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Morning Dakka,
For years i've had a soft spot for the Imperial Guard Sentinal. I formally ran max sentinals in the former guard codex, it was fun, but drew games a lot. Now with the current rules edition, scouts offers some interesting ideas. The Armored Sentinal looks even more fun as Armor 12 is pretty darn handy. I'm going to be slow buying them to paint for fun and magnetize them. But would like the idea of using them.

Magic questions: I know its going to be fun, but would it be able to at least be competitive. I play a lot of tournies, so they would eventually goto one. I don't mind losing, but I don't want to be getting curb stomped every game. So far what I'd love to include is...

3x3 Sentinals. 1 unit would likely be Armored Sentinals with Missiles and Hunter Killers. The other 2 would likely be Autocannons, i'm 50/50 on adding hunter kills. I'd like to use at least 1 Leman russ, and am debating the Gatling Gun, with Heavy bolter Sponsons, a Hull Heavy Bolter for Lots of shots. Finally i'd bulk out the list with some infantry platoons, a few Chimeras to move around to threaten objectives. And some heavy weapon squads.

Would it work? I know its going to roll alot of dice. But I keep thinking of having trouble in some matchups... Space Wolves. Cortez / spam, Necron's would probably be a small nightmares.

Thoughts? does anyone run Sentinal heavy?

Plasma Russ and Plasma Sentinels would give you the chance to blow away spacewolves and various other 3+ armies without being too worried about their saves, and give you some assitance against light armour. I only have one sentinel, and have yet to actually use it but the model is so customisable I can see why you'd want to make them the basis of your list.

Most people are going to tell you sentinels are terrible, full of fail, overcosted, and generally not worth it. Is this true? My answer is "meh, maybe".

The first thing you will hear is for the price of three sentinels, you can just as easily get a vendetta, which has 3 twin linked lascannon, is faster, has heavier armor, and can transport units. 3 lascannon sentinels are 150pts, a vendetta is 130 (hence why everyone says vendettas are underpriced)

I've used scout sentinels before and wasn't really blown away, although I've never fielded them in the numbers you are suggesting, which may help some. Scout sents are great for outflanking autocannon/multilaser shots, as long as you bring an astropath. Armored sents though feel like a waste. They cost more than chimeras, for less firepower and durability. I've heard of people having success with a squadron of 3, but sadly you can get an executioner for less points.

If you havent noticed, I keep pointing out their cost compared to other units. Sentinels always felt overcosted to me, not by much, but enough to be noticeable. I would love to use them more, but they just don't offer enough for what I'm paying in most situations. Inm sure theres a way to make them work. It may not be the most boptimised" list, but it could have a decent shot of winning.

Squadrons can get torn up fast, but can also be used to get invulnerable saves with cover. I have been toying with the idea for years. (in forth I used to run HQ sentinals along with FA ) Your list Sounds like a hybrid list, and you can find a lot of info on those if you search. Seems most folks on Dakkadakka don't like the Gatling Russ. I say give your list a shot a few times, see how it goes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

MrMoustaffa wrote:
The first thing you will hear is for the price of three sentinels, you can just as easily get a vendetta, which has 3 twin linked lascannon, is faster, has heavier armor, and can transport units. 3 lascannon sentinels are 150pts, a vendetta is 130 (hence why everyone says vendettas are underpriced)
.

Yes, the Vendetta.. So cool I'm likely to never field one.
Still if you like the sentinels give them a shot. See if you can develop sound tactics with them. Perhaps consider Al'Rahem for some of the infantry for screening your sentinels.

Al'Rahem with them could prove interesting indeed... that's a whole lot of Out Flanking. It could present a interesting refused Flank set up, then hit them in force and strong flank in. Guard might be able to do it well due to the bodies it would fold in...

I'll have to tinker with a list today again. It would be somewhat glass hammer ish, as its either going to work and force pressure and make an opponent split his force... OR i'll lose one of my pressure points and my army will fold.

If you're feeling super sassy, you could run:
CCS with Astropath and Creed
Al'Rahem platoon with Chims,
Penal Legion
1 x Valkyrie (or Vendetta) for the CCS
2x Sentinel squads
LR Squadron (Scout with Creed)

Entire army outflanks/scouts.

Sentinels are cool. I wouldn't take missile launchers anywhere in a Guard list though, as their low BS doesn't really play well with the low volume of fire, and even then strength 8 isn't that reliable for popping medium armor. I'd also avoid the Leman Russ Punisher you mentioned, as the math for it is not favorable. Take a standard LRBT over it for less points and more effectiveness against anything and everything.

Ah the old "is it point worth or not?" Sentinel question.
For me yes. I love the old iron chicken. So much you can do with it. I tend to use mine as fire support units for my foot vets or as escorts for the heavyer stuff. A get the odd look when I pull them out of their case (I run 4 Armoured in 2x2 formation) but that soon changes when they ignor them and go after my other big bits and the Sentinels are dry humping their armys leg.

Need to breach a line? No problems with a squad of two armoured sentinels (heavy flamer or multi-laser) backed up with a squad of flamer of grenader vets.
Need to take down hords or light to medium armour at range? The sentinel squad with auto-cannons should do the trick.
Need some thing to tarpit that nasty squad over there? Send in the sentinels to slow'em down.
Need some thing that looks cool? That will be the sentinels

Also the Sentinel can make an awesome base for bigger heavy Sentinels, You can make a Sentinel into a LRBT Just look at what I tend to field.

The outflanking of scout sentinels is useful. Theyre also pretty inexpensive. I can see the utility of having 3 squadrons of 3, combined with an astropath. Id use either multilaser or autocannon to maximize the number of shots it can spit out.

I lost a tourney to a guard army with the following build:

4 squadrons of sentinels ( you could have 1 with HQ in the old book), all with lascannons. stormtroopers, leman russ with bolters, and then a couple infantry platoons with maxed out heavy weapon squads with lascannons.

It was more a lascannon spam army than a sentinel spam army. Even hitting 50% of the time, getting hit by 12-18 lascannons =9 hits, virtually killing a unit or MC. Granted, this was pre cover rules, but the concept is still the same.