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Would a powerful Imperial Guard codex bring in new players? Would it help in some other way? Perhaps enhance the player base by bringing in more experienced people?

I know a lot of IG players that are military/ex-military. There are also many IG players that play historical war strategy games. I'm generalizing, but IG seem to draw in those types of people.

That's a huge market for GW to tap into. Right now they target kids, ages 12-24 I think. (I read it somewhere... a financial statement I believe). It works for them. But there are other sections of the consumer market out there that I think are eager and willing to buy into 40k.

Simply having a good codex would go a long way to getting and retaining those players. At some level it's humorous... But watching someone (like a retired sergeant) lose to some kid just because of a terrible codex is kind of sad. And they usually quit not long after that. Or at least stop putting time and money into the game.

~Logic

I have generally always played guard since around 3rd edition, but they have changed so much i have found myself loosing interest and falling back more and more to historical wargaming once again.

I dont think the guard codex is currently so terrible that its the sole reason for loosing, infact i win the majority of games i play with my guard.

Though ultimately its the change in style and look of them i disliked, the shift towards shiny spaceman looking cadians who look far to equiped. I always, when it came to fluff loved the industrial mas conscription side of the guard, for me the current look of the plastics does not match this.

Probably why i play a steel legion army, but its been an expensive process getting them, not to mention having to convert half the heavy weapons etc...

I know i am not alone in the fact i would be more seduced by guard / brought back to the game if they gave us another option, bringing the ice warriors back or some other more down trodden force.

The idea of flying transports etc... well its just not how i saw my guard, massive big slow troop movements with lots of armour is how they are in my head.

Logic wrote:Would a powerful Imperial Guard codex bring in new players? Would it help in some other way? Perhaps enhance the player base by bringing in more experienced people?

I know a lot of IG players that are military/ex-military. There are also many IG players that play historical war strategy games. I'm generalizing, but IG seem to draw in those types of people.

That's a huge market for GW to tap into. Right now they target kids, ages 12-24 I think. (I read it somewhere... a financial statement I believe). It works for them. But there are other sections of the consumer market out there that I think are eager and willing to buy into 40k.

Simply having a good codex would go a long way to getting and retaining those players. At some level it's humorous... But watching someone (like a retired sergeant) lose to some kid just because of a terrible codex is kind of sad. And they usually quit not long after that. Or at least stop putting time and money into the game.

~Logic

No.

What would attract and keep people would be an IG codex that doesn't live by the FOTM, and actually let players use thier troops instead of playing on the cherry pick troop choice of the time.
Case in point would be the Catachans, the Pratorians, and the Cadians. Instead of trying to build on success, GW keeps peeing on thier shoes in trying to reinvent the obvious wheel. If any army should have been a baseline army to use as a guide, it should have been the IG. Basic human troopers with a perchace for weapons and armor, combined with flexability to compensate for a Strength, Tech, Toughness, Weapon inferiority, and other general compensation for inferiority issues with the other races of the 40K universe.

All they need is to play the game, write the rules, and stop being stupid. They made a baseline troop of an IG trooper and that is supposed to be an across the board army. You should be able to play it however you want with the flexability that make the Guard a fun army to play with. If I want armor, I can have a mechanized army, if I want an infantry WW2 russian horde type, then thats ok too. If I want a WW2 airborne regiment, then that should easily fit into the game as well. When they cut off the IG's huevos and pinned them down to pigeon hole troop types, that's where they lost it. In the character sections, they come out with them, they stick around, and then they disappear to the black hole of obscurity, never to bee seen again.
I know that they weren't the best choice, but they were special troop types that were around for a laugh or two. These guys went and make a particular regiment, per codex, and then the rest of the IG choices for Regiments go to the dogs, !@#ing off long time players who have put more then thier fair share of income into thier particular army.

A codex that continues to evolve is one thing, coming back to the table three or four times in a row with empty promises and unfinished product doesn't make players want to endear themselves to a weaksauce Flavor of the Month army.
I don't mind playing a game with a good mix, heck thats half of the fun, but when 50% of a codex sucks eggs and doesn't perform well on the table, it doesn't take losing more money in a product to know that you don't want to play it again.

The biggest advantage I could see to GW releasing a strong IG Codex is if it somehow helped move the centerpoint for the game away from Space Marines.. Which would consequently allow the SM to be a bit more Elite than they're commonly seen as being.

My dream is an IG Codex that allows the IG player to field the plethora of martial power that is the Imperial Guard. And do so in an effective manner.

Our current codex, with it's doctrine system, attempted to pull such a thing off. However, the doctrine system has (imo) show that the cost of variety is effectiveness. This is why I hope they remove doctrines in favor of a different mechanism for variety, one that does not reduce effectiveness, but simply changes the type of guard you are fielding.

I would love it if more and more players where drawn to IG, but only if we *don't* see *one* style of Guard. I want traitor guard, elite guard, infantry guard, mech guard, pdf guard, drop troopers, ect. It would be awesome ...

BoxANT wrote:My dream is an IG Codex that allows the IG player to field the plethora of martial power that is the Imperial Guard. And do so in an effective manner.
..... I want traitor guard, elite guard, infantry guard, mech guard, pdf guard, drop troopers, ect. It would be awesome ...

Armoured, Mechanized, Airborne, Light Infantry... why not even Artillery Companies. The Codex really needs to show that the Imperial Guard is not only the most powerfull military in the Galaxy but also the most versatile.

Well, is a strong Ork codex good for the hobby? I think it is, and I think IG will be as well. IG are an army with a high model count and plenty of plastics. GW wants them to sell, so if anything they should err on the side of making it too good. After a decode of Eldar and Chaos duking it out, I'm excited by the possiblity of IG/Ork top tables.

A-P wrote:

BoxANT wrote:My dream is an IG Codex that allows the IG player to field the plethora of martial power that is the Imperial Guard. And do so in an effective manner.
..... I want traitor guard, elite guard, infantry guard, mech guard, pdf guard, drop troopers, ect. It would be awesome ...

Armoured, Mechanized, Airborne, Light Infantry... why not even Artillery Companies. The Codex really needs to show that the Imperial Guard is not only the most powerfull military in the Galaxy but also the most versatile.

Indeed. In actuality this is the "race" that deserves more than one codex. Marines have 2-80 codices to define the difference in their paint pattern, but a thousand possibilities are forced into one codex? Yea, that'll work.

Come on, lets be honest here, the codex will get some players to play guard, but only if it's overpowered. In general, guard is not an entry level army because it doesn't have the cool factor of the some of the armies and has a steep entry level. Why buy 100+ guard models when I can buy 50ish space marine models? Let's not even talk about painting those models.

However, if you want to sell more guard models, then they need to redo some of the models and make a good solid codex. If they cut the teeth out of a lot of builds, making guard only have one competative build, people won't buy the army unless they were planning on getting it anyway.

If GW actually wrote a good codex for Guard I'd buy into it. Especially if they released traitor guard bits. MMM.... delicious traitor guard.

BoxANT wrote:I would love it if more and more players where drawn to IG, but only if we *don't* see *one* style of Guard. I want traitor guard, elite guard, infantry guard, mech guard, pdf guard, drop troopers, ect. It would be awesome ...

And you're going to get that...


... as long as you take the necessary Generic Special Character.

BYE

I think an "overpowered" (i.e. marginally competitive) Guard Codex would be a great thing. Guard are numerous and expensive to collect, so GW would make a lot of money.

But more to the point, it'd do wonders to help further diversify the game from Marines, HURR! beyond Marines/Orkz, HURR/WAAUGH!! all the way to Marines/Orks/Guard, HURR/WAAUGH/HU-AH!!!

H.B.M.C. wrote:

BoxANT wrote:I would love it if more and more players where drawn to IG, but only if we *don't* see *one* style of Guard. I want traitor guard, elite guard, infantry guard, mech guard, pdf guard, drop troopers, ect. It would be awesome ...

And you're going to get that...


... as long as you take the necessary Generic Special Character.

BYE

If the Kool-Aid tastes good, I'll drink it

A-P wrote:

BoxANT wrote:My dream is an IG Codex that allows the IG player to field the plethora of martial power that is the Imperial Guard. And do so in an effective manner.
..... I want traitor guard, elite guard, infantry guard, mech guard, pdf guard, drop troopers, ect. It would be awesome ...

Armoured, Mechanized, Airborne, Light Infantry... why not even Artillery Companies. The Codex really needs to show that the Imperial Guard is not only the most powerfull military in the Galaxy but also the most versatile.

Interesting... But what does that have to do with helping 40k?

And any codex can shift the power balance. But that doesn't make it better or worse for the game. I think the real advantage would be that it would drawn in a more diverse group of gamers. It would also reach out to players that look for games with a more historical wargaming style. For example, people who exclusively play Flames of War might be drawn to 40k if the IG codex was good.

~Logic