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I am starting a new army of Imperial Guard and am thinking of including around 6-9 Sentinels in the army but I have never played against the Imperial Guard except for once where the guy had no tanks and all Penal Legion Squads. So what is the most effective Sentinel and what weapons are the best for it?

In my experience 3 scout sentinels with autocannons and hunter killer missile (if you have points to spare) is a good cheap, versatile, and effective choice. They are very good when outflanking or even just starting on the board as the autocannons and the missiles have a long reach.

Armoured sentinals can cheaply add to AV 12 spam, and scouts are okay for harassing as guardpiper says. But I wouldn't take more than three in total, they aren't really good enough and in squadrons will die very quickly.

I know a lot of people don't like them, but I use multi-lasers on my scouts. Good at popping transports when you outflank, and have the possibility of taking out light armor.

Also, scouts with heavy flamers are good, depending on what you're facing.

Ultimately, I go for armor saturation with 9 scouts: 3 multi-laser, 3 autocannon, and 3lascannon.

I have alot of love for the Sentinel, they've done me proud in many a game.
My scouts see the most use (x3 multilasers). Outflanking, S6 into rear/side armour is great, also fairly cheap.
If points allow I'll also use Armoured (x3 PlasmaCannon). Bit pricey but pack a punch and the AV12 really helps.

The 'best' is rather subjective. Players who use the unorthodox weaponry (or exotic?) might have a different opinion than players who equip the norm.

I love Flamers/Heavy Flamers. When I used to run Armored Sentinels, I would equip a couple with Heavy Flamers and have them run behind my Chimeras, run around and burn pockets of infantry. Was it successful? 50/50.

The only Sentinels I use now are Drop Sentinels with Multi-meltas and Heavy Bolters (<3 Heavy Bolters on Sentinels). They are quite the workhorse in a drop army.

Plasma Cannon Armored Sentinels are more expensive (3 is the same price as an Executioner), but they are either ignored or soak up fire. It's an advantage either way, because few armies can ignore 1-3 rogue plasma cannons punching holes into their troops/light tanks.

If I ever had to use something else, it would be ML Scout Sentinels, with HK missiles, outflanking. 6 Str 8 AP 3 Shots is fairly reliable at taking out AV 12 (1/18 chance per shot). If they're ignored, you can continue to harass tanks or troops as needed.

Actually, I'm starting to like that idea. Unorthodox methods ftw.

Scout sentinels. Armored sentinels are way too expensive. For the price of a multilaser armored sentinel, you can get a multilaser chimera which gives you a free heavy bolter and the ability to tank shock and take scoring units, and do a better job providing cover for units behind it. For the price of a plasma cannon sentinel you can get a hydra or griffon or a 7x rough rider squad or marbo and an autocannon or meltagun somewhere, or, or, or.

For weapons, I only like lascannons. The lascannon can show up from outflanking and engage practically any target successfully, even if they show up from the wrong side of the board, and they always have the option of charging in against backfield units that lascannons aren't the best against (after still shooting them with a lascannon first).

I have seen a player that had three units of 2 scout sentinals with auto cannons and HK-missiles. They were quite effective, and cleared out almost all of the razorbacks in the other guy's army. I was impressed, and so was the marine player.

Joey wrote:Armoured sentinals can cheaply add to AV 12 spam,

Are you high?!
The Armored Sentinel isn't cheap! A Chimera is only 55 pts, has 2 heavy weapons AND can haul people
around. That's cheap AV12 spam!

OT:
Go cheao, Imho. Scout Sentinels.
And magnatize the weapon mount and weapons. With a kit like the Sentinel's, you can arm it with any
weapon option it comes with. Armored or Scout weapon swaps should be considered with Meta changes,
and with 6 ed. around the corner, who knows what could be the new hottness.

alarmingrick wrote:

Joey wrote:Armoured sentinals can cheaply add to AV 12 spam,

Are you high?!
The Armored Sentinel isn't cheap! A Chimera is only 55 pts, has 2 heavy weapons AND can haul people
around. That's cheap AV12 spam!

Yes actually I am.

Anyway, chimera and armoured sentinal both have the same base-cost. EXCEPT:
*chimera will always always be moving anyway so the extra weapon is irrelevent
*Chimeras cannot engage units in CC. Armoured Sentinals can. Even if your opponent has meltas, 6s to hit will mean you can easily tie up even deadly assault troops indefinitely. Sup Khorne Beserkers.
*Armoured Sentinals are way more mobile. They won't have to take difficult terrain tests and they can squeeze into places chimeras cannot.

The weapon options are pretty meh. HF is probably your best bet, PC is too expensive and LC is a waste on a BS3 model.

Joey wrote:

alarmingrick wrote:

Joey wrote:Armoured sentinals can cheaply add to AV 12 spam,

Are you high?!
The Armored Sentinel isn't cheap! A Chimera is only 55 pts, has 2 heavy weapons AND can haul people
around. That's cheap AV12 spam!

Yes actually I am.

Anyway, chimera and armoured sentinal both have the same base-cost. EXCEPT:
*chimera will always always be moving anyway so the extra weapon is irrelevent
*Chimeras cannot engage units in CC. Armoured Sentinals can. Even if your opponent has meltas, 6s to hit will mean you can easily tie up even deadly assault troops indefinitely. Sup Khorne Beserkers.
*Armoured Sentinals are way more mobile. They won't have to take difficult terrain tests and they can squeeze into places chimeras cannot.

The weapon options are pretty meh. HF is probably your best bet, PC is too expensive and LC is a waste on a BS3 model.

Belated 'Happy 4:20'!

The only weapon the Armored Sentinel can have that the Scout can't is the plasma. I won't be running plasma
on my Sentinels. To me the Armored one serves no need. I get your point about being able to tie up some units in
CC, but its points I'd rather spend towards something else.

And I rarely run Sentinels period.

Joey wrote:*Chimeras cannot engage units in CC. Armoured Sentinals can. Even if your opponent has meltas, 6s to hit will mean you can easily tie up even deadly assault troops indefinitely. Sup Khorne Beserkers.

6's to Hit? Quite sure a Khorne Beserker will be hitting it on a 3+

I like my Sentinels like my woman . Open topped and armed with an autocannon .

Having said that , ran them (2) today as multilaser platforms . And I think I may keep them that way . Cheap , permanently disabled a Vindi in my first game and were looking like keeping a full Tac squad tied up in combat for a few turns in game 2 .

grendel083 wrote:

Joey wrote:*Chimeras cannot engage units in CC. Armoured Sentinals can. Even if your opponent has meltas, 6s to hit will mean you can easily tie up even deadly assault troops indefinitely. Sup Khorne Beserkers.

6's to Hit? Quite sure a Khorne Beserker will be hitting it on a 3+

Grenades need 6s to hit non-immobilised walkers.

Regarding Scout Sentinals being cheaper, they are, but they can also be glanced to death by marines, or penetrated with FC. AV 12 gives you immunity to anything that's not a Power Fist or a Melta Bomb. Okay kraks can hurt them but 6s to hit and 6s to glance mean you can ignore them.

Joey wrote:Grenades need 6s to hit non-immobilised walkers.

But the S9 power fist doesn't.

That's the thing with sentinels. Either your opponent will have no appreciable high strength close combat power, in which case it doesn't matter if you take a scout sentinel or an armored sentinel, or your opponent's unit WILL have high strength close combat attacks, in which case it kind of doesn't matter if you take a scout sentinel or an armored sentinel.

There are very few cases where an armored sentinel will survive in CC that a scout sentinel would just get punched to smithereens quickly.

Meanwhile...

Joey wrote:*chimera will always always be moving anyway so the extra weapon is irrelevent

If the chimera and the sentinel move 6", they both get to shoot one weapon. Meanwhile, the chimera has the option to not move to double its killing power. Double seems relevant.

Joey wrote:*Armoured Sentinals are way more mobile. They won't have to take difficult terrain tests and they can squeeze into places chimeras cannot.

Unlike infantry, sentinels can't take run orders, and while they don't need to take dangerous terrain, they still need to make difficult ones just like infantry does. Armored sentinels are actually just a little bit slower than a treaded vehicle, and they're certainly not way faster.

Joey wrote:

grendel083 wrote:

Joey wrote:*Chimeras cannot engage units in CC. Armoured Sentinals can. Even if your opponent has meltas, 6s to hit will mean you can easily tie up even deadly assault troops indefinitely. Sup Khorne Beserkers.

6's to Hit? Quite sure a Khorne Beserker will be hitting it on a 3+

Grenades need 6s to hit non-immobilised walkers.

Regarding Scout Sentinals being cheaper, they are, but they can also be glanced to death by marines, or penetrated with FC. AV 12 gives you immunity to anything that's not a Power Fist or a Melta Bomb. Okay kraks can hurt them but 6s to hit and 6s to glance mean you can ignore them.

And if they are getting glanced to death, then they are doing their job. 35-40 pts per Sentinel to make the other guy either deal with them, or ignore them at his peril
when they outflank.

There will always be people who have everything against sentinels. The truth is, they're great, but there's just "better" choices. By better, I mean something that provides more punch for its point cost.

So if you want to use Sentinels, you can, and they will still be great at what they do. You will need to spend more points to use them, but that does not mean they will be useless (far from it, I've used my sentinels with great success).

My thoughts? Do as you feel, not as whats best. If you do whats best, you will end up with a list that everyone else has already played and prepared against. Haters are the same people who believe autocannon HWTs are better at killing AV 12 than Lascannon HWTs.

sentinels are pretty much my favorite model to look at paint and build so much to do with them!

that said auto cannons on scouts are cool or a las cannon/auto cannon for a group of 2
and for the armored its really not worth it in my opinion unless you want the plasma no sense in putting an ac on a armored sent or a las cannon for that matter when you can get that on a way cheaper model that also comes with 2 special rules

If sentinels were apart of infantry platoons, and consequently scoring, I'd use them A LOT more. I have used the scout variant with either heavy flamer or autocannon, and both worked for their intended targets. Cheap, disposable, killed their points worth and tied up some units for a few turns. Couldn't complain about their performance.

Plus the model is just so awesome.

Joey wrote:

alarmingrick wrote:
Are you high?!
The Armored Sentinel isn't cheap! A Chimera is only 55 pts, has 2 heavy weapons AND can haul people
around. That's cheap AV12 spam!

Yes actually I am.
Anyway, chimera and armoured sentinal both have the same base-cost. EXCEPT:
*chimera will always always be moving anyway so the extra weapon is irrelevent

will "always always" be moving? What kind of games do you play? "I'm going to move and choose not to fire a HW so you don't autohit me in melee, even though there is no possible way of you actually charging my vehicle im going to do it anyway because the internet told me to"?
And being stoned =\= helping your argument. "Yeah, i was stoned when I posted that "... grats? Maybe that's why you post so much stupid crap in this forum, because your too baked all the time.

Joey wrote:
*Chimeras cannot engage units in CC. Armoured Sentinals can. Even if your opponent has meltas, 6s to hit will mean you can easily tie up even deadly assault troops indefinitely. Sup Khorne Beserkers.

'Sup Sentinals. Meet P.fist. After magically avoiding getting melta'd/shot up/DP charged.
See, If you said "'sup tac squad", which frequently doesn't have a fist, I'd agree. If you said "'sup dire avengers", I would agree, since I've seen dire avengers blade storm and not worry about being shot by 2 sentinels lascannons only to facepalm when they get charged instead of shot.
If you opponents are getting their "deadly" assault troops tied up in melee by armored sentinels, they are playing pretty poorly. They're probably too stoned to think staight
[quote=Joey
*Armoured Sentinals are way more mobile. They won't have to take difficult terrain tests and they can squeeze into places chimeras cannot.

I like a couple of autocannon scouts in my lists. The outflanking means that you'll likely be hitting side/rear armour and 2 shots reduces the likelihood that they will do absolutely nothing that can be a bit of a bummer on the lascannon loadout.

I normally use three units of single Scout Sentinels with Autocannons, which I outflank. That way there's a very solid chance of one showing up T2, and with a little luck it can pop a transport.

Plus, sometimes, you get really lucky with a good target - one memorable case was where I was playing against a swarm Tyranid army, and two Sentinels showed up T2 on either side of the board, which promptly charged the two 30-man Termagant units which were each around 8" from the board edge, tying those units up for the entire game.

Sure, sometimes they'll have no good targets and are essentially wasted points - but that's rare, and even then, it's only 40 points a pop you've wasted. I've found it's only an issue when playing Kill Point missions against someone with no decent targets.

Hmm, the more I think about Scout Sentinels, the more I realize how versatile they are. I have several variants with a compendium of weaponry. I haven't used them much in 5th ed, but I just might from here on in. Autocannons, missile launchers, multilasers and lascannons are all quite useful on the walker. Now if the sentinel could take a heavy bolter, I'd be really happy.

I'm a fan of scout sentinels with multilasers. Cheap armor saturation and can be very pesky for opponents to deal with. They're also very cheap!

bla.

I don't use them. I find they tend to die before their intended effectiveness.

+1 on scouts with ACs (and HKMs if you've got the points to spare). Outflank, drop multiple shots into a weak facing, then repeat until opponent diverts enough force from other priorities to deal with them. More than a single squad of 3 might be overkill though.

Ailaros wrote:Scout sentinels. Armored sentinels are way too expensive. For the price of a multilaser armored sentinel, you can get a multilaser chimera which gives you a free heavy bolter and the ability to tank shock and take scoring units, and do a better job providing cover for units behind it. For the price of a plasma cannon sentinel you can get a hydra or griffon or a 7x rough rider squad or marbo and an autocannon or meltagun somewhere, or, or, or.

Pretty much this. When the cost of an armored sent is within 5 points of a bare bones C:SM predator, you know its not a good buy. The predator gets a better BS, better armor, and can't be tied up in combat.
When are predators considered great units? When they are compared against overcosted units.

The scouts can outflank which can be a nice surprise. I would just go with an autocannon though. A 30 point model vs 40 point model is a significant difference, and the damage to AV 11 or less is not that significant.

The painful reality though is that the vendetta is just so much better. For 20 points less you get extra armor, a higher AV, and TL guns. You also are a fast skimmer. You can tell GW was pimping their new fliers.

labmouse42 wrote:Pretty much this. When the cost of an armored sent is within 5 points of a bare bones C:SM predator, you know its not a good buy. The predator gets a better BS, better armor, and can't be tied up in combat.
When are predators considered great units? When they are compared against overcosted units.

The scouts can outflank which can be a nice surprise. I would just go with an autocannon though. A 30 point model vs 40 point model is a significant difference, and the damage to AV 11 or less is not that significant.

The painful reality though is that the vendetta is just so much better. For 20 points less you get extra armor, a higher AV, and TL guns. You also are a fast skimmer. You can tell GW was pimping their new fliers.

Actually, being able to get tied up in combat is an advantage for the Sentinel over the Predator, or any other non-walker vehicle. As has been covered earlier, a unit without strong melee, even if it has grenades, is likely to be locked in combat for multiple turns against even a single Sentinel. On the flip side, a low armor vehicle that gets in combat with something that can combat it effectively is likely to die in one round of combat anyway so getting tied down is moot.

If you choose to use them as a distraction, though, my own opinion is to use three single Scouts and put your points elsewhere. It becomes tough for an opponent to justify firing three different anti-vehicle capable units at three different 30 point targets.