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So your average Infantry squad will run you between 55-85 points and a Chimera is 55-65.
With this in mind, in general, is 1 Chimera = to 1 Infantry squad?

I'm not sure what you mean. If your question is whether all your infantry squads should be mounted in Chimeras, then the answer is yes. Mechanised is the easiest way to go and Chimeras are cheap for what they do. The only thing that's somewhat expensive is amassing 15-20 Chimera chassis tanks and the required Hydra and Manticore turrets etc, and if you want track guards for everything like I do that's another 100+ dollars.

no, they're not equal, becuse they do very different things. It's like comparing a hellhound to a medusa.

Infantry squads are scoring, and they're designed to fill up space against deepstrikers and push back opponent's deployment and shield other units behind them. Chimeras are for moving fragile or slow units around with a little more speed and durability.

Which you take depends totally on your play style. Neither of them are uniformally "better" straight away.

Ailaros wrote:no, they're not equal, becuse they do very different things. It's like comparing a hellhound to a medusa.

Infantry squads are scoring, and they're designed to fill up space against deepstrikers and push back opponent's deployment and shield other units behind them. Chimeras are for moving fragile or slow units around with a little more speed and durability.

Which you take depends totally on your play style. Neither of them are uniformally "better" straight away.

This is absolutely correct.

My preference is having infantry squads out of chimeras, but more important/expensive squads mounted up.

When used correctly, a chimera can be a real bother if there's a squad of 4 flamers in the back.

The real trouble you get when you start taking more than 3 or 4 chims, is that you are vulnerable to KP games, and have less ability to maneuver.

The 2 above responses are spot on. I HATE tanks, with a passion, so I stock up on troops, yeah i'll have that specialized tank slotted in there but that's only to ensure that I have like, the ability to wound his big guys on 2's or the ability to take out his orks at a much further range with the hell hound.

So if the question is chimera or an infantry squad then I choose squad, I do entire foot army for my catachan, except for a hell hound and eventually a Valk. The chimera gives you limited fire power and will just be a target, so but a squad in there and they will aim for them cause it's an easy kill if they have something with big S and painful AP. That's why i'm running my hq squad behind my hell hound. So i'm covered

Good luck

I'll try to flesh out my original question more, though I appreciate all the responses.

Can a competitive IG army be built using a foundation of either Infantry Squads and Chimeras OR just Infantry Squads?

The current meta-choice seems to be Vets + Chimera but I'm wondering how viable the other troop choices are and to what degree going full mechanized is mandatory.

Chimeras are a steal for the points, as they are incredibly under costed and they give your army incredible durability, survivability, added fire power and mobility. Can you play with out them? Sure but you will be handicapping yourself and it really depends on how competitive you wish to play. When I face an IG player, I hate personally hate Chimeras since they are mobile bunkers (5 fire points ) Multi Laser + Hvy Flamer with usually a vet squad inside with x3 melta guns + autocannon. This and they are mobile cover for your harder hitting mech units.


List of several things your opponent hates or will learn to hate about a tooled IG army

Chimeras, lots of em
Inquistor ally with x2 mystics and Psychic Hood
Valks / Vandettas
Hydras
Manticore
Medusas ( give this unit the order to fire on units that deepstrike )
Straken ( may not be in every IG Leaf Blower but he is ungodly good for 95 points )
Psyker Battle Squad ( pair this up with a Callidus and enjoy the show )

minigun762 wrote:I'll try to flesh out my original question more, though I appreciate all the responses.

Can a competitive IG army be built using a foundation of either Infantry Squads and Chimeras OR just Infantry Squads?

The current meta-choice seems to be Vets + Chimera but I'm wondering how viable the other troop choices are and to what degree going full mechanized is mandatory.

an army can be sustained on either complete infantry, mech or even halvies. It all depends on how you work them. obviously don't charge orks with infantry. gotta work to advantages. get what you want/like then get tactics as you go