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I'm a new player to WH40K. I started playing in June for the first time and I picked Necrons as my first army. I enjoy playing them, but feel somewhat limited due to the fact that their troops (Warriors and Immortals) come in standard with no real customization. Immortals can swap out gauss for tesla weapons, but it has to be the entire unit.

After looking around a bit, I see that Imperial Guard are similar to Necrons in how they're a very shooty-type army, but allow more customization and various formations.

My worry is that if I invest into Imperial Guard, I'll be stuck with two very shooty-type armies. Necrons slowly plod forward and shoot, while IG dig in and shoot.

Opinions? Thoughts?

Hmm, my first choice would be, ditch necrons...that being said, allies allow you to use both together so you can have your cake and...assimilate it too!

The guard are all about shooting, but they don't have to be a static gun line to be effective. You can use massed armour assaults with lots of small squads, air power through Valkries or a deep striking force with lots of stormtroopers.

They're hugely versatile and you are spoiled for choice with the options available, not to mention other variants like FW troops like the DKOK if you really want to assault.

I say, go for the guard, more meat for the grinder!

 Jihadnik wrote:
Hmm, my first choice would be, ditch necrons...that being said, allies allow you to use both together so you can have your cake and...assimilate it too!

The guard are all about shooting, but they don't have to be a static gun line to be effective. You can use massed armour assaults with lots of small squads, air power through Valkries or a deep striking force with lots of stormtroopers.

They're hugely versatile and you are spoiled for choice with the options available, not to mention other variants like FW troops like the DKOK if you really want to assault.

I say, go for the guard, more meat for the grinder!

I really like my Necrons. They're fun to play and I'm starting to build up tactics sets for them. Not going to get rid of them, they're my precious first army.

I've played against Guard twice. The first battle was versus a gun line, the second battle was versus a 5x Vendetta army. I admired the firepower the gunline was able to amass, and admired the mobility of the Vendettas. Is Guard a good choice for a newer player like myself? Is it terribly complicated?

Five Vendetta's huh? Harsh!

I think its a great army for anyone but they really need to be played well to get the most out of them. If the units don't support each other they will die horrible deaths real fast!

They're not too complicated, but they do require lots of thinking because of the orders and the like. But then every army has something like that. The only real downside is the masses of troops you will end up buying and they take a long time to paint. I've got about a hundred and fifty troops at this point with more on the way...Shiver....

Iron Dragon wrote:

I've played against Guard twice. The first battle was versus a gun line, the second battle was versus a 5x Vendetta army. I admired the firepower the gunline was able to amass, and admired the mobility of the Vendettas. Is Guard a good choice for a newer player like myself? Is it terribly complicated?

With guard, just like every army, you have to play to their strengths. You don't want your guard charging in close combat except to tie something up while the others back up for a good volley - or against tau

That said - you can field ungodly amounts of rock solid tanks, infantry, and punishing artillery, which can be a ton of fun - mixed with officer orders and special forces type units, you can have that true ARMY feel even at 1500 points that not all armies provide.

Gunline isn't your only option either. Per the codex, it offers plenty of builds: The Infantry Assault Wave (ok this is gunline...good for small elite armies), The Rapid Attack Force (good against other shooty armies), The Armoured Blitzkrieg (Hello...tanks?!) or Heavy Artillery (More pie plates than you can shake a stick at...goodnight horde armies)

Guard is my first and only army atm though, I may be biased...

Guard's strengths are their vehicles (cheap and effective flyers, powerful artillery, powerful shock vehicles) and their numbers (over a hundred models possible in one Troops choice if you're feeling psychotic), ideally you build an army that plays to one or both in some fashion. Traditionalist Guard armies field large infantry platoons supported by Leman Russes and are pretty static, but more heavily emphasized armored lists (mobile Leman Russ variants supported by Veterans in Chimeras) and mobile lists (Veterans and Stormtroopers using Valkyries/Vendettas for transport/support) are both good options as well; keep in mind the law of redundancy as Guard. It's always good to have multiple units to do the same job in any army to ensure one loss doesn't screw up your entire battle plan, but when your force is as cheap as Guard you don't have any excuse for lacking redundancy.

I field an airborne Guard allied unit alongside my Grey Knights on occasion; it does quite well.

 Jihadnik wrote:
Five Vendetta's huh? Harsh!

I think its a great army for anyone but they really need to be played well to get the most out of them. If the units don't support each other they will die horrible deaths real fast!

They're not too complicated, but they do require lots of thinking because of the orders and the like. But then every army has something like that. The only real downside is the masses of troops you will end up buying and they take a long time to paint. I've got about a hundred and fifty troops at this point with more on the way...Shiver....

Id be curious to see one of your rank and file guardsmen. I painted my first guardsmen today in ten years after painting something like 150 combined black templars, chaos, and necrons and he took MAYBE 45 minutes. But I don't take a great deal of time with my rank and file guys that aren't black templars

Thanks for all of the replies!

The more I look into it, the more I like how Imperial Guard seems to play. I like having lots of options and customization.