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Putting together my sternguard was going to go 5 combi-meltas in a drop pod tank hunting but now debating 3 combi meltas 1 heavy flamer and combi-flamer on capt. Will 3 melta shots be enough to reliably blow up a tank? I like that its more of an all comers set up in case I play a horde. Thanks for your input.

Don't go and mix combi-weapons in squads. In my experience it invariably goes poorly. For combis I go all or none, as in all of one, or none period.

I run 3 squads of x10 sternguard. Two squads have x2 meltagun and x4 combi-melta. One squad has x2 Grav gun and x4 combi-grav.

When they land, they combat squad.

One half fires at the primary threat tank - if it pops, excellent. If it doesn't, the other combat squad fire at it.

If the armour popped the first time, the second combat squad fire at a different target - It's far more efficient doing it this way IMO.

As for mixing weapons, I'd advise against it. You don't want a jack-of-all trades, master of none otherwise they're just another inefficient tactical squad that cost more.

Alright thanks from keeping me from making a mistake

If you are going with pods, specialize.

As for how many melta shots it takes to get a kill, what else is going on? Things like doctrines, or Vulcan’s buff will reduce the number of shoots you need. Targets in cover or with invulns will raise it. And that’s not including things like how moody your dice are. I think 3 is the bare minimum you need, with 4-5 being better. I would not mix weapon types unless you were going for a full 10 man squad and were going to combat squad out on the drop. That lets you do fun things like pop a transport and then roast the contents. Plus 2 combat squads plus the pod gives you 3 units, a magic number for the 1st company TF.

Generally I like my SG bare bones. The only thing I think is worth swapping out the special ammo for is a HF. Which admittedly, I’m quite fond of. I dislike the combi weapon alpha strike. It’s a lot of points invested in a single shot. That said, it can work well, just not my cup of tea.

How about 4 combi melta one heavy flamer? I'm guessing no? Thanks again everyone.

Running 5 mans for now as my army grows I will work towards the combat squading

I could be wrong, but I see no issue with having a single Heavy Flamer. If combat squading I'd have it in the squad separate to all the combi-meltas just so that it's able to roast the contents should the first squad successfully pop the armour.

In fact, I rather like that idea and may add that as a potential tactic rather than relying purely on the special ammo (such as the poison shots)

Grimlineman wrote:
How about 4 combi melta one heavy flamer? I'm guessing no? Thanks again everyone.

Running 5 mans for now as my army grows I will work towards the combat squading

Something you generally want to avoid is having one guy work, while everyone else acts sits around. You want as many guys working together as you can, with minimal waste. In a mixed squad like this, if you are targeting troops, the 40 points of c-melta are wasted. If you are shooting tanks, the HF is sitting around. That said, he could toss a krack grenade, or if shooting at open topped targets, he can roast the cargo while his buddies shoot the tank.

After the combis shoot off, the squad can go about shooting softer targets, and the HF works well for that. It also discourages people charging you. I personally wouldn’t mix like that in a 5 man squad, but it’s not so bad to make you automatically loose. It’s a little flexibility for a few points. And 4 melta shots should be enough to pop a tank, so might as well get some HFs downrange to light things on fire.

Thanks Nevelon you been a great help to me lately. Glad we have guys like you on the forums for advice.

4 melta shots is the break point where BS 4 melta with no special rules has a better than 50/50 shot of destroying the tank. Basically, you have a solid chance of of 3/4 shots hitting (as opposed to virtually none with only 3 shots) and you have rolling explodes as a fallback position.

4 meltaguns and a HF in a drop pod is the nightmare scenario for my battlewagon ork army.

 Icculus wrote:
4 meltaguns and a HF in a drop pod is the nightmare scenario for my battlewagon ork army.

Meh. Could be worse.

well the orks that survive will charge the sternguard and probably kill them, so i guess we look at point cost of unit to see who wins.

my battlewagon full of orks costs a total of 285 or 280. Whats that sternguard unit cost with the pod?

Command squads do the suicide melta thing better as there cheaper. I never liked using sternguard that way, as your paying for things your never going to get to use. I like them barebones.

 Icculus wrote:
well the orks that survive will charge the sternguard and probably kill them, so i guess we look at point cost of unit to see who wins.

my battlewagon full of orks costs a total of 285 or 280. Whats that sternguard unit cost with the pod?

195 FOR 4 combi-M and HF/pod

command squad comes in at 180 but they dont fit in my current list but I will keep them in mind

Suicide Sternguard squads don't work out in the long run, because not all lists have good targets for them. The pod forces you to commit them early, and then they are on foot, ie dead meat.

Martel732 wrote:
Suicide Sternguard squads don't work out in the long run, because not all lists have good targets for them. The pod forces you to commit them early, and then they are on foot, ie dead meat.

It's a fairly rare day when there's no use for sternguard. Even if you've kitted them out for tank hunting and the bad guys have no tanks, they can still hunt MC's pretty well. If there are still no tanks and no MC's, time to go after multi wound T4 models like Crisis/broadsides/non-nurgle oblits/tyranid warriors etc. If still no targets, then you're probably playing green hoarde, so deploy them normally and let the pod come down empty and they can use their special ammo to try and hold the tide back. If you're in a meta that has a bunch of varied threats, then yeah, sternies are going to be best with their standard loadout, but I struggle to imagine a situation where suicide sternguard wouldn't have a significant impact on the game, even if it's only forcing certain things into reserve.