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This is mainly a repost of a retro review I did 5 years back, the last time the IG was revised. It's a look far, far, far back into the mists of history, the dim and distant year of 1995, nearly 20 years ago when the Internet meant usenet or AoL.

If you weren't alive then, please mention it in the comments, it's a rule!

Original thread here
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/236065.page


1995 was just when I was getting out of 40k having discovered that I took no enjoyment in 2nd edition rules so I never got a chance to use this book. I was also bitter about them pulling the $20 boxes with 36 guard + heavy and special weapons to replace them with historical minis with lasguns. I've since gotten over it.

So anyway, let's take a look inside:



Ug. Just ug.

One of the big issues with 2nd edition was the move towards Herohammer, everything was over the top and troops were just cannon fodder for the ridiculously powerful heroes. Worse yet was the move to make everyone look like a superhero. While RT art emphasized masses and masses of troops, this makes every Catachan look like the Incredible Hulk.

but once we go inside things look a lot better



Why couldn't that be the cover?

The book starts with some fluff, written in the dry (and rather dull) second edition style. Everything is 3rd person omnicent narration, there's almost none of the in-character stuff that marked 3rd edition onwards.

Since at the time the IG was moving towards 'regiments' each with it's own uniform, each copied from a different historical era we get background on the big 5 regiments.


Catachan fluff is completely over the top. Ridiculously so.

"Every living thing on Catachan is inimical to human life. Every creature is a carnivore. Every plant is poisonous."

Well, gee. With all these poisonous insects and trees with acid sap, maybe you'd like SOME SLEEVES! I'm sorry, I've actually been in a few jungles and no one walks around like that. Protecting your flesh from flora, fauna and the sun is kind of a priority even without people shooting at you.

Anyway...



Cadian fluff is much as we know it today. Defend the gate. Interestingly the Cadian Shock Troops are identified as the elite units of Cadia, compared to normal ordinary Cadian Stock Troops.



Valhalla was once a temperate world until it was hit by a comet. Today the Valhallans live underground and fought a vicious battle against invading orks.



Mordians Iron Guard (not to be confused with Iron Warriors or Steel Legion) come from a grim hive world. Mordia is forever turned with one face towards the sun, one in darkness and the Mordians can only live in the darkness. The Iron Guard fight against criminal gangs, chaos cultists and one massive chaos invasion.



Tallarn was also a once-fertile world blasted into a desert by the Iron Warriors (not to be confused with the Iron Guard). Their big victory was teaming up with the Eldar to fight Chaos.

Tune in tomorrow for more classic art and completely unplayable rules from the forgotten tomes of yesteryear!

ah the memories.....

this is the last codex cover I remeber before I dropped out of TTG for a while

I remember the joy of one Imperial Guard player when 3e hit... suddenly he could win!

The Auld Grump - I blame Sylvester Stallone for the cover of 2e IG.

I loved this book. I used to be able to create lists from memory.

2E was the reason I left 40K for almost 20 years. I still collected the minis, but didn't want to play the game. The last minis I remember buying with intent to play was the Cadian plastic miniatures box.

This is my favorite codex of all time. I'm sure I still have it somewhere...

I was alive and i remember seeing a hellhound box. I wasnt into the game though. I wish i had been :(

Still have the codex and my Mordian army. I also played Orks and loved both armies.

Good memories.

 Stormonu wrote:
2E was the reason I left 40K for almost 20 years. I still collected the minis, but didn't want to play the game. The last minis I remember buying with intent to play was the Cadian plastic miniatures box.

Your statement seems chronologically challenged. That Guard Codex is from the 90's. The plastic Cadians didn't come for around another decade, in the latter portions of 3rd Ed. There weren't 20 years between that Codex and the plastic Cadians. A 20 year break would bring you back... well... now, not when the plastic Cadians were out.

-

Poor 2nd edition Imperial guard :( Tanks that didn't do anything and infantry that also didn't do anything. Oh well, that's what assassins were for!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:
2E was the reason I left 40K for almost 20 years. I still collected the minis, but didn't want to play the game. The last minis I remember buying with intent to play was the Cadian plastic miniatures box.

Your statement seems chronologically challenged. That Guard Codex is from the 90's. The plastic Cadians didn't come for around another decade, in the latter portions of 3rd Ed. There weren't 20 years between that Codex and the plastic Cadians. A 20 year break would bring you back... well... now, not when the plastic Cadians were out.

You need to work on your analytical skills.

The Guard Codex is from 1995. Stormonu says that he left 40k because of 2E, not necessarily the Guard book. 2E was released in 1993 and furthermore he notes that he left for "almost 20 years". Almost could be 17 years for what we know.

Furthermore, the Cadian plastic miniatures are still around and it's possible that he bought them with the intent to play in the year 2012 which would certainly fit his "left 40k for almost 20 years". He never says that he bought them right when they were first released.


On topic, I agree with KK that 2nd edition Imperial Guard were a much weaker (both gameplay and model-wise) force compared to the veritable not-2000AD Imperial Guard (Army) of Rogue Trader. Much cooler models and there were still a lot of IG models with chainmail and hand weapons that you could tell that the Guard recruited from all over the place. As neat as the Perry models look, they just weren't as cool.
Plus let's forget the terrible 2E sentinel compared to the bomb-ass RT one.

Haha, that sentinel was so awful!

Tech priest: Behold! Our new walker crafted entirely from shoeboxes!
Lieutenant: Umm...
Tech priest: We're very, very sorry.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Bottle wrote:


I don't think I ever played one game of normal 2nd edition though. We used to play games with infinite turns or make them fight our Necromunda gangs (which we did play properly), or maybe give the free Necron that came in White Dwarf a stat line of straight 10s and crazy wargear (like a web pistol and some vortex grenades) and see if he could take out the entire army.

Those were the days!

Our 40k minis made frequent appearances in increasingly rpg like space crusade games.
Commissar One Arm almost led his storm troopers to victory until, BAM! Gretchen with a vortex grenade!

I've got some of the old 2nd ed stormtroopers. The metal ones look really cool, but my god, having 16 monopose plastic stormtroopers with hilariously shallow face details is a pain in the butt to paint.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:
2E was the reason I left 40K for almost 20 years. I still collected the minis, but didn't want to play the game. The last minis I remember buying with intent to play was the Cadian plastic miniatures box.

Your statement seems chronologically challenged. That Guard Codex is from the 90's. The plastic Cadians didn't come for around another decade, in the latter portions of 3rd Ed. There weren't 20 years between that Codex and the plastic Cadians. A 20 year break would bring you back... well... now, not when the plastic Cadians were out.

It's been a while - I got out somewhere in 2nd (I have a photocopied version of the starter set rules that came with orcs & Dark Millennium boxed set - that is 2nd, isn't it?), didn't get back in until the latest Necron release.

This is a photo of the "Cadians" I'm talking about...http://www.flickr.com/photos/118158058@N03/12650002744/. They're certainly plastic (30 in a set) - I think the minis were just called "Imperial Guard" back then.

 Stormonu wrote:
It's been a while - I got out somewhere in 2nd (I have a photocopied version of the starter set rules that came with orcs & Dark Millennium boxed set - that is 2nd, isn't it?), didn't get back in until the latest Necron release.

This is a photo of the "Cadians" I'm talking about...http://www.flickr.com/photos/118158058@N03/12650002744/. They're certainly plastic (30 in a set) - I think the minis were just called "Imperial Guard" back then.

Yes, Dark Millennium was 2nd Ed. And I see what you mean about those Guardsmen - the original plastic Guardsmen. At the time GW had them as the "Necromundan 8th", among other things (just 'generic Guard' really, much like plastic Guard are now). Cadians weren't really a thing until later on, but I can see how someone who took a long break could miss the distinction. Perfectly reasonable. Thank you for clarifying.

 Vladsimpaler wrote:
You need to work on your analytical skills.

Nah I was mostly right. The timeline I based my conclusions on was correct based upon available information (plastic Cadians exist now and they're the only plastic Cadians to have ever existed). He just got them confused with the old Imperial Guard plastics (which were Necromundan 8th, or meant to be in the same way that most Guard armies are Cadians now even if they're not Cadians). He's clarified what he meant, and now it makes sense.

Great write-up!

Completely agree, it's amazing how your perception of stuff changes over the years (although even as a youngster I remember thinking the Catachans looked rather OTT!). I had only caught the tail-end of RT, but got into 40 wholesail with 2nd edition. Good times!

I liked those old imperial guard plastics that came out for Rogue Trader. Like the RT Marines they were multipart and 30 to a box for £10. After second edition they dropped these figures, instead the Marines were all monopose and the IG were all metal, other than a few things like the dreadful monopose storm trooper plastics. I'm not sure why they made multipart plastics in 1989 and then dropped them in favour of metal and crude monopose plastics, quite a step backwards.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Anyway, on the topic of the 2nd edition codex, I didn't like the way that IG armies tended to look like a patchwork quilt if units as people used a single unit if everything, supposedly an army could be assembled from across the galaxy, but it looks dreadful. GW would do this in the magazine, oh god the colour!! It was only later with the Praetorians that they started having whole armies that look the same.

Looking forward to seeing more of this review.

I think the idea of the FOC did have the toning down of Herohammer in mind, but then turned into a spam machine instead.

I think if you make an army using the FOC but then check if it's percentages fit 2nd Ed ratios as well, you'll have a pretty balanced army.

Ah! Fond memories I remember my fledgling Imperial Guard army hunkering down on overwatch against Space Wolves, while my Hellhound went and torched Ragnar and Ulrik the Slayer because they were standing together on one flank

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
Ah! Fond memories I remember my fledgling Imperial Guard army hunkering down on overwatch against Space Wolves, while my Hellhound went and torched Ragnar and Ulrik the Slayer because they were standing together on one flank

That was the fun part. Reserves steaming in at any speed when you wanted them to.

The Supercharged engine wargear card on a Hellhound or Chimera led to many a Warp Spider squad being caught hence my hull heavy flamer Chimera being christened "Spider Burner" .

I loved this Codex and my Mordians, later Praetorians, were virtually unbeaten during this period (had some problems with Tyranids) so my experiences differ from some of the earlier posters.

1. Rough Rider Command Squads packed a punch.
2. Heavy Weapon Squads split into three teams made it harder for the squad to be wiped out. As for Slick Crew!!
3. Stumper Muckstart was available for cheap points and, if I remember right, he never gave away a VP when killed.

Howard A Treesong:

I assumed the use of metals was so that they could cover a multitude of warrior types so that the diverse Imperial Guard wouldn't always look like the original plastic 'standard' trooper from RT. At that stage it would have been very expensive to do multiple plastics types. As you say though, patchwork armies did look an eyesore. Although I did have a squad of each type as they were released, it was Mordians all the way once they were out.

My blog (link below) below has my Praetorians and Mordians arrayed in their finery and they do look better unified.

Ow wow, the art really has improved
I look forward to the next instalment KK.

WHHHHHAATTTTTTTTTTTT??? Ah wait, I didn't see the winking emoticon..

For anyone new to wargames and Games Workshop in particular, take a look to see how current artwork pales into significance when compared to the ground-breaking splendour of the 80's and 90's

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/342983.page

I remember when Blanche was known for his detail... not how fast he could scribble.

The Auld Grump

I'm sitting here reading the cities of death book and any Imperial Guard player owes it to themselves to pick it up. It has so much cool artwork, and even has some cool fluff pieces and modeling tutorials.

Wish GW would release more books like this, this thing is awesome.

I liked the style of 2nd ed fluff far more than I like the more modern fluff. I think my favourite Codex from a fluff perspective is the 2nd ed Tyranid codex.

My Catachan army was my first 'proper' 40k army that I started collecting as soon as I saw them in WD a very long time ago. I did pretty well with it to, even with the apparent 'herohammer' of 2nd ed.

I have 2.5k worth of infantry the original metal Catachans by modern points costs, I recently repainted most of them as well. The models are still very nice, there are some flawed sculpting due to the oversized muscles (they don't always line up properly) but all in all they are some of my favourite models.

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
I remember when Blanche was known for his detail... not how fast he could scribble.

The Auld Grump

Although strangely enough I remember the 2nd edition cover, which is regarded now as one of Blanche's best pieces, not being that popular at the time it was released. I think that was in, at least in part, due to a lot of the freelance stuff that had come along from the likes of Les Edwards (who did the original Heroquest cover, Warhammer Confrontation and Dark Future amongst others) and Christopher Fangorn, people who were known sci-fi and fantasy artists before doing GW stuff. That was a really high standard to maintain.

Think Mark Gibbons carried a lot of the early 2nd edition stuff (his work absolutely fills most of the 2nd edition codexes), Adrian Smith as well.

Some of the art was a lot less polished back then, but at the same time it was more raw and exotic - a lot of these guys were creating things for the first time, and people had never seen them before. The artists and designers had pretty much a blank canvas on which to work, rather than being forced down narrow creative avenues (which has been the case for some years now, especially as GW is no longer really a games-creation company).

I never liked John Blanche.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
This is mainly a repost of a retro review I did 5 years back, the last time the IG was revised. It's a look far, far, far back into the mists of history, the dim and distant year of 1995, nearly 20 years ago when the Internet meant usenet or AoL.




Why couldn't that be the cover?

Because John Blance can sketch but not draw? should go back to art class to learn about composition, bodies and the vanishing point.
Don't get me wrong i love his blanshitsu miniatures, i just loath his art work (yes opinion , not fact).
Do a retro review on the realm of chaos books now those were awesome.

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
Do a retro review on the realm of chaos books now those were awesome.

Indeed. Miniatures painted before the Red Era, and some wild conversions as well. Utterly unbalanced army lists, but a d1000 mutation table, and the artwork truly captured WHFB3rd- and RT-era Chaos. I still have mine.