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I'm making a 2k Infantry drop pod list, and I'm wondering If a 10 man sterngaurd unit would be effective, or worth it. Having never used them I think they look good on paper, but how do they actually do in game? My initial thought is to drop pod them in along side a bunch of drop pod tac marines, and dreads.

They are awesome in game.

Pile some combi-meltas in there and watch the tanks liquefy.

Fantastic anti-tank. In a pod 10 combi-meltas are as good as it gets. Drop, combat squad, and watch 2 tanks melt to slag.

As far as meltaguns vs combi-melta....go with the combi. You can take a meltagun for each combat squad, but chances are you're going down the turn after you land. If you live, you'll have all your special ammo to punk something. Skip sarge upgrades because of this short life span.

For added zest, try Vulkan to twin-link all your melta shots.

They are top-notch (Hammernator-level effective, at least for their points). As Monster Rain has said, combi-meltas are the way to go equipping them, essentially making them the bane of any unit that steps within 12 inches.

Yes. They work well. Posters MR, TFD and MS are right. One DP fulla melta and Combi-meltas. If there are multiple tanks, don't spend all of the combis in one go. Putting Kanor in one of these is good as well.

Also, Heavy Flamers. They are Assault 1 and against GEqs, excellent. This is good for a second DP.

I wouldn't go more than 2 units, though. Even with Kantor, the last list I beat was 3 DPs of Sternguard ... a lot of offense, but only marine sturdy.

2 SG units in DPs is good, but be sure to fill out your list with other threats.

They can combat squad and pop two tanks when coming out of a DP. Quick note, 5 combi-meltas may make IG regret squadrons. If you are considering the in-your-face-melta-suicide route then you consider adding either Lysander or a massive cc captain.

It presents your opponent with a horrible decision. You can't ignore them. With two combat squads and an IC, shooting them to death may waste most of a turns firepower. And with 2 base attacks and a good cc IC, assaulting them just as bad.

Either way, they pop some tanks and buy the rest of your army some relative peace for one turn.

If you really want someone to hate you, add a second squad or an ironclad dread.

im making a drop pod list and first turn i pod in two ven dread or ic dreads with mm and hf and a squad of 10 sterguard with combimeltas. Hoping it will work well

I find that a Venerable Dreadnought and ten Sternguard works pretty well on first turn.

I like to keep a tactical squad in a pod with a melta and combi melta in reserve, to either help out with the tank busting or grab an objective later in the game.

Awsome info. My plan is to go about 5 tac squads with just meltas and missiles, 3 dreads with multimeltas, and a unit of sterngaurd attached to my Capt. Everything drop pods in and forms an "in your face gun line" I don't expect much in the way of CC, but if it happens the Capt and dreads should provide a decent reply.

Make that captain Lysander and I'd say you've got yourself a list.

people forget if you have a unit with a 2+ save that REALLY needs downing (or has high toughness, for example mephiston or swarmlord or a wraithlord) there is nothing quite like 5 sternguard coming down for 125 points and removing that unit with 5 combi-plas.


If they live, they are still awesomesauce top notch unit because of their special ammo. They can make most MCs cry with their hellfire rounds, and the Kraken rounds are nice against orks.

Vengeance Rounds + Lysander + Khorne Berzerkers = Red Mist

You can combat squad, after landing in a drop pod? Didnt know that! Any confirmation on that?

Sternguard a brilliant, so versitile and great to play, but they can die as easily as normal marines do only theyre targeted more!

You can absolutely combat squad after poding.

SG are tits la rue. One of the best tunits in the SM dex.

My preference: 10 in a pod with 5 combi melta and 5 combi plas. Combat squad on arrival and pop two tanks. The plas allow you to also take down MC's and hitting side armor or front armor 12 or lower they still will destroy most any tank.

Their weapons are badass, too. Hellfire rounds destroy anything. So good!

Another great way to run them is all combi-flamer+h.flamers and a fist in a pod or rhino. Combo this with Vulkan and this unit will wipe out a 50 man IG blob, 30 boy Ork mob or 10 man MEQ squad with ease.

Kantor is obviously great to make them scoring.

Also, you can run a 5 man squad with two heavy weapons. They make a great small anti tank unit.

Also, run a full squad with fist and combi weapons in a LR with Casius and Kantor and you have a multi threat unit that can shoot like the dickens, assault very well, is mobile, fearless, and scoring. It packs a lot of punch.

You can gate them with a libby very well, too.

You get the picture. They have a ton of flexibility.

My one suggestion: If you do pod them, don't just throw them away. If you are running an all pod list, support them with other units as their basic gun is great. You want to keep them shooting. If you are mainly using Tac squads with meltas and flamers try running Vulkan in there as he has both a h.flamer and is butch in combat. His ability to twin link all your best weapons means that the single shot you get out of the pod (combi-weapons on sarge are huge in this type of list) allows you to really mximize the alpha strike as you probably only get one shot with them.

Also, in a pod list, try adding in some static shooting elements that can pod if needs be. The reason being is that you can drop empty pods later in the game to increase the amount you get in first turn. rifleman dreads, t.fire cannons, las cannon dreads, etc. are great for this and provide a lot of flexibility.

Lastly, haha, and sorry for the info overload but I am a long time pod player, be wary of the enemy reserving everything and letting you drop on an empty board. That is the best counter strategy to pods. Once your boys are down, they are largely static. A mobile enemy can simply come on out of your range and pull away from you shooting. Instead of you alpha striking, you get alpha struck. As such, you almost always want to go second and having a few units that start on board may entice your opponent to start his army on board, allowing your pods to do what you bought them for.

And, haha, and this is the last bit, I promise, a unit of scout bikers with a beacon is fantastic for ensuring your pods or gating squads go where you want them to. They can also take down stationary vehicles with krak and melta bombs if you do end up going first.

Yea last time I podded my stern the board was empty. Scallywaggs and hallions!

I normally take about 8 SG, 4 combi melta's and a combi flamer or plasma, powerfist (though probably a waste). Then Some times I take 2 heavy weapons and combat squad them so you get a scoring devastator mini unit to sit on an objective at the back! (Im Crimson Fists).

How dyu guys all represent them? I didnt buy them out of principle because Im a pro-plastic kit person. Not wasting £20 on some disaster mould, permanently standardised blobs! I just dickied up tactical marines and stuck melta barrells on the end of the bolters and such like but they look good. Normally I dont model rep anything unless its a matter of principle and/or common sense!

SM codex pg 51, end of the second paragrapgh under the Combat Squad rules allow the drop pods to be one exception. You decide wether to squad or not as you disembark from the drop pod.

It is fairly overlooked since it's not on the actual DP page.

I thought you had to declare combat squads prior to the start of the game?

I bought a few regular sternguard packs and either green stuffed or kitbashed the rest. I do want some of the older armor sets off of forgeworld for the third squad.

On the rare times I use powerfists, I use those two models as tactical sergeants.

I have 20 SG and kit bashed most of mine. I have 10 regular (I used the old MkII-IV FW models which look great!) and the metal models.

For the combi-weapon models I used bits (I had 2 SM captain kits which each come with a combi plas and melta) the one from the metal box and I made the rest using extra meltas/bloters/plasma guns.

They are fun to model up because it is an excuse to make really ornate marines with all of the cool bits from all the kits you save up!

@Luco
Nope, you combat squad when the DP squad arrives which gives a lot of flexibility. SMs are a very adaptive army if you build them right, there are a lot of little tricks you can pull with them that a lot of folks overlook.

Yea just checked the combat squad thing on page 51, and its there alright!

Definately gonna try that next game!

So long as your opponent doesn't reserve up, it means two smoked tanks nearly for certain. Great tactic.

@Reecius - I am planning on doing the same thing to make my Sternguard, but my bitz box is....lacking (you might even say "barely existant"). Any suggestions on where to get the combi-weapons from?

I have a Drop Pod list based roughly on Sternguard and Pedro.

Something like:

Pedro
Librarian (Gate, Flamerthing)
10x Sternguard, all with Combi-Meltas, Fist, Pod
10x Sternguard, all with Combi-Meltas, Fist, Pod
10x Tacticals, Melta, Multimelta, Fist
10x Tacitcals, Plasma, Lascannon, Fist
10x Assault Marines, Fist

It's in the 1750-1850 range. I add in Locator Beacons, Deathwinds and Epistolary on the Librarian to go back and forth.

As has been said, you can Combat Sqaud out of a Pod. Very nice, and it allows you to kill two tanks with one Pod.

There's some debate on it, but I feel that it's legal to use a Locator Beacon on a Pod to eliminate scatter when using Gate of Infinity. If you choose to play it that way, it's another very nice option to have. That way if your enemy splits up his armor, you can drop an empty Pod with a Locator Beacon, which people tend to ignore in early turns, and then you can teleport 5x Sternguard over to it and smoke something.

The list is ok... The problem with it is that it's a bit "rocks paper scissors." Certain opponents it is worthless against, others it's dominating. It also hurts to lose the roll for choice of turn (assuming your opponent knows the game, and takes 2nd turn). It's a little gimmicky, as well.


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Any suggestions on where to get the combi-weapons from?

Yeah, pretty easy to make, actually. You'll need some styrene tube, and some styrene rod. The tube is going to be the melta, so get something of the appropriate diameter. The rod has to fit inside.

1) Cut off the barrel, and the little nub above it as well.
2) Move the barrel up as high as you can with it still looking ok, and reglue.
3) Drill out a hole under the barrel, put a length of the rod in it. So, obviously, you want a drill bit that's the same size as the rod.
4) Fit a length of tube over it, cut to the appropriate length, and leave a little of the rod visible, so it looks like a melta.
5) Use a black pen to draw "slots" onto it after painting the gun.

Sorry I don't have a picture of it, but I did 20 of them for my guys, and it's not too bad.

Jaon wrote:people forget if you have a unit with a 2+ save that REALLY needs downing (or has high toughness, for example mephiston or swarmlord or a wraithlord) there is nothing quite like 5 sternguard coming down for 125 points and removing that unit with 5 combi-plas.

Against big units like that, I honestly find that Hellfire Rounds are more than enough. With Lysander onboard, you're going to cause 14-15 wounds with 20 shots. Sheer quantity alone would be enough to bring down any single Monstrous Creature with a 3+ Armor Save.

But to voice my opinion on them, I concur that Sternguard are a great unit to take, regardless of the size of the game. Combi-weapons are the best choices for these guys, since their main strength is in their choice of ammunition. Avoid taking special weapons (ie - Flamers and Meltaguns) and Heavy Weapons. Those are honest to God wasted points, at least for this unit.


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Phryxis wrote:
Pedro
Librarian (Gate, Flamerthing)
10x Sternguard, all with Combi-Meltas, Fist, Pod
10x Sternguard, all with Combi-Meltas, Fist, Pod
10x Tacticals, Melta, Multimelta, Fist
10x Tacitcals, Plasma, Lascannon, Fist
10x Assault Marines, Fist

The "Flamerthing" power is called "Avenger". FYI

Also, I think taking all Combi-Melta's is a bit excessive. It would probably be better to mix it up a little bit. Unless you know you're going up against a lot of AV, I'd take a mix of all 3 Combi-weapons, or at least half between Melta and Plasma.


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Luco wrote:I thought you had to declare combat squads prior to the start of the game?

As Reecius said, there is an exception to the Combat Squad rule, and it only applies with Drop Pods. It helps a lot when you've got some medium sized units that are close enough together for the Drop Pod to have good range on.

Dont think Id take 20 sternguard, bit pricy. I normally take pedro with terminators and stick them in a landraider if I have the points!

Provided you dont get surrounded by demolition guard and die in the burning wreckage its a really good unit!

@Reecius

Is these DP-lists reliable against Assault oriented armies aswell, or wouldn't you be best off spending the points elsewhere?

Just curious.

Tried my idea for the first time in a new years tourney, and did rather well. Points was 1250, so I had to trim, but the 6 SG in pod were awsome. Out of 3 games I won 2 and tied the last objective game (0-0 everything was contested) the SG pretty much earned their points back every game. Fought an mech-dar who was the tie, couldn't kill each other, a speedfreaks and a nids player. The nids dropped fast to the gunline, although the dual fex were tough to fight. Orks kinda same story. Although I found out that a krak missle followed by lots of frags and rapid fire do BAD things to trukk boys. In short the SG did very well, Ty everyone for the tips. Next challenge is trying the combi weapons. ( not enough pts to have more then 6 basic sg in pod this time)

Billinator wrote:Is these DP-lists reliable against Assault oriented armies aswell, or wouldn't you be best off spending the points elsewhere?

Just curious.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/330734.page

It's just one game, but this is an example of a Drop Pod list doing rather well against an assault-oriented army.

The key with this sort of thing is target priority. You might lose your Pod units, but if you can cripple your opponent's mobility on turn one the trade is more than worth it.