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Was thinking about picking up a squad of Militarum Tempestus Scions for my Astra Militarum army, are they any good, and what are they best used for? Thanks!

Suicide commandos, either melta or plasma suicide team.

You're going to need an extra of either.

I'm building a platoon of them up for an elite slot. Finding that they are great to rush up and contest units, either drop them out of Valkyries or rush with Chimeras. I like them, but YMMV

I run them in the Ground Assault Formation from their little sub codex, and I really enjoy it. They're pretty effective and play like a weird loyalist Dark Eldar in that way.

If you're just taking one squad, load them up on special weapons and deep strike them next to something you want to go away. FRFSRF works on their lasguns now, so you can actually get a respectable amount of firepower out of them.

I can't stand them. Hellguns being S3 makes me sick. In my opinion, it is better to run Veterans and upgrade them with Carapace Armor.

Veterans don't deep strike.

They're best used as an anti-MEQ plasma squad. Guard don't usually need drop melta and it wastes their hotshots

 LRaider99 wrote:
Was thinking about picking up a squad of Militarum Tempestus Scions for my Astra Militarum army, are they any good, and what are they best used for? Thanks!

Unfortunately, as much as I want to be good, they're really not.

They're priced as much as Space Marines, but fight, die, and break largely like normal 5pt guardsmen. They get AP3 lasguns, but can't make effective use of them due to the low Strength 3 as well as the 18" rapid Fire weapon type, meaning to be most effective they have to be in the most optimal range to be destroyed in turn (and even just a couple survivors charging a squad can kill them, as I said, they fight and die like basic Guardsmen). Even with he AP3, they really only trade even in a shooting war with a MEQ unit, and that's assuming they're in optimal range and no cover is involved, outside of that the low range and low S won't even allow them to trade casualties with basic bolter equipped marines.

the_scotsman wrote:
Veterans don't deep strike.

They're best used as an anti-MEQ plasma squad. Guard don't usually need drop melta and it wastes their hotshots

Their Hotshots usually aren't doing tremendously much anyway unfortunately. S3, the limited range (and particularly the limited double-tap range), and the availability of any sort of cover very often results in them being little (or not at all better) than basic Lasguns. Guard don't exactly lack for anti-MEQ capability either.

They're unfortunately not particularly stellar in either role :(

Oh if only IG had access to some sort of ability that granted them ignores cover on whatever infantry squad they wanted! Some sort of "order" or something!

But alas that'd never happen.

I leave the melta-vetting to the meltavets and try to make use of the strength of the whole squad instead of just the guys with special weapons, because yeah as drop melta goes MT are not the most efficient. Guard is a big Dex, it's got options for almost everything, but I like MT as an easily ignores-covered MEQ drop squad. Meltavets, vendettas and Lascannon platoons do tank busting better.

I currently run my army from the Militarum Tempestus Codex and so far I am 9-1-3 with them at the moment. They can be effective if used correctly, and a lot of people here tend to forget that these guys where made with the last edition in mind so currently they do struggle with some overpriced units and old rules. But I expect that to change when the Astra Militarum gets there update and currently they are not as bad people make them out to be.

I've used them in a number of ways to mixed results. Ds melta is OK. Personally my main use is cs with 4 hotshot volley guns sat I'm a building next to prize assets and joined by Coteaz. It's a very good anti pod unit giving you 16 s4 ap3 shots potentially with prescience and ignores cover from orders shooting anything ds within 12" usually stops melta pods. Mainly from fear if the unit

the_scotsman wrote:
Oh if only IG had access to some sort of ability that granted them ignores cover on whatever infantry squad they wanted! Some sort of "order" or something!

But alas that'd never happen.

Given that they need an Officer within range to get it off on Ld8, it's often not an option, and even when it is, it's not tremendously reliable and requires a lot more setup and coordination than most other platforms will.

the_scotsman wrote:
Veterans don't deep strike.

They're best used as an anti-MEQ plasma squad. Guard don't usually need drop melta and it wastes their hotshots

I disagree, I don't think they're particularly good at anti-MEQ, despite what they seem at first glance with their Ap 3. Rather, they seem to be good at playing the mission, deep striking onto objectives particularly objectives in cover. Or hitting backfield artillery with plasma and close combat.

They will lose most firefights with MEQ and are usually going to be outnumbered. Scions are however good at mopping up weakly held objectives. So maybe someone left a few fire warriors or guardians or guardsmen on an objective, the Scions drop in and blast them away before taking the objective. Think of them more like Navy Seals and less like Rambo. They have a specific objective to take and hold, don't count on them to dish out a lot of pain, but they can help you win the game.

 Vaktathi wrote:

the_scotsman wrote:
Oh if only IG had access to some sort of ability that granted them ignores cover on whatever infantry squad they wanted! Some sort of "order" or something!

But alas that'd never happen.

Given that they need an Officer within range to get it off on Ld8, it's often not an option, and even when it is, it's not tremendously reliable and requires a lot more setup and coordination than most other platforms will.

Which is why taking a Lord Commissar is an effective choice as he is LD10. Mine has payed off big time and it's nice to have a Warlord with an actual Ward Save and 3x wounds.

I agree with the suicide commandos, better now that their scoring. Drive them or deep strike them maybe to hold an objective or to earn line breaker.

 LRaider99 wrote:
Was thinking about picking up a squad of Militarum Tempestus Scions for my Astra Militarum army, are they any good, and what are they best used for? Thanks!

Their worth is dependent on what you value. If you think the most elite of the nobility of the human race, trained since childhood and armed to the teeth, diving into the heart of battle with little to no regard for self preservation sound like a fun group of dudes, they are worth it.

If you value winning tournaments, they are not worth it. Not to say that they suck, its my opinion that any codex can succeed, just that they are not the flavor of the month, the newest and most OP thing. They are fairly well balanced.

I use them aan ignore cover melta suicide squad. Run 5 guys with two melta. To deep strike near my suicide company command squad with melta coming out of a vendetta. Lots of high ap.