Lot's of greens with dirty whites as pus oozing down.

Hey guys, I just got a Heavy Weapons team for my IG army, and I was wondering how I should assemble them.
I already have a command squad, two infantry groups that can have either grenade launchers or flamethrower, and a sentinel with an auto cannon.
Should I give the Heavy Weapons team autocannons or missile launchers, or a combination?

TL;DR
What weapons should my Heavy Weapons team use?

Give them auto cannons and buy a Leman Russ. No Russ, No win.

Autocannons never failed me, they tear through everything. Missiles on the other hand tend to not kill vehicles effectively, while the anti infantry blast is not powerful enough to cause any serious damage.

I'm currently bits building a 3 mortar support squad, not really an offensive weapon, more like a cheap intimidation weapon. I mean, I mostly play against marines, and recently tau, the tau might take a real beating, but the marines probably shrug of the damage. Or if we're gonna play a big game again, small numbers of 'nids and orks to beat to a pulp.

EDIT: I recently played my first game with the sentikan, I learned one thing: My tactic works SO much better than expected.
You take an armored sentinel with heavy flamer and CC weapon, have it burn up some infantry before charging into combat, thanks to it's heavy-ish front armor they can't damage it unless they have dedicated anti tank weapons(marines tend to prefer power swords over fists), casually shrug of all attacks and slowly decimate an extremely expensive troop squad.

I also learned that hammerheads are overpowered as ♥♥♥♥ against my army. The guy deployed three of them spread out along his table edge, took out all my tanks in 2 turns. That's 300 points of tau tank taking out nearly 500 points of guardsman heavy support.

Well, autocannons it is then.
Time for the Emprahs Hammer to get some new units.

EDIT: So it turns out the plastic glue I had dried up, since I haven't used it on a while. So I can't assemble mah dudes. But I did get some nice bases for my guardsmen squads. It looks nice and helps keep them together.

Guys, guys, news, there is a W40K store not far from home, so I'll probably buy some figurines.

Now, some questions:

1) Where should I start? The newb kit "Assault on Black Reach" is a good plan? I've been thinking of buying it, since well, it comes with a lot of things for a newbie to get started, plus two different armies so it's a relatively economic choice for a starter. Or should I buy some battleforce of some army and ask someone to teach me instead?

2) Any good tips on selecting a race? A friend of mine says all the time "Pick the Tau!" but I'm not so sure about it. Huge range seems like a good plan, but they are very weak on close combat, and I hate those major cons. I know all the races have their pros and cons, but I'd prefer one that is more balanced.

3) Any other random tip to keep in mind?

1) start with some paints and your squad of choice, it's cheaper

2) If you have trouble pick the race you find the most aesthetically pleasing / has the best fluff IYO, no point in sticking yourself with an army you don't like just 'cause it's the most "balanced".

3) avoid buying citadel brand tools wherever possible, nail clippers and scissors instead of plastic cutters, etc.

Well, for aesthetically pleasing units (which was my main criteria at the beginning) I'd pick Space Marines or Imperial Guard, maybe even Tau or Orkz or Eldar.

I don't know ¬¬

Well, one thing that I can say is that I'm very sentimental and I really dislike when my soldiers die, because it's sad. It's like "C'mon, get over here, quick! *Dakka dakka dakka* NOOOO!!!!".

Which dudes are resilient by themselves without being huge walls with legs?

Imperial Guard. They die pretty easy, but it's fun making it a heartwrenching movie type moments, such as
"GO! I'll hold the line!"
"But Sarge, they'll tear you to pieces!"
"I SAID GO!"

Basically, they die a lot, but it's for the good of all and makes for fun scenarios.

^^

Hear hear, Imperial Guard for life.

Guards my favorite race. I once saw a squad of gaurdsman take on a full squad of khorne berzerker, the berzerker didn't land one hit and the guard pretty much wiped them out with their counter attack, the look on the chaos kids face was priceless. Then there was that time I used a Tau army to overwhelm a Tyranid army in close combat, with fire warriours, and I only lost around 5 squads out of my 12.
Man, I wish there was a store closer to where I live

Well, when I played Dark Crusade I really enjoyed a cutscene you get when you are about to attack the stronghold of the Imperial Guard.

That filled me with some sort of pride and manly happiness.

I'll probably pick those guys, but I've got a question. I know they are like the more vehicle/artillery oriented army, but some of those models are quite expensive. Can I make something good with just cheaper figures?

Do what I do.
Have a ton of infantry, and get one or two light vehicles to strengthen your anti-armor capabilities.
I mean, all I have is a two squads, a command group, Sentinel and a Heavy Weapons Team.

Can I just get a Baneblade instead of all of that?

Unfortunately, only if you're playing Apocalypse, which sucks, but then again the Baneblade is pretty OP.
Also, Stormlord conversion FTW.