I cant even begin to describe the amount of times people have looked at me with glazed... dazed eyes as I say "Yes, my vets have a BS 4... yes, I am sure of this." Veteran squads have quickly become a main staple of most of my lists, mainly due to the fact I was getting ready for Adepticon team tournament and they fit nicely in 1000 points. Yet let us get a bit deeper into the dark recesses of this troop choice.
The vet squad had a few things goings for it, number one is its BS 4 and its relatively low point cost compared to our other choices. The increased BS makes for a wonderful addition over regular squads mainly due to the second important thing: 3 SPECIAL WEAPONS!!!!! And thirdly is the Chimera as a transport, always a bonus.
3 special weapons is like a godsend to any guard player who relied on their 1 per squad and a million squads to get their meltas through. Of course this has other benefits, with 3 flamers you inflict lots of wounds, 3 plasmas mean bye bye feel no pain/termies, grenade launches mean bye bye orcs and dark eldar, and 3 sniper rifles... well... some at my store aren't fans... but how can you deny 36 inch rending wounds on 4 you bastard demon/nid player! HA!
Ahem...
Besides that you have a full array of heavy weapons, making that autocannon oh so much more worth it as BS4 (Lascannon too! woohoo!)
Next the sergeant gets some nice goodies too, I mean who doesn't like 2 power fists for so so cheap! Or a shotgun for FREE! (along with the rest of his boys)
A few people are not fans of the doctrines available to the vets (except for Demos) mostly on the Grenadiers, though you do not see many people taking Forward Sentries either. I am however fond of both, as giving Grenadiers to the vets makes them far more survivable against their vehicle exploding or burning myself on plasma guns (plus tau guns and bolters aren't auto kills). The Forward Sentries i see more as how your store runs things, if there is plenty of cover about, giving yourself the additional +1 to cover saves can be quite nice and taking away a charge bonus can mean enough guys surviving to fight back or not against an assault.
An interesting method for the guard around my area that has worked wonders is to triple up on metlas, or two and one flamer, then toss in the Demolitions doctrine and exchanges all the vets lasguns for shotguns... after all if you hit with that demo charge and kill off some along with the shotguns and flamer... woohoo that power weapon/power fist on your vet Sgt might just kill off the remaining few left alive of whom you are assaulting (plus the 10 meltabombs in case you are working against a vehicle)
My personal favorite is to run triple sniper and lascannon for that armor killing ability at long range and monstrous creature handling. Another fave as of late has been triple plasma gun lascannon for termies and feel no pain takers.
As for the two special characters available to the Vet squads... both are quite nice, after all a relentless heavy bolter is AMAZING if you sit and think about it for Harker (on top of everything else he gives) or the ability to give your vets twin linked against monstrous creatures/vehicles from the order given to them by Bastonne when wielding the triple plasma/triple melta vets and the always regroup rule is nice too!
Over all the vet squad is definitely in the running for best Troop choice for Imperial Guard... though in my own opinion it really depends on what type of army you are going for, troop based or vehicle based.
BS4 vets are a godsend. Was playing around with the idea of a squad of shotgunners with an Imperial Priest and Bastonne along for the ride.
ReplyDelete...though I like your triple plas idea better, 3 special weapons, now there's a detail I missed!
LOL its is something you do not want to miss! If you like the priest and Bastonne idea run triple flamer or triple melta... either one of these will help get the job done as they are assault weapons (that includes the heavy flamer option too!)
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