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Evening folks.

I am currently building up a Marine army, as you do, and I'm picking up some Sternguard fairly soon. That's to be expected, but after enjoying the idea of vet squads, and then spending some time looking at the vanguard squad, I have come to the conclusion that the vanguard vets are just too visually cool to pass up.

What's the best way to be using them? From what I gather, don't deep strike- it's just too risky.

I don't play competitively so it doesn't overly matter that they're not amazing. My usual opponent is a guardsman player, who enjoys a healthy mix of armour and troops.

He also has some marines, but they've been shelved for a while, as he doesn't like the paint job

Any thoughts and advice is welcome and appreciated.

If you're playing Codex Marines, your best use for Vanguard Vets is probably as a dedicated counterassault unit. Stuff them in an Assault Cannon Razorback to shield them from fire, wait for something to threaten a nearby unit, then disembark and assault. The other option is to forgo the Razorback, buy them jump packs, and have them skulk around your backfield though they are a lot of points for a unit that does a lot of suntanning and hitting on nurses.

On the other hand, the addition of Shrike to your list makes them Fleet, increasing their threat radius from "Good" to "Alarming".

To really make effective use of Heroic Intervention, you need on of two things. Either you need to be playing Blood Angels for the reduced DS scatter with Jump Packs, or you need Locator Beacons on either scouts, scout bikes, or drop pods.

There's something to be said for a pod of Sternguard getting reinforced on T2 by Vanguards' It's not the most efficient way of killing, but it's cool. Especially when they do the "Army of Two" faintly homoerotic fist bump at the end of a fight.

If your set on just using the models, and are fine with using them for other units, you can use them as honor guard, without jump packs, or as assult marines. If you do want to field them as Vanguard Vets I like idea of using locator beacons or you can pack them into a raider and drive them across the table.

I would definately deep strike them, it's probably the best part about them. Otherwise they're just expensive Assault Marines that have 1 more attack. It would make a fairly nasty unit with a chaplain w/ Jump Pack, with power weapons and Storm Shields. Or with Shrike as said above, infiltrating.

One day, I want to see 10 Vanguard Veterans with a pair of LCs each with Shrike barreling into anything.

It'll be glorious.

Remember Independent Characters don't benefit from the heroic intervention rule...

Cheers guys.

I'll definitely be using them as the vets. Having them skulk around either in a Razorback, or with their jump packs is, as you say, expensive, and the troubling possibility being that the Razorback gets wrecked, and they're left running after whatever gets close. Plus, my usual opponent is guard, so doesn't close, ever...

I must admit, I love the idea of the Sternguard pod followed T2 by Vanguard. Cinematic, cool, moderately useful.

On that note then, presuming you're trying to drop the pod as close as you can to something you want to assault (unless I'm mistaken, the threat range for the vets after dropping in just the 6" assault move?), is the deathwind missile launcher (I believe) upgrade for the pod a solid buy, since you'll be close to infantry? Or does that increase the likelyhood of your pod being nuked, thus ruining your plan, or causing many troops to flee out of assault range...

My suggestion for making your vets is to buy an assault marine box, and invest in termi bits, and magnetize them. I have used th/ss vets very effectively to disrupt tau gun lines and the like

I've used Vanguard before and they aren't the greatest, but they really are a precision tool. I tend to find that if you decide to deepstrike them, you take 5, give them all Storm Shields and throw in at least 1 melta bomb. Gives you a reasonable attack power, good defence (where the Vanguard fall down) and some decent anti-tank power as well. So application would involve selecting the appropriate target then throwing the Vanguard at them.

The other option I've heard of is 10 varied Vanguard in a Landraider with Khan and maybe a chaplain strapped to the unit. Large powerful and ridiculously expensive kill unit

jsenff wrote:Evening folks.

I am currently building up a Marine army, as you do, and I'm picking up some Sternguard fairly soon. That's to be expected, but after enjoying the idea of vet squads, and then spending some time looking at the vanguard squad, I have come to the conclusion that the vanguard vets are just too visually cool to pass up.

What's the best way to be using them? From what I gather, don't deep strike- it's just too risky.

I don't play competitively so it doesn't overly matter that they're not amazing. My usual opponent is a guardsman player, who enjoys a healthy mix of armour and troops.

He also has some marines, but they've been shelved for a while, as he doesn't like the paint job

Any thoughts and advice is welcome and appreciated.

You are paying for their 'Heroic Intervention' ability, so you might as well deep strike them. Using them in conjunction with a locator beacon on a drop pod is ideal. Try running a set of scout bikers with a locator beacon, before the 1st turn use your scout move to flat out (turbobooster), turn one drop pod assault with no drift with another beacon. You now have one static and one dynamic beacon to drop within 6 inches of with your vets to allow you to use your deep strike + assault ability.

Also, I'd not overload them with gear, just get a few special things you feel are needed and move on, they build up in points 'way' to quickly and die just the same as a normal marine.

Sternguards are really good in drop pods btw, that special ammunition is a beast.

I use them with Shrike mainly for the meltabombs. Great if you get first turn. Infiltrate 18 inches away, move 12 inches forward, fleet of foot d6 inches and then assault 6inches, no problem! Could really hurt a parking lot army.

If you feel like you can spare the points on them, I agree that dropping them onto a Locator Beacon is your best bet. Trim the fat away from their points wherever you can, because lord almighty they add up quickly.