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Hello friend. I have been playing IG for about a year now and I have neverpersonally played against SM. None of my friends play them so I have no experience playing against them. I can however give some basic tips that I know work for IG.

1. Always utilise your commands. That is what makes IG even playable with their lack of firepower. I would definitely recommend paying the points for Creed. His 4 commands per turn and 24" radius is wonderful, plus he has two of his own commands he can give. The commands will save you in a pinch, and allow your groups to do more damage than without.

2. Utilize what IG is made for. IG is made to win wars of attrition. What that means is those of us that play IG are able to put more manpower on the board than the enemy is able to kill. This can be used effectively in several ways. If your enemy is using a lot of close combat units, then throw your unit of 20 guardsmen into close combat with them. Do your guardsmen stand a chance? No, but they do tie up a unit for a few turns. Ex: I play mainly against Nids. My wife decided to deepstrike her broodlord and 10 genestealers next to my command squad. Instead of trying to run, I threw my closest unit of guardsmen into the nids. Kept them busy for 3 gameturns cause she couldn't get her rolls. Ended up killing 7 of them too. Did I win? No. But I certaintly made it harder for her. Also, if your tanks are having a hard time with units assaulting them, then use your guardsmen as a meat shield for your vehicle. This is a great tactic when you can creat a wall of bodies protecting your much more valuable vehicle.

3. Pick your targets. Decide when setting up what you need to be rid of and go after it. IG has this beautiful ability to wipe out almost anything on the board just by shere firepower. If every unit in your army was focused on one or two units, those would be dead by the end of the game. Pick your targets and stick to em.

4. Tactics. IG requires you to think several steps ahead. This is difficult for a lot of people but with enough experience you can get it down. Try to read your opponents moves and guess what his plan is. This allows us to be a step ahead, and allows orders to be given in advance.

5. Vehicles. The vehicles are the main weapon of IG. Pay the points necessary to make them good. Buy the good guns for them, pay to make them closed topped, etc. Also, take advantage of the things that GW has provided to make vehicles almost invincible. Leman russ tanks with camo netting, giving them stealth. Smoke launchers on everything. These will help you more than you can imagine in a pinch.

6. Commisars. I would ditch em. I haven't had one do anything in my army since I got them. I play three, and none of em have done anything. lol.

7. Guardsmen. I would recommend taking away the fancy guns on the guardsmen and go with just the lasgun. I know it is weak and whatnot but the lasguns do more damage than you think. If you take advantage of the "1st rank fire, 2nd rank fire!!" command, than you get up to 3 shots per lasgun. A standard unit has 19 lasguns in it. (20-seargeant=19) What is 19X3? That is 57 lasgun shots. I don't care how weak those are, you are going to get 15 wounds out of that at least.

Ok. Now for some specific strategerie concerning IG. Keep in mind that this is just how I play and not a definitive collection of how IG should be played. lol. I know someone will think differently.

Suicide squads. I play a special weapons squad armed with melta guns. I put mine in a valkyrie, but I have seen many armies that do this in a Chimera. These guys are essentially a one shot death machine for those hard to kill opponents. They have never survived a game, but have definitely payed their price in blood. Ex1: Playing against nids. Valkyrie has scout. Moves 24 inches before game starts. First turn moves 6 combat speed. Drops suicide squad. They shoot at hive tyrant with guard. Kill both. Next turn, hop on valkyrie, then run over and kill the Fex turn after that. 6 soldiers wasting 2 very hard to kill beasts. That is awesome.

Basilisk. This is a very useful tool if you know how to use it. Take advantage of the fact that you don't have to have line of sight. Are you going to miss? Yes but keep raining death and something will hit.

Ogryns and Ratlings. These two squads are awesome. I have gotten more done with these two than any other squad I have. There is nothing better than picking away enemies with sniper rifles and blowing away baddies with 3 attack shotguns. The ogryns have 3 wounds each, which makes them very hard to kill.

Marbo. A lot of people do not condone using Marbo because he is "still just a guardsmen" That may be true but the ability to come onto the board anywhere has its unsung advantages. Capturing table quarters, attacking an HQ choice, stalling a unit. Mine has single handedly taken down a sniperfex before, on the account he has hit and run, she couldn't get the wounds.

Heavy Weapon Squads. Use them! They are what pack the punch for your army in infantry form. Each gets 2 wounds per base which makes them harder to kill. Lascannons are your friend, so are mortars. These two are all I run, but I would assume that heavy bolters and auto cannons are not bad either.

I hope that some of this has helped. If you have any questions just ask. Keep fighting and try to learn what works and what doesn't. I could go on all day but these seemed to be the main things I would tell.