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Here's an article that I wrote about sentinels back in 4th ed, old codex:

http://www.ailarian.com/folera/articles/tacticas/on-sentinels.html

5th ed/new codex did change things up a little, though. For example, spending 55 points for a single lascannon is no longer worth it.

I haven't used the new sentinels, but my impression is twofold:

1.) never get armored sentinels. Two AV12 sentinels with direct-fire, small blast plasma cannon costs more than a single, indirect fire large blast plasma cannon that ignores cover (colossus). The extra armor just makes them too expensive to make it worth carrying around infantry heavy weapons, when you could be carrying vehicular super-heavy weapons instead.

2.) they're still just as good against light infantry, except now they outflank! As such, if I were to put sentinels back in, I would run them with heavy flamers and outflank them. The heavy flamer damage + the ability to tie up light infantry makes them the equal of other anti-light infantry options (unlike anti-heavy infantry options or anti-tank which are clearly done better elsewhere).

why all this love for the AC? Multilasers are just as good against AV10, and they're better against infantry. The only thing the AC can do is vainly patter against AV12 instead of just peel the paint. Plus, the Multilaser is even cheaper to boot (enough to give a squad a mortar or upgrade a GL to a meltagun).

And if taking plasma cannons outside of HS is important (which I don't really know why), then a techpriest with 2 plasma cannon servitors is cheaper than 2 plasma cannon sentinels and take up NO FA slots (and you'd get to fix those other precious HS models along with it).

I'm playing an edition where units are fast and cover is cheap and plentiful. This isn't 3rd ed anymore where you can just sit around with high strength, multi-shot weapons and shout suck it at your opponents.

Scout sentinels outflank which means that they will be shooting at a lot of AV10, which the multilaser is as good at handling. That or AV12, which neither are. The only time you're really looking at AV11 is against the sides of rhinos, but the odds of you coming in on the field fast enough to kill smoking rhinos before they drop off their cargo is so long, it's not really worth considering that much. Actually, I would say this is true for any transport, and, as such, I wouldn't take them to kill transports anyways, but that's another matter.

The reason I doubt that the AC is the most effective antitransport weapon is because we're now in 5th ed, and the maths have changed.