Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all, registered as I figured your wise minds can help me.

I've got spare assault marine bits so I've put together a 5-man vanguard vet. squad (enough spares for at least 5 more) to drop in or deploy and move up board with my smastain - my intention is these act as a screen and hopefully an anti-horde/screen blender if they live long enough (my list has scouts and other infiltrators normally to screen something moving up/dropping). I've modelled them with 2 cs/ss, 2 double cs and the serge has a thunder hammer/cs as a point efficient soak and anti-screen with a lil bit of tank busting threat, cheap as possible but can hopefully take a few hits and survive overwatch if they make a charge but end of day they are backup.

I'm playing shooty iron hands (don't judge, I actually like them) and as mentioned they'd have a captain nearby so had ignored pistols as ineffective and needless complication till I remembered overwatch. I don't expect them to make a 9" charge and I won't be buffing/rerolling it but if the cap doesn't make his 7+ then they are there to stop him being shot to bits or charged and tied up - given all that am I better off swapping the 3 (7 if i build more) spare chainswords back to bolt pistols for a shot on the drop and possibly more for 5+ overwatch and next turns shooting ?

Got enough spare plasma pistols to have a few dual-wield models or give everyone one for some nasty shooting on the drop to better clear the way but now we're talking about seriously investing points - can't exactly test this atm (usually play 2k or less points btw). I did like the simplicity (and easier rolling) of whole unit having same melee weapons but now I've thought about it getting them into melee is a bonus - will bolt pistols beat extra chainswords for the 1 turn they will live ?

appreciate your thoughts. This is a specific example but i've never ranked pistols so answers will inform future builds too.

I'm not sure how much cheaper Vanguard with dual Plasma is compared to Inceptors in general, so you'll want to investigate that in general. Dual Bolt Pistol isn't even worth looking at unless you're Imperial Fists of course (they're one of the few really specialized melee units that can actually get mileage out of that particular Chapter Tactic).

Hi there, I'd rate bolt pistols as trash I'm afraid, whereas plasma pistols are viable imo, but not overly powerful. The problem is van vets have 2 really strong things going for them: a) access to stormshields at 2pts a pop b) base 2 attacks, 3 on the charge. I think vanvets should always leverage these two things, and double plaspistol kind of pushes against this direction. So yeah, you could make them work for sure, but at the very least mix some shields in there, as they'll be quite a high priority target, and very easy to kill, otherwise.

Many people instead run vanvets with a few thunderhammers and shields mixed in with lots of chainswords. Assault doctrine armies love them with double chainswords, as White Scars, for example, will be putting out 5 attacks S4 -1 2D from each cheap model.

 grouchoben wrote:
Hi there, I'd rate bolt pistols as trash I'm afraid, whereas plasma pistols are viable imo, but not overly powerful. The problem is van vets have 2 really strong things going for them: a) access to stormshields at 2pts a pop b) base 2 attacks, 3 on the charge. I think vanvets should always leverage these two things, and double plaspistol kind of pushes against this direction. So yeah, you could make them work for sure, but at the very least mix some shields in there, as they'll be quite a high priority target, and very easy to kill, otherwise.

Many people instead run vanvets with a few thunderhammers and shields mixed in with lots of chainswords. Assault doctrine armies love them with double chainswords, as White Scars, for example, will be putting out 5 attacks S4 -1 2D from each cheap model.

cheers, probably overthinking it as I've already built them for chainsword spam but i have plenty of boltpistols and not many chainswords left in my bits box (and completely out of storm shields). figured if i take the BP instead of 2nd chainsword at least i might get a volley off before they die horribly but the offhand chainswords will probably not see use. Plus side is the dual chainswords do look cool

Ta for replies !

I suggest using company veterans, unless you want JP for them. CV have boltgun/chainsword, which is better than boltpistol/chainsword. CV have a ton of weapon options. For horde cleaning they can get stormbolters.

 p5freak wrote:
I suggest using company veterans, unless you want JP for them. CV have boltgun/chainsword, which is better than boltpistol/chainsword. CV have a ton of weapon options. For horde cleaning they can get stormbolters.

cheers, yeah they have jp as they are intended as a cheap delivery system for a jp captain