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Hey guys,

After a long break from warhammer, I'm joining a local competition called the Tale of 8 where we slow grow an army for a tournament coming in 8 months. The army I chose was Imperial Guard. I chose them because they're my favorite esthetically, but I don't really know much about them.

My questions are, how good are they this edition?
What units are good?
What units are bad?
Is it necessary for me to choose an ally with this new edition? If so, who would be my best choice both gameplay wise and fluff wise?

Sorry for all the questions :S

Thanks everyone!

They are still a very good army, that can compete in tourneys with anyone.

Good:
Vendettas(ridiculously cheap and good)
Veterans Squads(one of best troop choices in game)
LRBT/LRDemolisher(very tough tank with armour)
Manticore(tank that can put out some serious hurt on enemy vehicles and light armour infantry)
CCS(can have lots of special weapons and gives orders)
Stormtroopers(i love these guys who are great at Deep Striking in and destroying one enemy unit or being very annoying, but are expensive)
Chimeras(cheap transport with lots of dakka)
Hydras(super cheap and kill air things)
Medusa's(destroys vehicles like a beast)

I would answer more, but i have to get home from work, may post more tonite!

Guard overall took a slight dip with the advent of 6th, but they're still plenty good enough.

As for what units are good and bad, it depends almost entirely on how you choose to compose your list. Your support units should always be taken to provide the most efficient and effective support for your core units. There are no auto-includes in the guard army (well... other than perhaps the CCS).

You're going to get a lot of people, like the above poster, that will spout units that are popular, or units that they personally like, but I would ignore this advice. A vendetta does not fit in every list, for example.

Since you seem to have a good idea of what you're looking for, aesthetically, I'd start by using what you're looking for to form a solid core to your guard army. Will there be commissars? Will it be a foot horde, or a mech list? What roles do you want their firepower to play?

Once you have solid answers to these questions, what support options you should take are actually going to be rather straightforward. Of course, guard is still good enough that you can still take some rather incompatable units and still get by well enough.

How'd guard take a dip?

They are better than ever now!

fliers make their vendettas deadlier..

overwatch makes plasma spam harder to kill.

Allies means they can take marines to buffer their weakness in hand to hand.

Guard lost the ability to run a CC foot horde, and all their chimeras just got easier to kill. When your core units get worse, your army gets worse.

And I disagree about the vendetta. It lost any credibility as a transport, and now has very restricted movement while flying, and is even easier to destroy than before while hovering. The vendetta is good, but 6th ed made it worse at some things while being better at others (most notably anti-flyer).

eh, its harder to kill while hovering now unless its being assaulted, and I think it works better as a transport now than before....

CC foot horde was always a fringe build anyway, and they can still do it just fine.

Chimeras aren't really much easier to kill, unless your a necron.

Interesting feedback.

I'm not sure which way I wanted to go with my army yet. I know I want lots of bodies in it though.

Ailaros wrote:Guard overall took a slight dip with the advent of 6th, but they're still plenty good enough.

As for what units are good and bad, it depends almost entirely on how you choose to compose your list. Your support units should always be taken to provide the most efficient and effective support for your core units. There are no auto-includes in the guard army (well... other than perhaps the CCS).

You're going to get a lot of people, like the above poster, that will spout units that are popular, or units that they personally like, but I would ignore this advice. A vendetta does not fit in every list, for example.

Since you seem to have a good idea of what you're looking for, aesthetically, I'd start by using what you're looking for to form a solid core to your guard army. Will there be commissars? Will it be a foot horde, or a mech list? What roles do you want their firepower to play?

Once you have solid answers to these questions, what support options you should take are actually going to be rather straightforward. Of course, guard is still good enough that you can still take some rather incompatable units and still get by well enough.

unless you are running a complete foot list, which can be done, i would say that a vendetta is almost always a very solid FA option, the only time that i can really think that they arent worth it is if you dont have enough armour to absorb some of the enemies anti vehicle fire, then yes they will go down fast, but they are great for taking out heavy infantry and vehicles.

also, i have never used my vendettas as a transport, and but instead as a great gun platform and late game objective contester.

and with 3 hull points and AV12 armor, i think that chimera hasnt lost all that much if any.

and i was not saying units that are required in every list, i was saying units that are good, not remarking which lists they are in

So essentially this is a build me a list thread? I'd say watch/read some battle reports with guard in them then go through the army list section and look for Guard lists. I honestly don't have the background in guard to say definitively what's "good" but it sounds like you don't either. If you take a lot of the advice this thread will get at face value you're going to be buying a lot of chaff that just doesn't end up in your army.

The thing is (from what I understand) guard has some of the most varying lists. Meaning you can really build it anyway you want. Again go out and find BR with guard in them and see if you like their play style.

protonhunter wrote:So essentially this is a build me a list thread? I'd say watch/read some battle reports with guard in them then go through the army list section and look for Guard lists. I honestly don't have the background in guard to say definitively what's "good" but it sounds like you don't either. If you take a lot of the advice this thread will get at face value you're going to be buying a lot of chaff that just doesn't end up in your army.

The thing is (from what I understand) guard has some of the most varying lists. Meaning you can really build it anyway you want. Again go out and find BR with guard in them and see if you like their play style.

I second this 100%

Wolfnid420 wrote:

protonhunter wrote:So essentially this is a build me a list thread? I'd say watch/read some battle reports with guard in them then go through the army list section and look for Guard lists. I honestly don't have the background in guard to say definitively what's "good" but it sounds like you don't either. If you take a lot of the advice this thread will get at face value you're going to be buying a lot of chaff that just doesn't end up in your army.

The thing is (from what I understand) guard has some of the most varying lists. Meaning you can really build it anyway you want. Again go out and find BR with guard in them and see if you like their play style.

I second this 100%

Agreed, we can tell you our favorite lists till we're blue in the face, but that won't neccessarily mean its a good list for you.

What draws you to guard? Want lots of infantry? Waves of tanks? A drop force deploying by vendettas and deep strike? A mix of the above? Until we know that, we can't really help you.

The IG battleforce is a reasonable start but the sentinels are not brilliant.
You will need guardsmen, so that gives you a start with painting and buying models.

Then vendettas can make your enemy cry. This is important as some enemies can not deal with flyers very well so it will be a little OP against them, you can judge yourself whether this is fair.

Like everyone says many different directions available as stated.