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Hi guys! Recently I took up the challenging task of creating an Imperial guard army, and after getting the codex yesterday, I decided on a footlsogging IG army with lot's of heavy weapons teams and lemen russ'. The probem is that for me, the IG codex is very hard to understand and i have been finding it difficult to fit my head round how people have so many heav6weapons teams and troops they have, even though they are both troop choices. Any suggestions as to what I shoulf have in my army e.t.c I really want to play IG but am finding it very hard to understand. Some army lists' would help as well.

thanks guys

OrkzCrazy

if you look at the platoons entry everything will become clear to you....... Also check out Ailaros... he is at the forefront of footguard (imho) out of us here at dakka so check out his lists

I agree with what somedude said. Do a search on his name. He has his own website that is quite enjoyable to read through. I agree with (most) things that he says and is generally very helpful to anyone with questions.

Generally speaking, footguard are kind of dead. Besides the nerf to power weapons, precise shots kill off your important models, and because wounds are taken from the side facing the enemy that you're probably going after, for every line of troops wiped out you get further and further away from the enemy. With enough firepower it's entirely possible you'll never reach them.

You can stick a blob inside an aegis, making them damn hard to move, however thats going to cost you about 180 pts, and for that you could have another leman, or a vendetta, which is capable of more than those blobs will usually ever put out.

Veterans in vendettas are the only way to go about things these days, at least in the meta I'm in.

 Necroshea wrote:
Generally speaking, footguard are kind of dead. Besides the nerf to power weapons, precise shots kill off your important models, and because wounds are taken from the side facing the enemy that you're probably going after, for every line of troops wiped out you get further and further away from the enemy. With enough firepower it's entirely possible you'll never reach them.

You can stick a blob inside an aegis, making them damn hard to move, however thats going to cost you about 180 pts, and for that you could have another leman, or a vendetta, which is capable of more than those blobs will usually ever put out.

Veterans in vendettas are the only way to go about things these days, at least in the meta I'm in.

You've never tried footguard then.

To the OP, being new to guard, maybe try a gunline?

Blob up some Infantry squads behind an Aegis Defense Line, give each squad a heavy weapon team, and let them take orders to twin link the heavies against vehicles. Combine that with some camo-netted tanks, and you will be just fine.

 TheCaptain wrote:

 Necroshea wrote:
Generally speaking, footguard are kind of dead. Besides the nerf to power weapons, precise shots kill off your important models, and because wounds are taken from the side facing the enemy that you're probably going after, for every line of troops wiped out you get further and further away from the enemy. With enough firepower it's entirely possible you'll never reach them.

You can stick a blob inside an aegis, making them damn hard to move, however thats going to cost you about 180 pts, and for that you could have another leman, or a vendetta, which is capable of more than those blobs will usually ever put out.

Veterans in vendettas are the only way to go about things these days, at least in the meta I'm in.

You've never tried footguard then.

To the OP, being new to guard, maybe try a gunline?

Blob up some Infantry squads behind an Aegis Defense Line, give each squad a heavy weapon team, and let them take orders to twin link the heavies against vehicles. Combine that with some camo-netted tanks, and you will be just fine.

So you make a terrible assumption, then repeat what I say?

Ok

Repeated what you said better, and didn't imply footguard is dead; because it's not.

It does just fine, actually. If vendetta-vets is the only way you succeed, you might have not tried everything first, or your meta is all Necron Croissant-spam.

I meant no offense, it just seemed that you were subscribing to the popular idea of denouncing footguard because everyone does the same. It's actually still quite competitive.

No offense taken, it just more or less caught me off guard.

I'm with the footguard are dead group, and I'm absolutely bitter about it. I'll always have found memories of slowly moving up the field in 5th, putting boots and bayonets to anything from fire warrior to daemon prince, and managing to pull a victory out of it.

6E just makes it seem infinitely harder to accomplish this. As I said marching up the field just doesn't work for me anymore. Wounds just set you back further and further away. If your opponent knows guard he'll nuke the CCS behind them, preventing them from getting better going to ground saves and getting back up and shooting in the next turn.

Autocannon spam still works to an extent, but you still have to worry about losing a single model and getting an unlucky roll for falling back.

As I mentioned, precision shots eat you alive now. The most important people in your group are the sgts and commissar, and now they can get picked off.

I hate mech guard. I hate putting vets in chimeras. I hate painting vehicles (except sentinels, they don't count), but most of my opponents are gunline style, and running up the field just isn't that great anymore.

Having gone against footguard IG armies, they can be nasty! The biggest threat to them is not being able to allocate wounds yourself, but there is a way around that. Buildings. Buildings allow the owner of the unit to allocate wounds, and they have an Armor Value on all facings as well. Chimeras are some of the more common transport options I've seen too, and with a good amount of fire points, they can easily out gun some of the best units and dedicated transports in other armies.

A good footguard army with some help from terrain or transports can become a tough foe indeed.

 Necroshea wrote:
No offense taken, it just more or less caught me off guard.

I'm with the footguard are dead group, and I'm absolutely bitter about it. I'll always have found memories of slowly moving up the field in 5th, putting boots and bayonets to anything from fire warrior to daemon prince, and managing to pull a victory out of it.

6E just makes it seem infinitely harder to accomplish this. As I said marching up the field just doesn't work for me anymore. Wounds just set you back further and further away. If your opponent knows guard he'll nuke the CCS behind them, preventing them from getting better going to ground saves and getting back up and shooting in the next turn.

Autocannon spam still works to an extent, but you still have to worry about losing a single model and getting an unlucky roll for falling back.

As I mentioned, precision shots eat you alive now. The most important people in your group are the sgts and commissar, and now they can get picked off.

I hate mech guard. I hate putting vets in chimeras. I hate painting vehicles (except sentinels, they don't count), but most of my opponents are gunline style, and running up the field just isn't that great anymore.

Oh ok, you're saying power blobs are dead. Yes, this is perfectly reasonable. I thought you were saying footguard in it's entirety was dead, and that's obviously not the case (otherwise people wouldn't keep running it) You make good points, but these weaknesses can be fixed with proper lists and playing.

The way it seems to be heading now is a strong defensive anvil, with aggressive elements attacking the backfield and disrupting the enemy. Stormtroopers, Marbo, an Al'rahem platoon, and even Harker vets all seem to be key to this. If you're cool with flyers, people also have been having success with meltavets gravchuting in behind enemy lines. However you approach it, you need the numbers from platoons to hold the line at home, while your agressive elements disrupt the enemy. From there, you can either do a highland charge across the field, or just hold your ground and focus on just knocking your opponent off of his objective. Foot Guard changed quite a bit in 6th, and people still have a variety of opinions on how they think it should be done.

Advice I would give a guy wanting to start a Foot IG army is to keep your spirits up. This army has a very stiff learning curve, and you will lose quite a bit in the beginning. This is not a point and click army. It takes extreme forethought, clever maneuvering, and learning what units to sacrifice where for victory. Start out in low point games, as the amount of guardsmen you need at higher point totals can be a bit overwhelming. Play mostly 1,000pt games at first, and get familiar with how the army works. Once you're familiar with things like orders (fun fact, we have 4 phases instead of 3, Move, Orders, shooting, assault) your models stats (protip, if it's not a special unit, it's probably BS,T, WS, I 3 with 1 attack) and your special rules, things get much easier. This playstyle really relies on you squeezing as much utility as possible out of every unit, and the only way to get better at it is practice. However, once you start to get the hang of it, it's a really fun army to use and is very rewarding.

As for the platoon thing, think of it as a force org chart in your force org chart, so you can write your list while you write your list. You've got a mandatory HQ and 2 troop choices (a PCS and two infantry squads respectively) and then have access to more troops (infantry squads), elites (Special weapon squads) and heavy support (heavy weapon squads). That's how I learned it. Infantry platoons are probably the most customizeable unit in the game. Take it slow and keep em simple and cheap, and you'll do well.

The only piece of advice I can give for footguard (my Guard contingent is halfway to the Elysians list and gets fielded in support of my Grey Knights army, so I don't have much experience with footslogging lists) is that your biggest advantages are numbers and range, so you should move to maximize those. Lots of infantry platoons, lots of heavy weapons, a few Leman Russes (but not too many, they'll eat into your horde budget), and you'll be set.

I've read what you guys have said so far and have taken it into account. I've come up with the basic idea for what should be in my army now:


HQ

I'm adsuming command squads are the way to go. What should I equip them with?

Elites

I really like stormtroopers. Are they the best option?

Troops

Five maybe even six squads of normal IG, with 2 heavy weap teams in each, w/ plasma cannons.

Fast atrack

A valkyrie with desired upgrades

Heavy support

At least 2 lemen russ bt's w/ lot's of plasma.

Wha do you guys thnk of my idea? what should i do to improve ?

Do you guys have any lists that you think will be good? If so i'd like to see them

 OrkzCrazy wrote:
I've read what you guys have said so far and have taken it into account. I've come up with the basic idea for what should be in my army now:


HQ

I'm adsuming command squads are the way to go. What should I equip them with?

Elites

I really like stormtroopers. Are they the best option?

Yes. Only option, really.

Troops

Five maybe even six squads of normal IG, with 2 heavy weap teams in each, w/ plasma cannons.

Can only have 1 Heavy Weapon team per Infantry Squad, and they can't take plasma cannons.

Fast atrack

A valkyrie with desired upgrades

Heavy support

At least 2 lemen russ bt's w/ lot's of plasma.

Steer clear of sponson weapons, and try to stick to the Battle Tank, or the Demolisher. The others are pretty hot or cold. Those two, however, always seem to do at least decently.

Wha do you guys thnk of my idea? what should i do to improve ?

Do you guys have any lists that you think will be good? If so i'd like to see them

thankls for thehelp. I will post my final list on the army list forum soon. Please check it out and give your honest opinion

As an amendment to the captains no-sponson advice, stay clear of sponsons on russ variance with ordinance weapons (battletank and demolisher), as a recent FAQ sortof kneecaped them into only firing snapshots. sponsons on russes with heavy type weapons are fine, and can move and fire everything.

Exterminators (the autocannon one) with heavy bolter sponsons or executioners (the plasmacannon one) with plasmacannon sponsons are solid choices.


The troops choices for IG are a little weird at first because they are unique from all other armies.

Each infantry platoon is a single troop choice on the FOC, just like a single unit of tactical marines would be. Except that single choice is made up of multiple units.

You -must- take at least a platoon command squad, and two infantry squads if you are to take an infantry platoon as a troop choice. These 3 units count as one troop. You can add further infantry squads, heavy/special weapon squads, or conscripts (up to the number indicated). This entire block of units, which can be anywhere from 3 to 14 units, is still treated as a single troop choice.
Then you can take up to six of those blocks.

Keep in mind that because they are single choices, if playing with just platoons as troops (and not veterans, which can be taken by themselves), you need at least two platoons to fill out your required two troops slots.

1: platoon command squad
2: infantry squad
4: infantry squad
5: infantry squad

^ If this is what you have as troops, it's not legal because it's just one troop slot, even though it's 5 troop units.

You would need:

1: 1st platoon command squad
2: 1st platoon infantry squad
3: 1st platoon infantry squad

4: 2nd platoon command squad
5: 2nd platoon infantry squad
6: 2nd platoon infantry squad

Even though it's 6 units, it only takes up two troop slots.

Plasma cannon HWS makes me drool though.

For hq you want to go with two company commands to give your guys orders. Some would say creed but statistically 2CCs are better and harder to kill than creed. Kell might be something to look into so you have a better chance of giving the heavy weapon teams orders. As for equipment do you want a mobile hq or a more static one? as you can pump like 4 melta or plasma guns in the squad or you can do a heavy weapon.

For your stormtroopers I have found the best way to run them is the base 5 man squad with 2 melta guns deepstriking. They give you loads of disruptive power and are really cheap for the cost.

For the IG squads you want a a few cominssars in the mix so they will not only pass most LD checks but also more likely to get orders through.

For your heavy weapons, I know a lot will say auto cannons but I have had great success with only 1 squad of them and the rest lascannons.

If you take a valk the missile pods are quite fun and give you a decent anti horde weapon.

Hope this helps

I agree that power blobs are dead and foot guard are not. We're all just still working on how to make foot guard as good as it once was.

For elites, yes, I like stormies. If you do a hammer and anvil style where respawning conscripts are the anvil, and things like stormtroopers or really anything with special mobility, then you'll definitely like elites choices. Stormies for hammers, ogryn for anvils, etc.

As for infantry platoons, yeah, they're a little confusing, but as has been mentioned, a single infantry platoon uses up a single force org chart, no matter how many squads you take in that platoon. An infantry platoon with a platoon command squad, 3 platoon infantry squads, 5 heavy weapon squads, and a 40-strong squad of conscripts all counts as a SINGLE entry in your force organization.

As such, if you are going to use a company command squad and two infantry platoons as the core of your army, then you are going to have three officer squads (one company, two platoon), and four infantry squads, base.