Ok well, I'm sure I'm not the first (in fact I know I'm not) but I've been thinking a lot lately about devestators and their drawbacks. At least in my area it doesn't seem too hard to shoot up a good dev team and reduce their functionality really quickly. Having a 30+ point model die from a 1/3 chance isn't that hard. I guess the way to protect them is to buy bullet catchers (basic marines) to put out front but that increases the cost and makes the unit less manouverable as it's harder to fit them into terrain. The logical progression here is to combat squad them but once you've bought 10 marines and split them into two groups of five you're still spending a lot of points.The alternative that I'd really like to try out is sternguard squads with heavy weapons and Pedro. I'm not big on the elite slot in the SM codex (I know hammer terminators are really good but in the 1500 point games I play they can really fail you sometimes and ~500 points with a land raider is a lot of investment.
If my sternguard are scoring and I now have a 2 man heavy weapon team and 3 useful bolters (shooting up to 30") I think I'll have a much better firebase. Add to this it frees up slots for what I really like (las preds) and we're laughing. I know I'm paying a bit more points per bullet catcher but they end up with more attacks, better leadership and better guns, gain scoring and free up a heavy slot.
I'll have to try this out once I get some painting done.
I just don't like the idea of suicide sternguard.
:-) Have to admit I have been using mine in my Fleshtearers (BA) list... Though the suicide squad is where they started, more often than not I deploy the pod empty with the locator beacon as a decoy and keep the lads back in cover... Storm Bolters are amusing, and having special ammo, it makes for a really nice squad to take and hold things, though not score :-) Have to think about the HWs though...
ReplyDeleteMight not be what you're implying but storm bolters can't use the special ammunition. It's kind of not worth trading for them in my opinion, I'd rather have the special guns :)
DeleteI like the idea of the decoy drop pod though. With kill points meaning less now that's a good idea. Also lets you play with having an odd number easier ie. make youre two ironclads show up turn 1 and withold the 3rd empty one.
Well, that is less useful :-) Too many armies, Combi works but not Storm, guess I read that as including but clearly not... Ah well, the 5 points for the Combi Plasma/Meltas... Would have been amusing getting the 2 shots/weapon out to 24" to shred IG Command Squads/HW teams though...
DeleteYeah that's probably why the storm bolter is free. At least I think it is. Else you'd never use a basic bolter.
DeleteCombi melta/plas though are definately tempting.
Nope, at least not in the BA codex, it's a 5 point upgrade, same as the combi weapons, why I assumed the specialist ammo worked through it, but nope, it is not listed... So, a test to see if people are paying attention, paying extra for a less effective weapon.. Do wonder if this isn't something to be FAQ'd later...
DeleteMaybe it's 5 points in the vanilla one too. I think it'd be cool if it worked that way though. Still doubt I'd pay 30 points for a power armoured marine with a fancy bolter though.
DeleteThis is also something that I want to try (obvious since we discussed it) and the appeal is tremendous for the reasons listed above. Even if they weren't scoring every game, supporting a scoring unit would also be a viable setup. Once I get my other five up and running I was thinking running in two five man groups, and the weapon loadouts are fairly cheap. You could easily run x2 Lascannon or x2 Plasma Cannon in each group for a moderate cost. Add your LasPred or two and that's alot of high stength guns on the table.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually for plasma cannons that I really wanted to try this out. I'm looking for a reason to use the 4 I'm almost done painting and sitting them in a 190 point squad of 4 seems a bit of a liability.
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