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So I'm working on changing my Imperial Guard up some for 5th edition. Previously my 'guard army was a mechanized one. However, with some of the changes to vehicles moving and shooting and with the change in consolidating into close combat I am thinking that I would like to try something a little different and I wanted some advice on what everyone else thought. The list is intended to be competitive so critique as such (though I am working with a few model constraints which I will discuss below).

1850 Imperial Guard with Codex: With Hunters Allies:

Doctrines:

Drop Troops
Close Order Drill
Iron Discipline

4x Faith Points

HQ:

- 1x Command Platoon:

1x Junior officer w' Iron Discipline
4x Guardsmen w' standard bearer

2x Anti Tank Support Squads w' 3x Lascannons each

- 1x Canoness
Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon, Book of St. Lucius

Troops:

- Infantry Platoon:

1x Command Squad
Iron Discipline
2x Plasma Gun

2x Infantry Squad
Plasma Gun

- Infantry Platoon:

1x Command Squad
Iron Discipline
1x Melta Gun

2x Infantry Squad
Melta Gun

1x Remnant Squad
Melta Gun

- Battle Sisters Squad

19x Sisters of Battle
2x Flamer

1x Veteran Sister Superior
Plasma Pistol
Power Sword

- Battle Sisters Squad

19x Sisters of Battle
2x Mela Gun

1x Veteran Sister Superior
Plasma Pistol
Power Sword

Heavy Support:

3x Leman Russ Demolisher
Hull Heavy Bolter
Sponson Heavy Bolters

Points: 1847
Model Count: 116
Lascannon Count: 6
Melta Gun Count: 6
Plasma Weapon Count: 6
Flamer Count: 2
Heavy Bolter Count: 9
Demolisher Cannon Count: 3

Some Comments and Questions:

1. Drop Troops, this isn't really a "traditional" drop troops army. The drop troop option is just there for added flexibility. I have quite a few squads with melta guns and plasma guns and they can be dropped as appropriate to take out targets of opportunity. I suppose that I could rearrange things somewhat to try and get those special weapons onto veteran squads but I just don't see where the points would come from. I pretty much have to have the two platoons of infantry and I want to keep the sisters maxed out as well.

2. Yes I know that my guard squads don't have heavy weapons in them. I would normally never consider doing this but I have my reasons set out below...

3. Even though the drop option is in there this army is really designed around abusing the book of St. Lucius on the sisters (and guard to some extent) and also to take advantage of no consolidating into close combat which is to say that my opponent assaults a unit of guard, wipes it out or breaks it and then since the base troops squads don't have heavy weapons I can move a large number of models into rapid fire range and hpefully wipe out whatever just assaulted me. In setup I am assuming that the sisters will be relatively bunched up to maximize my ability to use the book and the guard will be somewhat spread out to stay the hell away from the book (I want them to break in hand to hand and then hopefully rally off of the Iron Discipline officer squads) and also to prevent my opponent from being able to assault multiple units. After my opponent's assaults I can then move as necessary to get a maximum number of units into rapid fire range which is even easier to do under 5th ed. rules since I only have to have range to one guy in the enemy squad. After setup I have the option of either forcing my opponent to come to me and walk/run into demolisher/plasma/bolter/lasgun range or advance en mass on the objectives. Since the heavy weapons teams are not attached to infantry squads I can still move and not effect my ability to fire my heavy weapons. Also keep in mind that the demolishers can now move and shoot their ordnance just as accurately as if they were sitting still which brings me to...

4. Demolisher armament, I think I would prefer to strip the Demolishers down to just a hull heavy bolter to keep them cheap since the heavy bolters aren't defensive weapons anymore but the models I have are armed with hull and sponson heavy bolters so I think I'll just stick with that instead of buying new tanks.

5. Would it be worth my effort to find a way to put another book of St. Lucius on one (or both) of the veteran sister superiors for some redundancy?

6. I am not willing to even consider last chancers in this list so don't even mention them. Yes, I know they're good. However, I would be willing to bet that they won't make it into the next guard book or if they do they will not be as ridiculous as they are right now. Second, in my opinion, they are brutally unfun and I don't want everyone in my local play group to hate playing against me. I want the army list to be good but I don't want to lose friends over it either.

For whatever reason I cannot think of a reason to take battle sisters. Have thought about that jet pack unit which would be completely converted to fit into my army. Let us know how it works out for you.

My thoughts on running the sisters are as follows:

1. It gives me something new/different to paint, I am pretty much sick of painting basic guardsmen. I thought about Demon Hunter allies too but I just couldn't really come up with anything that I liked.

2. I think adding the sisters should really change how the army can be played. I can still play the list as a gunline and shoot my opponent as he heads towards my line but I can also advance without completely being afraid of close combat. I have two large sister squads who are better than fearless (unmodifiable leadership ten means they don't break often but also don't take the extra wounds for being fearless if they lose combat) and I kept the guard squads cheap so if my opponent engages them in hand to hand they'll lose, fall back and then the surrounding squads can move in and finish off whatever assaulted me. The sisters with the book really seemed too good not to try. And if I like how the sisters play this will let me gradually expan the list into a full fledged Witch Hunter army.

3. With the 5th ed. rules for scoring units the Sisters seem quite suited to the role of objective holding. They have good armor, good leadership and are cheap (just one more point than a storm trooper). That seems like a pretty potent combination especially when backed up by even cheaper/numerous guardsmen.

As for the Seraphim I have thought about them and I do imagine that I will get some sooner or later to mess around with assuming that I like how the basic sisters work and decide to keep expanding the army. Hopefully I will get to try it all out fairly soon. I have all of the guard painted and finished but I've only just started on the sisters (I have the Canoness and a squad of ten so I have a ways to go on them).