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I was wondering what people thought of running Sanguinary Priests in their BA force. I played two 1,000 point games yesterday with my BA against Orcs and the new Tau book and found they were well worth the points with the granting FNP. Does anyone else have much experience with them?

The biggest issue with SP is that they hurt your model count, which limits offensive output. FNP is still useful, but furious charge is basically garbage now.

Priests are useful and in my opinion worth their points. FnP can really change the game with some lucky saves.

Another useful guy is Brother Corbulo. More expensive, but with 2+ FnP he's very durable and can tank the shots fired at your squad.

They aren't' quite the envy of all other armies like they were in 5th, but they are still a good buy, especially against armies that are already low initiative like the Tau, Orks, Necrons, or Imperial guard.

It depends on your list - one popular list that can't make much use of them is mech-heavy, like the old Razorback spam or lots of Dreadnoughts (though I would still take one for Troops units for objectives there).
If you're running a lot of foot Marines or jump-packs, they are absolutely worth it, though not as much as they used to be. Combined with a Librarian with Shield for cover saves, you can make normal Marines pretty damn tough to kill.

You need to watch out for them being taken out, however. Keep them at the backs of units and try to make sure the unit has another character in it to take on any challenges. Also, don't forget you get a "free" "Priest" in Honour Guard units (ok, so he's not free and he's not a Priest, but you get the idea). I use my Honour Guard with plasma guns so I don't take the Champion as that means losing out on extra plasma, but if you take a combat-kitted Honour Guard then take the Champion there.

I take almost pure jump packs so I try to make sure I have one per every two squads, not including Death Company of course.

Good stuff here, guys. I definitley felt he made up his points in the saves I made. He probably saved 3-4 marines each game which was well worth the 50 pts. I did run him in the squad with a captain to accept challenges, but it was never needed. I don't think it would be something worth spamming, but keeping one in the middle of my battle line seems like something I will probably do more often.

I can't speak highly enough of Corbulo. I put him in with my Sternguard drop pod unit (anyone know why we only get 10 spots in our drop pods?) and he had been a, well, not game-changer, but maybe game-extender... Good stuff.

It's better to put the SP in a squad with two other characters, like sergeant and libby, arm them all identically and deny all challenges.

Has anyone ever tried spamming them? Running two or three throughout the army to pretty much give the whole army FNP? If you space them correctly you could have quite a decent gunline with FNP. Just a thought.

When I play BA, I put one on a bike and just drive him where I need him. The T5 doesn't hurt either.

 squall018 wrote:
Has anyone ever tried spamming them? Running two or three throughout the army to pretty much give the whole army FNP? If you space them correctly you could have quite a decent gunline with FNP. Just a thought.

Yup, I tend to take 2 at 1,500 and 3 at 2,000, but that's with DC so pretty much the entire army is covered.
It does make a significant difference. I tend to find that lining up two units to make an assault may mean one gets downed, but the opponent has to throw some extra firepower in to do it - meaning the second unit (and much of the rest of the army!) is more or less untouched.

Has anyone ever tried spamming them? Running two or three throughout the army to pretty much give the whole army FNP? If you space them correctly you could have quite a decent gun line with FNP. Just a thought.

Yup. Even in 6th I pretty much never leave home without them. I have one with every assault squad. For me it's pretty much automatic. Almost like being able to give your BAs MoN. lol

Like someone else said, Furious Charge isn't what it use to be, but I still run a squad of 10 jump-packed assault marines in my BA army (mostly because it's fluffy) and they never leave home without their similarly equipped Sang. Priest. I find that he sort of helps off-set some of the problems that assault units have under the new rules.

They are also great in gun line armies because they allow you to take plasma without quite as much fear of "Get's Hot".

The more you spam them, the less offense your list has, however. The mobility options put these guys at 75 and 85 pts. That's a dubious price for what they do in 6th. And that's with no power weapon.

The more you spam them, the less offense your list has, however. The mobility options put these guys at 75 and 85 pts. That's a dubious price for what they do in 6th. And that's with no power weapon.

That's true, they get expensive. I don't know what the mathhammer looks like on this, but I can say from experience in 6th, that any time I've taken one with an assault squad (I rarely run more than 2 of those anymore and usually only 1 ten man unit) they have been worth every penny as a sort of force multiplier.

I've never taken more than 3 (actually can you take more than 3 in one FOC? I can't remember), and they are of somewhat less value to the gunline marines (IMO anyway), but like I said, taking one or two to run with your assault marines and/or DC can actually make a huge difference at times.

I'm just curious, how do you know they were that effective as a force multiplier? Have you tried taking them out and just getting more stuff? I have, and the results are virtually indistinguishable. I use them for fluffy reasons mainly.

Remember, if you dump them and bring more offense, you are saving your models by proactive means by making sure there is less to shoot/fight back. The furious charge thing just really puts these guys in the grey area.

I'm just curious, how do you know they were that effective as a force multiplier? Have you tried taking them out and just getting more stuff? I have, and the results are virtually indistinguishable. I use them for fluffy reasons mainly.

Yes. I have. Like I said, it really didn't change much with the gunline list - I DID botch a few gets hot roles but that's about it. I have found (only done tried 4 games like this in 6th) though that when I take my assault squads without them, I don't tend to get enough "other stuff" squeezed in with the points that my assault squads manage to have the same amount of success as they would have had. At least in my local meta, they seem to make a fairly large difference to my assault squads (which as I said are usually 10 man jump pack squads - non DC). Maybe I didn't spend the points well? I'm not sure. I just know that so far in 6th, my BA's still do better WITH them than without them.

Martel732 wrote:
I'm just curious, how do you know they were that effective as a force multiplier? Have you tried taking them out and just getting more stuff? I have, and the results are virtually indistinguishable. I use them for fluffy reasons mainly.

Remember, if you dump them and bring more offense, you are saving your models by proactive means by making sure there is less to shoot/fight back. The furious charge thing just really puts these guys in the grey area.

Counter argument: If the SP is left behind for more offensive power, and that offensive power is CC oriented, then fewer models will be saved through proactive means than if they were brought because those CC units need to close the distance to have an effect.

BA isn't a CC army, its a highly mobile army. More vehicle, more dakkadakka, less CC, more tac squads.

As I said, I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes. Kinda like angels dancing on the head of a pin.

I have a hard time including a jump unit WITHOUT an accompanying Priest. It hurts the overall offensive capabilities of my army, certainly (basically, that's 90 pts that can either be this Priest or a Whirlwind). However, I like having a unit that is capable of holding out for an entire game in my opponent's back field, able to contest an objective, or to score line breaker. Even with the priest, they are not guaranteed to survive and do any of that, but without the Priest in a jump squad I essentially have zero chance of getting line breaker.

Having one straddle every two full-size squads is the best as a happy medium - or, one per every 3 5-man squads if you're running things like Sanguinary Guard or Termies. You get the added benefit of your units supporting each other without you even really having to think about it, since they're within 6" of each other (I'm going to charge you with this unit. ...oh hey, and this one too! Would you look at that, they were right there ready).
One per squad is definitely too much, at that point they will no longer be worth the cost.

The BA list just has so much overcosted stuff I hate paying for the SPs. FNP can now stop really expensive weapon hits, so I guess that in the long run it pays off to 33% nerf enemy costly weapons.

I recently have been running Lysander in a command squad. This unit is awesome at "tanking" weight of fire armies. I ran him in a drop pod so they really only took one turn of shooting.

This unit was so good, I started collectin a BA drop pod list. Corbulo is beast. Don't forget about his reroll too. I plan on an honor guard squad of 4 plasma rifles with libby. Death company and a couple death co dreads. Also using a 10 man assault termie squad with SP or 2.

With plasma being chosen in my area over melta, it works very good. Also thiking of deep striking redeemer LR with locator beacons.....I think you can do assault with BA this way.

I ran with two in a 1750 battle this past weekend--fighting 5 flying monstrous creatures (Daemons)--and they definitely helped me out. I had one with the Shield/Lance Librarian in a droppod with 8 Sternguard, and the FNP helped keep them alive for a while.

The more effective one I had behind an Aegis defense line with a Devastator squad, and the Priest there totally kept them in the game! In fact that devastator squad (besides shooting stuff with moderate success....6s to hit flying creatures really bites) held up a Daemon Prince in CC for 3 turns mainly due to that FNP.

So, I definitely found them useful. I haven't tried Corbulo yet, but will proxy him in next time, I think.

If a given demon isn't STR 8, they will be fighting Corbs a while.

Except every demon prince can smash. Ignoring 2+ FNP is worth losing 50% attacks.

Oh that's true. Dammit. Nerfed again.

Martel732 wrote:
Oh that's true. Dammit. Nerfed again.

"You can ignore my 2+ FNP save (with 1 reroll per game)? UGH, NERFED!"

My SPs have been hit or miss. With FNP being only 5+ the save is only as good as my luck that day. If they only gave us FC we would NOT take them. I find a lot of there use just being the extra WS5 attacks.

I usually take 2 with jump packs for 150 points. Which means I need to make about 9 FNP saves to "get my points back" with them. If you add in what they may kill that's 6-7 fnp saves, because I try to keep them safe in the middle.
If I get a 3rd on foot, which I do occasionaly for my devs, tacs or strerngaurd, or some gear its easily the price of another tac or assault sqd. Maybe even another sqd with gear of their own. If I combat squad them that's 2 additionaly targets my enemy has to split his fire/attacks against, helping reduce my opponents offensive capabilities. That alone could provide as much protection as a priest. On top of that those MSUs can score, & add way more attacks & firepower than 2-3 priest.

For me its a wait & see. There very fluffy & slightly useful. I may be cutting them out in the future though.