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Help me find a new army: Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) or Dark Angels?  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in de
Fresh-Faced New User




Hi,

I'm a Tyranid Player and now I'm thinking about starting a second army. This army should be a contrast to my tyranids, so: Verhicles, a small number of miniatures, more shooting than close combat and so on...

Over 10 years ago I played Imperial guard and I loved it! At that time I've got a few Tanks and much infantry.
Now I'm thinking about playing a mechanized Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum army. That means many Tanks, only a few Troops in Chimeras.
On the other hand the Dark Angels are appealing to me, too.

These are the things to considerate:
1) I want a small amount of figures!
2) I want Vehicles
3) I do not like bikes that much. A few are ok, but not to many.
4) I love the Land Raider Model
5) I love the Leman Russ ;-)
6) I need the 7th edition Rulebook (still got the 6th Edition one), so the Dark Vengeance Box seems like a good Idea for Dark angels

As I'm only playing with friends (for fun, not competitive) it is very important to me that the army is not too strong! I do not want to play an auto-lose army, but as I'm one of the better players in my circle of friends, that army must not be too strong!

I'm also thinking about allying Dark Angels with Imperial Guard. But I'm more the "only one army" type of player. Does this seem to be a good idea? Any input on an overall theme for this alliance?

So what do you think?
Mechanized Imperial Guard or Dark Angels with not too many models?
How much models at, let's say 1500pts, does a Dark Angels army have? I know this can anly be a rough estimate, but whats the order of magnitude?
Is the Mechanized Imperial Guard to strong or too weak?
What's the play-style of Dark Angels?

I appreciate any input and comments :-) So, maybe you can help me make the right decision.

best regards
   
Made in br
Committed Chaos Cult Marine






Mechanised Imperial Guard! If you want to be a cheesy painbringer, take a 50-man blob squad of guard and add Azrael to give everyone a 4++. Mechanised Guard with DA is an option too

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/10/23 13:34:24


 
   
Made in gb
Is 'Eavy Metal Calling?





UK

DA will almost certainly have fewer models than IG, even if you play Mech Guard. For a typical DA 1500 setup I tend to bring:

Librarian
2-3 Tactical Squads (sometimes Pods, sometimes Rhinos, sometimes foot, sometimes mixed)
Deathwing Knights
Deathwing Termies
Something else, usually a Whirlwind, small plasma-toting Ravenwing squad or Inqusition allies. It is a fun army with a lot o ways to play, and usually has 40-50 models depending on the extras I add.

Guard, on the other hand, I tend to play in 100+ men infantry hordes, so not really what you're looking for, but for a mech army I'd build it around 3-4 Vet squads, and the rest on Russes or Hellhounds, again 40-50 models, but more tanks, so it won't work out as any less painting really.

Allying the two gives you some nice combos, but moreso with foot than mech Guard. For now, I'd stick with just one, and DA will probably play most differently from your Nids.

 
   
Made in us
Stalwart Space Marine




Kalamazoo, MI

Sorry, but the prior posts apparently ignored the OPs desires. IG is certainly your best choice. You like vehicles? Leman Russ? Imperial Guard.

If you really love the land raider you can purchase one and build an ally force for your Guard,

but really... Blobs? Guys...

   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





Vallejo, CA

I would somewhat reluctantly say DA here.

On the one hand, DA are REALLY low model count. 2 land raiders with termies, one with a special character is going to eat up all the points, while leman russes are pretty cheap these days (pointswise). It's not that uncommon for a mech guard list to see 10 tanks and 30 infantry at 1500 points.

The other thing to consider is where you go from the start. Russ/chimera guard only goes in the direction of more models, whether the russes become more, cheaper hellhounds or artillery, or whether you start adding a bunch of infantry. Meanwhile, DA has several lists that still preserve low model counts, like deathwing and ravenwing. Even drop-pod DA isn't going to have THAT many models.

Plus, as you say, DA is a steal right now, what with DV, for both the rules and models, while guard is going to have a higher up-front cost in comparison.

Also, consider what kind of tanks you want. Most guard tanks are rather flimsy. Think more like up-armored speeders than battletanks. Guard medium tanks are AV12/10 while DA medium tanks are AV13/11, and guard heavy tanks are AV14/13/10 while the land raider is AV14/14/14.

The only real advantage to the fact that you have to spam worse tanks with guard is that guard gives you a LOT more options to spam tanks. Every infantry unit can take a chimera, and you have tanks in HS, FA, and HQ, compared to DA's more or less just HS.

So, the question then is do you want a few elite tanks filled with elite troops wading through everybody, or do you want to send in wave after wave of armor until something eventually breaks.

Given your original comments, I'm guessing the former more than the latter, and thus, I'd say DA.


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Made in us
Dakka Veteran




I built the whole first company for dark angels. Go crusaders with terminators. Small count. More shooty. Still decent in hand to hand.
   
 
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