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what would be the cheapest army in terms of real money. I am thinking of starting a new guard army and I enjoy both concepts very much so it would really have to come down to actual cost. I am assuming that mech guard is more expensive due to the large amount of 50 dollar models


this army would be for an escalation campaign so for a grand whopping total of 2.5

so what is the cheapest army

Well, for foot guard, it'll cost you ~30$ for ~60-70pts per squad after you put upgrades on them. For mech, it'll cost ~72$ for 155-170pts for a mech vet squad in a chimera. Either way, you're paying about 0.50$ per point.

Vendettas will run you up quick, as will Hydras/Russes/Manticores. Then again, you'd have to buy a bunch of commissar models for the foot list, so that'll cost a lot too.

Really, IG is just an expensive army no matter how you do it.

*Edit* Prices are in Canadian, because I'm awesome.

If you go like forgeworld Death Korps of Krieg or Elysian models for infantry, you'll be hurting for the bank

Old school armies like steel legion foot wise is also stupid expensive. I'm actually not sure which would be pricier to actually field. On the flip side, I like mech just cause I find tanks easier to paint since I airbrush. Infantry have alot of detailing that takes a long time to customize all the pieces for.

Personally though I like mech since you can usually get just a chimera base and get like cheap parts to make things into Hydras and Manticores without buying another kit. Valks though are pretty pricy no matter what you do.

You can usually get lots of ig infantry on ebay pretty cheap, especially if you use catachans.

My guys are a combination of Steel Legion, Elysians, Beret Stromtroopers, the current (11 year old) Stormtroopers Kasrkins and as many plastic Cadians as I can get to make up the numbers.

Don't do it that way, it'll cost you a fortune.

At full price, the Leman Russ is the best value of points per dollar at three points per dollar. Lascannon heavy weapon squads aren't far behind, though heavy weapons inside infantry squads are less dollar-efficient. Chimeras are one of the more expensive things you can get, even costlier than valkyries for their points. Troops vary wildly depending on loadout. The commissar is an expensive model in two ways, and he happens to be more expensive in points than in money. The power blob tactic would cost $71.25 US at full price for a 21-man blob costing 165 points. 43 cents per point. Unfortunately this does stick you with platoon command squads, which are points-light and money-moderate. Power blobs with moderate armor and lascannon HWS support should end up costing somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 cents per point.

Unless you can get a good deal on a bulk army off Ebay (I picked up another 80 metal Cadians for about $100 recently), there's really no way to do IGuard on the cheap.

Speaking of metal Imperial Guard, I'm thinking of picking up some of the older metal Guardsmen - probably Valhallans at this point - and was wondering... Do the heavy weapon teams need to be placed on a 60mm round base, or will the 25mm round slottabases that come with the minis do just fine?