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How do?

Nice easy question, as ever. But I suspect the answer may be along the lines of ‘it depends’. Which is a frankly amazing answer, as it inevitable leads to a fascinating thought process.

So, yeah. Sentinels, eh. I can take them in my GSC, but before I sign up, I’m interested to hear the thoughts of others on the scrappy little scout walkers. Are they totally bobbins? Do they need the right support? Are they outright deadly or just kinda nice to have, if you can spare the points?

And speaking of sparing things, do not spare the thought process and explanation!

Cheap....
No that's it, cheap brigade fillers.

(somewhat decent heavy weapon plattforms aswell but still way to squishy)

They're the vehicle equivalent of Infantry Squads. Mobile, cheap for what they do, and annoying enough to take out that they provide protection for more important things.

They're not particularly killy, but T6/6W/3+ is a hefty defensive statline for a 30 wound model (pre-wargear). Play em in as Armageddon and they'll soak up a hellacious amount of small arms/HB/AC fire, or better yet draw AT fire away from bigger things. Alternatively, a pod of Tallarn AC/ML sents makes for a solid medium cavalry deployment.,

And if I can’t have regiment perks, because I’m honestly not a filthy Xenos?

It really depends on what you're running with em. I can see them doing some serious work as a metal screen for Nid shooty beasts for instance.

Don't know how well they'd work for pure GSC though.

I guess i'd go back to my underlying statement: they're cheap, they dont degrade, and they're mobile. Dont expect them to shoot your opponent off the table, or tank lascannons, but use them as the inexpensive hunks of metal they are and they'll rarely let you down.

Sentinels have three main purposes for pure IG:
1) objective grabbing
2) Brigade fillers
3) Heavy weapon platforms

For GSC, really only the third purpose is a huge factor. Even in IG, I wouldn't take them just for the guns, and that's with more than a few ways to buff them with regimental doctrines (Tallarn move and shoot, Cadians re-roll ones, catacahans reroll blasts, Armageddon ignore AP1).

If you're taking them for fire power, I think plasma cannons are the sneaky best choice. 40pts, reasonably durable, and plasma cannons are certainly solid. Unfortunately, if you don't have a reroll, supercharging becomes really dangerous. Lascannons are safer, but the meta has really moved past lascannons. Autocannons are cheap, long range, and really can pinch hit as both anti-infantry and anti-tank. Also, D2 is nice.

Really, it's very much a case where you are going to figure out how to best use them, not one were you will want to add them because of how good they are.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
How do?

Nice easy question, as ever. But I suspect the answer may be along the lines of ‘it depends’. Which is a frankly amazing answer, as it inevitable leads to a fascinating thought process.

So, yeah. Sentinels, eh. I can take them in my GSC, but before I sign up, I’m interested to hear the thoughts of others on the scrappy little scout walkers. Are they totally bobbins? Do they need the right support? Are they outright deadly or just kinda nice to have, if you can spare the points?

And speaking of sparing things, do not spare the thought process and explanation!

Are you planning on playing ITC? If so, there's a new secondary objective type called "Engineers" this year.

*Engineers: Select two non-character/non-fortification units from your army to be Engineers. Starting from Battle Round 2, if either of these units starts and ends your turn within 3” of an objective marker you control, and it did not make any attacks or manifest any psychic powers during your turn, earn 1 point at the end of that turn. These units may not score this objective if they join other units during the course of play or split into multiple units. Units chosen to be Engineers may never benefit from a rule that keeps them from being the target of attacks, Cloud of Flies, for example. They can benefit from terrain blocking Line of Sight to them.

I think Armored Sentinels would be perfect for this. Far more durable than most infantry, and at 35 pts it's extremely cheap for an objective holder. Just plop them down in your back line and they can score you some points! Will obviously depend on the enemy / terrain if it's really a viable secondary for the map though.

I use a pair of scout sentinels in my IG/Knights list, but they're really there to push back enemy turn 1 teleport attacks like Dark Matter Crystal and Da Jump, and because I need a cheap brigade filler anyway. The fact that they serve a purpose and push back deep strikers is a nice added bonus though.

As far as damage/point goes, I actually think Cadian Plasma Cannon Sentinels are pretty darn good value. Assuming you take four of them, 4D3 plasma cannon shots for 160 points, spread out over 24 T6 3+ wounds, is a lot of durability and firepower for that cost.

It's a shame about the rule of 3 honestly, because I think a list with like 30 of them might actually be really good, especially against the Castellan lists. Your mighty Castellan is forced to kill 2-3 40 point models a turn, while the sentinels can just use Overlapping Fields of Fire and blow the Castellan away.

T6 May be just what sells me on them.

GSC aren’t great at attrition. But these lads might bring a smidge of durability, and of course some very welcome extra punch at range.

Will check the points for them armed with Lascannon. Squad of three might prove nuisance enough to distract my opponent?

To be honest, I’m mostly considering them because I think the models are great! So any input here that’s purely tactical and/or strategic is very warmly received!

Lascannon sentinels are 50 pts each. Kind of expensive for a single shot BS4 unit. I'd probably go with Autocannons if you want ranged support, 40 pts each.

Armored sentinels are T6 3+, Scout sentinels are T5 4+, so keep that in mind when you're building them! They both have the same points cost, but scouts get scout move and move an inch further.

 Horst wrote:
Lascannon sentinels are 50 pts each. Kind of expensive for a single shot BS4 unit. I'd probably go with Autocannons if you want ranged support, 40 pts each.

Armored sentinels are T6 3+, Scout sentinels are T5 4+, so keep that in mind when you're building them! They both have the same points cost, but scouts get scout move and move an inch further.

Can verify autocannon ones do good, very good infact.

I like catachan scouts with heavy flames, push up block deep strikers and have a reroll shots assault deterrent.

Heavy Flamer Sentinels (especially Catachan) are great.

They're cheap, pretty dangerous for their cost, and are annoying for the opponent to deal with, especially since whatever the sentinel ends up engaging in close combat is likely to be more expensive and important than they themselves are.

I agree that they are the cheaper model for filling your fast attack slots and are a good all-round harassment unit.
The choice between the light or armored variant also gives some flexibility to fill any holes you feel you have in your army armament.
Going from T5/A4+ or T6/A3+ is helpful as well for durability, with the ability to survive a turn or two of most forms of close combat (for those S3 armies).

I would suggest building them with the roof held on by magnets so you can choose scout or armored.


One magnet on the pivot mount and you should be able to model the thing to whatever you want.


I have a squad of 3 that is fielded pretty much every game. Due to the low shooting stat, the autocannon is probably a good all-rounder.

I would assume that the scout sentinels are better for screening prposes.

If they are just gonne shoot why not take heavy weapon teams?

The GSC bikes are good. If you are looking for flamers the wolf quad flamer is good,

 Niiai wrote:

If they are just gonne shoot why not take heavy weapon teams?

Because a T3/2W/5+ unit dies to a minor breeze.

It's a shame about the rule of 3 honestly, because I think a list with like 30 of them might actually be really good, especially against the Castellan lists. Your mighty Castellan is forced to kill 2-3 40 point models a turn, while the sentinels can just use Overlapping Fields of Fire and blow the Castellan away.

Do they come in squads of 3? lf they do you should be able to get 18. 3 by 3 heavy and 3 by 3 scout. Thats not bad for target saturation.

I've used Sentinels for a long time now. They are good, I like them. They won't rock your world but they will do you right for the cost. Even the extra cost for the lascannon can be worth it when you factor in people will tend to either leave them be or need to focus decent firepower to take them out. That puts things into focus, an armored sentinel is pretty tough for what it is, has a good armor save and can be a pain in the butt to remove.

I don't like scout sentinels as much. I get their point and maybe if I ran tallarn I'd like them more as they could move and fire freely. For the point value I enjoy the more durable nature of the added armor, and have 9. 3 with auto cannon, 3 with plasma cannon and 3 with lascannon. The lascannon is the newer ones and just for some added oomph here or there. The auto cannons and plasma cannons have been excellent and I still think running cadian having some random tough lascannons about won't hurt and won't end up as easy to remove as heavy weapon squads with lascannons. Especially with the rule of 3 in place as you only have so many heavy weapon squads to place about.

Cult ones, whilst they don't get strats do ambush. So can either be a relatively hardy and flexible drop that lets you place something more fragile or range specific somewhere better - or a way of guaranteeing a clear LOS with lascannons to something.

 Polonius wrote:
Sentinels have three main purposes for pure IG:
1) objective grabbing
2) Brigade fillers
3) Heavy weapon platforms

For GSC, really only the third purpose is a huge factor. Even in IG, I wouldn't take them just for the guns, and that's with more than a few ways to buff them with regimental doctrines (Tallarn move and shoot, Cadians re-roll ones, catacahans reroll blasts, Armageddon ignore AP1).

If you're taking them for fire power, I think plasma cannons are the sneaky best choice. 40pts, reasonably durable, and plasma cannons are certainly solid. Unfortunately, if you don't have a reroll, supercharging becomes really dangerous. Lascannons are safer, but the meta has really moved past lascannons. Autocannons are cheap, long range, and really can pinch hit as both anti-infantry and anti-tank. Also, D2 is nice.

Really, it's very much a case where you are going to figure out how to best use them, not one were you will want to add them because of how good they are.

Those are definite uses, but your underselling them quite a bit. Scout sentinels (the best choice IMO) have a 9" scout move pregame, with a further 9" move after that. I run three in my guard army and I have three in my GSC army as well. Area denial is a big deal, so is the ability to move block and often times turn 1 assault and tie up a screen. Some folks will tell you the area denial bit isn't as important as it was, but I disagree, with things like dark matter crystal, gate of infinity, veil of darkness and even summoning it is important to keep in mind.

I'd also never take the plasma canon, all it does is tempt you into using them overcharged and costing you a useful 6 wound model. Personally I always go heavy flamer since I can threaten cheap units both in my phase and in the enemy charge phase. My guard regiment is Catachan, so that makes a lot more sense, but for GSC I still take the HF. Why? Easy, you should always be moving sentinels and/or tying things up. The other heavy weapons bait you into playing static and wasting the better potential.

In GSC, scout sentinels have a couple of handy uses:

1. Filling out brigades cheaply
2. Target saturation in a mech list
3. Board control

Number 1 is nice to have, but you have another legit fast attack choice with cult bikers. Bikers are a bit more expensive, though, and the drive by bombing types are kind of a one-trick pony, so you can mix and match with a few sentinels to fill out the rest of those fast slots super cheap.

Number 2 is pretty important if you are running a bunch of Goliaths, which also tend to be pretty fragile. I run this kind of list, and it is pretty fun to play. Put a bunch of hard hitting melee threats in the trucks, throw in a bunch of other cheap vehicles like sentinels, keep the rest of your infantry in ambush, and force your opponent to try to remove 6-10 cheap vehicles before the really dangerous stuff hits. I also happen to think that mech GSC is going to see a bit of a comeback with those new vanguard space marines from Shadowspear out now. Those guys force you to ambush 12” away, which really screws GSC lists based around ambushing all of their melee threats, as you can’t even declare a charge from that distance.

Number 3 is the real reason to take them, though. Scout Sentinels get that free 9” move, which allows you to push back your opponent’s scouts and deep strikers. GSC really does not want to get blocked by scouts or forced to charge some garbage unit like Rangers. As mentioned above, this also helps against things like Da Jump. This is probably the best reason to take them. It’s also the reason why GSC wants Scout Sentinels, not Armored ones.

As for armament, I can see the argument for all the various options. I would tend to lean toward autocannon or heavy flamer. The plasma is too risky and lascannon kind of stinks on a BS 4+ model. Plus, you can get mining lasers so cheaply, I would almost certainly rather have those than the pricier lascannon, especially if you’re like me and run Bladed Cog for the ability to move and shoot with heavy weapons.

Other than cheap detachment filler, sentinels have 2 good abilities to consider if you wanted to take them for their strengths rather than for the sake of cheapness.

First up is the scout move - a bare bones scout sentinel can help deny deepstrike or pull off a turn 1 charge, it wont ever kill anything but its tough enough to get in combat with a tank and prevent shooting. The powerlifter variant can also do all this, but could benefit from strackens +1 attack, the crush them stratagem and the usual defensive psychic powers to actually be quite threatening in a maxed out unit (like bullgryns, but faster).

Secondly the armoured sentinel is disproportionately tough for its points cost, not only is t6 just as good as t7 or t8 against real AT guns (lascannons and up), as wounds don't spill over a unit of sentinels will often outlast a tank of similar cost (a max unit with missiles and HK missiles costing about the same as a bare bones leman russ).

I like Armoured Sentinels with Lascannons. Sit them back, in cover. T6, 2+ save, doesn’t degrade. Think of them as vehicle snipers, that draw fire from Russes and artillery pieces.

I also like AS with Plasma Cannons, to support moving Russes. They can provide cover to the Russes, or the Russes can provide them cover. They can be used to intercept assaulters, or to push back deep strikers.

I find them *just* tough enough to need dedicated anti-tank weapons to deal with them, while not really being valuable enough to justify shooting them while a Russ is still alive. They’re tough enough to be a walking wall, but not dangerous enough to make “killing the screen” attractive.

An inexperienced opponent improperly prioritizes them and lets the Russes live. An experienced opponent is frustrated by the walking wall making the Russes harder to kill, while still contributing fire, and frustrated by any close range plans being foiled by a charging sentinel that is, again, tough enough to tank a round or two of even decent assault capability.

I'm not seeing the point of upgraded Sentinels, at all. For 55/60 points each you get a single BS 4+ lascannon, 5+ if you move. So that's 165/180 points for three lascannons, or for 100 points you could take a Basilisk that has ~4.5 almost-lascannon shots that can also ignore LOS. Or for a comparable price you could take a tank commander with a demolisher cannon that hits at BS 3+ re-rolling 1s even when you move and averages 7 shots instead of 3, on a more durable platform. The only use for Sentinels is to keep them as cheap as possible and use them to cheaply fill mandatory fast attack slots and screen your more important units.

 Peregrine wrote:
I'm not seeing the point of upgraded Sentinels, at all. For 55/60 points each you get a single BS 4+ lascannon, 5+ if you move. So that's 165/180 points for three lascannons, or for 100 points you could take a Basilisk that has ~4.5 almost-lascannon shots that can also ignore LOS. Or for a comparable price you could take a tank commander with a demolisher cannon that hits at BS 3+ re-rolling 1s even when you move and averages 7 shots instead of 3, on a more durable platform. The only use for Sentinels is to keep them as cheap as possible and use them to cheaply fill mandatory fast attack slots and screen your more important units.

Yea... keep them as cheap as possible. I just did an ITC tournament today, sentinels did quite good at scoring Recon and Engineering secondaries for me. They were either advancing or engineering most turns though, so they could ever fire, so what's the point of weapons.

In my case, I bought my Sentinels in 3rd or 4th edition when they were an efficient way to get mobile Lascannons.

These days I generally take a Hellhound with 2 sentinels to fill FA in a Brigade, or if I have 100 points ish left over and don’t want to take more infantry, I’ll take a pair of Sentinels.

Also, I only own one artillery piece, so multiples would need to be proxies and I prefer WYSIWYG in general.

So my advice comes from a “if you want to use sentinels, this is how I’d do it...” not “you should use sentinels because they’re the new hotness”.

My most frequent opponent likes his Knights, and I generally lose my Russes by the second turn anyhow... but he tends to ignore the Sents because they are inefficient to attack, which means they have more opportunities to fire over the course of a game. I also like the d6 damage, and the better AP. A couple lucky shots in the first couple of turns has really turned the tide for me in a few games, and in practice has been a reasonable gamble in terms of points spent.

The Plasma Cannon thing is conjecture on my part for this edition. I prefer infantry screens for my Russes, but it worked in the past when I tried mechanized theme lists.

The point to buffing up the sentinel isn't about the bleeding edge meta. However, even then you need just one good round of shooting to make the investment worthwhile. As has been said they are a cheap single unit that needs some dedicated fire to knock out which means they will most likely get that time to fire and get that lucky hit, wound, damage roll in. The best use of them is obviously board control, mobile cover, annoying assaulter that has been said.

However using them in other ways is nice from time to time. Now the mobile gun platform was better when they could move and fire heavies without penalty, but they can still do well to draw hate on their own and be more tough to take out silence than having an all eggs in one bucket approach if you are using them for their guns. Now this works best IG in certain reigments. In GSC I'd probably always run them as scout to be on the move and as scouts heavy flamer is a good call for use on the move and overwatch fire.

I'd still argue they can have a place in effective lists with most of their weapon load outs though. I've used them pretty well and they can be just annoying enough to cause issues while being expendable even with the hefty loadouts. Now if we are talking best of the best units they probably wouldn't see much play regardless of set up in that case but they are good enough over all for most casual/competitive games. I'd say no one should expect them to make or break the whole game but they are very versatile and that has a good feel to it.

As a Necron player I pay attention not to let them rush up and tie up my Tesla immortals - Meaning worst case I have to use my preciously scarce AT units to clear them, meaning his leman russes live longer. If I'm lucky I can run wraiths by them as they move up, or scarabs. In any way, things I'd rather use for something else must be diverted.

Of course as a Necron player I worry about a great many things, the world is a scary place

 Peregrine wrote:
I'm not seeing the point of upgraded Sentinels, at all. For 55/60 points each you get a single BS 4+ lascannon, 5+ if you move. So that's 165/180 points for three lascannons, or for 100 points you could take a Basilisk that has ~4.5 almost-lascannon shots that can also ignore LOS. Or for a comparable price you could take a tank commander with a demolisher cannon that hits at BS 3+ re-rolling 1s even when you move and averages 7 shots instead of 3, on a more durable platform. The only use for Sentinels is to keep them as cheap as possible and use them to cheaply fill mandatory fast attack slots and screen your more important units.

Hard to argue with this.
I find they are a bit like attack bikes: just enough points to feel like waste to shoot at, not a one-shot to kill (typically) and just enough of a pain to not be easily ignored.
I prefer them over the hellhounds or variants since they have to get awfully close to hurt anything with it's primary weapon.

 Peregrine wrote:
I'm not seeing the point of upgraded Sentinels, at all. For 55/60 points each you get a single BS 4+ lascannon, 5+ if you move. So that's 165/180 points for three lascannons, or for 100 points you could take a Basilisk that has ~4.5 almost-lascannon shots that can also ignore LOS. Or for a comparable price you could take a tank commander with a demolisher cannon that hits at BS 3+ re-rolling 1s even when you move and averages 7 shots instead of 3, on a more durable platform. The only use for Sentinels is to keep them as cheap as possible and use them to cheaply fill mandatory fast attack slots and screen your more important units.

It's 50 points for a BS4, T6/W6 3+ lascannon... that can move 8". Pretty good deal IMO. You can leave them with multilasers but then their damage output is awful. Cheapest thing I would run them with would be autocannons. Guard could always use more lascannons on the table.

w1zard wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
I'm not seeing the point of upgraded Sentinels, at all. For 55/60 points each you get a single BS 4+ lascannon, 5+ if you move. So that's 165/180 points for three lascannons, or for 100 points you could take a Basilisk that has ~4.5 almost-lascannon shots that can also ignore LOS. Or for a comparable price you could take a tank commander with a demolisher cannon that hits at BS 3+ re-rolling 1s even when you move and averages 7 shots instead of 3, on a more durable platform. The only use for Sentinels is to keep them as cheap as possible and use them to cheaply fill mandatory fast attack slots and screen your more important units.

It's 50 points for a BS4, T6/W6 3+ lascannon... that can move 8". Pretty good deal IMO. You can leave them with multilasers but then their damage output is awful. Cheapest thing I would run them with would be autocannons. Guard could always use more lascannons on the table.

Yeah, sure, but the OP was specifically asking about using them in a genestealer cult list. Cult can get mining lasers in great quantities at 12 points each on a deep striking platform. GSC also has a ton of other great ways to kill tanks (bikers with demo charges, aberrant bomb, massed rock saws). What they usually need is more stuff that is good at clearing screens. The auto cannon and heavy flamer versions are thus typically going to be more useful to a genestealer cult list.