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Greetings Blood Angel players. As I've been ruminating on the changes 6th Edition has brought, one thing is clear: the standard Assault Squad with 2 Meltaguns and a Power Fist Sergeant is no longer ideal. Of course, that means we have to find something else. While the Death Company is now something that has an obvious use, it still doesn't score, and therefore can't be the only Troops choice for most armies. Scouts are now worth a look, maybe even Tactical Squads, but I still suspect the Assault Squad will remain the backbone of our codex for the foreseeable future. That means we have to figure out how to run them.

One line of thought on the subject is keeping them cheap, intending to use them as a sacrifice in a challenge if necessary. This implies either accepting that the squad in question will not be able to take on most CC oriented squads, or attaching some sort of CC-capable IC to each Assault Squad. This may be a perfectly valid plan-of-attack, especially since the regular Assault Marine is probably slightly better in CC than previously due to Hammer of Wrath (although the loss of I5 hurts, an automatic hit is worth 1.5 basic attacks minimum, and 2 basic attacks against most targets that you won't automatically win against).

I'm thinking something else might be viable: Give each Sergeant a PF/SS combo. The combination of 5+ FNP and a 3++ invul is incredibly strong defense. Very few models can both strike at initiative and ignore FNP. Thus, either the Sergeant is guaranteed at least 1 round of swings, or will get his full defense. Even hitting on a 3 and wounding on a 2, each attack that allows FNP has only a 12.3% chance of killing him. Thus, if he charges and ends up in a challenge against a Relic Blade/Storm Shield Captain, he only has a 32.7% chance of dying in the first round. Assuming he survives, he has a 36.1% chance to kill the Captain. Thus, he dies 32.7% of the time, kill the Captain 24.3% of the time, and draws the rest. While by no means does he have the advantage, the odds are close enough to make an opponent think twice about issuing or accepting a challenge if the circumstances are right. If the Captain doesn't have a Storm Shield, then the odds end up slightly in the Sergeant's favor, and if the Captain has a Power Weapon or Lightning Claw, even more so.

Note that the odds are even better against other common opponents, like the standard PK Nob. Here the Sergeant kills the Nob 80% of the time, while the Nob only kills the Sergeant 36% of the time.

This squad also provides a bit of a stumbling block for some Monstrous Creatures. If charged by a Daemon Prince, for example, the Sergeant will likely get 1 re-roll per turn. The Daemon Prince's attacks each have less than a 10% chance of killing him without a re-roll. Once he has one, he has a 89.7% chance to survive the round in which the Daemon Prince charges*. He isn't going to do much damage back, but that combat is going to drag on for a very long time, especially since his odds of surviving a round go up when the DP loses the charge bonus. By the same token, the squad can easily charge a Tervigon and expect to at worst last for awhile.

Finally, the SS upgrade can be reasonably taken in bulk. While 20 points per squad is certainly material, it makes a 2 Meltagun squad clock in at 255 points.

So Dakka, has anyone tried this? Any thoughts?

* I did the math. That number is accurate and exact. The computation was very involved, so I'm not planning to explain it.

I typically run a th ss sargeant. Against mc's the extra 5 points will mean if you hit it and wound first round you are guaranteed to have attacks second round for an extra 5 points. Even if you die then at least you've done more damage then you've needed.

Thunderhammers have got nerfed in they don't cause a shaken result anymore. I always ran 2 sargeants with th ss and one with twin lc.

If taking dante for a dante bomb id suggest 2 infernus pistols for an extra shot on the drop. For 15 points make it a shooting squad since with 2 pistols you have 2 gunslinger shots pumping up your firepower.

Storm shield is just too many points, if he was meant to die he was meant to die. If he gets precision shot with nonarmour breaking shots it will be useless anyway.

2 lighting claws is a very pricey given it isn't so much better than a power weapon. Then once dead the points are gone.

However, maybe paradoxically given my view on the above, double infernus pistols I think is worth a try at low point battles. You can take 3 melta gun/pistols, which is quite useful, especially as the sarg. can precision shot and it is hard to fit points to add to 500 or 600 or whatever crazy value you are thinking about.

rogueeyes wrote:I typically run a th ss sargeant. Against mc's the extra 5 points will mean if you hit it and wound first round you are guaranteed to have attacks second round for an extra 5 points. Even if you die then at least you've done more damage then you've needed.

Thunderhammers have got nerfed in they don't cause a shaken result anymore. I always ran 2 sargeants with th ss and one with twin lc.

If taking dante for a dante bomb id suggest 2 infernus pistols for an extra shot on the drop. For 15 points make it a shooting squad since with 2 pistols you have 2 gunslinger shots pumping up your firepower.

I guess TH vs. PF comes down to how often you expect to face stuff that can survive a S8 hit. If Nids start becoming common (maybe due to psyker spam) I could see it, as you'll get the re-roll fun against MCs, plus many of them don't have invul saves, so you get a decent chance to do some real damage. The thing is, besides Nids, not many armies have stuff that won't get IDed, aren't already striking at I1 anyway (pretty much every Ork Warboss has a Power Klaw, for example), and get fielded with regularity (so the Dark Eldar MCs don't count).

The only other army I can think of is Necrons. I can see how the TH would be useful here too, especially if the new rules for CCBs mean they usually don't have Phase Shifters.

I suppose the final reason is that the TH/SS combo looks a lot better.

Because of the AP changes I figured it's now worth taking plasma pistols in assault squads, rather than obligatory melta. Of course, plasma guns are still a no-go thanks to not being able to charge - but Honour Guard can fit those in better anyway.
Of course, you still need SOME tank-popping power so that leaves two approaches. Either one of each squad - one with plasma, one with melta - or both plasma, but with melta bombs.

Super Ready wrote:Because of the AP changes I figured it's now worth taking plasma pistols in assault squads, rather than obligatory melta. Of course, plasma guns are still a no-go thanks to not being able to charge - but Honour Guard can fit those in better anyway.
Of course, you still need SOME tank-popping power so that leaves two approaches. Either one of each squad - one with plasma, one with melta - or both plasma, but with melta bombs.

Putting a Plasma Pistol on a regular Assault Marine is pretty dumb. For 5 points more than a Meltagun, you get one extra CC attack. You give up 1 point of Strength and 1 point of AP as well.

I do think Plasmaguns are more viable now than in 5th, but as you pointed out, not in Assault Squads. I can also see giving Plasma Pistols to Sergeants.