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Imperial Guard don't interest me a lot, so I haven't read much about them. But I was curious, why are they so liked? In my opinion, they just appear weak. I mean why not put them in power armour making them 8 feet tall? Is it also the painting/modeling aspect?

I like them for the fluff, they reflect all my fav action and war movies. On the table not so much, but i do have a small detachment to ally with my marines on occasion. People who do well with them utilize a lot of tanks, and unfortunately i think the leman russ is the dumbest looking tank after the german av1 from the first world war. I suggest reading a gaunts ghosts novel and see what you think.

Because they can be whatever i want. And they are normal. I think marines and anything else bar sometimes eldar to be horrifically lame. Imperial guard is the only thing that keeps me playing the game.

I can use any models that are humanoid. The tanks can be whatever i want them to be. I have the freedom to make my list any way possible through all the imperial codices and so on.

Although the power gamers ruin the imperial guard in terms of variety, for fluffy players one army could look completely different to the next down to every little detail.

In short, i can theme it to my tastes (which for me is historical), i have complete freedom to make any human model into a trooper and the huge amounts of potential for conversion and variation over the other armies.

Also they are the most believable in fluff overall.

I agree with Swastkowey. I enjoy the variety I can field at any time. Painting them is fun also. My command squads themes are on the line of Shield and Capt. America. You cant really make that look good with any other armies.

It all comes down with most wargamers being human. Since the Imperial Guard are human, they are easier to relate to and get behind.

B-but Space Marines are more popular than the Guard.

People like them because they're the bog-standard humans. People relate to them.
Also; TANKS!

Because like draw for any of the other armies - not everyone wants to play 8ft tall guys in Power Armor. They are the other human army, which as said before, people can relate too.

The Imperial Guard can be turned into many kinds of personal themes, which other armies/races don't do quite as easily.

It's harder to become a hero if you are a 7 foot armor encased mutant hybrid super soldier programmed for destruction.

Real heroes come from ordinary people just like you and me.

Using that same logic, I could argue that it's harder for Firemen to become heroes because their physical fitness transcends 90% of the human population.

Space Marines can still die. And they're not just expected to, but frequently do, triumph over odds that most lone Guardsmen could never perform, not just due to their fragile human body, but because of their fear.

I mean, Commissars exist for a reason. Not that heroic. Let's not get too high on the IG nob here.

Ollanius Pius, nuff said.

Because Guardsmen are regular dudes that stand tall in a galaxy full of 30ft tall fire-breathing schlong-demons just dying to skullfeth your soul. For eternity.
And they're identifiable.

They are readily the most customizable force available, Being human allows you to relate to them, Underdog status, Heavy metal thunder (TAAAAAAAANKS), Themes of Human courage and of Bone Crushing Grimdark, all of these things appeal to people and are present within the guard without the frills of the superheroic spacemarines or the Unstoppable tyranids, or Unkillable necrons. They are human and thats all they need to be.

pax_imperialis wrote:
I like them for the fluff, they reflect all my fav action and war movies. On the table not so much, but i do have a small detachment to ally with my marines on occasion. People who do well with them utilize a lot of tanks, and unfortunately i think the leman russ is the dumbest looking tank after the german av1 from the first world war. I suggest reading a gaunts ghosts novel and see what you think.

How could this possibly look dumb?



Oh wait...

I can see how they are the most relatable, but I have kind of the opposite feeling when it comes to playing basic humans in scifi games. I feel like if I'm playing a scifi game, I want to play some exotic, cool looking race that's NOT the race I am in real life. To each his own though!

Noctem wrote:
I can see how they are the most relatable, but I have kind of the opposite feeling when it comes to playing basic humans in scifi games. I feel like if I'm playing a scifi game, I want to play some exotic, cool looking race that's NOT the race I am in real life. To each his own though!

I actually really agree with this, which is why I nominated IG as one of the more lame factions in a different thread. They just have nothing that interests me as a faction and zero interest in the ascetics department as a table top army.

However, I can see why they are popular by others.

Because everyone loves an underdog.

Imperial Guard represent the human condition and struggle. Fighting against the supernatural. A supernatural so evil and sinister it could be considered almost incomprehensible. Imperial Guard are the struggle between the average grunt, and the forsaken forces of Chaos or Xenos.

A guardsman can be from a feral, agri, hive, or forge world. He (or she) is an ordinary citizen. Flesh and bone. Its a very base perspective of the 40K universe, subject to all the same horrors, conflict and hardship. Imperial Guard are the story of how you or I, fighting together would stand against all the worst the universe has to offer. It represent the potential for creative expression anywhere of a humanly militarized group fighting against all these powers.

Imperial Guard are the gung-ho of every war movie you've ever seen. The Blackhawk Downs, Saving Private Ryans, all those bottleneck cut throat moments of intensity, every story of the Imperial Guard is fighting those unsurmountable odds made even greater by the nature of the 40K setting. A fight to take a beach head is all the more bitter by the savage Blood Pact defenders reinforced by the sinister nearly omnipotent Black Legion.

IG pit the average joe into the militarized life style, one way or another, fighting against the bitter, cold universe surrounding him. How you fight, and who you fight with, are what makes you, the story, and your efforts all the worthwhile, and the Emperor Protects.

Tanks. Tanks tanks tanks tanks tanks. IG keep calling to me with the siren song of TANKS.

I like them because they encapsulate the nature of what it is to be a human in the 41st Millenium. You don't matter. You and your nine friends barely matter. But your three hundred friends, tanks, and air support matter. The individual exists only to die so that the many can achieve victory. One Guardsman is nothing. One thousand Guardsmen are something.

Tanks. And superheavy tanks.

Edit: and because this is the single most awesome model in all of 40k:

I just like the whole "human" link that they bring to 40k. Its like you can sort of relate to them. Not forgetting they have TANKS! Loads and loads of TANKS!!

I can understand disliking them for both aesthetic and play style reasons. The WWI/Inter-war inspired designs isn't what everyone wants in their SciFi. I, personally, like that aspect. However, what I really like makes this quote seem a bit funny to me:

 Da Ork Killa wrote:
[Snip] In my opinion, they just appear weak. [Snip]

I like them for the raw, blunt strength they can unleash. Individually, guardsmen aren't notable, but a blob of them (especially with FRFSRF) can gut a unit of Space Marines. Their tanks are durable, destructive, and a ton of them fit into the army. A single Battle Cannon/Earthshaker/Demolisher will flatten a squad of marines (and the Demolisher will do so to Terminators, too). When I started playing Marines it felt (and still does, though to a lesser extent) that the much-applauded Space Marines were the weaker force.

Also, the sheer number of options in the book is pretty darn great. I started with IG and that darn book spoiled me rotten with all its options (and how many of them you can cram into a single army!).

Because they are humans. You can easily identify with them.

I like the way GreyHamster put it:

 GreyHamster wrote:
I like them because they encapsulate the nature of what it is to be a human in the 41st Millenium. You don't matter. You and your nine friends barely matter. But your three hundred friends, tanks, and air support matter. The individual exists only to die so that the many can achieve victory. One Guardsman is nothing. One thousand Guardsmen are something.

And don´t forget tanks. Some people like tanks a lot.

I like Guard because nothing is more awesome than jumping out of a V/STOVL, landing on your feet, gunning down the shocked looks on those smug little elf faces and moving onto the next target before those oh-so-superior xeno witches never saw you coming.

Also, because a size ten (I play female drop troopers) boot to the head at maximum survivable velocity is just about the funniest way to kill a Tau I've ever heard of.

 Peregrine wrote:
Tanks. And superheavy tanks.

Edit: and because this is the single most awesome model in all of 40k:

No no, this is the most awesome model in 40k:



OT: Ordinary people beating monsters from space hell.

1) Level of manliness that even Astartes barely reach (they ARE issued with high grade balls of steel)
2) Ollanius Pius
3) They're humans - BADASS humans.
4) IG is still pretty playable, stable, and most of all; a competitive army, with lots of possibilities how to play them.
5) Fields one of the best armoured vehicles in the game that makes even Space Marines jealous (counting out the Land Raiders, of course).
6) Rich fluff, and many regiments to choose your style from. I only hope that GW would update their models on the IG section some day...

 dakkajet wrote:
I just like the whole "human" link that they bring to 40k. Its like you can sort of relate to them. Not forgetting they have THANKS! Loads and loads of THANKS!!

THANKS! Wait,what?Do you dear sir perhaps mean TANKS!?I like TANKS.And because I play orks I can have a green tide(cadian armour/ork skin)And I can steal their TANKs!dey don't need it....(get it?Because their dead?MWAHAHAHAHAHA!)

The sheer, unbridled freedom is what's great about IG. In game, you can run a horde of footsoldiers, an armoured company, an airborne squadron, a highly elite strike force, the sky really is the limit. Model-wise, if it has 4 limbs and can hold a lasgun it's in, so you can use tonnes of non-GW stuff for those of use who hate the look of Cadians (like myself). And having so much variety in the fluff means that you can really make the army your own. At the end of the day, SM are SM. IG can be anything, from a hive militia pressed into service to an elite team of veterans of a hundred battlezones.

i would say its the personality. aside from them being ww2 germans...

its the fact you can literally customize them however you want, infantry, tanks, fliers... pick a theme or a real world army, or even a fictional one, and its done, and looks cool. ive seen in my day:

- an imperial "clone" storm trooper army (even had jedi as seargents/officers)
- a 40k skaven counts as (every model was skaven, and even the tanks were done up. looked awsome.
- a guy i knew served in iraq, and made his platoon. managed to convert uniforms, rank markings, even got some liknesses of his buddies to be his officers (he was a GENIOUS at greenstuff) - havent seen the guy in 12 years or so... but wow.

and many others. IG is all about character. they can be made to be almost anything. - more so then tau, marines, etc. plus many if not all their kits are and have been plastic for a lot longer then most armies, save marines.