Reddit reviews First and Only (1) (Black Library Classics)

>i’m new to 40k in general...

>the simplicity of these regular average joes really peaked my interest...

I'm gonna stop you right there before I get into talking shop. Go buy yourself a copy of Ciaphas Cain and a copy of First and Only. These two book series are what sold me on the Guard. They're fun reads and they're absolutely fantastic for establishing the 'feel' of Imperial Guard.

Now let's see here. 100 points of Guards? That's not a whole lot, even with us being among the most points-efficient armies in the game.

Here's the core of literally every Guards list:

Infantry Squad. This is every Guard army's bread and butter. They can have a special weapon and a heavy weapon integrated right into the squad to give them some much-needed punch.

A Commissar, for the leadership. On their own, Guardsmen (and especially Conscripts) have poor Leadership and you'll likely lose a model (or two, or three, or four...) every time the squad takes casualties. Commissars help with that.

An Officer, for the orders. In this case a Platoon Commander. The IG's unique mechanic is their Orders, allowing an Officer (either Company Commander, Platoon Commander or Tank Commander) to use their Voice of Command ability to make units do shit like move farther, shoot twice as much, reroll 1s (Take Aim so you can safely supercharge plasma), make attacks when not otherwise able (Fix Bayonets!, Forwards For the Emperor! and Get Back In The Fight!)

Here's what's also good and fits inside the points limits:

Heavy Weapons Squad (three heavy weapons of your choice, but no meatshields)

Special Weapons Squad (three special weapons of your choice, only three meatshields)

If memory serves, a Commissar is about 20 points, a Platoon Commander is about 25. Infantry Squad is about 40 points before Heavy/Special weapons, about 60 points after. Spare points can go into a special weapon for your infantry, then maybe a heavy weapon. You might have to drop the Commissar, but don't drop the Platoon Commander - Guard needs* their orders, particularly "First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire!"

The problem with 100 points here is that you've got between 20% and 50% of your overall cost going into overhead (ie Platoon Commander & Commissar) just to make the Infantry not suck. Another way to do it would be to run 2-3 infantry squads, or infantry + heavy weapon team, or heavy weapon team + special weapon team, or maybe just two SWTs for all the plasma you can carry.

The problem is, without a platoon commander to issue orders you're losing a lot of firepower and versatility (for example, Fix Bayonets or Get Back In The Fight), and without a Commissar you're going to eat a fair amount of losses to morale as your guys start running away once their squaddies start dying. If this way, say, a 250 point game, it would be much easier.