What motivated you to play Astra Militarum?

[librisrouge]

It has been forever since I’ve thought of ColShaw’s reports. They were awesome and I miss them.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I started playing sisters of battle at the beginning of 3rd ed.  At the end of 3rd ed, I took them to a tourney, where my force outnumbered everyone of my opponents.  After that, my friend and I did a thought experiment as to what (somewhat) viable force we could make with the most models on the table.  Turns out it was Imperial Guard, with 233 models in 1700 points.  I then set about collecting that army (well, almost - I never added a third conscript squad).

[micahwc]

4 years working with field artillery made me want to start a guard army. It took 12 more years for that to actually happen.

[Vel'Cona]

This:

 

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Eye_of_Terror_Campaign

 

 

Despite the inane rage they invoke in modern 40k players, the Cadian plastics were my gateway into Imperial Guard.  Back in 3rd edition, your only option for IG was either Catachans (cool, but not my style) or very expensive metal infantry.  While I have a soft spot for nearly every IG regiment/doctrine/flavour out there, I had always dreamed of having a force of Cadians because they reminded me of these guys:

 

 

As an adolescent, this movie (Starship Troopers) blew my mind (first R rated movie my dad ever took me to see) and I had dreamed for years of a 40k army that would encompass this image.  Upon reading about the Cadians and their millenia-spanning war opposing the forces of daemons, possessed superhumans and zealots from intergalactic hell (among others), not to mention the iconic flak armour and helmets, my heart was forever theirs.  GW producing them in plastic meant I now could actually afford to build the army I'd always dreamed of, and I took to this project with all the gusto a cheap can of black primer and a mediocre "swamp" camouflage scheme would allow.

 

To this day, Cadians remain my first fully painted 40k army, and the one I always come back to between editions.  While I've dabbled in many armies throughout the years and I enjoy all of them in different ways, my heart and paintbrush always yearn for the taciturn and intractable men and women of old Cadia, consumed by Chaos or not.

 

CADIA STANDS!!!

Edited October 26, 2017 by Vel'Cona

[duz_]

Starship Troopers may have played part in my decision too. ;)

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

 

Came into the hobby right around release of 3rd edition. Dabbled into darn near every army out there but guard has always been my go to (along with chaos, sorry!)

 

Their combined arms approach appeals to me and is necessary to their play style. I was a long time subscriber to white dwarf and was a big fan of Pete Haines, the old writer of the cadian list in C:Eye of Terror. Some of my favorite battle reports to read featured guardsmen fighting in cities against Night Lords, Armored Fist columns against Necrons in the desert, and an absolutely fantastic battle against Typhus and plague zombies. The two part, 2 v 2 Eye if Terror reports featuring Dark Angels and a Baneblade tips the list.

 

Lol sorry for the rant, nostalgia. I like guard because they are relatable, customizable, flexible, and fun.

I remember that battle report of the guard vs night Lords. They lost, but it was such a good report. That report was what made me hunt down those old metal cadians! (I got the white dwarf second hand from my cousin)

 

 

I think I remember that report ... the Cadians had a grey/blue tiger-stripe camo right? 

 

Ah, the good old days. I remember I used to read White Dwarf cover-to-cover every issue back then. When I came back the hobby in 5th WD was a shadow of its former self. Haven't read it since then.

[The Doctor Of War]

I fancied a change. I've tended to collect infantry heavy, power armoured armies over the last twenty years. So i decided to change things up a bit this year with a tank heavy Imperial Guard force.

[Major_Gilbear]

Despite the inane rage they invoke in modern 40k players, the Cadian plastics were my gateway into Imperial Guard.  Back in 3rd edition, your only option for IG was either Catachans (cool, but not my style) or very expensive metal infantry. 

 

Man, I loved the old metal Catachans! But with the release of the 3E Catachan plastics, they went from hero to zero for me in one edition until I had the cash to finally buy them all in metal a looong time later.

 

I still wish that the Catachans would get re-done (after seeing the GSC, can you imagine how good these'd be?)

[RangerRob24]

Got tired of playing my Shooty T3 army (Eldar) against Marines and Orks...

So I bought into another Shooty T3 army...Mordians!   

 

[Ranulf]

 

Man, I loved the old metal Catachans! But with the release of the 3E Catachan plastics, they went from hero to zero for me in one edition until I had the cash to finally buy them all in metal a looong time later.

 

Catachan were hands-down the best of the metal IG line IMO. To this day the guy with the bayonet attached and the pommel of his knife poking over his right shoulder is one of my favourite GW minis ever. It's a shame the plastics were a bit of a let down, I don't hate them but they're not a patch on the metal.

[H311fi5h]

I'm interested in military history (tanks in particular) but also love the 40k universe. IG sort of gives you both. The utter anachronism of many Imperial designs, particularly IG vehicles is just fascinating to me.

When I was playing CSM in 3rd edition I always wanted to start a guard army, but I had no way to afford it. Then I took a long break from the hobby, and after returning last year I knew I had to go through with it this time.

[Guardsman Bob]

I was more of a Necromunda player in the 90s. The only reason there was any Mordians collected was exactly the same as Duz’s. They looked Boss.

 

It was 3rd Edition with the customization that got me to seriously get into Warhammer 40k. Guard was THE army for kit-bashers before kit-bashing was a thing. I still have a psyker & stormtrooper armed with stormbolters, really need to get around to fixing that...

 

 

Edit: Try playing some 40k on the original Necromuna terrain. It’s killer.

Edited October 26, 2017 by Guardsman Bob

[BurntheHeretic]

I consider myself mostly a horde, or infantry player. I never fancied the Marines, these gloryboys are too ´allrounder´ for me. 

 

I started out with ´nids, in 3rd edition. I used hordes of gaunts, followed by a line of Warriors and the odd Monstrous creature. But as Monstrous Creatures grew ever bigger and more prominent, at the cost of horde, I kind of lost interest. 

 

Then moved to Tau, but I was mostly using lines of firewarriors and kroot, with some deep striking tank busters. As editions passed and battesuits grew ever bigger and more prominent at the cost of a decent infantry basis (Riptide Spam!), I kind of lost interest again.

 

Meanwhile my painting skills and modelling skills developed, and I was hoping to make something unique. So the idea of a homebrewn guard regiment formed. I haven´t actually gotten to build much yet, but I´ll get there. I can´t wait to send those poor, indoctrinated souls to their gruesome deaths.

 

Another appeal perhaps,  is that we can actually identify, as ordinary humans, with the Guard. They are ordinary folks, forced to take up arms, given very basic equipment, and driven by desperation, fear, survival instinct. That´s much more dramatic than the Space Marine terminator who is born and bred for battle, has the best equipment humanity has to offer, and moves down entire lanes of enemies by himself. 

[our_baz]

Again like @duz back in '95 Mordians looked sooooooo darn cool looking, and frankly do now. You can keep your primaris and new death guard thank you very much. I'll stick to my 20 year old Perry designed models. IMHO some of nicest models produced by GW.

Oh and I wanted to paint red coats in space in the far future

[Tallarn Commander]

Like Nicodemus and Libris, I got into the guard because I'm a WW II history buff. 

 

Sometimes my Tallarn army feels like its an 8th Army British Desert Rats force transplanted from North Africa to an alien environment. My foes are no longer the Italians or Germans. Instead they are made from the stuff of nightmares. My lascannons are 6 pounders targeting Carnifexes instead of Panzer IIIs and my Russes are Valentines sending rounds downrange against Khorne Bezerkers instead of 88s.

[Khornestar]

Better rules than Renegades & Heretics and the ability to use models in my collection that are frustratingly absent from the R&H army list.

[olcottr]

I started in 2nd.  Orks and Eldar has already been taken by the gaming group so I wanted to play the "good guys".  The Imperial Guard appealed to me because of the ability to field lots of troops.  I wanted to be Mordians, but they didn't have models with Plasma Guns, so I went with a combined Mordian / Catachan force to get a well rounded selection of weapons.  When the plastic sets came out my Catachans started to significantly outnumber my Mordians, which didn't seem right.  Eventually I sold my Mordians and used the money to get a bunch of plastic Cadians to outnumber the Catachans.  Now my army has morphed into a large Cadian Company with a smaller number of elite Catachan special forces.  Dream realized, only took 20 years. :)

[sirparthos]

3rd/4th ed. Started playing space marines. Then I saw some guard boxes, also saw that every second person in our local area was playing space marines, and jumped on board. Figured out how to paint well after painting a hundred plus models of guard, and still kicking today. 12 years or so in the hobby proper.. :)

[tvih]

I'm not really even sure. I suppose I liked the Steel Legion fellas in Helsreach, and since Black Templars were/are my primary chapter I figured they could make a decent ally and different in playstyle. Though I also got my first Vostroyans at the same time as the Legionnaires, and I think I actually have a couple of more Vostroyan metal models than Legion. I liked the Vostroyan aesthetic. About a year ago I was going to sell my Guard models since I have way too many miniatures to ever get around to finishing them. But I only ended up selling my only Chimera and Manticore before deciding to keep them army, and actually ordered some more infantry as well as some vehicles. And now I'd want/need a Manticore again, but it's sold out everywhere 

[Relictor88]

Good old Leaman russ.  that what got me to play guard. used to play them back in 4th and wanted to again ever since. luckly i was given by a good friend some of his guard and well stated again in 7th. 

[Tirak]

In high school after school a friend of mine brought these little weird figurines and said they were a table top game. I had never heard of tabletop gaming aside from D&D, but I said I'd give it a go. He gave me the little metal dudes with long pikes wearing bulky armor and he took the 4 armed alien looking monsters, so my very first game of 40k was a wildly unbalanced game of Grey Knights vs Genesteelers in 5th Edition. It was ok, kind of simple since there was no terrain and we were playing on desks put together, but he loaned me a few codexes and "Traitor General".

 

I liked the Tau Codex, because mechs are cool and I wanted the good guys since everyone else was horrible torturing folk, and "Traitor General" honestly is not a great place to jump into the Gaunt's Ghosts series. However, that same friend was selling off his Guard at an insanely cheap price, so I figured i could get an army for a pittance and picked up guard. And then I read "For the Emperor" and got hooked. Fell in love the the outclassed Guard. In a universe of Daemons, genetically augmented super soldiers and Space Elves, there were humans slogging through it all, getting by on ingenuity, luck, skill and judicious use of firepower. I love the guard because they don't have bio engineering, superhuman fluidity or the ability to make your brain melt with their mind, but they'll still kick the ass of all those above. It's the struggle that makes them interesting, how the perservere and overcome. The dogged determination that makes them shine brighter than the best Space Marine.

[Spyboy]

Kind of funny how I got into guard. (Even though I am just starting, I have been wanting them for a while)

 

Started playing 40k in 5th as space marines, couldn't afford much so I split an assault on black reach kit with a friend. Getting space marines cheap like that and with them naturally being cheaper to get a whole army of them I stuck with it. I never really liked them though (way to elite) and was always looking for something better. Then I read the iron warriors omnibus. I loved the parts where it was following the guardsmen and from there got hooked. Couldn't justify starting the army yet till 8th came out and my gaming group revived though.

 

Kind of ironic though, read a chaos space marine book and end up liking the gaurd lol

[Guardsman Bob]

Got tired of playing my Shooty T3 army (Eldar) against Marines and Orks...

So I bought into another Shooty T3 army...Mordians!  :D

 

You made the right call. Eldar got screwed hard in 3rd.

[Imperator Deus]

Guard was my first army when I started playing at the beginning of 3rd edition. My friends and I had been playing Warhammer Fantasy for a few years and when we saw the adds for the new Edition of 40K in White Dwarf, we decided to give it a shot. There was no hesitation when I saw the photos of the Guard tanks and infantry. I picked my army immediately while my friends spent hours deciding what to play. I've always been a history buff, especially when it comes to the World Wars, and Guard had that feel in spades. I was also a big fan of Aliens and Starship Troopers and in my mind, there are few things in 40K as cinematic as Guard vs. Tyranids game!

[tvih]

there are few things in 40K as cinematic as Guard vs. Tyranids game!

 

Guard vs Tyranids, you say?

 

 

My last two games were Guards + Sisters vs Tyranids. I haven't ever actually run a pure IG list (or Sisters list, for that matter), and it'd have to be a fairly small game for me to even be able to do it. Not sure what I'd come up to points-wise in 8th. If only even half the infantry was painted, though...

 

A bit OT, but I'd actually like to see a proper Orks vs Tyranids game, never seen one. I have Orks, but only ever played in I think two games with them, of which one paired with CSM (they're both unpainted armies to date.... if you can call my CSM an army). Though come to think of it, I haven't seen a pure Guard vs Orks either!