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My friends and I have recently gotten into 40K, and we will be starting as soon as fifth comes out, so I should probably get my list ready ahead of time.

Doctrines: Drop Troops, Grenadiers, Close Order Drill, Iron Discipline

Command Platoon-57
Junior Officer, ID, Bolter
3 guardsmen, Standar Bearer

Infantry Platoon-
Junior Officer, ID, frags, 4 guardsmen, flamer-52
Squad 1-Plasma, Missile launcher-85
Squad 2-Plasma, Heavy Bolter-80
Squad 3-Plasma, Heavy Bolter-80
Squad 4-Flamer-66

Grenadiers x7, Plasma-80

Total: 500 on the dot. Goal is to have the ST, squad with flamer, and platoon JO with flamer advance on objectives. Everyone else just does the IG stand and shoot boogie, while the officer hides in the back for leadership. This list has to be fairly well rounded as my regular opponents are SW, DA Ravenwing, WH, CSM, Tau, Orks, and Nids. Any advice or criticism is mre than appreciated, thanks.

For 500 points, it's a fairly strong list, and a good foundation for a 1k list. Once you get to 1k I'd add a second Platoon, and replace some of the HW with lascannons

Do you have it built yet? Have you chosen a color scheme?

Well so far I have built one battleforce (poor russ is left out in the cold, but he'll come in soon enough), and a second box of guardsmen. As of right now, I don't have a single plasma yet, so I'll have to get a few of those. The ST's are waiting to be primed. I enjoy little bits of humor in hobbies such as this, and so when I saw the armour cadians wore, I immediately thought of the troopers from Spaceballs. So now my guys have Black armour over top of white jumpsuits. And along those same lines, the 'stormtroopers' will be the inverse, with white armour plates over black suits. Should be worth a good chuckle every time I drop them on the table.

Addendum: Are lascannons really worth the extra ten points to upgrade over a ML? I know it is the only way to penetrate AV14, but is it worth it to eventually upgrade every ML, or maybe half and half?

Well, my Guard list (which doesn't see much action, but I've put plenty of thought into it) has Lascannons only in the company and platoon command squads, and in a company AT squad.

Fotta,

As for plasma weapons, see this thread:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/46932.page#46932

I've argued against list optimizing in the past, but I've come to see the wisdom of the list building philosophies of people like HBMC. (Insert humble pie here).

Basically, the theory goes that while other lists, like say Space Marines, need flexibility due to their smaller numbers, a guardsman's life is cheap. Guardsmen should take the best anti-tank weapon because half of them will miss. If you need a lucky roll to hit, don't compound that with needing a lucky roll to wound/penetrate.

Some also argue that guardsmen should favor range over shots, so an Autocannon is to be favored over a HB due to it's longer range. If a guard HB can hit a marine squad, then it's likely that a marine squad can hit back, and do a great deal more damge to the guard than the guard will do the marine. The AC's higher strength is to be favored because of its ability to penetrate rhinos, other transports, and most skimmers. All those things are things you want to get rid of, since eliminating the enemy's mobility forces them to walk into your guns. The missile launcher is a higher STR, to be sure, but the fact that you'll get twice the amount of shots makes up for that.

Look for tactica articles to get a more in depth look at it.

Get rid of the frags in your Platoon command and suddenly you can afford another heavy bolter in your platoon over the flamer.

To paraphrase HBMC, the missile launcher is a versatile weapon in an army that doesn't need versatility. That's why your (again from HBMC) holy trinity of guard weapons is the Heavy Bolter, Autocannon, Lascannon, each weapon that fits its role perfectly. Guardsmen are BS 3...guardsmen will miss half the time. When you take a weapon, take many.

Fun note, it looks like you're gearing up your platoon command as a counter-assault unit. One flamer isn't cutting it. Make it four. Seriously