Blood Angels 6th Edition Experience?

[Dark Legionnare]

Hey all,

 

I've been a fellow space-vampire since 3rd edition. *Cue token "Hi Dark" AA-like greeting*

 

I played a wee bit in 3rd when I was but a lad, however, I played extensively in 4th and 5th, with the same models, force organization, and tactics through both editions. In both editions my forces excelled and won me many, many battles. I remained undefeated in 4th Edition at our local store, and had a couple ties and a couple losses at the hands of the dice gods in 5th.

 

I've still only played 2 games of 6th Edition, pickup games with a friend, and haven't extensively experienced it due to work schedules. Whereas I could usualy playtest my tactics and adjust them in previous editions thanks to being a kid, then high-school student, then college student (read all as "Loads of free time") I find it scarce now. It also doesn't really help that I moved to VT and am far away from my normal 40k buddies.

 

TLDR; I'm going to be playing with my buddies come November, most likely the only time for a good while and want to see what folks think.

 

My list has always had a core of 2 Tactical squads with a Flamer and ML each. Then as drop pods rolled around my list changed to new tactics. My strategy since then has always been to gunline with The tacs and Devastators, then pick at weaknesses in enemy lines with relevant Deepstrike hitters. That way my gunlines are always firing, and they will either ignore it and focus on the DS hitters, or the gunline. Either way, the one they didn't shoot at enough hurts them.

 

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My usual game winning tactic is 2 tac squads, a furioso dread in a pod, Reclusiarch and DC in a LandRaider Crusader, Devastator Squad, Priest, JUMP pack Assault squad, Vindicator, and a Librarian.

 

Turn 1: Tacs and Devs gunline, open fire, and hold objectives. Pick off transports, throw Krak missiles at juicy targets if they didn't slog, etc... The drop-pod makes itself known with a "Drop pod Assault" in their lines with the furioso faceing his AV13 towards meltas, Lascannons, etc... (My first worry with this tactic is that it is possible to put grenades on walker's rear armor now, making the Furioso now vulnerable to Krak grenades.) The pod also has a beacon. My main tactic here is to force AV to either concentrate on the planet-cracker known as a Vindicator, or the Dread.

 

Turn 2: (I might try to swap out the Libby for a terrain piece with the reserves beacon assister for more reliability with my DS'ing forces. I've only heard hearsay about these, not looked into them.) Turn two was the Assault squad arrived, safely placed between the Pod and where the Furioso was going to move to, shielding them. The Land Raider also DS's without scatter and proceeds to tear open with its guns. (In 4th Edition it obviously didn't do this, it just crawled up the field, but I more like the 5th edition idea of a Land Raider hurtling through the sky like a meteor, slamming into the battlefield, and then proceeding to open up cans of W.A.) Dread moves to shoot and try to assault if it's alive, Vindicator pie-plates someone if it's alive. (With the change to rapid fire my Tacs will now continuously advance in this edition instead of moving when the opportunity was clear to ignore a round of shooting at max range.)

 

Turn 3: Dread and Vindicator work their magic if still alive, Land Raider moves to puke out the DC who slaughter whatever they touch, Assault squad goes after heavy weapon teams or wounded/small squads, etc... The die-casting moves are usually done by this point, all reserves in (my luck was always good with reserve rolls, etc...), unit/tactic attack vectors made, discord sown in enemy lines.

 

The turns go on till the end of the game varying on what happens, etc, etc... This battle tactic has always had great success with me. I present a strong ranged front to chip away at and present opportunities for the enemy to shoot back at., then pick at their lines' weaknesses with the Blood Angel's superior "scalpel units" as I call them.

 

 

I wanted to hear from the community with their experience on 6th Edition BA. I've heard shooting is the new king of battlefield tactics. I'll not change my units or army list, it's been the same models since I finished the army back in 4th Edition.

 

Will my tactics still fair me well, or am I completely SOL with rule changes on some tactics/units? (Like the grenades on the Furioso's rear, no Initiative bonus on Furious charge, etc...)

 

This is not a "tell me how to change my list to win" because that won't happen, I'm a stubborn space-vampire like that. This is me wanting to get a feel for 6th Edition and how people would react to my tactics. My friends back in CT have played way more than I, I was just wondering what I should expect, from the community and my fellow, cursed brethren.

 

Enemy forces come November are looking to be: Space Furries, Necrons, Chaos, and Tau.

 

Thanks a bunch in advance,

 

Dark

[Chaplain Admetus]

Expect the dread-pod to die. A lot. A lot a lot. Maybe its the new edition, maybe its just me, but I've had a furioso in a pod die consistently on the turn after it arrives every. Single. Game. Venerable Brother George (full title Furious George) is well known for making a tit of himself whenever he deigns the tabletop worthy of his presence.

 

Overall strategy seems sound; its very much like mine of "throw stuff at the enemy until they're dead or we run out of stuff". I never have much remaining at the end of a game, but its always brutal. The nerf to furious charge will sting you a bit less since you don't have a priest. Death Company are the shizzle this edition (I don't know why I say things like that, I'm not even remotely gangsta) with the new Rage rules, meaning you're packing 5 WS5 S5 attacks each on the turn you charge, with re-rolls to hit and wound from a chaplain. When that hits something, the something -stays- hit.

 

As far as meta goes; no experience with new Chaos. SW are probably the best all-rounder of the marine codices due to being able to pull of razorspam, rune priests having silly runic weapons, and longfangs splitting fire. Necrons vary in strength and fun factor dependent on whether he's spamming fliers. Tau... well, they're my second army, and they're so one dimensional they spend all their time in the case for being boring (and presently said case is 500-odd miles away).

 

But most importantly: welcome back to the fold, and have fun playing games with your mates ;). That's what its all about - play the models you like the way you like, and don't let people tell you off because you're having fun wrong :whistling:.

[DominicJ]

Hi Everyone.

My names Dominic and I'm a Sanguinista......

[CitadelArmyGuy]

My usual game winning tactic is 2 tac squads, a furioso dread in a pod, Reclusiarch and DC in a LandRaider Crusader, Devastator Squad, Priest, JUMP pack Assault squad, Vindicator, and a Librarian.

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Enemy forces come November are looking to be: Space Furries, Necrons, Chaos, and Tau.

Welcome back! I personally love 6th Edition, although it has brought some pretty big changes to how Blood Angels 'work' on the table.

 

For your list, what are the options? As in, how many DC do you have and what is their gear, Did you take a 10-man Dev squad or just 5, what gear does your Assault squad have and most importantly-- does your Priest and Librarian have Jump Packs or on foot?

 

First up, the Vindicator got better since the full strength 10 is used against vehicles even if just a sliver of the plate is over their hull. The tradeoff is that Missile Launchers got slightly worse at killing vehicles outright-- in 5th edition, you could reliably stun-lock enemy tanks but now glances only take a hullpoint and penetrate hits only kill on 1/6 chance. AP2 weapons have 1/3 chance to kill with a penetrate and AP1 weapons have 1/2 chance to kill with a penetrate. Just make sure you have that expectation in mind when using your Missile Launchers-- they are not bad, they just function differently.

 

For melee, the AP of weapons is a huge deal now-- Power Swords bounce off Terminator Armor, and Power Axes give AP2 +1 Strength but they hit at Initiative 1. Note I am a fan of Power Axes, because with Furious Charge it stacks to make them Strength 6 which means you kill Toughness 4 on 2+ to wound.

 

For shooting, you take damage per-model by the direction the damage is coming from. So unlike the past, Sergeants/Characters/Special Weapons are always at the back of squads now, instead of leading from the front. It hurts meltaguns on Assault Marines since you are losing precious inches of threat-range.

 

For your own vehicle survivability, it seems meltaguns are going away slightly in favor of plasmaguns-- but meltabombs are becoming very popular now that they have the full melta and AP1 rules. Also, vehicles die HARD in melee now-- Grenades (including meltabombs) hit Walkers against their WS now instead of hitting on raw 6+. Grenades only hit Walkers on Rear-armor if they are immobilized-- otherwise it is still against Front Armor. For tanks, now matter how far you've moved or deepstruck or anything--- Infantry will hit vehicles on 3+ now, even skimmers. So a loner Sergeant with 5pt meltabombs has better than even money to slap them on that Land Raider and kill it. 5pts for 250pts is a bad tradeoff, so make sure you deepstrike that bad boy accordingly.

 

The change to Feel No Pain and Furious Charge means you only save on 5+ instead of 4+ (granted you can take FnP versus Power Swords and their ilk now) but also losing +1 Initiative on the charge means 10 Assault Marines will take much more damage in general than they did in 5th. Same with Death Company-- Marines no longer die without getting to hit back. Also, Overwatch shooting means you will take some minor damage (usually one model, but sometimes luck rolls bad and you lose up to three) even before you get into combat.

 

The Librarian got better because of his access to Divination powers in the rulebook. There are pros and cons to the other tables, but Divination is generally agreed upon to be the best because of the Primaris Power (meaning you can always exchange for it). That primaris power is called Prescience and it grants rerolls to-hit both for shooting and for melee in the turn you cast it and continues into the opponent's turn as well. This is definitely better than the old 'Unleash Rage' from our codex powers because it works on both melee and shooting, plus in your opponent's phase you will have an 'extra' Warp Charge to use your Force Weapon without having to refresh Unleash Rage. Also, psychic hoods don't block self-buffing powers anymore (Runeweapons still do though) so on the whole, Psykers have become a lot more popular this edition.

 

The Chaplain got worse, but since it sounds like you have a healthy sized DC so his rerolls are paying for himself. He got worse because his melee attacks are only AP4, so he's only fanatastic against Xenos (1 of the 4 opponents you listed).

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Versus the opponents you face, you can treat Space Wolves roughly the same way you did in 5th (roughly). Versus Tau, their skimmers will have 3+ Cover saves even in the open if your shooting attack comes from 12"+ away. Their railguns will murder your landraider quite easily still, and the majority of cover saves (and also Smoke coversave) have been downgraded to 5+ so they are actually better at it now than 5th edition.

 

For Chaos and Necrons, I'll go ahead and assume you will be facing off against your first enemy Flyers. The Necron Flyer looks like a croissant and is a PITA because it is really cheap points-wise leaving plenty of room for conventional forces (or letting them get spammed for a full French Breakfast worth). The Chaos 'Dragon' Flyer seemed unimpressive to me at first until I uncovered that Vector Strike is AP3. So it functions by flying over a unit inflicting D3+1 Strength7 AP3 hits, then at the end of its move (up to 36") it has a 12" range Flamer (like a IG Hellhound) that is Strength6 AP3. So basically forces you to spread out or die; the flamer will murder things like devastator squads before they even fire at it, and then you have nothing left to shoot it down.

[Dark Legionnare]

Expect the dread-pod to die. A lot. A lot a lot. Maybe its the new edition, maybe its just me, but I've had a furioso in a pod die consistently on the turn after it arrives every. Single. Game. Venerable Brother George (full title Furious George) is well known for making a tit of himself whenever he deigns the tabletop worthy of his presence.

 

Overall strategy seems sound; its very much like mine of "throw stuff at the enemy until they're dead or we run out of stuff". I never have much remaining at the end of a game, but its always brutal. The nerf to furious charge will sting you a bit less since you don't have a priest. Death Company are the shizzle this edition (I don't know why I say things like that, I'm not even remotely gangsta) with the new Rage rules, meaning you're packing 5 WS5 S5 attacks each on the turn you charge, with re-rolls to hit and wound from a chaplain. When that hits something, the something -stays- hit.

 

As far as meta goes; no experience with new Chaos. SW are probably the best all-rounder of the marine codices due to being able to pull of razorspam, rune priests having silly runic weapons, and longfangs splitting fire. Necrons vary in strength and fun factor dependent on whether he's spamming fliers. Tau... well, they're my second army, and they're so one dimensional they spend all their time in the case for being boring (and presently said case is 500-odd miles away).

 

But most importantly: welcome back to the fold, and have fun playing games with your mates ;). That's what its all about - play the models you like the way you like, and don't let people tell you off because you're having fun wrong ;).

 

I read your battle reports and I'm sorry that George had such luck and made a general ponce of himself, he should adorn himself in a bunch of rabbit feet.

 

I keep fielding my Fruioso because that paperweight (3rd Ed metal model) is the luckiest damn 40k model, ever. He has podded every time and has only 3 or 4 times been taken out the next turn in probably 40+ games. He consistently survives tons of AV fire on his glorious entrance. One game in particular my friend George raged over and forfeited the game was that he Dropped in, scattered terribly, and sat there angrily with fists out (with blood talons) and survived 5 point blank melta-gun shots the next turn. I'm sure this will change though with the Hullpoints system, as now he can be glanced to death quite easily.

 

I'll continue to give love to him because of all of my units he has returned me the most points, second only to the DC+chappy combo. I'll be sure to follow your example and write up some battle reports once I've played over Thanksgiving holiday. I make mine somewhat fluffy and write in a 40k style to make them more interesting, but I will surely post up my own experiences with an old 4th Ed list that hasn't changed an iota.

 

My usual game winning tactic is 2 tac squads, a furioso dread in a pod, Reclusiarch and DC in a LandRaider Crusader, Devastator Squad, Priest, JUMP pack Assault squad, Vindicator, and a Librarian.

------------------------------------------

Enemy forces come November are looking to be: Space Furries, Necrons, Chaos, and Tau.

Welcome back! I personally love 6th Edition, although it has brought some pretty big changes to how Blood Angels 'work' on the table.

For your list, what are the options? As in, how many DC do you have and what is their gear, Did you take a 10-man Dev squad or just 5, what gear does your Assault squad have and most importantly-- does your Priest and Librarian have Jump Packs or on foot?

 

It's a full 10 mac Dev with 2PC, 2LC. There's 6 DC, 1 with a powersword, and the Reclusiarch is bare. I sometimes throw an infernus pistol on him if I'm feeling saucy. Assault squad is cheapo, one fist, the rest are all chainswords and pistols. The Assault squad does travel with a pack priest as well. The Librarian sticks around on foot near the shooting units, he used to be their coversave bubble, now he's going to be their re-roll's machine.

 

First up, the Vindicator got better since the full strength 10 is used against vehicles even if just a sliver of the plate is over their hull. The tradeoff is that Missile Launchers got slightly worse at killing vehicles outright-- in 5th edition, you could reliably stun-lock enemy tanks but now glances only take a hullpoint and penetrate hits only kill on 1/6 chance. AP2 weapons have 1/3 chance to kill with a penetrate and AP1 weapons have 1/2 chance to kill with a penetrate. Just make sure you have that expectation in mind when using your Missile Launchers-- they are not bad, they just function differently.

I was aware of this. I have read and understand the 6th Ed. rules. What you say reinforces what I thought in that with the Faq making our Pie-plates AP1, the Vindicator (with full strength plate) is now a slayer of men and machine, making him even bigger of a target. :P The missile launchers are exactly as I figured, I'm thinking they'll mostly be used to just Marine hunt now, or spit at AV10 transports.

 

For melee, the AP of weapons is a huge deal now-- Power Swords bounce off Terminator Armor, and Power Axes give AP2 +1 Strength but they hit at Initiative 1. Note I am a fan of Power Axes, because with Furious Charge it stacks to make them Strength 6 which means you kill Toughness 4 on 2+ to wound.

I happen to have the old Honor Guard squad and the tech-adept with Axe fully painted. Been meaning to find somewhere to pop him in to a squad.

 

For your own vehicle survivability, it seems meltaguns are going away slightly in favor of plasmaguns-- but meltabombs are becoming very popular now that they have the full melta and AP1 rules. Also, vehicles die HARD in melee now-- Grenades (including meltabombs) hit Walkers against their WS now instead of hitting on raw 6+. Grenades only hit Walkers on Rear-armor if they are immobilized-- otherwise it is still against Front Armor. For tanks, now matter how far you've moved or deepstruck or anything--- Infantry will hit vehicles on 3+ now, even skimmers. So a loner Sergeant with 5pt meltabombs has better than even money to slap them on that Land Raider and kill it. 5pts for 250pts is a bad tradeoff, so make sure you deepstrike that bad boy accordingly.

 

That's what it was, pardon my idiocy. The hit on WS now makes the Furioso more vulnerable to grenades, but still not any rear-armor Kraks, works for me. I'll still be cranking him out then. I never had a real issue with vehicles in CC, I've always had great positioning. (Horn-tooting time: One of the reasons I believe I have such a great track record is always keeping my positioning changing and well placed.)

The change to Feel No Pain and Furious Charge means you only save on 5+ instead of 4+ (granted you can take FnP versus Power Swords and their ilk now) but also losing +1 Initiative on the charge means 10 Assault Marines will take much more damage in general than they did in 5th. Same with Death Company-- Marines no longer die without getting to hit back. Also, Overwatch shooting means you will take some minor damage (usually one model, but sometimes luck rolls bad and you lose up to three) even before you get into combat.

 

That initiative loss nerf is a big worry to me. Especially since the Reclusiarch is the only one who goes ahead of the rest now, but his mace is only AP4 now. With a low model count DC they were always a suicide unit. Tear through 2-3 squads, get murdered in turn 5 usually. I'll see how that plays in, but your worry and noted were the same as mine.

 

The Librarian got better because of his access to Divination powers in the rulebook. There are pros and cons to the other tables, but Divination is generally agreed upon to be the best because of the Primaris Power (meaning you can always exchange for it). That primaris power is called Prescience and it grants rerolls to-hit both for shooting and for melee in the turn you cast it and continues into the opponent's turn as well. This is definitely better than the old 'Unleash Rage' from our codex powers because it works on both melee and shooting, plus in your opponent's phase you will have an 'extra' Warp Charge to use your Force Weapon without having to refresh Unleash Rage. Also, psychic hoods don't block self-buffing powers anymore (Runeweapons still do though) so on the whole, Psykers have become a lot more popular this edition.

I've always loved the Libby's, I usually field 2 in larger games just because I love the fluff, the models I chose (Mephiston and an old Grey Knight Justicar with sword painted red) They will continue to see love in this Edition, and I can't wait to try out the powers. Psychic scream looked fun to use against the Tau.

 

The Chaplain got worse, but since it sounds like you have a healthy sized DC so his rerolls are paying for himself. He got worse because his melee attacks are only AP4, so he's only fanatastic against Xenos (1 of the 4 opponents you listed).

Not so large, and I worry about the AP4. It used to work out perfectly with the rerolls. The Chappy and Sword guy would kill 5-6 guys, the chainswords would eat another 3, then I'd usually be left okay, kill the last in his round, then move on. I may be even better off with the mace being AP4, we'll see. And with Rage no longer meaning I have to keep their blinders on (like horses) and they instead get meaner in CC, I'm sure they'll see lots more love this edition. <3

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Versus the opponents you face, you can treat Space Wolves roughly the same way you did in 5th (roughly). Versus Tau, their skimmers will have 3+ Cover saves even in the open if your shooting attack comes from 12"+ away. Their railguns will murder your landraider quite easily still, and the majority of cover saves (and also Smoke coversave) have been downgraded to 5+ so they are actually better at it now than 5th edition.

 

For Chaos and Necrons, I'll go ahead and assume you will be facing off against your first enemy Flyers. The Necron Flyer looks like a croissant and is a PITA because it is really cheap points-wise leaving plenty of room for conventional forces (or letting them get spammed for a full French Breakfast worth). The Chaos 'Dragon' Flyer seemed unimpressive to me at first until I uncovered that Vector Strike is AP3. So it functions by flying over a unit inflicting D3+1 Strength7 AP3 hits, then at the end of its move (up to 36") it has a 12" range Flamer (like a IG Hellhound) that is Strength6 AP3. So basically forces you to spread out or die; the flamer will murder things like devastator squads before they even fire at it, and then you have nothing left to shoot it down.

 

The Flyers are the only thing I'm really worried about, but I'm pretty sure my local groups back in CT don't have any. If anything I'd just re-purpose my GK stormraven to my BA list if need be.

 

And as always, pardon any typos, hard to read font on my phone at this size!

[MadMek83]

Single tacticals with flamer and missile holding back line objectives / providing firesupport with Aegis line. TL Heavy 4 STR 7 AP4 provides alot firesupport when adding a missile launcher. There's really no problem a palsma gun won't solve. Drop podded Sternguards with combi weapons enforced with diviniation libby is murderous. Death Company with Power Mauls... So good it should be almost illegal... Sure they are ap4 but str 6 normally, str 7 when charging, strikes at initiative, glance light vehicles, instagibbing t3, getting +1 attack with pistol. DC puts so many attacks that I rather take wound 2+ and give enemy armour saves than wound 4+ and not to give enemy armour saves. Axes are good too. But I am keeping 1 axe for 3 Mauls in MY DC ratio. It works well. Add a fist for General Purpous scaring and infernus pistol...

[Dark Legionnare]

Single tacticals with flamer and missile holding back line objectives / providing firesupport with Aegis line. TL Heavy 4 STR 7 AP4 provides alot firesupport when adding a missile launcher. There's really no problem a palsma gun won't solve. Drop podded Sternguards with combi weapons enforced with diviniation libby is murderous. Death Company with Power Mauls... So good it should be almost illegal... Sure they are ap4 but str 6 normally, str 7 when charging, strikes at initiative, glance light vehicles, instagibbing t3, getting +1 attack with pistol. DC puts so many attacks that I rather take wound 2+ and give enemy armour saves than wound 4+ and not to give enemy armour saves. Axes are good too. But I am keeping 1 axe for 3 Mauls in MY DC ratio. It works well. Add a fist for General Purpous scaring and infernus pistol...

Looking at it in retrospect the re-rolls pretty much negated the issue of S4 vs T4, I had very high kill rates thanks to the re-rolls. However, I did overkill even 10 man SM quads with one power sword on the DC and the Reclusiarch sometimes. I kept the sword because sometimes I underkilled, or lost the Reclusiarch to single combat, etc...

 

Looking at it now, without doing any mathhammer (because I hate it) it would seem that the AP4 is actually a boon to my DC not getting left standing in the middle of the field with bodies all around them to then get shot to pieces. I should consistently kill around 8 marines in an assault with the full squad, mop up the remaining 2 in opponents phase, then move on. Thank god the Reclusiarch still has a higher initiative.

 

Also, looking at Sternguard makes me want to use them more and more each time I look at them. But I'm stubborn, don't want to buy and paint more stuff for an army that's been done for 3 years, etc... XD

[mmaarrkk]

I have yet to lose to the new chaos codex over 5 games using my BA's. I have also used the drop pod furioso's and lost them in 1 turn quite oftern, only game they had real success in was against orks which i chewed through two squads in two turns then made the rest of his army shuffle away.

[SamaNagol]

Also, looking at Sternguard makes me want to use them more and more each time I look at them. But I'm stubborn, don't want to buy and paint more stuff for an army that's been done for 3 years, etc... XD

 

Sternguard are so good off the back of their versatility. They have ammo for all seasons, can have combi weapons to alpha strike. Decent when charged due to A2 base. I rate them highly.

[Dark Legionnare]

Sternguard are so good off the back of their versatility. They have ammo for all seasons, can have combi weapons to alpha strike. Decent when charged due to A2 base. I rate them highly.

 

I have always marveled at their base stats and equipment loadout (as well as loadout costs), though I consistently see them used as suicide drops. I would think they would earn their points far more Assaulting in a landraider than a suicide pod. Tank pops near enemy lines, they pop out and combi everything to death. Tank pops at range, they kraken stuff to death, etc, etc...

 

And if not assaulting, babysitting a key area of the battlefield with those no-cover save rounds sounds great against nids, orks; and those poisoned rounds sound like the absolute bane of Nid monsters, always wounding on a 2+ with normal bolter hits, mmmph!

 

If I ever do use them, they'd most likely replace my DC in my Land Raider.

[mmaarrkk]

Sternguard are so good off the back of their versatility. They have ammo for all seasons, can have combi weapons to alpha strike. Decent when charged due to A2 base. I rate them highly.

 

I have always marveled at their base stats and equipment loadout (as well as loadout costs), though I consistently see them used as suicide drops. I would think they would earn their points far more Assaulting in a landraider than a suicide pod. Tank pops near enemy lines, they pop out and combi everything to death. Tank pops at range, they kraken stuff to death, etc, etc...

 

And if not assaulting, babysitting a key area of the battlefield with those no-cover save rounds sounds great against nids, orks; and those poisoned rounds sound like the absolute bane of Nid monsters, always wounding on a 2+ with normal bolter hits, mmmph!

 

If I ever do use them, they'd most likely replace my DC in my Land Raider.

 

 

I do like my Sternguard, I am in the process of adding some more, mainly been running them as combi melta's to get that first blood but trying out all combi flamers this weekend, hoping to put the hurt on some nice bunched together plague bearers. I have been putting sang priests in there as well to give them that bit extra survivability.

 

In one tourny game againt SM vanilla, they survived till turn 4 after drop podding in and getting me first blood, they were charged on turn 2 by 8 man biker squad and 5 man assault squad, still had 3 plus sang priest (out of 7 sternguard) at turn 4, in another game they tied up 30 necron warriors (well with vanguard) for 6 turns. Only game i can remember them getting killed quickly in was against old codex chaos, drop podded in to kill defiler (battlecannon me not like) and was chaged by DP and obilt's, up side of that they attracted a LOT of fire before hand and tied up those oblits and DP for a turn, storm ravens then come in and done their tang.

 

I also do use them as the game calls for them, can deploy them on the field and deepstrike the drop pod in my lines (as not to give enemy easy kill from drop pod) and use them for area denial or to kill high toughness things.

 

I have only used the ap3 thing once, few got hot which i failed one save on which FNP, felt no pain!, (drop podded and took out a rhino with vulkan and tac squad in, they were pinned after it blew up, rapid fired the tac squads then killed vulkan on turn 2)

[Dark Legionnare]

I do like my Sternguard, I am in the process of adding some more, mainly been running them as combi melta's to get that first blood but trying out all combi flamers this weekend, hoping to put the hurt on some nice bunched together plague bearers. I have been putting sang priests in there as well to give them that bit extra survivability.

 

In one tourny game againt SM vanilla, they survived till turn 4 after drop podding in and getting me first blood, they were charged on turn 2 by 8 man biker squad and 5 man assault squad, still had 3 plus sang priest (out of 7 sternguard) at turn 4, in another game they tied up 30 necron warriors (well with vanguard) for 6 turns. Only game i can remember them getting killed quickly in was against old codex chaos, drop podded in to kill defiler (battlecannon me not like) and was chaged by DP and obilt's, up side of that they attracted a LOT of fire before hand and tied up those oblits and DP for a turn, storm ravens then come in and done their tang.

 

I also do use them as the game calls for them, can deploy them on the field and deepstrike the drop pod in my lines (as not to give enemy easy kill from drop pod) and use them for area denial or to kill high toughness things.

 

I have only used the ap3 thing once, few got hot which i failed one save on which FNP, felt no pain!, (drop podded and took out a rhino with vulkan and tac squad in, they were pinned after it blew up, rapid fired the tac squads then killed vulkan on turn 2)

 

That's the entire strategy of my tactics. I have a formidable ranged front, and then I scare the enemy and make him pick targets with the DS dread, LR w/Death Company, assault squad, etc... Getting in the enemy's lines with strong, durable, murderous CC units while still have a good chunk of ranged firepower is a surefire way to make his tactics adapt and put him out of his/her comfort zone, or falter completely. (At least that's how I see it and play against folks. Never let them keep that homefield deployment strategy. B))

 

As for Sternies, maybe in due time I'll swap em in.