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What`s the cheapest way to start a guard army? I thought about a battleforce, russ, more guardsmen, valkyrie, stormtroopers, cc squad and ogryns.
Not very cheap, but thats the stuff i like. But suggestions for a cheap army is really welcome

People tend to take either loads of infantry or loads of tanks. If you want the former, get the battalion boxes, it's cheaper than buying the infantry it contains (think of the sentinel as a kind of bonus!) If you want the latter, I advise the LR demolisher kit, because unlike the normal LR kit, it contains all the sponsons, the tracks are much simpler, it contains multiple turret variants.

In terms of money, valkyries, stormtroopers, ogyrns are not very efficient - for instance a valk is more expensive than a LRBT, but costs less points. In addition, the elites and fast attack are usually things you add to an army, after you've got the basic units. I'd buy plastic infantry and leman russes to start out.

So a good setup is battleforce, a qq squad, a hellhound (to take out units i can`t kill with lasguns ), and a russ? I already have 10 men and a chimera, so that`s around 500pts i think

Assuming you don't have loads of melta/plasma weapons or anything, here's what your list might look like after the boxes you suggested.

CCS - about 70-90 points.
Chimera - 55-65 points

Hellhound - 130-145

Leman russ demolisher - anywhere from 165-230

PCS- 50

3xInf squads - about 200.

So say 670-780 points (assuming you've given each command squad special weapons and voxes, given the infantry squads a special and a heavy, etc) tank costs can vary a fair bit, since you can slap extra weapons on them. As a rule of thumb, think very carefully before buying any upgrades except guns.

Problem with that idea is you wouldn't have 2 troops choices. You'd need to field one infantry unit as a veteran squad, which is a bit of a waste unless you can convert/buy some melta or plasma for them (then put them in a chimera to protect them, and they go around blasting stuff)

So, I suggest you buy: 2 battleforces and a russ. That gives you plenty of infantry and command squads to cover the 1HQ 2 Troops rule.

I agree with bounty

Not to mention, the Battle Force comes with a command sprue now and all of the special weapons to boot.

So, you would alsohave 2 melta/2plasma/2 Sniper/ 2 power fist/2 power swords/ 2 heavy flamers which are all not in normal guard kits.

You want cheap? toss some heavy flamers in there =p 20 pts a gun and you'll be soaking up points with less models.

Also, consider going vets. they pack a nice punch, cost more points

Right there you have a decent melta vet squad to start out with in your chimera =]

I agree with bounty

Not to mention, the Battle Force comes with a command sprue now and all of the special weapons to boot.

So, you would alsohave 2 melta/2plasma/2 Sniper/ 2 power fist/2 power swords/ 2 heavy flamers which are all not in normal guard kits.

You want cheap? toss some heavy flamers in there =p 20 pts a gun and you'll be soaking up points with less models.

Also, consider going vets. they pack a nice punch, cost more points

Right there you have a decent melta vet squad to start out with in your chimera =]


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As a second thought, you could theme your army around heavy infantry and kit out your CCS and Vets with Carapace armor.

That stuff is pricey and with special weaps included, veteran squads run over 115 points each easily

Keep in mind i also have a walker, im slappin a plasma on it to kill off marines

I wrote this starter list for someone else a few days ago, maybe you can get some use out of it:

2 Battleforces, 2 Chimeras, and a Leman Russ would be a good starter army:

----- HQ -------------------------------
1. Company Command Squad (155pts)
   - Vox Caster, Regimental Standard, Lascannon
   - Chimera
     - 1x Pintle Heavy Stubber

----- Troop ----------------------------
1. Veteran Squad (165pts)
   - 3x Meltagun
   - Chimera
     - 1x Pintle Heavy Stubber

2. Platoon
  a. Command Squad (50pts)
    - 4x Flamer
  b. 3x Infantry Squad (200pts)
    - 3x Grenade Launcher, 1x Vox-caster, 3x Autocannon
  c. Heavy Weapons Squad (105pts)
    - 3x Lascannon

----- Elite ----------------------------

----- Fast Attack ----------------------
1. Armoured Sentinel (70pts)
   - Heavy Flamer, Hunter Killer Missile

2. Armoured Sentinel (70pts)
   - Heavy Flamer, Hunter Killer Missile

----- Heavy Support --------------------
1. Leman Russ Battle Tank (185pts)
   - Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Lascannon

You would only be short a single meltagun and one 60mm base.

I don`t think that`s cheap, but thanks

You've already got some dudes and a Chimera so that would bring the price down a bit.

If you want cheap ebay's your best bet.

Mister SlowPoke's list (I acknowledge no-one as master!) is a solid example, although I'd do the sentinels differently.

Point is you need a CCS (5 men) and some infantry (either 50 men to form 2 platoons, or 25 men plus 10 in a chimera) then the best way to fill in points is with vehicles - you can get sentinels from the battalion boxes, then buy a russ and/or another chimera. CCSs, PCSs and veterans benefit the most from chimeras, becuase they can carry multiple special weapons.

Russes have a good points:dollar ratio and they're a pretty good unit in game. Even after the price jump infantry aren't the worst value, and you're going to need to get some anyway. Chimeras cost more money for their points. Valks are expensive but their points:dollar ratio is actually pretty good. They do compete for Fast Attack slots with the sentinels that come in the battleforce, but you should be able to deal with that.

Trying to do a cheap army, I'd suggest one centered on vets riding Valkyries, battle tank heavy support, a small-medium platoon with heavy weapons, and a squadron of Sentinels because they come with the battle force.

The tanks and platoon hold the deployment zone and provide ranged fire support, the platoon screening the tanks. Meanwhile the vets advance in the valkyries to claim objectives or shoot things up from up close.

Guard aren't a good army to build inexpensively. If you're stuck on them though, I suggest a foot army.

What your army list will look like, roughly:

Company Command + Creed + Camo Cloaks + Vox - 165

2 Priests with Eviscerators - 120

Infantry platoon
Platoon Command Squad - 30
Infantry Squad, Commissar + PW, Sergeant + PW + Meltabombs, 1 dude with Meltagun - 120
Infantry Squad, Sergeant + PW + Meltabombs, 1 dude with Meltagun - 75
Infantry Squad, Sergeant + PW + Meltabombs, 1 dude with Meltagun - 75

Infantry platoon
Platoon Command Squad - 30
Infantry Squad, Lascannon - 75
Infantry Squad, Lascannon - 75
Heavy Weapons Team, Lascannons - 105
Heavy Weapons Team, Autocannons - 75
Heavy Weapons Team, Autocannons - 75

That's about 950 points I think. You'll likely have a sentinel or 2 lying around so you can fill the gap with one of those but don't expect it to do much. If you do use the sentinel, the scout variety are better.

The first infantry platoon is a CC unit. You group the 3 squads together to form a 30 man strong eviscerator, PW, melta-toting, LD9 (and stubborn, with a reroll) blob of death. You can charge just about anything with this and take it down eventually (key word..). Dreads, hordes, terminators, anything. Straken can easily be substituted for Creed but your shooty element will suffer for it.

The second platoon uses the infantry squads to screen the heavy weapon teams and give them cover saves in their deployment. Don't forget to give your weapon teams spaces between the screening dudes to shoot though so that your opponents don't get cover as well. It's important that the infantry squads have anti-tank weapons rather than dual purpose guns like autocannons and missile launchers, because their voxes mean you'll be able to give them orders more reliably.

Your company command squad just hides. All they're good for is issuing orders so don't get them killed.

So to field this you'll need:

CREEEEED!
NOT Kell! He's expensive and he sucks! If you can get Creed without him, do it. You'll never use him in a good list.
1 Commissar
2 Priests (no official model, but you can just give some fantasy guy a chainsword and call it done)
11 heavy weapons bases
3 command squads - since they've got nothing cool in them, you can use basic infantry models for these.
5 infantry squads

That's 65 infantry models + the other stuff. Here's the cheapest way to buy all that:

2 Battleforces - $190
Creed - $15-20 (not sure, GW website is down)
Commissar - $15
2 Heavy Weapons Team boxes - $70
3 Snap together Cadian boxes - $24

That's about 300 bucks for 1000 points, which is not bad at all. Buy from an online retailer and you can get up to 20% off (I recommend the war store) so you're looking at more like $250 all together + you'll have a left over heavy weapons squad and a couple sentinels. You can swap some of the HWTs out for a Leman Russ if you like, and it'll work out to be cheaper, but your army will be less effective and with this build and you'll end up with a cheap, poorly organized force instead of a cheap effective one. Buy tanks later, start out with this army.

Oh yeah, and if you like Ogryns then more power to you, but be aware that they're EXPENSIVE AS HELL and overall a crappy unit. Same goes for Rough Riders. Storm Troopers you can make work but I personally think they're overcosted for what they do.