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I don't really need anything else for my current armies (not enthused with SM, Tau redux is on the back burner, and have as close to too many Orks as is possible to get), but have a spot to an invitational Apoc game which I feel I have a fair chance of winning, with a battleforce going to the victor. As the title suggests, I'm thinking of starting IG, especially if I win the battleforce. I consider myself a fairly experienced 40k player, having a good track record in 4e with Tau taught me target priority and Orks in 5e have taught me all about the power of the horde, and many of my friends have suggested that I try IG.

While I have played a few games against the new IG, I've never seen them played well, or really put up much of a fight at all to be honest. Not saying it can't be done at all (no 'ard Boyz reports required), just that it hasn't been done in my local group. Just like anyone else, I leafed through the newest codex when it was printed, but never really looked deep enough into it to really evaluate what was a flash in the pan style unit, and what actually had staying power and could be considered a tournament caliber selection. I know everyone cringed at the idea of the Punishers, but do they actually get the job done? Veterans in Valkyries seemed like an effective option, but does it real prove points-effective? Better off in Chimeras? What are the best options for capturing down-field objectives? In a horde-heavy environment (Orks and Tyranids being very common at the FLGS), what are the best crowd control options (Basilisks/Medusas vs massed Mortar teams vs First Rank... Second Rank... [& pray] vs a wall of Banewolfs)?

I know a lot of this is things learned through experimentation, but with a sizable collection of other armies already (especially when considering my available storage space), and having a history of using proxies and a lot of unpainted models, I'm looking to get back to buying exactly what I'm fielding, and trying to paint it as I go, and all that jazz, which also means having less time to experiment if I'm dedicating my free time to painting.

So... "CREEEEEED" and "Put 'em back in the box, put some space marines on the table" jokes aside, what does the Dakka community recommend for starting purchases to go with the Imperial Guard battleforce for a fairly advanced general? For "take all comers" considerations, the most common local armies are Tyranids (or will be soon at least), CSM, Orks, SM (Ultra & BA), Eldar, in that order. Bonus points for splitting it up into a 1000/1500/1850 progression, and as always your advice is appreciated.

In the end one mans personal favorite can tend to be disliked by the next guy when it comes to guard. The current codex allows a lot of customization and tailoring to specifics roles without as much clunkiness seen in the previous edition codex. To get started definitely youll want some kind of leman russ holding down a flank of your force. Im a personal fan of the plasma tank variant the executioner. A friend of mine fields a punisher in his vostroyan army. As many shots as the punisher gets its useless against armor. I'd personally take the Autocannon leman russ instead. Good for taking down monstrous creatures, light vehicles and heavy infantry. If your going for horde control maybe throw in some mortar teams and arm your squads with grenade launchers and autocannons.

In the end the skys the limit when it comes to force composition. To get started though get yourself a core of infantry and some kind of leman russ to get you started. You can flesh the whole thing out from there. And if you dream up an unorthodox army that others think to be off it doesnt matter as long as it performs well.

Lexx:

That's just trite. There is no "in the end". Certainly not on the Internet... The fact is that one man's personal favourite may suck, and another man's truth may be mistaken.

There's better and worse combinations out there, and the point of having a forum like this is to discover which are which and to benefit from the wisdom of such cloud-sourcing.

My advice is to search the Army List forums and to browse the Imperial Guard threads, and then consider where you want to put your money. Remember, don't look for consensus, look for good reasoning and strategic insight.

For example, until recently the popular wisdom was to only take Veteran Squads for your Troop selections. Fortunately time and experience convinced people of what many of us already knew: Veterans are there to fill up points and reduce model counts when you either don't have the points or don't have the models to field Platoons. The fact is that although Veterans have great offensive potential, they're as squishy as the next Guardsman and fail to fully exploit the quantity of common Platoon Guardsmen. Leave the squad-utility squads to the Chaos Space Marines, and the small elite forces to the Imperial Space Marines: you want quantity.

I run a Mech guard list fairly succesfuly, its strong but brittle. A rough guide is:
2 Plasma Russ
1 Russ
2 Hydra
Cmd in Chimera 4 melta
Vets in Chimera 3 plas
Vets in Vendetta 3 melta
Melta Hound (Can't remember the name)

I've rearranged my origonal 2 Russ list to have the Vendetta and Melta Hound because I struggled to deal with armor, suprisingly enough I personally go with units I like the idea of...I don't rate the artillery highly as the min range is now too long for regular games, and their armor isn't good enough to go toe to toe with tanks. Hoard inf with lots of heavy weapons also works well aparently

Maybe read polonious' tank guide.. its an article now IIRC