And I'm telling you that they are not nearly as squishy as you think they are. Their basic infantry are not any more squishy than those of the Eldar, Orks, or Tau. They are more durable than Dark Eldar, Cultists, and Gaunts by a long stretch. They can upgrade to be just as durable as Scouts, and get better weapons to boot. These useless redshirts that die if you sneeze on them only exist in your own head, and Guardsmen as you imagine them might as well be erased from the entire Warhammer 40k universe. Which, as I have stated, is completely unacceptable to a Guard player. The only "lore" that would really be violated by making the Imperial Guard competitive is your own fanfiction version of 40k.
They DIE TO A SINGLE BOLTER SHOT, There is no getting around that. They are humans, they die from a single bolter round. Eurgh, I'll go get my Rulebook and scan an image for you. There is an example of a typical Imperial Guard Engagement where it outlines objectives and casualties for that phase of the battle. Over 2 days losing 60000 men is deemed as "Acceptable". Pretty sure it's not a fanfiction to point out that the Guard are weak as fuck individually and take horrendous casualties to achieve ANY objective.
If we have anything approaching a decent sized player base then all factions are going to take more than 60,000 casualties in the first two days of fighting. Let's say we have 4,000 players total (I think the devs would be rather disappointed in that player count), and they're roughly evenly distributed with about 1,000 players on each faction. Each player would only have to die 60 times over 2 days to hit 60,000 casualties per faction. If we assume each player puts in an average of 3 hours per day (which is probably a low estimate for launch day) that works out to 10 deaths per hour, per player, or an average TTL of 6 minutes. Which is rather long for a shooter. I don't think we'll have to worry about the Guard not taking enough casualties. Look, I know that you, personally, believe that Guardsmen are completely and utterly useless and could not even beat a Frenchman in a stand up fight. But that has zero relevance outside of your personal opinion. The Imperial Guard has been implemented in a balanced manner in many 40k games, and it can be implemented in this one. If your idea of the lore cannot support this, tough luck. Your fluff is invalid, and will be tossed aside just like it is in every other game.
Well yes, but that's called asymmetrical balance. Which, IIRC, this game is supposed to have. Even if all we have is transports, a basic Chimera with a multilaser can absolutely kick a Rhino to the curb. The Rhino's storm bolter can't even glance its front armor! When you further consider that the Chimera can hypothetically equip an autocannon, the Imperial Guard will already be roflstomping the other factions when it comes to vehicles. However, I don't think they should be a launch faction (and of course, we know they won't be). Rather they would be an excellent addition to a future patch that focuses on vehicle gameplay, allowing the Guard to debut with the tanks we know and love while showcasing the improved vehicle combat.
Two things 1. This is fact, an individual Guardsman (Just your bog standard guardsman) IS USELESS. That has been established for over 20 years now why are you still trying to dispute this. 2. It works in other games because they are strategy games, TPS games are very different indeed (Also Guardsmen died a lot faster vs marines in Dawn of War). You're not even reading my posts, You'll realize that I KNOW THEY CAN BE IMPLEMENTED IN A BALANCED MANNER. I've said this countless times that I know they can be implemented I just don't want them to because of extreme immersion breaking. Christ.
Also why are you so eager to throw aside the lore that gives 40k life more than just a dice roll game? You do realize that the codex contains all of this stuff? It has descriptions of the armory and capabilities that each race has, the stuff that comes with the rules for your tabletop TELLS you that Bolters are that powerful, that Flak and Carapace Armor is that weak. 40k Is not 40k without the fluff, It's just a dice roll mechanic if you take that out.
