I once again had a closer look at Stormtroopers. I love those guys fluffwise and the models look great, too.
Once more I realized there's only one competitive build for them available: 5 guys, 2
MGs, deepstriking.
Now I'm not inventing something new I just thought like why does noone use those (at least I haven't seen them on the table for a while and reading through lists they don't appear that often)
I had some thoughts on what they do, what equivalents come to mind and... yeah, nothing more than comparing
So, first what are they doing:
It's 2
BS 4
MGs for 105 pts deepstriking and rerolling scatter when needed.
Sounds like a lot of fun.
Which units in the
IG dex can do the same job (hunting heavy vehicles):
Meltavets
Melta
CCS
Devil Dog
Vanquisher
Manticore
First thing striking me: No other deepstrikers. Any other units CAN be shot before delivering the package.
Exceptions are Marbo, who's democharge is not nearly as reliable at destroying a tank as meltas, or special builds like Creed and some outflanking unit, which are far more expensive pointswise.
Therefore the other options seem better in any way when able to blaze away: Either it's more
MGs (Vets&
CCS) or it's multipurpose like a Manticore going antihorde or a
DD hunting Termis. Okay the vanquisher, but it's nothing but a pointsink anyways
So I conclude no other guard unit can really be compared to the stormtroopers with melta due to the lack of deepstriking. Let's have a look on other armies.
First thing that comes to mind: termicide. The models are more durable, they got one more
MG. Drawback: Their durability won't help since it's a suicide unit, no reroll on scatter dice, one shot meltas (don't bother, they're suicide units ^^) slightly higher pointcost. I'd say in the end these units come to equal effectiveness, termicide offer more reliable shooting, the
ST are more probable to get into meltarange.
SM tacs in a pod. Their deepstriking is also slightly more reliable thanks to the pods special rule. The shooting can be the same if the sarge is equipped with a combimelta and they're scoring. Therefore they're far more expensive and should take on other tasks... (differs for sternguard in pod, they're more tuned for hunting tanks)
Tau suits with fusion blasters: yeah I guess these do the same job. Additionaly their
MG eq can be twin linked, their
BS raised to 4 and so on, though this'll get expensive they can be kept at a reasonable price. Further pro: They could really survive thanks to the assaultphase jump. cons: No rerollable scatter too.
Now I can't think of more deepstriking melta units... so biggest point in using stormycide units is the rerollable scatter dice plus the lack of other deepstriking tankhunters in the guard dex. The comparrison to other armies shows that they could well be competitive. Making them hunt the tanks could keep vets or InfSquads out of the heavy fights for scoring on objectives and their performance can be improved by an astropath in your
CCS. Plus they use the hardly used elite slots (except for
PBS of course)
Now my question is: What am I missing? Seems to be too useful to be true (oh I'd love to set up some stormtroopers...)