Imperial Guard as allies - pros and cons

[me_in_japan]

No worries jus - I wasn't implying that you were either power gaming or unsure why your IG might be teaming up with your BA. I was just suggesting that "how does it play?" is a secondary requirement to "how fluffy is it?" As we both pointed out, though, massed IG is fluffy but not that killy, so all is good. I appreciate that if you're looking to actually buy minis for your allied contingent, game effectiveness vs money spent is also a factor. I could mention the evilness of the empire at this point, and the need to show em that we will not fall prey to their blatantly extortionate price hikes and rip offs, but I suspect it would fall on deaf ears, so I won't.

Anyway, I reckon IG infantry plus BA elite types would be a most excellent opponent for pirate eldar and their pointy eared chums, so we shall have to get a game in once I'm back from Scotland

Happy list building

[Admiral-Badruck]

I think one may find it easier to make an IG list with X as an allies choice. Orks will work much better that way I am sure. As will tau.

[AndrewGPaul]

Well, you're going to be spending at least 50 points on a Company Command squad, so you might as well tool up on Regimental Advisors while you're at it. After that, you can get 56 lasgun-wielding goons for 280 points, and if you so desire, field 50 of them as one huge blob. Again, at that point, you may as well stuff a Commissar in there to make 'em all Stubborn. It's unwieldy as all hell, but it could be a right pain in the bum to move from an objective - and with the platoon commander issuing First rank, FIRE! Second rank, FIRE! that's potentially 150 lasgun shots a turn. Should be handy for softening up or holding the enemy in place while your Marines close in for the kill.

At least, that's what I'd consider, as being radically different from the Marines they're fighting alongside. Fluff-wise, I'd consider bringing Yarrick, especially if you're fighting against Orks.

With a roar of rocket motors a great cloud of dust was blown up from the parched earth as the five-man assault squad landed. The Blood Angels captain approached the Imperial Guard unit positioned behind a hastily-constructed barricade of wrecked tanks. "What do you have to report, Sergeant?"

"One of the remaining units of Varlak's rebels are still holed up in part of the command centre, Sergeant Mordax of the Mordian Iron Guard explained. 'We've attempted an assault on the bunker but Varlak's men are well armed and we can't get close enough without them picking us off."

The Space Marine could not but fail to see the truth of the Guardsman's report, for the bodies of several Mordians lay unmoving in the dust between the makeshift barricade and the ruins of the command centre. Although Lord Varlak's rebellion on Korsk II had been suppressed, pockets of resistance from those loyal to the rogue psyker still held out against the Imperial forces across the planet. Most had been crushed, but here the rebels' position was simply too strong, and so the Blood Angels had been called in.

"You may need to call for more men, Sir," said Mordax, looking at the small group of Blood Angels.
The Space Marine captain pulled himself to his full height and glowered down at the Guardsman. "You insult us, Mordian," he growled. "I will have words with you after we have dealt with the rebels."

With a signal from their captain, the squad launched themselves skywards, their jump packs carrying them high over the barricade and in the direction of the rebels. Descending on the command centre, the Space Marines let fire with their bolt pistols. Already weakened by the tank bombardment the side of the structure gave way and the Blood Angels burst right into the heart of the rebels' rathole. Without a pause for thought about their actions the elite warriors began blasting away at the humans and cutting into them with whirring chainswords.

Yelling a battle-cry Mordax led his Imperial Guardsmen forward into the fray. But the cry died on his lips when he came to the gap tom in the wall and he saw the charnel-house scene within.

Although there were only five Space Marines compared to at least six times as many rebels, the barely-contained animalistic fury of the Blood Angels made up for their comparative lack of numbers.

Broken bodies lay scattered among the ruins, not just cut down by gunfire but butchered in ways that the Guardsman would only have expected from an alien horror such as the Tyranids. Here a rebel killed by a gunshot to the stomach had had his heart tom clean out of his chest; there the corpse of another man testified to the fact that, while still alive, his head had been ripped from his body, taking half his spinal column with it. That such destruction could have been caused in so short a period of time seemed almost impossible.

Frozen with horror, the Mordians looked on as the Emperor's elite went on with their slaughter. The bloodlust was on the Space Marines now and nothing would stop them purging Korsk of the rebels. Only half the defenders remained. His armour splattered with blood and gore the Blood Angels captain slashed sideways with his buzzing chains word, slicing one of Varlak's men in half from shoulder to midriff. A rebel Guardsman leapt at one of the Blood Angels, his lasgun firing. However, against the mighty armour of the better equipped Space Marine the weapon's energy blasts had little effect. Turning on his assailant with superhuman speed, the Blood Angel struck out with his left arm. His power fist, its energy field crackling, hit the rebel full in the face, shattering the glass of the man's helmet and splintering his skull at the same time.

Close by another Blood Angel hoisted a rebel into the air and hurled him across the room with contemptuous ease, emptying the clip from his bolt pistol into the helpless Guardsmen as he slumped to the floor. The Guardsman's stomach and chest exploded in a bloody shower of intestines and internal organs.

In moments it was all over and all that was left was a scene of devastation and carnage. Mordax waited uneasily in the deathly silence that followed the battle as the Blood Angels captain strode towards him over the corpses of Varlak's troops. It required all of the Guardsman's will power not to cower before the seven foot tall warrior that was approaching him. He could imagine the captain's eyes burning with barely-suppressed bloodlust behind the visors of his helmet. The urge to kill was still on him.

The Blood Angel halted and leant forward, his visor mere inches from the Guardsman's face. There was a moment of tense silence as the Mordian dared not imagine what might happen next. A sound like a low growl emerged from the Space Marine's helmet.

"Praise be to the Emperor!" he suddenly roared and then, turning on his heels, marched away with his squad across the churned up battlefield. Praise be to the Emperor indeed, Mordax thought with an unrestrained sigh of relief.

[jus]

Andrew G Paul +1 for an excellent post! Now you are talking! That scenario is just the sort of thing I'm looking for.

@ mij:

I could mention the evilness of the empire at this point, and the need to show em that we will not fall prey to their blatantly extortionate price hikes and rip offs, but I suspect it would fall on deaf ears, so I won't.

...Didn't stop from saying it anyway, and for that you get a me_in_japan - 1 !!

[me_in_japan]

Ooh, I never did! That whole paragraph was entirely hypothetical!

[AndrewGPaul]

In addition, a single HQ choice and a single Troops choice from Codex: Imperial Guard can give you 148 models in fifteen squads plus seven Chimeras, all for 1,645 points or more - you can quite easily do a 2,000 point army which would basically be an Imperial Guard force led by Space Marines, if a Horus Heresy-era army floats your boat.

It's still fluffier than an Eldar army regularly fighting with a single squad of Catachan Jungle Fighters in a Chimera wandering around on the flanks, too

[me_in_japan]

Hey! I liked the models, was all!

[pdfitzg]

Dang it, after reading these posts I want to spend the day playing 40K rather than going into the city. Must get off of NagoyaHammer forums before I no longer have the will to resist.