Editing Wargames Atlantic (section)

==How to make a Cheap Guard Army==

So the aim is to squeeze 500pts out of three boxes of Les Grognards, this will cost you £75 and provide you with 2 infantry boxes and one command/heavy weapon box. Wargames Atlantic do provide a discount of £70 for three boxes so you are getting a minor saving, as well as at this price postage is free from the company too (at time of writing).

So what to do with sixty men using just the contents of the boxes?
 
*HQ 
2 company commanders (you can even give them powerfists);

*Elites 
1 special weapon squad with 3 sniper rifles;
1 special weapon squad with 3 meltas;

*Troops 
1 infantry squad with flamer;
3 infantry squads with lascannon and plasma (vox casters optional but you only get three in total),

*Heavy Support
1 heavy weapon team with 3 mortars (6 men).

Now that is a core for any budding Guard commander as it clocks in at about 467pts naked, 487pts if you give both commanders power fists and you can bump it over 502 if you attach three vox casters... Sure I put down a three man sniper squad but that's only because I am insane, the two infantry boxes provide a total of 16 special weapons (well 64, but 16 of each type, so 16 plasma). If you want to go plasma mad then have at it, you could even take the 12 men from the two special weapon squads and make a veteran squad and a couple more officers, heck if you have a bald head you can even give someone the Eagle banner and call him an astropath or psyker, or combine an officers head with the vox caster and phone and call him a Master of Ordinance (you do you). 

Now to build the equivalent in GW models you would have need 3 command squad boxes (£22.50 x 3), 2 heavy weapon squad boxes (£25 x 2) and 3 infantry squad boxes (£22.50 x 3) and that little 5 man box for £6, which would have cost you £191 from GW directly and about £150 from a third party retailer with the old Guard kits.

You are missing the bases however, so lets add £15 for enough bases for the army. 

So it is £85 versus £150 at best.... heck that's a £65 saving, anyone want to grab a couple of Leman Russes?

2023 update...

Just a little update on this as I believe the post was made in 2020 and it's now 2023. GW endlessly increase the price of everything and at this stage the command squads now cost £27.50, the infantry boxes cost £30 and the heavy weapon teams cost £30, the five man squad has also been removed because screw anyone wanting a few basic bodies. So now you really need 2 command boxes (£55) 2 heavy weapon boxes (£60) and 4 infantry boxes (£120) so the new cost for the same force above is £235, third parties only offer a 15% discount at best too (it was 20% when first written but GW changed that in 2022), so that's £200 total if your lucky. Wargames Atlantic have not increased the price at all in the same time, so now it's £85 (as we are factoring bases) verse £200, that's a £115 pound saving, also GW are going to increase the prices again in about a month so lucky us as the savings will be even more (or lucky us we get to give GW shareholders more profits). 

Anyway, it's worth noting the Wargames Atlantic didn't use the pandemic and fuel crisis as an excuse to raise prices. The respect they are showing their customer's should be applauded. Fingers crossed they don't change.

Also GW killed special weapon squads, so we have an even bigger reason to cry, all our guard forces just became that little bit less unique (also no veterans.... Boo), though they can be used as command squads instead. The above exercise is to show you how many men your money can get you, not to put a rounded force on the table, the only thing you get spending £200 with GW is an extra two men to convert.