Honour guard + Plasma guns

[biglou666]

Hey everybody, its been a few weeks since ive been on, but ive been busy....

anyways, remember that big thread about the honour guard from a while back? everyone dicussed their awesome options, includng the ability to take 4 special weapons?

well, i made a squad with plasma guns!

i will put up a few pictures tonight. and yes, i did give them jump packs! :lol:

 

idea: put dante with them, and deepstrike right next to any expensive looking enemy unit with poor / no invuns. open fire. 9 hi strength low ap shots, plus a bolt pistol. FNP from priest offers protection vs gets hot. evil plans ftw!

 

are any of you using honour guard? what options are you giving them? like my plan?

[Taranis]

I have also considered such a squad. Will be trying it in my next game. To save points I will give them a drop pod instead.

 

Happy hunting.

 

T.

[Gunhead]

Same here, great against Meq/Teq and Light vehicles (Even solid tanks if you get the rear armour). I'll go with JP's for better manoeuvrability after the initial DS.

[Ultramarcos]

I've been talking about a similar set up but with meltaguns...with the metagame like it is today, wouldn't make sense to have Melta instead of Plasma?

there is the distance factor but you cannot charge if you fire Rapid Fire. and they can get hot (hidden SP for that..granted).

But the damage is much more effective by a S8 weapon then a S7...plus...agains heavy armoured stuffs...well...those are my 2 cents.

[Redo]

The problem with these units is that they are "one hit wonders". Sure they can deal out a lot of hurt but they cost a fair bit, especially with Dante. After they have done their thing they wilt under the weight of fire or assault directed against them. Even FNP will not save them, there will be too many shots or weapons that ignore FNP.

 

Even if you drop multiple units simultaneously a smart opponent will eliminate the most dangerous threat or tie them up with an assault. Even with Dante and Hit and Run,this unit will bedestroyed by a dedicated assault unit real quick. Without Dante it can be just plain old tied up by a simple tactical, or a host of other standard units. If you force a plasma unit in combat (or melta for that matter) they cannot dish out much more damage.

[Ultramarcos]

completly agree with you Redo. That's what keeps me back to table such unity. And quite honestly, with the new dex, we can fall into the trap of many one shot wonder but no consistant combat capability. e.g. RAS in Razorbacks....they get fast into the enemy and charge hard..but have no critical mass to sustain a fight for a 2nd round, or Dreads that do wonders when charging but can be imobilized by a bolt pistol shot (a bit exagerating here)

[Dingareth]

Redo and Ultramarcos:

 

It's not one shot wonders you should be worried about, it's apparently the tactics at work... RASs are great in Razorbacks; however, if you get out of them for any reason other than to let off a Melta shot, than something's wrong. I'f you're getting your Dreads immobilized by Bolt Pistols, and it's costing you games, then there's no advice on this board that will save your game.

 

One shot wonders can do great things for our armies- I run two squads of Honor Guard with 3 Meltas and Jump Packs. In a recent game against Eldar, they both came in from reserve, and using Decent of Angels both dropped in a few inches behind a Wave Serpent each. One had Fire Dragons (who were shot up by the Razorbacks in my army as soon as their Wave Serpent was Destroyed), and the other was full of Dire Avengers, who failed their Pinning Check as they piled out of their wreck. Those two "one hit wonders" just took out my opponent's main anti-tank squad, and two units that could have been used to contests objectives. Also, despite assault from 12+ Bikers and the squad of Dire Avengers, the one Honor Guard Squad survived in combat long enough for win, and eventually chase half of the Bikers and the Dire Avengers off the board. FnP makes them more survivable than you think, as does target saturation. Was my opponent going to soot his Bright Lances at the Melta Squads that just dropped in, or my Storm Raven, Predators, Dreads, or Razorbacks full of troops?

 

Getting wordy here, so let me just conclude by saying that your so called "one-hit wonders" are the basis of our new book. Even if his Honor Guard Squad doesn't make it's points back, then taking out a Tervigon that providing Synapse and scoring units, or those annoying Crisis Suits, or even something like a few models holding onto an objective late in the game, then they've had a huge impact on the game. Another perfect case: in the third round of the 'Ard Boyz semi-finals, I was on table 1, playing the Deep Striking Objective mission (my TO mixed them up for some reason!) and at the top of 6, I was holding 3, and he had 1. I was able to use Fear of the Darkness to make his squad run off of his objective, because I had nothing that could contest or kill his unit that was on it. It was the only time in the tournament I used that power, but man was it worth it!

 

TL:DR crowd: One-hit wonders good, if you know how to use them, and how to play your opponent.

[Prosedragon]

Agreed - if they're shooting at your Plasma Guard they're not shooting at the rest of your army dropping in/rolling up. If you can cripple a high priority target and then absorb some fire which would otherwise be redirected elsewhere, or in any other way favorably interfere with your opponents defense, the squad has done its job. Anything after that first turn is bonus.

[LordCommanderSamirus]

I'm in total agreement with the melta and plasma HG units. I've found a use for the fact that honor guards can take special weapons and PW or PF. So I run a HG with 4 meltas and a powerfist. It almost always does its job and then some, except for in a tournament this past weekend when they got a destroyed mishap when they scattered onto a squad of guardsmen.

 

-Samirus

[Brother Kovash]

I might try this with meltaguns, just need to get my hands on some extra bits. Might use a drop pod to sneak them behind enemy lines, along with their big boss.

[tahrikmili]

I use 2 HG squads with 2 Librarians in Razorbacks. One has 4 Pgs. One has PF, PW, Mg, Fl. They are pure awesome.

[biglou666]

i thought of meltas, but it was the ability to pump out 8 shots as soon as you have deepstriked that appealed to me. for me, this unit is meant to stand and fire, then get charged rather than the other way round, and dante is there to give them that upper hand.

 

i was going to put up some pictures last night, but i started to paint them, and no-one wants to see my half painted models! :)

so i will put up pics tommorow hopefully. but knowing me, they might be finished tonight, or sometime next year. :P ive started them gold with baal red wash, and with tin bitz for shoulderpads and details! - they are my first gold models though!

[SamaNagol]

Template weapons say hi.

[Dingareth]

And Feel No Pain says hi back. As far as I know, there's not a single template out there that denies Feel No Pain, and the majority of them don't deny armor. I'll take my chance with the 5 or so hits back.

[Godhead]

Vindicator blasts deny armor saves and FNP, Leman Russ battle cannon denies armor AND is 2x toughness so it denies FNP. IG medusa str 10 ap 1 denies armor save and FNP. Banewolf flame template, flamestorm cannons deny armor saves,so there's plenty of templates that will ignore armor and/or FNP. As a SW player, I'd prob just krak missile those guys.

 

Having said that, I also am not against such a unit because as someone else said, target saturation is key. If someone is using their heavy weapons on those guys then something else is left unmolested.

[Spagunk]

Vindicator blasts deny armor saves and FNP, Leman Russ battle cannon denies armor AND is 2x toughness so it denies FNP. IG medusa str 10 ap 1 denies armor save and FNP. Banewolf flame template, flamestorm cannons deny armor saves,so there's plenty of templates that will ignore armor and/or FNP. As a SW player, I'd prob just krak missile those guys.

 

Having said that, I also am not against such a unit because as someone else said, target saturation is key. If someone is using their heavy weapons on those guys then something else is left unmolested.

 

 

Yes but those things are going to hurt regardless of what you take. Anything with low ap and high str is bound to make any marine army cry. Even if you take all tactical squads, that large blast template is always going to be a problem. So saying that the HG loadout and its tactics is naff does not mean a hill of beans to us because we are going to suffer those perils regardless of what kind of squad we run with. About the only thing that can survive that is going to be Storm Shield squads. Though it would end up being a very high priced HG squad, it won't be that much different than loading the entire squad out with Thunder hammers or Powerfists or anything else. So :)

[SamaNagol]

Plasma cannon also.

 

It's a suicide squad. And if you want a suicide squad you are better off doing it cheaper

[Sanguinarian]

Plasma cannon also.

 

It's a suicide squad. And if you want a suicide squad you are better off doing it cheaper

 

True, a cheaper squad is available to perform the same duties, but said unit or units would count against FOC, whereas 1-2 HG doesn't. It's all in how the individual commander plays his game. It may not be metagame optimal, but there's something to say about a 5-man HG squad ripping through a 10-man squad of anything else, only to die a glorious death to multiple pie-plates!!! :)

[biglou666]

Pie plates or not, here are my honour guard, they are not %100 finished, ive got a few more seals and nicks to paint first, but what i really ewant to know is what do you think of my gold?:

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/ab249/biglou666/IMG_0707.jpg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/ab249/biglou666/IMG_0712.jpg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/ab249/biglou666/IMG_0711.jpg

http://i868.photobucket.com/albums/ab249/biglou666/IMG_0710.jpg

 

enjoy! i want all comments on the painting, but please remember i have one or two more details to do yet,.... including the bases! :(

[Dingareth]

Vindicator blasts deny armor saves and FNP, Leman Russ battle cannon denies armor AND is 2x toughness so it denies FNP. IG medusa str 10 ap 1 denies armor save and FNP. Banewolf flame template, flamestorm cannons deny armor saves,so there's plenty of templates that will ignore armor and/or FNP. As a SW player, I'd prob just krak missile those guys.

 

Having said that, I also am not against such a unit because as someone else said, target saturation is key. If someone is using their heavy weapons on those guys then something else is left unmolested.

 

Ah, those are Blast Markers, not templates. Quite the difference if I do say so myself- the template is the tear drop lookin' thing.

 

Also, those Honor Guard look good, I've always like purple plasma! I'd throw some white on the Sanguinary Novitiate though, just to make him stand out.

[Godhead]

I like em. Let us know how they work out. You should toss a banner on them and let them roll around with 3 attacks base and plasma fire :jaw:

[Leonaides]

Only criticism from me would be drill the plasma barrels, and next time try and do somehting about the mould lines. Unfortunately they do rather stand out when painted like that... Otherwise, nice.

[Freman Bloodglaive]

Now I'm tempted by a similarly equipped bike command squad. With bikes becoming relentless you'd hardly ever use the twin-linked bolters.

[Firedrake28]

Now I'm tempted by a similarly equipped bike command squad. With bikes becoming relentless you'd hardly ever use the twin-linked bolters.

 

Please don't. Losing stuff to Gets Hot! sucks bad enough when you're paying for jump packs. It sucks more when you're paying for bikes.

[Brother-Captain Devlonir]

Oooh.. that is nice.. the golden boys falling from the sky bringing burning justice to the enemy!

 

Also.. I like that you don't add a banner, this is in a way a suicide squad so don't add more points then you have to for them to get the job done.