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This is a post I made a little while back on the main BA tactica thread.

The drop in VanVets has certainly put Death Company in a tricky spot. DC are great for chaff clearance and can be buffed wonderfully by Lemartes. VanVets are more durable with their access to 2-point Storm Shield. A flying unit with a 3++ and any special weapons you like is pretty potent.

Personally I wouldn't bother with Thunder Hammers on VanVets or DC now that Power Fists have got such a drop. PFs are most cost effective on a whole unit, save Hammers for your characters.

Sanguinary Guard are good but they are very expensive and need a lot of support to make them work well. Firstly you need to run them with your Warlord so that they can get full rerolls to hit. Secondly you need to maximise their number of attacks, normally by running them with the Sanguinor and/or a Librarian to cast "Unleash Rage". You need to add something to keep them alive, normally a Sanguinary Ancient with the Standard of Sacrifice and possibly even a Sanguinary Priest to buff their strength and heal/resurrect models.

In a sense, the ranking of these units depends on the points you wish to spend on them.

VanVets. Cheap flying Invulns make them great for tarpitting big monsters or blender units. Add a few fists/hammers and you can hit back pretty well.

Death Company throw out the most attacks for their points and can be buffed with rerolls to charge and to hit with 100 points of Lemartes.

Sanguinary Guard are an expensive hammer unit that needs support both to maximise their attacks and ensure they don't get trashed. Don't forget, you can actually make one of the Sanguinary Guard you Warlord, you don't have to choose a character. Yes you lose out on some tasty Warlord Traits but it guarantees that your SG will have full rerolls 100% of the time. This is particularly important if you want to DoA them in from Reserves.