Assault Sergeant

[pryor]

I'm going to be adding an Assault squad to my army but am wondering is there any point in giving my Sergeant with Power Fist a Combat/Storm Shield?

Also is it worth the extra points to upgrade from a Power Fist to a Thunder Hammer?

FYI the squad will be lead by a Chaplain.

[Gornall]

I really like having the PF on him, especially with the Chappy. Rerollable PF attacks are golden against so many things.

[rockdeity]

problem with putting a storm shield on a sarge is, if you use it to soak inv save shots, you might lose the PF, if you don't use it, it's a waste of 15 pts. The only time it ends up being worth it is when he's the only one left.

[JamesI]

Thunderhammers are worth the upgrade.

 

Only good reason for the storm shield is to stay alive when the rest of the unit dies in close.

[ShinyRhino]

I could see the stormshield being useful if you're running a smaller squad. Assault Marines tend to draw a lot of anti-infantry fire. If you take a big volley of lasguns or shootas on a less-than-max-sized assault squad, you're going to end up having to allocate wounds to the sergeant at some point. Problem is, you've already got a 3+ armor save. If you're attracting enough AP3 or better fire that you have to allocate to the sergeant, there's a bigger problem. If you're putting a lone plasma wound on your sergeant to gamble with the 50/50 chance of a save, you're risking too much. he's got the PF or TH, and is probably the main "punch" of the squad.

 

So, skip the shield, and buy part of another Marine.