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After a few games, I have concluded that sanguinary guard are NOT the best escort for dante, their lack of invulnerable saves making them expensive wounds against most things you want to throw Dante at.

What have others used as an escort for Dante? normal ASM?

I was thinking either-

A Vanguard vet squad, filled out. with 2-4 power weapons and a power fist, coupled with some storm shields, with a bunch of normal, non-kitted out Vets soaking up other wounds.

A bike squad for T5, and a sang priest, (always) to at least make use of the FnP most of the time.

The problem you'll run into with Vets is that they only have a 3+ armor. Instead of getting killed by AP2, they'll get boltered to death.

 DarkLink wrote:
The problem you'll run into with Vets is that they only have a 3+ armor. Instead of getting killed by AP2, they'll get boltered to death.

the idea is to have around 5 "idc if they die" wounds on the outer edges, along with a priest.

Im a traditionalist. 5 sanguinary guard with a power fist, 4 swords, chapter banner and inferno pistol. Attached is Dante and a priest with a jump pack and whatever weapon you want (either a power sword or valours edge). The 2+ armor save and fnp gives them a great deal of durability vs small arms fire and the like, while smart use of cover coupled with feel no pain gives them a decent set of saves vs grav, plasma and the like. Also, the squad hits like a brick sh*t house. They can take on anything from wraiths to MEQs to thunderwolf cav.

 th3maninblak wrote:
Im a traditionalist. 5 sanguinary guard with a power fist, 4 swords, chapter banner and inferno pistol. Attached is Dante and a priest with a jump pack and whatever weapon you want (either a power sword or valours edge). The 2+ armor save and fnp gives them a great deal of durability vs small arms fire and the like, while smart use of cover coupled with feel no pain gives them a decent set of saves vs grav, plasma and the like. Also, the squad hits like a brick sh*t house. They can take on anything from wraiths to MEQs to thunderwolf cav.

I disagree. The lack of invulnerable saves has time and again bitten my arse vs

Grey knights

Eldar

Space wolves

Dark Angels

Nids

Dark eldar. (where a decked out lord or W/E it was had an ap3 4+ poison and got the warlord trait for "no armor saves")

all of these examples a storm shield would have proven much more effective imo.

Good news is that you don't need invul vs eldar no more.
Ain't gona save you.

 raiden wrote:


I disagree. The lack of invulnerable saves has time and again bitten my arse vs

all of these examples a storm shield would have proven much more effective imo.

You can use SW Wolf Guard Battle Leader mounting thunderwolf which can have 2+sv and 3++Isv. Independent Character also has 2+ Sir Lookout to share damage. Fenris Wolves carried by WGBL mean extra wounds. With Champions of Fenris, you only waste 20pts servitors to carry three WGBLs.

Another alternative is to attach him to a command squad with jump packs. The sanguinary noviate will give them all fnp which will help their survival rate and one of them can take the company standard to give them all that +1 attack. Kitted out right, these dudes can be pretty effective charging into combat.

Another thing to note with the Blood Angels command squad is that you don't pay extra points for the sanguinary noviate and champion, so that unit is fantastic value in terms of points for what you get. If you want to keep the points down, a stock BA command squad with jump packs, (3 veterans, noviate and champion) clocks in at only 125 points - bargain!


There is also Death Company, but they are better off with a Chaplain/Astorath.

For me there is only two options and there size scales with game size

Sang guard x5 with a priest is my go to. As other people have said 4 swords and a fist + the banner. I've also done this with 8 8man and a l2 div priest who luckily got forwarning which made this unit a monster

Dc have worked a couple of times but they dont need dante with the to wreck face. last game (2500pts) for a laugh I ran 15 dc jump packs 3 fists the rest ccw bolt pistol with astarath, dante and a l1 lib to use the quickening on dante. This unit was ridiculous. Lost 2 to fire but the 13 rerolling hits and wounds with hit and run and dante getting +1-3 attacks and ini to kill characters was insane. Very expensive and id never run it in a comp game but we wanted a crazy game and this unit brought it.

Overall sg are your best bet but dc with hit and run is very amusing

Here's how I do it:

Dante
1x Sanguinary Priest w/ Chainsword, Storm Bolter, Jump Pack
5x Sanguinary Guard w/ Encarmine Swords, Angelus Boltguns, Chapter Banner

I don't take the fist on the Guard to save points and because Dante provides plenty of AP2 for the unit imo, and he does it at Initiative. I take the Storm Bolter just to give a little more shooting on that worthless turn that they Deep Strike.

It's a sweet unit, I like it. The whole unit gets +1 WS, +1 Attack, and Feel No Pain. Because I use the Baal Strike Force Detachment, they also all have +1 Strength and +1 Initiative on the charge.

 Slaphead wrote:
Another alternative is to attach him to a command squad with jump packs. The sanguinary noviate will give them all fnp which will help their survival rate and one of them can take the company standard to give them all that +1 attack. Kitted out right, these dudes can be pretty effective charging into combat.

Another thing to note with the Blood Angels command squad is that you don't pay extra points for the sanguinary noviate and champion, so that unit is fantastic value in terms of points for what you get. If you want to keep the points down, a stock BA command squad with jump packs, (3 veterans, noviate and champion) clocks in at only 125 points - bargain!


There is also Death Company, but they are better off with a Chaplain/Astorath.

I'm pretty sure the command squad only gets the company banner, not the chapter banner, so no +1 attack.

Personally though I like the idea of running him with a command squad. Shields, FNP without having to use my priest, and on top of that the company champ "must" make challenges, freeing up dante to literally murder the rest of an opposing squad for giggles.

In the BA tactics thread I talked about my experiences running Dante with DC, whilst they still don't have an invul, they're cheaper per model than SG, have built in FnP (downside is obviously Dante won't get FnP vs using a priest with SG). Also DC squads can be up to 15 dudes so there's plenty of ablative wounds.

I like running them with a Chaplain, as I find the Hit and Run + Rage + Rerolling to hit on the charge is just awesome. Excellent force multiplier.

D

I prefer good ol' cheap asm squads as Dante ablative wounds.
Run that with some other big jump-stuff nearby like an Astorath squad of death company or a SG squad with a priest, and when Dante needs to, he can jump ship out of the asm to other squads.

Another good thing is attaching a librarian with jump pack to the squad
Because if you get the 'shield of sanguinius' psychic power, you can gice them invuns

I think wherever he goes (unless its with Death Co) a priest is mandatory. One of the main reasons i love the sanguinary guard is because they can carry the Chapter Banner. Between the sanguinary priest and the banner, Dante goes up to 7 str7 ws7 init7 ap2 attacks on the charge. Ive killed captain america biker masters, khan, wraithlords, chaos lords, necron lords, terminator squads, warbosses, etc beyond counting just with him.

The few things in the game that can reliably fight him are Daemon Princes/greater daemons and the nurgle palenquin lord that has become super popular at my FLGS. That build is as follows:

-Chaos Lord
Power Fist
Lightning Claw
Blight Grenades
Boon of Mutation
Sigil of Corruption
Daemonheart
Palenquin of Nurgle

T5 with a 2+/4++, 5 wounds and IWND makes for a tough nut to crack.

Done playtesting using him with SG, DC and Grav bikers.

SG was the worst, if a unit can shoot from the side or behind they fall a part, and there is only so much ap2 he can tank with 4++.
DC worked pretty well, the main issue here is Dante killing so much alone, that the unit was usually overkill being vulnerable to shooting due to not being locked in combat, this can be mitigated with disordered charge when possible.
Grav Bikers with a priest has been by far the best escort unit as the unit simply won't die and has a lot more shooting. The assault does good dmg, but not to much, the gravs making killing MC easier and hit'n'run for more mobility and shooting. Losing shots to a 21point bike with 4+ cover and fnp is amazing value.

Command squad looks nice as well, but havent tried that yet.

Command Squad is one of the cheaper units to attach to Dante. You can give the three Veterans Storm Shields and a Meltagun each. They can function well enough in close combat and can be used for tank-hunting among others. They will be able to survive fairly well too between the 3++ and FNP.

Add an allied Dark Angels Librarian or Chaplain with a Power Field Generator and now most if not all of whatever unit he's embedded in has a 4+ invul save.

Boom.

I run him with SG, but I detach him almost immediately to go fight something else. Dante is good enough on his own to take care of business.

Remtek wrote:
Done playtesting using him with SG, DC and Grav bikers.

SG was the worst, if a unit can shoot from the side or behind they fall a part, and there is only so much ap2 he can tank with 4++.
DC worked pretty well, the main issue here is Dante killing so much alone, that the unit was usually overkill being vulnerable to shooting due to not being locked in combat, this can be mitigated with disordered charge when possible.
Grav Bikers with a priest has been by far the best escort unit as the unit simply won't die and has a lot more shooting. The assault does good dmg, but not to much, the gravs making killing MC easier and hit'n'run for more mobility and shooting. Losing shots to a 21point bike with 4+ cover and fnp is amazing value.

Command squad looks nice as well, but havent tried that yet.

I like Dante with the DC, but yes overkill can be a problem, but as you say an easy option is to multi charge if you're afraid being shot up next turn.

Out of interest how big a bike squad have you being attaching him to?

D

 raiden wrote:

 th3maninblak wrote:
Im a traditionalist. 5 sanguinary guard with a power fist, 4 swords, chapter banner and inferno pistol. Attached is Dante and a priest with a jump pack and whatever weapon you want (either a power sword or valours edge). The 2+ armor save and fnp gives them a great deal of durability vs small arms fire and the like, while smart use of cover coupled with feel no pain gives them a decent set of saves vs grav, plasma and the like. Also, the squad hits like a brick sh*t house. They can take on anything from wraiths to MEQs to thunderwolf cav.

Dark eldar. (where a decked out lord or W/E it was had an ap3 4+ poison and got the warlord trait for "no armor saves")

What trait gives the archon the ability to ignore Armour saves? I have not seen such a trait.