Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Have IG become Overly Popular?

I would like your all's opinion of this subject.

I personally started playing IG in early 2000 as my first Army. So I started with the good old 3rd Ed.



When I first started there was me, and one other person out of around 50 other players that played Imperial Guard. Then when the next codex came out the popularity jumped up, giving it a good base of players... but now, now it seems everyone is playing Imperial Guard...

I am curious on everyone's thoughts on the matter.

I would rather have alot of guard players than an overabundance of Space Marine players. I too recently started a Guard army, after playing Space Marines and Tau.

the army i decided to start with was IG, sadly at the tail end of the last codex. i didn't even have a chance to get a codex before i heard a new one was coming out! so now i join the vast ranks of people jumping on the flavor-of-the-month IG bandwagon...

I think so, but it's only fair considering they've been waiting for 3 Editions to get a new 'dex

The Guard population is fitting though, considering how large and diverse a body it is. But I'd say just wait for the rest of the updates. Guard will die down in the near future. Especially with Space Wolves coming this year and Nids rumored in February. DE will undoubtedly be getting an update within 2010 (IMHO) and Necrons are still on the way as well

Once the updates finish, I think the army selection will be a bit more spread out.

Plus, who knows, we might even see a new race within the close of 2011 as a GW marketing ploy to promote the 40K MMO that's due out in the 2011 Fiscal Year

give it a few weeks, and the guard love will simmer down

One thing I have enjoyed at the GW store here is the IG on IG action... it has been very fun for some reason.

If they do make a new army that would be really cool, but I do not know of a style that has not been done yet, nor a play style they have not done... but it would be interesting.

Pfft. All these people saying "Yes."

Enjoy the Guard love while it lasts - once the Space Wolves come out there won't be ANY other armies.

What is sad is I have a space wolf army already...

For me it went down like this

IG
Dark Eldar
Daemonhunters
Blood Angels
Eldar/Space Wolves (Picked up 1000 points of each for a total of $100)
Zombie hunter Marines.

No other army can compete with the oodles amount of Space Marines out there but I do clump Chaos in that mix as well.

Guard do have arguably the best and easily the newest codex out there now along with some incredibly bad ass models (imo they have the best looking GW vehicle, the Valk) --- so it should gather a lot of attention.

Fluffwise it'd make sense if IG was the most common army so the more the better!

Kommandant56434 wrote:the army i decided to start with was IG, sadly at the tail end of the last codex. i didn't even have a chance to get a codex before i heard a new one was coming out! so now i join the vast ranks of people jumping on the flavor-of-the-month IG bandwagon...

Same thing happened to me.

However, our gaming group has always had a lot of Guard, so the new codex hasn't changed things too dramatically.

If Guard become the #1 seller for 40k, that would be awesome.

I always thought IG appeals to the mass because they were the most similar to modern soldiers.

I've always loved Guard, but my collection is limited to an incomplete Cadian squad with a Heavy Bolter team from 12+ years ago, a missing Leman Russ, and a Hellhound.

I share the sentiment that more players moving away from SM is a good thing.

There's alway flavor of the month jumpers. Look at WoC in fantasy...there's hordes of em.
Still have my Eldar and a crapload of the Dark kind sitting in the closet waiting...hoping that sooner or later GW will release the codex!!!!

I'm really glad Imperial Guard are popular: something about having basic human soldiers in the game helps ground the game. Plus, IG vs IG games are really fun, and make great introductory games because units of Guardsmen follow all the basic rules without any huge deviations (Orders excepted, but those can be left out of Platoon vs Platoon intro games anyhow).

The limiting factor is that the IG is an expensive army to collect...this will always mute down the obvious mass appeal of the army....

I think their popularity also has to do with the IA, especially the Vraks books. I think they appealed to a lot of people. I've been a big fan of the Krieg Death Korps for... well, ever since I learned of them Don't want to brag or anything, it's good to see them popular. Anyways, back when I first learned about them, maybe three years ago, you had to search the internet for quite a while to find Krieg stuff. They were a very backwater style of IG. Since the Vraks books, it's Death Korps here and Death Korps there, Google search results have rocketed. Now, combine the cool fluff it with a useful codex, and there you go. Whoever is given GW love will increase in popularity, I think. It'd be great if they spread out their affection more evenly.

Unlike many people I am not a band wagon jumper. All I have ever played are IG and Orks, and Skaven. That is all. There are many out there who pretty much will play whatever army they feel is the strongest. My decision is based on fluff and models. I played both IG and ORKS since 2005.

freddieyu1:

With the advent of Veterans for Troops, I don't think they're any more expensive to purchase than a similar sized Space Marine army. I can't say I've checked the numbers though.

Something to keep in mind; I don't think I would be wrong in saying the internet=/=real life. For all the talk of IG mania online, I'm not convinced they're actually all that common. Besides, are we even 3 months out from the release? People complained the same way about codex: chaos daemons being everywhere right after it's release (and talked about non-stop online), but the number of legitimate players of them has dropped right off as well.

Give it time, we'll see who actually plays 5e guard and who just collects the newest armies.

As I mentioned elsewhere, the last time I poked my head in the Bunker, nearly half of the armies were GEQ Tau. I think there's a lot of love for GEQs, and I'm glad to see it.

Thanks for the great responses guys.

One that I must respond too:

Nurglitch

I'm really glad Imperial Guard are popular: something about having basic human soldiers in the game helps ground the game. Plus, IG vs IG games are really fun, and make great introductory games because units of Guardsmen follow all the basic rules without any huge deviations (Orders excepted, but those can be left out of Platoon vs Platoon intro games anyhow).

Oh I love the IG on IG action... For some reason they are the most fun games to play... Both players know their armies, they know their opponents army... and the fun of trying to out do you friend is just fun to watch...

Oh, so you want to bring the Valkyries this game, fine! I will bring my Hydras! You bring mass platoons, well I bring all vets!

Well at least here that is how it has been so far, and the spirit of the players here has been great. For me it is like playing santa, all the IG players are so jolly!

I think it's the nature of the army to take a cheerful approach to Warhammer: you can't let inconsequential things like massive casualties, abject cowardice in the face of the enemy, and the occasional stray artillery round get you down. When Space Marines let you down, it's disappointing. When Guardsmen let you down, well, plenty more where they came from.

The weird thing that ive noticed in my local area is that some people i never knew had guard suddenly showed up with BIG armies,hordes of them! in the 5000+pts category
The cool thing is that they are the older specialised regiments like old cadia, praetorian, and tallarn which look very odd on todays modern battlefields