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Hello Dakka!

In all my games, i have never fielded more than one squad of Sternguard and i have been toying with the idea of taking a truckload of them in the next tournament.
The squad has always performed well, but i have never taken Pedro either, just a Libby and normal combat tactics.


HQ
Pedro Kantor

Troops
5x Scouts w/ sniper rifles, camo cloak
5x Scouts w/ sniper rifles, camo cloak

Elites
9x Sternguard w/ 3x combi-melta, 3x combi-plasma, 3x combi-flamer, power weapon, Rhino (Pedro joins here)
10x Sternguard w/ 3x combi-melta, 3x combi-plasma, 3x combi-flamer, meltagun, Rhino
10x Sternguard w/ 3x combi-melta, 3x combi-plasma, 3x combi-flamer, meltagun, Rhino

Fast Attack
Stormtalon Gunship w/ TL lascannon

Heavy Support
Predator auto/las
Predator auto/las
Thunderfire Cannon


Do you think the list has a fighting chance?
Any advice is greatly appreciated

So the majority of your points are sunk into 30 marines and 3 rhinos, any army that can kill them easily you'll struggle against. You're lacking in long range fire, anti-tank and anti-flyer.

One option could be to give your sternguard some heavy weapons (ML/Lascannons) and combat squad to them to gain some long range fire power but it doesnt change the amount of points you've sunk into the sternguard.

Can you get some test games in.......try it and see how it plays.

 CaptainJay wrote:
So the majority of your points are sunk into 30 marines and 3 rhinos, any army that can kill them easily you'll struggle against. You're lacking in long range fire, anti-tank and anti-flyer.

Curious, i never considered having 2 auto/las preds and a thunderfire is lacking in long range, anti-tank fire..

You are right of course that i rely heavily on 3 squads but i seriously doubt there is a unit in this game that can withstand fire from 2 Sternguard squads at rapid-fire range..


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, keep in mind that in my area we still do not have flyer spam lists.
The most i have encountered is 3 (and they were vendettas of course ).

If you are going to run that many Sternguard, I'd suggest using them in Drop Pods so they can make the most out of their combi weapons. If they get shot out of their rhinos, they are walking across the board, and die just as easy as tactical marines.

What you propose is indeed one of the dilemmas i faced before posting the list. I chose Rhinos instead of Pods, as this way the Sterns are less exposed. If my opponent has first turn i can hide the Rhinos behind terrain and the Preds and most possibly survive the first turn salvo. Then i can move all the Sterns upfield, effectively moving them up to 24". After that, i do not care if the Rhinos are destoyed.
But i see that Stern squads need to stay close and support one another. If i pod them, only 2 arrive first turn and get shot to shreds by the majority of enemy units

I see what your saying Sparitatis, but i would still drop pod them in as it gives them more of a chance of getting them to were they need to be so they can do the most damage.

Trying to hop your way around terrain with three rino's in a group is just going make them a massive target.

As for the thunder fire i would possible swap it out for a bog standard dread in a pod to come down with your third sternguard unit and offer some anti armour support.

But hay as said above just play some test games with frends first and see what you think.

spartiatis wrote:

 CaptainJay wrote:
So the majority of your points are sunk into 30 marines and 3 rhinos, any army that can kill them easily you'll struggle against. You're lacking in long range fire, anti-tank and anti-flyer.

Curious, i never considered having 2 auto/las preds and a thunderfire is lacking in long range, anti-tank fire..

You are right of course that i rely heavily on 3 squads but i seriously doubt there is a unit in this game that can withstand fire from 2 Sternguard squads at rapid-fire range..


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, keep in mind that in my area we still do not have flyer spam lists.
The most i have encountered is 3 (and they were vendettas of course ).

So its more the point that you only have 3 (4 if you include the storm talon) units that can engage vehicles at long range, and for the TFC it's not it's optimal target. If you come up against IG army I imagine you'd struggle against a chimera wall. I use the same HS choices in my army normally, and while I think the predators are a great buy, they are still only producing 4 shots each so can easily fail to kill a tank (missing, failing to pen, poor damage chart roll, cover saves etc).

If I saw this army first thing to take out out be the rhinos, then to dakka down the sternguard before they got into rapid fire range. Anything that can ignore your armour Leman Russes, Vindicator, Hell-Drake, etc or even just force you to take alot of saves will be able to take care of the sternguard.

Also yes you're probably right about the 2 sternguard squads being able to take out most squads, but them actually getting into double tap range (and the combi's surviving) is a different matter.

I am going to try out a sternguard list with pedro, but 20 sternguard in pods with lots of combi plasmas plus libby with null zone. But I have 30 tac marines and two thunderfires and 8 hyperios to back it up, yes once the sternguard are tied up I have little anti armour but will have to choose target prority enough to first blood any dangerous units (termies, wraiths tanks etc)

I've run Pedro and 3 squads of Sternguard in drop pods with locator beacons with a libby and gate of infinity

Backed up with a couple of Dreadnoughts and it gives your opponent something to think about, I think the reliance on the Rhino's is a bad idea, Sternguard are amazing at short range, but not too good if they have to walk through an armies worth of fire!

wow thats a lot of sternguard. unfortunately i don't think it's going to work to well, particularly in Rhinos. You just can't really afford to start taking casualties. IG, tau and dark eldar are really going to mess you up from range and despite the boost from Kantor's inspiring presence too many things can beat Sguard quite easily in combat. Pods would make a big difference, especially against the armies I just mentioned

But as someone said above - I would be interested if you have some practice games and get back to us on how it performs.