Sternguard ,Emperors Pimps or chumps?

[IW Raptors]

Yeah. Them official models have allot of bling. Mine? A tactical marine gets a nice bolter scope and a promotion to Sternguard. How much each? 22 a pop, for a MEQ stat line and not even a free transport? What are they guys, filthy CSM in disguise? :-o

 

After reading up about them on frontline gaming and hearing Reece sing their praises, I have tried giving them a go. 1st company formation and Libby conclave, no special weapons or gear, just straight up special ammo. The conclave backs them up with shrieks and so forth, combines nicely with the -2 LD radius the formation gives. Still, I'm on the fence after nearly a dozen games. They are costly , running in nearly as much as some skyhammer formations. The special ammo does fill a niche, lots of poison shots or ignore cover, can be fairly handy. So I find myself, somewhat impressed, yet on the fence about the cost.

 

What do yous think about them?

[WestRider]

I like them, myself. I tend to bring at least a few Combi-Meltas per Squad, and pretty much always in a Drop Pod.

[Guest]

Yeah. Them official models have allot of bling. Mine? A tactical marine gets a nice bolter scope and a promotion to Sternguard. How much each? 22 a pop, for a MEQ stat line and not even a free transport? What are they guys, filthy CSM in disguise? :-o

 

After reading up about them on frontline gaming and hearing Reece sing their praises, I have tried giving them a go. 1st company formation and Libby conclave, no special weapons or gear, just straight up special ammo. The conclave backs them up with shrieks and so forth, combines nicely with the -2 LD radius the formation gives. Still, I'm on the fence after nearly a dozen games. They are costly , running in nearly as much as some skyhammer formations. The special ammo does fill a niche, lots of poison shots or ignore cover, can be fairly handy. So I find myself, somewhat impressed, yet on the fence about the cost.

 

What do yous think about them?

The songs of praise are directed at the combi weapons AND the special ammo. I think they aren't worth it without the combi-weapons. 

[VonVilkee]

Combi weapons are currently very pricy... I like them in a sternhammer formation for rerolls...

[IW Raptors]

I'm acutually using the 1st company as an auxiliary to the talon strike force. Has some nice perks, like allowing you to fail LD tests by choice, despite the sternguard getting fearless from the 1st company formation. Pretty neat! Like a poor mans hit & run.

 

The combi weapons weapons always seem a bit too pricey imo, if you want straight up grav or melta, wouldn't the skyhammer be better? :-/

[WestRider]

Tossing in a couple of Combi-Meltas is more about expanding their flexibility than bringing in dedicated Melta capability. Between those and the Special Issue Ammo, there's almost nothing in the Game they can't take a good shot at. Makes them a very handy Swiss Army Knife Unit. Not a good idea to do for a whole Army, but very nice to have a Squad or two that can be flexible like that.

[Tamwulf]

You're paying an extra 7 points/model for Special Issue ammunition, increased Leadership, and access to combi-meltas/combi-grav, and one of only two squads that can take Heavy Flamers.

 

Take 10 of them in a Drop Pod, give 8 of them Combi-Meltas and 2 Heavy Flamers, have them drop in, break them up into Combat Squads, and kill any two vehicles in your opponent's deployment zone, or kill any unit they want on the first turn of the game. And they will be resilient thanks to that extra point of Leadership, ATSKNF, and the d3 Overwatch auto hits from the Heavy Flamers at S5. At most, they have just destroyed a prime target and will continue to do so until your opponent deals with them. At the very least, you have a HUGE threat sitting behind your opponent and he has to deal with it, meaning he can't move towards objectives or assault the rest of your army. 

 

I don't think I'd ever run a "Plain-Jane" Sternguard squad without combi-melta on foot or in a Rhino. I mean you could, but they would be just Space Marines with some fancy shots that would probably get shot to death before really doing anything. If that's the way you are running them, then yeah, they will be very lackluster for the points. The Special Issue ammo is awesome against Xeno's, but if you face a lot of MEQ, not so much. If you know you are going up against MEQ, then Combi-Grav is worth every point.

[IW Raptors]

Interesting, @32 pts, including the combi weapon, they would want to delete stuff on the drop! Thus far I've used the conclaves shriek and terrify to kill stuff with a 2+ saves, poison rounds from the sternguard for most everything else, bar tanks of course. I have considered rolling on divination, in addition to telepathy, misfortune and sternguard could be pretty saucy.

 

Fun combinations, but I have it in the back of my mind, that a cheap as chips 10th company as the mandatory aux choice for the TSF, frees up allot of points.