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Good day guys,

I have been sorting my miniatures out for a while now and found myself comparing certain unit types for cost effectiveness calculating their potensy based on a similar arrange of weapons and points value and I wanted your feedback.
i.e. Command Squad vs Honor Guard and now LoTD vs Sternguard

Now I racked up the points of your bog standard 5 man squad of LoTD as I have a couple old metal core model miniatures floating around from when they were first released and entertained the idea of fielding them on paper they look like a deep striking SG squad without the option for jacking them up with special weapon spam, but bare bones 125 points you get a special weapon, heavy weapon and your ranged weapon for your Sgt coming to a total of 150 points.

I compared and built up a SG squad with a similar template which also came to 135 points.

Competitively what do you guys things is more valuable considering their arsenal?

LoTD have the deep strike, cover ignoring shots (same as SG) moveable heavy weapons shots and the +3 invulnerable save, fear and fearless, 5 WS sgt.

Or the Sternguard with the larger array of special issue ammunition, extra scoring unit with the dedicated transport and potential special weapon spam.

Love to hear your thoughts, Legion is winning for me purely on the array of extra rules, what's the draw back?

(Apologies if this subject has been tackled already I searched but came up with nothing on the site.)

It entirely depends on how much in points you're willing to spend. LotD require VERY little commitment to get working.

They are differently good. I know that doesn’t answer your question, sorry.

There is a place for both in your army. While the SG do have ignore cover, the LotD have it unit wide. So while the SG might be fine for erasing light troops out of ruins, a melta heavy LotD squad can pop a jinking tank without breaking a sweat.

I think overall SG are more flexible, but the LotD can be set up to pull some nice shenanigans, and are better for a focused role. Both work, YMMV.

Sternguard in a pod are reliable, you know when and where they turn up and you can have so many combi weapons you'll be certain the thing you need to kill will die... however to do that can get real expensive and the special and heavy weapons won't be cover ignoring so anything with a jink save becomes a pain to kill

Personally i think LotD for a 5 man suicide MM, meltagun, combi melta sqaud, they are cheap, they are difficult to get rid of and nothing is immune to them

Sternguard go in the back, they are basically advanced tactical marines and i'd rather have them do exactly what tacs have always been for, holding objectives shooting everything until they charge you and then hoping to hold against the charge, except stern will do that job 5x better than a tac ever will

I like LotD, particularly while the game places so much emphasis on cover saves. A number of armies currently can generate cover saves that exceed their most common armor save, thus negating that shifts things in your favor.

LotD with their deepstrike bring heavy weapons with mobility, a greater effectiveness against units in cover, and slightly better longevity. While some might use them as a suicide squad they're more survivable than any other unit getting used in that way. The one or two wounds lost due to enemy special and heavy weapon fire will happen only a third as often. Your enemy will need twice as much shooting to kill the squad and with fearless they aren't going anywhere till they're dead.

Finally if you are taking them from the SM codex entry you're doing it wrong. 1-4 Squads may be taken allies without counting as your allied detachment, just like inquisition. Besides freeing up an Elite choice from your primary FOC, the LotD codex allows you to give one squad Feel no Pain making them even harder to kill.

I think that Sternguard is more useful these days since 40k is a shooty game in the first place. Keep the enemy at arm's length if possible.

The only real downside to LotD is an inability to arrive turn 1. Beyond that, they are a great Shock and Awe unit that has to be dealt with, as you don't want cover ignoring Melta/Plasma/Grav slowly walking through your back field.

SJ