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New to the Imperial Guard

2K views 22 replies 9 participants last post by  Marnepup 
#1 ·
Hi there, I'm new to the Imperial Guard, I recently bought an army off of Ebay and I've tried it out a couple of times but didn't have much success. :( I've never properly played with or against an Imperial Guard army so I'd appreciate any of you who can give advice on not only building balanced lists but in how to utalise units to their potential.
I've got Eldar and Grey Knight armies but Imperial Guard is a whole new kettle of fish to me. So I'd like the opinon on you guys who are experienced in the use of the army.

What works well together?

What doesn't work at all?

Are their units I should utalise a lot of and ones I should more or less avoid? (I'm very used to the fact that on paper something can look fantastic but sometime using them is another matter entirly.)

Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
can you please post your list? just to see how to fix it properly :D

generally speaking, do not use medipacks, platoon standards, mortars, sponsons on leman russes.
Combine your infantry squads to max effectiveness and least kill points.
Always give them a special weapon when possible
Split heavy weapons from dedicated teams to infantry squads to get more models to kill instead of your precious gun.
Do not waste the free bs4 of your CCS guards (this means no flamers or grenade launchers)

that's the mst general advice i can give you :)
 
#4 ·
I'll add a few thoughts, and these are very general:

Typical infantry squad load out is grenade launcher/autocannon.
Typical veteran squad load out is 3 of melta/plasma.
No sponsons on tanks.
If you want to use artillery, Medusas and Manticores are your best bet.
Voxes are generally not worth it (certain circumstances may warrant a vox network, but even then, one vox per infantry blob will suffice)
Lord Commissars, Ogryns, Rough Riders and Techpriests are generally not worth their points
Vendettas are undercosted by 40 points or so
Hellhounds with a multimelta are great
Marbo is a great choice for smaller point games (>1000 pt battles)
Autocannons are great transport destroyers

I hope this helps. I realize these are VERY general rules, and specific circumstances may warrant the use of a particular character/loadout. These are just rules of thumb I've gleaned from these forums and similar places.

Good luck!
 
#5 ·
Well for the time being rule of thumb is kinda what I'm wanting. I like to have an idea of where to go with things and I can usually manage by myself but the guard (Particularly the troops) have such an array of options it was kinda hard to get my head round it.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, once I get some spare time I will load the list of what I actually have up here and we can go into more specific formations/combinations of units.

Cheers! :)
 
#6 ·
I'm a noob, too, but to me a Bane wolf would be better than a Hellhound for tank hunting, just back it up with an infantry blob. Basilisks are great for artillery bombardments. Executioners with lascannons make great tank-hunters, and platoons are the way to go...don't forget your HW teams, though.
 
#7 ·
I disagree on pore points in this post than the number of rows it has. nice one :D

1. you don't go tank hunting with an hellhound. Or at least, it is not its primary role. And how do you back a FAST tank with a SLOW infantry blob? :/
2. basilisk are great in APOC games, not so much on regular ones. Other artillery batteries are better depending on the case. Anyway, manticores > basiliks 99% of the time
3. executioner isn't a great tank hunter even if you give it lascannons. the thank hunter is the vanquisher, but it is not that good either. if you can, go vanilla or demolisher.


that's it :D
 
#8 ·
The reason the Hellhound stands out is the range. It's a template weapon but it's range is extended, as per the codex. With a hull multimelta, it CAN go tank hunting if it needs to, but that's not it's main role. The problem with a Bane Wolf, in my opinion, is the blast on the turret weapon. Unless you roll a direct hit (1/3 chance) or a scatter of less than 3 (1/12 chance) for a combined 61.1% miss chance, you'll completely miss many smaller targets (dreadnoughts, sentinels, raiders). Granted, if you're firing at a Land Raider or another large target, that's a different story. I'd leave the dedicated tank hunting to melta vets, CCS/PCS with meltas or something similar.

I'd stay away from a basilisk personally. It's range limitations are prohibitive, and if you're going to be firing directly, you'd be better off with a Medusa.

Platoons are a viable option, but HWTs are very vulnerable to S6 fire, as they can be instagibbed rather easily.

As far as Executioners go, most folks use them as anti TEQ (terminator equivalent) fire. Firing at tanks has the same limitations as the Bane Wolf, as mentioned above. So if you're wanting a lot of AP2 fire, an Executioner can be a good choice.
 
#12 ·
The reason the Hellhound stands out is the range. It's a template weapon but it's range is extended, as per the codex. With a hull multimelta, it CAN go tank hunting if it needs to, but that's not it's main role. The problem with a Bane Wolf, in my opinion, is the blast on the turret weapon. Unless you roll a direct hit (1/3 chance) or a scatter of less than 3 (1/12 chance) for a combined 61.1% miss chance, you'll completely miss many smaller targets (dreadnoughts, sentinels, raiders). Granted, if you're firing at a Land Raider or another large target, that's a different story. I'd leave the dedicated tank hunting to melta vets, CCS/PCS with meltas or something similar.
First off, the Banewolf has the AP3 Chem Cannon. The Anti-Tank Hellhound variant is the Devil Dog.

If you do the math, the Devil Dog is only about 1/2 as good at hunting transports as a Vendetta. For the same points, I can get 2/3rds of a Vendetta's AT performance out of 3 Scout Sentinels with Autocannons. But the Sentinels have better deployment options and can move through cover reliably. Not to mention the ability to tarpit certain kinds of threats.
 
#13 ·
The Devil Dog is a bit of an odd tank, imo. It can serve as both anti-tank and anti-heavy infantry, but since Guard so rarely have a problem with heavy infantry (and heavy tanks, for that matter, given our plethora of melta options) it often (and to be honest, wisely in most cases) gets overlooked in favor of the Hellhound.
 
#16 ·
So then give me an idea of just how many tanks I should be fielding at certain point levels? 500pts, 1000pts, 1500pts, 2000pts? I feel I can field around 8 tanks at 1500 pts, 4 chimeras 4 lemon russ.

Also I was looking at the codex and had a thought-

And Infantry platoon must consist of 1 platoon command and 2 infanty units. Both of these types of squad can take chimeras, if you leave them as one unit and give each squad a chimera does that mean that all three chimeras now make a squadron or do you need to split off the squads into seperate units to use them?
 
#17 ·
So then give me an idea of just how many tanks I should be fielding at certain point levels? 500pts, 1000pts, 1500pts, 2000pts? I feel I can field around 8 tanks at 1500 pts, 4 chimeras 4 lemon russ.
That's very dependent on your play style. A mostly infantry force might only have 4-6 tanks at 2K, while an all-mech force might have as many as 15. There's no one right answer. My own 2K list has 6 Chimeras, 2 Russes, 2 Vendettas, and 3 Sentinels.

Russes as a rule should be a SUPPORT choice, not something that you focus on. The reason being that Russes don't have good duality. Meaning that they favor one kind of target over another.

And Infantry platoon must consist of 1 platoon command and 2 infanty units. Both of these types of squad can take chimeras, if you leave them as one unit and give each squad a chimera does that mean that all three chimeras now make a squadron or do you need to split off the squads into seperate units to use them?
If you do that you can either deploy each squad separately in it's own Chimera, or you can deploy the blob and leave the Chimeras empty. There is no way to transport a blob outside of some of the Apocalypse super-heavies.
 
#18 ·
So, I posted a while back, and as a noob, I made some serious mistakes. As far as tanks go, unless you're running at least one Vet. squad with meltas (which give you less flexibility) I would say get at least one armoured squad out, be it armoured sentinels (very point-effective if taken in full squadrons with autocannons or a mix of autocannon and lascannon, just dont stick with the ML, as it is only effective agains DE, Tau, & Eldar tanks), or be it a Leman Russ with HB sponsons, a lascanon, and a BC.

Edit: as a rule of thumb, for every 700 points of infantry, get a tank.
 
#19 ·
So, I posted a while back, and as a noob, I made some serious mistakes. As far as tanks go, unless you're running at least one Vet. squad with meltas (which give you less flexibility) I would say get at least one armoured squad out, be it armoured sentinels (very point-effective if taken in full squadrons with autocannons or a mix of autocannon and lascannon, just dont stick with the ML, as it is only effective agains DE, Tau, & Eldar tanks), or be it a Leman Russ with HB sponsons, a lascanon, and a BC.Edit: as a rule of thumb, for every 700 points of infantry, get a tank.
Holy necroposting batman!
 
#20 ·
Above all try to keep your units cheap so when you lose something it won't be a great loss. Also try to give them all power to take down armor and infantry alike so when you lose something you will always have more. Most of all make sure they have the same weapons.
 
#21 ·
and run in layers instead of single units. A single blob of 40 infantry is much less durable than 2 of 20 and MUCH less flexible. same call for 4 of 10, now that KPs aren't much of an issue.
 
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