Vanguard Veterans in 10th

[Karhedron]

I have been holding off using my Van Vets in 10th as it has not been clear if they will survive the purge of Firstborn units and what options they would retain if they did. With reviews of the Codex now out in the wild, these questions have been answered. Vanguard Veterans are now 120/240 for 5/10 respectively which puts them 7ppm more than the new Assault squads. For that they only get +1S on their basic attacks which is nothing to write home about. The selling point for Van Vets is the ability to load up to Storm Shields and special pistols.

 

 

I am thinking of a 10-man squad with 5 Storm Shields and 5 Inferno Pistols led by a Jump Sanguinary Priest. That gives the a pretty tanky squad with a 5+FNP and a 4++ against big hits while retaining the ability to hit heavier targets with their Inferno Pistols. It also gives them an extra point of AP on their Heirloom weapons.

 

What do people think about this proposed loadout? Is it the best all-round loadout and is it good value for the points? Do any other pistols look worth a look? I am thinking of using the SoS Detachment but willing to look at other alternatives.

[Blindhamster]

seems like an interesting enough setup.

I really hate the heirloom weapons lol (but with a priest they will be decent enough)

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

I painted my ten Vanguard marines a few months ago. Loadout is meant to be simple and cheap: Either it is bolt pistol & power sword or plasma pistol & chainsword. Two guys of the squad just have bolt pistol & chainsword and function as ablative wounds. Equipping them with terminator weapons (thunder hammer & lightning claw) always felt wrong to me as it would devalue the terminator unit as a whole.

 

Final note: 

Using them in 2nd 40K also means everybody can benefit from the parry rule provided by all kinds of swords.

[BluejayJunior]

Lethal Hits on the charge isn't bad. Helps get more wounds through. 

I always find the range of inferno pistols to be a downside. 

[Paladin777]

I brought 5 (3 with shields, 2 with inferno pistols) with a priest to an RTT last weekend. I was very pleased with their performance. 

 

Im looking forward to painting the remaining 5 and fielding a fast, tanky unit that should be able to punch things pretty hard. 

 

That said, losing reroll wounds on OoM is going to hurt them tremendously...

[Karhedron]

17 hours ago, BluejayJunior said:

Lethal Hits on the charge isn't bad. Helps get more wounds through. 

I always find the range of inferno pistols to be a downside. 

 

Yes, Lethal Hits on a bucket of AP-2 attacks is not bad going. VVs get 40 attacks from a 10-man squad which will average 6-7 automatic wounds, even against T10+ opponents on the charge (9-10 if it is the OOM target). Then there will be 20-ish regular hits at S5 which will stand a decent chance against most targets.

 

The changes to OOM hit Devastating Wounds worse than Lethal Hits which is a relative buff to VVs.

 

Another potentially useful Character is a Jump Chaplain as a flat +1 to Wound (independent of charging) is pretty strong. VVs will be wounding MEQs on a 2+ and even the toughest opponents on a 5+. The downside with the Chappy is that he cannot stack with the Sanguinary Priest so maybe it is better to have the Priest + Captain lead the Van Vets and leave the Chaplain in charge of the Death Company.

[Paladin777]

I concur with the priest+captain. 

that also puts them at a reasonably respectable S6 on the charge.  
 

edit: S7 if using SoS detachment!

Edited October 7, 2023 by Paladin777

[IcarusPAnybody]

It might not be strictly within the fluff, but it seems to me that inferno pistols are now available to any chapter, not just Blood Angels. It also seems to me that you can attach a jump pack chaplain with one too, if the rumoured dataset is accurate. That's a sizeable amount of (very) close range shooting power. Couple that with the chaplain's +1 to wound, and you could conceivably do a reasonable amount of damage in both phases.

Edited October 10, 2023 by IcarusPAnybody

[Wormwoods]

4 minutes ago, IcarusPAnybody said:

That's a sizeable amount of (very) close range shooting power.

Dawn of War 2 ruined assault squads for me, because the option to field them as a bolter-and-special-weapon mobile Tactical Squad is now all I've ever wanted to do with them, or squads like them. I yearn in my heart of jump-pack dragoons. 

[Paladin777]

That's what Assault Squads were, and I agree it's a shame that way of running them is going away. 
 

That said, the thread is about Vanguard veterans.