Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I was planning to get started with an IG army, and I was wondering what sort of loadout people normally take for basic Guardsmen squads.
For exmaple, whether to give the Sergeant any upgrades. Or whether to take a vox caster.
Whether to form a heavy weapons team, or what special weapon to take.
Advice? Opinions?

I am moving this to Lists.

Well what basic theme are you going to go with with your army? The basic two would be gunline and mech.

Gunline you stand back and try to do your best to kill the enemy before they get to you and have something in reserve to hit them back.

Mech you keep everything in chimeras and stay moble so your units do not get hit.

I think the strongest is a combo of both but just a theme is fun.

to help you out if you are going to issue loads of orders from your HQ or platoon squad then vox casters are worth the points in my opinion.

heavy wepons teams cant move and shoot just remeber that when making a list.

and as Lorne said a mix of mech and infantry, always remeber vet squads and dont over look ratlings.

I suppose BS 4 veterans are quite useful with special weapons etc,
What sort of ratio should be taken in relation to regular guardsmen? And are conscripts worth taking? Do they even have an upside?
Personally I'd rather pay 1 extra point per model to have ws/bs 3..

ratio depends on what minis you have. and what points you are playing.

Vets are always good with chimeras, dont worry about give the vets orders.

So you mean to say if I didn't have enough minis to fill my points quota, i'd just make them all veterans?

ok i just wrote up a hole reply and my net died and it didnt post! short version

well vets are more expencive, and can have better wepons but dont just use vets mix them up with a few reguler squads and armor such as tanks and chimeras for the vets dont for get your CCS and PCS!

How Do.

I agree with Munkeey, vets are good if you don't have a lot of models and BS4 is nice, in lower point games or if you are going mech you can get away with only using vets.

I have a mix of vets and normal infantry squads, I blob up the infantry squads in order to have one large unit that can take some punishement. I mainly run gunline but to be honest my army is all over the shop as I have a habbit of buying models I think are cool then trying to work how how to inclde them.

I don't really use vox's and the speacial I use the most are GL's but I mainly fight orks, speacials sort of depend on who you are fighting.

Heavy weapons, I don't bother with missle launchers but i'm not going to start this debate again. Heavy weapons are best if you put them in inf/vet sguads because it give them extra wounds (although it does so the squad down). AC's and LasC are the best options IMHO

sergeants, I don't really upgrade. However if you give sergeants in a 30 man infantry blob power weapons it can work well.

The guard have got so many options it makes my head spin with joy, so you can pretty much load them out any way you want. I love the humble guardsman, he is what i think of when i think of the guard, just make sure that you have clear in your head what it is you want them to do. Specialised squads are the key, all specials in the squad should be the same and if you are adding a hvy pick one that complimens the specials. GLs with AC's work really well IMHO.

Well thanks, that gives me some idea of where to start. ;D
How about Ratlings? I really don't like the model, but I'm otherwise fond of snipers. I was considering just getting a special weapons squad with sniper rifles, but I suppose it's probably not the smartest thing to do.

I use regular sniper models as ratlings as I dislike the models. I use them a lot in cityfight just as they fit fluff wise. If you get a character out by himself or monsterous creatures without cover they do pretty well. If you roll a lot of 6's to wound they do awesome.

Now the downside, armor a lot of it is being used and they are no use until it is cracked.

I usually acknowledge 4 types of IG lists. Gunline, Mechanized, Armored, Mixed.

I would say vox aren't worth the points, ever. Try to recognize what vox are. Vox simply let you reroll a failed order. Squads can still function without orders, you can still give orders without vox. Furthermore, the squads you want to give orders to the most (i.e. heavy weapons teams) can't take vox anyway. Ultimately, good use of orders can really affect the game. But don't spend more points on them then they are worth. You only get 1 order per PCS and 2 per CCS. The orders issued by the PCS are pretty worthless anyway. It it really worth spending +5 pts on every squad in your army so you can re-roll a failed order, orders that you will most likely pass without the vox, and don't really need anyway?

As for the Vets/Infantry ratio. I usually use all vets in low point games 500-1000. Platoons are simply expensive, and vets are more effective. Platoons are great for having stuff for the enemy to shoot at, so they don't shoot your important stuff. At 500pts you don't have as many really expensive units to hide behind a platoon, thus... you don't need the platoon. At 1000+ games I usually run one platoon, and 1-3 vets squads. The platoon hangs out in front of my artillery, forming a gunline. The Vets ride off in Valkyries/Chimera, and put pressure on objectives, or go hunting for xenos/daemons/traitors.

If you want snipers, Ratlings are hands down the most effective snipers, points wise. Personally I don't use snipers, but just keep in mind a squad of 5 Ratling snipers will pin a squad of whatever you are shooting at, once every turn. (This is by the math.)

If you go snipers also make sure to get a psychic battle squad to drop their LD for the pinning test. It is fun if you are against non fearless armies (the few)