How to use Sang Guard?

[Brother_Byhlli]

Oh, don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to change your opinion. Clearly you use your unit differently from how I use mine. ;)

 

Just saying that in my meta and with my playstyle, that unit works best with the Librarian. :P

[ajefferism]

I used this unit during the Ard Boyz prelims and plan on using it in the Semis too:

 

Dante with

5 man Sanguinary Guard unit, with Chapter Banner, Powerfist and 2 infernus pistols

and a Sanguinary Priest with a Jet Pack

 

(the rest of my army is 5 Las/Plas Razorbacks with Assault marines and Sang Priests, a Vindicator, and a Stormraven with Termie Librarian with stormshield and 5 Thunder Hammer Storm Shield termies)

 

I pretty much always keep the Sang. Guard in reserve and deep strike them whenever they feel like showing up. Dante's lack of deep strike scatter is awesome, I can land them within 3 inches of vehicles with no problems to get the 2D6 melta penetration, or land them next to cover if I need to assault next turn. I'll use them mostly as a way to get to objectives that my enemy holds in their deployment zone, after they send most of their army to the middle of the board and only leave one or two units back. The 3 meltas (dont forget Dante's) will pop pretty much anything too so they're great against troublesome vehicles.

 

They are a great Surgical Strike/Tide Turner unit.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Three meltas are spot on but some of us love to overkill. It can be a bit addicting. :lol:

 

G ;)

[Brother_Byhlli]

Three meltas are spot on but some of us love to overkill. It can be a bit addicting. :lol:

 

G ;)

 

Overkill?

 

;)

 

I love rolling the dice, even though I know the enemy unit's already dead: "how many guys do you have left in that Assault Squad? 8? Cool. Well, I'll just roll my 36 power weapon attacks for my Death Company... and rerolls... ok, I got 33 hits... rolling to wound... and rerolls... 27 wounds. Allocate them to your squad, please."

 

:P

[Bartali]

Dante's squad should have the banner, pf and two ip. A lot of people will say don't take the pf but it has helped me win many a game... sometimes like versus parking lot armies you can multi charge tanks and the fist really has a big impact.

 

I also attach a priest and chaplain to the unit. They can really dish out the pain.

 

G :D

 

I wouldn't run Dante with Sanguinary Guard as they don't really benefit from Dante's accurate deep strike - they have nothing bar a couple of Infernus Pistols to offer on the drop. Better by far would be to put Dante with a squad of Honour Guard and 4xMeltaguns.

 

I think Sanguinary Guard can be ok, but probably best used as troops in a Dante list rather than as an elites choice in a ASM list. SG don't really qualify as an elite cc unit as they'll fall over to the exact same things as ASM do.

 

I disagree with this entirely. The accurate deep-strike is better for the Sanguinary Guard as you can put them within guaranteed melta range, even with their extremely small-ranged infernus pistols. A couple of infernus pistols plus Dante's infernus pistol is all you need to reliably take out most any armour in the game, with accurate placement. The Honour Guard have the larger range on their meltaguns, which means they don't need the accurate placement quite so much.

 

a d6" deviation can still easily drop a Meltagun out of melta range, unless you're taking a chance on a mishap. I'd also rather Dante be in the unit which gives him feel no pain if you're dropping in that close to your opponent. Personal preference I guess.

 

Sanguinary Guard don't quite fall over to the same things as Assault Squads do - they have a moderately better armour save. And as you should be running any unit in your jump infantry list with the backing of a Sanguinary Priest, the Sanguinary Guard are more survivable than Honour Guard, too.

The main strength of Sanguinary Guard, though, is the ability for the unit to pump out twenty power weapon attacks with five rerolls. That's where the secret of their survivability comes from - they kill stuff well before it gets to hit them back. Particularly against Space Marines or other high-armour opponents, the power weapons make all the difference in the world. Against a regular squad of Space Marines, five Sanguinary Guard with the chapter banner will kill over eight of them. Add the mandatory Sanguinary Priest (which I always run with a power weapon) and Dante, and you have a unit which will obliterate almost any opponent up to and including nearly any elite infantry in the game.

 

Both are pretty much immune to small arms fire. The problems occur in CC against units that go before them and have power weapons - DCA, Halberd Knights, Trygons, Banshees. Elite CC units basically.

 

The only unit we have which is definitively more survivable than Assault Squads by your reckoning is Terminator Assault Squads - and they're not exactly viable in a jump infantry list. (Unless you're planning on running Honour Guard with stormshields, which seems a massive points-sick to me.)

 

BA are more survivable by having more bodies than your opponents elite cc units, and then using mobility to mass assault.

 

Just to emphasise, nothing wrong with Sanguinary Guard. I'd just rather use them as a troops choice in a Dante list rather than mixing them in with ASM.

[TheAvengingKnee]

Ive been using them with the IP to either hunt down tanks that try to hide or to quickly destroy MCs that are hiding in the backfield, having the banner with a libby with unleash rage and Dante as well as a priest if points allow. they will ruin a poorly defended backfield and can make up there points rather quickly. I dont buy the death masks since Dante has one, and the ability never seems to go off anyway, last game I had assaulted one of my friends Daemon princes with Dante's squad and he was amazed as Dante proceeded to beat his Daemon down before it got to go(the ability actually went off so he was at WS1).