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I'm running a map based escalation campaign for my gaming group and it looks like in the next month or 2, I'm gonna have a lot of games to play with my Imperial Guard, all 1000 pt games. On the game map, there's 8 special areas that give a bonus to the player if captured, but they're guarded by the guardsmen on the planet. 4 of them are "population centers" that give a generic army bonus, then there's one bonus space each for fast attack, heavy support, elites and troops. I'd like to build 4 different army lists for these special areas to reflect what they are. So for instance if someone attacks the fast attack area, they'd go up against an army that focuses more on fast attack choices, and so on. Anyone have any good ideas on how I could pull this off and have an army that's still mostly playable, at 1000 pts. These are friendly games and don't have to be "win a tourney" kind of armies, but as the GM for the campaign, I don't wanna give up the spaces easily At my disposal, so far, I have 1 platoon (HQ = sgt + 4 flamers, 2 squads lascannon/plasma guns), 1 command HQ (jr officer, standard & 3 guardsmen), 2 hellhounds, 1 basilisk and I'm currently putting together another platoon identical to the first. I also have a marine army where I can proxy stuff from (with 2 rhinos, 2 predators & 1 razorback). In fact, I could even throw in some eldar guardians as guardsmen proxies too, since I don't have enough models and they're just friendly games anyway. If I took all of my heavy/fast/elite choices and just the minimum requirements for 2 troops & hq, would I severely gimp my army? Anyone have any ideas for how I could put together decent armies that are fun to play and also hopefully tough to beat in a not so cheesy way?

Hey Tim, where you running this campaign? I live right near you in Lansdowne by the way. I could make my guard available to you if you need it -- Mechanized Steel Legion and Hordes of the Valhallan Peoples Army.

Steve

it's for the green dragons mostly in the west chester area, we play at fat cat's a lot

the campaign is here http://www.timkline.net/infestation .. basically there's about 7 special areas on the map all with an imperial guard force defending them.. and the orders folks are sending me this turn shows that next turn they're pretty much all gonna be hitting one .. so that'll be 7 1000 pt games if you'd like to come on our game day and play a couple for me that'd be cool I'm thinking it would be april or may, so no rush.

those games are mostly a 1 time thing so once they take the space (if they take the space) the guard army will be no more, but it just seems on that one turn they're all gonna be hit at once

I'll contact you off line.

If you play fantasy, and/or are close enough friends with a guy who plays a cav heavy army, your fast attack army should definitely be grenadiers and a lascannon command squad with chimeras, then huck in a brace of demo drops (proxy dwarves for the guys with bombs!) and fill the rest up with carapace Rough Riders! (any fantasy knight plus bits of string so you can tell which unit is which) If you can keep it a secret the first time you use it, you'll get some cool facial expressions from your buddies. (I know all this stuff will fit in a list - I doodled it up once in a fit of procrastination) If you're really stuck for proxies, you can look for those plastic cowboys and indians and stick them to 1"x2" bits of cardboard - if one among you is a greenstuff god, I suggest getting him drunk after the campaign and hornswoggling him into making them pretty.

For the heavy army, hmm, maybe a heavy weapon platoon for command squad pushback, jungle fighting on the heavy weapons platoons, proxy four eldar and one flash-looking eldar as an Enginseer and Servitor team, cut and fit toilet paper rolls on the predator's turrets ("retrofitted" demolishers - that huge roll is a demolisher cannon with extra armour! - count the sponsons as one hull weapon), then the 2x chimmies grenadiers and a cheap HQ.  (edit - "templing" might sound cheesy, but two demolisher cannons that regenerate on a 2+ is about as heavy a feel as I can imagine - basis are good and all, but nothing like inexorably rumbling up the center mashing everything in sight with c. 30 sq. " of S10 AP2 shrapnel!)

The elite army...hmm...will not be as good as the other two, and like my fast attack suggestion relies on a fantasy playing friend and/or dollar store alternatives. I'd vote for the cheap command squad and grennies, this time on foot, then three double-flamer chimeras - for which you can proxy your existing tanks - loaded with Ogre Kingdoms! As far as non-GW (and dirt cheap) proxies for them go, I'm kind of stuck. Finger puppets maybe? Tacky knick-knacks?
Another alternative (for maxed-elite) is to do three big squads of veterans with carapace armour and shotguns or pistol/ccw (proxied guardians!) each with a power fist, trademark item, two meltas and a flamer, a command HQ with two meltas and a power sword, two small squads of grennies on foot, and four commissars, one with a power sword and the other three with powerfists. Don't ever play it in alpha and it should be good for a laugh. But not as deep a belly laugh as if those Ogryns actually make it across the table and crump some 'rines.

Anyways, that's my take on support-oriented non-competitive IG armies. The campaign sounds like fun.