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My girlfriend bought me the gw templar brethren upgrade kit as well as five marines for them to steal legs and arms from cause she thought they'd make class looking honour guard (she's not wrong) but how would people use them? I've never seen them on the table

Honour Guard are essentially a melee unit. Power weapons and artificer armour make them budget terminators to all intents and purposes.

They lack an invulnerable save, which you can either deal with by accepting you're going to lose models (they're cheaper than terminators, either buy more or just deal with it).

Their standard is quite good, If I remember, and the squad leader is pretty damn tasty for a sergeant.

Their best use is as a 'bully'. Aim them at a unit without AP2 close combat weapons, and watch them rip through it with swords, axes and mauls.

I use them regular - i run a 9 man squad with 1 or 2 relic blades (leader has relic blade), banner and 1 or 2 axes the rest swords then plonk them in a Drop pod with a captin with AA, Burning blade and grav pistol (for the concussion) and boom i have a drop pod army so i try and shield them turn 1 then release the evil that they can dish out its something like 4/5 attacks each with power swords (2 normal +1 CC +1 Charge + 1 banner) its brutal against Meq or worse (and with sheer weight of wounds not bad against Teq).

if you like to swich it up ive also used the emp champ with them for extra challenge goodness!

So they'd need to be a squad of larger than five models to be any good?

Well it alll depends on the size of the game yes in a squad of 10 you have more bodies to lose be it overwatch or if you wipe a unit too quick but in smaller games (1k ish) 5 would be good there a ceeper (and i think) better version of termies

And should they get a transport like a drop pod or tank so they can get there or is that too much investment for a small unit?

I like to put a character with Storm Shield or Shield Eternal with them to shield them from incoming fire. A transport is mandatory for them, if you want to spare the points, use a LRC or LRR, so they can attack the turn they pop out of the tank.
Don't get to many Marines in the squad, you have a lot of power weapon attacks (I have mostly maces and axes with 1 or 2 swords). If you annihilate your enemy on your turn, you will get shot to pieces. You have to wipe out the enemy in the enemy's turn so you can charge again next turn. 5-6 Marines (usually 2/3 axes, 2 maces, 1 sword + banner) and the mentioned character with shield works best for me.

Edit: Add an Xenos inquisitor with grenades (-1 T for the enemy + random effect) to the mix for extra punch.

As they have a 2+ save they should be able to eat a round of fire before charging, so you could put them in a pod. Especially if you have a HQ with a good invuln to tank wounds. But they do enjoy charging down an assault ramp.

I’d avocate giving them a mix of weapons. Not only does it help them against a diverse number of foes, but looks cool. I’d bring the banner. The extra attack helps a lot. I had good luck with just a 5 man squad. I did have them in a LR, so they didn’t need to soak wounds before combat. But they blendered what the touched, even with low numbers.

Cheers guys

I am going to run a squad of seven alongside Pedro Kantor in a Land Raider Redeemer. The Champion has a Sword, four more have Mauls, and the last two have Axes. I gave them the Standard to maximize attacks as well. The unit on the whole pumps out 50 attacks a turn.

I love the honor guard. I use them in a land raider and give them a couple axes, but mostly swords. and I give them the chapter banner for the +1A. For my HQ I often put a basic no upgrades Chaplain with them. That gives them the reroll in the first round of combat and fearless.

For less points you can put them in a drop pod and give the chaplain an auspex. Spread the honour guard out when they get out of the pod if your opponent has some plasma cannons or other ap2 blasts. But since they have bolters they can actually take a turn of shooting and a 2+ save will give them some survivability. But this is a risky tactic and I've only used it a couple times, albeit to good effect against an Imperial Guard army.

Always have something to soak wounds for them. An EW character or a Priest allied from Blood Angels to give a 5+++, essentially making them Terminators (or 4+++ under Iron Hands.