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hey guys.
im planning on making the big jump into mech but not to be vanilla
my starter list is

Junior officer
2 plasma guns
Chimera 2 heavybolters 145

infantry squad alpha
missile launcher, plasma gun
Chimera multi laser heavy bolter 160

infantry squad gamma
missile launcher, plasma gun
chimera multi laser heavy bolter 160

my intial reactions is that commands are a huge sink in points bu oh well^^
and im a old drop trooper since the codex came out so for anti tank il have DS storm troopers or suicide sentinels
any comments be great
CHEERS GUYEZ

It looks good so far.

Some thoughts:

1) Due to the cost of Chimera, command squads do indeed have a way of eating up points (the cost of the officers themselves is not too bad). There are two ways of getting around this. If you want to take actual IG troopers, take one platoon, the company HQ, and an Armored Fist squad. That gets your compulsory troops choices down with only 2 command squads and Chimeras. Alternatively, you can go with the also popular method of taking the Grenadiers doctrine-with your elite slots you can get 6 Stormtrooper squads, getting rid of the need for one of the HQ's in Chimeras. Six Stormtrooper/Grenadier squads should be sufficient for anything up to 2,000 points.

2) Looking at your weapons loadouts, I would decide how you want your army to play on the table. If you are looking to mount the squads and run them around the field, missile launchers may be wasted points. If you are keeping the squads in the backfield and running the Chimeras up, they will be well worth their points. If you are planning on keeping squads in the Chimeras, I would look more closely at Stormtroopers/Grenadiers/Veterans: the BS4 and extra special weapons are invaluable on mobile squads. Keep in mind that if your infantry squads are static you will have a limited number of manuverable scoring units available.

2a* If your local gaming group has lots of Escalation, keep in mind that a heavy weapon will lose several rounds of firing, particularly if you need more than its initial move/deployment to get into cover/good firing positions. While discussing Escalation, you will need to mount Improved Comms on something eventually once you break a 1,000 points. It makes it much easier to control things getting on the board, or keeping them off as well if needed.

3) In terms of expanding the force, the best way to keep Chimeras alive is to give the enemy something more heavily armored/deadly to shoot at. This is where Hellhounds, Leman Russes, and Demolishers come in, depending upon your personal preference. I will say that you can never go wrong by bringing a Hellhound though.

4) Going back to #2, if your squads are staying in Chimeras, you need some mobile fire support. Unfortunately, Ordinance weapons are not very good at reliably killing vehicles and other priority targets. This is where some Sentinels come in, with Multilasers, Autocannons, or Lascannons as your opponents/own preference may dictate.

Although they are expensive points wise, I like lascannon Sentinels in this set-up as they give you a way of semi-reliably glancing/penning Land Raiders, Monoliths, and the like that are otherwise difficult to kill without a direct hit from a Demolisher. You should also have enough S5/S6/S7 (if you are using FW autocannon turrets) weaponry on the Chimeras to avoid duplicating it on Sentinels. Of course if your gaming circle is amenable to FW vehicle variants the Vanquisher will do wonders in this regard.

Your post indicates that you do have deep strike stormtroopers to help out with this as well, so certainly use them as long having non-mechanized infantry fits with the fluff you want for your army.

5) One last bit about vehicle wargear that may be or may not be relevant to your playing environment. If you have play with 25% terrain, you will need dozer blades. Not only is there the actual danger of immobilization, but not having that safety guarantee can make you hesistant to enter that difficult terrain and throw an advantage to your opponent that way. Also, given the number of grenades and other HtH weapons out there that can hurt your Chimera's AV10 sides and rear and the more vulnerable flanks and rear of your other vehicles as well, I usually find Extra Armor to be essential. Making the enemy hit on a 4+ instead of Auto-hitting keeps tanks alive far longer.

I have thought about a mech IG list for some time. I am debating over whether to do that or so create an infantry horde list. I have both made. The horde list has 217 models. Also, the mech list is not too shabby. I just tired of my current static list. its rather dull yet effective.

for my line squads think il do the old hold up in cover to shoot stuff, from what ive read already chimeras are more mobile fire support than APC's
in my local group (south west) UK the usual games are 1500 which is going to make things a bit of a squeeze considering my plattons nearly 500 points, to expand this i think id have a armoured fist squad another infantry squad 2 sentinels and if i can afford it a hellhoud and demolisher. at colledge so dont have the point values on me

think i should tread the lacanon route?

Your prior list plus two more squads, a company HQ in Chimera, Hellhound, Demolisher, and two Sentinels is about 1350 points, depending upon upgrades chosen, so you still have some flexibilty to get to 1500.

In regards to Sentinel loadout, if you kept your squad upgrades constant you would have 4 missile launchers and 4 plasma guns in your squads. None of these are terribly mobile elements, particularly in range, with the plasmas going down to 12" + move distance if they are not standing still. Having two lascannons on the Sentinels will give you something that can be redeployed to meet enemy threats.

This can be particularly handy with Scout-if you deploy them behind size 3 cover and the foe forgets that they can move before the game begins, they may be staring down a few less gun barrels on Turn 1. They will also come in handy against things like 2+ save monstrous creatures, T8 Wraithlords, etc. that the balance of your list may have some trouble hurting.

Sentinels also have two other good uses-they are still individually scoring units, so if there isn't much for them to attack (ie: you are facing a horde list) they can crawl up the table to claim objectives, etc. They are also great at tarpitting T3 enemies that would otherwise wreak havock amonst your infantry.

While you are right in identifying the Chimera as a better IFV than APC, I would keep in mind that on more than a few missions you need to move onto objectives, and with terrain firepower alone (particularly without indirect fire-perhaps a Basilisk is in order to round you off to 1500?) is not going to stop the enemy from a Turn 6 objective grab after sitting behind cover the rest of the game.

Although the Hellhound and Demolisher can help out here, they can become quite vulnerable if sent out alone. In these times it will be necessary to pile the line squads into the Chimeras and move them. For these occassions bring smoke-glancing only and only destroyed on a 6 gives them quite good survivability.

just finished mixing up this list

HQ junior officer, boltfun, standard bearer and 2 plasma guns
chimera 2 heavy bolters.
_drop sentinel auto cannon hunter killer missile 60
5 drog storm troopers 2 melta guns 75

Junior officer boltgun
2 plasma guns
Chimera 2 heavybolters 146

infantry squad alpha
missile launcher, plasma gun
Chimera multi laser heavy bolter 160

infantry squad gamma
missile launcher, plasma gun
chimera multi laser heavy bolter 160

infantry squad epslilon
missile launcher, plasma gun
chimera multi laser heavy bolter searchlight 161

hellhound scearchliht 116

drop sentinel auto cannon hunter killer 60
drop sentinel auto cannon hunter killer 60

demolisher lascannon 2 plasma cannons 185
i realise this list is short on anti tank and may consider lascannon sentinels not a fan of a 1 shot weapon thal miss half the time tho
or instead of geting a 3rd sentinel should i up gun to lascannons? and give my line squads extra armour?
or perhaps instead of the drop elements just get a basilisk?
what cha recon

If I added it up right the list comes out to about 1340 points so that gives enough room to throw in the Basilisk (unless you are missing a line squad/Armored Fist squad?).

With the Hunter Killers/Autocannons/Multilasers, I think you have enough shots to deal with AV12/AV13 armor. If your opponents are not bringing alot of AV14, I think this is certainly a good starting Mech list to build. Even though I never seem to get to use its secondary weapons complement, I love the las/plas Demolisher . . . great looking model when finished.

ooooops left out the armoured fist squad and the points for the comand
the internets will never forgive me
my oponents dont realy have much if any AV14 but id kinda like to take a mech list to GT for fun
cuase no 1500 point mech guard list could win it. yeah the demolisher is my favorite guard model well apart from,
kasakin.
maybe i should turn the demo into a normal russ and drop a sentinel and the DS sentinel storm troopers to get
2 leman russ's think id turn my megar anti tank even weaker tho

The Demolisher model is pretty much too good not to use. Plus with the amount of long-range AP3 weaponry and high volume of fire you have with mid/high S, high rate of fire weapons, the S10/AP2 pie plate is essential. The Stormtroopers/Sentinels are also pretty essential so I would be hestitant to waste them for a Russ. However, at 1500 pts. you are putting enough AV12 fronts on the table that the survivability/usefulness of the Russ will be quite high.

Since you mentioned having the STs and Sentinels I would build up the list first and see how you like the playstyle. Plus if you are looking for a tournament list, S8 pie plates don't seem to work too well against AV12/AV13 skimmers, Monstrous Creatures, and the like.