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I have looked at many army lists for IG, but i haven't seen many Storm Trooper squads. They seem alright because of the deep striking and the AP3 lasguns. Is there some downside that i'm not quite catching on to?

Their cost:firepower ratio is actually rather low. The reason for this is because you spend a hefty number of points on maneuverability options, like the ability to decide right before the battle if you want to outflank or pin-point deepstrike them.

When you look only at killing power, they're not all that great, which is why they're so rare. I still like them, though, for the harassment option they bring to a guard list.

Vets may do more damage per point, but they don't get to deepstrike into hugging range with something and blow it away with melta no matter where they are on the board without your opponent being able to shoot at them first.

Stormtroopers are great shock units, and as you said, have nasty guns in addition to their special weapons.

The main downside is that they're so darn expensive, at nearly 16pts for one model, they're more expensive than a space marine, plus, with only a 4+ and T3, they're not going to survive long after dropping in, as these bad boys are massive fire magnets and draw a lot of shooting/combat attention.

Try them out and see what happens. The main drawback is they're a lot more expensive than regular guardsmen. A veteran squad has 33% more special firepower, more wounds and an option for doctrines. Plus they score.

I find their deployment options make them easily worth the points. Deep strike is just the one they're actually better than anything else at.

Scout move and outflanking also come in handy once in a while. Since I usually run mine with plasma, I sometimes like to infiltrate them somewhere and take a few pinning potshots on the first turn. It's not that tricky to pull off a PBS combo, and plasma works against transports too.

Of course, there are units that do these things better and/or cheaper, like ratlings or harker, but storm troopers can do all of them. So yeah, that's what you're paying for. But if you're not going to fidget with their deployment skills, don't bother, they're just guardsmen in carapace that don't score

I favour giving them 2x Melta, and putting them in a Chimera. With Scouts, they have a 32" melta threat range on turn 1, if you get it. If you don't, then you can keep with the Scouts, or Outflank, or Deepstrike as the opponent's deployment calls for.

So far, each time I've run them this way, they've gotten pen shots on vehicles on turn 1, or put wounds on a TMC which got finished off by my Vendettas.

I am finding, however, there are times the points from the Chimeras are better spent elsewhere, so this isn't an "always" thing, since the Troopers can still just deepstrike and be awesome.

Also, If you're a bit on the casual side, storm troopers are sort of extra neat since $$$-wise and/or time-spent-building-and-painting-wise, they're ways cheaper than their points worth of more efficient units.

That might be something to consider.

Thank You. I was thinking about running some of them to help cope with my cousin's 'nids. He has a few deep striking units, so I figured these guys could help kill some of his models, like his warriors, before they destroy my other Guardsmen.

I use stormtroopers for the infiltrate
on medium sized games/battlefields, I will infiltrate them behind enemy lines, where assaulting them will slow down his advance, and fire away.
he either has to chose between a flank taking an extra turn to reach me, or eat AP3 lasgun death.

However the trick seems to be to keep the squad small and fill it with plasma death, the ap3 lagsuns are pretty "meh"

Recently I ran a list with 3 squads of 10 of the boys, and while they are a really cool unit, they just don't perform well enough to justify their cost.

The re-roll on the scatter die is great though. 105 pts gets you nearly a guaranteed dead vehicle, which is very nice and unique for the Guard.

Other posters have beaten me to this so I'll just tell you that they're correct from my own experience. Stormtroopers are very expensive, but give them meltaguns and/or meltabombs (even in a squad of 5) and their deployment options (outflank or re-rolling deepstrike) suddenly become very worrisome for your opponents vehichles.

I guess you could do the same with any combination of ST weapons (Plasma) and numbers, but I have personally seen ST melta squads used to very good effect.

Might be the best unit in the game to play the new Kill teams rules with.

Real 40k...they are alright, not great but alright.

in my 2500 point list, i run two squads of storm troopers. Squad 1 is a ten man with two melta guns. Squad 2 is a ten man with two flamers. I find them usefull against most any infantry running around on foot.

the biggest draw back is the simple point cost. if only they could assault the same turn they deep strike would be great. The only other thing i wish you could do with ST is let them have a valkyrie as a dedicated transport.

They're actually pretty flexible, and while they can't score, they'll distract the enemy away from your scoring units (of which you tend to have plenty).

Yea, they're expensive, but they're vets with better armor, deep strike, extra CCW each, can gain precision DS, Scouts & Move Through Cover, or Pinning for the first shot & Infiltrate (all decided after the field is set up and before deploying.

Okay, they may not be units designed for a specific task, but on the field, they'll be ready for quite a bit.