The new assault squad

[War Angel]

I know what's goig to be said, CC weapons are pointless on a standard space marines profile. Ido it to represent the iconic leader of Marines. Please keep that in mind.

 

I was just looking in the codex, and noticed that the Assault sgts don't have the option for storm shields any more, only the combat shields. Because this means they will ALWAYS have a pistol, they should not be given a lightning claw or a power fist (if you give them anything) because they lose the extra attack. Right?

 

So I'm going to go with a power weapon (probably sword, but a lance could be cool right?) does anyone waist time with the combat shield? They look cool, but it just doesn't seem like its worth it (rather pay more for something good).

 

Also, how are grav pistols with assault sgts? The rest of the squad has two flamers.

[Dam13n]

You can still swap the Bolt Pistol for an additional Melee weapon.

 

So If you were keen on having a Lightning Claw or Power Fist you could pair them for +1A

- The Claw/Fist combo has been a firm favourite when discussing Combat Characters since 6th edition hit.

 

As far as the Grav Pistol is concerned, I don't really see the point of spending 15pts on a weapon you most likely will only fire once per game (if that), and is pretty ineffective against anything with low armour.

- The Plasma Pistol is a better bet, but I'd just stick with the Bolt Pistol personally.

- With 2 Flamers in the unit you already have an anti-horde unit, and thanks to high manoeuvrability you should be able to pick those sorts of targets, and Flamers/Gravs don't really complement each other very well (Gravs suck vs Hordes generally).

 

Grav Weapons are generally best on Bike units and Centurion Devastators, as weight of fire helps them a lot.

 

I wouldn't bother with a Combat Shield, 5pts for a 6++ is pretty worthless.

 

As far as what Power Weapon, I would strongly consider a Power Lance, you get +1S AP3 on the turn you charge, which for a unit that should be charging weakened enemy units, does offer a significant advantage over the Sword IMHO.  The Sword/Mace/Axe all have their uses though.  Really, it depends on your local meta as to which would be the most useful, most of the time.

[Beta galactosidase]

against t4 enemies, a lightning claw gives +50% to the expected wounds. A power sword is never, ever better than that, unless it is on a one attack model that does not charge.

 

A power lance is better on the charge, but since when is an assault squad going to wipe out an enemy squad in one round of combat?

[Chronotonic]

That makes sense as assualt squads should harrass not try to flat out kill...

 

Distract a bigger target until you can do something about it

[Dam13n]

With 6th edition being the most shooting oriented edition of 40k yet, I guess I see Assault squads and their ilk as having two primary roles:

 

1 - Tying up/depleting a Horde - 2 Flamers and a solid charge should put a decent dent in a proper horde (20-30 Orks/Gaunts/Guard/Cultists etc.) without necessarily wiping them out (unless they break and get run down, but then that's one less Horde to worry about).

 

2 - Mopping up survivors of enemy squads depleted by shooting from the rest of the army, in this case the Assault Squad will need to hit hard enough to kill those ~5 models outright, so they can then consolidate away from the enemies reprisal.  They are mobile enough that they should be able to target stragglers and/or objective campers without exposing themselves to too much of the enemy army.

 

Generally an Assault Squad will only wipe an enemy unit in 1 round of CC due to combat wounds if they are either small to begin with or depleted.  They are more likely to sweep the unit thanks to Combat Res.  You shouldn't underestimate what a couple of flamers and some bolt pistols can achieve before the charge either (with a little luck of course).  2 Flamers, 8 Bolt Pistols, up to 10 Hammer of Wrath hits (situational obviously) followed by 27 S4 AP- attacks and 4 S5 AP3 attacks could be enough to ruin any unit's day.

[Giga]

Best advice I can give you: unless you play BA, don't take assault marines.

 

But if you absolutely must run them, though, use them for the only job they're actually good at - slaughtering light infantry - and give them dual flamers. Don't give fancy weapons to the sergeant, it's not worth it. Maybe, just maybe, if you got excess points, give him meltabombs, but that's it.