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How do you load out your sternguard veterans?

I like to upgrade all of them with combi melta for anti armor work, with 1 or 2 combi flamers thrown in to keep horde armies honest. Has anyone looked at using the heavy flamer with them? That seems to be a valid option against certain builds.

I'd give them combi meltas, nothing else. Their ammuno is good against heavy and light infantry.

How about leaving them as-is? They are expensive enough without throwing yet more points their way.

5 points for a combi-melta isn't exactly breaking the bank. I don't know if I'd arm ALL of them that way, but throwing in 4 or so allows you to take care of that LandRaider on the turn you drop.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

I give them several combi-meltas and a power fist, and stick them in a drop pod. Pedro usually rides with them too.

I might try out a heavy flamer + combi-flamer build for fun, but combi-meltas are insurance against any rampaging vehicles. I usually get my flamers with my Tactical squads anyway.

Their ammo is good against most stuff, they still have touble against 2+ save models, even with forcing them to make saves, 2+ is tough to get through.

I think meltas are a must, and in my list, I really can't put those points to better use, so I'm going to give them all combi weapons. My indecision is wether to give them all meltas or leave 1 or 2 flamers in the squad.

With 2 flamers I can have the option of combat squad the unit when they drop, 2 flamer templates into a squad could easily generate 8+ hits. That way I can have 1, 5 men squad fire into a unit before deciding what to do with the other combi meltas. A heavy flamer will help a great deal in that role.

5 combi-meltas per full squad. Drop pod is a must. That's all you need. Basic shooting will be able to take care of anything else. Flamers should be on tac squads; they're free anyways.

I think combi flamers are a waste on sternguard, as their regular loadouts are superior IMO.

Combi-meltas is all they really need.

Combi-Plas isn't a bad idea either... I'd give it 55/45 preference Melta to Plasma.

In a 10 man squad, I'd think something like 8 Combi-Meltas is a good option, but I wonder if it wouldn't make sense to give 1 a Meltagun. You don't want to have them totally done with their AT in a single round.

If your sternguard blow through 8 combi shots and still need a meltagun, something is horribly wrong.

For modeling and fun purposes, it will be hard to resist the Heavy Flamer option every now and then, at least for me...

Phryxis wrote:In a 10 man squad, I'd think something like 8 Combi-Meltas is a good option, but I wonder if it wouldn't make sense to give 1 a Meltagun. You don't want to have them totally done with their AT in a single round.

They only have to use the same bolter ammo... they don't have to use their combi weapon all at once if you don't want them to.

If your sternguard blow through 8 combi shots and still need a meltagun, something is horribly wrong.

It's not so much that I expect them to fail to kill the first thing, it's the second thing I'm thinking aboot. For example, they blow up a Land Raider. Now here comes a Dread to counterassault. Would be nice to have a Meltagun for that...

The thing is, it's not at all expensive, and it's not really a letdown from the Boltguns. The Boltguns are great, but a Meltagun is no joke either.

Phryxis wrote:

If your sternguard blow through 8 combi shots and still need a meltagun, something is horribly wrong.

It's not so much that I expect them to fail to kill the first thing, it's the second thing I'm thinking aboot. For example, they blow up a Land Raider. Now here comes a Dread to counterassault. Would be nice to have a Meltagun for that...

The thing is, it's not at all expensive, and it's not really a letdown from the Boltguns. The Boltguns are great, but a Meltagun is no joke either.

The thing is, most players aren't going to blow all of their combi-melta shots on the land raider. If anything they would only need to shoot a few melta shots to finish the raider and still have a few more shots to deal with whatever else they might need melta weaponry for.

Besides if the sternguard player has a dread get a charge on his unit without some form of backup plan i.e. they they have a unit capable of knocking out a dread ready to counter attack the dread or at least some way to get out of combat (libby with gate perhaps ) then that is player pretty much asking for his unit to be wiped out.

For modeling and fun purposes, it will be hard to resist the Heavy Flamer option every now and then, at least for me...

Not really, better use the special ammuno that is variable enough to take on almost all units in the game bar Termies; here is where the combi-meltas come in.

Phryxis wrote:

If your sternguard blow through 8 combi shots and still need a meltagun, something is horribly wrong.

It's not so much that I expect them to fail to kill the first thing, it's the second thing I'm thinking aboot. For example, they blow up a Land Raider. Now here comes a Dread to counterassault. Would be nice to have a Meltagun for that...

The thing is, it's not at all expensive, and it's not really a letdown from the Boltguns. The Boltguns are great, but a Meltagun is no joke either.

Combat squad your 8 meltas into 4/4 and blow up both on the turn you drop in. If you give a Sternguard a meltagun you just paid for a 19 point meltagun.

If I recall, combat squad rule requires that to split into two units you must start with a 10 man squad. That 10 man squad can then be split into two 5 man squads either during deployment or on the turn it deep strikes in via drop pod.

Absolutely correct; a full squad is needed for combat squadding.

I've been loading out with 4 combi-meltas and 2 combi-plasma. Although if I need to save points, I tend to get rid of the plasma first. I usually bring the combi-plasma when I run out of combi-melta models. I only have 4 of each. To be honest, I usually only add the combi-plasma when I have extra points, which I find is often with the new codex, but I don't think it's necessary to bring more than 4 or 5 combi-meltas in a squad.

What's the argument against combi-plasma? Against squads with toughness 5 or greater it seems a better bet than a strength 4, ap3 shot, or 1 strength 8, ap 1 shot.

I definitely think that the combi-melta is the primary choice, but I don't think you're going to need 5 or 6 melta shots against tanks in a game with your sternguard. That's why I throw in some combi-plasma at a ratio or around 4/1 melta/plasma

inquisitor_bob wrote:If I recall, combat squad rule requires that to split into two units you must start with a 10 man squad. That 10 man squad can then be split into two 5 man squads either during deployment or on the turn it deep strikes in via drop pod.

In Phryxis' post, he had a 10 man SG squad with 8 combi meltas.