Lunar Centurion Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 To start IG, what is a good starting army type? Mechanized? Platoon? Aerial Assault? Decurion? For a noob, what's the best type to play? I'm partial to tanks though And the fluff I'm thinking about involves tanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilofix Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 Start with one Punisher Tank and one other Tank in case you want to go with a Tank Commander HQ but then get 2 Wyverns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greycat Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 Tank lists are pretty awesome for guard at the moment. Pask in a punisher or vanquisher is very effective and gives preferred enemy to his unit. We also have access to the steel host formation which gives preferred enemy to all tanks within 12 of the command tank. You need 5 leman russes and a hydra to run it though so maybe something to work towards. So starting point for your army you should get two russes so, like kilofix said, you can run a tank commander and the mandatory for him to run with. Next you need two troops. I would recommend two units of veterans to start and probably give them chimeras to keep with the theme of tanks. As with any army start slow and buy things you enjoy the look of or you really want to paint. There is also no "best" army for guard. We have the most diverse army possibilities available and you can run anything and win with it. So do what you like, take advice on board but you don't have to follow it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gomericus Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 That really all depends on your personality,your tastes,play style,,,thoughts on any particular theme Do you love foot sloggers and see yourself as a muddog,,,then I would suggest tons of infanty,commisars,priests command groups,,ect Are you more interested in air cav? then perhaps a good number of troops are vets ,a small platoon and lots of valks supported by strong allies such as inquisitors ,or the like. Are you a mech head wanting lots of tanks rushing forwards? then lemun russ tanks are your best friend supported by chimeras or the other transport that shall not be named.,,, or do you want a mix of all of the above? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulrik_Ironfist Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 I suggest that your army have a little bit of everything, to start. Air Assault is cumbersome in 7th edition, because the only lit that does it well is Elysians. Mechanized is fun but figuring out how to play it well takes a bit of time. I'll break it down for you: Light infantry: All infantry all the time. This is the blob guard that The Cadian battle group detachment wants you to run. It's tiresome and model intensive, but it's a good gunline army and good bubblewrap for some armor. Mechanized: The upsides are less models to deal with at deployment as well as less models to move around the board. The best mechanized lists are veteran lists, because really you want a few troops, but you mostly want to focus on vehicles. This style of play is excellent for maelstrom games where objectives change frequently and you need to move around quickly, or hold multiple objectives. It's a solid army, and you can even mechanize platoons too, it just costs a hefty chunk of points. Vets are the better choice, so you can fill your troops slots and get into those wonderful tanks. Air Assault: My favorite style of play. As I said before Elysians do it best, being able to bring reserves starting turn 1. Turn 1 half of your valkyries, drop sentinels and sentry turrets come in, allowing you to null deploy if you wish. Now Elysians lack almost any ground vehicles, the exceptions being the Tauros (little dune buggy like thing) and the Drop Sentinel. According to their fluff, everything they have can be deployed from Valkyries. Their sentinels lack the weapon options that Codex sentinels have, but have two weapons that codex sentinels don't. Everything Elysians deep strikes, so deep striking that platoon onto objectives, or into your opponent's deployment zone is perfectly possible. Now, you can do air assault with the Codex, it just can't null deploy. Taking all flyers and infantry is doable, but you'd better make sure you have a good way to protect the foot slogging infantry you deploy or you risk getting tabled. Tanks!: Similar to mechanized, this focuses on tanks. The armored brigade list is the way to go here, making leman russes troops and giving you access to BS4 Commissar tanks as well as single Command tanks, and letting you fill your HS slots with artillery. And with the Command tank rule, your artillery (all barrage weapons) can draw line of sight from the command tank. All infantry has to be mounted in armored ground transports. The Armored Battlegroup has Air Support, in the form of vendettas and Vultures, as well as avenger strike fighters, lightnings, and thunderbolts. Well rounded list, has no infantry platoons so heavy weapons squads become heavy support and must be in a chimera, good for some cheap artillery like a mortar squad, and no need for a heavy bolter squad to protect them, you have a chimera. Decurion: The Cadian Battle Group is kind of different. It only requires the command element, so you can take 2 company command squads for 2 detachments and put them in chimeras and have two masters of ordnance and two officers of the fleet to really mess your opponent up. 2 S9 AP3 ordnance blasts every turn (it always scatters, I know but still lots of potential to destroy stuff), and the Officers of the Fleet giving you +2 to your reserves (+1 each and they stack), you can get those air assault troops on turn 2 reliably. Or you can take tank commanders, and have a couple split fire tank squadrons. Or mix and match. The auxiliary formations are nice, but the core formations are kind stupid. The Infantry company clocks in at 850-ish points base cost and 173 models minimum, and can't take transports. The Armored Company is better, but still clocks in at 820-ish points base cost and requires a minimum of 5 Leman Russ tanks to run. The battlegroup boosts orders but that really only helps the infantry, and as such it's not much help with the armored company. The Auxiliary Formations, though, are pretty great. The Emperor's Spear gives you a single reserve roll for 3 valkyrie or vendetta squadrons in any combination. The Emperor's Talon gives you 6-12 sentinels (armored or scout), gives them outflank, makes one a character, and lets you issue orders to the other sentinels. The Emperor's Wrath gives you artillery that takes orders. The Emperor's Fury is essentially a squadron of superheavy tanks. The Emperor's Blade is a Mech platoon of veterans with some hellhounds for support. The Emperor's Shield is meh, good for drowning your opponent in bodies, and adds sentinels to support them, but it's still at least 55 infantry, which is a pain. As I said before, to start out, I recommend having a little bit of everything in your list. I like to foot slog my infantry platoon while mechanizing vets and/or air assaulting them. Adding in a couple tanks for fire support and for anti-vehicle duty isn't a bad idea either. Also remember that two is one and one is none. if you take tanks in ones don't squadron them if you can help it unless you're hurting for slots, but then I'd squadron the artillery first as it will increase the artillery's efficacy. Guard takes tactics and synergy to play well, so when you build a list think about how you plan to employ each unit on the table, and you should make a good account of yourself. Welcome to the Barracks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarriorFish Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 Sounds like tanks are your plan, so getting a Russ or two isn't a bad idea ;) Tank commander is cool but expensive especially at lower points and you'll always need some troopers to help score and protect your armour. Much depends on what you want to do as mentioned, Guard are quite flexible in how you build lists. For example you can mechanise and retain some foot Platoon elements, mix up your armoured elements with Russ tanks and Fast Attack Hellhounds/Sentinels. As to effective army builds mechanisation is pretty good especially if you want to use Vets which might be your preference if you want to load up on tanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exsonics Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Hello, another IG beginner here, and I found this thread also helps me a lot. I'm also building mech. inf / armored list, and learned some important points here. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarriorFish Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Welcome to the Guard exsonics, don't forget you can make your own topics for any questions you may have or if you fancy getting a WIP started :tu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aethyran Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 If youre looking for a bargain to start with, the IG starter box set is really good! Leman Russ, a squad with an autocannon and a commisaar for -independent sellers- £40! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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