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2 Editions ago I used to love my old 5 man suicide veteran squads, deep striking with 3 special weapons. I've recently read a tactica on Storm Troopers (sorry but I'm gonna refer to them by their original tittle), and it mentioned their best use being as a deep strike unit with 2 meltaguns to get those swift heavy vehicle kills.

But how effective is such a unit? Cause 5 Storm Troopers with 2 Meltas is 90pts?

I think they're too inaccurate and too unreliable.

Having lost their ability to reroll deep strike results, trying to get within 6" of a vehicle is a pretty big risk. You can easily scatter either away from it (putting you out of melta range), or into it (causing a mishap). And, of course, you're also relying on reserve rolls to get them when you need them.

Then, if you land safely, you still have to hit, penetrate and get through any jink/cover/invulnerable save your target might have.

Finally, even if one of your shots gets through, you've only got a 1/3 chance of actually destroying the vehicle outright. Otherwise you've just used a 90pt suicide squad to strip off a hull point.

Possibly the biggest problem is that they're a suicide unit. So, you need them to complete their mission the turn they arrive. But, the odds really are against them.

I like them in that role, but much prefer them en masse.

At 90 points, they're cheaper than most non-transport tanks they'll be targeting, so assuming you're doing damage you're getting a positive return on your investment. Bring 2-3 squads like that and you can do all kinds of damage.

However, I think a better use of them is to bring multiple larger squads. Use them to open a second front, taking huge amounts of fire from the rest of your forces and doing a lot damage as well. It's a larger investment, but usually offers greater rewards.

I have been using a couple of squads lately and have enjoyed success. The deep striking can be unreliable, but they add a dimension to your army as well as threat saturation. The ap 3 lasguns also offer some threat to back field units like dev squads.

They also give something that guard have a difficult time with. Getting to the enemy deployment zone. If you are not using flyers, it can be really hard to get to the enemy table edge sometime. These guys are small, can pack a punch, and can challenge enemy home objectives, splitting up the enemy fire or diverting his forces.

I think that without a reroll to deepstrike, plazma is a bit more attractive now. Their role shifts a bit from tank-crackers to rear-armor-tank-crackers and a-few-more-ignore-armor-wound-dealers. Sort of...

Agreed. Landing within 9-12" is pretty easy. Landing within 6" that you'd need to get reliable use out of flamers and melta guns is a lot harder.

Suicide melta squads is good in a Tempestus army, because it's your only source of heavy-duty anti-tank. But in a regular Militarum force, you can bust tanks as decent range with lascannons, vanquisher shells, etc...

The 5 man suicide units are pretty mediocre now. Overall I am just not impressed with the codex scion units. If you are going to take a unit of them I would recommend plasma. The command units can also be somewhat fun as they get 4 special weapons and are thus much more punishing. They also get junior officer orders and so can be semi useful when the stars align (if nothing else they can run themselves into cover). Keep in mind when using scions that they have move through cover so get them into cover and thus perhaps make the opponent waste some real firepower to dislodge them. Another way that can be good to use them is in a reserves/infiltration army where you will have senior officers available to give them orders. A scion command squad can be brutal in this case as 4 plasmaguns with ignore cover or tank hunters can do some real damage to all the major targets in the game. This specialty situation is the only time I would say codex scions are better than just taking scions from an MT codex detachment. (this is my issodon + AM list btw if you are interested I can post it).

IMO if you want to run 10+ scion models you should definitely take them from the MT codex. The orders the prime gets are much better and can really make full use out of 10 scion units with plasma and the like. I would still mostly avoid melta for units you plan to DS, unless you take the airborne formation as they get some nice bonuses. Though in the case of the MT codex order plasma and hot shot volley guns make incredible use of the order (as well as hot shot las so feel free to get a full unit of 10 to maximize order effectiveness).

Stormtroopers are one of my favourite units, but I always try my best to make them compliment the rest of my force. This I think is a key point to remember.

I have had very mixed results with the 5 man melta suicide squad. Having lost the ability to reroll deepstrike makes them even harder to reliably use. And once they land they become a priority target for your opponent.

However, I have been a fan of the full squad with plasma. With this set up you have longer reach, with good hitting power, so if you scatter it's not so bad. As well you have the bodies to soak up wounds and get more than one turn of good shooting. However, I usually don't deep strike them but load them in a Chimera and pair them with a Vet Squad.

As someone stated, deep striking a platoon is a good way to open another front, or put real pressure on your opponents back line. For less than 500pts you can get one command and two scion squads (15-25 models) with, 8 plasma guns at BS4, krak grenades, and a bonus of AP 3 shooting (weight of fire is the focus here). It can make life difficult for your opponent. Remember that you can make use of orders with a command squad too! Of course you can make different combinations as well.

I like Stormtroopers, use them quite often, and they usually fulfil their role well for me. But they are a lack lustre suicide squad in my experience. Better to use them in numbers.

I like using them as a sort of ambush unit, like I used to do with the previous edition. Wait until the enemy is committed on turn two-three and then drop them on flanks or behind them. Generually they'd die to counter attack fire on the enemy turn, but when they showed up they'd wreck face. Still run them this way, slightly different depending on what I want them to do.

 Bonachinonin wrote:
I have been using a couple of squads lately and have enjoyed success. The deep striking can be unreliable, but they add a dimension to your army as well as threat saturation. The ap 3 lasguns also offer some threat to back field units like dev squads.

They also give something that guard have a difficult time with. Getting to the enemy deployment zone. If you are not using flyers, it can be really hard to get to the enemy table edge sometime. These guys are small, can pack a punch, and can challenge enemy home objectives, splitting up the enemy fire or diverting his forces.

I'd say this is their best aspect. If they kill something on the drop then that's awesome, but they basically force your opponent to waste fire on them or suffer worse consequences if they don't. With good positioning, you can ensure that your opponent is forced to disrupt their fire to keep your other (much squishier) units alive.

I've not used mine yet, but I think I'll have to drop three 5-man squads to do a single job. If the targets are clustered up at all, you get more targets, but if they know you're coming and scatter, you're going to have to hope for a kill-per-squad.
Make one of them a CS for more options.

I usually play them like the OP does, but I bring them in on the same turn as a deathwing assault. Somehow, that tends to shift attention away from them