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Hey,

I have roughly £180/200 to spend on an army after Christmas and its gonna be a toss-up between Guard or Tau and I was just wondering if they would be able to get a viable playable army at that price range?

If so what kind of builds could I go for?

Thanks

Jacob26w wrote:
Hey,

I have roughly £180/200 to spend on an army after Christmas and its gonna be a toss-up between Guard or Tau and I was just wondering if they would be able to get a viable playable army at that price range?

If so what kind of builds could I go for?

Thanks

For Tau I think the answer depends on what happens with Crisis Suits in Chapter Approved. The good deals on box sets have the issue that they all have Crisis Suits in them and right now they are just so overcosted as to be painful. Rumour has it that there will be a significant points drop on Crisis Suits which should elevate them to OK but not the next big thing to tear up the tournament circuit.

Assuming that Crisis Suits are more playable in the new year I would suggest a Rapid Insertion Cadre and two Start Collecting sets. The overall resulting list is quite battlesuit heavy but has a decent amount of infantry, lots of deployment shenanigans with the ghostkeels and stealth suits and you have a good number of drones to make up in the combinations you need to provide support (markerlights) and resilience (shield). With the usual discounts available that should leave you within budget, a codex would bring you back up towards the top of your budget and a Cadre Fireblade might break the budget but would be a very nice add, or maybe you can find someone willing to swap with a spare ethereal as you really do not need two.


All of those are quite new models and if you like the T'au aesthetic at all you will really like them.

That really depends on the size of army you're after. At 1000pts, yes quite probably, at 1750 or 2K not a chance, I don't think you get any army of that size at that price (maybe Custodes or Grey Knights but I still wouldn't bet on it).

First up, I'll straight up warn you that Guard is cheap in points but not in cash. If you don't mind hitting or exceeding your max value by a smidge then you can get pretty solid value out of 2 cadian defence forces.

£200 will get you

2 Company commanders
2 Command squads
4 Infantry squads
2 Leman Russ's
2 Chimera's
2 heavy weapon teams (HWS)

for a grand total of 776pts (see here the cheap in points but not cash bit) in their basic setup (note basic setup for HWS's technically doesn't include the heavy weapon's which is at least 5pts to a maximum of 20pts per model. But we can get more value of of these boxes yet, those HWS boxes come loaded with weapons but lack in guardsmen and bases. You can buy 3 60mm bases off GW's store for another £3, so spending £6 on 6 extra bases and only building 1 guardsmen to a base gets you another 2 HWS for a total of 4 and if you can source some more guardsmen and bases (and some terrain to set the weapons on) you can get even more HWS's out of those sets

In that vein we can continue to bump up the points value by taking the more expensive variants available to us, one of the perks of guard is that there's several units who share the same model, Tank commanders for instance use the exact same model as regular leman russ's, exact same situation with veterans, conscripts and guardsmen, company commanders and platoon commanders and i've yet to meet an opponent nitpicky enough to give a crap about the fact scout sentinels should have a different cabin to armoured sentinels. Provided you make a clear distinction between the two types by kitbashing or painting them in different when you run the two variants in the same list you should have no issues. Taking more expensive variants should let us hit 1000pts easily.

Something that needs to be addressed though is the chimera's, they look cool as hel and i'd argue they're one of the guards most iconic vehicles but unfortunately they suck pretty badly right now (though there's always hope with CA right around the corner), you have nothing thats actually worth transporting in these 2 boxes, build them with heavy flamer's and use them as crappier, more expensive hellhounds, or just proxy them as hellhounds (if you're opponent/store will let you) because the models are near identical anyway. Command squads are kinda in a similar spot as well, they're best use is making them all carry melta/plasma, sticking them in a transport and suiciding them at something, unfortunately though there's not enough of either in 2 defence force boxes to outfit even one squad like that, source them the guns from somewhere else at extra cost or just build them fluffy and somewhat useless.

Those 2 units aside 2 Company commanders, 4 infantry squads, 4 HWS's and 2 LRBT's are a solid foundation to build small lists out of and expand from, thats honestly the core of a guard force, drop another £100-£200 pound's on a couple extra infantry squads and more specialised, hard hitting units like basilisk, maticore's, hellhounds etc and you'll have a competitive guard army at 2k points.

 Imateria wrote:
That really depends on the size of army you're after. At 1000pts, yes quite probably, at 1750 or 2K not a chance, I don't think you get any army of that size at that price (maybe Custodes or Grey Knights but I still wouldn't bet on it).

With the boxes I suggested you would struggle to fill out a 2000 point list but I think any level less than that should be OK.

With those 3 boxes I believe you have
Commander (can and probably should be a Coldstar)
2 Crisis suits to be extra XV8 commanders
7 x Crisis Suit
2 x Ethereal
4 x 5 Strike Team, 2 of which have DS8 turrets (or breacher, your choice)
Ghostkeel
2 x Stealth Team
At least 25 tactical drones

I would probably go with a battalion and a vanguard detachment.

It may not be the best 1750 list around but I am pretty sure it is a playable one. On current points it is definitely over 1750 but my expectation is that the points on crisis teams drop to make them more viable, rumours are a 10-12 point drop per model. With points drops it will be in the ballpark of 1750.

[edit] The trick will be finding the rapid insertion cadre, need to check out the shelves of your FLGS to see if they have one. That is usually the problem with the seasonal box sets.

 gbghg wrote:
First up, I'll straight up warn you that Guard is cheap in points but not in cash. If you don't mind hitting or exceeding your max value by a smidge then you can get pretty solid value out of 2 cadian defence forces.

£200 will get you

2 Company commanders
2 Command squads
4 Infantry squads
2 Leman Russ's
2 Chimera's
2 heavy weapon teams (HWS)

for a grand total of 776pts (see here the cheap in points but not cash bit) in their basic setup (note basic setup for HWS's technically doesn't include the heavy weapon's which is at least 5pts to a maximum of 20pts per model. But we can get more value of of these boxes yet, those HWS boxes come loaded with weapons but lack in guardsmen and bases. You can buy 3 60mm bases off GW's store for another £3, so spending £6 on 6 extra bases and only building 1 guardsmen to a base gets you another 2 HWS for a total of 4 and if you can source some more guardsmen and bases (and some terrain to set the weapons on) you can get even more HWS's out of those sets

In that vein we can continue to bump up the points value by taking the more expensive variants available to us, one of the perks of guard is that there's several units who share the same model, Tank commanders for instance use the exact same model as regular leman russ's, exact same situation with veterans, conscripts and guardsmen, company commanders and platoon commanders and i've yet to meet an opponent nitpicky enough to give a crap about the fact scout sentinels should have a different cabin to armoured sentinels. Provided you make a clear distinction between the two types by kitbashing or painting them in different when you run the two variants in the same list you should have no issues. Taking more expensive variants should let us hit 1000pts easily.

Something that needs to be addressed though is the chimera's, they look cool as hel and i'd argue they're one of the guards most iconic vehicles but unfortunately they suck pretty badly right now (though there's always hope with CA right around the corner), you have nothing thats actually worth transporting in these 2 boxes, build them with heavy flamer's and use them as crappier, more expensive hellhounds, or just proxy them as hellhounds (if you're opponent/store will let you) because the models are near identical anyway. Command squads are kinda in a similar spot as well, they're best use is making them all carry melta/plasma, sticking them in a transport and suiciding them at something, unfortunately though there's not enough of either in 2 defence force boxes to outfit even one squad like that, source them the guns from somewhere else at extra cost or just build them fluffy and somewhat useless.

Those 2 units aside 2 Company commanders, 4 infantry squads, 4 HWS's and 2 LRBT's are a solid foundation to build small lists out of and expand from, thats honestly the core of a guard force, drop another £100-£200 pound's on a couple extra infantry squads and more specialised, hard hitting units like basilisk, maticore's, hellhounds etc and you'll have a competitive guard army at 2k points.

You can also build them with the autocannons from the Leman Russ or Heavy Weapons kit with a bit of cutting, and use them as mini-tanks.

That said, I don't think Chimera will be good, because there's just nothing the IG wants to put in them.

Like i said, best bet would be to proxy them as hellhounds, except for the turret weapon and rear hull they're identical. TThast aside they're main purpose here would just to be point filler's, they can still block line of sight to more valuable units and can do some damage when they're rocking dual heavy bolters or flamers.

Assuming you go Armoured Company, or tank heavy and assuming you buy smart yes you can do IG on £180.

3x Getting started

https://www.triplehelixwargames.co.uk/product/start-collecting-astra-militarum-2/
£112.50
3x Leman Russ
3x Infantry squads
1x heavy weapon squad.
Commissar plus spares

1x Command Squad

https://www.triplehelixwargames.co.uk/product/cadian-command-squad/
£11.63


170.63
2x Demolisher/special Russ tanks

https://www.triplehelixwargames.co.uk/product/astra-militarum-leman-russ-demolisher/
£46.50


1x Tech Priest enginseer

https://www.triplehelixwargames.co.uk/product/astra-militarum-tech-priest-enginseer/
£13.50

total £184.13

Now the above is a guard army without cheating, so it includes some infantry, enough weight to be effective and some variety. The above makes a list that makes sense and is just over your limit.
Triple Helix Wargames is about as cheap as online retailers go and the whole lot comes to just over £170 if you exclude the enginseer. Shipping is flat rate and cheap.
Frankly I would have zero problems sourcing an IG army for £180 if I also used ebay. Just remember your ebay-fu, dont chase deals be patient and wait for the deal to come your way. If an item is being chased cut it loose, it will be up again. If you buy half of your army on ebay first and check for deals and see what you get, you will probably be able to take more than what is on offer here. But five Russ including bits for several upgrade specialist Russ and a garnish of guardsmen is actually a decent list to play, and don't forget you have two surplus servicable commissars you can arrange swaps with.

I have not even bothered trying to source a Tau army for you, the same principles, and site applies, its just easier. For Tau I suggest a Farsight enclave list for the excuse to max out on crisis suits. Crisis heavy is not as strong as it looks, crisis are points sinks, but the army is fun and fieldable in budget which is the main issue.

I just bought 3 guard start collecting boxes and 2 demolishers to be the core of new guard army actually, along with a shadowsword and 5 boxes of extra infantry. So the above suggestion is a good one imo.