Getting started with the Imperial Guard:
Okay, I’m the guy who plays Guard. I’ve spent too much damn money, and get my ass kicked, but I do read about them a lot and I’ve at least played a few games. Let’s get started.
What regiment/army are you thinking about playing? Are you going to play one of the established ones? Cadians, Catachans, Moridans, Tallarns, Steel Legion, Death Korps of Krieg, or Elysian drop troops? Keep in mind, only Cadians and Catachans are made in plastic, and DKoK and the drop troops are made by Forge World. I hope you’re made of money. Are you going to create your own regiment? Or, maybe go for some traitor Guard? Kit bashing could make these possible and awesome.
Speaking of being made of money, the Guard doesn’t do anything by halves. “Go big, or go home” is a phrase I’d use to describe buying stuff for the Guard. The Guard can put out a lot of guys, a lot of vehicles and pretty much fill up a board with models. 100+ troops in one unit, 9 tanks, 9 artillery pieces, 9 Sentinels, and Chimeras for everyone! This costs a lot of money. I strongly advise you come up with a plan for your army before you buy things. Also, hit up eBay and online stores, so you can stretch that dollar that you’ve foolishly decided to spend on little plastic space men.
Continuing this line of thought, let’s talk about the army you want to build. There are two major schools of thought for the Guard: horde and mechanized.
Horde means filling the board with as many guys as you can. The Guard can fit more troops into a troops slot than the Orks. I believe that they can put more guys in one slot then any other army in the game. That’s pretty powerful. As the Guard is a mostly ‘shooty’ army, you try to overwhelm the enemy with quantity of shots, not exactly quality of shots. Combine this with orders and the ability to take a ton of special weapons, and you can cause a lot of damage. However, it should be said that this tactic has drawbacks. Assaults, out-flanking, deep striking and vehicles can really ruin this army. Oddly enough, using some special characters and some other units, this army style can be turned into a melee monster. No joke.
The other major school of thought is the mechanized Guard. By taking veteran trooper squads, you can make a smaller force that packs a lot of special weapons. Combine this with the ability to take a Chimera with every squad, and you can see where this is going. Some people want to take as many squadrons of Valkyries/Vendettas as you can and put the squads as you can. If you want to be a real dick, take minimum amount of troops and HQ, then as many tanks as you can. This is a ‘dick move’ and I will never talk to you if you do this. This army style may be a good idea, if you want to run one of the all-metal armies.
Okay, let’s begin a breakdown of the codex:
Starting with your HQ, you’ve got some interesting options.
Company Command Squad.
The command squad is very versatile. You can make them into a close-combat unit, an anti-tank unit, anti-infantry unit, or a jack-of-all-trades unit. With the upgrade characters, you can totally change your army. With advisors, you can screw around with reserves and make sure your officer won’t die quickly.
Lord Commissar.
The Lord Commissar is an independent character, with the normal commissar abilities, plus a few others. With his stats, he can hold his own in close combat, and provide a boost to any unit he joins. The Lord Commissar is the only way to give one to a veteran unit a commissar.
Commissar Yarrick
Commissar Yarrick is one of the few stand-alone special characters in the codex. He’s got a whole bunch of special rules, and is one tough son of a bitch. I haven’t used him, but I’ve heard he can be a good unit for a melee army.
Primaris Psyker
Another unit I haven’t used, but does have some good powers. Lighting Arc isn’t great, but could cause havoc against another Guard army, or against Orks. Nightshroud looks decent, and could protect an important unit on its way to where it can do the most good.
Priests
Priests are something you can take without taking up a slot. Considering what they do, this is awesome. For 45 points, you can re-roll close combat attacks. Perfect for most armies. Add the Eviscerator, with that sweet, sweet AP boost, and I can see many an army using these guys.
Techpriests
Another non-slot unit, these guys are damn near required for a mechanized army. They can repair vehicles. With their little servitor buddies, they have a pretty good chance to pull it off. Lots of power fist hits coming from this unit.
Moving on to Elites;
Ogryns
It’s a shame these guys cost so much now. A decent close combat unit, with some fun fluff, I’d really like to use them. But, with a point cost of 130, I’m not finding the points for them. I’ve heard a Yarrick/Ogryn combo is pretty good, but that’s a huge point total. Also, they’re metal, so they cost a lot, money wise.
Rattlings
These little buggers look pretty awesome. Stealth and sniper rifles is a very good combination. The only drawback is their low leadership, but there’s not much to be done about that. I’d put them in cover, with a good field of fire and just plink away at whatever comes in range.
Psyker Battle squad
Okay. There are only metal models for these guys. That’s why you won’t see a lot of them on the board. If they made a plastic box for them, I’d have a unit of them. They can wreak havoc, just like their HQ cousin, but they drop like flies. The Weaken Resolve power, combine with Rattlings, that can make units flee off the board like nothing else out there.
Storm trooper squad
I have a unit of these guys. I’ve only used them once. They cost as much as Space Marines, with worse armor and weapon skills. However, they can have a dramatic effect in the game. They can re-roll deep strike, or infiltrate, or have the scout rule. With the ability to take two special weapons, I’d like to deep strike a small unit, with two flamers. It’s a throw-away unit, but they might do some major damage before being killed.
Guardsman Marbo
This is our second non-upgrade character. I haven’t used him, but most people use him as a one-shot demo charge. He’s decent in melee, with a poison weapon, has a demo charge and a sniper pistol, and can appear anywhere on the board, as long as it’s over 1” away from an enemy unit. All this can be yours for 65 points.
And, we get started on Troops. Remember, you need two troops for most battles
Infantry Platoon
The infantry platoon is composed of the following ‘sub-units’ each of which can operate independently. 1 command squad, 2-5 infantry squads, 0-5 heavy weapons squads, 0-2 special weapon squads, and 0-1 conscript squads. Yeah. You can add commissars to the command squad and each infantry squad, as well as give them chimeras. Each infantry squad can take a special weapon and a heavy weapon. Just think about how many lascannons you can put in just one platoon. This is where to go for a horde army.
Veteran Squad
The Veteran squad is the backbone of the mechanized army. They can take three special weapons and one heavy weapon, can take doctrines, which can give them better armor, camo cloaks or melta bombs. They can also take a chimera. They can also shoot better then the regular joes above. The downside is the small unit size, and crappy armor.
Penal Legion squad
Ever wanted an army of the most vicious criminals the Imperium has to offer? Well, here you are. I’ve never used these guys, but they can be a good close-combat unit. Mind you, you’ll randomly get a boost from a roll, but they all help in close combat. This is also one of the few units that can’t take a chimera.
Moving on to Fast Attack
Sentinel Squadrons
For the sake of simplicity, I’m just going to roll scout and armored Sentinels into one entry. Scout Sentinels have the Scout rule, allowing them to out-flank. They can carry multi-lasers, autocannons, heavy flamers and lascannons. Armored Sentinels loose the Scout rule, but get +1 to their front armor. They can also carry plasma cannons. I have a bunch of these, but not for any tactical reason, I just like them. However, they can be used to come in from the side and harass enemy transports and cause all sorts of minor mayhem. But, think of them as speed bumps. There’s a lot better units in fast attack, as you’ll see.
Rough Rider Squad
Okay, in the world of Warhammer 40k, they use cavalry. And, as I’m sure you can imagine, it doesn’t work all that well. They can do some awesome things, but it just doesn’t justify the point cost. Oh, and you have to buy them one at a time. Plus, they’re metal models. I imagine you could do some conversions, but I just don’t see the point.
Hellhound Squadron
There are three different types of Hellhounds: a flamer one, a melta one, and a poison one. With the ability to take three in a squadron, you can put out a lot of these suckers. The flamer one is great for hordes, the melta one is good for anti-tank, and the poison one has AP 3, wounds on a 2+. That’s a marine killer. Plus, they’re not too expensive, 100-130 points each.
Valkyrie/Vendetta Squadrons
Again, to keep things simple, I’ve combined these two units in one entry. They both have Scout, Deep Strike, Grav Chute Insertion, as well as being fast skimmers. Yep, 24” movement a turn. For 30 points more, you can use Vendettas, which have 3 twin linked lascannons, making a perfect tank hunting unit. Combined with a transport capacity of 12 models, a lot of people use them for hauling around veteran squads packing 3 Meltaguns.
And, finally, Heavy Support…..
Leman Russ Squadron
The Leman Russ squadron can be made up of any three of the following variants; Leman Russ Battle Tank, Exterminator, Vanquisher, Eradicator, Demolisher, Punisher, and Executioner. You can also take sponsons, hull mounted weapons, and pintle mounted weapons. The Russ can also fire its turret weapon, in addition to other weapons it can fire, EVEN IF THE WEAPON IS ORDINANCE! Keep in mind, some of these variants aren’t the best (the Punisher comes to mind), and if you stack the thing with weapons, it’s going to get expensive.
Hydra Flak Tank Battery
The Hydra Flak Tank could be pretty badass, except for the fact that GW hasn’t made a model for it. Long distance autocannons, twin linked, that can cut through skimmer’s cover saves, I wish they made reasonable way to convert them.
Ordinance Battery
This is your chance to get some long-range ordinance weapons. They include, the Basilisk, the Medusa, the Colossus and the Griffon. Each has their advantages, with the Basilisk has the longest range, the Medusa can smash armor, the Colossus can ignore cover saves and the Griffon has a shorter range, but is way cheaper.
Manticore Rocket Launcher
One of the two units in this section that doesn’t come in a squadron, the Manticore only has four rockets it can fire. But, they have the following profile: Range: 24”-120” S:10 AP:4 Ordinance, Barrage D3, Large Blast. Not bad, but I’d rather have a slot for three tanks.
Death Strike Missile Launcher
Again, only one vehicle in this slot. But, this thing is a monster. It randomly fires its gigantic missile, and when it does, things go ‘boom.’ If I were made of money, I’d buy a few of these and use them in Apocalypse games.
Whew. That took forever. I didn’t do a complete detailed run-down, because that would take even longer. Maybe I’ll be doing that another time. This is just a guide for the units that are out there, and what I see. I strongly advise you to read other sources online.
In conclusion, I’ll give the basic advice: Buy the codex, read the codex, play a game or three, then plan out what kind of army you want to run. I’d strongly advise you to pick up the battleforce, unless you’re going to use one of the metal armies. Build a 500 point army, then paint it. I can’t stress that last part enough. Just look at my previous entry. Once you’ve done that, proxy the units you’re thinking about using. Once you’re sure of what you want to buy, hit up eBay, craigslist and online stores, and get what you need.
For the Emperor!
