Infantry Units

TROOPS UNITS (INFANTRY).

"Never underestimate the common soldier." - Mike Y'Barbo, Seattle GT Overall Winner.

Many consider the Infantry to be the backbone of the Imperial Guard. I have seen armies made up almost entirely of Troops do very well. You can pack a lot of Guardsmen into a 1500-1700 point I.G. army. While the Imperial Guard do not have a lot of versatility in what they can take for Troops slots, they do have the most unique army structure in Warhammer 40K. At least one Troop selection in an Imperial Guard army MUST be a Platoon. This means that ONE SINGLE TROOP SLOT WILL CONSIST OF 3 ACTUAL SQUADS: An Infantry Command Section, and at least two regular Infantry squads below it. Once you have packed all this into your first Troop slot in your army, you can add an Armored Fist squad, which is an Infantry Squad in a transport vehicle (the Chimera tank), or add more basic 10-man Infantry Squads to the Platoon.

You do have some versatility with the Infantry Command Section (I.C.S.). Since you have to have it, you might as well take advantage of the fact that you can add Special Weapons and Heavy Weapons to the squad. You can even tool up the I.C.S. squad with Close Combat gear, to make them mean in Hand-To-Hand combat. You can also give the I.C.S. unit a Chimera transport tank. The Infantry Command Section is a unit you can experiment with to find out what you really want to arm it with and how many points you want to spend on it.

Infantry squads are, in my opinion, some of the most entertaining squads to use. Standard I.G. Infantry squads (10 grunts) are often ignored by your opponents. Afterall, what can a squad of 10 guys with Flak Armor and Lasguns really do? Reality? They can kill a Tyranid Carnifex (big bug) with rapid Lasgun fire, they can assault and kill Chaos Space Marine command units, they can tie up an enemy unit for a few turns (sometimes allowing you to win the game), they can accomplish mission objectives just by enhabiting a quadrant of the table... etc., etc., etc. I have destroyed 250+ point Land Raider tanks with a lone Guardsman armed with a Meltagun. I have shot, then assaulted 10-man Chaos Space Marine squads, causing them to break and be run down, killed to the man. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE STANDARD GUARDSMAN! My long-time gaming pal Rueben is of the firm belief that "the most dangerous weapon in the Imperium is the butt of a Lasgun". He is a Veteran Gamer...

Infantry is what you will have the most of in your army. Learn what special weapons and options you like best in these units by trying them all in friendly games using stand-in models and such. You may find you like Veteran Sgts. in your squads, or an expensive Special Weapon in the unit, or you may like just having plain, no-frills squads of Guardsmen with nothing but Lasguns. Maybe you will put a heavy weapon in your Infantry Squad, and use the 8 remaining men in the squad to eat bullets/protect the heavy weapon while you fire away at the enemy. Maybe you will find you like a mix of all of these Infantry uses in your army...