# Sternguard and Storm Bolters??



## rdlb (Nov 30, 2008)

I'm thinking that a squad of ten sternguard with storm bolters could be carted around with Gate of Infinity and pretty much shred opposing troop units. I'm giving up the special ammunition because it is all rapid fire, a 12" max, when Gating, while the 24" assault 2 SB could give you the range to stay out of mishaps and CC.

Since troops are so important, getting rid of them is a big plus in a lot of games.

Force Dome could add some longevity and if you wanted to get crazy you could put in Lysander and reroll all missed hits with Bolter Drill.

Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket...that's over 600pts...

So has anyone else tried this? I'm trying it on MOnday on those super low toughness eldar:grin:


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## HighHubris (Mar 16, 2009)

... sternguard aren't exactly slackers when it comes to CC.
BUT i am asking why you're going to take an expensive unit that is expensive for one reason, and then taking that reason away from them.
lets say it's a 10 man squad against eldar, but excluding librarian's shooting
Special Ammo
20 shots
roughly 13 hit. bolter drill, 5 more hits, making 18/20 hits.
wounding on 2's, makes it 15 wounds.
ap's 5 meaning 15 are dead.
Stormbolter
20 shots, roughly 13 hit. bolter drill, 5 more hits, making 18/20 hits
wounding on 3's, makes it 12 wounds.
ap's 5 meaning 12 are dead.
so now's we're at 15 vs 12.
against a unit with 4+ save
that's 7-8 dead with special, 6 dead with stormbolter.
against eldar max is going to be 10 (if i'm not mistaken all the aspect warriors max out at 10 or less). so, eldar's player turn...
Special Ammunition.
you MIGHT have 2 guys shoot and/or assault you. neither will be effective, and the unit will be chewed up on the turn he assaults you, this actually works for you best because it means you just downed a whole squad in one turn, which you did anyways if they had a worse than 4+ save.
Stormbolter.
you won't get assaulted, but you will have 4 dudes shoot at you. if it's fire dragons, well that's crappy (more than likely you will be in range of their shooting after they move due to the 66% chance of deviation), if it's dire avengers, that's not too bad, but still you're probably gonna lose a 25ish point model or 2 from those 4 dudes.
naturally everthing changes due to variables, but the only thing that truly makes a stormbolter better due to it's range is the deviation. you can set yourself 12'' away from your target and scatter boxcars back and you'll still get to shoot them.

Quick Edit, lets say you are going against a unit with 3+ or 4+ saves, you have the option to fire the AP3 shots as well, and at toughness 3 it's actually worht it (it's not against space marines due to how it turns out, but eldar it works fairly nicely and makes mincemeat out of scorpions and dragons)


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## Someguy (Nov 19, 2007)

For less points you could get 10 terminators with 2 cyclones, and still take a librarian to teleport them around if you wanted. A squad of 10 terminators is actually quite good in cc, though I don't think they really need to be gated.

Lysander does not have bolter drill. He does not know anything about bolters and he never talks to people who fire them. Instead, he hits monoliths with a big hammer and watches as they fall over. It's impossible to get more value from adding lysander to a bolter squad compared to the damage you would do if you spent the points on 8 more sternguard, a fully-armed tactical squad or whatever. It's always better to have twice as many guys than it is to have a reroll to hit. I think this is obvious, but it seems I am alone.


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## rdlb (Nov 30, 2008)

Yes but the librarians gate might not land you within the 12" range of the special ammunition. I'm just trying to counteract that factor and have a unit that is going to do something after every gate. 

Thanks for the math hammer though. I guess I'd be trading range for wounds, and 50pts.....

More squads is a good idea...two librarians with two squads of stern with SB and no Lysander...stupid monoliths...

I guess the idea that they do assault is actually a good one. I'll see what happens but I'm mainly trying to avoid being assaulted by another unit which I guess I did not make clear. For example, I want to drop in and finish off the Dark Reapers, which can pretty much shoot everywhere. But I want to do so without without the Banshees and their Phoenix Lord landing on me the next turn. I want the range, and I don't want to waste Gate just because I scatter


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