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I'm in the process of building a ravenguard force. The "center piece" of the force are going to be three squads of vanguard veterans.

Tell me what you think about this load-out:

5 vanguard vets, all with jump packs.

Weapons set-up:

Power fist + bolt pistol
Chainsword + bolt pistol + meltabombs
Power sword + bolt pistol
Power mace + bolt pistol
Relic Blade + bolt pistol

Decent set up or no? I'm aware that mixing weapons is normally a bad idea. However, they have the ability to multi-charge without the normal disordered charge penalty and the ability to reroll charge distances to ensure that they make it to combat.

Is this kind of squad likely to have success or no?

All lightning claws with one hidden powerfist has served me well. I have thought of doing power mauls though as they would also be great as well as 5 points cheaper and maintaining the pistol.

PM's are AP4, so I'd drop them. Power swords and LC all the way. Maybe give the sarge a Thunder Hammer, and stick a few Stormshields for catching those nasty, AP3 attacks.

From a purely practical POV, I’d keep the number of different weapons down. If not you end up spending a lot of time figuring out who’s alive, who he can attack, and rolling each guy separate. With 5 guys it’s not so bad, but when I look my shelf deployment 10 man VV squad out for a spin, it was a major issue.

You’ll want a couple of SSs to tank wounds. Some guys to blender MEQ, and some AP2 for the hard stuff.

2 LC/SS (one is the sarge)
2 pistol/axe
1 LC/PF

But it really depends on the rest of your list, what sort of things you expect to be facing, etc. Plus how many spare points you have at the end of list building.

I do like mauls. They are a great all-around weapon. Swords are best for basic MEQ, axes for things with a 2+, and mauls are the best at everything else.

IMO a few storm shields are extremely important to prevent squad wipe via ap3 or less.

I have always found that it was best to keep storm shield guys otherwise bare and put them near the front, maybe a few naked marines in front to soak the non-ap3 attacks. That way the bare guys at the front tank small arms fire with their 3+ save (but not losing a tonne of points when they die). incoming ap3 will kill the 1-2 bare marines before the storm shields soak it up (again, not losing points on weapons when they die) and all the important killy weapons safe at the back for when combat begins. Don't bother with fancy pistols.

Might need a larger squad to do this, otherwise you won't have enough weapons in the squad to make it worth it. In smaller squads feel free to condense roles - e.g. 1 blank marines, 2 SS, and 2 power weapons.

This is all from a non-competitive standpoint though.

You need some storm shields.

 hippyjr wrote:
IMO a few storm shields are extremely important to prevent squad wipe via ap3 or less.

I have always found that it was best to keep storm shield guys otherwise bare and put them near the front, maybe a few naked marines in front to soak the non-ap3 attacks. That way the bare guys at the front tank small arms fire with their 3+ save (but not losing a tonne of points when they die). incoming ap3 will kill the 1-2 bare marines before the storm shields soak it up (again, not losing points on weapons when they die) and all the important killy weapons safe at the back for when combat begins. Don't bother with fancy pistols.

Might need a larger squad to do this, otherwise you won't have enough weapons in the squad to make it worth it. In smaller squads feel free to condense roles - e.g. 1 blank marines, 2 SS, and 2 power weapons.

This is all from a non-competitive standpoint though.

I agree who heartedly with the theory of sacrificial guys up front to soak wounds. With the old codex’s pricing, I would use naked BP/chainsword guys for this. But with the discount rate VVs get their gear at now, might as well toss some toys on them. 5 points for a LC or axe for the shield guys is well worth it IMHO.

are these vanguard in a shadowstrike kill team as that could change what they have equipped?

I'm usually going for a 7 man squad, which is really nice either for wiping 5 man squd either for surviving 10 man squads. I usually balance them like this:

- Storm Shield + Power Fist: at least 3, frontline if you're going to face AP3 or worse. Power fist is cheaper than thunder hammer.

- Storm Shield + Power Weapon (probably Lighting Claw): cheap, defensive option for the frontline. If you really need to save moneys for the LC+PF ones, and want to be able to hit with the frontliners before they are wiped out (which can actually happen if they are I1)

- Lighting Claw + Power Fist: the most you can afford. Best of all setups imho, can deal with heavy armored/tanks and with hordes.

- Lighting Claw + Lighting Claw: budget version for horde thinning.