Hello and looking for some advice

[larch]

Hello,

I currently play space marines and I am looking at building a Imperial Guard detachment to ally with (with the goal to have it be its own army in time).  Over the years I have acquired some IG stuff here and there and before I get ahead of myself an purchase some stuff I should get a bit focused to begin with.

  I currently have:

-~90 guardsmen with various special weapons
-One leman russ kit (older one that can either be a battle tank or demolisher I think)
-1 heavy weapon squad
-10 old metal stormtroopers and 10 old kasrkrin (which can be used a militarium tempestus)

I currently have a command squad on the to buy list but would like some advice on basically starting an IG army.

Thanks

[emptyhat]

If your main plan is to ally them with your marines then it would help to know what you have for them and what you normally feel you lack, or have trouble with when playing them.

[larch]

I don't really need to ally them but I figured it was a way to play with them without having a all the stuff to make a full list with them.  I guess I am asking for a more general direction to take to build this into a army in its own right.  I like the idea of a troop heavy army with some heavy armour as support.

[emptyhat]

Well in that case you'll want at least 25 men To start with (that would give you 2 veteran squads and an H.Q) but you'll really want 50-100 guard to give you your initial core. Pick up a Leman Russ, these are iconic, good in game, and easy to magnetise. Hellhounds are also yery fun to play.

[Casiarius]

The core of most Imperial Guard lists is the blob... the combined squads of an Infantry Platoon which are buffed up into a mini Death Star with Orders from officers, Psychic blessings (especially Prescience), and buffing characters like Commissars and Priests. Unless you are especially keen on doing something else (a mechanized theme list, for example) you should plan on having at least one good-sized blob of 30-50 men. Fortunately, you already have enough Guardsmen to build one. You'll just need more heavy weapons teams. Most people give their blobs autocannons or lascannons.

Blobs can be equipped for hand-to-hand and advance up their field, but I think their best use to to hang around in cover and hold down your deployment zone. You need mobile troops to take objectives, and Veterans in Chimeras are perfect for that job. Unless you find yourself in dire need of deep strikers, I would use your metal Storm Troopers / Kasrkin as two squads of Veterans with Carapace Armor. Mount them in Chimeras and use them to take objectives.

In general, I would go out shopping for heavy weapons teams as soon as possible, since that's were a lot of the firepower in an infantry Platoon comes from. And of course you need tanks!

[treadiculous]

Quote:


I currently have:

-~90 guardsmen with various special weapons
-One leman russ kit (older one that can either be a battle tank or demolisher I think)
-1 heavy weapon squad
-10 old metal stormtroopers and 10 old kasrkrin (which can be used a militarium tempestus)

I currently have a command squad on the to buy list but would like some advice on basically starting an IG army.


end quote



this is a very good start for a guard army, the command squad will help though I recommend a couple more to give you a few more special weapons and a few more officers.

Heavy weapons teams will be necessary

you can make quite a few heavy weapons teams (9) out of each box if you use the bits correctly:

one lascannon / autocannon on tripod
one missile launcher on a shoulder
one mortar using the bipod

(you will need to find loaders for each, and a body and legs for the missile launcher).


in terms of things mechanised consider air and anti-air as well as transports to help reach (and hold) objectives.

[larch]

Thanks for the help.  So in general another heavy weapons team, and another leman russ tank to get started.  From there start branching out into other mechanized stuff.  A couple of questions about about leman russ tanks, what variants to go with?  I am liking the idea of the executioner and the vanquisher but are they viable?  Also is there a general thought on basalisks? 

[emptyhat]

Executioners are amazing vs TEQ and good vs MEQ, they are also do an ok job against light vehicles. The Vanquisher is considered a lot more iffy because it is a BS3 shot, in the past consensus has been to either put Pask on it as an upgrade or leave it at home. I think that tank orders have shifted things a little bit now but it isn't a tank I use.

I do use basilisks though, those are really good. St 9 Ap 3 templates and a range long enough that you can always fire along with indirect fire means that you should always have targets. Unless I'm mistaken barrage means that when you are hitting vehicles you'll be hitting side armour, that and the extra point of strength vs the battle cannon on a standard Leman Russ means that it is a much better vehicle wrecker. The revised vehicle damage table for 7th does take away the chance of non-open topped vehicles from exploding but it should be very reliable at stripping hull points off of anything that is under the template when the dice are cast. It will also muller pretty much any infantry that doesn't have a 2+ save or is in cover and 7th edition means that the template is no longer restricted to only being able to hit the top level of ruins.

It is pretty fragile though, but that's why it is cheaper than a Russ, it is a glass cannon but one that you can hide out of LOS.

[Casiarius]

The more heavy weapons teams the merrier. You should use the maximum number of them in your Infantry Platoons. Even command squads can be used as heavy weapons teams that just happen to have some extra wounds and special weapons. I even give my melta vets heavy weapons because the cost of the weapon is trivial next to the up-front cost of the squad, and it can frequently pay for itself in one shot.
As treadiculous points out, there are various ways to increase the number of weapons teams you get from a box of miniatures. I do think that having the crews kneel looks best, but you can buy those legs as bits and there are some third-party companies that make kneeling legs.

I like the Executioner. It can blow itself up with "Gets Hot!" rolls, but it's not as extreme as some people make it out to be. With plasma cannon sponsons, it will inflict about 0.42 hull points of damage on itself per turn. Definitely viable, given the absolute carnage it can inflict on heavy infantry.

The Vanquisher does miss a lot. Pask is a good choice since he does have additional anti-tank special rules, but even a generic Tank Commander will make it BS 4. You can also use a psyker to hit it with Prescience when you absolutely need to kill that enemy super-heavy (and then he can go back to buffing your infantry blob). An Infantry Platoon combined into a blob and given Prescience and "Bring it Down!" orders can take out very heavy targets, so the Vanquisher is not really critical. It's also worth noting that AP2 weapons like the Vanquisher Cannon or Lascannons still only have a 1-in-6 chance to cause instant death to vehicles. For some targets you just really want melta weapons.

We recently had a thread that discussed the Basilisk and alternatives.