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Sorry for so many questions(I hope this is the right place for it).

So having returned, I have ordered 3 armies. Some arrive tonight and I am eager to start building.

Tonight 2 units of Astra militarum infantry arrive. I will initially play 500 point battles...but will down the line expand to larger fights. Without really knowing what my force will look like in a few months when its up to full size.....what should I do right now in terms of building two platoons?

Just glue them as 1 sergeant and 9 lasguns for both units? Do the heavy weapons (if chosen) replace a guardsman or add more men to it beyond the basic 9+ sergeant?

worried in a rush to get stuff made up and painted ill end up messing up my army somehow.

Im only playing from home, so not bothered about the absolute best gun for tournements etc...but dont really want to be saying that 'that lasgun is really a Metlagun' either.




Its all so overwheleming coming back to it and peoples answers on here are very much appreciated. If theres a better place to post, please point me to it no problem ;]

Guard squads have 2 "slots" to put in extra weapons. You have an optional Special Weapon, and an optional Heavy Weapon Team.

The Heavy Weapo n team replaces 2 guardsmen with the one big base HWT model. The Heavy Bolter, Autocannon and Lascannon do not nee dto be glued down, so just leave that bit unglued and you can freely swap. Easy!

Special Weapons are a bit weird because the whole suite of options actually comes in 2 different kits, the Infantry Squad kit ad Command Squad kit.

IIRC only the Grenade launcher and flamer come in the basic kit. Both of these weapons have poor synergy with the Heavy Weapons. If you bring a flamer, a melta, or a GL, you probably don't want a lascannon, autocannon or heavy bolter - the ranges just don't add up.

For what its worth, guard specials are pretty easy to magnetize because they all use the same right arm bit holding the gun up. you just magnet the left arm.

the_scotsman wrote:
Guard squads have 2 "slots" to put in extra weapons. You have an optional Special Weapon, and an optional Heavy Weapon Team.

The Heavy Weapo n team replaces 2 guardsmen with the one big base HWT model. The Heavy Bolter, Autocannon and Lascannon do not nee dto be glued down, so just leave that bit unglued and you can freely swap. Easy!

Special Weapons are a bit weird because the whole suite of options actually comes in 2 different kits, the Infantry Squad kit ad Command Squad kit.

IIRC only the Grenade launcher and flamer come in the basic kit. Both of these weapons have poor synergy with the Heavy Weapons. If you bring a flamer, a melta, or a GL, you probably don't want a lascannon, autocannon or heavy bolter - the ranges just don't add up.

For what its worth, guard specials are pretty easy to magnetize because they all use the same right arm bit holding the gun up. you just magnet the left arm.

Thanks, I might consider the magnets (any idea what size people use?)

Does the special weapon replace a guardsman or can it be 10 + 1 special? Cant see where it says.

Thanks again

The Special Weapon replaces a Lasgun guardsman

2mm diameter by 1mm thick magnets are what you are after. Pick up a 2mm drill bit as well. You can twist the drill bit with you fingers to make the hole, no need for a drill

Thanks all.....great info s always.

Yeah, if I could only give you one piece of advice it would be 'use magnets'. IIRC, you'll need N35 or stronger.

You don't actually get Heavy Weapons Teams in the Infantry Squad boxes anyway, so probably a moot point. You also don't get Plasma Guns or Melta Guns, those are in the Command Squad boxes and you only get one of each per box.

don't bother with magnets on mass standard infantry, just get more as you'll need more anyways. I would wait to build the 2 squads until I get the command and HWT in, that way you can sort out what you need to build and spread out the special bits to make your force more visually pleasing rather than clones as your standard infantry box restrict your builds to the contents of that box.

look at my cadians here for some inspirations:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/767743.page

VAYASEN wrote:
Sorry for so many questions(I hope this is the right place for it).

So having returned, I have ordered 3 armies. Some arrive tonight and I am eager to start building.

Tonight 2 units of Astra militarum infantry arrive. I will initially play 500 point battles...but will down the line expand to larger fights. Without really knowing what my force will look like in a few months when its up to full size.....what should I do right now in terms of building two platoons?

Just glue them as 1 sergeant and 9 lasguns for both units? Do the heavy weapons (if chosen) replace a guardsman or add more men to it beyond the basic 9+ sergeant?

worried in a rush to get stuff made up and painted ill end up messing up my army somehow.

Im only playing from home, so not bothered about the absolute best gun for tournements etc...but dont really want to be saying that 'that lasgun is really a Metlagun' either.

Its all so overwheleming coming back to it and peoples answers on here are very much appreciated. If theres a better place to post, please point me to it no problem ;]

So, the IG Infantry kit doesn't come with plasmaguns, meltaguns, or heavy weapons, sot that's your problem solved right there because you don't have a choice!

Build them as Sarge+9 Lasguns. If you want Heavy Weapons for the units, buy a Heavy Weapons box and just put the guns in the squads in exchange for two men. If you want plasma and melta, you can buy them 1 at a time in metal blisters, or you can, with a bit of cutting, but the sprue of SM Plasmaguns and SM Meltaguns and fit them to your guardsmen.

Bonus tip: the Heavy Weapons box is one of the few kits that has every option in adequate count; you can buy 1 heavy weapons box and a box of infantry and get upwards of 8 heavy weapons teams out of it if you go 2x rocket launchers using 4 standing men, 3x mortars using 1 standing and 1 kneeling man, and 3x Lascannons/Autocannons/Heavy Bolters using 1 standing and 1 kneeling man. You'll need quite a few bases.


I wouldn't magnetize guardsmen at all. Just buy more, they're cheap and you'll always need more anyway. As for tanks, that's a YMMV, I don't find value in it either because you don't actually every really change tank loadouts during the course of an edition. Magnets are really just like a level of future-proofing against the codex making that loadout bad, but I haven't had a problem with that and usually just buy another tank. A couple of $50 tanks every like 5 years isn't a big deal in any sense, and I like tanks.

I guess I should have specified that I only meant to magnetize Special Weapons.

I agree 100% that magnetizing lasguns is a fool's errand.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
I guess I should have specified that I only meant to magnetize Special Weapons.

I agree 100% that magnetizing lasguns is a fool's errand.

Honestly, I think magnetizing plasmaguns or whatever is also a fools errand. They're tiny, inexpensive, and you need a bunch of them anyway. Might as well just buy a sprue of plasmaguns and a box of guardsmen and glue them together.

Magnetizing a Knight is one thing. Special Weapons Guardsmen is another.