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I was hoping to get some help from some fellow dakka heads with a new imperial guard list. New for me at least. I have always played as orks and orks only, for about twenty years now..seriously. I remember the days of sustained fire dice and when overwatch was a very different thing. After nearly two decades of lootin and crumpin (sprinkled with a little crumpin and lootin, and a whole lot of sloggin) I have decided to start a new army. I am a total noob when it comes to fielding the guard. I have fought against them many times but never fought as them. So here is a list of what i have purchased (for avery fair amount of teef)

4 Leman Russ-varying styles
3 chimeras
1 basilisk
4 sentinels
7 heavy weapon platforms- w/interchangeable weapons
55 infantry
1 sniper squad
1 command squad
7 grenade launchers
3 heavy flamers
3 power weapon sgts.
3 melta guns
1 plasma gun
1 commisar
8 kasirkins(1 sgt. 1 melta 1 plasma



I should be getting all these models in the mail tomorrow along with a codex. With what i am.getting could i start a formidable 1500 PT army? Like i said before , never played as the guard before any suggestions for a decent well rounded army would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Wow, this all looks like a really great collection to start with. Alot of choice and variance too. Two things i always like in my guard lists no matter the points i:
1) marbo. He's 65 points for something that can really do alot of damage, and if he doesn't hey he's only 65 points!
2)Manticore. It can put out alot of barrage fire the whole game, but i still prefer the basilisk as my favourite artillery.

One thing i noticed is that theres only 1 command squad. Youll probably want another one of those as you can have 2 different types of command squad. The HQ Company command squad and the TROOPS platoon command squad that is part of the infantry platoon troops choice.

It really depends on what play style you're going for too. There's alot of mech here so i'd assume mech ut theres also alot of infantry too so Anythings possible.
Is the commissar just a regular? or i guess he could he used as both. The best thing to do is to read over the codex and look to see what you really like in a list. There's alot of different lists you can make with all of these models.

For a 1500 i'd say you have plenty and would have something of:
2 hq
1 elite
3 troops
1-2 fast attack
3 heavy support

Depending on what you prefer that is.
I find that armoured sentinels with plasma cannons can be under the radar most of the time and get a lot of shots off before there fragile 2 hull point skeletons give way .
You might also want to look into vendetta's. They're really quite good and it doesn't hurt to have a couple of choices in each Fog slot.

Anyway, hope this helps, as for weapons plasma and melta is pretty much the usual for us or at least thats all ive ever seen on dakka to say otherwise.

Hope more people can chime in on this as its good to get many sources!

Thanks for the advice Yarrick. Yes it was quite a deal that i couldnt pass up. I definitely cant wait to read the codex. I was thinking about going mechanized but still up in the air about which way to go. Marbo definitely sounds cool but none of the guard players i've been against ever fielded him. 65 pts for what seems like a hard hitting suicide unit could easily earn his points back and really give the enemy a bad day.

Really nice force to start you with guard, will break out the codex after work for points and stuff but off the top of my head, the 55 guardsmen alone can make an infantry platoon. Just need to state who your sergeant are ect. 5 for company command, 5x2 for 2 platoon command and 10x4 for 4 infantry squads. Give the CCS and the 2 PCS's chimeras, mix in some special weapons and you got your HQ and 2 troops (generally good to try and group your specoals, like give the CCS flamers and the PCS greanade launchers rather than mix them, like 2 flamer and 2 grenade launchers in you PCS). Pimp them out more with heavy weapons teams, 3 for each platoon. That leaves you loads of points in a 1500 point game to start beefing out with leman russ squads/artillery. Hope this helps for now and will definatley have a better look later when i got my codex handy andim at my computer.

My advice Mo Dakka is that whatever you do, play to the strengths of the IG. They have more special weapons than any other list and have more heavy weapons. Why? Because Hummies are krump fodder and thus cheap. They also have probably the best Fast vehicle in the game in the Vendetta (which you didn't get any of unfortunately).

I can tell you the dogs of your gear... Sentinels, heavy flamers and Grenade Launchers. I hope the guy threw them in for free because your woefully short on plasma and melta and that is the IG bread and butter. If they are the old school IG, you might be able to use the marine Melta and Plasma from GW that sell them in packs of 5 for $10 here. If not, IG Command squad boxes and the super expensive special weapon boxes (1 melta and 1 plasma for $15!) are your only options after June 15... because GW is putting the kabosh on bitz dealers after that point. In the meantime, I would suggest you use proxies (the GLs and Heavy Flamers). The trooper box only gives you a flamer and a GL, so they totally screw ya there. I would also take a look at the Warstore to check out prices and to compare as they sell meltas and plasma.

I hope you didn't pay to much for that stuff, because I could see you easily sinking $200-300 more into it to make it competitive.

Good luck as IG are a blast! I am sure once you get the codex you will have fun making lists, as I consider it one of the more competitive dexs out there and they have a ton of builds.

Heya, sorry i took a few days to get back to you, i agree with blktom about the unfortunate situation with the meltas and plasma, i got plenty plasma in my Guard and not many melta :( always need more of both, and the special weapons are great for running vet team in chimeras, mobile armoured death to all basically. But putting that aside, back to what you do have. i would probably go along this line at 1500pts, i will explain a little further down, also i went with WYSIWYG and stuck to what i can see you have from above, and filled in a few gaps where i wasnt sure.

HQ
Company Command Squad - Hvy flamer/melta/plasma - Chimera

TROOPS
Platoon Command Squad (1) Hvy flamer/melta - Chimera
Infantry Squad - Grenade Launcher
Infantry Squad - Grenade Launcher
Heavy Weapons Squad - 3 x Missile Launcher team

Platoon Command Squad (2) Hvy flamer/melta - Chimera
Infantry Squad - Grenade Launcher
Infantry Squad - Grenade Launcher/Auto Cannon team
Heavy Weapons Squad - 3 x Auto Cannon team

HEAVY
Leman Russ Squadron - 2 x Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Squadron - 2 x Leman Russ Battle Tank

Ordanance - 1 x Basilisk


ok, so like i said i went with WYSIWYG, im not a big fan of mixing special weapons, in the above, i would rather have the CCS with 4 melta and the 2 PCS with 4 plasma each but i this way uses your heavy flamers/meltas and plasma, also this way it uses your 3 chimeras to give them an armoured platform to fire from, so your not gonna be stacking multiple melta or plasma, but it does give you a bit of choice from each chimera.
The Hvy weapons squads, im not sure what you have in the way of interchangable, so i put the ML teams in there for flexibility of fire and the auto cannons because i just really like auto cannons, added your 7th hvy team to platoon 2 inf squad as another auto cannon, again because i like em
The heavies, LMR Battle Tanks are superb, i left the sponsons free just to get as much in as i could, this was basically because i was thinking your first game with these guys, your probably gonna want to get as much devastation on the table as you can, add the basilisk and that makes 5 pie plates and a lot of dead somethings, also it would be rude not to field the basilisk on your first outing with them as they really have a good intimidation factor if your opponent hasnt played against them before.

Hope this helps out a bit

and again, i have to agree with blktom> Good luck as IG are a blast! I am sure once you get the codex you will have fun making lists, as I consider it one of the more competitive dexs out there and they have a ton of builds.