Imperial Guard Perhaps?

[Luke the Squig]

Having collected IG for around 3 years now and have played with them for around 10 games, I've got a pretty good idea of how they play.

Generally, with IG, the troops are dirt cheap and very expendable. Consequently, this means you've gotta have a lot of them. If you want to field a normal Infantry Squad, then you have to have what's known as an Infantry Platoon. Basically a mini army in itself. In an Infantry Platoon, you must have: 1 platoon command squad and 2 infantry squads. You have the option of having: an additional 3 infantry squads, up to 3 (I think!) heavy weapons squads, up to 3 (I think!) special weapons squads and up to 2 conscripts squads (basically Junior Learners). The absolute minimum points then for an infantry platoon is 130 (one 30pts for the command squad and two 50pts for your two compulsory infantry squads), bearing in mind that this would mean no vox-casters, no special weapons or anything. 130pts for 20 men and a 5-man command squad ain't half bad then. Unfortunatley, this only counts for one troops choice (out of your compulsory two), so it then means that you must have two of these platoons! Mind you, though, 260pts for 40 men and two 5-man command squads ain't half bad, either!

What you could do as an alternative (and a great money-saver!) is just use veteran squads, as you can have them on their own, and they're only 70pts for 10, all with BS 4!. What I tend to do for my Troops choices is have one inftantry platoon with absolutely no upgrades (to save points for tanks), then have a Veteran Squad (for the other choice) with the Grenadiers attatchment which gives them a 4+ save instead of 5+, for 30 extra points. That should then take up your Troops choices. All in all, that comes to:
Infantry Platoon:
Platoon Command Squad - 30pts
(no attatchments)

Infantry Squad 1 - 50pts
(no attatchments)

Infantry Squad 2 - 50pts
(no attatchments)

And then...

Veteran Squad - 70pts
Carapace armour (4+) - 30pts

All in all that comes to just 230pts, and that is 20 normal men, a command squad and 10 veterans. Good value!


After saving all those points for tanks, lets see what we can get. My personal favourites are the manticore and the leman russ battle tank. I have tried many more of the tanks, but I have found that these two have served me the best, as even things as tough as Chaos Space Marines don't get a save (double their Toughness value). For the Leman Russ, I only ever use the normal Battle Tank, as it is only 150pts standard, but has the potential to take out masses in one blast. I upgraded mine to have to heavy stubber, side sponsons of Heavy Bolters and a Lascannon at the front. I believe that it comes to around 185pts, and for that you have an infantry micer (Heavy Bolters), a tank killer (Lascannon) and the mother of all heavy infantry killers (Big Mamma). Onto the Maticore Missle Launcher. This thing needs absolutely nothing (unless you wabt to pimp it up a little) as it can just sit in a corner with a line of infantry around it for protection (it has Ordnance Barrage so it can shoot over the top of them) and shoot 120" over to the other end of the board, instantly killing Terminators with a Strength 10 Large Blast weapon. Mmmmm... Chicken.

So, yeah that's pretty much all you need to know to get started off, unless you're thinking of getting a really special leader for your force which (for me) is an easy choice every time: Good old Commisar Yarrick. He is truly invincible in a squad of Veterans!

So, yeah, anyway, hoped this helped you with your first choices fo IG .

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Ratling Snipers are always good, too .