How to purchase your Guard army. (for those who don't know what to buy)

[Jakester]

Why are you guys encouraging people to buy the Codex? Worst advice yet, since you can download them on torrent sites for free. I have all the Codexes for all races, and I didn't spend a penny on them.

Umm, we are encouraging people to buy the Codex, because downloading them is a little thing called STEALING, and thats kinda frowned upon in this society.

Aside from that little tibit of dumb on this thread, I have to admit that that is some nice advice for new players.

[Commisarlestat]

First off I didn't encourage to buy, however I would say to buy it. The hardcopy is a lot better and easier to use also as already mentioned downloading it is illegal and as an honest LO member I do not encourage illegal activities. Also to be honest you can get a copy if you ask around for a couple of quid so its not exactly expensive.

As for the kasrkin. They are a specialist troop type I created this as a help for a basic starter with non doctrines. They also have some extrememyl bad qualities (I used to wipe the board when playing against my mates grenadier army and he was experienced)

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[H.R.K!!]

This may not be the correct thread for this question, I'm new, anywho, does anyone know where i can find priest models with eviscerators? I've seen em in DH codex n other places but cant get my grubby little hands on the buggers! Any ideas?!?

[Sartorious]

There have been many threads asking about what to get to start a guard army so I decide that I would create this thread so that people had an idea what to buy and when. (could it be stickied if there is enough interest, thankyou)


I could add how to collects for other troop types such as metal and catachans if people really wish aswell. I could also extend this into the mech purchases infantry purchases and balanced purchases though I think most areas of this are now covered.

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I have only been playing 40k for maybe a year, and in that time have spent far more time modeling then actually playing, so i am still shaky on the mechanics. I am about to make the change from Battle Sisters to the Vostroyan Firstborn and intend on assembling a 2000 pt. army.
I wonder, if it was you, how you would go about it, beginning at the beginning.
Thanks so much for your help.

[Commisarlestat]

Ok, first things first check the ally rules. This will help you get the vostroyans on the tabel ASAP because you can bulk their force out with sisters.

When collecting vostroyans there are a few things to keep in mind.
Firstly the standard box setup is stupid, flamer and heavy bolter who thought of that!!??
Secondly they are very hard to convert so officers and such like can't be made cheaply. Having said that the sargeants in the regiemnt boxed sets are perfectly adequate JO's so lets go....

To start you need a list and I'd say go for a 400 point army.
At first you may be tempted by the command box which has some very nice figures in it. Don't buy this yet. The easiest way to think of 400 points is a platoon with an extra squad for the command. so

JO mortar carapace

platoon
JO w/ 2 flamers carapace
squad with plasma and heavy bolter, carapace
squad with grenade launcher and heavy bolter, carapace

This initial purchase will set you up with a platoon and a command whcih can be used for the main command or the second platoon at a later stage.

This little lot will be 340 points, a sentinel would fit in there nicely to bring you up to 395 if you gave it a lascannon.

now this list is not the greatest but it means all you need to buy is three regiment boxed sets, an officers blister, a special weapons blister, a mortar, and a sentinel.

This will set you up with a nice rounded force and leave you with 2 men, a sarge, a heavy bolter and a flamer. (that is another command squad or a vet squad already but hold on for a moment).

When you wish to expand the army to 1000 points think what you felt the army lacked. Was it mobility (firepower isn't really an issue but still) or simply you want a bigger army.
There are several ways to go from here.
A lot of Vostroyan armies I've seen have got a few tanks (perhaps because the infantry is expensive) so consider at least one of these.
At the next level then you need to add a second troops choice.

either a chimera and another regiment boxed set (with the flamer swapped out for a normal guy or the heavy bolter for two normal guys)
or another platoon which means two more boxes and another special weapons blister. That will create a replica platoon to the first (the command can be created from the remnants of the third regiment box)

now in support a second sentinel always goes well, a lascannon on this one as well (this will mena mobile anti armour and you will avoid having to buy the expensive lascannons). A russ woudl also fit in well with this additional sentinel.

Say you go for the Armoured fist, that woudl be another 388 points leaving a gap of 217 points. this means you could geta lot more. However I suggest before those new purchases use sisters to fill up the last few points. Use soemthing fast and then some sisters in a rhino as backup for the armoured fist squad.
This will mean you get to play with as little purchasing as possible.
Once you have used this for a while ask the question of what is missing again. Then swap out the sisters for a few more men or another tank or two. build up inthis way and you wont go to far wrong.

Key things to remember:
1. Think of where to put your flamers (as you cant afford not to buy them), platoon command squads and remanant squads are the only to really viable choices although special weaposn squads can be used in a pinch.
2. sarges and officers are interchangeable
3. vehicles stop the high carapace points eating in to your army too far.

Good luck

Hope that helped

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[LordSolarMech12]

Yeah i'm getting into warhammer 40k and i have chosen the imperial gaurd as my army. I think they rule all! I'm a little hazy on how to get started. I see all these different grps like steel legion and catachans and vosotrans etc. What codex do I follow and what are these doctrines i keep seeing? Can i field daemonhunters and witch hunters with IG? Should I wait till the new imperial guard codex comes out as well as the new warhammer 40k one? Please any info would help. Plus i got to whoops my friends butt int his game. He knows so much more than me and his space marine army already rocks! Thank you

[Commisarlestat]

Ok,

Well the codex for all troops is the imperial guard codex. The main one. The different troops are merely different uniforms a bit like the different craftworlds or tyranid broods or tau septs. I'm sure you get the idea simply pick whcih models you prefer.

However, although not tournie legal the catachan codex is still around and i think it is still possibly on the GW website ready to download. It is fairly specialist and tbh should only be used with catachans.

With model choice the cadians are the cheapest and best supported int he stores. The steel legiona dna other metal varieties are either extremely difficult to get hold of or have a few of the different special or heavy weapons missing fromt heir ranges. Catachans are a pretty complete range but the models are an aquired taste.

The Doctrines are all in the codex. They are similar to space marine traits in that they change a few things in your list for selection or play. There are some which are good and some bad. Most are fluffy though and can make interesting forces. If you dont have the codex it is a bit hard to explain without telling you the rules (which we cant do for legal reasons) so keep this in mind for when you have your codex.

The ally rules are something I'm not completely familiar with however I understand it as follows.
You can ally either witch hunters OR grey knights to your guard army not both at the same time.
Secondly if they become the main army you lose some of the benefits in the guard codex such as doctrines.
As for the exact units there should be a thread explaining that somewhere. The rules are printed in the respective codex.
Essentially if you wish to have them as allies then buy their codex as well and it will tell you how to sort it all out (you will need that codex any way if you wish to play their troops!)

Waiting for the codex doesnt seem worthwhile IMO. perhaps buying a second hand copy off of ebay (make sure you get the latest edition though!) might be a good idea if you are worried about shelling out for soemthing that will soon be obselete. As far as that soon is concerned the new main rules will come out later this year and then the codex a while after that next year sometime probably. If I were you I'd buy the codex and wait for the new rules. Then you can build your army list and tweak it at the last moment.

As for winning against marines played by someone experienced you may be out of luck. guard are a fairly difficult army to become good with when compared to marines. essentially you want to build an anti MEQ list so keep your eyes out for those words. Weapons wise missile and plamsa in squads or a coupel of heavy bolter and plasma squads will work. If they have transports then get autocannons.

So to sum up. Do get a copy of the current codex, borrow your friends rule book for now. write an anti MEQ list using the current codex. In the list if you wish to use doctrines do ask if you get confused.

Hope that helps

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[Commissar Grimsson]

Thank you so much this has been a great help. Keep it up Commisarlestat! :party:

[jh316]

Just did a fun little conversion earlier, it works out pretty well. You take that little plastic thing that holds together 4 bases, know what I mean? You can saw off the bottom peg of a heavy weapon (the part that attaches to the tripod), and put a lot of glue onto the bottom of it and the top of that plastic part. It's not easy, you've really got to hold the weapon on there for a while for the glue to take because of the small surface area. But once it dries, it's a perfectly serviceable quadpod. I find it works best with lascannons because the attached power pack acts as a stabilizer. Using that, you can use all of the heavy weapons. Use the sandbags to glue one on using the 60mm base, the tripod to mount a second, the plastic bit for a third, and then the mortar and missile launcher get their own parts.

[Commisarlestat]

You might find that you woudl get a stronger attachment if you pinned it. Either drill a hole into the quad bit big enough for the peg on the bottom of the weapon or cut off the peg and drill a small hole in botha dn insert a small piece of wire.

Hope that helps

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