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I don't get much money but I am willing to invest the time in collecting an IG army. I just want to know some background info such as

Are they fun/easy to paint?

What is the difference between Catachan and Cadian?

What is the difference of play style between the two?

Why should I get them?

Do I have to use tanks in IG to stand any chance of wining?

Please answer these questions and talk about anything else that you want to involving IG that you think will help me.
Thanks guys and happy wargaming!

OrkzCrazy

Catachans and Cadians are pretty boring to paint in general imo, especially if you go for standard camo schemes. If you mix it up a bit and kitbash some renegade guard, such as from beastmen + catachans it can get a lot more fun, or get third party heads or other conversion bits.

You don't need tanks in casual play but your options are reduced if you don't have any.

+Cadians are easier to assemble that Catachans and, in my opinion, are better to paint. Catachan Models are obnoxious to paint with so much textured flesh for the amount of models you would be fielding.

+Cadians and Catachans come from the same Codex, so there's no difference in play style, just in visual asthetics.

+If you like fielding tons of models or tons of vehicles, Guard is for you. They boast an incredible amount of fire-power and bodies for an armchair general.

+You don't have to use tanks to win as Imperial Guard. Though fielding tanks is a big part of the Codex, you can still field entire platoons complete with heavy and special weapons.

Any recommendations to get me started on a foot slogging army with a few tanks and heavy weapons. Obviously the battleforce is essential

In terms of "mental" (ie, the style you believe suits the respective regiments) playstyle, to me, Catachans are more of a Veterans (IG Veteran unit, not a Veteran player) army with small, elite units, some vheicles, mainly fast moving Valkeries, Vendettas and Hellhounds, and light vehicles like sentinals. To me a Cadian force should be small, fast, mabneuverable and hits the imporatnt targets fast and hard. Which really suits them as Guerilla fighters. Plus, they get Ironhand staken, who is pure badass with a Metal arm, Gunnery Sgt Harker, who carries a HB by himself, and Rambo, actually Marbo but ame difference, who is a nuclear weapon by himself.

Cadians to me are more the Plattons army, with large blocks of infantry, or artillery, or heavy tanks like Leman Russ. Either way, to me a Cadian force is large, slow and hits like a brick. They also get Creed who is one of the greatest tactical minds ever.

If you want huge amounts of footsloggers and some HWS and a couple Tanks (Leman Russes), Cadia sounds like your town.

If you were going to start catachans i would recommend that you go hunting for the catachan supplement codex, as i got it today and it aqdds a bit more flavour to your amry, but i dont think the cadians have one.

There is nothing different with the play of the two, squishies are squishies.
That's down to how you build your army and how you play them.
I personally went with the Cadian as it to me looks like what the Guard should be, universal in look, not some throw back to the 1980s film industry.

You can go all sentinel for a fast scout regiment, all tanks for an armoured assault regiment, Valks and vendettas for an airborne quick response regiment, want nothing but waves of squshies then a platoon infantry regiment, like big guns then an artillery regiment fits that bill. The types of build you can do are big as the Guard have one of if not the best Codex for making a very personalized army ready to fit almost any build you can think of.

Try what you like at first before you get drawn into the whole type A is better than type B debate. Get a few games in first before you commit to what kind of Guard you are going to play as the one thing about the Guard its fracking expensive to collect.

^this... visuals are the only difference between the models. Are tanks necessary... no... but they are arguably some of the best in the game so why wouldnt you?

The Catachan models are pretty hideous.

Catachans are bizarrely proportioned, Cadians will bore you to tears to paint. My best advice I can give you is figure out some way to convert them, as that will be the only way to save your sanity. Otherwise, you will go nuts. Especially with a foot guard army.

They don't play any differently, as IG only has one codex. Basic advice I can give you for starting is start reading tactics threads and IG batrep threads. Magnetize everything on your vehicles so you can trade options (what's good changes from time to time) and for your infantry, get a healthy amount of meltas, plasmas, Autocannons, and Lascannons. Almost all of the other heavy and special weapons are terrible compared to those, but arguments can be made for some like sniper rifles and mortars.

IG is not for the faint of wallet. It will cost a lot of time, money, effort, money, time, money, and love to get a good infantry heavy guard army on the field. But if you really love IG, it's definitely worth it. Just don't expect to take 1st at Adepticon anytime soon.

You could use both.

Have your cadians be the standard rank and file, catachans be your veterans or the like. Or go DoW2 and make them your designated CC guys.

Guard are somewhat difficult to paint, but that same amount of lots of detail that makes it take so long to get a foot horde painted makes the final army look really, really good. 20 guys in power armor that were clearly sprayed blue and washed black is nice, but having 130 dudes hit the table, all of which have eyes and facial hair and wrinkley uniforms just looks really, really nice.

As mentioned, there's no difference between guard models other than style. Do what feels right.

As for starting a foot list, the first thing you need is a LOT of guys. Seriously. Start with buying 6 boxes of infantry and just assembling them all with lasguns. That will allow you, with the addition of special and heavy weapons, to field 8 platoon infantry squads. That, or it will allow you to field the requisite 4 PISs, and have enough guys left over for a large or two small units of conscripts.

After that, it's a matter of getting a few officers (I converted mine out of stock cadians), and getting a bunch of special and heavy weapons (Likewise, I just bitz-ordered the guns and cut them into the hands of my regular guys). Once you have your solid infantry core, only then would I start looking into support options like hydras or basilisks, or, my current favorite, stormtroopers.

Foot guard takes a long time to set up, and it's not the most competitive way to play guard right now, after the shellacking that it got from 6th ed, but in the end, you're bringing 100+ guys with nothing but guts and discipline. Beating cheezy, overpowered lists comprised of ultrasoldiers with nothing but a bunch of bayonets and a few heavy weapons can be very, very satisfying.

Plus, large infantry armies look great. Here's mine:





etc.

Like anything worth having in life, it's worth working for. Foot guard is no exception. The only thing extra I'll leave you with is a link to my current battle report series, as one example of how guard can be done in 6th edition.

I use a weird cross, Cadian torsos and arms with Catachan legs. I use third party bits for heads and backpacks.
And playing a gunline army can be fun (not the painting) I used to enjoy the look on my opponents face when I deployed no less then 15 Heavy weapon teams.

Thank's for the help guys! Just one more thing on my mind.

This army is for a 1500 point army tournament, and I will be facing up against:
Tyranids
Space marines
Space marines w/ tau
Chaos sm
Orks

Any suggestions for a style if army that will take down these ones effectively?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A.K.A, what armies are the different styles of IG good against? Please help me guys! Would really appreciate it, thanks.

Something with a lot of blast templates and AP3 weapons. Heavy weapons teams look like a good start.

Odels-wise, catachans are easy to get looking acceptable-quality. You get the p3 flesh wash, then just basecoat and use the wash, maybe throw a black wash on the clothes if you're feeling fancy and boom, acceptable and easy to go back and detail later.

Cadians are a wee bit trickier with the hands/faces, body armor, clothes and boots, and in my opinion harder to get looking truly good.

A catachan army is not hard to get decent without tanks, if you go marbo/a few las/autocannons in your squads and sentinels. An optimal catachan devils list would probably be a small detachment with sentinels, marbo, one Valkyrie and then stealthy vet squads to your heart's content. Cadians tend to bring at least a little armored oomph.

Models: Catachans look silly and are completely out of proportion. Some of them have arms bigger than ork arms.

Cadians look 245% better, but they are still a bit large.

I find my Leman Russ Executioner does well on taking on Marines. Throw on sponsons with plasma cannons and you have a machine that tears through most armies. Its expensive but it has always made its points back for me.

These comments are useful, but what are the different styles of IG good against when it comes to ability to beat them?

 OrkzCrazy wrote:
These comments are useful, but what are the different styles of IG good against when it comes to ability to beat them?

ummm, not sure what you mean by that. Are you asking what the strengths of certain IG builds are (aka infantry lists are good at A, suck at B, etc.) ?

Yes, that's what I mean

Well, my foot guard have traditionally struggled against BA, Tau, and DE. Armies that can really do a lot to prevent you from doing anything.

On the other hand, they've tended to do very well against armies that rely on small numbers of expensive units, like SW, Eldar, and Necron.

If you can take the fight to them, you generally do well, and if you can't, you do more poorly. I'm under the impression that the opposite is true for mech guard lists, which have much better defensive capabilities than foot lists.

Cadians look better, both in proportions and in terms of conveying the might of the armies of man, but Catachans are more fun to paint. If you want to get better at painting flesh, you should go catachans.

IMHO, I believe that there is no finer force than a well painted Cadian force in the khaki and drab. You might get more interesting individual models, more colorful paint schemes, but for conveying the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, there is no substitute to hundreds of Cadians lining up for death.

-cgmckenzie

Death Korps?
Faceless humans marching to their death with most of their humanity shredded away from them before they turn 20.

I think I might go for red armor, and a pale, dirty looking brown cloth and call my IG army the blood sheds. Because my IG will be mainly foot guard with a couple of tanks and heavy weapons, I felt like going for a more battle hardy, war wounded, veteran Cadian force. This also makes it a bit more interesting paint. I love my painting anyway and regular IG can't be THAT boring to paint? What do you think of my idea guys?

The texture you're talking about should look nice. But: IG are really boring to paint.

I'd suggest mixing in parts from:
FW kits (esp. veterans, though hazmat works, too)
a catachan squad or two
Necromunda Orlocks

All will add to the sense of irregular troops-- veterans typically look best with a variety of gear and armor styles.

OrkzCrazy wrote:I love my painting anyway and regular IG can't be THAT boring to paint?

No, and I don't think they're BORING to paint either. They've got a decent amount of detail work on them that allows you to really put some effort in if you want. The problem is one of scope. Painting one interesting guardsmen is fun. Painting 100 interesting guardsmen, regardless of interest level, is going to be a bit more of a chore.

As for the color scheme, that sounds fine. I've never personally been the biggest fan of cadian color schemes where the armor is lighter in color than the uniform, but I'm sure you could pull something off nicely.

Thanks for the help guys! This thread was very useful and I will hope to keep you updated on my army.

Happy wargaming!

OrkzCrazy