Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Just started collections vostroyans. I'm having a fun but challenging time painting them up and really working getting that new army fever. What made me want to do guard was the heavy weapon teams / platoon asthetic with a baneblade and leman Russ tanks backing them up. I chose vostroyans because I love the imperial Russian army from WW1, and I've never seen a player with a full vostroyan force. It'll be cool to field something that will make peoples heads turn.

So, the question I ask you folks, what really gets or has gotten you excited to play guard? This can apply to people who haven't collected them yet but are thinking about it.

Many things.

1) I can bring 50 guys and an AV 14 tank in a 600 point list.
1b) I can outnumber anybody, even Nids and Orks
1c) I have enough Lasguns to drown anything short of a Ctan in little red dots.

2) The army is the most varied in fluff, game play and modeling.
2b) If it's a 28mm human with a gun, you can use it. To date, I've got Warzone, Mantic and Wargames Factory models in the army, and I've been looking at some Dreamforge stuff as well.
2c) The fluff you can really make your own, from each platoon's back story to the whole regiment's history.
2d) with such a great codex, almost any playstyle is possible, from tank walls to infantry hordes, elite vet tens to air force. I don't think any other codex comes close to matching that versatility.

3) There's something inherently badass about knowing that those guys on the board are going up against their worst nightmares made manifest with little more than a rifle and some body armour. Every time a guardsman downs a marine or meltas a tank or holds a line, that's one more victory for mankind.

I liked the Cadian Infantry models.


Yup.

They're human.

Most of the stuff in 40k is cool, but also obviously supwr-human and alien, often in both strength as well as motivation


IG on the other hand are just normal people, easier to relate to on a certain level.

Look at my avatar for the reason .

[Edit]

this copy pasta


LOOK AT THIS fething GUARDSMAN.

He's spent months fighting a grueling war in which his enemies are demigods allied with daemons, and now he's found himself in the closest thing to Hell he's ever known. He probably wasn't even supposed to get teleported up to the arch-traitor's battle barge in the first place, and just ended up in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

Somehow he's survived horrors beyond comprehension to make his way to the very bridge of Horus' flagship. He saw a veritable angel call upon Horus to answer for his crimes, and he saw that angel die as messily as any guardsman. His Emperor - who he fervently believes is a god incarnate, even if he's not supposed to - lies mortally wounded, and Horus, perhaps, has taken a moment to gloat before he strikes the killing blow.

His armor is slightly more effective than tissue paper, his weapon slightly more powerful than a flashlight. A single electrified claw from Horus' weapon is bigger than his entire body. He stands before a being infused by the dark gods' with incalculable power, that can and will obliterate his soul with no more effort than it would take him to swat a gnat. Nothing he can do could possibly make a difference.

He could run. He could turn his weapon on himself. He could give in to the insidious whispers that echo from the ship's corridors into his mind.

Ollanius Pius does the duty his Emperor requires of him. He dies standing and holds the fething line.

I can have a regiment of humans dedicated to kayoss!

Well, I say that. They worship Be'lakor, but rarely show signs of mutation, and often get picked up by the IOM.

I like being able to do crazy things every game, from Yarrick rallying 50 men and soloing half a necron army, to stomping things flat with a big tank in a small game.
I can create madness by kitting 30 veterans with meltabombs, sticking them in chimeras, and watching my opponent gak themselves trying to stop me blowing up his best tank

I can cover everything in machine guns, and roll so many dice in a single shooting attack that my opponent goes "Really? More? feth."

I always liked the Starship Trooper-ish theme of the Astra Militarum fighting againts Tyranids.

 thenoobbomb wrote:
I liked the Cadian Infantry models.

*shakes fist* I love the Cadian fluff and the basic design of the models, just not the chunky implementation. Vics Arcadians + Cadian fluff = awesome imo.

IG are very relateable, have excellent stories like Gaunts Ghosts and offer an interesting playstyle with a pretty dark theme. They can also be any of the official regiments or anything you can imagine basically - and we can imagine a lot!

One name:

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Ollanius_Pius

I like tanks. I'm still debating if I want to do SM or IG. I really want to make RG tactics work other then rhino rush but man do I love tanks. Heck list I wrote at like 1500 i think (Don't quote me i may be wrong) had 13 pieces of armor!!!!

Artillery, hellguns.

Fancy models, too. As said, they're humans, so that makes e'm better than other factions

The IG are relateable, as another poster said. Also, I can develop my own TO&E and mimic modern-day forces to my heart's content. Organizing fireteams, squads, platoons, and companies and using unit markings to make sense of it all on the tabletop is an interesting part of the hobby for me, even if I'm the only one who understands it all!

Also, tanks.

Any to scale human fits, and there so mouldble into your own form :-)

So many options, so many ways to build a list.

Customization is wide open with IG. The old metal figs gave us several different looks for our IG armies and people with a lot of greenstuff and a lot of creativity could get a ton of mileage out of the Cadian and Catachan plastics (despite the Catachan plastics looking like the rear end of a dolphin). Speaking as someone who loves the modelling, painting, and playing aspects of the hobby equally, IG spun all of my wheels. I'm currently putting together a Tallarn army using the old figs, but there are some 3rd party bits I could add to GW plastics to make new figs for my army. Not to mention the gorgeous FW Tallarn stuff, or the 3rd party miniatures that can serve as stand-ins (some of the Haqqislam figs from Infinity, for instance). IG are where it's at.

I like Imperial Guard because, In a universe of super soldiers, Aliens, Monsters and daemons, They are regular humans armed with flashlights while wearing paper, Yet they still stand and fight. they are the bravest people in the unvierse, Because even though they are worth less then their guns, And would stand no chance against just about anything they face had they been alone, They still stand there figthing for humanity.

Merellin wrote:
I like Imperial Guard because, In a universe of super soldiers, Aliens, Monsters and daemons, They are regular humans armed with flashlights while wearing paper, Yet they still stand and fight. they are the bravest people in the unvierse, Because even though they are worth less then their guns, And would stand no chance against just about anything they face had they been alone, They still stand there figthing for humanity.

Let's be fair, commissars definitely add an element of bravery.

 Dalymiddleboro wrote:

Merellin wrote:
I like Imperial Guard because, In a universe of super soldiers, Aliens, Monsters and daemons, They are regular humans armed with flashlights while wearing paper, Yet they still stand and fight. they are the bravest people in the unvierse, Because even though they are worth less then their guns, And would stand no chance against just about anything they face had they been alone, They still stand there figthing for humanity.

Let's be fair, commissars definitely add an element of bravery.

And yet another element of Awesome!

Well, unless your commissar is a dick. How Dare You, Private! *BLAM*

A big thing for me, aside from the above valid points, is aside from a stupid name change, the Imperial Guard has thus far been immune to GW's bouts of "Narrative Brilliance,"

No Wolf Wolfborn riding his giant hamsterwolf with wolf claws alongside Murderfang with his Murderclaws using his Murderlust from the planet Murdercide, no Draigo carving his predecessor's name into Motarian's heart, no brofisting Necrons, no We Don't Want to Fix Tactical Terminators Centurion Warsuits or Stormtalon/raven.

What's the worst we have to put up with? A stupid looking tonka truck and a codex that doesn't say Imperial Guard on the front for some reason (the only time I hear the new name is when someone's trying to annoy me).

Compounding that natural advantage, the human nature of the guard has made it relatively easy for the mature elements of the 40k environment to do wonderful things with them, creating regiments, characters and history which are exhaustive and interesting, from a certain cowardly commissar to Forgeworld's work on several regiments, both old and of their own creation.

I started IG just a couple of weeks ago, though it's an army I've wanted to start for a while.

I had the idea of a Hydra-themed army, led by Red Skull (based on Captain America, the First Avenger).

And, to that end, IG just seems like a great fit:
- Primarily human models
- WWII-ish aesthetic, but augmented with some more high-tech stuff
- Good conversion possibilities
- Death Mask seems like a good fit for Red Skull - both in flavour and appearance - he does have a skull for a face, after all.
- If I ever get an appropriate model "borne to victory on the wings of the Valkyrie!"
- Can shoot men for cowardice:
Hydra Lieutenant - "Sorry sir, but we fought to the last man"
Red Skull - "Evidently not."
*Bang*
- Tell me if this vehicle reminds you of anything:


Currently, I have a converted Red Skull model, and I've been playing around with different HQ possibilities for him:
- Company Commander - This is only one I've tried so far (though I've only played a couple of games), and probably the best. It works fine (especially in lower point games), but having Red Skull do nothing but sit back and giving orders is rather dull.
- Lord Commissar - Possibly a better choice (especially with his execution ability), though it means I have to either go without orders or have someone else as my warlord.
- Commissar Yarrick - Sadly, this might well be the best choice (depending on the ruling for his Chain of Command rule), and I hate using a SC every game.
Oh well, I'll play around with each of them and see if I can find a favourite.

Anyway, playstyle wise, I much prefer infantry-heavy armies to vehicle-heavy ones - and IG are very good at these. I also prefer horde armies to elite ones, as it makes it easier to build redundancy into my army (one of the reasons I wanted to play IG - even before I thought of the Hydra theme). Also, plasma is so delightfully fun to use. Who cares if it melts my own guys - as long as it melts my opponent's as well.

My dislikes so far:
- A lot of character wargear seems far too expensive - especially when I'm taking it for flavour, rather than because it will have any useful effect. 25pts just seems far too much for Power Fists, and likewise you could easily halve the cost of the Death Mask without making it even slightly broken (+1 invulnerable save is nothing major, nor is IWND on a T3 model).
- No more deep-strike reroll for Storm Troopers makes me sad.
- Where's Marbo?

Because this is a movie I use to watch a lot as a child. Next to StarWars. Aliens and most War movies.

Well the reason GW dropped the Imperial Guard and Stormtroopers was because they wanted to get away from things that sound like they were from Star Wars.

I am a big fan of Space Marines, but I do also really like the IG, Space Marines are super soldiers engineered to face the horrors of the galaxy and can stand toe to toe with most of the more powerful foes. Guardsman are normal people who heeded the call and face demons, tyranids, orks not only do they hold the line but they also fight and sometimes win

djz05 wrote:
One name:
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Ollanius_Pius

Amen.
I think I went bald from the extra testosterone from reading that article.
<edit / add>
I started IG/AM to use for Inquisition way back when (When first Inquisition codex came out) as a force conscripted into some action required.

I kicked into high gear recently because I realized just how much of an insane amount of soldiers I can field (and had a vision for a good color scheme).
Soon I will be throwing some 100+ ground pounders with various support at Orks.
It will be awesome!

I also have a Baneblade, Shadowsword, 3 classic Leman Russ's, 5 new Russ variants with magnet parts and a Imperial Knight that all would look epic with many little dudes running around them. Never mind the various Chimera's for the veterans. I have 3 generations of "Stormtroopers" to choose from so each squad can be different. Changed a Basilisk to a Medusa (got to go to Forgeworld for "current" rules on that now...) and made a Valkyrie into a Vendetta, figured out how to make 1 Hvy weapon team into 3, got a full ratling squad, 7 odd different Commisar models, 4 priests (all different), Enginseers, psykers... it looks awesome and is so incredibly varied.

It boils down to the variety.
With a little thought on consistency, the force can look huge and with little effort can go straight into Armageddon size play.

I like IG because I can have ANY style of play I want that can come close to the specialty of any other army = flexibility.

Imagine how much more bugs they'd kill if they aimed instead of hip firing all over lol

Ontopic: Customization along with the tanks is what sells me on them.

I like IG because of the tanks. And I play an ABG army because it means I can play nothing but tanks (and aircraft) and leave all the boring infantry at home!

Imperium Alpha wrote:
I always liked the Starship Trooper-ish theme of the Astra Militarum fighting againts Tyranids.

Shouldn't you be playing Tau then, since crisis suits are the closest equivalent to Starship Troopers power armor?

I like 'em because of the tanks

The Leman Russes look awesome and are awesome..

The Hellhound variants look awesome..

The Baneblade... and The Baneblade...

And lets not forget the CRASSIUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT!!!!

And I can take tanks upon tanks upon tanks upon tanks...

Also the Militarium Tempest's look awesome as well

I can twist history to make cool Guard Regiments. Drawing inspiration from real events and people to create the armies that get used on the table top with some spin on the themes.

Many in my area dont like historical games, so Guard are the closest thing I have to playing something like historical games.

 Swastakowey wrote:
I can twist history to make cool Guard Regiments. Drawing inspiration from real events and people to create the armies that get used on the table top with some spin on the themes.

Any chance of some examples?