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Hey all,

Coming back into the hobby after a six-year hiatus, I inherited a friend's old collection of IG models (lots of OOP metal Kasrkin and Steel Legion!). Due to the lack of vehicles I figured I'd be better off running them in games of kill team rather than regular 40k as I hear you can't take vehicles in kill teams.

Here's what I got off my friend in terms of models alone. If anyone can give me some guidance as to how I should start thinking about building a kill teams list, I would be most appreciative. I've done my best to figure out what units the models would best stand in as (Kasrkins as Tempestors, for example).

Platoon commanders with power swords and plasma pistols (x2)
Tempestor with power sword and hot-shot laspistol (x1)
Tempestus scions with hot-shot lasguns (x6)
Tempestus scion with grenade launcher (x1)
Infantry squad sergeants with chainswords and laspistols (x3)
Infantry squad guardsmen with lasguns (x25)
Infantry squad guardsmen with flamers (x2)
Infantry squad guardsmen with grenade launchers (x3)
Infantry squad guardsmen with vox-casters (x3)
Infantry squad guardsmen with sniper rifles (x2)
Infantry squad guardsman with plasma gun (x1)

The strength of IG is that they can take 8 special weapons, and the weakness is that they will get destroyed in melee. You want as many Scion and HWT gunners as you can take, and preferably with as many plasma guns as possible. Things like hotshot volley guns and grenade launchers are good as well. You also want a Vox caster. Basic Scions and infantry with stock weapons are pretty much a waste of points compared to a model with a heavy or special weapon. Other than that, you can adjust your leader and specialists to your taste and the models you are fielding.

Basic scions are a waste of points but you'll need a few in your roster or you'll be unable to field a 200pt commander team whilst retaining any special weapon flexibility at all.

This might get lengthy, but here goes:

You're not starting at a bad spot, but I'd say that you will want to invest a little to get the most out of the Guard.

As others have said, ideally you want to fill all 8 Gunner slots (4 Scion Gunner, 3 Special Weapons Gunners, 1 Guardsmen Gunner). Your leader should be a standard Sergeant, who should hide as much as possible and still give orders. Always bring a Vox, you'll need it.

Anything beyond that is a choice between Scions and Guardsmen. I prefer Guardsmen as, for one point more than a Scion, I get more shots from an extra body to grab an objective and/or die for the Emperor. However, I wouldn't rule out Scions entirely, especially if you go up against a Marine Kill Team.

Special Weapons are pretty much covered by the above. Plasma and Hot Shot Volley Guns are good versus MEQs, Flamers for armies with low toughness and Armor Save (DO NOT GIVE THESE TO SCIONS), Meltas can be good if you are good at positioning (though, don't expect to have many survive the end of game), and Grenade Launchers are good all-rounders.

From what you've got, if you do want to expand, I'd say find at least 3 more plasma toting Guardsmen (Command Squad and/or the Plasma/Melta metal set on GW's website). I would absolutely recommend you get the Scion Command Squad box and make a plasma Scion (Sniper) and a Volley Gun Scion (Heavy). Then get as much plasma Scion as possible. Anything else is up to you.

EDIT: forgot about Commanders

IMHO, Best Commander for Guardsmen is the Company Commander. Two orders and can be gotten cheap. However, under specific circumstances, Platoon Commander can be as good if not better. I'd take a look at the Strategist specialism; Guard one can be brought cheap. Level 3 Strategist focused on Advisor and Master Tactician, throw on Tactical Planner. Orders and Tactics for everyone!

 Luciferian wrote:
The strength of IG is that they can take 8 special weapons, and the weakness is that they will get destroyed in melee.

Commanders and Pious Vorne have changed this completely

For your sarge loadouts, you almost always want to stick with a chain sword for your melee weapon. You never want your Sargent to be in combat and in the off chance they get charged and don’t die, your extra attack with the chainsword is better than wasting points. For pistols, a bolt pistol is your stock sarge’s free upgrade from their laspistol. On a Tempestor, it generally beats out the hotshots app with better range and strength. A plasma pistol is a better buy on a tempestor, but not the worst way to spend points if you come up one short,

As others said, never waste flamers on scions. Hotshot volley guns are a good utility weapon for scions. Melts guns are generally never worth it.

Bit late to the party but is this the basic gist of what we’re talking here? New to kill team so am currently building towards this. I’ve got two hsvg in the list cause I feel the extra shots will help against larger low toughness lists but I can always swap it out for another plasma gun. The issue with 100 points is that I can only fit in 1 guy giving orders so it becomes risky to overcharge.



++ Kill Team List (Astra Militarum) [100pts] ++

+ Configuration +

List Configuration: Matched Play: Kill Team

+ Leader +

Sergeant [6pts]: Chainsword, Leader, Plasma Pistol

+ Specialists +

Guardsman [10pts]: Comms, Vox Caster

Scion Gunner [13pts]: Heavy, Hot-shot volley gun

Scion Gunner [13pts]: Plasma gun, Sniper

+ Non-specialists +

Guardsman Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun

Scion Gunner [13pts]: Hot-shot volley gun

Scion Gunner [13pts]: Plasma gun

Special Weapons Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun

Special Weapons Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun

Special Weapons Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun

++ Total: [100pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe

teratroopa wrote:
Bit late to the party but is this the basic gist of what we’re talking here? New to kill team so am currently building towards this. I’ve got two hsvg in the list cause I feel the extra shots will help against larger low toughness lists but I can always swap it out for another plasma gun. The issue with 100 points is that I can only fit in 1 guy giving orders so it becomes risky to overcharge.



++ Kill Team List (Astra Militarum) [100pts] ++

+ Configuration +

List Configuration: Matched Play: Kill Team

+ Leader +

Sergeant [6pts]: Chainsword, Leader, Plasma Pistol

+ Specialists +

Guardsman [10pts]: Comms, Vox Caster

Scion Gunner [13pts]: Heavy, Hot-shot volley gun

Scion Gunner [13pts]: Plasma gun, Sniper

+ Non-specialists +

Guardsman Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun

Scion Gunner [13pts]: Hot-shot volley gun

Scion Gunner [13pts]: Plasma gun

Special Weapons Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun

Special Weapons Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun

Special Weapons Gunner [8pts]: Plasma gun

++ Total: [100pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe

Yep, that's about right for a Guard Kill Team. I would only overcharge the Sargeant's Plasma Pistol in an emergency situation (e.g. you'll lose the match or lose your Sargeant otherwise). As far as Hot-Shot Volley Gun versus Plasma, statistically a Volley Gun is only slightly below a Plasma as far as killing Marines are concerned, and obviously better at killing lower toughness stuff. I, however, have found more luck in killing both high and low toughness targets with Plasma, but YMMV.

Awesome thanks mate I’ll have to try out both and see how well it performs for me.

I'm just coming back to the hobby too after about 15 years. Figured I would start with a kill team & go from there. Really like the Imperial Guard, after reading lot of the fiction so am putting a kill team for them. I'm starting with a box of Scions & this thread certainly has changed how I plan on putting them together. Then going to add some standard Guard special weapons team.

However, I know 90% of the kill team my Guard will face will be Tyranids. Does this change any of the plasma heavy advice?

What about flamers?

JDWolf81 wrote:
I'm just coming back to the hobby too after about 15 years. Figured I would start with a kill team & go from there. Really like the Imperial Guard, after reading lot of the fiction so am putting a kill team for them. I'm starting with a box of Scions & this thread certainly has changed how I plan on putting them together. Then going to add some standard Guard special weapons team.

However, I know 90% of the kill team my Guard will face will be Tyranids. Does this change any of the plasma heavy advice?

What about flamers?

I don't have a lot of experience with Guard or Tyranids, but I'll try to help. I am going to largely assume the Tyranid player is going to go with 1 or 2 Lictors or Warriors and probably a whole mess of Hormagaunts as that tends to be one of the scarier Tyranid teams and a pretty good choice vs. Guard since the space bugs will be able to match you model for model fairly easy. In that case, yes, I think a few flamers would be in order. General consensus is to put flamers on you non-scions to keep them cheap and not waste a Scion Gunner slot since they have the better Ballistics Skill. I am not completely sure about this, but I would probably take at least one, probably more, Scion Gunner with a Hot-Shot Volley Gun since that is some pretty good dakka with excellent AP suitable for pretty much any Tyranid you could encounter. I am less sure about taking a Scion or two with a Plasmagun, although; I personally would because I just like plasma weapons. It seems to me the Plasmagun is still a very good weapon since it is Rapid Fire and Tyranids still have access to Lictors and Warriors which could be tough to take down without them. A grenade Laucher might work out since you have your choice of frag/krak and they count as assault so you can really move them around if you don't mind taking pot shots. The frag would probably be fairly useful early game where you might catch a clump of smaller bugs grouped together. The Meltagun could be useful to nuke the big bugs, but at the same time very tricky since you pretty much only one chance due to their short range. I don't really like the odds of that panning out.

I don't know how worthwhile it would be to include a Tempestor with anymore than a chainsword. I could see a Tempestor acting as a sort of interceptor of the smaller Tyranids engaging them in melee. The big problem with this is he isn't allowed any of the better CC specialisms to really make this work and might have a tough time against genestealers or better.

Like I said, I don't have much experience with either faction, so I can't say how sound anything I mention is.

Thanks, think I know what I am going to do with my kill team now... Dont have the models to do all speical weapons so will likely be :

Tempestor (Leader speialist) with plamsa pistol and possible a power sword or fist (I like how the power fist looks on the model) or be sensible and stick with the chainsword

Scoin Gunner with Hot-Shot volley fun (Heavy specialist)
Scion Gunner with Plasma gun (Sniper speialist)

Scion with Vox Caster, Hot-shot lasgun
Scion with hot shot las gun

Speical Weapons Gunner with flamer x 2
Speical Weapons Gunner with Grenade Launcher

Then make up the rest of the points with cannon folder....I mean standrad Guard

Later on I'll likely get some more scion so I can swop out the Scion with the standard hot-shots lasguns for something else.

Also am I right in thinking you can have a leader and then 3 specialists? In which case I need to figure out what other specialist to take.....

Not using all of your gunners is just handicapping yourself. Special weapons can be acquired pretty easily (GW sell packs of meltaguns and plasmaguns).

Definitely go for the fist on the tempestor, it's the only strong melee you've got without adding blackstone units.

Ubber noob here. Was looking at KT as a gentle gateway to 40K. I like the humanest of IG, but from what I'm reading they have a reputation of being super squishy in KT. 1d4 says "models like your Guardsmen are as good as toast - Imperial Guard is noticeably weaker than most other factions, and are generally poorly optimized for Kill Team, lacking any real sort of power unit (apart from Ogryns) and armoured vehicles."

Thoughts?

The individual guys are super squishy but you get more of them and you get to load them up with more special weapons than anyone else.

They are absolutely among the stronger factions.

 Sunsanvil wrote:
Ubber noob here. Was looking at KT as a gentle gateway to 40K. I like the humanest of IG, but from what I'm reading they have a reputation of being super squishy in KT. 1d4 says "models like your Guardsmen are as good as toast - Imperial Guard is noticeably weaker than most other factions, and are generally poorly optimized for Kill Team, lacking any real sort of power unit (apart from Ogryns) and armoured vehicles."

Thoughts?

Thats old KT, where you took full 40k units with restrictions. In new KT you take a lot of units with special weapons and plasma spam is super effective.