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Hi! I've been lurking here for a while, and finally decided to register.

A friend introduced me to 40k a few weeks ago, i kinda knew what it was about, but ive been really getting into it lately, so i decided to start my own army. The first army i was drawn to were the tau, they reminded me of izumo jyuki's drawings! (google him if you don't know him, he is very good. Get industrial divinities)

Then i played a short SM vs Orks game to get introduced to the game mechanics, and i realized cqc was half the battle.

I've been reading quite a lot of fluff, and now i'm torn between the tau and the Imperial Guard. (Damn, they look good) What are the cons and pros of each?

Tau battleforce kit is huge, varied and cheap. I love that. Its almost 40 minis and a tank. On the other hand, IG gives me 30 minis and a squishy sentinel, for more or less the same amount of money. On the one side, i'm afraid tau focus on long range combat will make my games... well, boring. They seem like a one trick pony from what i've been reading. I do love how they use terrain in their favor, very sun tzu.

IG looks a lot more versatile, and i absolutely love their minis. Their basilisk/88, all the tanks, the creed mini is lovely, etc. etc. They are expensive as ****, though.

So the question is this:

Money is kind of an issue, but i can be patient to build an IG army if the pros are good enough. Which way do you recommend me to go for a starter army? I aim for a 1500 point one. Are the tau repetitive to play with? Are IG as versatile as they look like? How much will i need to spend to get a decent army for one or the other? What kind of gameplay do each of them lean to?

Thanks in advance and cheers from argentina!


mods: If this is in a wrong forum, my apologies and feel free to move it!

Tau area very cheap army, so if youre tight on cash go for them.
Both armies use along the same lines for tactics, both liking to sit back and hammer the enemy as they come near.
Both armies are very shooty. Tau have some of the best range, and can basically cover the map with fire. However, Tau SUCK at close combat. However, they make up for this in fire power.
The IG are also very shooty. Theyre heavily reliant on tanks, and you can field tons of troops for low cost (because theyre armed with flashlights and cardboard armor). Their tanks are usually pretty well armored, but teir strength is more in their weapondry, which not only do they have different guns for any situation available, but theyre super big.
Thats about all i know really. Hope this helps!

Ok... Tau is very 1 dimensional, but has some pretty powerful army compositions you can make.

However, Tau is ALSO currently rumored to be receiving a new set of rules soon... which may change everything.

Guard, at the moment, are one of the top 3 best armies out there. You can really do anything with guard. You want a squad that can take things down in hand to hand? Throw 50 guardsmen with 5 sergeants packing power swords, backed up by a commissar at it, and not much survives that. Want a lot of anti-transport firepower? Hydras are amazing for it. If you threw darts at a list of guard units, and picked what it hit for your army, you'd probably be equal in power level to a well-constructed tau army.

Guard are just a straight up powerful army, and a lot of fun to play.

Tau are cheaper, so if you go IG expect to play a lot of battles with few points (that's not nessesarily a bad thing, though).

Also, Imperial Guard have THIS:

that was another question i had. Is the IG battleforce enough to play anything? It looks kind of bland. Are little point battles any good?

What should i buy first after the battleforce, if i go IG?

The IG battle force won't let you field a legal army. Though you will only get something like 300 points and at that level i don't think you will find people minding that you army dosen't have a HQ

nomotog wrote:The IG battle force won't let you field a legal army. Though you will only get something like 300 points and at that level i don't think you will find people minding that you army dosen't have a HQ

Doesnt it come with a command squad?

Jollydevil wrote:

nomotog wrote:The IG battle force won't let you field a legal army. Though you will only get something like 300 points and at that level i don't think you will find people minding that you army dosen't have a HQ

Doesnt it come with a command squad?

Yes it dose. I forgot about it.

Currently, Imperial Guard are far more competitive than the Tau. They'll come out on top just about every time short of unlucky rolls and/or a massive skill difference. The gap is likely to be reduced at the very least with a new Tau codex coming out in the next few months.

If money is the primary factor divide you on this choice then go with Tau. IG are the most expensive army to field along with Eldar. Grey Knights are the cheapest, can field a powerful force capable of stomping a hundred Tyranids with just a few squads.

Good IG lists are expensive, since they depend in either infantry spam or mechanized power. That being said, blobs are fun to play and mechanized armies are some of the most powerful things out there. Vendettas are cheap and can pop a tank open in no time, besides being an infantry carrier. Veterans can carry up to three special weapons and are really cheap for what you get. Leman Russ squadrons can kill pretty much anything that doesn't move fast enough to get a shot at their move vulnerable sides. Chimeras, the IG dedicated transport, are also very good for what you pay for them, IMO. Not only is it a firing platform for your Veterans, but you get some light-vehicle killing power too!

Oh, and if you ever feel like starting Apocalypse, the Guard gets this:



The Baneblade Super-heavy Tank. Look at it. Just look at it. Fething sexy goodness right there.

Guard are all about masses of cheap infantry, and tanks. Masses of tanks.

They shoot good, and their artillery is king. They get butchered in assault though.

Tau are supposedly an elite shooting army, but their stat-lines doesn't show it. You blow things up with battlesuits, broadsides and hammerheads. That's how you play tau.

In the new codex, you should be able to run an effective infantry list, but tau don't have artillery.

My question is this: Do you like vehicles, or do you like infantry. Then, if you like vehicles, try guard. If you instead like infantry, do you like hordes or specialists? Hordes means guard, though in theory you could run tau with kroot hordes, but specialists is tau all the way.

Tau are cheap in terms of $, their battleforce is very good and one of the best ways to start the army. 2 battleforces, plus some other stuff makes a great tau list. Please keep in mind if you go tau, buy the skyray box, not the hammerhead box, because it gives you all the parts for a devilfish, hammerhead, and skyray in one.

People above have kind of covered most of it.

Even if financing is an issue (like you have stated in the beginning,) if you don't rush your purchases and "take it slow," it shouldn't be a problem. If you're looking to start up a 1,500 point army, I'd allocate a maximum budget of about $1,000 USD to it. This includes models, paints, cases, accessories, whatever (Many armies will actually come up much less than this.).

Anyway, IG vs Tau, it really comes down to if you want guaranteed power now, or potentially even greater power in the future.

IG is considered the "most powerful," or at least one of the most powerful armies at this current moment in time. I don't think anyone will argue that.

Tau on the other hand are universally considered one of the weakest armies at this current moment in time. However, the Tau are also said to be the next, if not one of the next codices to come out. There is a high possibility they will see a rework and huge power leap (like the Dark Eldar, Grey Knights and the Necrons compared to their previous incarnations.) and a definite possibility they will become the next "most powerful" army. If you decide to "take things slow," with your purchases, the new Tau codex may be out by the time you've built your core (HQ and troops... I don't think these will change too much models-wise anyway.) allowing you to have a starting base and a pick of the litter when the new Tau are released.

In any case, don't pick an army based on power levels OR cost.

Pick one with the models you like the most.

Guard will be expensive in the long run, but will take longer to paint, so its all good.

Horst wrote:In any case, don't pick an army based on power levels OR cost.

Pick one with the models you like the most.

Guard will be expensive in the long run, but will take longer to paint, so its all good.

This man speaks wisely.

choose a army based on what you want to do with it and how the models appeal to you.

If buying to just play with grey plastic hordes then by all means go the quick power route.

If Buying to build paint and play, then pick what looks like the most fun to do that with, since you will be spending vastly more time painting and assembling in the long run.

I have both Tau and guard, and enjoy both, but I do alot of converting, and have been playing since the 80s so my focus has shifted

In short buy what you enjoy and take it as fast/slow as money will allow.

Guard was actually my first army, as well

Granted, this was like 4 years ago, when cadians were literally half the price... but still. Made for a very fun army to play.

yeah my first armies were marines and orks, back when there was only marines and Orks

I slowly gravitated to IG, and recently went crazy with my tau, although my Tau have a very real world military look to them.

I choose the Tau complete based on the fact I was sick to death of seeing CC armies at all the places I played, got so old.

Then I got involved in the scratchbuilding and customization and Tau had alot of room for that.

Now I am planning on a IG/Tau combined force (IG with all wheeled vehicles, and a much more modern appearance, may include a Elysian style force with them, Air Cav and all ), very little of this will involve all GW minis so no tournaments for me ( darn )

But playing is secondary for me, I love the paint and glue side of the hobby.

dem tanks...
They are sexy indeed.

I'm looking for an army i can more or less improvise with and have fun, not having to go to sameold strats. I'm leaning more and more to the IG side, but my pocket is already hurting. I want a combined arms army. What should i start with, besides the battleforce, to make a 500 point army, and then go from there?

btw, thanks a lot for all the cool feedback.

If you want somewhere to start with guard, there really isn't a good way tbh. Try looking for a nice e-bay lot, and build on it from there.

If you had to buy stuff though, I would recommend 2 battleforces, and then start looking at vehicles.

Tau are currently the weakest army in the game, while IG are one of the strongest. Tau are also a finesse army, requiring a lot of attention to movement and firing order, to make them work.

From that viewpoint, expect to lose more with Tau if you choose them as your starter army. On the plus side it is a cool looking SF army and nearly all the models required are available in plastic.

If you are worried about cost, IG are easily substituted with any number of WW2, modern or near SF figures from other manufacturers, and will be cheaper. This will stop you playing in GW shops and official tournaments though.

Horst wrote:In any case, don't pick an army based on power levels OR cost.

Pick one with the models you like the most.

Guard will be expensive in the long run, but will take longer to paint, so its all good.

This. Pick an army that you can identify with. In this case, probably the Tau, as you talked about how you liked them as you liked the manga drawings you saw.

Yeah, i can agree with that point. And, um.. izumo jyuki is not a manga artist, he just likes to draw robots. He even composites them onto present day photographs, he likes to imagine a robo-enhanced life. Pretty cool.

I love the Mechanized force of the IG, and their snipers are beautiful. (Are they useful at all?)

I think ill go with a small combined arms force for IG, and take it slow.

Well, they're not bad, but most people don't use them in their lists anymore because there are really better ways of spending your points. One good combo I've heard is uding the Psyker Battle Squad's Weaken Resolve power to soften a squad up and then shoot at it with your snipers to get the guys pinned. Then again, barrage weapons can do pretty much the same thing. I've heard they really shine against MCs, but I've never seen them in action. By the way, what's your opinion on Marbo?