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Ok, so I decided, after much consideration, to start a Guard army. I wanted a new army and I didn't like either type of Eldar, Tau was right out (not big on the fluff), and I dont like 'crons, 'nids, or chaos (yet).

So, I have a couple of questions about said Guard before I make the purchase(s):

1 -- What are the IG really like in-game? I've tried reading about them, but nothing really tells me what sort of playstyle they support. Are they hit-and-run like Eldar? Gunlines all Tau-like, or are they mainly heavy support while the rank-and-file just charge and hope for the best? I already play Orks and I want something different from their playstyle (and who can shoot better than the obviously myopic Orkz)

2 -- What should be my first purchase(s)? I was thinking of a Battleforce and a Codex, is there anything else I need for a legal army? What should my next choices be? etc

3 -- Do you have any other tips for a beginner Guard? I know theyre probably nothing like the Orks, but I want from variety in my armies

1) "Gunlines all Tau-like, or are they mainly heavy support while the rank-and-file just charge and hope for the best?" Except their gunlines arn't moble like the Tau's. Your Heavy Weapons & Heavy support are your strength.

2)Codex. Battleforces are (almost) always good, particularly if you don't have a type of army in mind. Look over the lists on this site.

3)Your men will die alot, from orks you should be used to this. Don't forget to actualy move occationaly.

So theyre more stationary, alright.

So Codex and Battleforce? I was told somewhere to have a legal IG army you need 2 PCS and a CCS as a HQ and 2 Troops, and that you can add some squads to a PCS for that choice...confused me, and i wasnt sure about it.

Bah, death is an acceptable outcome, I just meant I wanted an army a bit more shooty, and that can actually hit when they shoot.

Minimum you need 2 troops and an HQ (like normal)
Most would recomend a Company Command for your HQ (thats a command squad)
Most would recomend at least 1 platoon (which consists of 1 Command & at least 2 Infantry squads)
You could also use Vets or penal legion as a troops, which come on their own.

The nice thing about the new Guard codex is that you can come up with a few different army types. You *could* go for a static infantry gunline. Or you could do a mechanized, mobile, army with all your infantry in Chimeras along with Hellhounds and Russes. Or you could try an airmobile army centered around the Valkyrie/Vendetta. Or you could run 9 Leman Russes.

I'm using a mechanized Veteran army in Chimeras, along with a couple Vendettas, Hellhounds, Russes, and a Medusa. The variety makes it a fun army to play.

Mars.Techpriest wrote:Minimum you need 2 troops and an HQ (like normal)
Most would recomend a Company Command for your HQ (thats a command squad)
Most would recomend at least 1 platoon (which consists of 1 Command & at least 2 Infantry squads)
You could also use Vets or penal legion as a troops, which come on their own.

so if you only have normal run-of-the-mill Guardsmen for Troops, do they have to be in platoons (ie do they need 1 command and the 2 squads) or can I just have 2 squads as the 2 troop choices?

Regular IG guard squads must be part of a platoon. (so do heavy weapons squads, special weapon squads & conscript squads)

Ah, ok, then I'll be picking up 2 more PCS along with the battleforce and codex

2 Core troops can be filled with Veterans ( people give them melta guns + chimera and go tank hunting )

Then you are free to use the rest of points on tons of tanks and vendetta -_- ( seem to be the most popular )

IG troops and heavy are not mobile , but their Fast Attack units are very fast and can out flank.

It really does depend on the kind of army that you eventually want to field. Somethign with llots of armor, and mechanized infantry. Or tons of grunts on the ground.

If you can swing it I would recommend you pick up 2 battleforces and the codex.

With a little bit of converting it gives you 2 platoons (1 pcs and 2 infantry squads a piece). And your ccs and 2 sentinnels to play around with. Even without ever using the sentinnels you save 9 bucks on buying the individual sets.

Buying the battleforce + 2 command squads will not get you a valid army unless you are going to use basic cadian troopers as veterans.

So, the battleforce comes with a CCS, a PPS, 2 squads, 3 heavy weapons, and a Sentinel?

But yeah, 2 battleforces seem the way to go...if it wasn't for the fact that my folks would go ballistic at the thought that I'd be blowing over 200-some bucks in one go when I gdont even know if ill enjoy the army =P

...btw, (a bit off-topic) does anyone have problems with accessing the GW site? it keeps saying "Oops! The link appears to be broken" and like that

If your looking for a simple way to expand on one battleforce. then i would simply choose a heavy support (demolisher, basilisk or russ) and use the heavy weapons teams as anti infantry.

if you go for demolisher you will want a long ranged weapon. morters are good.

basilisk with weapons teams anything but morters as that role is filled.

and the russ is so versitile that anything willwork well with it.

the sentanal in the battle force is much needed but they work best in groups some more the better. they also are surprisingly good at working with hellhounds.

so i sujest 1 battalforce 1 leman russ 1 hellhound. this is my basic set up as long as you can keep the closecombats back from your battle line this setup should surve you well

Hmmm, sounds good, and not so expensive if I spread it out over a period of time. AND Ill have two tanks out of it! Looks good to me

Don't forget that they are slated to release a new Leman russ kit with a new Demolition cannon turret (along with other turrets) and sponson upgrades this summer. If you hold off building your tanks your can use the new upgrades.

AH The new up and coming IG tank relesases are for the specilised Leman russ varents. for a small force what you realy need is a versitile tank that can muilti task. and still there is nothing better then the plan old leman russ for this.

though my fav tank has to be the exterminator nothing better then 3 heavy bolters and a twinliked auto cannon plowing though thoughs infantry masses.

Theres an upcoming Release on the all-variant all-plastic hellhound, too, note.

That's why now would be a great time to get your HQ and Troop choices assembled and painted (until the variant kits come out). Regardless of mechanized or gun-line the bones of an IG are going to be the lowly flashlight wielders. May as well start painting up a bunch of them.

If you are unsure about using the Sentinels then hold on to them. I will be more than happy to take them off of your hands.

Alright! My timing is perfect then! I had heard that the LR were due for new releases, but I didn't know about the Hellhound, nor that they'd be this summer. Man, it really IS the prefect time to start a IG army. I'll pick up my battleforce/codex in a week or so once exams are done, and the LR and hellhounds later in the summer. I kinda figured the laser pointers would be the real core of my army, even though I only started with 5th ed 40k, the new "Troops are the only units to capture objectives " rule make it kind of obvious.

BTW, since the Guard are not a very mobile gun-force, in a Take and Hold mission, would placing my objective near my deployed troops be recommended? (I'm not sure if I can place objectives in my deployment zone, if you could clarify that ) I figure since I'm not as mobile as Ork army, I should place my objective in easy reach of my Guardsmen so they can capture without losing a superior position or getting too close to the other army.

Also, would positioning my Guardsmen behind cover semi-permanently (ie a crater, a barricade of some sort, or something at deployment or shortly afterwards) be more recommended as they won't be moving as much? Orks, OTOH, I only place in cover temporarily, since they are an assault-y army and holding a bunker isn't as useful for them as it is for armies relying on their flashlights, but I wanted the opinion of an actual Guard general.

Holding on to stuff is all ok. BUT guard troop tatics is simmular to those used in battles of WWI and posible even as crazy as stuff used against napoleon.

so stand them in the open where ten lasguns can all shoot as much as posible at an army that is using cover but loseing its ability to return as many shots back at you. it sounds like your troops will jsut fall and die hundreds at a time and they will but it seems to work.

ofcorsue there are more complex tatics but what is the worth of 10 human lives in the relmes of 40k (£12 i belive)

Elector wrote:
Also, would positioning my Guardsmen behind cover semi-permanently (ie a crater, a barricade of some sort, or something at deployment or shortly afterwards) be more recommended as they won't be moving.

it used to be you just had 1 big gun line as close to board edge as possible (but enough to fall back and regroup once) and you just shot for as long as you could, but times seem to be changing, guard are becoming more mobile and the days of volley fire are gone.

play a few different styles and see which one you like as finacially, having enough points to field either an all infantry army or an armoured company (or anything in between) is quite a bit of cash.

id buy the codex and the battleforce, and has your local store got a guard army/club got an army that you could play a few games with?? then have a read through codex and decide what you want!

are you going cadian or catachan to begin with?

Here's what I recommend:

1 Codex
1 Battleforce
2 Chimeras
1 Leman russ tank

Will run you ~200 dollars (less if you get stuff online at discount) With that you get a Command Squad, 2 platoon squads, 2 Heavy Weapon teams, a sentinel, a Chimera, 2 Chimeras (which you can later convert to other vehicles if you wish) and a Leman Russ (which you can convert to use different variants if you wish).

This makes a good 'sampler' composition- you could have a small army consisting of a CCS, 2 vet squads in chimeras, and the vehicles. It in of itself won't be super effective but it gives you a chance to play around with the different units to see what you like and what you don't like. Then, when you make another round of purchases you can buy EXACTLY what you want/need, and not waste money on models collecting dust on your shelf because you don't care for their rules/usefulness.

Some tips I figured out:
-Vehicle Accessory sprues come with a 'tank commander' guy that easily makes an officer/sergeant.

-Heavy Weapon team sprues come with 3x of each weapon type. By simply buying more guardsmen, tripods and bases, you can literally have 4x as many heavy weapon teams for a FRACTION of the price. This is also nice if you can't decide which weapon you want to use.

-Command Squad sprue (in Command squad box or battleforce box) comes with tons of useful bitz to make extra special weapons and stuff. So even if you go all out and get 2+ battleforces its still worth it since the Command Squad sprue gives you more things you'd need anyway even if you only plan on fielding one CCS in a game.

-The single most common model in your army will probably be a lasgun-armed guardsman. Unfortunately they downgraded the boxes from having 2 full squads a box to only 1, but the price reduction wasn't proportional (so now Cadian Shock troops essentially cost 25% more per squad :( ). The way I found around this is to use my Cadian shock troop sprues to make sergeants/special weapon/vox guys/etc, and simply buy the 'snap together' 5 man cadian box sets. I bought 10 of these little boxes, giving me 50 guardsmen, at a discount price of $66. If i was to buy 5 cadian shock troop boxes, it would cost me around $100. So if you're thinking of going gunline or want to take conscripts, buy bulk lasgun guys and save money!

-Many vehicles use common hulls. I think its a better deal to buy multiple Chimeras/Leman Russes and later convert them into the vehicle you want. Chimeras are pretty universal since if you want a mechanized army you'll need a lot of them anyway.

-Unless you're getting some package deal, don't buy everything at once. buy a few boxes, put them together/paint them/play them in small games to get a feel for what is fun to make/paint/use. This also helps keep you from getting burnt out (I bought $400 worth of stuff at a good deal but I am overwhelmed by the amount of things I need to assemble and paint!)

Chimeras are extremely good for the money. I agree with jerjare, his list is probably the best way to get started. Use them as mech vets until you can afford more infantry. I'd also suggest picking up a primaris psyker, won't cost too much and is very effective as a secondary hq choice. Your vets should be grenade launcher and autocannon to get started.

dirkthe1 wrote:are you going cadian or catachan to begin with?

depends, whats the difference between the two? Do they have different rules or something like the SM Chapters?

Jsut a different look. VERY different look. No rules differences, although the sprues come with different gear.

Also, you'll want some meltas from somewhere, they're a pain to find, and you're likely to want to equip more than the 1/command squad sprue that you get with boxes. Put two on a shock troops sprue, please, GW.