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Hey guys,

a friend of mine is about to start playing IG and since I'm used to fighting them, but not playing them myself, I therefore root for the entirety of Dakka to help him out. A few pointers:

- it's a friendlies-only list but should be able to stand ground on its own

- it should be reasonably priced / affordable

- he would prefer a focus on infantry, though I already told him that might turn out to be more expensive given the sheer numbers you have to field.

- starting points limit is ~1000

I'd appreciate any sort of help and advice, well knowing I'll get myself a worthy enemy

Thanks and regards,

Sigvatr

Foot guard isn't necessarily more expensive than mech guard.

In any case, regardless of where he wants to go, he's going to have to start with three boxes of infantry. Either they're going to turn into 3 vet squads, or they're going to turn into most of two basic infantry platoons. After that, he'll want to either get himself three chimeras, or three more boxes of infantry, depending on if he wants foot or mech.

Also, have him bitz-order stuff so that he can kit-bash some meltagunners (perhaps with some plasma if he likes those), and a few heavy weapons teams wouldn't go amiss. I say this because the basic infantry options on the sprues don't give you any weapons worth using. Better he makes meltaguns now, than to make a bunch of grenade launchers that he won't use after a few games.

Also, of course, he needs the rules and the codex.

And he needs to start by playing much smaller games than 1000 points.

Thanks for your reply Ailaros!

Converting models with bitz is no problem, I'll help him with everything and am pretty experienced in conversions. Same goes for getting to know the rules, he already played a few matches with Blood Angels / Grey Knights, yet I appreciate the advice of starting with less points. Would you consider 750 an appreciate choice of points or would you recommend going down to 500 in order to get a feel for the army and how it plays out?

Playing / getting to know the rules is a good go, I play since 3rd and frequently take part in tournaments thus have everything you need to play ready including two rulebooks, templates etc.

Thanks for the advice of starting out with 3 boxes of infantry and the lookout what he should be getting next.

Looking forward to more input!

When I started IG I actually got two of the IG battleforces. At my FLGS they were $90 each. The IG battleforce is One command squad, two Infantry squads, 3x Heavy weapon teams, and a sentinel. He will also, obviously, need a codex. If you can find them for about that much, they are a decent deal for getting started, and have a some special weapons.

The problem with the basic battleforce is that it is one command squad short of being able to be run as an infantry platoon. If you run it as two squads of vets, it is a playable right out of the box, but it's not very many points.

Since you seem to be bringing your friend into a friendly setting, have him not "finalize" some of his more optiony models, like the sentinels or chimeras, just yet. Have him get a feel for for them so he can decide what options he wants to stick with. I personally prefer magnets.

Good luck to you and your friend! And happy gaming.

Always remember that if you really want to convet something to make it cooler looking but don't have the funds. Hold out becuase its worth the wait even if the moneys burning a hole in you pocket. My Guardsman are all kit bashed fron Cadians and Catachans and all kinds of different things but they look so awsome and original and I'm proud to field every single one of them.

I will get around to posting some images in the gallery some time. Until then stay tuned.

Sinji wrote:
Always remember that if you really want to convet something to make it cooler looking but don't have the funds. Hold out becuase its worth the wait even if the moneys burning a hole in you pocket. My Guardsman are all kit bashed fron Cadians and Catachans and all kinds of different things but they look so awsome and original and I'm proud to field every single one of them.

I will get around to posting some images in the gallery some time. Until then stay tuned.

I fully agree - most of my Necron army is modified, i.e. I made all my Warriors stand up straight in the very same position.

Thanks for all the input! Any more opinions on the actual battleforce? Judging from my very own experience, I consider Sentinels being pretty worthless, but you still save some money given the fact you get two infantry platoons, a command squad and a heavy weapons team. Should be able to grab one for ~60-70€.

The battleforce is okay, but it's kind of expensive. For example, I've run foot guard for years, including up to four officer squads, and I've never purchased an officer squad box. I've always just used regular guardsmen and converted the officers. Likewise, unless he knows he's going to want sentinels, those sentinels will probably go to waste.

Really, what you're getting from two battleforces is 5 boxes of infantry and 6 heavy weapons teams. If you put that together by means of ebay stores, you're looking at about $170, compared to if you buy two battleforces at GW prices where you're spending $240, which is considerably more expensive. With those extra $70 you could buy the meltagun bitz you will ever need, or two entire leman russes from eBay.

As to point size, yeah, I'd start out at 500 or 750, tops. It's going to be a better experience if he gets to play with his army, rather than his stuff mixed in with proxy troops (etc.), and it would be better for him to get experience with how troops and small arms works before he starts moving into what kind of support choices he wants to take.

He needs 3 Vendettas and some veterans to throw in 'em.

 CaptainGrey wrote:
He needs 3 Vendettas and some veterans to throw in 'em.

Or, he needs 3 Vendettas and some Chimeras with veterans in 'em would be another way to go.
Adding Chimeras AND Vendettas will get expensive, fast. Just ask my wife! But I also
believe that it's a bad idea to put all my eggs in one basket. If your Vets are flying around in your
Vendettas and it get's popped, there goes 2 of your assets with one shot. Plus, if your Vendetta
is transporting people around, it's moving too much to take advantage of the 3 TL lascannons, you
know, one of the main reasons you take it!

 alarmingrick wrote:

 CaptainGrey wrote:
He needs 3 Vendettas and some veterans to throw in 'em.

Plus, if your Vendetta
is transporting people around, it's moving too much to take advantage of the 3 TL lascannons, you
know, one of the main reasons you take it!

-Shoot stuff.
-Shoot more stuff
-Drop off troops on objectives when stuff is dead.

For friendly and focus on infantry, I would convert some forgeworld artillery stuff (you can download the rules as updates from them free).

I'll post this again, you can get about 850 points worth of IG for £200. 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

It requires some special weapon conversions (as per http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/467370.page) and heavy weapon conversions (as per ailoros's conversion thread somewhere).

You can then use the left over sentinels to make some other conversiony stuff.

 CaptainGrey wrote:

 alarmingrick wrote:

 CaptainGrey wrote:
He needs 3 Vendettas and some veterans to throw in 'em.

Plus, if your Vendetta
is transporting people around, it's moving too much to take advantage of the 3 TL lascannons, you
know, one of the main reasons you take it!

-Shoot stuff.
-Shoot more stuff
-Drop off troops on objectives when stuff is dead.

Mean while, in the belly of the Vendetta, there are 3 melta/plasma guns going to waste for 1-3 turns....

 alarmingrick wrote:

 CaptainGrey wrote:

 alarmingrick wrote:

 CaptainGrey wrote:
He needs 3 Vendettas and some veterans to throw in 'em.

Plus, if your Vendetta
is transporting people around, it's moving too much to take advantage of the 3 TL lascannons, you
know, one of the main reasons you take it!

-Shoot stuff.
-Shoot more stuff
-Drop off troops on objectives when stuff is dead.

Mean while, in the belly of the Vendetta, there are 3 melta/plasma guns going to waste for 1-3 turns....

Solution: don't give vendetta troops expensive guns.

Just flamers. Have them flame stuff off an objective.

CaptainGrey wrote:If he wants to, and likes fliers, he could also take 3 Vendettas and some veterans to throw in 'em.

There, fixed that for you.

In any case, vendettas aren't something you're going to want to buy until after you've already got your three vets in chimeras or two infantry platoons and the HQ done. And even then, only if you want to take fliers.

The only exception to this is if the person knows that they want to take air-cav, but that's a pretty tricky play style to pull off in 6th ed, and I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner.

CaptainGrey wrote:

 alarmingrick wrote:

 CaptainGrey wrote:

 alarmingrick wrote:

 CaptainGrey wrote:
He needs 3 Vendettas and some veterans to throw in 'em.

Plus, if your Vendetta
is transporting people around, it's moving too much to take advantage of the 3 TL lascannons, you
know, one of the main reasons you take it!

-Shoot stuff.
-Shoot more stuff
-Drop off troops on objectives when stuff is dead.

Mean while, in the belly of the Vendetta, there are 3 melta/plasma guns going to waste for 1-3 turns....

Solution: don't give vendetta troops expensive guns.

Just flamers. Have them flame stuff off an objective.

You're the one that said to put Vets in the Vendettas. Surely you're not saying to give the Vets flamers are you?!
I agree. A PCS, or SWS(if anybody runs them!) would make good choices.

Ailaros wrote:

CaptainGrey wrote:If he wants to, and likes fliers, he could also take 3 Vendettas and some veterans to throw in 'em.

There, fixed that for you.

In any case, vendettas aren't something you're going to want to buy until after you've already got your three vets in chimeras or two infantry platoons and the HQ done. And even then, only if you want to take fliers.

The only exception to this is if the person knows that they want to take air-cav, but that's a pretty tricky play style to pull off in 6th ed, and I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner.

You're correct. I'm putting the cart before the horse. He'd be well served to proxy any planned investments well before hand, and I'd say alot, before shelling out the cash for 3 Vendettas or anything else..

If you put troops in Vendettas they are for late-game objective grabs. As such, I would not put a bunch of points in them. Dare I say a SWS with three flamers? I do.

Hey guys, thanks for all the discussion going on!

He is not looking forwards to get any flyers, he prefers having tanks and, even more, infantry around and is much of a fluff guy who likes the army's look. I'm certainly not using my tournament list vs him

Ebay's a real good place to buy used miniatures though:

- 20 Cadians + 1 Machine Seer (?) for 35€ (47$)
- 10 Cadians + 3 Heavy Weapon teams for 33€ (44$)
- 16 Cadians + 1 Heavy Weapon team for 27€ (36$)
- 20 Cadians + 3 Heavy Weapon teams for 43€ (57$)
- 20 Commando Cadian for 35€ (47$)

Good deals? They need to be stripped off paint of course, but they are not damaged and complete.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Hey guys, thanks for all the discussion going on!

He is not looking forwards to get any flyers, he prefers having tanks and, even more, infantry around and is much of a fluff guy who likes the army's look. I'm certainly not using my tournament list vs him

Ebay's a real good place to buy used miniatures though:

- 20 Cadians + 1 Machine Seer (?) for 35€ (47$)
- 10 Cadians + 3 Heavy Weapon teams for 33€ (44$)
- 16 Cadians + 1 Heavy Weapon team for 27€ (36$)
- 20 Cadians + 3 Heavy Weapon teams for 43€ (57$)
- 20 Commando Cadian for 35€ (47$)

Good deals? They need to be stripped off paint of course, but they are not damaged and complete.

It can be all over the place on Feebay. You can find some some really good deals if you are patient.
Just be careful buying assembled. Make sure you get good pics.

 alarmingrick wrote:

It can be all over the place on Feebay. You can find some some really good deals if you are patient.
Just be careful buying assembled. Make sure you get good pics.

It's a professional shop I already ordered a lot of stuff from. Sells a lot of stuff, e.g. Leman Russ for 28€, complete, unpainted.

Ebay tends to be better than its rep if you watch out though, got an entire goblin army of ~220 Night Goblins, 8 Fanatics, heroes / lords / shamans for 80€ total

Built 2 Doom Divers myself and am about to scratch-build my second pair of Mangler Squigs.

Regarding the topic, I'll stick with the initial advice of starting out with infantry - he already got 2 Chimeras. What would you add in order to get some firepower? Leman Russ? They surely pack a punch and he likes the look + all the options you can equip it with.

What support units he should take are entirely dependent on how he wants to outfit his core units. He's not going to be able to decide on how he wants his core units to play until after he's played a few games.

Hence the advice to only get the basic required troops and HQ choices and have him play several games with them.

Different people are going to approach the imperial guard in different ways, both in the list building and in how they play them on the field. It's those idiosyncrasies in core units that determine support.

My advice would be that if you are worried about money, and if you aren't planning on playing in any gw stores (only in friends houses and local clubs) you should have a look at mantic games corporation range. Their army packs are great value and the minis are very good quality. I also believe they are better proportioned than gw ig (only my opinion). You can then spend more mone on the gw tanks. Or if you still want to save money, I rather like what this guy is doing http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/496680.page

Good luck

Personally I dislike the Mantic stuff, Im just not keen on how they look.

Anyway - as has been said above, you can get a lot cheaper stuff. 1;48 or 1:35 stuff works well with the scale of GW kits (although technically GW stuff are meant to be around 1:60!)

Its entirely up to him how he makes his force up - he can even do what quite a few people do and make up entirely his own fluff to explain why his force is equipped the way it is.

Planning to make my own blog up on here when I can find some decent pics. All my stuff (apart from ther squaddies so far) is altered from the instructions such as having a different turret position, FW track guards, and so on.