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The veteran snipers of the Tranquility campaign are often held up as an example of Marines adapting their equipment and tactics to specific warzones. They have become iconic as examples of camouflaged marines - ironic, considering that their iconic colour scheme lasted only as long as the war for which it was developed.

Veteran Sniper Squad {Elites} - 100 points (or 90 points if you opponent is generous)
Veteran: WS4 BS4 S4 T4 W1 I4 A2 Ld9 3+
V. Serg: WS4 BS4 S4 T4 W1 I4 A2 Ld9 3+

Unit Composition: 1 Veteran Sergeant and 4 Veterans

Wargear: Power armour, bolter, bolt pistol, frag and krak grenades.
Special Rules: And They Shall Know No Fear, Chapter Tactics (Mantis Warriors), Combat Squads, Stealth.

Options: May purchase up to 5 additional Veterans for +20 points each (or 18 points each if your opponent is generous)
Any Veteran may equip their bolter with an M.40 Targeter and Stalker Silenced Shells for: +2 points/model
Any Veteran may replace their Bolter with:
- Shotgun or Close-combat weapon: free
One Veteran may take a weapon from the Heavy Weapons list.
One other Veteran may take a weapon from the Special Weapons list.
The Veteran Sergeant may take weapons from the Ranged and or Melee weapons lists.
The Veteran may take a single piece of Special Issue Wargear.
The squad may take a Dedicated Transport for the listed cost.

A bolter equipped with an M.40 Targeter and Stalker Silenced Shells may fire using the normal profile, or may alternatively fire with the following profile;

Range: 30", S4 AP5, Heavy 1, Sniper

They're cheap for Veterans. Sternguard are 22ppm.

I'd suggest either losing their Vet status and dropping the 2nd attack or maybe increasing points value slightly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I do like them though.

Comparing them to Sternguard, who come with Special Issue Ammo, seems a little off to me. Maybe 20 PPM (as they are a little cheap), but otherwise I wouldn't mind playing them.

Actually, I decided that the ammo was a bit hard to judge against and based them off Vanguard veterans, which everyone agrees are too expensive - I reckoned Stealth was slightly better than Heroic Intervention and made them 4 points dearer than standard Marines (as opposed to 5 points, which is overcosted according to most).

However, 20 ppm was my initial guess, so if that's what other people think too, back up they go!

22 is certainly too high - they're nowhere near Sternguard.

30" - sniper round (rending/precision shot), always wounding on 4's.
3+ Armour, bs4.
Not bad in combat considering their use.

Actually, considering their 18points basic with the +2 for the rifle... I'd say 20 points would be far.

I think they were fine as they were! My bad

This is pretty cool, I would like to use them sometime.

Yay, I did a homebrew right

Ehe. Feel free, Dat.

Don't know if they can compete with scouts cause they're not scoring and the damage output wouldn't be so outstanding. It'd be practically better to have an upgrade for scouts to get +1 bs instead. Either by a plain per-model upgrade or some gear for a serg.
I'd rather see scouts with bs4 and sniper rifles costing like tactical marines. What about:

Squad can purchase +1 BS for 2ppm. Or a sergeant can purchase +1 BS for the entire squad as long as he forgoes his own shooting to coordinate them and give advice. And it'd cost around 10 pts. Seems not too op but way more usable than vets with sniper rifles for 20 pts that ain't scoring.

On the other hand, there are guyz like ratlings that cost 10 pts, have bs4, stealth, infiltrate but t2,s2, armor 5+ and ld 6. I think scouts are allready better than those guyz are.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But if you add something like:
Skilled snipers - when fire sniper rifles, make precision shots on a 5+, when firing other weaponry - on a 6+. That'd justify their 20 pts cost and no ability to score.

I'd happily play against them but don't see their viability. It's just a boltgun with longer range and Sniper, which isn't that great anyway. I'd give them special shells that make them S5 or something, maybe as an upgrade for the M.40 Targeter boltgun, and maybe a bipod? Say while they're in cover they set up their bipod which gives them BS4.

>> You mean BS5, right? They are BS4. They're Veterans. >>

 Furyou Miko wrote:
>> You mean BS5, right? They are BS4. They're Veterans. >>

Yeah that thing xD


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Or lets them fire it as a Heavy 2 weapon or something, which encourages people to put their snipers in cover

That's a bit too much. Bs 5 seems a better idea.

You could give them the option to take a SINGLE type of special ammo, like Scorpius, or Kraken. something to reinforce their long range warfare.

Because I see Sternguard as mid-range Vets

or add 1 point and give them Scorpius rounds off the bat


Automatically Appended Next Post:
You could give them the option to take a SINGLE type of special ammo, like Scorpius, or Kraken. something to reinforce their long range warfare.

Because I see Sternguard as mid-range Vets

or add 1 point and give them Scorpius rounds off the bat

It seems good. Although too expensive. Being veterans you do need to pay the extra attack tax for fluff reasons I know, but you need something which makes them worth their points.
20ppm with the sniper and then the bs5 tripod as suggested, precision shot on a 5+ rather than 6+ as suggested, rending on a 5+ rather than 6+, or ignores cover. One of those 4 will make them worth it. Otherwise you might as well take raptors who can make a normal tac marines bolter rending...

Ah. I think people are overlooking something.

These guys are Mantis Warriors. They get Hammer of Wrath and Furious Charge when they're assaulting out of Cover. They're also backed up by Divination librarians. These things make them a little more assaulty than a long ranged fire support unit might otherwise be, especially since Stealth always gives them Cover. The DivvyLibbies are another reason not to make them BS5.

That said, they do need a 'Veteran Skill' other than Stealth, maybe. I like the Precision or Rending options better than the others.

Still - they have already paid for the mantis warrior CT so you shouldn't Include that too heavily in their price.