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I admire the IG greatly. The average man facing untold horrors on countless worlds. But what is it like playing them? Many years ago I had a "small" force of pewter Cadians and did fairly well with them but what is it like now?

Guard are one of the stronger codices right now. They're pretty boring if you want to go hardcore competitive, as it's pretty much a spamfest of melta veterans in chimeras. Of course, everything is boring and predictable in hardcore competition. Apart from that, they're one of the more flexible armies out there. There are a ridiculous number of different vehicles, with seven different Russes (across two kits), five different artillery (although only the Basilisk and Manticore have official kits), three Hellhound variants (all in the kit), an anti-air autocannon battery that's pretty awesome against infantry and light vehicles as well, and two VTOL troop carriers/gunships. You can build a maneuverable elite force, a formidable armored gunline, or a massive footslogging army with ease. They are a bit expensive, though, as they field masses of troops and vehicles compared to just about anyone else (my current 2000 point list has seventy infantry and twelve vehicles, for example).

Personally my favorite army, although they get expensive fast, with so many vehicles and having the ability to field a large company of infantry, you just want to give all of your money away and be done buying things but it never ends :(

Very fun to play, they can g toe to toe with almost any codex right now.

leafblower-style lists are, in fact, pretty boring. Deploy, and then roll dice until you win the game (or lose).

Foot lists are awesome to play. A massive horde of models, lots of dice, and al'rahem is worth the look on your opponent's face after the 80 models on the board just got helped out by another 40 models outflanking from the side.

The only problem with foot guard is time. It takes a LOT of time to build and paint them. It takes a LOT of time to unpack and deploy your models. It takes a LOT of time to repack everything into a coherent order once you're done.

It's so much effort, that I'm starting a CSM army on the side just so that I don't have SO many minis to push around, but there's still nothing as satisfying as losing 100 models, but still having your opponent run away in fear...

It's pretty good. I run a hybrid list and its a lot of fun. Most of my opponents cannot believe how many tanks and men I pull out in 2k.

The LR is fun to see it blast huge wholes in your enemy infantry. And Guardsmen will usually get laughed at, especially if your opponent doesnt know them. That's how it is for me at my FLGS, especially when I take them into CC. But in the end you will have a good number of guardsmen and lots of dead terminators around.

I run an airborne list, everyone is flying, deepstriking or 'forward.observers/recon units' (marbo n harker). then when I need to scale up I roll out a few russes, but I used to run pure airborne up to 1500 n it was really fun. a wee bit fragile, but great fun. also completely different to the lists my friends run

Playing Imperial guard made me the man I am today...broke, tired of painting, glue constantly stuck to my fingers, legs and face and smelling of despair at the thought that I've still only got about half of what I want...

But I'd never change it for anything!

Lmao Nik very funny!

I run a pretty "stereotypical" IG list when it comes to the fluff. Lots of russes and floot flogging infantrymen. While its not hardcore competative, its plenty good in my friends group.

I love me some Leman Russes, and its always great seeing the look on my friends faces when they see the size of my army and amount of firepower compared to theirs.

I love my guard, so many options and so much fire power! I run an infantry army, so far about 1500 points mostly of basic infantry platoons backed with lots of heavy weapon teams. They are somewhat squishy but the amount of firepower you can play compared to the cost of individual tanks makes weapon teams great in my opinion.

The orders are also darn handy, its quite something to see a blob squad of 20-30 guardsmen open up at close range with front rank second rank!

Out of all the armies I've played, Guard are my favorite. My 2k has 67 infantry and 10 vehicles. The best is when it comes to Apoc. They get so many choices and they are all good.

Mech guard does not equal boring leafblower.
I love fielding lots of Leman Russes...few opponents can deal with 5/6 AV 14s at 1500 points.
If you like hard-as-nails tanks with uber firepower, the guard are for you.
Blob lists are pretty rubbish, though. Blobs are cool but they're not very effective.

SMC wrote:I admire the IG greatly. The average man facing untold horrors on countless worlds. But what is it like playing them? Many years ago I had a "small" force of pewter Cadians and did fairly well with them but what is it like now?

Depends on how you play them

I've always played mine Mechanized. Back in 4E, it was basically massive casualties, rarely won most games and against many races (Mech Eldar in particular) didn't have much of a chance, and often lost badly, but when I did win was usually a big win, dealing with 11 mediocre/bad tanks and 60something infantry wasn't too hard.


With the 5E book and a solid mechanized list, it's very difficult to lose badly, and many opponents can't properly deal with fifteen effective tanks and 75+ cost effective infantry.


Footslogging lists haven't changed too much except they have more dudes and tend to be very static.

vaktathi got it pretty right. I personally play my guard with extremely high-powered weapons all around. If I can help it, every squad will have some sort of weapon upgrade.

In my last battle, with another IG army against an Eldar/'Nids team, not a single lasgun was fired because all of the action was high-energy vehicle battles with upgraded Vet squads in Chimeras and a plethora of tanks and artillery shells.

Personally, and though most would probably not share my enjoyment, I absolutely love shelling the crap out of my enemy with Basilisks and Medusas. Especially when that one good artillery round all lands directly and instantly changes the face of the battle for the better.

I also laugh out loud when 'danger close' artillery attacks scatter onto my own infantry units nearby. But hey, that's just me.

Ailaros wrote:leafblower-style lists are, in fact, pretty boring. Deploy, and then roll dice until you win the game (or lose).

Foot lists are awesome to play. A massive horde of models, lots of dice, and al'rahem is worth the look on your opponent's face after the 80 models on the board just got helped out by another 40 models outflanking from the side.

The only problem with foot guard is time. It takes a LOT of time to build and paint them. It takes a LOT of time to unpack and deploy your models. It takes a LOT of time to repack everything into a coherent order once you're done.

It's so much effort, that I'm starting a CSM army on the side just so that I don't have SO many minis to push around, but there's still nothing as satisfying as losing 100 models, but still having your opponent run away in fear...

I second this, I've had great fun with my blob list as I arrive up to the table and the opponent just glazes over at all the bodies. Or during the game they assault my blob with 10 grey hunters and a wolf guard and pop their banner and smile at me... only for me to smile back and begin rolling counter attack then mauling them with power weapons.

Foot and mech guard are both in my opinion fun to play. they are decent but lack the CC to really help pull enemy units off objectives unless you have an outflanking blob who can get onto it.


@Joey, Actually I've found my Blob list has done well and extremely effective in tourneys. That includes playing chaos lash, GK's and horde orks.

Playing IG is a lesson in fragility: nearly every unit in the army is a glass cannon. Very impressive damage output, very poor survivability. Not as much so as Dark Eldar, obviously, but they definitely lack the staying power of MEQs.

I went to Guard from playing Nurgle-heavy CSM w/ lash sorcerors and Oblits. Everything in that army either had multiple wounds or was T4(5) with FNP. Imagine my surprise when a Chimera would get smoked and only 3 guys would survive, and half of the time they'd be pinned. Yeah...few others armies will have you saying, "5 troops choices at 1,850? I'm thinking that's not enough...".

That said, you have units that are relatively cheap and have good damage output. They are usually, with the exception of transports, very unidimensional. In other words, a Vendetta does one thing: hunts tanks. Melta vets do one thing: hunt armor. Comparatively, newer codices like GK are basically point and click: there's nothing in the game that you can't kill with Purifiers. Oh, you're a multiwound model? Force weapon. Oh, you're hoarde? Cleansing flame. Oh, you are high I? Halberds. Oh, you're high T? Hammerhand. Oh, you're a vehicle? We're all rolling 2D6 to penetrate thanks to the Librarian.

So yeah...playing Guard takes a good deal of finesse compared to the new easy button codices, but it can be very rewarding.

i got a good sized mechanized list.

Its fun to roll forwards with numerous tanks and watch as the enemy tries in vain to get rid of them frontally and i just open fire and they begin dieing.

you get used to the fact of your men dieing (troops not tanks) but its fun to play Guard.

Playing against NewCrons gets annoying

Squidmanlolz wrote:Playing against NewCrons gets annoying

How come? I've found out that they do not like Autocannons...

I had a test run with them at the 25th anniversary celebrations and my mate has them. As far as they ho they are boring.

Want large amouts of vehicles? That is the one thing they do well. Tau are longer ranged, higher strength shooters and orks.or even nids are better as hordes. Marines have better vehicles bar the Leman Russ. Seriously everyone else does an IG's part better.


But what they do have is a Str 8, Ap 3 ordinance at 72", a lascannon and sponsons for about 150pts and are squadrons of 1-3, AND have 1 ARMY per troops slot.

The Guard was what drew me into 40k. And what made me stay, over the years I have grown my collection to a large sum of points & moddels, And besides I do love my tanks and Chimeras

I love the fluff of the GK but BA was the chapter and army that I first got into way back when. I would definitely like to get into IG in the near future. I like everything about the guard I remember drooling over them as a tween at how cool the weapon emplacements looked and then of course when the steel legion came out. They're a great army in my opinion. I owned the 5th codex for a bit and then sold it. Stupid me!


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How effective are the Valkyries? They look awesome. I'm completely obsessed with helicopters and the new aerial units just make me drool. I can't wait to get a Stormraven for my BA. I might even replace my 5 devs for a second one.

Deadshot wrote:I had a test run with them at the 25th anniversary celebrations and my mate has them. As far as they ho they are boring.

Want large amouts of vehicles? That is the one thing they do well. Tau are longer ranged, higher strength shooters Marines have better vehicles bar the Leman Russ. Seriously everyone else does an IG's part better.

Hrm, dunno about that. IG have far more long ranged weapons than the Tau do, and a lot more long range AT guns in a lot more slots and numbers, and the Tau don't have anything that rivals the range of IG artillery units (barring seeker missiles/hunter killer missiles having unlimited range).

When it comes to vehicles, IG have a much larger array of vehicles that generally are better armed/armored than most SM equivalents or have weaponry SM vehicles don't. Chimeras in particular are a huge strength, able to engage most transports with some strength and infantry, while having better frontal armor and noticeably lower cost than an SM razorback with upgraded weaponry. About the only thing it's inferior at is long range AT.

Deadshot wrote:I had a test run with them at the 25th anniversary celebrations and my mate has them. As far as they ho they are boring.

Want large amouts of vehicles? That is the one thing they do well. Tau are longer ranged, higher strength shooters and orks.or even nids are better as hordes. Marines have better vehicles bar the Leman Russ. Seriously everyone else does an IG's part better.


But what they do have is a Str 8, Ap 3 ordinance at 72", a lascannon and sponsons for about 150pts and are squadrons of 1-3, AND have 1 ARMY per troops slot.

Do Space Marines have vehicles with a template that wounds on 2+ and is AP3? Do they have small blast multi-meltas? Do they have 75 point twin-linked autocannons?
Leman Russes > Predators, chimeras>rhinos, Basilisks>Whirlwinds, the only thing SM does better than IG vehicle-wise is dreadnoughts.

I was more comparing Land Raiders as the main heavy tank. I was comparing Rhinos, the basic transport, to Chimeras. Purely for APC duties, Rhino is better.



I was only comparing base to base. Ie, I was comparing Fire Warriors to Guardsmen.

Once you go.into the logistics and gak that guard are far better.

I can't see rhino's being better than the chimera as a transport overall . Both get you accross the board but the chimera allows the unit to fire whilst safe inside, has a decent main weapon, as well as a hull mounted weapon plus the ability to add a stubber, or hunter killer missle. Since if your spending the points you want more than just a moveable box a vehicle that really can support your troops is way better.

I have found my foot guard are a definate challange to the people in our group of players, as most have a lot of anti tank weaponry since most play alot of vehicles, but struggle to manage against an army with lots of bodies but little armour. Yet I can field alot of cheap anti armour weaponry my self in missle teams, auto cannons and las cannon teams.

I imagine very boring. Move? No. Roll a thousand die in the shooting phase. Assault? No. Rinse, repeat.

Having said that, I will admit I have never played IG so my assumptions could be way off.

Shinglepants wrote:I imagine very boring. Move? No. Roll a thousand die in the shooting phase. Assault? No. Rinse, repeat.

Having said that, I will admit I have never played IG so my assumptions could be way off.

That sounds like the gist of a leafblower list, which are rarely fun to lay with or against.

I have about 2.5k of guard. I have 5 russes, 82 guardsmen, ogryns, stormies, ratlings, yarrick, HWS and sentinals.

Its a bitch getting them all painted. It really is. Same with putting them on the board and finding room for all the modals on the table. Even rolling lots of lasgun dice is annoying BUT the damage output does feel good.

Russes armour and guns feel good too. Experienced people just CC them though :(

Deadshot wrote:I was more comparing Land Raiders as the main heavy tank. I was comparing Rhinos, the basic transport, to Chimeras. Purely for APC duties, Rhino is better.



I was only comparing base to base. Ie, I was comparing Fire Warriors to Guardsmen.

Once you go.into the logistics and gak that guard are far better.

Leman Russes are still better than Land Raiders, but the point of Land Raiders is to deliver assault troops, not to do damage. None of the varients are anything like as useful as S10 AP2 pie plates, or a triple-plasma cannon.