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I was thinking of throwing some sanguinary guard into a list with death masks and a chapter banner. Are sanguinary guard worth it though?

They can be, depending on the army. Death masks, however, are not.

It's a DOA army

They are flying terminators basically.

I also think death masks are fine. It's not like they are super expensive and could potentially make something that normally hits on 3's to need a 5+. Normal things will hit on 4's, but that's still making them lose 1/3 of their hits.

I'd recommend taking them with a Sang Priest. Improves overall punch on the charge, and FNP ensures they remain extremely resistant to small arms.

Also, if 6th Edition rumors hold true, they will have a 5+ Inv Save in Assault, thanks to their Master Crafter Power Weapons (Glaive Encarmines), which will make them even harder to kill, as their only real weakness right now is a lack of an invulnerable save.

Lastly, if you take them with Dante, I recommend going for broke and fielding a Sanguinary Guard army. They can be really nasty if utilized correctly, and with the augmentive abilities of Sang Priests, Chaplains, and hell, even the Sanguinor, you can end up with a "Dante and the Super-Friends" list that will wreck you opponent's gak if you know what you're doing.

Throw a power fist on them and call it a day.

The friend of mine that got me originally interested in Blood Angels uses a Sanguinary Guard with that set up as his scalpel unit in a DoA/jumper list. Uses them to bolster assaults that need a little extra punch, bully backfield units or eliminate weakened units. They don't have the numbers to really go toe to toe with other army's death stars, but they're a fantastic unit in their own right.

Death Masks aren't that expensive, but they're not that good either. They rely on the enemy failing a leadership roll, which unless you're hitting ld 7 or less units, they are going to pass more often than not. One round of combat where you're hitting on 3's and they're hitting on 5's isn't going to make a massive difference, honestly. It's not a massive cost either, so I can see them going on if you have the points.

I've never seen neither of the angelus boltgun upgrades perform that well.

The biggest annoyance I've seen playing them is keeping track of their MC weapons. My friend has to use dice of 5 different colors for them to keep track of the rerolls, since each individual model only gets a single reroll. It also leads to situations where one guy hits all his attacks, wasting his need to reroll and another guy misses all his attacks so he can only get one reroll. Again, this is hardly a bad thing for them, some rerolls are better than no rerolls. It can just be aggravating to keep track of.

Edit:

Be sure to keep them within range of a sanguinary priest! a 2+ with FnP can be a tough nut to crack. Totally forgot to mention that in my OP.

Double-edit:

I'd also strongly suggest filing the nipples off the armor. It just... looks better.

Nonsense, Nipples or nothing.

The Death Masks make a pretty massive difference against WS 5+ targets, swinging from me hitting you on 4's and you hitting me on 3's to me on 3's and you on 5's is a pretty massive swing in probability. Just being hit on 5's alone is worth it, I know it's one of the key things that makes Lelith so hard to bring down. Against MeQ you are looking at (1/3)(1/2)(1/6)(1/2)=1.4% chance for each attack to wound, or in other words 1 wound (on average) per 72 attacks. Pretty nasty.

Death masks arent worth it, sanguard tend to be an all or nothing unit anyways.

They are meant to be a cc specialist. They need to assault elite units with high armour, to make use of their powerweapons whilst that unit itself needs not have any powerweapons themselves.
Really assault marines with FNP will do in this case.

For example which unit would you assault in a grey knight army, apart from trying to get kills in before the grey knight hits back. Their powerweapons will cut through your armour, making them expensive assault marines.

Vanguard veterans would be a better choice. They have a similar problem but can take a range of wargear and their tactical landing is awesome.

I like 5 vanguard vets with stormshields, 3 with powerswords, 2 with powerfists. I also attach a sanguinary priest for the FNP.

TheLionOfTheForest wrote:I like 5 vanguard vets with stormshields, 3 with powerswords, 2 with powerfists. I also attach a sanguinary priest for the FNP.

Is that 10 Vanguards total?

If so, expensive but nasty unit...

If it's 5 total, then why not use lightning claws? You're not getting the extra attack anyway and you'll gain a reroll.

I run sang guard in my blood angels , they have done pretty well thus far, thier lack of an inv save sucks but as said put them with a sang priest and you'll have a pretty heavy hitting fast moving unit. this weekend I ran 2 groups of sang guard with dante and they more than paid for themselves and while i lost a few of em both squads were looking good in the end

My impression is that its not really worth it. What are the enemy units they will excel?

They're termies without an invulnerable save. And they deepstrike.
So fear Demolishers, plasmas, meltas. And they're pretty crappy in assault. And very expensive.

I tried them and wound up replacing them with a close combat Honour Guard unit. The cost isn't that much higher and they bring their own non-IC priest so keeping their FC and FnP is a lot easier.

However, in the face of a new edition with possible changes to deep striking, assaulting, power weapons, 2+ saves, and FnP, I wouldn't commit to anything for the next two weeks.

well with 3 S5 I5 attacks on the sharge sure to the priest with jump pack a group of 5 and hte priest chewed through 5 tactical termies befire they even got to stirke back while locking sone dire avengers in a combat (2v2 game eldar and vanilla marines vs blood andgels and tyranids..l. because there were no necrons to brofist with the bloodangels and vampireas aparently also hate elves enough to join the great devourers).

they even ended the game locked with lysander as I used dante's mask on lysander so lysander has minus 1 waepons skill, minus 1 wound and minus an attack (plus minus one initiative but that didn't matter he goes last) so they were trading blows a tthe end averaging onw wound per sied per turn but the game ended after 2 assault phases but the guard would have put him down i think

They are horrible!

for your opponent.

Had a match a week or so ago vs a BA list with my 'crons. Turns 1-3 i just blasted away happily, no effort. Turn 4m the Sang Guard come in and proceed to hop around the tables, wiping out a squad per turn and shurggign off small arms fire thanks to 2+ and FNP.

i lost....badly.

I've played quite a few games with my Sanguinary Guard. I bring 2 squads of them, 2 assault marine squads, 2 priests, 2 vanguard squads, and Dante.

I love the Sanguinary Guard but the problem with them is that they are not as point and clicky as people like. They require a lot of practice with to fully utilize. A common mistake made is when people drop with Dante they land right in front of the enemy guns. I drop behind LOS blocking terrain. Next turn I'm usually stuck in. I wouldn't buy death-masks unless you have spare points. Power fists and infernus pistols are better. I think a banner is good especially if you are not running "nipple-wing" as it can give you much needed re-rolls to leadership with your assault marines. It also buffs the squad with +1A per model. 4A on the charge! Count me in. Dante will make 7 by himself!

As a CC unit they are really really good at killing power armored troops and some elite units like terminators. When fighting against terminators it is very important to fire before charging. Against power armor you will likely wipe the unit.

Marshal_Gus wrote:

TheLionOfTheForest wrote:I like 5 vanguard vets with stormshields, 3 with powerswords, 2 with powerfists. I also attach a sanguinary priest for the FNP.

Is that 10 Vanguards total?

If so, expensive but nasty unit...

If it's 5 total, then why not use lightning claws? You're not getting the extra attack anyway and you'll gain a reroll.

5 van vets total with a priest and in a transport. No jump packs. I have another 5 I am doing up with packs for Heroic intervention. Fun and flufy