FRFSRF is only lasguns being fired from guardsmen, few will hit, fewer will kill unless within 12". It is more the threat to opponents that you can lay down that many shots IMO.

He has 35 pts of voxes, enough to attach a Commissar to a blob squad. Or hand out the necessary PW's for his blobs or upgrade to better special weapons. With Commissars attached to IS's they have LD 9 and will almost always pass orders. But to each their own.

And LR's are supposed to die as you pointed out. An enemy really scared because you brought 3 of them is an enemy that wont care about your 100+ guardsmen running around the table destroying in CC and claiming objectives.

Orders are a big plus, but they have failed me as often as served their purpose in a crunch. You have to spend at least 20 pts. to re-roll an average of 8, pretty good odds but definitely surmountable. Use orders, but don't rely on them.

Great advice from Fifteenhours on the PCS with flamers. I do the same and keep them back to be used as a counter-attack force after my gun line gets hit. Take a couple of extra SWS with flamers also and you have a solid counter and offensive capability. And with the BS3 there is no need to hit, just throw out the template and start the roasting!

I never actually thought about using flamer SWS, but can see how it might be effective at protecting a blob.

One of the weaknesses of my power blob is that it will occasionally get caught out by scouts outflanking or from a deep striking unit who then tie it up in CC and remove a tremendous amount of firepower for a couple of turns.
I've been thinking about how I might counter this for cheap. I think SWS with flamers on one flank with the PCS flamers on the other could fulfil this role.

Sorry to highjack the OP's thread btw! Hope we haven't confused you.

You are right though Barathoern - you shouldn't rely on orders to win.

"He has 35 pts of voxes, enough to attach a Commissar to a blob squad. Or hand out the necessary PW's for his blobs or upgrade to better special weapons. With Commissars attached to IS's they have LD 9 and will almost always pass orders. But to each their own."

That's true. When you put it like that a Commissar attached to the blob is much more valuable than all those vox's. I only have 2 vox's in my list usually.
Also I feel power weapons on a blob is essential.

You are spot on about the LR's. I'd never consider anymore than 2 LR's though. I rarely use 1 in games of 1000 points or less. x3 LR's is just excessive in my opinion. But then I use my power blob more to distract and harass the enemy while my chimera vets do a lot of the damage to the high priority targets.

It all depends what list you are running.

Thanks guys for your suggestions. Ill do some work later to figure what I want to add and drop. A Chimera for the Vets and dropping the Medics are probably what I will do for sure. Ill figure out what else I can do later.

Thanks again