Vanguard Loadout

[Exonec]

Hey Guys!

 

I am planning on making 5 Vanguard Veterans out of spare parts and I'd like some feedback on the following loadout

 

Seargeant with jump pack and Power fist

4 marines with jump packs, normal close combat weapons and melta bombs.

 

I'm thinking this unit can be used to tie up enemy units, and assault tanks, coming out of heroic intervention. What do you guys think?

[Redo]

This load out is not so good for tying up enemy units. It really only has the survivability capacity of a regular 5 man assualt troop. Veterans only have one wound and power armour. I would think that it would be better to drop those melta bombs and take a storm shield or three if you want to tie up enemy units.

[Freman Bloodglaive]

As a rule of thumb, two storm shields for every five Vanguard. That's usually enough to soak up the occasional power weapon/AP 1/2/3 hit.

 

Sergeant gets a fist or hammer, the other two get the non-armour piercing hits put on them.

 

Vanguard are shockingly fragile compared to the real assault units in a Space Marine/Blood Angel list, the assault terminators, but with heroic intervention and descent of angels at least Vanguard can do the charge and tie up manoeuvre better than Codex Marines.

 

Although they're not as good at not dying as said terminators, I do like the Sanguinary Guard as an assault unit. Just steer clear of units with power weapons.

[Volcatus]

The Sergeant can take a Glaive for free, which has quite a bit of value in this unit. As others stated, you need a couple of Storm Shields as well if you intend to have them tie up anything stronger than a Guard squad. With the shields, the fist/hammer option is more viable, as you can absorb enough hits with the squad to protect him until he strikes.

 

If you don't want to take the shields, you'll need to make them more choppy instead as a 5-man unit doesn't have the ablative wounds to "hide" a fist properly. Sergeant w/Glaive or Claw, one Vet w/Power Weapon or Claw, and the rest w/Melta Bombs.

[pararanger]

I usually give my Sgt a hammer and Infernus Pistol, even in a 5 man squad that's been a scary enough sight for other players to focus several units on destroying them, taking the focus off other units.

[Mezkh]

Since you can choose what to assault with them, Storm Shields are on the whole a waste of points.

 

Keep them cheap.

 

Actually your initial loadout is pretty boss.

[Volcatus]

Since you can choose what to assault with them, Storm Shields are on the whole a waste of points.

 

Keep them cheap.

 

Actually your initial loadout is pretty boss.

 

I feel that adding Shields gives you more options in regards to choosing what to assault. Fewer options = less situational flexibility. *shrug*

[Mezkh]

Since you can choose what to assault with them, Storm Shields are on the whole a waste of points.

 

Keep them cheap.

 

Actually your initial loadout is pretty boss.

 

I feel that adding Shields gives you more options in regards to choosing what to assault. Fewer options = less situational flexibility. *shrug*

 

Costs too many points.

 

Generally the best option in most games is to assault something that doesn't want to be assaulted, and those things don't have armor ignoring CC attacks.

 

If you spend a lot of points on situational upgrades in any 40k army, generally it weakens that army. The more situational, the cheaper the upgrade needs to be. SS aren't cheap enough.

 

And I think VV are too expensive to be built with intention as a tarpit unit.

[The Yncarne]

My experience leads me to agree with Mezkh. If you want a tarpit unit go with a cheap assault squad with priest.

 

Unlike Mezkh, I do find 1-2 storm shields in a Vanguard squad of 5-7 to be worth the downsides. However, I probably have more terminators in my local game than you do. As usual, it all comes down to how you play.

[BloodTzar]

Personally i went crazy with the VV's and i made a super-unit out of them where they have 3SS, 2PW, 1PF,1TH, 1LC it comes down to 320p with jump packs. I run them with 2 support VV's with just TH on sarge.

 

I use the plain squads as tarpit squads, however the other one is sort of scalpel unit. Most of the time they have FC as i run them with Astorath DoA, or Dante's DoA where he drops right in middle of the havoc to bubble them.

 

As it has been mentioned, based on my own experience,i would go for plain unit if you want the tarpit unit, prehaps use super-unit (like mentioned above) in bigger games.

 

~BT

[Exonec]

Hey guys!

 

Thanks alot for all the responses and the inputs!

 

I like the idea of putting some storm shields in there. Not only because I like the look of shields, but also because I like the idea of also tying up more combat oriented units. However, my initial thought was to either attack vehicles with bombs and the fist, and tying up them pesky shooty units. I am building a "bloodhammer" list with jumpers, devvies and a dakka dread; so one thought was to tie up my opponents shooty and let my shooty shoot their choppy ;).

 

How do hou feel about making storm shields out of the combat shields from the assault squad sprue? Do they need to be spiced up to be wysiwyg?

 

Besides, writing on my phone so some typos may appear :P

[Deschenus Maximus]

This is not something that is often seen on Vanguards, but I'm realising now that having a few infernuses is pretty important for post-drop turns. I'd say try to have at least 2 per 5 guys.