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Now i know before anyone says it that Sentinels really arent the best thing to run. But i like them, have 3 from battleforces , and truth be told just really wanna run them for fun haha.
Soooo what weapons do you think works best on them?

Personally, I've seen scout sentinels with heavy flamers outflank to great success. But that's just me.

Auto cannons or multi lasers. I prefer the auto cannon, longer reach higher strength. The multi laser gives you god shots at good strength.

I would stay away from the las cannon. A lot of points for so so success.

Lascannons.

Heavy flamers will never be in range against opponents with any common sense, and missile launchers are just a crappy weapon all around. Meanwhile, multilasers struggle against vehicles of any armor type, even when you hit them on side armor (which isn't guaranteed to be worse).

Which leaves the autocannon and the lascannon. Lascannons are better than autocannons in general, and it's important that you have the chance to do some real damage with the one or two shots you get. Arriving and blowing up a vehicle is a good thing. Arriving and stripping off a hull point or two... well... you might as well just take PISs or HWSs or exterminators or something. You're not really taking much advantage of the fact that it's a sentinel.

Outflanking lascannons could be curtains for vehicles of many types. Plus they are good at putting wounds on MCs.

 Ailaros wrote:
Lascannons.

Heavy flamers will never be in range against opponents with any common sense, and missile launchers are just a crappy weapon all around. Meanwhile, multilasers struggle against vehicles of any armor type, even when you hit them on side armor (which isn't guaranteed to be worse).

Which leaves the autocannon and the lascannon. Lascannons are better than autocannons in general, and it's important that you have the chance to do some real damage with the one or two shots you get. Arriving and blowing up a vehicle is a good thing. Arriving and stripping off a hull point or two... well... you might as well just take PISs or HWSs or exterminators or something. You're not really taking much advantage of the fact that it's a sentinel.

I disagree with the second part. With BS3 and 1 shot, your not likely to hit anything let alone destroy it. With the Autocannon and some clever angle of attack you can HARASS light armor and infantry. Sentinels are mainly to be used as a skirmishing force not tank-busters.

Three sentinels net 1.5 lascannon hits. If these hits are on side armor, they could be more effective than three twin-linked shots on front armor.

Autocannons, to me, are available on other platforms and generally target things that have identical front and side armor. Or at least that's what I target with them.

1.5 lascannon hits are more likely to wreck something than 3 autocannon hits. It's not the number, it's the number times the effectiveness to get overall quality.

For example, those three autocannon hits show up against a rhino chassis from the side. The end result is 1.5 HP removed with a 1 in 6 chance of knocking off all 3. The end result of three lascannons shooting is 1.3 HP knocked off with a 2 in 5 chance of knocking all three off.

Just because the lascannon has fewer shots doesn't mean the lascannon is a worse weapon.

If only scout sentinels could take multimeltas.

Also, Scout or Armoured?

Plasmacannons. You BS sucks, and at least the cannon comes down somewhere 5/6ths of the time. Don't worry about the over-heating, you aren't going to live that long anyway.

Barring that, 3 twin-linked lascannons, mounted on the trio with quite of bit of conversions.

-Matt

 acekevin8412 wrote:
. With the Autocannon and some clever angle of attack you can HARASS light armor and infantry. Sentinels are mainly to be used as a skirmishing force not tank-busters.

I see this "harass" a lot. You either kill or don't kill. There is no harass. If you're shooting and having no effect, your opponent will ignore hte unit. If you're shooting and having and effect (or very high potential to kill something like having a lascannon) your opponent will respond.

I'm not going to waste fire at a sentinel picking off maybe one of my infantry per turn.

 CaptainHonkey wrote:
Also, Scout or Armoured?

I've noticed that these are quite different units. So I suppose it would depend on how you're going to use them.

The armoured have AV12 on the front. Ok, well, that's not exactly a beast if it's standing down some heavy ranged weapons. BUT, walkers in combat use front armor. That could be pretty badass vs Boyz, or any unit who's strength is around 5. The enemy does have the option to run away under the "Our Weapons Do Nothing" rule. Plus, the armored sentinel can bring a plasma cannon, great weapon.

Scouts have outflank, which is the reason to bring them, I'd say. Though, it seems to me that you can't bring anything really juicy mounted on a squad of scout sentinels. Meaning, nothing that would make me say "aw, now these guys are coming in and your f-king DOOOOOMED!" Multiple lascannons could really be scary to a vehicle, but lascannons break my heart EVERY game. I love autocannons for their reliability and punch. Still, fairly average in terms of threat. Might be great vs light transports. Bring an astropath to re-roll to outflank, and get exactly where you need to be - THAT is the nice thing about this unit, imo.

I think these are really cool units with a specialized role. I haven't used them yet myself, I'd love to.

scout sentinels with autocannons

TheLionOfTheForest wrote:If only scout sentinels could take multimeltas.

Yeah, no kidding. I'd be all over that if it were an option. I guess marines are the only good guys who get to shout surprise with multimeltas.

HawaiiMatt wrote:
Plasmacannons. You BS sucks, and at least the cannon comes down somewhere 5/6ths of the time. Don't worry about the over-heating, you aren't going to live that long anyway.

Barring that, 3 twin-linked lascannons, mounted on the trio with quite of bit of conversions.

-Matt

Where is this "twin linked" thing coming from?

Not for nothing, but for the same amount of points, it's a Scout Sentinel with a Lascannon compared with a Scout Sentinel with an Autocannon and a Hunter-Killer Missile. Not sure what that does to the math though.

Wouldn't armoured sentinels with plasma cannons be rather sweet against marines? Or are they too expensive?

 Crimson wrote:
Wouldn't armoured sentinels with plasma cannons be rather sweet against marines? Or are they too expensive?

too expensive for how fragile they are.

 CaptainGrey wrote:

too expensive for how fragile they are.

So autocannon is the way to go for armoured sentinels?

 Crimson wrote:

 CaptainGrey wrote:

too expensive for how fragile they are.

So autocannon is the way to go for armoured sentinels?

Put frankly, Scout Sentinel Proxy is the way to go for armoured sentinels.

Failing that, a squad of 3 with heavy flamers marching up the field isn't AWFUL.

Autocannons are really decent on a Setinel. Not too expensive, and the squadron boasts enough shots between them to wound light vehicles and other scout/skimmer vehicles, like Landspeeders and War Walkers.

Multi-Lasers are another good option for hitting infantry. Nine Strength 6 shots can put a hurting on small squads and bikes.

Heavy Flamers can be nice, especially against gunlines and xenos. They're best way at surviving is shadowing Chimeras or Leman Russes.

Las Cannons and Missile Launchers are too expensive on such a flimsy unit, especially the way Meltas and AP 2 weapons add +2, +1 to the damage charts on top of the walker being open-topped.

So the consensus is that the scouts are the way to go and armoured ones are crap? Damn, I'm bad at IG, I'd have thought that AV12 would be worth it...

It's not that armored sentinels are crap. They still do get you a LOT of HP worth of AV12, and they're the second cheapest way to get lascannons on vehicles, and they can still get into close combat with stuff, and tarpit it.

The problem is that these benefits don't really shine all that often, making the armored sentinel only really worth it in a rather narrow range of circumstances.

I modeled mine as armored, with the guns off. I hate the open top look of the sentinel, the pilot is just askin for a bolt round to the face. If I want to play it as a scout sentinel it really isn't a problem. I would like to put plasma on, but I don't want to kill myself with gets hot, lascannons are too expensive on a bs3 platform that can't benefit from bring It down. I usually go with ML or AC, but this thread has me wondering if HK are good on them for the alpha and added shots, especially when paired with an AC.

HKs are the best addition to a sentinel (aside from the main weapon) since they usually have a very short lifespan anything to up their alpha is good. Even if it roasts a SM, it still got its' points back. On scouts, the unlimited range makes it easy to take your pick of enemy side armour.
A little points fact I repeat a lot: A Scout Sentinel can take HK and Camo Netting for the same cost of an Armoured Sentinel. If it's true that walkers use front armour for combat then I'd take an Armoured sentinel with HFs for tarpitting duty.

Scout Sentinels are tough in regards to choosing their weapons. BS3 screams for the autocannon (way better than the multi-laser), the short lifespan of the scout sentinel means you want it to actually have an effect (which argues for the las cannon)...

I think the nicest thing about the scout sentinel is that it is so cheap. I get a bit hinky about upping the points too much on such a fragile platform.

I think the only use for the armoured sentinel is to outflank with creed...THAT is nasty, if somewhat pricey.

ender502

Why not just stick with the cheap multi laser?
It's as effective as the AC against AV11 and better against AV10. Still able to instant kill S3, wounds marines on 2's. The range and AP difference are notable but not super significant I believe.

 TheLionOfTheForest wrote:
If only scout sentinels could take multimeltas.

Elysian Drop Sentinel - only weapon option is a Heavy Bolter or a Multimelta

 Ross74H wrote:

 TheLionOfTheForest wrote:
If only scout sentinels could take multimeltas.

Elysian Drop Sentinel - only weapon option is a Heavy Bolter or a Multimelta

If only I played Elysians. I am not shelling out for a FW book though ATM.

I guess if I want on the spot melta I can just take some drop pod BA allies.