Sentinel Company?

[Khornestar]

I've got the idea in my head to run a scout sentinel company and I'm trying to think of the best ways of making use of them.

 

Obviously, Deep Strike (etc.) denial: deploy at the edge of the deployment zone, scout them up 9" to create 18" bubbles of nope.

 

But now let's talk about unit size, cost, and weapon loadouts/efficiency.

 

I am always an advocate of MSU because the enemy often has to dedicate extra shooting on a unit-by-unit basis to ensure that they kill a single unit. The shooting unit could obviously split their fire, but I think we all sorta balllpark estimate how much shooting a given target will take to kill off. With sentinels, if we're playing with points it doesn't cost extra to run MSU. With power levels, it's 1 PL cheaper to run a unit of 3 than 3 separate units of 1. For whatever that's worth, just to keep in mind. Running lots of single units also seems like a great tarpit option. More like a bunch of little puddles of tar, I guess. Wherever you step, you're gonna get stuck!

 

*Multi-lasers: The absolute cheapest option. I guess if the only point is DS denial, might as well keep 'em cheap? I guess it's not the worst gun in the world against GEQ/hordes, but it's not super good.

Heavy Flamers: Since they auto-hit, moving around doesn't mess with shooting. 8" range limits what they can hit, though. 

*Auto-cannon: Eh... the range is good, but only 2 shots.

*Missile Launcher: I like it, very versatile. 55 points for a single missile launcher, though.

*Lascannon: Same cost as the lascannon variant.

 

* These become much better with the Tallarn doctrine, since they can run around and shoot stuff with no reduction to BS. I think I'd choose missile launchers, if any of these, due to the ability to shoot at hordes with frag or vehicles with krak.

 

My strongest inclination is to arm them all with heavy flamers and just rush the enemy. Maybe not the absolute worst idea, especially if they're Catachan. If I'm running them as actual Renegades & Heretics, that's definitely what I'd do, because I'll have other fast units to keep up with or things I want to screen against. The heavy weapons sound like a cool idea, but I think the army just has better ways of packing in anti-vehicle or anti-horde weapons. If I was playing PL I'd take missile launchers using the Tallarn doctrine.

 

With 1 attack, I'd say unless I'm playing with PL I will absolutely never take the chainsaw.

 

I can see the Forward Recon stratagem having situational use from time to time if a sentinel/unit can snag an objective but is just out of reach. *shrug*

 

If I'm running all 12: 540 points if they're all bare-bones (i.e. multi-lasers). That's probably too many to take, I think 9 would do the trick: 405 points. Probably 6 in the FA detachment and 3 to fill out the FA requirement of a battalion/brigade.

 

How would you make use of them? Please, keep the discussion limited to sentinels.

[Mitchverr]

Personally, I would be tempted to split them into 2 seperate groups, a scout troop and a armoured troop, plasma cannons are nice etc and wasnt the armoured sentinel made a bit more viable?

 

 

It all depends on how "efficient" you want to go but I always liked multilasers and autocannons, even if the latter is less useful this time around and what targets you wish to fire upon.

 

 

To be honest, I would go if your going points heavy, mass lascannons with plasma cannon armoured support for "infantry dealing".

Edited October 11, 2017 by Mitchverr

[BurntheHeretic]

I agree. I would run a mixed group,  1 of scout sentinels armed with multilasers for area denial, another of armoured sentinels armed with plasma cannons and lascannons to take out heavy infantry and  armour respectively. Tallarn is a must, you want to be able to hit something when moving - but that would conflict with the Renegades and Heretics list..

 

Heavy Flamer scout sentinels: I would only take them with the Catachan doctrine, it´s effectively a 20% firepower bonus. 

[narcolepticltd]

I'd run them mixed as well, and as far as  the unit size vs number of units argument, you could split the difference and run 2 per slot (honestly this is something you can adjust as you play test). 

 

Autocannons are a great option due to 2 shots ap -1 and 2 damage per unsaved wound, but multi-lasers aren't bad either. 

 

Tallarn is probably the best doctrine to run unless you plan on sitting still, or want to run heavy flamers where catachan would come in handy.

[Altasmurf]

Actually an outrider of cadian plasma cannon sentinels would be quite good. They're going to be sitting still so no -1 and you will be getting a re roll 1 ability. Add in the cadian stratagem for even better goodness.

[micahwc]

My thoughts are that they are best taken as 3 individual sentinels to fill out a brigade, and that if either use multi-lasers to keep them cheap, or plasma cannons for better weapon. Here's why. Autocannon is worse against most targets than a heavy bolter, especially considering low BS, so their isn't really ever a point to take them. Missile launchers are an extremely efficient choice, but at 50 something points each you could bring a command squad with a missile launcher and better BS. Same with the lascannon.

 

Heavy flamers would be my third choice as sentinels have the potential to get heavy flamers into range, but I kind of feel like that's a job better done by hellhounds unless you need the points savings, especially when you consider a hellhound can have two flame weapons and that the inferno cannon is awesome.

 

Multi-lasers are not bad weapons, it's just that heavy bolters are generally better due to the same number of shots, better AP, lower cost, and negligible strength difference; however, there are many sources of multi-lasers and heavy bolters available to guard.

 

This leaves plasma. Plasma cannons are a bit harder to find in the guard unless you take them on servitors or leman Russ tanks. They have the ability to hurt most everything in the game and give you multiple chances to do so.

 

Sentinels have a very narrow niche where they are better than other options, and that niche is basically for relatively inexpensive yet highly mobile heavy weapons; with most weapon choices being heavy they get penalized for moving which contradicts one of their main advantages.

[Feral_80]

If you have a plan that goes just beyond area denial, I'd either go heavy flamer on Catachan sentinels or anything else except multilaser on Tallarn.

 

Multilaser, I'd never take it. It sucks, simply put. If you want a minimum points cost, for the same cost of a multilaser Sentinel you can get a FW Powerlifter, which also scouts, and has potential for a nasty surprise in close combat. And you don't even have to face the doubt of choosing between firing or popping smoke launchers on turn 1.

 

Sentinel buzzblades might be cheap, but yes, they are completely useless. Avoid, you can spend even those 2 pts in better ways.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Powerlifter Sentinel is Heavy Support, inexplicably.

[Feral_80]

I know, makes sense somehow. If you are aiming at filling a Brigade, that's the only thing that might keep you away from it. But since I tend to field 1-2 Hellhounds, I can at least get 1 or 2 Powerlifters in addition to 1-2 Scout Sentinels.

[Withershadow]

Catachan Sentinels with Heavy Flamers, Tallarn Sentinels with lascannons or missile launchers. Everyone else should probably look towards rough riders and hellhounds for their FA slots.