Even though I don't see myself playing a game in the near future (due to work and family life conspiring to strip me of any free time other than the late-night painting/ hobby sessions I can scavenge up), I've found that drawing up army lists can be a productive thing for hobbyists for a couple of reasons:
1) An army list can serve as a very focused shopping list for hobbyists who find themselves buying kits and models without any kind of rhyme or reason (guilty as charged). Not only can that sort of buying habit be expensive but it can also result in miniatures languishing on sprues many months later because you honestly have no idea why you even bought them in the first place. But if those miniatures are part of an army you're constructing...well, that's your motivation right there.
2) An army list can help you build up momentum and maintain motivation for painting. Sometimes painting one miniature here, one miniature there can result in the desire to paint kind of petering out and dissipating. But if you're able to see a mob of 30 Ork Boyz slowly appearing before your eyes, or a full regiment of 20 Empire State Troops all resplendent in their colorful uniforms and heraldry lined up in neat blocks on your hobby shelf, the grandeur of it all might possibly make you want to add to it. In other words, using large, organized units of miniatures to get you motivated is like that social psychology experiment they ran many years back: when the researchers had just 1 or 2 people stop and start staring up at nothing in particular on a busy city street, none of the passing pedestrians bothered to see what they were staring at. But when the researchers had 5 or 10 people stop and stare up at the sky, suddenly almost every passing pedestrian would also stop and see what was going on. It's the power of numbers reaching a critical mass.
3) Army lists are just fun to put together and as a result, the very act of doing something fun that's hobby related helps to maintain your interest in the hobby as a whole.
Now with the preamble out of the way, here is the Imperial Guard Army List I've been messing around with for the past couple of months. Rather than keeping it posted up on the sidebar, taking up space and cluttering the page, I'm going to publish it as a post, and then create a nice, tidy link on the sidebar instead. In the future, all of my army lists will be done this way, and the sidebar will thus contain a collection of links to army lists rather than the entire lists. Of course, publishing them as posts isn't purely for housekeeping purposes. As a novice to the wargaming aspects of the hobby, I welcome comments and criticisms. In the event I do eventually play games with my armies, having them be fun to use (as opposed to poorly put together) would be great.
Imperial Guard Army List - 2,502 Points
Legend:
Completed
Work In Progress
Assembled
On Sprue
Not Owned
HQ - 372 pts.
Company Command Squad
- Colonel w/ bolt pistol, medi-pack, Regimental Standard, vox-caster, plasma gun, Bodyguard, Officer of the Fleet, Astropath
- Chimera w/ camo netting and hunter-killer missile
Lord Commissar attached to Veteran Squad
- power fist and carapace armor
Elites - 305 pts.
Ratlings (5)
Storm Trooper Squad (10)
- Sergeant w/ power weapon, flamer, meltagun
Guardsman Marbo
Guardsman Marbo
Troops - 740 pts.
Platoon Command Squad
- Lieutenant w/ power weapon, Platoon Standard, vox-caster, autocannon team
Infantry Squad (10)
- flamer, vox-caster, missile launcher team
Infantry Squad (10)
- grenade launcher, vox-caster, heavy bolter team
Infantry Squad (10)
- meltagun, vox-caster, mortar team
Infantry Squad (10)
- grenade launcher, vox-caster, autocannon team
Heavy Weapons Squad (3)
- 2 lascannon teams, heavy bolter team
Veteran Squad (10)
- Gunnery Sergeant Harker, vox-caster w/ shotgun, demolitions charge w/ shotgun, meltagun, heavy flamer, sniper rifle, lascannon team
- Chimera w/ heavy stubber, dozer blade
Fast Attack - 438pts.
Armoured Sentinels (2)
- heavy flamer w/ hunter-killer missile, searchlight, smoke launchers and camo netting
- plasma cannon w/ hunter-killer missile, searchlight, and smoke launchers
Devil Dog
- searchlight, smoke launchers and storm bolter
- searchlight, smoke launchers and storm bolter
Valkyrie
- lascannon
- lascannon
- heavy bolters on sponsons
Heavy Support - 645 pts.
Leman Russ Battle Tank
- multi-meltas on sponsons and pintle-mounted heavy stubber
Leman Russ Demolisher
- heavy flamers on sponsons, pintle-mounted storm bolter and dozer blade
Basilisks (2)
Basilisks (2)
Again, any comments, criticisms, tips, advice, etc. are heartily welcomed, although it should be obvious from my list that I'm not out to create the hardest army possible. After all, only 3 of my infantry units are mounted in Chimeras, so I'm clearly not pursuing the all-mechanization strategy that seems to be very popular out on the interwebs. Also, if there's a more streamlined way for posting army lists, please tell me. I know that it's verboten to post unit/ upgrade costs on a point by point basis, but I'm unclear as to whether or not there are other protocols for posting army lists.
3 comments:
Your format looks fine to me. Posting how much an individual unit with all the upgrades listed is ok, as far as I know. It's just the breakdown that's frowned upon.
I've never liked the idea of setting yourself an army list then painting to a set 1500pts, for example. It feels too constrictive to me. I want to be able to switch units around as and when I see fit, adding variety and something new to each game.
While that may be the case though, I can see it as a great way, as you said, to focus your efforts. My Guard are just getting off the ground, and once I have a full two Troops and an HQ completely done, I will probably be drawing up an army list to aim for. This will hopefully keep me focused while trying to avoid the distraction of countless other unfulfilled projects...
Good luck with your efforts!
@ Itkovian:
I think you're right about the set army list being a bit too constricting. I've already drawn up 5 different versions of this Imperial Guard army list, all with different assets, just because I find the mixing and matching aspect of force organization so enjoyable. While I'll try to keep my purchases within this current list I've settled on, there is no doubt in my mind that I'll be adding to it in the future.
True. I think a good wat to do it would be to try a few different configurations that you like, and see what keeps popping up in your list, then use these as your basic "backbone" to build the rest of your force on.
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