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So over in another thread the topic of Tyranic War Vets as a substitute for sternguard was raised. This brought to mind how deeply disappointed I was with how GW treated the TWVs in their dataslate. That’s saying a lot. I’m pretty much the target market for these guys. I play Ultramarines 3rd company. These guys are my peeps, I should be squeeing like a schoolgirl over anything related to them. I even have the minis, and would love to have them be something special on the table. All I had to give was “meh”, and “guess I’ll still field them as normal sternguard”.

But I would like to have some rules that are worth the pixels they are printed on. Which bring us here.

First lets start with comparing GW’s TWVs with sternguard.
For a 5 man squad, the TWV are 5 points cheaper. A full 10 man squad is the same. It is worth noting that TWVs can be fielded as a 4 man squad. I can only assume that this is because there are only 4 sculpts for the minis, and not ANY other reason.

Stock wargear is the same. With the exception that special ammo is restricted to hellfire rounds.

Special rules TWVs get a few extra. PE(nids) and Avenge the Fallen 1st, giving them Zealot if facing off against tyanids. Like PE wasn’t enough.

Options is where the ball really gets dropped. Remember we are making rules to sell 4 specific models, and they just have bolters. So the only thing we let them take is a melta bomb on the sarge and transports. There is a hidden perk here, where you can take LRs instead of rhinos/razors. DPs are still good (and probably your go-to option)

Lets take a look back at the 4th ed codex where they were introduced. The actually cost less then normal vets and got grenades for free. You had to buy terminator honours for the sage, and could get them for everyone (not just half the squad). Weapons were restricted to flamers and HBs. Transports are the standard rhino/razor. Instead of the normal choice of special rules regular vets get, you are “stuck” with PE(nids) and counterattack. Hellfire rounds were only for the HB, not regular bolters, and TWVs were using krack grenades in CC before it was cool.

In 4th, they had less options then regular vets, but got some nice perks to counter that. Not just vs. nids either. The dataslate TWVs give up all their options, and pick up some nid hatred to try to make up for it (and fail) In a TAC list, You’d be crazy to take them, and in a list tailored to fight tyanids, I’d feel dirty including them.

So let’s try to hammer out something balanced. Modifying sternguard as our starting point.

Let’s try to retain the same pricing as sternguard, if we have to adjust that later, we can. But I’d like to swap options to balance things out, rather then tweak points.

Go back to the 5-10 unit structure. The rest of the codex does it, should be fine for the TWVs.

Statline as a normal vet.

Restrict special ammo to Hellfire. This is a tradeoff to get other stuff.
Give everyone PE(Tyanids) and counterattack. This is a throwback to the 4th rules, and lets them have something a little special when not fighting nids.

For squad weapon options 2 vets can swap their bolter for:
Stormbolter w/hellfire rounds 5pts
Flamer 5pts
Heavy Flamer 10pts
HB w/hellfire shells 10pts.

Sarge and transport options as sternguard (The LR from the dataslate is a little much; if you want one, spend the HS slot.)

So you are giving up a lot of options (full special ammo, combi-spam, full armory access on specials/heavies) for PE(nids), counterattack, and free hellfire ammo for SBs and HBs.

Sound fair? Discuss.

It's fluffy, i'd not mind them. But i'd limit special weapons like heavy flamers. Not 2 per 5 but 2 per 10. Otherwise, u're just getting a rather cheap double HF.

 koooaei wrote:
It's fluffy, i'd not mind them. But i'd limit special weapons like heavy flamers. Not 2 per 5 but 2 per 10. Otherwise, u're just getting a rather cheap double HF.

Sternguard have the 2 per 5 so it’s not out of line. And can take duel HFs.

I thought of restricting them to one special, one heavy. Originally your options were if you wanted to take the one flamer, or one HB. But the ability to mix and match from the armory is more in line with modern vets.