Battleforce face-off, need some help

[chapter master 454]

Right, well at the GW I go to, there is a competition called (if I remember right) the battleforce face-off.

Rules for it are simple, your army must be the contents of a battleforce you have bought (IE you can't just assemble the units from your collection) plus one HQ choice and nothing more. No points limit however any upgrades given must be WYSIWYG. Thats the run down.

I have joined with the catachan battleforce, I plan on having more theme than rule optimising but still some competitor in it. So the sentinel has a heavy flamer, is a scout one, the squads will have flamers (thats all I'm given anyway!). I have 20 guardsman models, 3 heavy weapons teams and 1 command squad and I plan on taking iron hand straken.

Now the heavies have autocannons (best armour value there is going to be is 12 and thats from the eldar falcon) and I already told you what the sentinel packs. The questions are about what I can take for command squad and guardsman (forgot to get the codex...DOH!). I plan to field the guardsman as veterans and I would like to know how many special weapons can they take? what and how many can the command squad take? and how do I get heavy weapons teams in? (heard something that they are part of another squad or something and not their own unit entry).

If I could get some answers I would be very greatful, I'm hoping my catachan battlegroup 26 can take on the others!

edit: I forgot one detail, whats in the box is what you use I think regardless of force organisation. In reply to the necrons, for one I think it has to be a blisters leader and not a boxed one. Special characters however are somewhat vague, I'm not sure if there is a limitation upon which can be taken or if they can be taken at all (which would quite easily sink me). TY for the info but the main question special weapons: how many can veterans (or normal guardsman) take?

[Xas]

what a bougs competition.

necrons anyone? nightbringer + battleforce = gg.

or chaos lead by abby.

heavy weapons can either be baught for normal/veteran/command squads just like lascanons for space marines. or they can form a unit of 3 teams which is part of a platton which constist of 1 command and 2 infantry squads minimum. so your battelforce basically is a minimal platton+1 weapon squad plus that sentinel.

[oni]

I can see how this would be really fun, but at the same time extremely unbalanced. It's kind of like booster draft for M:TG.

[Magos Bellum]

This could be rather interesting, because Straken is NOT a headquarters choice on his own. He is an upgrade character for a company commander, who comes with a command squad. So you are kind of falling into a crack in the rules here because he still needs a command squad (which conveniently comes with the battleforce), but if you use the straken model, you will have an extra model.

Furthermore, because of the way the troop section is set up, you MUST have an infantry platoon with the minimal 2 infantry squads and command squad to take the heavy weapons squad, which means that you can't take Straken because you don't have enought models for a command squad.

Possible solution: make an officer out of the bits in the battleforce with a power weapon, plasma pistol and a shotgun(cut down a lasgun a bit, it doesn't look great but it is a fast and easy conversion) and count him as Straken, then add a Commissar Lord or a Priest (or Yarrick for great CC fun) and then take two veteran squads with 3 special weapons and an autocannon each. Then you have three extra models that could be made into bodyguards and a master of ordinance with some effort and large amounts of command squad bits. This isn't the greatest force in the imperial guard, but the Straken combat squad of doom (or a minor version of it anyway) in such a small match could be hilarious.

[entendre_entendre]

vet squads can get 3 SW, while the command squad can take 4. for the vets, you can also take a HW in the same unit. the HW team also replaces 2 members with one team (and one statline, keep this in mind for ID).
this comp seems like fun, but could be really unbalanced, i think the pointage for the guard could be around 250 pts (variable of course) but the csm is around 300pts, and at the lower point games, a little difference can make quite an impact.