Sternguard Weapons

[ids1984]

Hey everyone, I'm about to start modelling my sternguard and wasn't to sure on the loadout I should go for, my initial thought was 5 combi meltas and 5 combi flamers. My first lot of 5 was going to be 3 combi meltas and and 2 combi flamers, but now I'm not so sure! Are the one hit wonders really worth the extra points? if they are is it a good combination?

 

TIA

[DarkGuard]

The bottom link in my sig has some ideas. While written for 5th Ed originally, the weapon load outs still hold true for 6th, and so it isn't actually that outdated.

 

However, weapon load out depends on what you want from the unit. You need a role for it before you start chucking weapons on it.

 

If you have no role though, a heavy flamer, 2x combi-melta and 2x combi-plasma 8 man unit is pretty good. Cheap, can handle most things, stick them in a Rhino and they're fine.

[Azash]

The combi's are very much worth the points also a Heavy flamer is worth it as well. My personal preference for sternguard has always been a combination of combi-melta's and combi-plasma's with a Heavy Flamer. I like to run 6 man squads with 2 of the melta's and 3 of the plasma's and 1 HF. The reason I like this load out was i preferred by Sternguard to be a swiss army knife unit a unit that I could put in a DP and put right next to the opponent or sit back in a RB and use as a counter attack unit or even follow a land raider full of termies with a RB full of Sternguard to provide a shock and awe combination at a center point in your opponents line. I need a squad that had a weapons load out that could allow me to completely change it's table top play based on the opponent and not my list.

 

This is the way I reasoned it out I could do that.

 

If your dealing with a hard target like a land raider, soul grinder, etc you want to have at least 2 shots at BS 3 and 2d6 to pen to have good odds of blowing it up on that turn.

 

When your dealing with things like monsterous creatures or juggernauts (Abbadon etc) you want to have more dice to roll so having 6 plasma shots at BS 3 means you have a pretty good chance your going to take it out in one turn even without using the melta gun shots.

 

If your going after a Terminator squad typically your dealing with 5 models. So 6 shots plus the 2 melta shots if needs be or 4 hell fire rounds will typically net you enough wounds to wipe the squad.

 

If you are dealing with a blob then being able to unload with 10 dragonfire rounds and an ap4 template will usually do enough damage to break most blobs or xenos infantry.

[ids1984]

Thats for the replies, I'd never considered a heavy flamer and now its got me all undecided again!

[DarkGuard]

Thats for the replies, I'd never considered a heavy flamer and now its got me all undecided again!

 

Typically, one heavy flamer is better than two combi-flamers. You lose out on the versatility of one model, but the rest of the unit still have that versatility. If you don't need the heavy flamer, then make that one die first. It gives stronger wall of death and stronger shots in general, and isn't one shot, so you can keep on flaming infantry.

 

Rule of thumb with Sternguard is to take something that does something else to what they can do, fill in their weaknesses. The heavy flamer is the one thing that doesn't technically do that, but it is a harder hitting cover clearer than combi-flamers or dragonfire rounds. Combi-flamers and dragonfire rounds basically do the same thing minus wall of death, so why take the former? Combi-meltas allows them to tackle tanks, TEQ and MCs, while combi-plasma allows them to tackle light tanks, TEQ and MCs, being better at the latter two than combi-meltas. So a healthy mix of both is generally good.