Going Overboard With VV/HG

[Khavos]

There are a lot of advocates around these parts for keeping Vanguard Veterans nice and cheap, and never even touching close combat Honor Guard. I understand the logic behind it, but I can't help but wonder what it'd be like to go the opposite direction.

 

The reason why is that I'm working on a DoA list, and, I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a deathstar kind of guy. I like hammer units, and the inability to fit them into DoA lists - true hammer units, anyway, not beaters like Sanguinary Guard - has always bothered me. But then I started to consider just going all out with a unit or two. A Vanguard Veteran squad of five with four storm shields, four lightning claws, and a power fist on the sergeant - not to mention the requisite jump packs - clocks in at 315 points. That's not cheap by any means, but it's pretty damn durable, provided it's within a FNP bubble, and pretty killy. You can go one better with Honor Guard, chucking a banner into the mix - more expensive, but even more deadly.

 

Worth it? I dunno. Smart money says no, but I'm not so sure. Sure, it's 100 points more expensive than BA Terminators the way they're usually run, but it doesn't need transport, and mobile armies won't be able to nullify it quite as easily just by moving away, and my crude, crude mathhammer suggests it can hang with a lot of other rocks. It's tempting.

 

So tell me why it's a bad idea.

[Atlantic]

The only thing that would bother me about that squad is that it is only 5 guys and it doesn't score. You are going to lose against big squads in combat through being tied up for 2 or 3 turns and not being able to put out enough attacks to kill them all. If you were to get charged by 20 orks or something stupid they will get you by throwing buckets of dice while you can only kill so many of their guys.

 

Depending on what you are bringing there might be other units that would be more useful for the cost.

 

If you want to do a deathstar unit, don't go honour guard. Take Deathcompany. If you want to, you can play all kinds of crazy wound allocation games as well.

[SamaNagol]

'Hammer' units are so called because they will smash anything they hit directly with blunt force. That is what Death Company are. It is also what Sanguinary Guard are.

 

It doesn't mean they are survivable.

 

And this is what DoA lists need, and the reason why expensive VGV units with lots of Shields are suggested. If you can Heroically Intervene and tie up a nasty unit that could theoretically beat your Hammers in combat (like DCA or Genestealers or Banshees) generally you will win the game.

 

VGV are the only unit in an all DoA list that are actually survivable, unless you want to include Dreadnoughts in Pods too.

[knife&fork]

'Hammer' units are so called because they will smash anything they hit directly with blunt force. That is what Death Company are. It is also what Sanguinary Guard are.

 

It doesn't mean they are survivable.

 

And this is what DoA lists need, and the reason why expensive VGV units with lots of Shields are suggested. If you can Heroically Intervene and tie up a nasty unit that could theoretically beat your Hammers in combat (like DCA or Genestealers or Banshees) generally you will win the game.

 

VGV are the only unit in an all DoA list that are actually survivable, unless you want to include Dreadnoughts in Pods too.

 

Or terminators, or land raiders :P

 

VGV still depend on pulling off a heroic intervention. A clever opponent will make that difficult or present as few valid targets as possible. And if you go totally overboard on the VGV you have to ask yourself if you're not better off just taking more bodies. Shooting is always an option.