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.

I'm thinking of running a squad of Veterans (not sure about company vets vs Sternguard, the main question is if storm shields might be worth taking) as a kind of reaction force to hope out of a transport and hammer a high value target or help clear off an objective, and I'm trying to decide on a load out. My current plan is a pair of combi flamers and three combi meltas, which gives them plenty of power against hordes and heavy units, with the only downside being limited range. Does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions?

 Battlegrinder wrote:
I'm thinking of running a squad of Veterans (not sure about company vets vs Sternguard, the main question is if storm shields might be worth taking) as a kind of reaction force to hope out of a transport and hammer a high value target or help clear off an objective, and I'm trying to decide on a load out. My current plan is a pair of combi flamers and three combi meltas, which gives them plenty of power against hordes and heavy units, with the only downside being limited range. Does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions?

If you need durability, I'd suggest Vets with Stormshields, Stormbolters, and THammer on the Sgt, especially if your Salamanders as that hammer is going to be making a lot more wounds with the Salamander rerolls. The SS allow you to tie up a big gnarly hard hitting unit like say, a Daemon Prince or Avatar of Khaine for at least one round, but keep in mind they are still as vulnerable as any other Marine to mass S4 attacks with no AP. Don't forget can only have 5 Vets to a squad. If you are Ultramarines you'll get the most out of a 6+ Man Sternguard, Hvy Flamers x2 and THammer or Axe on Sgt if you need to save points. If you get tied in CC, you can fall back, still shoot(Yay flamers!), and make them eat another double hvy flamer overwatch if they come at you again. Less durability vs. big slayers but is pretty solid for getting in the face of a mob and doing some hurt to em. You'll need to be really careful on getting the most out of them though, and they are expensive, but can really do the trick in a number of situations.

Gwarok wrote:

 Battlegrinder wrote:
I'm thinking of running a squad of Veterans (not sure about company vets vs Sternguard, the main question is if storm shields might be worth taking) as a kind of reaction force to hope out of a transport and hammer a high value target or help clear off an objective, and I'm trying to decide on a load out. My current plan is a pair of combi flamers and three combi meltas, which gives them plenty of power against hordes and heavy units, with the only downside being limited range. Does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions?

If you need durability, I'd suggest Vets with Stormshields, Stormbolters, and THammer on the Sgt, especially if your Salamanders as that hammer is going to be making a lot more wounds with the Salamander rerolls. The SS allow you to tie up a big gnarly hard hitting unit like say, a Daemon Prince or Avatar of Khaine for at least one round, but keep in mind they are still as vulnerable as any other Marine to mass S4 attacks with no AP. Don't forget can only have 5 Vets to a squad. If you are Ultramarines you'll get the most out of a 6+ Man Sternguard, Hvy Flamers x2 and THammer or Axe on Sgt if you need to save points. If you get tied in CC, you can fall back, still shoot(Yay flamers!), and make them eat another double hvy flamer overwatch if they come at you again. Less durability vs. big slayers but is pretty solid for getting in the face of a mob and doing some hurt to em. You'll need to be really careful on getting the most out of them though, and they are expensive, but can really do the trick in a number of situations.

These were more intended for stuff like "hey, we need to push that squad of guardsmen off this point" or "I need to kill that Rhino that keeps tying my hellblaster squad up in melee", which is why I suggest the weapons I did. Though I'll consider swapping the combi flamers for stormbolters, 4 shots of S4 at 12 inches might be better than D6+2 shots at 8 inches....maybe, it's a hard sell. Daemon Princes or Avatars are a different issue, and one that's uncommon enough I don't really feel the need to gear up specifically to fight them.

Well in that case I'd say perhaps get a squad of Scout Bikers. A bit faster than regular bikers, and even though you lose 1 on the armor save, they each come with pistol, shotgun, AND combat knife which means they'll each have 6 x S4 shots on the way in, and 2A each plus pistol in CC. Slap a stormbolter on the Sgt for 2pts and he'll have 10 shots within 12" all by his lonesome. T5 will help them shrug off some of the normal CC attacks, and you'll even be able to use the 1CP strategem where they inflict 1D3 Mortal wounds when they fall back, which can come in handy. If they are Ultramarines as well they can fall back, inflict those Mortal Wounds, and then shoot as well.

I think Scout Bikes are actually better than the regular ones considering the extra gear they carry and that strat. I'm actually putting together a list of Scout Bike and Hunters, my 2 test games with friends showed them to work pretty well.

Edit to Add - Of course regular bikers can also get a combi flamer on Sgt and two more on bikers, so that is nice for clearing a few things off too. Depending on how much you can spend. Thanks for clearing up what it was you're trying to do.

That's a bit more expensive than I was planning on doing, and the entire point is avoid getting the squad bogged down in CC. Plus, I have plenty of S4 elsewhere, what I need is something that can deal with heavier stuff like tanks.