Infantry Imperial Guard

So I'm still a little bit bored of Marines so I'm going to stick with my current theme of doing something completely different.

5th Ed. is all about Mech as you've probably been told by pretty much everyone.

But is that actually true?

Well yes it is, actually.....but I'm going to try a Guard list with no vehicles whatsoever just to annoy all those people who loaded up with anti-tank but forgot the anti-infantry ;-)

I know this isn't necessarily going to be the most competitive of armies but I think with some work I can at least make it fucking annoying to play against...

So what do I need?

Creed is the obvious choice as a HQ. He has an excellent range for his orders (24"), can issue four orders a turn, has an extra 'Furious Charge' + 'Fearless' order and can give a single unit the 'Scout' Universal special rule. He's not cheap, but imo he's worth it for all those bonuses.

Of course as I'm going to need plenty of orders to make my Weapon teams actually useful (BS3 is not your friend) so I'll need another Company Command Squad so I can get the maximum possible amount of 'Bring it Down' orders dished out to twin-link my weapons vs. vehicles and MC's.

So lets see how much that has cost me,

HQ: Company Command Squad (5#, 145 pts)

4 Company Command Squad @ 145 pts (Vox Caster; Lord Castellan Creed)

1 Lord Castellan Creed

HQ: Company Command Squad (5#, 55 pts)

4 Company Command Squad @ 55 pts (Vox Caster)

1 Company Commander

200 points spent. Giving me 6 orders in total, 4 of which have a 24" range and 2 of which have a 12" range. Which means I can give the 'For the Honour of Cadia!' order out twice and still twin-link four units with heavy weapons.

Now in a foot list I'm obviously going to need some infantry...

Infantry Platoons are cheap and can have a wide variety of weapon upgrades to fit most purposes.

As I want to be able to take far objectives or at the very least push into midfield I'll need some troops to do that. I'm going to use a 30 man 'blob' with Power Weapons on the sergeants...

and a Commissar to stop them running away .

They'll also need Meltaguns (for the obvious reasons) and a Vox (to make sure that Creeds unique order goes off), they may also need Meltabombs as Dreadnoughts are going to ruin my day otherwise. I've seen units like this used In 40's or 50's but It seems to be a bit unwieldy that big and any smaller and there aren't enough ablative wounds in the unit.

I'll also have another couple of Infantry squads with a Heavy Weapon Team in each. Most likely weapon candidates are Lascannons to give me some long range anti-tank.

If my Marine lists have taught me anything it's that Autocannons are extremely useful. I've run out of viable places to put them in the Infantry Squads so I'll add a couple of Heavy Weapon Teams. Two should do it for now and we'll see what's left over points-wise at the end.

So that gives us,

Troops: Infantry Platoon (62#, 600 pts)

1 Infantry Platoon @ 600 pts

4 Platoon Command Squad

1 Platoon Commander

Not sure what use these guys will be to be honest as there orders don't help me that much the way the armies going to be set-up. They may require some upgrades to make them useful but I don't think they'll be getting any till the 2000 point level...sorry guys :-(

9 Infantry Squad (Vox Caster; Meltagun x1; Commissar)

1 Commissar (Power Weapon)

1 Sergeant (Melta Bombs; Power Weapon)

9 Infantry Squad (Meltagun x1)

1 Sergeant (Melta Bombs; Power Weapon)

9 Infantry Squad (Meltagun x1)

1 Sergeant (Melta Bombs; Power Weapon)

These guys are my 'moving forward' unit and should be able to deal with most threats through sheer weight of numbers. I'm told that they are complimented well by the addition of a Priest (an upgrade I'll probably end up needing).

7 Infantry Squad (Vox Caster)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Lascannon)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Lascannon)

1 Sergeant

These guys sit at the back and shoot at vehicles I want dead.

3 Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)

3 Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)

These fellows chew up light Transports and 'Torrent' down MC's.

If I do that twice that's another 1200 points gone making 1400 used so far.

I'd probably best add those Priests now before I forget about them...

: Ministorum Priest (1#, 60 pts)

1 Ministorum Priest @ 60 pts (Eviscerator)

: Ministorum Priest (1#, 60 pts)

1 Ministorum Priest @ 60 pts (Eviscerator)

The Priests get Eviscerators as an extra safe-guard against Dreadnoughts and also to up the overall amount of armour ignoring attacks.

So we're up to 1520. I can easily drop a few upgrades and turn this into a 1500 point list should it become necessary. But as my FLGS plays at 1750 for the most part we can add a few more toys.

None of the local IG players use Psyker Battle Squads which seems a bit odd to me. Their 'Weaken Resolve' power alone seems to make them worth the points, combine that with 'Soulstorm' and they become a highly worthy addition.

I was going to take maximum sized units until I remembered something Stelek said about them on his Blog (Yes The Truth Hurts for those of you who don't know) about it not being necessary. His argument (If I remember correctly) was that a S6 Soulstorm still wounded most Infantry in the game on 2's. Using the same logic a similar sized unit using 'Weaken Resolve' would lower a units Leadership by 6 making even the best units only Leadership 4 and pretty much everything else only Leadership 3 (or even 2) till the end of the turn.

Lets have a couple of those then,

Elite: Psyker Battle Squad (7#, 80 pts)

6 Psyker Battle Squad @ 80 pts

1 Overseer

Elite: Psyker Battle Squad (7#, 80 pts)

6 Psyker Battle Squad @ 80 pts

1 Overseer

160 more points used bringing us up to 1680 points used.

So I've got 70 points left.

Time for a brief run-down of what I've got up to now

4 Lascannons,

12 Autocannons,

2 S6 Large Blasts,

6 Meltaguns,

Lots of Lasguns.

150 bodies, 124 of which are scoring.

So I have a fairly decent fire-base, some threatening forward moving units, plenty of guys to hold objectives and a few dirty tricks just in case.

No major holes to fill so those 70 points could be used for pretty much anything.

I can drop a Meltabomb to save 5 points and buy a 5th Autocannon Heavy Weapon Team,

Or a Meltabomb from each of the Blob squads and use the 80 points to buy a 3rd Psyker Battle Squad,

Or I could give the 'blob' squads Krak Grenades which would annoy any vehicle with an armour facing of 12 or less and still leave me with 10 points left over,

Or I could add Guardsmen Rambo. Sorry, I of course mean Marbo.

If anybody has any better ideas then I'm open to suggestions. Quite often when this happens I play a few games under-pointed and usually I get an 'If only I had a *Macguffin*' moment that makes the decision for me.

For now I'll drop a couple of Meltabombs and have the 3rd Psyker Battle Squad.

Which makes the completed list something like this,

1750 Pts - 5th Edition Roster - Foot IG

HQ: Company Command Squad (5#, 145 pts)

4 Company Command Squad @ 145 pts (Vox Caster; Lord Castellan Creed)

1 Lord Castellan Creed

HQ: Company Command Squad (5#, 55 pts)

4 Company Command Squad @ 55 pts (Vox Caster)

1 Company Commander

: Ministorum Priest (1#, 60 pts)

1 Ministorum Priest @ 60 pts (Eviscerator)

: Ministorum Priest (1#, 60 pts)

1 Ministorum Priest @ 60 pts (Eviscerator)

Troops: Infantry Platoon (62#, 595 pts)

1 Infantry Platoon @ 595 pts

4 Platoon Command Squad

1 Platoon Commander

9 Infantry Squad (Vox Caster; Meltagun x1; Commissar)

1 Commissar (Power Weapon)

1 Sergeant (Melta Bombs; Power Weapon)

9 Infantry Squad (Meltagun x1)

1 Sergeant (Melta Bombs; Power Weapon)

9 Infantry Squad (Meltagun x1)

1 Sergeant (Power Weapon)

7 Infantry Squad (Vox Caster)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Lascannon)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Lascannon)

1 Sergeant

3 Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)

3 Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)

Troops: Infantry Platoon (62#, 595 pts)

1 Infantry Platoon @ 595 pts

4 Platoon Command Squad

1 Platoon Commander

9 Infantry Squad (Vox Caster; Meltagun x1; Commissar)

1 Commissar (Power Weapon)

1 Sergeant (Melta Bombs; Power Weapon)

9 Infantry Squad (Meltagun x1)

1 Sergeant (Melta Bombs; Power Weapon)

9 Infantry Squad (Meltagun x1)

1 Sergeant (Power Weapon)

7 Infantry Squad (Vox Caster)

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Lascannon)

1 Sergeant

7 Infantry Squad

1 Heavy Weapons Team (Lascannon)

1 Sergeant

3 Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)

3 Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)

Elite: Psyker Battle Squad (7#, 80 pts)

6 Psyker Battle Squad @ 80 pts

1 Overseer

Elite: Psyker Battle Squad (7#, 80 pts)

6 Psyker Battle Squad @ 80 pts

1 Overseer

Elite: Psyker Battle Squad (7#, 80 pts)

6 Psyker Battle Squad @ 80 pts

1 Overseer

Total Roster Cost: 1750

Fortunately I already have most of the models I need for this project (some of which are actually assembled) all I need is the time to assemble the rest of them...

Thoughts, comments and offers of money are of course (as usual) welcome.