Starting out - Imperial Guard 1000

Hi guys!

I was looking at some of the GW Astra Militarum bundles, and they are all pretty solid deals. I thought about what it would look like to start a 1K army with the Cadian Defense Force box (1x command squad, 2x 10-man infantry squads, 3x heavy weapons teams, 1x chimera, 1x Leman Russ). Tell me what ya think:

[HQ]
Lord Commisar + Carapace Armor + Power Sword - 85 pts.

Troops
Infantry Platoon
-Platoon Command Squad = Platoon Standard + Vox-Caster + Flamer + Melta (no upgrades on commander) + Chimera (no upgrades) - 125 pts.

-Infantry Squad 1 - Grenade Launcher (no sergeant upgrades) - 55 pts.
-Infantry Squad 2 - Grenade Launcher (no sergeant upgrades) - 55 pts.
-Infantry Squad 3 - Grenade Launcher (no sergeant upgrades) - 55 pts.

-Heavy Weapons Squad - 3x Autocannon Teams - 75 pts.

Veterans
-Melta + Plasma (no upgrades on sergeant) - 85 pts.

Fast Attack
Valkyrie + Lascannon - 135 pts.

Heavy Support
Leman Russ MBT + Hull-mounted Lascannon + Sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters - 180 pts.
Leman Russ Vanquisher+ Hull-mounted Lascannon +Recovery Gear - 150 pts.

TOTAL - 1000 points

Now for a little justification: An infantry blob sounds like great fun, and the Lord Commissar will buff it nicely with Stubborn. The Veteran Squad will drop in from the Valkyrie to provide some back field distraction and maybe pop a tank or two with the melta. The Leman Russes provide heavy armor killing (Vanquisher) and general mid-field killing (MBT with bolters). The Command Squad in the chimera is a mobile order machine/fire magnet. And the autocannon teams are light armor/infantry killers, specially in numbers.

It's not an amazing list, but it does use everything in the box and only requires another Russ, the Lord Commisar, the Valkyrie and another two infantry squads. In USD, this army is $16+49.50+$66+$165+$29+$29=$354.50.

For 1250, just add a knight. Boom, done.

Not a bad little list. If you do add the knight just be aware that if it explodes it'll take a lot of guard with it if they are close. That's why I use my errant up close and personal. If it's going to be a bullet magnet it may as well act as a suicide bomb as well. I generally follow it in with my contemptor so survivors have it to contend with afterwards.

I was thinking the same thing! The list here certainly doesn't need another battle cannon, so up-close-and-personal with an Errant would be a marvelous distraction, allowing the infantry to close. If you wanted him to really close quickly, maybe even use Gerantius? He gets a 3+ invul instead of a 4+ on the ion shield and gets Battle Focus.

Sounds good. I must admit that I love seeing an opponent's face when they blow my knight then realise what harm they have caused themselves!

There are a bunch of issues with this list.

If you take the vox caster in the PCS, you need it in the squad you want to give orders to as well or it does nothing. You may want to hit the autocannons in the IS1-3 instead of the HWS as they will be targeted fast and furiously since you only have the one. When the MBT fires its turret, everything else will snap fire, so drop the hull mounted lascannon and the sponson heavy bolters and save the points. A vanquisher is actually very poor at destroying vehicles because to start it misses 1/2 the time, then its most likely going to do 1 hull point a turn unless you get the lucky six between its main gun and the lascannon. I would spend the points and upgrade the valk to a vendetta for some better tank busting and its good vs MC's etc. You generally want to max the vet's so they have 3 weapons and give them 3 of the same, either 3 meltas to go for anti tank, or 3 plasma for anti vehicle.

Finally adding a knight is at least 370 points, not 250 like you mentioned.

I think its a good start for a list but it needs a lot of tweaks to be really competitive.

Thanks for the input! I'm not an IG player and don't have the codex, so that might explain all the problems :D

This was more a bit of a though experiment in list building, but maybe I should grab the book if I really want to dive into this.

Xsquids IDs some of the problems but you can easily make a competitive list using this as a base.

HQ: Have you thought about moving the tanks to the tank Commander option? Then your vanquisher gets BS4 making the shooting a lot better and you can split fire using an order. Basic Russ with BC and no other options are still good. If you take a non ordnance main gun like the eradicator for example then go for it with plenty of sponsons and stubbers but basic russ and demolishers should stay vanilla. You can replace the lord commissar for a regular commissar or even better a level 1 Inquisitor with divination for 55 points. He gives stubborn, has 3 wounds and a free force sword included and casting Presience on the blob before using the FRFSRF order can be rather deadly. You may even roll rending malediction or ignores cover as the second power.

Troops. Get the vets 3 meltas and possibly carapace armour as they will disembark in the open. A chimera is a good option (you can drop to 2 meltas then) if you don't go for a Valkyrie. I agree absorb the ACs into the platoon squads. If you go for a vendetta then the PCS with 4 flamers makes a nasty passenger unit in a vendetta or take a 3 flamer-or-melta SWS if you want the PCS to still provide orders to your blob.

Fast: Vendettas are good but wouldn't be able to transport your vets (though a PCS or SWS would fit). If you keep the Valkyrie drop the lascannon for rocket pods and keep it anti infantry and use passenger meltas against tanks instead.

Heavy: move them to HQ. Eradicators are cheap and non ordnance. Pask in a punisher is great but at this point level you may have to drop too much to fit him in.

Theres is a very useful principle to IG building:

Dont make it more expensive.
Get another one!

The great advantage with IG is that they have endless numbers to wear the enemy down in a battle of attrition.

Another good rule of thumb is:

Use infantry to kill armor, and armor to kill infantry.