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Hey all, I've been playing 40k since early and edition, BTU I've always done a marine army of one sort or the other, probably painted most of a chapter worth of figs for one army or another, but I happened across a great deal for the bulk of a guard army recently and I couldn't turn it down,. But there was never a regular guard player in my group of friends at the local game store, so there's no one who's brain to pick for help.

My problem is that Guard is not Marines. so I look over the codex and frown and scratch my head on how to build something that works. My questions are in regards to some of the unit types for instance,

the Infantry Platoon, I see this as a ton of guys for one troop slot, but I don't see the value except for the fact that there's the heavy weapons teams, those guys I like, but looking at the list I can't see why someone would take that over a Veteran squad.

Armored sentinels... they seem like a pretty good choice, give them a missile launcher or a lascannon and they bust vehicles for pretty cheap, but are they viable or just something left in for the hell of it.

I haven't played much in the last few years, I totally missed 4th edition, but from what I can see from 5th is that they are trying to make everything useful, and while I don't want a Rogue Trader winning army for my guard, I don't want to get hosed every game because I don't understand guard tech.

thanks for any and all help.

the Jones

Infantry Platoons are good if you want 450 troops at 1000 points. (which isn't possible, I knoow)

Armored sentinals are not as good as you think. If you want some mech-busting, veteran squads, PCS, or CCS packed with melta is the way to go.

I am really torn on where to start. I guess I wil start with general play styles:

Mech: Veteran Squads in Chimeras, and don't bother with a Company command squad unless you want it for the added Special weapons. Vendettas are very useful here for long range anti tank. Best plasce for some of the Heavy Armor variants(Russes)

Gunline: this is where you want Platoons, lots of them. The Platoons are where you put your heavy weapons, do not take Heavy weapon squads unless you are taking many of them and duplicating several(they are not very survivable and their low Ld means you will not have them acting on your orders often enough).

Balanced: Mix the 2 above styles, basically take 2 lists of roughly half your points and mash them together. This is a standard Guard army. Take 2 Vet squads in Chimeras and a Full Infantry Platoon, 1 Company Command as a Command element and then spend the rest of your points on Tanks.

Kommissar Kel wrote:I am really torn on where to start. I guess I wil start with general play styles:

Mech: Veteran Squads in Chimeras, and don't bother with a Company command squad unless you want it for the added Special weapons. Vendettas are very useful here for long range anti tank. Best plasce for some of the Heavy Armor variants(Russes)

Gunline: this is where you want Platoons, lots of them. The Platoons are where you put your heavy weapons, do not take Heavy weapon squads unless you are taking many of them and duplicating several(they are not very survivable and their low Ld means you will not have them acting on your orders often enough).

Balanced: Mix the 2 above styles, basically take 2 lists of roughly half your points and mash them together. This is a standard Guard army. Take 2 Vet squads in Chimeras and a Full Infantry Platoon, 1 Company Command as a Command element and then spend the rest of your points on Tanks.

i personally am running a Chimera swarm, which is a buttload of infantry in Chimeras.

The key to guard is meltas...

other things you can try are:
-psycher battle squads
-marbo
-chimera melta vet teams
-mantacores

and my personal frav is a punnisher battle tank with pask in it... 23 shots, hits on 3's, re-roll wounds on monsterous creatures...

the Infantry Platoon, I see this as a ton of guys for one troop slot, but I don't see the value except for the fact that there's the heavy weapons teams, those guys I like, but looking at the list I can't see why someone would take that over a Veteran squad.

Gets bodies on the field, you can hide heavy weapons in large blobs, can use them as bait/sacrifice units, and many more options. Platoons are very versatile, but what you do with them depends on what kind of army you're going for.

Armored sentinels... they seem like a pretty good choice, give them a missile launcher or a lascannon and they bust vehicles for pretty cheap, but are they viable or just something left in for the hell of it.

Not really. Scouts have so much more to offer IMO, would never take a single-shot weapon on a sentinel of any kind, though. BS3 sucks, go with multilasers or autocannons.

I like to add special weapon units to infantry platoons that have 3 flamers. It adds a nice little kick to the army.

veteran w/ 2 flamers and a hvy flamer in valkyrie spam works great against hordy tyranids or even gunline tau

If you're taking an all mechanized non-veteran army, you're going to get hosed in killpoints completely. I like having some veterans in a chimera and some veterans infiltrating with Harker supported by an infantry platoon. Then again, I'm also going for a recon company thing so I have a lot of sentinels. They're fun and can pull a sly trick or two for really cheap.

It's not too easy to screw up a Guard army. Either way you'll have a lot of guns pointing at the badguys, so it's just point and click from there.

Well I've never played as Guard, but I've fought them plenty, with both Chaos (Marines and Daemons) and Tyranids and I can try and point out what works from an oppositions' perspective.

Firstly, Vendettas are just plain nasty against almost anything - a fast, armour 12 transport with 3 twin linked Lascannons? Ouch. Outflank them with a unit of Melta/Plasma Veterans and they can open up on anything nearby and cause a whole lot of hurt before you get a chance to retaliate. I have almost never seen this combo not earn its points back in one turn and if it survives after that then thats a massive bonus.

For troops, it's tough to see why anything other than Veterans and Heavy weapon squads are useful, they're just packing the most punch for not much cost.

Marbo is another one I know can be a real thorn in your opponents' side. Appearing out of nowhere and flinging a Demo charge for a low points cost can be priceless, I've lost entire units of Tyranid Warriors to him in a single turn.

The Banewolf is going to burn through any group of infantry with ease, even Space Marines go down like flies in the face of this thing, again it's not too expensive either and can pack a Multimelta to surprise any unwary vehicles.

Camo-net cloaked Armoured Sentinels can be really tough to remove from any cover by shooting and they're not going to go down in combat to anyone without at least some specialised anti-vehicle equipment due to the armour 12 that needs breaching. Also, Ogryns can be used to screen them from assault quite well.

That'll do for now,, but suffice to say, the Guard aren't lacking for good-to-exceptional units and you'd have to be trying quiet hard to make a totally ineffective army with them. I say get the basics, a few men, a few tanks and then just experiment and build around what works for you.