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Because they're mucho macho.

They are just mere men in war where you see things that are extreme. But still they hold the line. Or dont, but thats part of the spell IG is also great for people loving simple military sci-fi or just military literature and motifs like Glen Cook and his Black Company, Erikson's Bridgeburners/ Bonehunters etc. For me is bucnh of men holding gun in face of terrible horrors simply more alluring than playing for genetically modified kinght orders (but nothing against it, if someone loves SM, just enjoy!).

And from game perspective, IG offers me huge freedom of army composition. Just those snipers and cavalry suck

It's very refreshing to play a human army in 40K without being one of the hordes of Space Marine players. Been there, done that, have three different Space Marine armies to prove it (and a SOB one just to fill out the "Power Armor" lust.). Sometimes it's time for something new, but still relatable.

Mass ranks of soldiers with all their faults.

Guard fluff rocks, can't wait for something like it to breathe new life into the Horus Heresy series.

I'm not keen on massed tank/artillery armies though.

Because people relate to people. Same reason aliens appear humanoid in the vast majority of cases, because it's harder to market 'true' aliens to people (Which is why I personally like Nids so much)

Basically because tanks.

At first I thought the Leman Russ was silly and dumb looking, and it is.

But after understanding WHY it's silly looking, and even better, noticing that it's better than every other main battle tank in the game while looking silly, is awesome.

It's like having a Ford Pinto that can outrun, outgun, and out-endure an M1 Abrams.

I like the fact they are weak, that there is nothing special about them. They are your standard issue grunts in a sea of super powered mutants and aliens. When someone who is raised from a young age to be the greatest fighter known to man given every physical and technological advantage does something brave and heroic its intresting but par for the course. When some guy born a farmer gets handed a Lasgun and a week of training does something heroic its spectacular.

Personally not much of a Tank fan.

You kidding me? Half the reason I play 40K is to AVOID anything to do with humans, aside from perhaps crushing them in the field of battle. It's all about being above, better-than.

Don't get me wrong, I like people. It's humans as a species who irk me. Same thing with fantasy games, anything other than human is a good place to start.

Steel Legion madness.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
B-but Space Marines are more popular than the Guard.

Because they are more interesting. You can get the Imperial Guard feel anywhere.
You come to 40k to hear about battles between millions of superhumans. If you want to see normal people fist fight go play Flames of War.

 ThePrimordial wrote:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
B-but Space Marines are more popular than the Guard.

Because they are more interesting. You can get the Imperial Guard feel anywhere.
You come to 40k to hear about battles between millions of superhumans. If you want to see normal people fist fight go play Flames of War.

Ummm space marines are not very interesting. all their gear is largely the same, no variation except the odd robe or icon here and there. Vehicles are even more awful than guard ones. Oh and dont get me started on their midget bolters. Seriously the bodies are hunched over trying to hold a tiny gun like that.

With the guard they can be anything in terms of uniform, weapons, tactics and vehicles.

I mean whats interesting about a giant man, with 2 of every organ for no real reason plus heaps of random organs shoved in there, let alone all the OTHER organs crammed in there, than wrapped in probably multiple copies of muscles, its a wonder they dont have 2 faces! (you know just encase they loose one?). Then you get guys driving tanks in power armour. Flying craft with armour.

They would consume so much food so frequently its just a stupid idea from the get go.

A muddy battlefield would render armies of marines useless. Let a lone cave fighting.

There is nearly nothing they can do tactically except drop in the right place or walk forward hoping the enemy cant shoot very well.

There is nothing cool about GW space marines at all. Dont get me started on chaos marines! They are considerably worse.

If space marines werent so childish in appearance on the table top and in the fluff i might consider them sightly interesting.

 ImotekhTheStormlord wrote:

pax_imperialis wrote:
I like them for the fluff, they reflect all my fav action and war movies. On the table not so much, but i do have a small detachment to ally with my marines on occasion. People who do well with them utilize a lot of tanks, and unfortunately i think the leman russ is the dumbest looking tank after the german av1 from the first world war. I suggest reading a gaunts ghosts novel and see what you think.

How could this possibly look dumb?



Oh wait...

aaaah i see you bought the new crassus armoured carrier. Well played sir

CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT.Not what you just said.

Because no other faction let me do the ''shatter their skies'' thing better.

Fancy models, too, Forgeworld is awesome.

Oh and house with more barrels pointing out of its windows than there are windows.

 Laughingcarp wrote:
You kidding me? Half the reason I play 40K is to AVOID anything to do with humans, aside from perhaps crushing them in the field of battle. It's all about being above, better-than.

Don't get me wrong, I like people. It's humans as a species who irk me. Same thing with fantasy games, anything other than human is a good place to start.

Meh, non humans always bug me in fantasy and sci-fi. It's not that I don't like aliens (tyranids are loads of fun), but rather that I don't see the point of slapping pointy ears or green paint on people and pretending they are not people any more.

Space Marines are people in good armor. Orks are post apocalyptic hordes in green paint. Eldar are aristocrats in pointy ears. At least Imperial Guard admit they are just a bunch of people. I mean, the difference between me and an Eldar as written is about 500x less than the difference between me and a 15th century farmer in China. Sure, they are fast and uppity and they feel their entirely human emotions "100 times stronger than any human" but in practice they act like humans, and twentieth century western humans to boot.

Honestly, I'd be happier if Orks were Road Warrior style raiders instead of... well, Road Warrior style raiders painted green with a lot of nonsense about fungus thrown in. Eldar are more poignant to me as a superadvanced human society whose fall destroyed their great works, leaving militaristic numbskulls and scavenging hordes to replace their great society... as opposed to exactly the same thing, but with a different genetic background. Space marines are already just GMO humans. Tau are just an upstart bunch of humans playing at science and socialism.

I mean, all these groups are humans. They represent human archetypes, they act like humans, they have human motivations and emotions and behavior and are designed to appeal to our human drives. The only non-human faction in the game is Tyranids... Necrons to some extent, but really they just act like humans stuck in cyber-bodies these days.

I feel like I can reply to several of the questions raised by people above,
Even when I first got into 40k, not long after 2nd ed came out, the Imperial Guard intrigued me. Their description in codex Imperialis painted a picture of an almost hopeless guardsman, a single human fully in the knowledge that 99% of the things out there can and will squish him into meat paste, but he still fights. He still fights because as part of an incalculably large fighting force, supported by massive war machines, artillery and reinforcements.
Yes the Astartes are superhuman, and have all the heroes and all the shiny armour etc but to me they are almost less heroic because of all the advantages they go into combat with. I have never been a meta-gamer, and in my experience not many IG players are. It has always been infinitely more rewarding to win with my guard army than any of the others I have. Strangely I don't feel the same about the Empire in Warhammer Fantasy, I have a night goblin army there. Again, not meta game but tremendous fun.
I almost wish sometimes that the imperium didn't have space marines, and that mankind was simply represented by this incredibly human army.
My favourite special character back in 2nd ed was Yarrick, he was nowhere near the match of well, many special characters, but what a character!
For a start I love the whole concept of Commissars, they really add flavour to the IG, but you have this man, tackling in single combat an alien monster in effect and winning by sheer grit and determination because he knew a city's fate depended on it, and going on to tackle Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, you know the rest of the story, but it illustrates for me what the Imperial guard are all about. Bring your Daemons, your Screamer-killers or your Wraith Knights, we will still stand and fight, and keep fighting until you or we are destroyed!
It did take until I was an adult to collect IG, purely down to the cost. Back then there was no plastic IG squad, just the metal ones, and it was simply down to cost that I elected to collect Blood Angels (well, cost and who doesn't like red? ). You had to spend alot of money to assemble an IG army of any worthwhile composition or points total, and several units, like Sentinels, only had really iffy old models (creme egg anyone?).
So in conclusion, I would say that people like the Imperial Guard because they feel real, you or I could be a guardsman. They are less science fantasy and more science fiction, kinda like why Batman will always be better then Superman, because he isn't an immortal alien with lasers for eyes, he is a squishy little human using what tools he has to do the best he can.

I LOVE THEIR EVERYTHING! IMPERIAL GUARD ARE AWESOME!1!1!!1! But in all seriousness i love their fluff. I love their tanks (Russes <3 ). I love their overkill english accents, i love their equipment and insignificance.I love how they are normal people told to fight the horrors of the universe. I love them so much Oh and sentinels. Dey are sexy. Oh and valkyries. they're sexy as hell too.

Because I can make any regiment I want. If I want to represent my local Regiment, I can. If I want to represent a British Regiment from the Peninsular War, then I can and have.

Plus FRFSRF is a brilliant order to use, Tanks and TANKS!!

 BlaxicanX wrote:
B-but Space Marines are more popular than the Guard.

Which is why I'm going for the hilarious concept of CSM with allied IG to smash apart my SM friends! Time to get that glory back from those hogs!

It involves a heldrake, a BBoS DP, a Vendetta, a couple of Russes...

I'm trying not to do cheese hammer, but the two fliers are kinda a must-take.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 sierra 1247 wrote:
Because I can make any regiment I want. If I want to represent my local Regiment, I can. If I want to represent a British Regiment from the Peninsular War, then I can and have.

Plus FRFSRF is a brilliant order to use, Tanks and TANKS!!

ABG panzer battalion anyone?

What's FRFSRF?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And what's it do?

Brutal Viking wrote:
What's FRFSRF?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And what's it do?

First Rank Fire Second Rank Fire.

And it allows lasgun guard to make another shot.

So it's like the Tau volly fire or invocation of fire. I've always wanted an IG army for many of the reasons listed in this post but I HATE painting so that's always stopped me but I'm looking at doing a blob/swarm army now for my second one. It's a toss up between nids and IG now so just waiting to see what the new nid dex looks like

Brutal Viking wrote:
So it's like the Tau volly fire or invocation of fire. I've always wanted an IG army for many of the reasons listed in this post but I HATE painting so that's always stopped me but I'm looking at doing a blob/swarm army now for my second one. It's a toss up between nids and IG now so just waiting to see what the new nid dex looks like

If you hate painting, commission and ebay are your friend.

Its all personal opinion, people might say for non human players that they betrayed their own race. I don't play guard but I like there fluff. And as we are all humans we can relate, it comes down to what someone likes and the play style they want.

Think about it to online games and MMOs why do people play humans?

People like the Imperial Guard because, as has been said, it is easy to relate to their doctrine of combat and their units. Tactics come almost naturally when playing them as well...although that doesn't help much in a fantasy environment. I also think their paint schemes being able to match those in history for their camoflage appeals to real life veterans and military history buffs.

 Farseer Faenyin wrote:
People like the Imperial Guard because, as has been said, it is easy to relate to their doctrine of combat and their units. Tactics come almost naturally when playing them as well...although that doesn't help much in a fantasy environment. I also think their paint schemes being able to match those in history for their camoflage appeals to real life veterans and military history buffs.

I like the IG tactics - either put some men or a lot of men at something, and if they're dying in droves, roll up a big gun.

Easy to use, fun to be.

Unless you play nids.

They you're fked.

Because Tanks..

..Because if your deployment is not covered with tanks, then your doing Guard wrong

I'm starting up Traitor Mechanicum Guard as a side project along the new year , so it also the amount of customizing you can do with them as well

Tanks tanks and more tanks. Plus its always fun when you curb stomp an army filled with 3 story tall monsters with an army consisting of 5'8 humans wearing cardboard and a flashlight

People also like the underdog. I mean when you a bunch of normal humans defeating super genetically demon humans it kind of feels good.

There are 3 reasons why I play the IG. First of all, the fluff attracted me as they are just Human, like myself. Since hitting middle age and losing my delusions of granduer. Some of us "ole-timers" totally dig that man. Surviving by your courage and wits.

Secondly, how many total chapters/craft worlds/chaos warbands, etc, are there? The answer is not enough. There are more than a million different IG regiments, probably closer to a Billion. How is that for variety?

And lastly, I love the IG codex because its units can field platoons/squadrons with their unit choices. Go Big or Go Home! That is the IG major advantage with their codex.