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Is it just me or does it cost way more to make a competitive imperial guard army than any other? Not to mention the amount of time it takes to model ad paint one!

Yeah, they're pretty costly, but on the upside I find that army to be the best long term investment as editions come and go. Seems way less volatile in terms of codex and ruleset changes invalidating builds.

It can be.

Ebay will make it cheaper, Forgeworld will make it more expensive.

40k is as pricey as you choose to allow it to become.

Warhammer is an expensive hobby and IG is one of the more expensive armies. It'll take time to acquire.

Ebay was my friend And holidays

Timewise? Yeah, guard can be expensive. Money-wise, it's not so bad. Ignoring bitz costs for the moment, a 1500 point mech guard list (3x vet squads, a lord commissar, and 4 russes) costs $365 at full markup, brand new. A 1500 point drop pod marine list (command squad, captain, 3 tac squads, 2 sternguard squad, 6 drop pods) costs $430.

Go to the armylist forum and look at other army's lists and calculate how much they cost, you'll find that guard isn't THAT bad, moneywise.

Erik the Red wrote:Is it just me or does it cost way more to make a competitive imperial guard army than any other?

Calculate the cost for a proper SoB army, then we'll talk.

Unless maybe if you're planning on a Valhallan infantry zerg.

Man, some of you guys need to try Fantasy if you think 40k armies are expensive.

 Ailaros wrote:
Timewise? Yeah, guard can be expensive. Money-wise, it's not so bad. Ignoring bitz costs for the moment, a 1500 point mech guard list (3x vet squads, a lord commissar, and 4 russes) costs $365 at full markup, brand new. A 1500 point drop pod marine list (command squad, captain, 3 tac squads, 2 sternguard squad, 6 drop pods) costs $430.

Go to the armylist forum and look at other army's lists and calculate how much they cost, you'll find that guard isn't THAT bad, moneywise.

If you buy 3rd party maybe.

But straight from GW? Very expensive. 3 Heavy weapons is 41 bucks, 29 buck for 10 guardsmen, $25 for our command box, which is the only box with useful special weapons.

There's a reason IG and cheap should never be in the same sentence.

 Lynata wrote:

Unless maybe if you're planning on a Valhallan infantry zerg.

You rang?

IG armies are very pricey, regardless of whether they're geared for tournaments or casual play. You need plenty of infantry or plenty or armor, or some expensive combination thereof. If you want the really cool stuff (Valkyries, metal/resin IG, lots of characters like Commissars, etc) you're going to be in for an even bigger expenditure. Also, they're just as detailed as any other models out there and you need a ton more generally. I spent the better part of this year painting Valhallans (144 infantry and 9 tanks last I checked!) which made something around a 2000+ point list. If I was painting Marines instead at the same pace, I would have a company and a half of Marines, and probably somewhere around 6000 points.

It's a hard life in the Guard!

Brother SRM wrote:You rang?

You've really got one?

Damn, that's commitment. But hey, Valhallans are best, right, comrade?

 Lynata wrote:

Brother SRM wrote:You rang?

You've really got one?

Damn, that's commitment. But hey, Valhallans are best, right, comrade?

Check my sig, you're in for a doozy

Dont get me wrong I've played for years and sunk probably way too much money into my space wolves. Hell I can field 30 swiftclaws or sky claws. Haven't done that sine 4th edition I think... I've got a guard army as well, but wanted to field a mechanized Modern mechanized army and the list I want to field is pricey!

Vendetta x2 at least 50 each since I've got the las cannons
22 plasma guns. OUCH!!!! At least 100+shipping on eBay.
2 leman Russ battle tanks $30 each on eBay.
7 chimeras... Also average $30 each on eBay.
1 manticore $35-40 on eBay.
30 guardsmen with lasguns. $60 eBay again.
6 autocannons teams @ around $10 each.

We still need a commander so let's assume we already had a model for that. This army would still cost between $600 and $750 on eBay. Its also 10 tanks and 65 infantry to Paint. I built a mean blood angel army for a friend thay was around $350 brad new. To get this list new i bet you'd easily drop over a grand.
If your getting a bunch at once, i think getting the forgeworld plasma gun bits is probably the best way to go... (look good, expensive everywhere, might as well)

Ebay is a good way to start; lots of bulk deals on standard units, it's when you start wanting to add unique, characterful or special units that the prices start to rise steadily.

It isn't cheap, but it can be manageable. When you decide, for instance, you want an armoured company with Steel Legionnaires for the armoured fists, well, abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

I probably spent about $300 to get my standard, initial guard list going, and then probably doubled that on tanks, FW, Steel Legion and so on.

Though, as has been said, Guard has longevity; their core behaviour and characteristic doesn't change much; they form up and shoot the feth out of people. Considering Valhallans and Steel Legion are, what, 2nd and 3rd edition models, the line has a solid lifespan. The only serious changes they've needed is heavy weapons needed to go on new bases, and some special weapons weren't easily available.

Love the paint job btw. I just painted a standard red and was wondering how to finish it!!! Tht dirty gold look is great. Natural like cloth should be.

I used to play with a guy who had a Mordian Iron Guard gun line/ infantry horde. I complained once about my Orks being expensive. Yeah.

Orks are also (to me personally) some of the MOST fun units to paint.The modelling opportunities are seemingly endless as well. If I had the money for another army after Guard, I'd pick up playing the old green skins in a heartbeat.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:


There's a reason IG and cheap should never be in the same sentence.

What about the sentence: "GW isn't cheap"?

ebay, ebay, ebay and more ebay. When you walk into a store and see stuff for full price you'll be shocked that anyone actually pays that.

But, if you don't ever buy from your local store, there won't be a local store for long. You've gotta support the local tournament hosts every now and then!!!! I do anyways. Not that I buy from them all the time, but every now and then I'll get a box. They usually give 15% off, so it's not too bad around where I live anyhow.

 Griddlelol wrote:

 MrMoustaffa wrote:


There's a reason IG and cheap should never be in the same sentence.

What about the sentence: "GW isn't cheap"?

ebay, ebay, ebay and more ebay. When you walk into a store and see stuff for full price you'll be shocked that anyone actually pays that.

I find EBay is usually more expensive than Amazon or online shops because of the ridiculous shipping and "handling" costs some people put up. Even those with good shipping costs are usually overpriced. I can never figure out why people bid things up over MSRP, but they do.

Another thing you can do is start making a habit of seeing movies in theaters, or keeping up on the newest video games, or drinking alcohol regularly, or smoking, or hookers.

Suddenly, 40k will look REALLY cheap by comparison to other common hobbies, ebay or no.

Building an IG army is going to be expensive, pretty much no matter what you do. It is a high model count army that doesn't have box set cheap filler (like orks) or integrated specials/heavies/command (like every other army).

So, IG really get hit twice. You pay for a lot of basic guys, but also need to fill out non-flamer/GL specials (meaning nearly all specials) and all heavies.

IG transports and fliers are very points effecient, so you're going to buy a lot of them.

Still, I think IG are a good long term investment. They have a very solid codex right now, and the core of the army (guardsmen with lasguns) hasn't changed in 20 years. Now, the exact specials and heavies that are "optimal" vary (although not as much as you'd think), and the usefulness of the chimera has waxed and waned, but the army as a whole has never been terrible. And unlike, say, DA or BT, the good builds have always relied on a non-gimmick core of guardsmen.

That all said... seriously consider second hand metals. Some armies are stupid expensive (praetorians, tanith, valhallans), while others are relatively rare (metal cadians, oddly), but metal Catachans are quite affordable (and not nearly as ugly as the plastics), and metal tallarn are nifty as well.

 Ailaros wrote:
Timewise? Yeah, guard can be expensive. Money-wise, it's not so bad. Ignoring bitz costs for the moment, a 1500 point mech guard list (3x vet squads, a lord commissar, and 4 russes) costs $365 at full markup, brand new. A 1500 point drop pod marine list (command squad, captain, 3 tac squads, 2 sternguard squad, 6 drop pods) costs $430.

Go to the armylist forum and look at other army's lists and calculate how much they cost, you'll find that guard isn't THAT bad, moneywise.

You're forgetting one of the very important parts here, the special weapons, if you want to run those units with more than a single flamer/grenade launcher each you need to get heavy weapons and/or special weapons. If you want to run those with all the same special weapon and make actual decent use of those units with plasma or melta guns, you're looking at another 170 for special/heavy weapons, bringing the cost to 535 for a rather minimalist IG army.


wait, actually, 3 vet squads in chimeras with a lord commissar and 4 russ tanks is only like 1100/1200 something points...

Yeah the box set sucks. You get everything at full retail price + a free Sentinal. I can't possibly justify fielding them, comparing them to Eldar War Walkers. (that's not the only reason I don't field them, they are just terrible, but that's the icing on the cake...) I know that they serve slightly different purposes (one heavy support, one fast attack, in 2 drastically different codexes) but War Walkers are pretty much a joke now. The only time I've seen them fielded to any success was on a super cluttered city scape, where tanks were having trouble moving around and getting LOS. In that game, the Sentinals still got killed by Eldar Rangers and Dire pretty quickly.

Erik the Red wrote:
Is it just me or does it cost way more to make a competitive imperial guard army than any other? Not to mention the amount of time it takes to model ad paint one!

Yes, yes it does.

Guard are not a cheap army.

Lol, I am building up a DKoK army...talk about money....

IG is pretty pricey. I picked up,y second IG army after I got rid of the first. Now I have all metal catachan vet army. Picking up te plasma and Melta guys were pricey but the rest was rather easy.

I am just starting to build a fun grey knights army, started as allies, 2000 points. Picked up a dread knight NIB for 25.00, a rhino for birthday present, the upgrade sprue, two boxes of terminators, Dario, three total strike squad boxes, a commander box, and one assassin were way cheaper than any other army at 2000 points. Not saying it is competative, just something diffferent.

Vaktathi wrote:wait, actually, 3 vet squads in chimeras with a lord commissar and 4 russ tanks is only like 1100/1200 something points...

Not if you arm the russes properly.

As for bitz, yes, you need to buy more for guard, but it's not like you don't have to buy extra bitz for sternguard or nobs or terminators or whatever. My point isn't that guard are cheaper, so much as they are comparable in price to other armies.

 Vaktathi wrote:

 Ailaros wrote:
Timewise? Yeah, guard can be expensive. Money-wise, it's not so bad. Ignoring bitz costs for the moment, a 1500 point mech guard list (3x vet squads, a lord commissar, and 4 russes) costs $365 at full markup, brand new. A 1500 point drop pod marine list (command squad, captain, 3 tac squads, 2 sternguard squad, 6 drop pods) costs $430.

Go to the armylist forum and look at other army's lists and calculate how much they cost, you'll find that guard isn't THAT bad, moneywise.

You're forgetting one of the very important parts here, the special weapons, if you want to run those units with more than a single flamer/grenade launcher each you need to get heavy weapons and/or special weapons. If you want to run those with all the same special weapon and make actual decent use of those units with plasma or melta guns, you're looking at another 170 for special/heavy weapons, bringing the cost to 535 for a rather minimalist IG army..

You can make 2 Melta's and 2 Plasma's from a 10man kit.
Make the 2 Sargent's, get 2 of the 5 man clip together's.
That's 20 dudes, 2 squads, with 2 melta's and 2 plasma's, not enough for vet's but enough for sloggers.

Really, the potential to save money is there.
2 Cadian battle forces with 8 5 man snaps will give you:

CCS w/ HW + Banner * 2
PCS w/ HW *2
IS w/ HW + SW *8

For £198 and some time w/ off brand bases you get about 850+ points worth of reasonably equipped guardsmen.
You also have the the potential for about 10-12 more additional special weapons (with conversions and the pucker ones you get from the command sprue). You also have the sentinels left over for attempts at going "This is my Sabre defence platform" if you wanted.

I admit that if you were to spend that money on another army you would defiantly get more points worth, but the potential for saving is there.

 kinratha wrote:
Lol, I am building up a DKoK army...talk about money....

*Krieg brofist*

Just spent 115$ for a PCS and a 10 men squad.