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When is a Sergeant a Sergeant ?

Im fairly new and its not abundantly clear to me how to mark out a SM Sergent in a squad

lets say for arguments sake i want to give him plain ole bolter , how best can i mark him out so t is clear to my opponent ?

is it 100% required to have one in each squad ?

swuk wrote:When is a Sergeant a Sergeant ?

Always?

swuk wrote:Im fairly new and its not abundantly clear to me how to mark out a SM Sergent in a squad

lets say for arguments sake i want to give him plain ole bolter , how best can i mark him out so t is clear to my opponent ?

Anyway you want to. I suggest he hold a banner saying "Hey guys im a sergeant!" But its really up to you.

swuk wrote:is it 100% required to have one in each squad ?

Need to be a little more clear with this question. For example Vanilla marine tact squads are made up of 4 marines and a sergeant. So for them yes, there always has to be one

There are many ways to have him stand out. Unique wargear such as CC weapons or a combi weapon. A banner. Shoulder pad designation. Different colored helmet. No helmet (if the rest of the squad has helmets).

You will usually mark it out with the paint scheme.

Simplest way is to paint the outer rim of the sergeants base with some suitably visible color.
Red for example.

While it's more practical to have a difference so you can see at a glance he could look identical to all other marines and still be a sergeant.

If you want the model to look the same just paint a difference such a stripe on the armour.

Boyofdestiny205 wrote:

swuk wrote:Im fairly new and its not abundantly clear to me how to mark out a SM Sergent in a squad

lets say for arguments sake i want to give him plain ole bolter , how best can i mark him out so t is clear to my opponent ?

Anyway you want to. I suggest he hold a banner saying "Hey guys im a sergeant!"

Best idea I've seen all day.

People typically have a fondness of making sergeants run around without their helmets on. This, of course, is done to reflect their superior skills and experience which has long since taught them that running around with the most fragile portion of your body exposed during a war is best means of ensuring victory.

Personally, I say paint a symbol on his shoulderpad or something. My stormtroopers have diamonds on their shoulderpads and aquillas on their hot-shot lasguns. It's more than good enough. However, my space marines all look identical. You can tell the sergeants apart because they're the ones with powerfists and bolt pistols.

There is no 'right' or 'wrong' way of doing it as long as you can say what the difference is.

swuk wrote:When is a Sergeant a Sergeant ?

For a second, I thought this was the set up for a joke.

You can diferentiate anyway you want. The tac squad box comes with various tabbards to add to the marines. Personally I use DA vets as seargeants in my chapter. The robes really help them stand out from the group.

Jordan wrote:

swuk wrote:When is a Sergeant a Sergeant ?

For a second, I thought this was the set up for a joke.

It is, we just havn't heard the punchline yet, now where's my powerfist.....

different helmet colour, different should pad colour variation, sergeant stripes, weapon combinations, no helmet, all ways of marking a SGT

Look to your codex for examples, each one shows different ways that the actual army does so, feel free to make up your own.

juraigamer wrote:Look to your codex for examples, each one shows different ways that the actual army does so, feel free to make up your own.

This. If you're using one of GW's Chapters, the codex will display the appropriate markings to use to designate what everything is and does. If you are creating your own Chapter, have a look through the different codexes and pick or adapt a marking scheme that you like and that suits your colour scheme.

So long as there is some way of distinguishing him from the regular troops, it really doesn't matter exactly how you choose to do it.

Thaanos wrote:
It is, we just havn't heard the punchline yet, now where's my powerfist.....

NO! STOP THAT!


For my SM, I have my sergeants wearing a different colored backpack/jump pack. If they are scouts, I give one of them a cool pose or real shoulder pads.

-cgmckenzie

While you can use any of the teqniques mentioned here, theres really no reason to give Sgt.'s, with all their access to cool wargear, a bolter. Just saying from a gaming aspect... I personally use models without helmets. Good luck with your army!

Ultimate 40k wrote:While you can use any of the teqniques mentioned here, theres really no reason to give Sgt.'s, with all their access to cool wargear, a bolter.

That really depends... I have a Devastator Sergeant with a bolter, because he's never supposed to be close enough to the enemy to use anything else.

I've also run Tactical Squad Sergeants with bolters in the past, where they were just supposed to be providing cheap anti-troop firepower rather than getting stuck into close combat.

Thank for all the realy useful replies & ideas

A useful and interesting read especially if you are new to WH40k

the mixture of strict rules + anything goes is pretty confusing
you get paranoid pretty quick especially when you throw in variations of Armour patterns , ribbons . knee pads or no etc

there is a lot of dressage that means nothing or just means fluff or realy means something on the board , or is just culturally acceptable

sometimes you get a long piece of string to play with , other times you get a ball and chain

I also paint sgts helms different. I also use banners. I play Angels of absolution with there all white armor. I've decided for my fluff that all veterans wear the DA green helm to show there connection to the DA. I also paint there robes DA green for the same reason. So much is open ended with the game that you can get away with almost anything. I think the only thing thats important to me is if you do somthing like color or marking alocation do it for a reason. Kind of like the military.
And as far as the rules are conserned yes you must have a sgt because its part of the unit list and two for wound alocation. The sgt will have different stats and there for make him a different group for rolling wounds.

Q if i split a 10 man squad (say coming out of a drop pod) , wont their be 5 guys left without a sergeant ?

1Sgt +4 and a troop of 5 ?

swuk wrote:Q if i split a 10 man squad (say coming out of a drop pod) , wont their be 5 guys left without a sergeant ?

1Sgt +4 and a troop of 5 ?

correct

swuk wrote:Q if i split a 10 man squad (say coming out of a drop pod) , wont their be 5 guys left without a sergeant ?

1Sgt +4 and a troop of 5 ?

Yup. Fluff-wise (at least in the older fluff... I don't recall if it made it into the reincarnated Combat Squads), the second combat squad is led by a 'squad leader'... He doesn't hold a Sergeant's rank, but is a little more experienced than the others. He doesn't really need to be marked, although the older marking schemes for ultramarines (as the easy example) had a small red skull in the middle of the Chapter Badge for the sergeant and a starburst for the squad leader.

swuk wrote:When is a Sergeant a Sergeant ?

Im fairly new and its not abundantly clear to me how to mark out a SM Sergent in a squad

He is always the bald and screaming guy.

Trust me.

That would have been mostly (but not entirely) true once upon a time... but there are a lot more models with hair, these days.

There are a few ways to distinguish your sargeant.You can give him a codex paintjob ( red helm with laurels ),but it varies chapter to chapter or pick him out with wargear,which is how i build mine.

The only addition to the above I would make is that it's helpful if the differentiation is visible while the guy's standing in a clump, i.e., all mixed up with his squad and opponents in a scrum. If he has different wargear, a dramatic pose, no-helmet, or something, then it's pretty clear. But if it's just a mark on the base, it can be hard to tell. Better to mark the shoulderpads, backpack, or something if he's otherwise identical to his mates.