Storm Shield loadout on terminators, Vanguard and captains

[Vermintide]

AoC does NOT work on models equipped with shield. Read the full rule.

 

As weird as it is, that is how it works. And an obvious hint that the rule creates internal imbalance, thus I do not expect it to last in this form.

There we have it then, I had a feeling I was missing something.

 

That's just really dumb then frankly.

[Feral_80]

Well it is dumb for sure, but also tricky.

 

Shield still gives an advantage, ie 4++, vs ap 4 or more. Not too common, but neither that rare.

 

More importantly, shield is still the only way for non-characters to get a hammer. Which in turn now sucks vs other marines due to its ap 2, however it still packs D3 which is very important due to the ubiquitous damage reductions in other armies.

 

Don't know really, it depends a lot on the opponent's army. Perhaps shields should be changed to give +1 T and 4++ at this point, no armour save bonus.

Edited April 29, 2022 by Feral_80

[phandaal]

Reliable D3 is still good for punching out monsters and characters.

 

People also tend to use a lot of melta and similar attacks already, so the 4++ still helps there.

 

Does make Chainfists more interesting though. They were always better than TH vs vehicles and better than Power Fists vs anything with damage reduction.

 

Now your Termies have a better chance to actually survive long enough to apply said Chainfist to their enemies' faces.

 

On Vanvets, not sure. Dark Angels do not use those. Assuming people will swap out most of their shields for another lightning claw or a chainsword, maybe keep one or two shields in there for high AP shots until the unit gets into combat.

[Vermintide]

I feel like just letting it stack would have been absolutely fine. It's not as though storm shields are cheap; two squads of TH/SS lads come in at 430 points, before you even factor in character support for the various re-rolls and buffs they need to not be a waste of points.

 

It's like they thought "Ah, we can't let it work on storm shields, people would cry about it being broken..." without realising a) people are crying about it being broken anyway, as always b) it wouldn't actually have been broken and c) the option they went with instead makes storm shields literally redundant in a lot of cases.

 

Then again, back in the old days I seem to remember SS being a 4++ and you never bothered giving them to characters because the Iron Halo existed as wargear anyway, so eh. The more things change the more they stay the same.

[Karhedron]

The problem with Storm Shields is that pretty much every unit that can take them as an option does so almost 100% of the time. Van Vets, Terminators, even Wulfen. If something is getting taken all the time it is a sign that it is out of balance with other options. They had already nerfed Storm Shields in 9th edition so they decided to buff non-SS options which is what AoC does.

 

Storm shields are exactly as good as they were pre-AoC, it is just that other options are not better in comparison.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Storm shield is still valuable. Tau are packing a lot of AP4.

[Captain Idaho]

The exception is Marine Captains in Terminator Armour, or with the Armour Indomitus Relic. Very specific but it's a shame Storm Shield Terminator Captains, which look iconic and Knightly almost, can't utilise the Storm Shield without it being absolutely useless and wasted points.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

It’d be nice if he had access to the relic shield.

[Captain Idaho]

Yeah that would be nice, but I feel it needs something more.

 

Would it be outrageously powerful if Storm Shields gave -1 to wound? I mean, a few Codex books ago, maybe. But right now? Seems reasonable.