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To address this august warrior clan is an honor. I have played 40K virtually not at all, but I have slowly constructed an IG force over the past 6-7 years while transitioning through three different IG Codexes (or is it, codices?). I'm a lifetime Civil War and military history nut with a love of desert tank battles -- so there's a strong strain of 8th Army in my color and camo choices -- and paratroops (British Red Devils at Arnhem, US Screaming Eagles at Normandy), so playing, building, or painting anything but Imperial Guard was never an option for me!

There's no doubt that, when I'm free from my current day job, I'll need to learn how to play from the ground up. I seek to be enlightened about certain aspects of IG gameplay -- now that you can combine squads, why wouldn't you anchor one objective with 20-30 standard guardsmen with plasmas and embedded autocannon in one uber-squad, backed up with at least one heavy weps squad (say, missiles) and a basilisk and griffon combo, and go after at least 1-2 other objectives with Chimeras or Valkyries transporting veteran squads, with mobile support from Sentinels and a Russ or two? I'll interrupt myself to ask another question...is it my imagination or are veterans now simply the best value in IG, the troops choice you build your army around? It seems as if everyone is playing vet squads with three meltas. What about the old saw about building up your army with scads of Guardsmen to outlast the enemy?

That's it for now. My officers from the First Omdurman Territorials await your replies.

Welcome to Dakka!

Welcome. For the Emperor!

Welcome! We need all the IG that we can get. The Imperium of Man must be defended!

I can suggest lots of reasons why you might want to consider many different builds for an IG army list. The great things is that many variations are successful, which is why the IG are more fun to play than many other armies. The only drawback is that you can spend money on IG for decades and still not cover every desirable option.

I love vets and Chimeras but I also like plasma guns and lots of plain infantry squads. Sometimes I play power blobs and sometimes I just cascade single infantry squads. The IG can adapt to all types of playing styles, opponents, and terrain...with the possible exception of uber assault. IG don't do that well. Yeah, we can surprise a few opponents with nasty power blobs but IG are not "Top Shelf" in the assault.

Welcome to Dakka!

Always awesome to meet another guard player.

Here is a suggestion. Have you ever thought of putting melta's with your veteran squads, (max 3), and then putting those squads in chimeras, and just drive around the board? Its a good way to take objectives, move quickly, stay alive, and maybe even take down that damn carnie on the other side of the board.

Welcome to Dakka, I hope you enjoy your stay.

Now, if I had the opportunity to play two armies, I would definitely have IG as one of them, but, unfortunately, I don't, so I'm saving up as much as I can for Tyranids. If it weren't for my money issues and the fact that I'm going for Nids, IG all the way!

Hey All: Terrific answers to my questions, many thanks! Makes a world of sense to load at least two Chimeras with veteran squads who can take and hold terrain. Two of my Chimeras I've tooled up with twin-linked bolters in the turret -- Forge World's TL bolter turret is a blast to paint, and it truly looks the part of an alien grunt killer -- so I'm thinking one APC with 3 vet meltas and another with 3 vet plasmas will give any enemy pause. I'm also a huge fan of the new Leman Russ tank kit. I can't live without deploying a squadron of three for a big battle, so my army currently has an Executioner tank with sponson plasmas and the Pask upgrade, a Demolisher with sponson plasmas, and a straight LR with battle cannon. But again, Forge World is waiting out there for me like a snake under a rock, a black hole for my paycheck. They have a really nice new upgrade for customizing Cadians with meltas and masks for fighting in lethal environments, and you men are leading me there!

Final thought for the night: I'm in no way an accomplished painter. I have as much fun writing up a backstory for my army as I do painting them. But it's a great feeling to occasionally not mess up a nice model, but actually do it some justice, so that it projects well in the field. I've only done two models so far that have ended up feeling right -- Commissar Gaunt, and Pask. Thank God GW came through with Pask, he simply makes my command tank what it is. I'm hoping we'll get word of a new model for Lucas Bastonne -- how cool would it be if he turned out to be one of GW's new Finecast creations for IG? What are your IG favorites?

Our Guard boys hold the line, and pay the price. Omdurman salutes you.

Welcome. If you like tank battles you should check out the IA armored company rules.

Hey Augbertus, to awnser your question, my favourite hero IG wise is Gaunt, my IG army is just Tanith, so I'm kind of a suck up for them.

But getting back to your tanks, it's always nice to have a tank squadron that is versatile and can support each other in a tough spot, but you have to remember two things. 1) Lemans cost alot of points, especially in three's, and though it's intimidating, it can eat up points that could be used for other things, such as valkeryies, or artie pieces (hehe ) and 2) EVERYONE knows what exactly a Leman can do, and if not, they know it's a tank. In any game, the first reaction for most players is to blow the biggest and most intimidating thing up on the opponents side of the field. A.K.A. you're tanks are going to be targeted early on in any game. True, Lemans have some of the best armour stats in the game, but something will eventually get through. Also, if you spend too many points on tanks, and not enough on infantry and units that can take points and objectives, you're opponent might just pick off all your troop choices, leaving you with your tanks, but no way to cap points.

It's alot of info, hope it helps, but I'm deffinetly not the guy to ask what armour units to put in your army, I just can help you along the way, or at least point you towards the right guy. In my personel opinion, one of the best things you can do is get fast moving, hard hitting infantry squads in Chimeras running around the field like the Dukes of Hazard.

I've played several styles:

1) Mechvet: 2 CCS w/PGs and standard in Chimera, 6 vet squads in Chimeras with artillery, Hellhounds, and the occasional LR Executioner or Demolisher

2) Mixed: CCS w/PGs and standard in Chimera, 2-4 vet squads in Chimeras, a three squad infantry platoon with PWs and Commissar with PW, a Vendetta, Manticore, and various LRs

3) Yarrick gunline: Yarrick on foot, CCS w/PGs and standard in Chimera, two vet squads in Chimeras, five squad infantry platoon, three HWS, Vendetta, Manticore, and various LRs. I haven't played this list much.

4) Mixed Gunline (my current favorite): 2 lascannon CCS w/standards in Chimeras, Officer of the Fleet, four plasma vet squads in Chimeras, PBS in Chimera, five squad infantry platoon with autocannons and melta guns, Bassie, Manticore, and Colossus.

I've had fun with every list but I really lost a lot of vehicles to assaults until I switched to the Mixed Gunline. I tend not to blob squads now. I prefer to cascade individual PIS backed up by vet squads with plasma and a lot of Chimeras with MLs and hull HBs. Enemy assault units eat up each individual PIS but are then open to my shooting in each of my turns. Eventually they all die or are forced to fall back by the PBS. The Manticore and Bassie shoot at vehicles and the Colussus shoots at infantry in cover on objectives. The bad thing about this list is that it is very reliant on blasting the enemy off of his objectives, which doesn't always work.

Oh, and in fun games I'll put together all kinds of weird lists with things like sentinels, enginseers, priests, and other units that I don't normally use.

Hi,

Welcome to Dakka

Welcome to Dakka Dakka.

Welcome to Dakka ;D.

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome.