Starting guard,interested in a Mechanised force.

[Deleted]

So today i picked up the Imperial Guard codex,and had a flick through it,reading the fluff(which i found suprsingly short!) and the doctrine system.

What stood out was the Mechanised doctrine.
I really like the idea of having most of my guys packed into Chimera's,ready to re-deploy and race to objectives.

I need help deciding what i should use in the army.And please bear in mind this will be my first Guard army,and i'm finding the list a little more complex then your average marines!

What other doctrines work well with mechanised?
For an infantry Platoon,do all 2-5 squads have to take a chimera each,or just one squad of the platoon?

I will be facing Tyranids as my main opponent!
So how do Mech lists fare against the great devourer?

Any advice in general would be really helpful,so thanks for reading!

Also if anyone knows of any pictures of other Mechanised armies,please shar them with me!

[Deleted]

greetings fellow commander! have lots to tell you about the doctrines(mech especially) system and lists.

a) ALL must be in chimeras if u use mechanized doctrine.even the HQ's heavy weapon squads!
advice:do not use heavy weapon squads, they will force u to get too many chimeras so no points for anything serious.just put heavy weapons on your normal squads.

advice about an rmy employing mechanized doctrine:
1)sure, chimeras are expensive.sure, as transports they do not help the IG as much as other armies(from their own transports). but what everyone forgets about them, which is VERY playtest-true, is:
-they are a mobile pillbox when not redeploying troops. they give mobility to the squad, while said squad CAN (important) fire from within due to lasguns, and even use the hatch to fire some meltagun while on the move!
-between 12 lasgun shots from its six lasguns, 3 from a heavy bolter or a multilaser, 1 from a spec weapon of the inside squad, 3 from a possible heavy stubber, and the use of a heavy flamer(if the enemy doesnt get close enough for u to use the flamer, all the better for the guard!!!) the chimera makes a mockery of enemy infantry. 2 chimeras are about as good anti-infantry as a hellhound, if not better. and 4-5 chimeras against nids... poor creatures...
-if u hide its sides, the front is AV12! a light transport with AV12 'nough said.

2) mechanized armies, because they rarely include heavy weapons squads with lascannons and the likes, usually lack anti-tank. Trick: your squads inside the chimeras can get meltaguns and lascannons too (though one of each).do it, it's not like u lack anti-infantry, so why pick any other type of heavy weapon or spec weapon other than lascannon/meltagun(or plasmagun maybe)?

3)doctrines that work well with mechanized doctrine:
a) iron discipline doctrine. in your 2 officers will prevent your squads from running away for very few points total.
b) stromtrooper squads doctrine. 2 squads of 5 with deep strike and meltaguns are both mobile enough and kill tanks easilly.cheaper than a russ, both of them are.(note:they not guard infantry, they do not need a chimera too)
c) ogryns doctrine. though not to my liking, inside a chimera they can reach the enemy easilly, and they have 3 s6 attacks on the charge each!

in general, a mechanized list needs 2 command squads(one hq, one for obligatory platoon), 3 infantry squads(2 for platoon, 1 for armoured fist) and 5 chimeras, one for each unit.though this might seem alot of points, it is only about 1000 points total even with tooled-up chimeras and squads(lascannons, melta/plasma and the like). then u can either get 3 leman russ(u actually have enough points for that) or 2 russes and either the 2 stormtrooper squads with melta/deep strike or 4-5 ogryns and a cheap chimera(depending how you want to equip your army, but i advise the stormtroopers for the massive anti-tank punch). if u reread that, u will see the army has 5-6 infantry-fighting transports and 2-3 heavy tanks(yes, u read correctly, 7-8 tanks total) and well-equipped infantry with all spec weapon/heavy weapons options taken.that's how i'd do it anyway, but feel free to adjust that to your playstyle.

enjoy your imperial guard!!!

[Deleted]

note: each infantry platoon(the troops choice) must have a command squad and 2-5 infantry squads.yup, a second command squad, obligatory, not just 2-5 infantry squads alone. and all must take chimeras.

as i said, even the heavy weapons squads of the hq platoon need chimeras if taken.
exact same with heavy weapons platoons.i have given u advice in above post on how to deal with such legality issues with the example list.

conscripts(troops) and stormtroopers(elites, or troops with the grenadiers doctrine), however, do not need chimeras, though stormies can get one if u want(they lose deep strike or infltrate, though)

new advice:try to apply any ideas u have yourself or through these posts/forums, post the armylist in the armylist section and we will all see what exact things we can do to improve it.
remember the restriction; ALL MUST have chimeras.keep that in mind and a good list is easy to build.

[angelusmortis]

@praetorian,

In reference to the Heavy Weapons Squads, Chimeras arent neccessarily a bad thing in those. Sure it costs some points but your adding two more Heavy Weapons to the squad really. You could have a 3x Heavy Bolter squad w/ a Chimera w/2x Heavy Bolters. Simply deploy them in a standard overwatch postition and you have essentially a squad with 5x Heavy Bolters instead of 3 that can split fire of some of the bolters. A little costly true, but not useless. More of a personal prefernce issue. Almost a given for Apocalypse games where point cost isnt really an issue.

[Deleted]

I always field a heavy weapon lascannon squad and a lascannon in each of my infantry squads. The maxim for mech infantry is the tanks take out the infantry and the infantry takes out the tanks, stick by this and you will do well. I take bare bone chimeras with multi lasers and heavy bolters, they are already expensive, dont waste the points on more for them as thats just points that will eventually die, chims are not hard to cack. I think I have my command squad geared as a plasma/medic squad. The only army I have any real difficulties facing are necrons, those are always fun battles to the last man able to pull a trigger.