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So I’ve recently picked up 3 sentinels to fill out the FA slots in a Cadian Brigade detachment, and was looking for some advice loadout-wise before I finish assembling them. I’m currently leaning towards armoured sentinels, mainly since I just dislike the look of scouts.

The rest of the Brigade would basically just be infantry squads, heavy weapons and special weapons squads with company commanders. I’m flexible about what heavy/ specials to include with the infantry to complement the sentinels. I know I don’t want to rely on them too much since if I run the Brigade standalone for a 1000pt game I know they’d be probably be focus fired by any anti tank.

I’m currently leaning towards plasma cannons to make use of the rerolling 1s for overcharging.

Any input would be much appreciated!

I run mine armored with auto cannons. They fill a nice roll of "tank finisher" to kill something thats down to 2 wounds but you dont want to dedicate real firepower to it and elite clearing, bikes hate autocannons. Plus 40 pts a platform.

Sentinels have exactly two reasons to exist:

1) Using the pre-game scout move to get to an optimal screening position, followed shortly by dying.

2) Filling mandatory fast attack slots as cheaply as possible.

If you try to do anything else with them you end up with a unit that has worse firepower than equal points invested in LRBTs/Basilisks/etc and much worse durability. Either take them as scout Sentinels with multilasers or don't take them at all. Also, abandon any thoughts of "complementing" your Sentinels with infantry. They should never be a core unit in your army that you plan around. Keep them cheap and efficient, and consider any damage they do before they die a nice bonus.

3. Being bullet magnets.

I like to run a few cheap sentinals with ACs. Gives them enough firepower to potentially do some damage and not me completely ignored. Anytime your opponent shoots them, they're not shooting the bigger threats in your army.

I have been running scouts, thinking about switching to armored for the extra toughness and armor save. With no turn 1 deepstrike, alpha strike is down and 2 to 3 sentinals are probably not going to change that much if you're opponent is setup to charge T1.

 UMGuy wrote:
3. Being bullet magnets.

I wish this idea would die because it has nothing to do with reality. 40k has no suppression/target priority/etc mechanic (other than physically blocking a unit from getting into range) that allows a cheap expendable unit to draw fire away from more important units, your opponent is free to target your important units and ignore the meatshields. The only way to draw fire away from must-kill units is to have something even more threatening that needs to be silenced first. For example, LRBTs with twin autocannons have at least as much firepower as the same point value in autocannon Sentinels and therefore your opponent will feel the same pressure to take them out, but the LRBTs also have more durability and can survive more fire. So why take the Sentinels to protect the LRBTs? All you're doing is making your list weaker by spending points on less efficient units.

TL;DR: in a game as shallow as 40k the best way to draw fire from your best units is usually to bring more copies of those units. And Sentinels are never your best unit.

As someone who loves sentinels, the Scouts with heavy flamers do work. Just remember they do the work of a 44pt units, not a 200pt unit.

If they are ignored, I got a medium threat in the enemy deployment zone turn 2.

They don't kill much, but are fast, cheap, and fill out my brigade

Armoured Sentinels with Lascannons, sitting in cover are durable “snipers”. If you’re paying for a Sentinel anyway, you might as well take a weapon suited to “lone wolf” attacks.

They aren’t the most efficient choice in the codex, but they aren’t awful.

That said, I’m pretty sure the weapons are push-fit, so don’t glue them in place!

Not a fan of sentinals with single shot weapons. They miss way to much, which is why the heavy flamer is so good.