Arming your Tac sergeants?

[Brother Clavero]

So its time to build the sergeants for my fifteen man tactical squads. I'm going for a shooty Iron Warriors army and am having trouble deciding how best to arm them.  I've thought about  a combi-weapon and power weapon combo. I'm trying to find that happy medium between fluffy and actually useful. Any ideas?  

[Slips]

Artificer Armor all the time every time. Tanking non Ap2 Shots pays dividends (unless you fail your first save).

 

After that its up to you. For Tac Squads I prefer giving him a Power Axe & Melta Bombs in addition to AA or, if you have the points Power Fist and MB. Mostly since if you're up against another 2+ save Sargeant you can attempt mutually assured annihilation.

 

...unless its a squad of TEQs, that is, or At-Initiative Ap2.

 

At least for me, this is what I go for.

[Lord Asvaldir]

My usual load out is melta bomb/artificers, so he can tank shots and make dreadnoughts think twice before assault his unit. Axe/fist is nice if you have the pts, but often I find it's just not needed. Unless you're gearing your tacticals for an assault, they'll lose to any dedicated assault unit anyway. 

[ElectricPaladin]

I tend to keep mine cheap because tactical squads are made to die. I usually give them artificer armor and combi-weapons. I'll do meltabombs if I have the points. My guys (Salamanders) are sufficiently useless in combat that I don't bother with power weapons - if I'm in combat, and it's not a combat I chose, chances are pretty good I'm going to swept anyway, so screw it. I find that combi-weapons are important, because they're your only access to any kind of special weapons, and you never know when that one cheeky melta or plasma shot, flame template, or what have you is going to save your bacon (or fry someone else's).

 

Now, if I were to do a despoiler squad (not sure why I'd do that, as a Salamanders player, but...), then I'd probably do power weapon or power fist. Or maybe a thunder hammer because it's fluffy for Salamanders.

[Brother Clavero]

Thanks for the replies . All are very good ideas. I believe that I'll be leaning towards artificer armour, combi-weapon and melta bombs.

[Ishagu]

I run either naked, standard Tacs in which case I run power Fist and Artifacer Armour.

 

I also run Vets with 2 plasmas and a combi plasma on the Sgt, no other upgrades.

[Terminus]

Why plasma on vets?

[Ishagu]

Because it's better at removing MEQ and TEQ than sniper Heavy Bolters and my tanks already take care of enemy armour so I don't need Melta :-)

[Terminus]

Fair enough, I'm not a big fan of veteran meltaguns myself. For the cost of 10 veterans with 2 meltaguns, I can buy a 7-strong melta support squad. Plus they should already have melta-bombs. :D

 

I definitely see the benefit of reliable AP2 for those precision sniper shots.

 

Since my Alpha veterans will often rock sniper AND tank hunter, I'm a big fan of my missile launchers.  The templates can rack up more hits than people give them credit for (if you play with a good bit of terrain anyway), and S8 re-rollable is a reliable source of glances on transports and the like.  You can even give them flak missiles if you don't want to invest in any other anti-air capability, but this is a bit wasteful.

[Ishagu]

I've only recently started using Veteran squads as I've been running a Primarch's Chosen list (actually a really cool way to build up an army).

 

I can definitely see the benefits of missiles.

 

Most lists I run include 2 Sicarans and a Deredeo so my ability to deal with flyers is pretty good. I've only ever encountered one flyer in HH games, and that was a Stormeagle run by a Salamander player, and from my understanding people don't invest in them. Your Alpha Veterans are unique thanks to having two USRs assigned to them.

 

Having a Veteran unit with 6 Plasma shots, able to fire 4 from Rhino hatches, is a good way to run them in my experience. For some reason I don't hear about many people doing this. Guaranteed AP2 for less than the cost of a Heavy Bolter. You can still give them Sniper for chances to rend on the regular Bolters.

[Charlo]

It depends how you're playing them, Tacs can be used as a three basic roles:

 

• Backfield Holders in a blob: AA, no more needed. Really if they see action they're going to die. Only use is to fury of the legion on deep strikers and going to ground.
• Forward Holders: Rhino, AA, Combat weapon, Melta bombs. Able to take charges and adapt to situations. Legion gear may even help.
• Midfield Sloggers: Blobed up, AA, Combat weapon (Apothecary?), move forward, fury if you can and charge things to tie them up. Again, Legion gear may vary.

Personally I like investing a little in Tacs. 10 men: AA, Power Scythe, Melta Bombs in Rhino. The scythe breaks up the "who will win" 50/50 challenges and almost guarantee's a sergeant kill with 2+ ap2 wounds from Rad grenades. Hell he could hold his own against certain unwieldy centurions!