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Hi, after recently taking a break from the hobby, roughly a year and a bit ive decided to come back to wh40k. Ok, ive decided to start playing guard again and need help re writing my droptroops list, i was never a budding general and was more of a modeller/ painter, the mass of my force is there, it just needs shaping and beating into a fighting machine so if theres any droptroop vets out there id like to hear your ideas and opinions. Ideally i want force comprising of just infantry, ie everything has to be grav chuted or dropped in so for this reason i will not want to field sentinels in the list (I know but they can deep strike in and they can do this and that) as to fit in with the mobile assault force dropping behind enemy lines to take and hold vital objectives prior to the main force.

As i said before, theres no shortage of manpower in my collection although it is still considered small.
I also know i have another few boxes in the loft somewhere lol
ive got roughly 150 models, infantry, including command squads, officers etc
120 (ish) of which are bog standard guard infantry with 1 special wep 1heavy wep but i did chage this around some times dropping heavy weps alltogether
ive got 5-6 plasma guns in storage doing nothing
majority of infantry squads have grenade launcher as their special weapon
Have an abundance of heavy bolters available
5 Missle launchers, with roughly another 4-5 floating about in storage
i have 3 autocannons forming part of a heavy weapons platoon under the doctrines i used to use
also included were 6 mortars and a command section, have another 3 mortars mothballed away part of another heavy weps i never finnished
10 storm troopers w grenade launcher + flamer or plasma or melta combo
2 special weapons teams each sporting 2 meltas + a demo charge
2 special weapons teams sporting 3 sniper rifles each
2 sentinels armed w lascannons---if neededalthough not my fav choice
Hardened vet squad meltas
No vox operators in individual squads, only in the command sections

As i have just learned some of the organisation for the ig has changed i knew about the doctrines but i didnt know about the restructuring...would still like to see some army lists though just for some ideas, around 2000-2500 pts like i said all help is greatly appreciated

Doctrines are gone now in the new Codex. They were replaced with Orders. Grab a copy of the new codex and then you can put together a better list because some of the organization has changed for the Imperial Guard.

Yeah i knew doctrines were off the slate but as far as organisation thats new to me, like i say ive been out a while lol but thanks for that i was just showing what doctrines i used to use

Basically, anything we can say will be useless until you read the codex, so buy that.

There is no way to deep strike any guard unit except storm troopers these days. And there is no way to make storm troopers a troops choice. And you wouldn't want to anyway, because storm troopers are the stench that rises from the IG codex's sweaty armpits.

Basically, if you want to maintain your theme, you could field an all-infantry force (and say they've just dropped in); field a force that is mounted in valkyries, which would be more like a modern air assault unit in helicopters, as opposed to old-fashioned paratroops; or field a hybrid of the two.

Basically, veterans or SWS (in valkyries/vendettas) and infantry platoons (footslogging) are the best ways to represent a drop troops army. You can't actually deepstrike onto the table, but the valkyries' mobility rules are so good it's still pretty similar. (it can move flat out and drop it's passengers off at any point they moved over, rolling for scatter as with deep striking)

Oh, if you really want to use stormtroopers they can be a good unit for assassinating heavy tanks, use 5 men w/2 meltas. They can deepstrike and reroll the scatter result, so you're more likely to get within melta range and blow stuff up.

Ok thanks for the input, especially the idea of mounting my troops in valkyries / vendettas, think that would be just as good if not better via the added fire support. I have considered this method in the past but the sheer cost of those valkyries always put me off, looks like this may be a good opportunity for a scratch build with some templates i found, should be shed loads of fun and keep me busy over christmas, ill post some pics when im finnished for you ^^

Yeah i will be buying the codex next week, as its pay day lol, atm my bank account has been ruined by my car as she needs a bit of work doing to her....and then theres cod mdw2......

But thanks for your help, ill get those valkyries done and post an army list up to see what you guys think

I'm building an army that will use about as many or more troops as you have, I'm at 1750 and going for 2500. With those kind of infantry and heavy weapon numbers, platoons will probably be in your plans (the only way to field HWS now). Talking about platoon organization is a bit useless 'till you get the codex, but I'm planning on fielding 3 full units of stormtroopers once i'm up to strength. They get Special Operations now, and get to decide one of three before deployment (after you know your opponent, the terrain, and the mission). The tactical flexibility is great, with one allowing a re-roll of the deepstrike dice, one allowing infiltrate with pinning on their first fire, and the other allowing scout and move through cover. Alot of people don't like them, and they are really expensive pts -wise, but I figure as long as you balance their numbers with lots of regulars and vets they give an army some nice capabilities. Units can now be held in reserve, and those units and reserve with scout or infiltrate can 'outflank' and come on from the short edges.

Do you have any vehicle plans, other than the valks? I agree that they are way expensive in $, and they're also very large on the table, tho nice units that would help with your drop-troop fluff.

Hmm yeah i have got some other vehicles planned but everythings a little uncertain, yet one of my ideas is a squadron of thunderbolts or a vulture, of which id have to scratch build these from the templates ive found on the web as i just dont have the money to splash out on all those kits, the same with the valkyries, id convert them or possibly scratch build from plasti-card and gw bits, this would tie in with the fluff like you said. I might include a squadron of sentinels or maybe two but as far as armoured units go i wont be adding any tanks.

However, i have considered finnishing off my armoured company i started when the ac list first came out in WD274(?) and fielding my armoured company with my drop troops in big games or apocalypse, like the germans did in ww2 with their panzer grenadiers and falschirmjaeger, pressing them into frontline service as conventional infantry. So id use my infantry to screen my tanks, protecting their flanks from assaults / probing units like ork kommandos or other inflitrators.


Ill also be starting a fluff section soon if any of you guys are interested, ill aslo be posting some pictures of my units when ive finnished painting camo on each infantry man >.>