Storm Troopers

[DarkAngeal]

About two months ago I bought my first box of Tempestus Scions. I have just recently, though, gotten them out and started the painting and assembly process, and WOW! I love these models! The breastplates are very interesting, and of course the prime with his cape is just loads of fun.

Assembling the rest of the squad, though, I have a few questions:

What are the best loadouts/weapons to run? Do you run full squads? Is it worth running the whole platoon?

What sort of synergies have you found with them?

I really like the idea of the volley gun, can it be worth it?

And just in general: what are your favorite things about tempestus scions?

 

I will upload some pictures as I finish painting my models. I have named my storm troopers "the Emerald Gale"

[nismogrendel]

I have only tried them in a squad of 5 with two Plasma Guns.  They performed decently.  

I want to have a few (2-4) minimum size squads with 2x Melta or 2x Plasma guns for deep striking.  I have the models, just need to paint em up.

[greycat]

I love taking 5 man squads with 2x special weapons just to deepstrike and cause havoc.

 

If you go for a full squad make sure they are using anti infantry weapons otherwise it's generally a waste of shots just firing off two meltas at a vehicle.

 

I like the volleygun on the command squad but generally I don't take a full platoon or the command squad.

[WarriorFish]

The build that works best depends on what you need as ever but as a general rule having them go hunting the big and nasty stuff works. Their standard gun is useful but the special weapons are very important never leave home without a full load out! BS4 meltas dropping in is great but you can't go wrong with plasma. Complements their guns against MEQs and offers some strength to tackle lighter armour and of course MCs. Volleygun is a bit meh in my opinion as its more of the same shooting and some flexibility is what you need, maybe if it were cheaper... I've heard command squads loaded up with them offering some nasty shooting though which is the only way I'd consider them.

 

If you're deep striking then small squads are better, but short of Stormies being the main part of the army I think that's best in general. They're trouble consultants and dangerous so attract attention quickly, plus they tend to be close to the enemy. Without their old pistol and CCW they're not capable at all in melee so tend to get taken out relatively quickly so splitting the points into more squads avoids wasted points. Plus that means more special weapons and more opportunities to hit the enemy where it hurts :)

[Master Antaeus]

The command squad is deceptively named.  It can take 4 special weapons.  Now, there aren't many vehicles you can kill with 2 meltas that you can't also kill with incidental fire from the rest of your army, but 4 meltas can kill virtually anything the turn they drop, especially if you took this unit from the actual Tempestus codex so it can give itself an order to TL. 

 

As for the regular squads, I like to max my squads and do plasmas or flamers.  Particularly if you happen to have  a locator beacon or two in your army, you can land and do a dolorous amount of damage with just a pair of flamers. 

 

Now, I play militarum tempestus as an army, but if you're rolling them with AM, you can drop them and give them FRFSRF within 9" for an absolutely unholy number of shots.  Drop any special weapons and put them in a Taurox Prime with gatling cannon and autocannon for a total of:

 

2 twin-linked S7 shots at 48"

10 twin-linked S4 shots at 24"

28 AP3 lasgun shots at 9"

 

They can also be run with grenade launchers (mitigating their loss in the event of a mishap) to drop in places where your lines may have broken.

[march10k]

I like my command squad to have four plasma guns...then twinlink itself via an order!  Not much that 8 plasma shots can't kill on the drop...should yield seven wounds against flesh, and against vehicles, it's like a short ranged AP2 autocannon squad.

[DarkAngeal]

Those have been incredibly helpful comments. It sounds like I should be using the MT codex for the twinlinking order that can be issued, and like command squads have a few potential loadouts to make them very dangerous.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

I like the old stormtroopers the best, from 5e, with their Pistol and CCW. Which I really feel they need given that they really need to get within 9" to do most of their damage. I tend to think that they do very well as an ally to a standard IG force. They can hunt vehicles, or MC's and do very well at both. Command squads are best used for their multitudes of special weapons.

[Master Antaeus]

@Ulrik

You can have your cake and eat it, too, but it's expensive.  If you run an Elysian or an Elysian D-99 regiment, you can get the old school Storm Troopers complete with the special operations rule.

[shandwen]

Oh, and forget twinlinking. The order you want is sniper. Ap3 hotshots woundinh on 4s is awesome.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

@Ulrik

You can have your cake and eat it, too, but it's expensive.  If you run an Elysian or an Elysian D-99 regiment, you can get the old school Storm Troopers complete with the special operations rule.

That's certainly true, and I do use that occasionally. However it would have been nice if they hadn't lost it in the transition to Tempestus. Maybe they'll get it back if/when we get a new codex. The problem with the old school Stormies is the inability to use orders. 

 

It'd be nice if we got a couple of different types of stormtrooper squads that each basically do the old special operations rules, one gets deep strike, another gets infiltrate, another gets scout, and all have MTC and Pistol CCW. Alas that's wishlisting so I'll stop.

 

 

Oh, and forget twinlinking. The order you want is sniper. Ap3 hotshots woundinh on 4s is awesome.

Yes it is, but it really depends on what you're trying to kill.

 

Sniper is great for hunting MC's, while twinlinking is great for wiping a unit out.

 

Crusader would be more useful if they had some close combat ability like the pistol CCW combo giving them an extra attack (a 10 man unit throwing out 2 attacks each and 3 for the SGT would be decent against a lot of enemies, and that would give guard some better CC ability, which they sorely lack right now), but crusader is still good for those rare instances of CC.

 

Fleet is good for foot slogging guys. Preferred enemy is good too, but not as good as twinlinked.

 

Finally we have the rending against vehicles and MCs. Great order, as the HSLG can potentially glance out AV12 on a good roll (3+6+3), or bring down an MC, with a potential for 20 shots at AP2. That's a ton of invuln saves to make if the MC has one.

 

Also let's not forget that the sniper order is the only one that affects only hot shots. All the other orders affect all the weapons in the unit. 

 

Scions rules aren't bad, but they could be a bit better. All they really need is the Pistol/CCW back, and they need 2 more squad options so they can be more versatile. That would make them better successors to the old school stormies. All that for the same points cost as scions and they'd be perfect. 

[Kierdale]

I will throw in one reminder:

Move Through Cover means you can Deep Strike into cover/terrain without taking Dangerous Terrain Tests :tu: