View Full Version : Footslogging Guard: Feasible?
Dark_Templar
02-24-2010, 04:09 PM
Hi All,
I know this has been discussed before, but my search skills are craptastics.
I am currently putting together a plan for my Guard army, and was wondering whether a mostly infantry force was feasible?
I am not a tank spam kind of person, will probably have a Valk for the model and a new Chim, but mostly am loving the idea of a mass of disposable humies pushing forward.
Thoughts?
Aldramelech
02-24-2010, 04:11 PM
Goodbye
Lord Azaghul
02-24-2010, 05:07 PM
I don't go 100% foot sloggers. But depending upon the game size I take a vet platoon in a chimera or two, a penal squad, and a platoon consisting of 3 squads & 3 hw squads - non-meched. I still take 3 heavies, and think I have a pretty balanced/mixed approach.
I have tried a couple of all foot slogging IG games, and the biggest thing is that game can literally take all night. You'll still want a couple of heavy support options and a few transports for support as well.
weeble1000
02-24-2010, 06:49 PM
I run an infantry heavy IG army and it works pretty well for me. Azaghul is right though, it can take all night.
You can cram tons of infantry in a 2000 pt. IG list and still have lots of room for armor, transports, and other goodies. I put about 130 infantry models on the table, including the two vet squads and the command squads and I still have 2 Russes, 2 Valks, and 3 Chimeras.
If you want lots of infantry, you can wind up overloading your troops section points-wise. It can be tempting to beef up Infantry squads with upgrades. Plenty of good lists pay more than 50-60 pts for an infantry squad, but every point you invest in one squad reduces the number of boots on the ground.
For example, if you put 300 pts into a platoon, with few upgrades and nothing but Infantry squads you'd have 55 dudes with 15 pts for gear. If you gave every squad a heavy weapon and a special weapon, armed the sergeant with a power weapon, and gave the command squad special weapons and a transport you'd only have something like 25 models.
If your goal is to have as many infantry as possible and still have an army that works on the table, well, the Infantry Platoon is very versatile and IG have troops out the yin-yang. It wouldn't necessarily be as effective points-wise, but you can put lots of the weapons you have on vehicles into your troops choices and infantry can technically perform all of the necessary combat roles, so you wouldn't wind up with "holes" in your army if you literally only put foot-slogging infantry on the table. For example, A las cannon hvy wep squad isn't nearly as effective as a Vendetta and is almost as expensive, but it still allows you to put three las cannons in one unit.
One huge weakness of using mostly or nothing but infantry is mobility. Guardsmen take for-ev-er to get anywhere, both in terms of inches moved and time it takes to move the models. They also die pretty quickly and get eaten in assault. But hey, if your entire army consisted of scoring units there just might be too many guys to shoot at.
IG infantry, no matter what upgrades, are very vulnerable to walkers in my experience. At S3 you just can't hurt a vehicle in assault unless you use grenades and your chances of hitting, glancing, and harming a walker with a frag grenade are so slim its not possible to rely on it. Also, with the limited space on a table, you can be vulnerable to multi-charge pretty easily. Tank shock will also give Guard infantry a really bad day. Although with a sprinkling of meltaguns through otherwise bland Infantry squads, opponents can mistakenly tank shock into a melta-toting moron. But like trying to take out a deff-dread with frag grenades, I don't think it's something you can rely on.
Now, with a huge pile of disposable units, you can really tie up big, scary assault units by feeding them lots of popcorn. It can also take a while to kill a big blob of stubborn Guardsmen depending on what they are fighting. With good objective placement and some foresight in deployment it's certainly possible to put a wall of men on the table that just takes too long to kill.
My advice is go for it. This game is all about having a good time and if it strikes your fancy then go for it. Winning games is also good fun and I don't think an all infantry or infantry heavy list would consign you to permanent loser-ville. However, not everybody will have fun -playing- an army with 100+ infantry models, so I would keep that in mind if you haul a bucket of army guys to your FLGS. It really doesn't take that much time to move Guardsmen though. It certainly takes longer than pushing around mech space marines, but if you aren't anal about where every model is precisely placed you can get through a turn in a reasonable amount of time.
Dark_Templar
02-24-2010, 07:00 PM
Thanks, really gives me something to think about.
Cheers.
gilbert93dt
02-24-2010, 08:11 PM
It is more than feasable, it is a brutal tactic that many armies are unable to contend with. However, I have seem a footslogging ork army devour a footslogging IG army. But, I have also seen a footslogging army kill every footslogging ork before they got within 12 inches.
Polonius
02-24-2010, 08:28 PM
it depends what you define as feasible. Do you want to win more than you lose? Or do you want to go undefeated at tournaments?
All infantry IG is a truly extreme rock/scissors/paper list. You'll dominate against a lot of lists, but will be helpless against plenty.
Anything that can close quickly and multicharge will present huge difficulties, but clever deployment, advancment of screens, and defence in depth can make up for some of it.
the fear has to constantly be running out of time to clear the center of the board before claiming objectives. In victory points style missions, it'll be fine, but KP and objectives will be a struggle.
Dark_Templar
02-24-2010, 08:36 PM
Thanks. I am not looking at tourneys, but just having fun games.
I am happy to lose as much as I win, and it sounds like an army leaning towards heavy infantry is one which will be challenging and with a few bits of mech on hand will allow me to mix things up a lot if needed.
Force21
02-25-2010, 12:16 AM
Awesome massed Guardsmen is lol funny.
The lowest Model count I ever played in a tournament was...like 80-90 models...
not including 2 Russ's, 2 Chimera's, Hellhound & Hydra..... & sometime a Landraider. :D
It is fun.... just....pie plates eat Guardsmen for lunch.
Grubbslinger
02-25-2010, 08:46 AM
The way that I have seen games in 40K, a large guardsmen army is feasable but two things can hinder you.
First, moving your guys can take a long time. I had a large guardsman army when I first started and I could never get my guys up into the battle field. It always took forever to move them across the board to get into range of the enemy because they were always just moving 6"+. Having orders yelled out really helps this, so I would suggest combined squads so you just yell run at one your whole platoon instead of one squad.
Second, make sure to take some antiarmor guns. Nothing ruins a good footsloggin party like a walker (as stated above) or heavy support comin in and destorying your platoons. A few medium-to short range AT weapons should fix this problem right up.
I might also suggest that you take a few more special characters then you might normally. A sergent harker or Creed can really help out a army that doesn't have a lot of options tactics wise.
ColCorbane
02-25-2010, 09:48 AM
Definitely feasible but mobility is a major issue, so I'd get as many special characters as possible so you can outflank and infiltrate.
Chaosgerbil
02-27-2010, 11:09 AM
It's not the stongest build but you can make it work with enough heavy weapons, meltas, and flamers. For a foot horde you will need Alrahem and Creed, or perhaps Straken in a Chimera.
gcsmith
02-27-2010, 12:14 PM
Be thankful u can take tanks, Nids miss them, but then troops that can all cause instant death kinda rules :p
Hairy Piggy
02-27-2010, 12:55 PM
Another thing to consider is...do you really want to/ have the commitment to paint 100 odd guardsmen? If so, it sounds like fun to play an (almost) all infantry army, and if it tickles your fancy then go with it!
elrodogg
02-27-2010, 01:14 PM
The outflank character can work wonders for a big guard platoon as well.
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