Sternguard Tactics

[Arnil]

Okay. So here is my plan. I fight Chaos in small apocalypse battles and they are obviously nasty. I am thinking of droping in a tooled out squad of Sternguard fireing Vengance rounds from a drop pod(With the stormbolters attached!) while a power weaponed plasma pistoled Vanguard squad backs them up by deep strikeing in! This will be my first few turn moves. This distracts the killey daemon princes and Khârn while i turbo-boost my bikers up and Outflank rhinos of tacticals up near the fight.

 

Anyway. How effective can Sternguard in close range shooting fair alone for a turn? The enemy fields termies, sound marines, daemons, thousand sons, khorne bazerkers, a defiler, and sometimes orks help out.

 

I expect them to fall in CC but i might be able to avoid that for a turn maybe. Against trator guns how good do they typically fair?

[Justicar Valius]

One accurate defiler battlecannon shot will ruin your day so make sure they can use their pod as cover from that. If nothing else is there you are screwed due to their being nothing else to shoot at for them. How many points are you playing? Because I would think a few squads would do much better.

 

And besides in apocalypse I don't like deep striking unless I am deep striking at least 6 units at the same time, for some reason anything less and they just get killed immdeiately.

 

I'd give them a rhino, but maybe pod in and attempt to grab an objective with support from your main force? Make sure this isn't his home objective, I tend to find their are usually far too many units there normally go for a no mans land objective with them perhaps, the drop pod could give cover to quite a few squads, should be good.

[Arnil]

Yeah i was thinking of dropping them with the deep strikeing vanguards and tacical squads in rhinos. MY Kor'sarro Khan makes them outflanking so that should help. Also i make outflank a Land Raider(not sure which one yet) with termies in it. Then i have about Five squads in an area and two rhinos and a land raider. Then my main force of Bikers can come in. It is about a 5000 point a side Battle also.

 

EDIT: i am also thinking of a member with a flamer or combi flamer. no sure which

[RIGHT-Titan]

I prefer to use my Sternguard in a Rhino. It gives them a more mobile ride and makes them less of a suicide unit.

 

I use a lot of combi-weapons because I don't like to give up the special ammunition..

 

In my 1500 pt list, I field 9 of them with Sicarius in the unit in a rhino.

 

The Squad looks like this:

 

1x Cato Sicarius

1x Sternguard Veteran Sergeant; Powerfist, Combi-Melta

8x Sternguard Veterans; 5x Combi-Meltas

 

Works well for me. Gives me a good punch. I can demolish vehicles if needed. I've also got something that can handle MCs. Also, as good as special ammunition is, sometimes something just has to die, and dropping a boat load of melta shots into a heavy infantry squad or whatever it happens to be can be what the doctor ordered.

[yodaid764]

As a Crimson Fist player, I use Stern Guard every game. I seriously advise NOT drop podding them. They get slaughtered way too quick to be effective when looking at the duration of the game. This is a unit that CAN pack a punch, but only if you give them a chance. Drop them in close/behind enemy lines and any opponent who knows what they are capable of will wipe them out in short order. Good for distract sure, but now a hard hitting unit (and scoring for me anyway) is gone. I prefer to use a rhino or razor back. Mostly a RB with 6 stern guard one of which has a heavy flamer. The RB usually has a LC with TLPG since it is from 2nd ed. That gives me long range anti tank, or anti MEQ close range support. I use the out of the box Stern Guard sgt with p fist but i have done up a custom one with combi melta and p weapon. Generally they pay for them selves and more, unless Im rolling terrible like my last 2 games.

[Arnil]

Yes for me they aren't scoreing they are just elites. And yes i know i said "JUST elites" lol but for me my Bikes are scoreing but i have them shot up before they get near the enemy objective. I know i COULD just not use bikers or insist on better cover, i AM building more to "give" to the guy i play with haha! But yes my Kor'ssaro Khan i think makes sacrificeing sternguard an "okay" thing to do. I also decided to get a landraider redeemer up there with the sternguard at the same time. Ap3 vengance rounds with Ap3 Flamestorm side sponons equals death to power armored foes.

 

Ideally id like every one of my marines to go home. But i know that that is to much to ask. So i sacrifice the few in lee of the many. Besides i am running white scars, the whole battle plan, how i see it anyway, is shock and awe tactics. I love the picture of bikers outrunning the nuclear explosion! I plan to play blitzkrieg style 40k so a softening blow of sternguards seems perfect for the fast moveing units to get in the fight and win. The Sternguard would be left behind quickly in my army of bikers or jetpackers.

[Brother-Chaplain Gaius]

Yes I can also say in all my experiences from both playing and observing games; drop podded sternguard tend to die quicker and to be just plain less effective than rhino'd up sterns.

[Voltaire]

Podding in a squad of Sternguard is certainly viable when you have done two things:

 

1. Used a fullman squad.

 

2. Include a Librarian.

 

 

 

The first reason should be obvious; more models = more firepower which in turn results in higher odds of killing the target.

The second is not particularly subtle either. A librarian can, with the right powers, make himself and his companions invincible for the duration of your opponents turn.

This can be criticle for the extended survival of your soldiers.

I also suggest equipping at least half, if not all of the squad; with Combi-weapons. Preferably Combi-flamers so as to better suit their anti-infantry role. However I flatly deny the sensibility of replacing a bolter with a flamer when combi's are available. Not to mention Heavy flamers which are much better suited to their role than flamers.

 

Please also note that Hellfire rounds, while rather ineffective at armor penetration, are also very effective at slaying Daemons do to the sheer mass of wounds they can cause. Still I can understand why you would risk vengeance rounds so as to ensure that they will effectivley wound, and hopefully kill the target.

[Arnil]

Yes i would likely switch rounds for the daemons. Thank you all!

[Meatman]

What do we all think for combi-plasma on sternguard? Yes it's a risk losing one of them every 18 shots, but it allows them to take out TEQs or vehicles if you can get side or rear armour. Which you can easily achieve from a drop pod.

 

If you are going to use vengeance rounds, why not use combi-plasma for better AP and higher strength?

[DerekLee688]

I ride mine ten deep in a rhino. Vengance rounds are never used, my luck with 20 shots of get hot doesn't pan out like one wishes. Hellfire are my default ammo unless something has a 4+ armor save.

[yodaid764]

Combi plasma is pretty much a waste of points. Sure you get S7 AP2, but the points are just not worth it IMO. More often than not, the Vengence Rounds are good enough to eliminate MEQ. One thing people often don't account for is the Kraken Rounds. 30" is an extra bit of help especially if you are sitting your SG on an objective.

[Xeonic]

Vengeance rounds can be worth it if firing at say, chaos marines that won't be getting a cover save. The only really game breakingly irritating thing about them is that you should in theory roll for each marine's shots seperately because gets hot saves have to be taken on the model firing the weapon that overheated.

 

Kraken rounds are fantastic, espesially if you're using a heavy weapon in your sternguard. The amount of extra fire they can output at 30" as opposed to say, devestators is pretty nice.

 

Terminators would be getting a save regardless of what you're firing at them, espescially assault termies. For the points I'd rather hit them with the combi meltas my sternguard take anyways, or just hellfire bolts. It's not really worth taking plasma on sternguard IMO just to shoot termies.