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I really like the look of IG Stormtroopers, but don't know if I want to field them. How good are they en masse and if used as a 5 man melta deep strike team, how effective are they? Are they a good use of points?

As for point - they are expencive. They have expcencive and uneffective hellguns. And only 2 special weapons.
Veterans much better also can hold objective.
But stormies have improved Deep Strike and can shoot at enemy tanks immidiately, while vets have to move asross battlefield.
So, 5 stormies with 2 meltagun is like meltavets for poor man.

i, like it seems most people, only run them in suicide melta squads. Drop them behing an artillery piece or preditor and marvel as you roll snake eyes

For what you pay, they're quite a good investment. 105 points is worth it to threaten peoples' backfield with 2 bs4 meltas, but i'd never use them for anything else. They're just too squishy to be effective, and the range on their hellguns is too short to provide reliable anti-meq firepower. Ymmv though.

I don't need to worry about my troops, I got enough, I was wondering whether they are better than, say, a LRBT, basilisk or Vendetta.

I'd say no, they're not as effective as a basilisk or vendetta for nearly as many points.

With special operations I've never had a problem with them deep striking on target, but 2 meltas has never been enough for me to get the job done on a vehicle.

Plasma has treated me slightly better. They can take the edge off a monstrous creature or elite infantry unit.

The 5 man melta suicide squad is what Ive seen work best.

If your playing for fun Ive actually seen people run 3 squads of 10 dudes to some great extent. The used basically 1 squad of melta for the big tanks, a squad for plasma to really hurt monstrous creatures early and a squad of flamers if your opponent is running a very heavy foot slodging type of list.

Having that much stuff drop in your face can be scary so it could intimidate your opponent depending on what else you are running in a list.

If you like the models, they make great vets with Grenadiers.

That or suicide Melta.

Outflanking/Infiltrating pinning suicide Plasma/Flamers isn't terrible.

Scouting suicide Flamers are a decent-ish first strike.

Running 30 is great fun and actually really effective, as with the accurate and reliable DS, you can get a huge part of your force where and when you want them. They will do damage on the drop, and 30 gives them the durability to survive to the enxt turn, where they can either kill more stuff, move to cover or just hold their ground and go down in a blaze of glory.

Either the enemy has to deal with this mini-army in their deployment zone, leaving the rest of your grunts to march in unharmed, or ignore them, meaning you have gained a huge amount of mobility and backfield disruption the IG traditionally lack.

They excel against Tau and Eldar as the guns will wound them easily and tear through the saves, and they can also be great against MEQ when used en masse.

Whenever my Guard go over 1500 points, I always roll out the stormtrooper contingent, and they always perform well.

Are they as effecive as equal points in artillery/russes/dettas? No.
Are they more fun? Hell yes.

 Paradigm wrote:
Running 30 is great fun and actually really effective, as with the accurate and reliable DS, you can get a huge part of your force where and when you want them. They will do damage on the drop, and 30 gives them the durability to survive to the enxt turn, where they can either kill more stuff, move to cover or just hold their ground and go down in a blaze of glory.

Either the enemy has to deal with this mini-army in their deployment zone, leaving the rest of your grunts to march in unharmed, or ignore them, meaning you have gained a huge amount of mobility and backfield disruption the IG traditionally lack.

They excel against Tau and Eldar as the guns will wound them easily and tear through the saves, and they can also be great against MEQ when used en masse.

Whenever my Guard go over 1500 points, I always roll out the stormtrooper contingent, and they always perform well.

Are they as effecive as equal points in artillery/russes/dettas? No.
Are they more fun? Hell yes.

30 stormtroopers are 3 separate squads of 10, Stormies can't blob and have an upper limit of 10 models.

I know, that, I just bring 3 squads of 10. What I meant by it adding durability is that far more firepower is needed to shift them, more targets are present, and on the whole, a greater proportion survive than if I's just dropped the one squad.

i always have them, mainly because they look cool but i think they are massively under-rated

they have good BS...2 CCW.... 4up save.... krak grenades etc......

i always find a use for them and i often just run a barebones unit of 5... took down 6 killa kans in combat with them last time i used them

as people have mentioned they make great suicide/distraction units and can quicly mess up a battle plan if used well

I've wondered the past few days if there would be any merit to using the Scout doctrine with their Chimera and scouting 12'', moving 6'' and then disembarking 6''. Puts you in close proximity pretty easily and with no risk attached.

I used the scout doctrine a few times. I found that deep striking right in the middle of cover (and automatically passing the dangerous terrain test thanks to move through cover) helped their survivability a bit when facing opponent packing AP4 and down weapons.

I admit I never used Stormtroopers on the board at start, mostly use them as most do, dropping where needed.

 Mr.Omega wrote:
I've wondered the past few days if there would be any merit to using the Scout doctrine with their Chimera and scouting 12'', moving 6'' and then disembarking 6''. Puts you in close proximity pretty easily and with no risk attached.

No risk, really? Your putting a storm trooper squad in a fragile chimera right infornt of your opponents entire army. They have great bs but their hot shot lasguns are only strength 3 so have fun trying to wound anything. You might pop a transport with plasma guns but seeing as this will be the only squad close up they will do little to nothing to your opponent and then get blasted off the board and probably give up first blood.

Maybe in the next codex they will get a buff and make them competitive. I would really like to add some Kasrkin to my lists. Right now they just seem to expensive.

 Chootum wrote:
Maybe in the next codex they will get a buff and make them competitive. I would really like to add some Kasrkin to my lists. Right now they just seem to expensive.

Well you have to remember they do only have hot shot lasguns or hell guns or whatever they are called which are only strength 3 so they dont really wound to much and I dont believe GW wound change the stats for that weapon because its also in the core rule book and other armies use it as well. The most GW could do to make these guys more effective is just lower their points. But otherwise I dont believe they would get a better statline.

The more expensive you make them, the more of a focal point they become to your list.

Lets face it, IG Elite slots are not that great. Besides Marbro, this is probably the next best option. They are just very expensive compared to a Vet squad, but it is their ability to be placed where you need them and their special operations rule that help you pull this off. Are they useful? Yes. But I am not sure I would build a list around them, and I know I can find other things that would help me better than throwing away those points on a suicide unit. Because any way you play them...Scouting, Infiltrating, or DSing, they are going to be alone and isolated from the rest of your list.