Hi I'm a newbie and I need help!

[Masavain]

So a couple of days ago I got my older brothers' old Imperial Guard army. It's from the 90's (2nd and 3rd generation of w40k). 

The army consists of:

 

1x Imperial Basilisk (with two gunners)

2x Leman Russ Battle Tank

5x Ratling Sniper (1 squad)

2x Catachan Heavy Bolters (like this one http://kofler.dot.at/40k/units/Imperial_Guard_Catachan_Heavy_Bolter_1.gif) [two meaning that there are 2 gunners not 2 sets of 2-man-squads]

1x Lascannon w/ gunman (like this one http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Warhammer-40K-Imperial-Guard-Catachan-Lascannon-Team-OOP-E122-/00/s/NzUwWDEwMDA=/z/T1kAAOxyXDhSfQKn/$_35.JPG)

35x Catachan Jungle Fighters (they have different weapons attached including lasguns, bolters, flamers, meltaguns, combat knives, chainswords, powerfist etc)

1x Catachan Lieutenant ( like this one http://www.paximperialis.com/gallery/images/catserg1.JPG)

10x Tallarn Desert Raiders ( tallarn guardsmen, most have lasguns but one guy has a plasmapistol and one has a bolt-pistol. The older codex tells these two are a lietuenant and a sergeant)

1x Old Vindicare Assassing (like this one http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~tezzajw/vindicare1.jpg)

 

So I want someone with more experience to explain me how to make a working army/list of these troops (I guess it's about 1000 pts or a bit more, let's say a max of 1500 pts.) 

 

The reason I need help is that I don't yet own the newest codex (I have 2nd and 3rd edition but that's not going to help much with this)

 

So I need help constructing the infantry squads and command squads and such (I guess some of the jungle fighter's are supposedly commanders like the one with the powerfist). 

 

I also want to know if there's a limit for troops in a single squad with flamers/bazookas or such. Also since the bazookas are nowadays part of a heavy weapon team (i guess?) can they be part of normal quardmensquads or are they even so outdated they can't be used? same with the heavy bolters. 

 

 

A long post but I really want to get into Warhammer 40k and this was the easiest way to get started since I didn't have to pay for the army. So thanks in advance!!

[Teetengee]

Welcome! That being said, GW, and thus BnC, have some pretty strict rules about how much we can talk about precise point levels. So I would definitely suggest you get the new IG codex when you get the chance. But we will help how we can.

 

That being said, do you know what loadouts are on the Leman Russes?

[Masavain]

Welcome! That being said, GW, and thus BnC, have some pretty strict rules about how much we can talk about precise point levels. So I would definitely suggest you get the new IG codex when you get the chance. But we will help how we can.

 

That being said, do you know what loadouts are on the Leman Russes?

 

Oh I was not aware of that. 

 

The Leman Russes have (of course the Battle cannons) and additionally both have one Lascannon and two heavy bolters

[Deathstrike_Chimera]

FYI, in case you didn't know, 7th ed comes out this week, so don't go buying 6th! :) not too familiar with guard so I can't help much on that, sorry :/

[Olis]

I do believe Teetengee is referring to this particular rule here:

 

 

• No excessive points values in army lists or discussions - this means don't post Army Builder print outs or fully tree'd out points/stats for your army lists. Keep it simple. Such as Commander, gear X,Y,Z Pts. 285

 

Now, that doesn't mean to say you couldn't work out the points for a squad and then post the squad, it's wargear and it's total cost. That'd be okay.

 

Take, for example, something that I've lifted from an old thread by Kierdale.

 

Quote

 

HQ 80 points
Company command squad: medic.

Troops 510 points
Platoon command squad.
Infantry squad Alpha: 1x flamer, 1x autocannon.
Infantry squad Bravo: 1x flamer, 1x autocannon.

Penal Legion.

Veteran squad: 3x melta gun, chimera.

Veteran squad: 3x plasma gun.

Heavy Support 300 points
Leman Russ Battle Tank or Exterminator. Hull heavy bolter, no sponsons.

Medusa, enclosed cabin.

Fortifications
Aegis defence line with quad gun

 

Something similar to this would be okay.

[Frater Cornelius]

To start off, you can sell/give back the Vindicare because he can not be used in an IG army. Having said that, here is what you can do. Since you seem to be lacking transports, you can go for a blob with mech support army. Stock up enough Guardsmen to have at least 2x 35 men. They will be your main blobs. You can give each 10man (three of them if you have 30 men) blob a heavy weapon as well, preferably an Mortars, Autocannon (my fave) or Lascannon (from what I know about the 7ed from some GW people, s8 ap3 shooting won't be as strong against tanks anymore and there are more efficient ways of dealing with Marines), but heavy bolters work in a pinch. The 5man are you obligatory platoon command squad. As for their Special weapons, anything up to 10 points can be used. If in doubt, throw flamers or grenade launchers on them, meltas if you feel kinky. Throw a Priest or at the very least a Commissar with them blob to stop them from running. The Platoon Command Squad will hang back and give orders.

Now that you have the fire-power sorted, move on to the man-power. Conscripts, very cheap, very durable with a Priest (gives them Fearless and multiple other boni) and can camp objectives and tarpit like nobodies business.

Avoid Heavy Weapon Squads and Special Weapon Squads as they perform sub-par.

 

Then get another 5man squad to be your Company Command Squad, preferably in a Chimera. Given the amount of Infantry, orders will be sick. 2 from a CCS and 1 each from the 2 PCS.

 

Lastly, the Tanks. 2 LR are nice but the current LRBT is too expensive for what he does. Unless the 7ed changes the Ordnance rules (which I presume it does, given how the point costs of the LRBT and Demolisher inexplicably behaved in the new codex), consider the Executioner instead, although the LRBT is still very solid allrounder.

You might get a second Basilisk to play a 2-tank squadron of DOOOOOOOM.

 

And Ratlings are fun and can be useful, so keep them there.

 

Tomorrow I'll write a mock list of what I said above, if I find the time ;)

[Masavain]

To start off, you can sell/give back the Vindicare because he can not be used in an IG army. Having said that, here is what you can do. Since you seem to be lacking transports, you can go for a blob with mech support army. Stock up enough Guardsmen to have at least 2x 35 men. They will be your main blobs. You can give each 10man (three of them if you have 30 men) blob a heavy weapon as well, preferably an Mortars, Autocannon (my fave) or Lascannon (from what I know about the 7ed from some GW people, s8 ap3 shooting won't be as strong against tanks anymore and there are more efficient ways of dealing with Marines), but heavy bolters work in a pinch. The 5man are you obligatory platoon command squad. As for their Special weapons, anything up to 10 points can be used. If in doubt, throw flamers or grenade launchers on them, meltas if you feel kinky. Throw a Priest or at the very least a Commissar with them blob to stop them from running. The Platoon Command Squad will hang back and give orders.

Now that you have the fire-power sorted, move on to the man-power. Conscripts, very cheap, very durable with a Priest (gives them Fearless and multiple other boni) and can camp objectives and tarpit like nobodies business.

Avoid Heavy Weapon Squads and Special Weapon Squads as they perform sub-par.

Then get another 5man squad to be your Company Command Squad, preferably in a Chimera. Given the amount of Infantry, orders will be sick. 2 from a CCS and 1 each from the 2 PCS.

Lastly, the Tanks. 2 LR are nice but the current LRBT is too expensive for what he does. Unless the 7ed changes the Ordnance rules (which I presume it does, given how the point costs of the LRBT and Demolisher inexplicably behaved in the new codex), consider the Executioner instead, although the LRBT is still very solid allrounder.

You might get a second Basilisk to play a 2-tank squadron of DOOOOOOOM.

And Ratlings are fun and can be useful, so keep them there.

Tomorrow I'll write a mock list of what I said above, if I find the time

Thanks mate I really appreciate it. I guess I have to put more money on this army than I thought (not sure if all of that is really necessary since I only intend on playing for fun with my friends). but anyways thanks and If you do the mock list I will be really thankful for you.

Also: I will keep the Vindicare as a unique relic in my shelf ;)

[Frater Cornelius]

You do not necessarily need to put mote money into it. I was simply theorizing on a competitive setup given this starting point. I am sure there are a number of lists which are more then adequate for friendly games to be had from the limited pool you have.

[Teetengee]

If they are just friendly battles, there is a good chance you could field the catachan as veterans rather than regular guardsmen. I don't play enough IG to know if that is competitive, but it may be more flavorful and extend the versatility of the models you already own.

[FashaTheDog]

Could you take a picture of what you have or give a better break down of the equipment?

[David Ravel]

Call me a wishful thinker, but I would not throw out the Vindicare Assassin. I am sure (or I hope) that there will be a Codex Assassin in the near future. It would not be unheard of, since it existed before. 

 

As for the list itself, I would suggest running mostly Veterans Squad since you could get higher points and more ''pts for your bucks'' with what you have. They are more specialized infantry and you don't have enough number to make it worthwile to take a platoon with special weapons etc. 

 

That ''Lieutenant'' could easily become a Company Commander. Put him camocloaks and a lascannon behind an aegis, maybe even with plasma-vets with heavy bolter (I'm working that list with what you have) since they can receive the ignore cover rules. That makes for plasma and lascannon ignore cover, very effective. For the rest, you could put that basilisk behind the aegis for added protection, and run the rest of the squad with melta and flamer up front to grab the objective supported (and walking behind with camocloaks for added protection) by Leman Russ. That's what I would do with your stuff if you don't want to pay. 

[march10k]

You can field four units of ten men as veteran squads, and use the remaining five for a company command squad, that gets you to roughly 450.  A pair of russes with the loadout mentioned gets you from there to 800.  Add in the bassie and you're around 900.  You're pretty close to 1000 points, but probably not quite there...You do have three halfway decent heavy choices, so I would look at maybe some fast attack.  You can field the snipers as elites, but I wouldn't call them worthwhile.  They are some of the better snipers around, but I don't really think snipers are all that, they're only worthwhile to me if they are scoring and infiltrating. Ratlings do have some nice rules, though.  They're...unique.  Might as well field them, since you have them...that's still not 1000 points, though, unless you really load up on unneeded upgrades that you're taking just to fill the points.  Maybe some armored sentinels?  At 40 points a pop, they're not much worse than a ~150 point hellfire or mortis dreadnought in melee, and they're cheap mobile heavy weapons.

[Masavain]

Thanks everybody for the tips. 

 

I took pictures of the models for you guys.

 

the questions I need answers to are if the lascannon and/or heavybolters can be part of the squads (whether veteran or not) or can the lascannon for example work alone with two gunners?!?

 

anyways here are the pictures: http://imgur.com/a/zBn2S

 

I provided some info on the pictures in the album. Thanks for the help in advance guys :)

[WarriorFish]

No school like the old school - welcome to the Guard! :D Obviously the first thing you should do is get the Guard codex which will answer almost all of your questions. Regarding the officers, anyone with a pistol and close combat weapon can be made a sergeant, lieutenant or captain as you please depending on their armament if you're particular about WYSIWYG and I'll echo the others in saying don't get rid of anything. The Vindicare is cool anyway and may return one day.

[Teetengee]

Also, even if the Vindicare doesn't return, whichever codex he is in will eternally be (reasonably) strong allies with IG and thus will allow for a second army to expand into, should you ever choose to do it.

[FashaTheDog]

Alright, those pictures help. To explain a little about what you have, the bazookas are missile launchers, which are still completely legal. The five heavy weapons you have should all have two Guardsmen, but you can fudge it and get away with only one as those heavy weapons also need to be mounted on 60mm round bases, making it clear that it is a two wound model (this is a fairly cheap eBay purchase or you could make one to set your models on for now). I tried to make use of all your models, but the Vindicare does not fit, exactly. In the new edition you could add him and make your list Unbound, which means you will lose the Battle Forged bonuses (not sure what they all are yet as the edition is not out yet, but one is that Troops have Objective Secured rule which means they claim objectives over units without this rule).

This is everything you have in 1,100 points using the Force Organization Chart (FOC for short):

Company Command Squad - Senior Officer with bolter, 1 Veteran Team with lascannon, 2 Veterans with lasguns, 1 Master of Ordnance (use the Tallarn Desert Raider with the lasgun pointed up and the autocannon magazine in his left hand for this)

----I recommend this as your Warlord as it is more likely to stay alive than the other Company Command Squad

Company Command Squad - Senior Officer with plasma pistol & Blade of Conquest, 1 Veteran with meltagun, 3 Veterans with lasguns

6 Ratlings (add the Vindicare here as a really tall Ratling)

Platoon Command Squad - Junior Officer with bolt pistol & power fist, 2 Guardsmen with meltaguns, 1 Guardsman Team with heavy bolter

Infantry Squad - Sergeant with power sword, 1 Guardsman Team with missile launcher, 7 Guardsmen with lasguns

Infantry Squad - Sergeant with bolt pistol, 1 Guardsman Team with missile launcher, 7 Guardsmen with lasguns

Special Weapons Squad - 3 Guardsmen with flamers, 3 Guardsmen with lasguns

Veteran Squad - Sergeant with bolter, 1 Veteran Team with heavy bolter, 7 Veterans with lasguns, Forward Sentries

Leman Russ - Lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons, relic plating

Leman Russ - Lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons, relic plating

Basilisk

You could bump that up to 1,250 points in an Unbound army by taking the Vindicare Assassin from Codex: Grey Knights (instead of as a 6^th Ratling) and adding camo netting to your Baslisk.

So now that you have a basic force the question is what should you buy first. As others have said, the Codex is a must. Then you will also need the new rules (available in four more days). Not sure where you live, but assuming the US, that has put you up to $134.50, retail. That said, there are places where you could pay less, eBay, online retailers, some local gaming stores. It pays to shop around. It is also good to try and find local stores or nearby Games Workshops as there might be a gaming group that meets there. Once you have the rules, a tape measure, dice, and template will be needed. The former two are likely laying around your home, while the latter will be another $13.25, retail. The supplements like the cards are quite useful, but not necessary. This means the total for what you will have to buy at retail prices will be $147.76.

Rumor has it there will be a starter set in August which, if past history is anything to go by, will have dice, a small rule book, and templates plus two starter forces and will be in the $100 range. Take a look at the Dark Vengeance description (6th edition starter) for an idea. That means you will still be paying about the same price to get started, but you will need to wait a few months for your own copy of the rules (not the worst case if a friend has their own set and will teach you to play), but you will likely get a bunch of minis as well. Caveat emptor, there may not be a similar starter set as in the past (Games Workshop does do odd things every now and again); it could just be the minis without the rules according to a few rumors I've heard or the templates might not be included, the fact is we just don't know until we see it.

Now as to what models to look at for your first expansion to your army, the first thing to bear in mind is that you are playing Imperial Guard and that means that whatever direction you choose to take your army means you will need a lot of it. Once you get Codex: Astra Militarum (fancy pseudo-Latin Guard name), you will notice that even by sticking to the FOC, you will be able to go infantry heavy, tank heavy, artillery heavy (this path is greatly expanded by Forgeworld stuff), elite(ish) infantry heavy, aircraft heavy, or just a general vehicle heavy like mechanized.

Quick Generalizations

Infantry heavy lists are often the most expensive in terms of dollars as you can have 180 models or more in a 2,000 point game (the popular standard in many areas). This list gives you considerable durability and firepower through sheer quantity (Stalin said it best, "quantity has a quality all its own"). You will often fill your deployment zone and can drop Terminators and other elite infantry with ease by forcing them to make lots and lots of saves. It does require considerable set up and packing time if you care about not chipping your paint as well as considerable time assembling and painting models, but this is a favorite of mine.

Tank, aircraft, or vehicle heavy lists will see loads of Chimeras, Snow Cats Taurox, Hellhounds, Leman Russ, Sentinels, Valkyries, Vendettas, and maybe some self propelled artillery. You could run this pure mechanized where every unit has a transport or is a vehicle or you could have infantry advancing on foot besides the tanks and planes. This list is looking to get tougher in the new edition as it will be harder to one hit kill vehicles. Then again, with the quantity that Guard can bring to bear, this list was still great in 6^th edition because there was just too many of them.

The elite infantry lists are not elite by the standards of other armies, often times they are still inferior, stat-wise, to basic Marines, but to your stuff they are elite. They include Ogryns, Psyker Squads, Storm Troopers (called Militarum Tempestus now), Veterans, and other such units. This will give you a smaller force that hits harder, but at the same time will not be as durable thanks to the smaller number of bodies (or bullet catchers as I like to think of them). It makes the list a little tougher to learn losses begin to matter far sooner, but it can be more efficient and competitive once you get a feel for it and learn what works for you and what does not. A popular form of this is Veterans in Valkyries and/or Chimeras and/or Taurox with Vendettas, combining this theme with the prior one.

Artillery lists are my favorite. Forgeworld even has a special list, the Death Korps of Krieg, which focuses heavily on it. Here you take a good third of your points or more on artillery and just drop templates like Keith Richards dropped acid. The Guard codex only has two artillery units in it, both self propelled, but Forgeworld books (Imperial Armour) opens up Griffins, Medusa, and Colossi, all of which used to be in the codex. There are also field artillery and heavy artillery pieces, which are immobile unless towed by special vehicles. Then you have Rapiers, which are dedicated anti-tank artillery without templates. With these extra units, or running the Krieg lists which include them, you can spend shooting phase after shooting phase saturating your opponent's lines with massed templates of all shapes, sizes, and strengths. These lists will often have a large number of cheap infantry units to soak up wounds on behalf of your big guns by engaging in Operation Human Shield.

Often times, you will mix themes and as your collection grows, switch at a whim. Be warned, you will never complete your army; you will only ever expand it. In addition to this, you should also consider fortifications as buying (in points) a bunker or defense line with an anti-aircraft gun never hurts. Games Workshop makes several nice kits, but other companies, like Armorcast to name an oldie but goldie, also produce models that work just as well. Kickstarter always has loads of laser etched wood and acrylic terrain companies starting up and a quick internet search will produce more results than you could shake a stick at. There are a number of fortifications to choose from and they go from basic lines to trenches to small bunkers to massive strongholds, some with guns, others with options to buy.

Super heavies are looking to be part of the regular game and are a great model to build and paint, making them fun reward units to add to your collection in time, but they are tricky. Sure that Shadowsword looks scary, but at nearly 500 points it often is too many eggs in one basket in games under 3,000 points, whereas a Baneblade cost a little more, but has the firepower to bully everything smaller than it and can justify its cost in 2,000 point games. The key here is to have a set purpose for it if you add one to your list and know what its limitations are. For instance, the Stormlord has that Vulcan Megabolter, but that is icing on the cake, not the cake itself; you want that armed transport capacity. Still, for now, you may want to hold off on these unless the mode screams "BUY ME" to you as they are not universally accepted and require you to not rely on them to get the most out of them. If you do get the Baneblade/Shadowsword kit, take the time to magnetize all the options (you will need to buy another sponson sprue) unless you have some really fancy paint scheme/conversion planned for it that would make such impractical. There are plenty of how to guides online.

Overall, you have loads of direction to look at and plenty of time to figure out where you want to go. For now get a few games in with what you have and see which direction appeals to your style the most. With the new edition coming in four days, right now you can clean up your models (I see mold lines in those pictures ), get five 60mm circles for those heavy weapons teams, and paint them if you have the incentive. Once out, take time to learn the rules and what they mean to your codex and get in games!

[Masavain]

Alright, those pictures help. To explain a little about what you have, the bazookas are missile launchers, which are still completely legal. The five heavy weapons you have should all have two Guardsmen, but you can fudge it and get away with only one as those heavy weapons also need to be mounted on 60mm round bases, making it clear that it is a two wound model (this is a fairly cheap eBay purchase or you could make one to set your models on for now). I tried to make use of all your models, but the Vindicare does not fit, exactly. In the new edition you could add him and make your list Unbound, which means you will lose the Battle Forged bonuses (not sure what they all are yet as the edition is not out yet, but one is that Troops have Objective Secured rule which means they claim objectives over units without this rule).

This is everything you have in 1,100 points using the Force Organization Chart (FOC for short):

Company Command Squad - Senior Officer with bolter, 1 Veteran Team with lascannon, 2 Veterans with lasguns, 1 Master of Ordnance (use the Tallarn Desert Raider with the lasgun pointed up and the autocannon magazine in his left hand for this)

----I recommend this as your Warlord as it is more likely to stay alive than the other Company Command Squad

Company Command Squad - Senior Officer with plasma pistol & Blade of Conquest, 1 Veteran with meltagun, 3 Veterans with lasguns

6 Ratlings (add the Vindicare here as a really tall Ratling)

Platoon Command Squad - Junior Officer with bolt pistol & power fist, 2 Guardsmen with meltaguns, 1 Guardsman Team with heavy bolter

Infantry Squad - Sergeant with power sword, 1 Guardsman Team with missile launcher, 7 Guardsmen with lasguns

Infantry Squad - Sergeant with bolt pistol, 1 Guardsman Team with missile launcher, 7 Guardsmen with lasguns

Special Weapons Squad - 3 Guardsmen with flamers, 3 Guardsmen with lasguns

Veteran Squad - Sergeant with bolter, 1 Veteran Team with heavy bolter, 7 Veterans with lasguns, Forward Sentries

Leman Russ - Lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons, relic plating

Leman Russ - Lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons, relic plating

Basilisk

You could bump that up to 1,250 points in an Unbound army by taking the Vindicare Assassin from Codex: Grey Knights (instead of as a 6^th Ratling) and adding camo netting to your Baslisk.

So now that you have a basic force the question is what should you buy first. As others have said, the Codex is a must. Then you will also need the new rules (available in four more days). Not sure where you live, but assuming the US, that has put you up to $134.50, retail. That said, there are places where you could pay less, eBay, online retailers, some local gaming stores. It pays to shop around. It is also good to try and find local stores or nearby Games Workshops as there might be a gaming group that meets there. Once you have the rules, a tape measure, dice, and template will be needed. The former two are likely laying around your home, while the latter will be another $13.25, retail. The supplements like the cards are quite useful, but not necessary. This means the total for what you will have to buy at retail prices will be $147.76.

Rumor has it there will be a starter set in August which, if past history is anything to go by, will have dice, a small rule book, and templates plus two starter forces and will be in the $100 range. Take a look at the Dark Vengeance description (6th edition starter) for an idea. That means you will still be paying about the same price to get started, but you will need to wait a few months for your own copy of the rules (not the worst case if a friend has their own set and will teach you to play), but you will likely get a bunch of minis as well. Caveat emptor, there may not be a similar starter set as in the past (Games Workshop does do odd things every now and again); it could just be the minis without the rules according to a few rumors I've heard or the templates might not be included, the fact is we just don't know until we see it.

Now as to what models to look at for your first expansion to your army, the first thing to bear in mind is that you are playing Imperial Guard and that means that whatever direction you choose to take your army means you will need a lot of it. Once you get Codex: Astra Militarum (fancy pseudo-Latin Guard name), you will notice that even by sticking to the FOC, you will be able to go infantry heavy, tank heavy, artillery heavy (this path is greatly expanded by Forgeworld stuff), elite(ish) infantry heavy, aircraft heavy, or just a general vehicle heavy like mechanized.

Quick Generalizations

Infantry heavy lists are often the most expensive in terms of dollars as you can have 180 models or more in a 2,000 point game (the popular standard in many areas). This list gives you considerable durability and firepower through sheer quantity (Stalin said it best, "quantity has a quality all its own"). You will often fill your deployment zone and can drop Terminators and other elite infantry with ease by forcing them to make lots and lots of saves. It does require considerable set up and packing time if you care about not chipping your paint as well as considerable time assembling and painting models, but this is a favorite of mine.

Tank, aircraft, or vehicle heavy lists will see loads of Chimeras, Snow Cats Taurox, Hellhounds, Leman Russ, Sentinels, Valkyries, Vendettas, and maybe some self propelled artillery. You could run this pure mechanized where every unit has a transport or is a vehicle or you could have infantry advancing on foot besides the tanks and planes. This list is looking to get tougher in the new edition as it will be harder to one hit kill vehicles. Then again, with the quantity that Guard can bring to bear, this list was still great in 6^th edition because there was just too many of them.

The elite infantry lists are not elite by the standards of other armies, often times they are still inferior, stat-wise, to basic Marines, but to your stuff they are elite. They include Ogryns, Psyker Squads, Storm Troopers (called Militarum Tempestus now), Veterans, and other such units. This will give you a smaller force that hits harder, but at the same time will not be as durable thanks to the smaller number of bodies (or bullet catchers as I like to think of them). It makes the list a little tougher to learn losses begin to matter far sooner, but it can be more efficient and competitive once you get a feel for it and learn what works for you and what does not. A popular form of this is Veterans in Valkyries and/or Chimeras and/or Taurox with Vendettas, combining this theme with the prior one.

Artillery lists are my favorite. Forgeworld even has a special list, the Death Korps of Krieg, which focuses heavily on it. Here you take a good third of your points or more on artillery and just drop templates like Keith Richards dropped acid. The Guard codex only has two artillery units in it, both self propelled, but Forgeworld books (Imperial Armour) opens up Griffins, Medusa, and Colossi, all of which used to be in the codex. There are also field artillery and heavy artillery pieces, which are immobile unless towed by special vehicles. Then you have Rapiers, which are dedicated anti-tank artillery without templates. With these extra units, or running the Krieg lists which include them, you can spend shooting phase after shooting phase saturating your opponent's lines with massed templates of all shapes, sizes, and strengths. These lists will often have a large number of cheap infantry units to soak up wounds on behalf of your big guns by engaging in Operation Human Shield.

Often times, you will mix themes and as your collection grows, switch at a whim. Be warned, you will never complete your army; you will only ever expand it. In addition to this, you should also consider fortifications as buying (in points) a bunker or defense line with an anti-aircraft gun never hurts. Games Workshop makes several nice kits, but other companies, like Armorcast to name an oldie but goldie, also produce models that work just as well. Kickstarter always has loads of laser etched wood and acrylic terrain companies starting up and a quick internet search will produce more results than you could shake a stick at. There are a number of fortifications to choose from and they go from basic lines to trenches to small bunkers to massive strongholds, some with guns, others with options to buy.

Super heavies are looking to be part of the regular game and are a great model to build and paint, making them fun reward units to add to your collection in time, but they are tricky. Sure that Shadowsword looks scary, but at nearly 500 points it often is too many eggs in one basket in games under 3,000 points, whereas a Baneblade cost a little more, but has the firepower to bully everything smaller than it and can justify its cost in 2,000 point games. The key here is to have a set purpose for it if you add one to your list and know what its limitations are. For instance, the Stormlord has that Vulcan Megabolter, but that is icing on the cake, not the cake itself; you want that armed transport capacity. Still, for now, you may want to hold off on these unless the mode screams "BUY ME" to you as they are not universally accepted and require you to not rely on them to get the most out of them. If you do get the Baneblade/Shadowsword kit, take the time to magnetize all the options (you will need to buy another sponson sprue) unless you have some really fancy paint scheme/conversion planned for it that would make such impractical. There are plenty of how to guides online.

Overall, you have loads of direction to look at and plenty of time to figure out where you want to go. For now get a few games in with what you have and see which direction appeals to your style the most. With the new edition coming in four days, right now you can clean up your models (I see mold lines in those pictures ), get five 60mm circles for those heavy weapons teams, and paint them if you have the incentive. Once out, take time to learn the rules and what they mean to your codex and get in games!

Wow Thanks for all of this! I will do as you say considering the army!

I think I will buy the codex soon but I'm thinking of buying the new starter set when it hits the stores. Now we will stick to 6th edition rules with my friend as he just bought the dark vengeance. We only play for fun and the 6th edition is great for that until we decide to expand a bit. For now I this is more than enough!

I guess since I already have a firm basis of the IG I will try to expand it in the future though If I would start from scratch with a new army I would probably consider eldar or tau as they seem cool to me.

I really can't express how thankful I am for helping me out. Now I'm ready to wreck my friend with my awesome IG army of destruction and mayhem >:D

Edit: I have to point out that I live in Finland, not The States