ok now that makes a lot of sense. yes you are correct ultramarines are the most boring version of the most boring army which is space marines.
i have a large guard army and if you want to shoot stuff then you came to the right place. they have tanks and artillery for that purpose which are fun to use. also, the heavy weapons teams can take orders which are fun to use as well. while 2 wyverns will kill a lot and scare people, the rest of the stuff is mediocre from a power gaming perspective, so no matter what you do you wont be that guy.
i actually did the same thing you are contemplating, which is start with space marines and move to guard. i found it a lot of fun and improved my game as you have to use cover with guard as well as you can get swept. like necrons space marines have a large room for error when protecting your models.
so, i would say go ahead and start with all of the tanks and artillery as opposed to getting a blobs worth of men based upon what you said, in addition the blobs require a lot of finesse as the artillery and tanks do not.
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