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I have 2, one official and one home-brew.

My fave "official" IG Regiment is the Death Korps of Kreig. Why? Because Death Korps.

The home-brew fave I have is the Thracian Militia, present in a Dark Heresy campaign, which is an IG Regiment based on the Union and Confederate armies of the American Civil War, equipped with las-locks, caisson-mounted multi-las (Gatling Guns) and primitive plasma and explosive-shell artillery.

1. My home brew regiment, the Romanov steam bloods.
2. Vostroyan, I would literally kill for a plastic vostroyan kit.
3. Death korp, because they look amazing!

I've never liked the IG too much. I mean, I like the idea of your basic militia army, but the looks are awful.

Are you trying to tell me that in 38 000 years, after we've invented plasma weaponry, anti-grav technology and genetically altered supersoldiers, no-one has bothered to come up with a new unifrom for the basic infantry since WW2?

Half of the regiments are copies of the armies on the 20th century (DKoK, Mordians, Valhallans etc.), almost as many look like they're older than that and even more primitive guerrilla army (Catachans, Vostroyans, Tallarns) and the last one is the least imaginative and most boring possible (Cadians).
I mean, none of them looks like anything that I would connect to the 41st millenium even remotely.

With that being said, I still love the looks of both Tallarns and Armageddon Steel Legion!
But if I would ever collect an army of Guard (Steel Legion), I wouldn't represent them as an Imperial army, more like an independent human colony.

1. Mordian
2. Steel Legion
3. Cadian for a good ol fashioned look.

CADIA!!!

All offworlders are obviously inferior.

NO BLOOD MORE PRECIOUS!

Used to like the Valhallans but never actually picked any up.

Other than that the official GW forces it's a split between Cadians, Catachan and Mordians.

Also no love for the rough riders? isn't it high time the forces of Attila made a come back?

Oh, and unofficial stuff I really like the Victoria miniatures range. Might just build myself a Zulu style army with the Victorian guard and then just fill out a tonne of concripts squads with their Penal guard range.

 RazgrizOne wrote:

2/ Kriegers btw. Their Commissars and officers are just wow. Just like their regular infantry. And grenadiers. And engineers. And Death Riders!

I like the Death Riders best (got 30) and centaurs, grenadiers and engineers and their tanks are awesome as well!

Krieg is clearly the first place for me with Tallarn taking second.

 General Kroll wrote:


Also no love for the rough riders? isn't it high time the forces of Attila made a come back?

Y'know this may well be their time



I'll add "Convert full Attila Army" to my list. I should get to it in mid-2034...

DKoK, Cadians, Voystroyans.

I love heavy artillery and the dirty, more realistic approach of DKoK. I'd play them if they weren't absolutely insane in cost and absolutely not visually compatible with Cadians, IMO.

Catachans. Why don't they get more love? They beat the ever living crap out of any other guardsmen hands down and they gain a 5+ save with no shirt on. They are clearly the best.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Chootum wrote:
CADIA!!!

All offworlders are obviously inferior.

NO BLOOD MORE PRECIOUS!

Catachans don't bleed... They don't have the time.

Valhallans
Catachans (basing opportunities, action hero pose conversions all just seem to go naturally with these guys).
Auxillary stuff like rough riders, ogryns, ratlings; all so cool!

1 - Praetorian Guard

Inspired by the British Infantry from the film Zulu, one of my favourite films haha!


2 - Death Korps

I love their background. The models are amazing. And they play so differently from regular Guard.


3 - Maccabian Janissaries



You will never see the models for these guys sadly. They are a creation for the RPG game from Fantasy Flight.

Death Korps are actually quite imaginative in their look; the only thing actually "German" about them is the cut of their helmet, and even then they have the French adrian-style helmet crest.

Their coats are French, the gasmask is British, their collars are Belgian, and their boots are very American - they're basically every WW1 army rolled into one, but the helmet defines much of the silhouette and they're often painted grey (as are mine) so people go "Space WW1 Germans!" Well, and the name too.

As for my list:

1) Cadians. Definition of standard human infantry in the 41st millennium, holding the hordes of Chaos at bay with courage, determination and training. If there's a threat somewhere in the Imperium of Man, Cadian regiments will hold it back. I even like their aesthetic, but the models are pretty much awful, mostly due to proportions. Their iterations in Dawn of War 1 and 2, as well a Space Marine are much, much better. If they re-do the models with actual human shapes I'd happily do a whole army of them.

2) DKoK. Probably the most emblematic force of the 41st millennium. Why? They'e not as iconic as Space Marines, chaos or loyalist, but what they actually represent; effectively the whole adult male population of a ruined world whose sole export of value is its experience in apocalyptic warfare, who may or may not be clones/artificially grown to enable that export, who exist to destroy the enemies of the imperium utterly, without mercy, without remorse, without compassion by the weight of their guns and their own bodies if need be. And for whom the highest honour is not a medal, commendation or being mustered out on a liberated/conquered world, but to earn the right to use a name drawn from Krieg's pre-war population, to fight in the memory of those lost.

If you want the Imperium of Man or the 41st Millennium in a nutshell, look at the Death Korps

3) Praetorian Guard. 19th century Redcoats in space may not be the basis of an especially strong idea, nor especially unique, but one of the first things I read about related to 40k was the Battle Report for the Battle of Big Toof River, and Ork's Drift is a magnificent pun. I even have a kill-team of these guys, replete with Michael Cain look-alike in charge courtesy of Victoria Miniatures. I quite enjoy staring down a horde of Orks and while the opponent plans his charges, break out into a rather solid rendition of "Men of Harlech" (this opponent insists on playing organ music while firing Exorcists, so it's only fair).

1) The Tanith First and Only
2) Gaunt's Ghosts
3) Probably any regiment to come out of Tanith.

Death Korps of Krieg
Valhallans
Elysians.

But my favorite are my own custom regiments; the Rodinav Frost Sabres based on the late-soviet, modern russian, and various techno-thriller Russian armies. Gas Mask spetsnaz with lasguns, stronk tenk spam, and artillery barrages. <3

Muh lore.



Rodinav Frost Sabre guardsman.



Hailing from the cold civilized world of Rodina are the Frost Sabres Imperial Guardsmen, Order of the Cold Purity Sisters of Battle, and Ice Dragons Space Marines whom share a close bond with the "sister" planet of Krajina, a notable forgeworld that is home to the Snow Hammer Titan legion and it's Skitarii and Legio Cybernetica forces. Rodina herself is a world somewhat distant from her sun, and noticeably larger than Holy Terra, though ancient relics left behind from mankind's dark age of technology and beyond have negated what should have been a gravity field on which only Ogryns and Squats could have thrived.

While cold, Rodina is largely survivable, with even the polar caps being survivable in winter with the adepts of the Mechanicus often comparing the overall clime of the world to a long lost ice age in the pre-imperial days of humanity. The world herself, despite it's classification as a civilized world, has vast tracts of untamed wilderness, inhabited by both native life forms, invasive species brought forth by the ancient forebears of the Imperium which include cloned or gene altered animals to create what some theorize was originally a world for hunting game and other activities now associated with paradise worlds, and the descendants of xenos incursions such as Ambulls or even feral Tyranids left in wake of Hive Fleet Hydra's invasion in M42 273 and Orks that have remained on the world for millenia..

The vast fields, Wild Tyranids and Feral Orks forced to remain on world by the hand of the Administratum for training purposes, and most recently the discovery of a network of webway gates and the detritus of the war in heaven provide plenty of training areas for the Rodinav soldiers, who sometimes even train in combined arms with the Sisters and Space Marines who also call the world home to practice working with other branches of the Imperial military, and more rarely engage in exercises with the Skitarii and Legions of Krajina and Imperial navy aircraft from Battlefleet Ultraeus. The practice of having to defend their cities from webway raiders, tyranid "boilovers" and Feral Ork waaaghs has made for soldiers who have a proper reason to have contempt for the alien and a chance to see just what is at stake. Soldiers and officers are taught to be practical and seek victory above glory and to honor their homeworld as their motherland, the Imperium as their lords and charges, and the Emperor as their great father.

Situated in the Ultraeus Sector in the Inciphis Region of the Ultima Segmentum, Rodina lies in a blood soaked portion of the galaxy that has known war from virtually ever comer with the capacity to reach it, with non stop violence dating to the days before the War in heaven when the ancient Necrontyr Empire warred amongst itself. And then to that cataclysmic conflict itself, and then to the Eldar's struggles with other legacies of their now deceased creators and the Slaugth, maggots uplifted by shadowed masters into becoming a new race of pawns, to mankind's first forray into the area before the Emperor was known to man, then between techno-barbarians in the age of strife, then during the great crusade, and in the blood soaked years that followed to the apocalyptic times of ending.

The sons and daughters of Rodina and Krajina have fought against Orks, Hrud, Thyrrus, Dark Eldar, Tyranids, Tau, Craftworlders, Slaugth, Necrons, Chaos, Secessionists, Wormhole traveling Qo'orl, Barghesi, Slann and their Saurian minions, Draxians, Galciaxs, Enoulians, Fra'al, resurgent Helgrammites, Demiurg, Khraves, and more foul enemies of man. And yet in this dark hour, they often find themselves allying with other factions that can at least be reasoned with in the face of more implacable threats that would annihilate them all. As a practical people, they are more keen to ally with factions such as the Eldar and Tau, who can at the very least be bargained with in the face of mutual threats such as the Necrons, Chaos, Slaugth, and Tyranids.

Like many other regimental systems, the Rodinav are emulated by many other worlds with varying degrees of success, though certainly not to the degree of the Cadians.

====The army proper====

The Rodinav Frost Sabres, while organized in regiments as is standard, deploy in much larger army groups and rarely show up to any battle with less than three hundred thousand men and are tithed out in bulk, believing in overwhelming concentration of force above all else. As such, individual regiments do not possess names, and pride is associated with the army group rather than the regiment and corps. Army groups are deployed in mix gender assignments, to ensure "a tithe that keeps on giving" in the words of one Lord General for the send offs of so many men and women to the frontline at a time.

With a heavy emphasis on overwhelming force on the offense and defense, the Frost Sabres are somewhat infamous for their colossal expenditure of ammunition for their "alpha strikes" which often leave cratered wrecks of battlefields in thirty second barrages given enough pauses to let the enemy poke their heads out of their fortifications before firing and bombing again until the main force is finally within Battle cannon range, at which point a rapidly advancing creeping barrage afterwards that heralds a thrust with maximum force and shock to shatter the enemy with a fist of tanks and mechanized infantry with close in air and artillery support.

In defense, the Frost Sabres prefer an in depth system that pummels attackers with air and artillery support at the moment of an offense's beginning or just before if they can help it before grinding the enemy against multiple layers of mobile and static defense to bleed the enemy while organizing counter offensives into the flanks of enemy salients to cut them off and destroy them. When all goes as planned, these tactics and strategies are almost unparalleled in their brutality and effectiveness, but when unanticipated maneuvers are made that cannot be rapidly adjusted to, this can often lead to catastrophic defeat.

This has made the Thyrrus a foe that has routinely and repeatedly crushed Frost Sabre army groups time after time with startlingly few losses because their tactics do not even begin to make sense. Over ten army groups were lost in a single battle to a Thyrrus force merely one percent of their size when the aliens so catastrophically flounted all the expectations of war and crushed their attack, then their defense, then their counter offensive until all ten million Frost Sabres perished in the ignonimous loss of the hive world Herzekolv. Every maneuver was met with a nonsensical response, every tactic flubbed by an incomprehensible counter, every plan dashed in the face of militarized performance arts.

This has also made the Rodinavs face disastrous defeat when the enemy does not quite meat expectations, such as when unusually cunning war bosses or Hive Tyrants rise to the fore with little forewarning, preventing the Imperial guard from switching it's gears to deal with a more strategic and less predictable opponent. Indeed, the Inertia of the Frost Sabres is probably their greatest weakness, once set on a specific method, they may find it difficult to make a radical correction in course before all is lost.



Frost Sabre on drill.

1) Renegades
2) Harakoni Warhawks
3) Militarum Tempestus or Cadians with FW HazEnv Helmets or the OOP metal Cadian Kasrkin. I love the rebreather look.

Honorable mention to the Savlar Chem Dogs and Vostroyans

Ah the Chem Dogs are nice, if forgotten.

Awesome comments so far!

Keep them coming!

1) Elysians: Beautiful models and unique style of play, also true scale makes them even better.

2) DKoK: Amazing range of models, almost as cool as drop troopers and once again true scale making them even better.

3) Steel Legion: best range of Imperial Guard GW has ever come out with hands down.

1. Elysians
2. Harakoni Warhawks
3. Marbo

1) Steel Legion
2) Cadians
3) Valhallans

Death Korps of Krieg just try too hard imo.... steel legion will always be better to me!

1) Cadian/Elysian
2) Tallarn
3) Catachan

I'm a fan of the classics, I guess.

Cadian and Elysian are a twofer on account of have a similar look. Elysians, for being nicer models and because I love drop troops; Cadians, for being the original trendsetters.

Tallarn and Catachan, both for just being really characterful and unique. Tallarns are more subdued, Catachans are delightfully OTT.

Honourable mention:-
4) Necromunda Spiders

Big Necromunda fan. Shame these guys never got any models, but at least they have that one bit of fluff and that one awesome old-school piece of art.

I love my Steel Legion! I have basically a full platoon (minus Conscripts) and they just look beautiful. If I had the cash and GW were still doing the full line, I'd have a full army of them.

1. Valhallans. I love the Ciaphas Cain series, and would love to build an army based solely around them.
2. Catachans. I really enjoy the more American-GI-Vietnamy feel of the army. I think it is a welcome break from the rest of the Guard regiments, the majority of which tend to be very Eurocentric in their tone and feel, if not design.
3. Chemdogs. Mad Max meets Starship Troopers. Can't go wrong with that.

1. Tallarn

Setting aside the fact that the Battle of Tallarn is clearly the coolest conflict in the history of 40k (a *million* tanks!) these guys emphasize mounted and armoured combat, which happen to be my favourite kinds.

2. DKoK

Big guns never tire, and the DKoK are masters of trench and siege warfare. Gorgeous models and they emphasize the tanks I like while eschewing the ones I don't.

3. Phantine Air Corps

IG so badass they got a special exception to let them be pilots even though they aren't the imperial navy. Any regiment whose idea of a siege involves an entire wing of Marauder bombers is pretty awesome in my eyes.

1. Catachans
2. DKoK
3. The last chancers