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As someone new to the table top gaming scene, my father is going to take me to the local Games Workshop store to pick up a army.

I was wondering if Dakka could help me out with my unit selection. Iv played all of the Warhammer 40k video games, and loved the IG in them.

I was wondering what kind of strategy and units are most important for the Guard? Other than the obvious "DROWN THEM IN BODIES" shtick.

Have more guns, pour on weight of fire.

Or go mech vets and have less of a wild torrent and more of a accurate stiff breeze. Of burning plasma.

Both do fantasicly well.

guard is about outshooting, weather the guns are on guardsmen, sentinels, tanks or even those annoying flying tin cans.

Chaos Lord Gir wrote:Have more guns, pour on weight of fire.

Or go mech vets and have less of a wild torrent and more of a accurate stiff breeze. Of burning plasma.

Both do fantasicly well.

guard is about outshooting, weather the guns are on guardsmen, sentinels, tanks or even those annoying flying tin cans.

Thanks, how does Artillery play in? Such as Manticores and Basilisks? And by annoying flying tin cans do you mean Valkyries?

well, in addition to the "drown them in bodies" sthtick, which actually doesn't work that well in 40k given how quickly even the smallest elite CC units can go through weeny troops and sweep them, there's the much better "What I cannot crush with words, I will crush with the tanks of the Imperial Guard" approach.

lets look at a list like this

CCS: 4x plasma gun, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Flamer
CCS: 4x plasma gun, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Flamer

PCS: 4x meltagun, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Flamer
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Bolter
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Bolter

PCS: 4x meltagun, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Flamer
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Bolter
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Bolter

PCS: 4x meltagun, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Flamer
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Bolter
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Chimera w/Multilaser & Heavy Bolter

Vendetta
Vendetta
Vendetta

Hydra
Hydra
Hydra

now, granted, this is rather cut/paste, but it gives you a stupid number of guns (66 heavy/special weapons) with 9 scoring units, 85 infantry, and 17 independently operating AV12 tanks/skimmers.

It's entirely possible to de-mech an entire army in round round of shooting with a list like this, leaving them to get shot to pieces as they attempt to cross the board on foot, and then once they cross they've got to blow up your tanks before they can engage your infantry. Not a fun list for many opponents to face, so beware, but if you're looking at a competitive list, many will look something like the above (often swapping the platoons for Veterans and the like)


In general, units that work really well are:

Vets with melta/plasma guns in Chimeras or vendettas

Infantry platoons can work well in several ways, footslogging, mechanized, etc.

vendettas are downright stupid good, too good.

Just about anything in the HS slot except Deathstrikes and a couple LR variants will do you good.

Psyker battle squads are excellent

hellhounds and variants are ok

Armored sentinels make good tarpits (if they don't have a way to breach AV12, you can hold up anything with a 55pt walker)

command squads (platoon and company) are great.

Imperial Guard Artillery can be very effective, however, they are at a disadvantage this current edition of 40K along with most gun-line themes (Deep Striking is greatly forgiving and the introduction of Outflanking).

The Imperial Guard's strength is overwhelming firepower, alot of mechanized units, and an array of special character to augment your forces.

Basilisks are overated. Manticores are just evil in nearly every way. Alternatively go with mechanised
Guard

If your Dad's going to take you down to Games Workshop and get you a start, he's probably not going to want to lay out the relatively high amount of money to get a full 2000 point IG army off the bat. You might want to start out smaller and work up to it.

You really can't go wrong with one of the battalion boxes as a start. Grab one or two of those, a couple of Chimeras, maybe a vendetta or a LRBT if you can talk him into it.

IG have a lot of models to buy, so they're not exactly the cheapest army to buy (which is part of the reason I think they're not more common).

But you're definitely going to need infantry and command squad boxes whichever way you go, so they're a good starting point.

I'd start with two battleforces to get two platoons started, and a command squad box on top of that to make a company command squad. This will give you a nice start to an infantry heavy army, with two platoons of 25 men plus gun teams. You'll also get enough special weapons in the command boxes to kit out the company command squad with some melta or plasma guns, which have great firepower. The sentinels you get in the battleforces are an added bonus.

Thanks everyone! I have a pretty good idea on what to get.

I went to the store and got the following items! Thanks for all the tips.


Codex: Imperial Guard

A Baneblade!

A Manticore

3 Imperial Guard Squads

1 Command Squad

A Armored Sentinel

A little bit of a nutty start, but I couldn't resist getting a Baneblade! They were on sale!

Well at least you've got 1hq 2 troops.
Baneblade you won't use unless you're playing apocalypse games so it'll be rare to use it.

Manticore is solid choice and my opponent's first target though

Yeah, my dad did not want to spend more than 300 dollars in one go at one store.

However I will be receiving some more money for Christmas, and apparently they will be having a buy one get one free sale next week.

And well, getting a Baneblade for 30 bucks was just a deal I couldn't refuse!

The Crusader wrote: Manticores are just evil in nearly every way.

VikingScott wrote:Manticore is solid choice and my opponent's first target though

I third the Manticore, it is utterly devastating against armor targets and non-MEQ troops and the shorter minimum range means it can stay out of LoS longer. The limited ammo has never been a problem for me.

Getting a Baneblade for 30 bucks is something you can't turn down! Who cares if you'll use it, that's just a cool kit to have around for that cheap. Plus, if you ever end up playing huge Apocalypse battles, it's good to have.

Brother SRM wrote:Getting a Baneblade for 30 bucks is something you can't turn down! Who cares if you'll use it, that's just a cool kit to have around for that cheap. Plus, if you ever end up playing huge Apocalypse battles, it's good to have.

That was my train of thought on getting it.

And to be honest, I chose the Manticore because I loved using them in the Video Games .

Iv been thinking on my Regimental name, and came up with "The 121st Cadians" or ill do a "7th Steel Legion Armored".

Well, if you wanted to do Steel Legion you'd probably need to use the actual Steel Legion minis. Cadian 121st is a good enough name though; what color scheme do you have in mind?

Also Manticores are awesome in DoW2; they even use the old Nebelwerfer sound effects from CoH, which makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

Brother SRM wrote:Well, if you wanted to do Steel Legion you'd probably need to use the actual Steel Legion minis. Cadian 121st is a good enough name though; what color scheme do you have in mind?

Also Manticores are awesome in DoW2; they even use the old Nebelwerfer sound effects from CoH, which makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

Classic Cadian Camo, or I might do as a friend suggested as he did with his Orks. Make a Volcanic world camo theme with lots of red and black.

And I agree on the Manticores, they are amazing for area denial. Btw I'm a fan of you videos! Spess Mahreens and all that guff .

After I found about the 2 for 1 sale at my local Games Workshop next week as a After-Christmas special, I'm going to load up on some more heavy and light armor.

Alexzandvar wrote:After I found about the 2 for 1 sale at my local Games Workshop next week as a After-Christmas special, I'm going to load up on some more heavy and light armor.

Where at?

I know its a long shot, but I have a Baal Predator to get and would not mind getting a BOGO deal.

DeathReaper wrote:

Alexzandvar wrote:After I found about the 2 for 1 sale at my local Games Workshop next week as a After-Christmas special, I'm going to load up on some more heavy and light armor.

Where at?

I know its a long shot, but I have a Baal Predator to get and would not mind getting a BOGO deal.

Fair Oaks mall in Northern Virginia.

Hopefully the Baneblades are still going cheap there. Plus they had a sale on basilisks as well while I was there, didn't get one though.

I think it might just be because IG does not sell well their, everyone I saw there that I talked to played Orks, Eldar, Chaos, or Dark Eldar. There was 1 Gray Knight player but no one who did IG or Space Marines.