Vets w Shotguns

[Deleted]

Hey everyone.

Who uses shotguns on their veterans? Im thinking of building a few small squads as drop troopers with plasma guns to use against my mates tau

But my dillema is that i cant seem to find any shotguns bar the ones from forgeworld, but those just arent practical as i live in Australia. I have 4 SM scout shotguns from my mate, but i need alot more than that, and i would like them all to look the same!

[rarves]

My advice would be to grab some green stuff and a lasgun and sit down and experiment. My hardened Vet.s have custom boomsticks made from lasguns, GS, and small tubes. I just shave off the top of the weapon and the power cartridge, then cut the first third of the weapon off. Add some GS to the end and stick a small amount of piping into it, to represent the barrel, and press the GS down so that it is the same size as the lasgun main body. Add a section pipe on the bottom to represent the slide and GS some sights on the top. Its not perfect, but its quick and easy.

[Deleted]

Nice! Would you mind posting a photo of the finished product.

I just snapped up another 4 scout shotguns off ebay So im all set besides plasma guns. Do SM plasma guns look stupid on IG??

What size squads should i go for? I was thinking two squads of 8, vet srg w storm bolter, 4 shottys and 3 plasma guns in each??

[acolyte]

yeah SM plasma guns look good. got 4 in mine, use the arms from grenade launchers to mount them. works same with meltas too

[Deleted]

Thanks!! *goes back to ebay*

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

sounds like you're wanting your vet squads to be 'all rounders.'

I >think< I can sense your logic in using plasma guns and shotguns so that your shots can be focused into infantry or tanks, depending on the situation with minimized loss of effectiveness.

I like to call these squads 'drop and pop' squads. in my humble experience, they tend not to survive for more than 1 turn for no other reason than because of the psychological sense of emergency they instill in appearing behind our opponent's forces. this is not to mention a successful tactical advantage developing from a smart placement heightening our opponents sense of urgency regarding neutralizing the squad.

for these reasons, I recommend minimized 5 man squads for 'drop and pop' types. in a squad that is fated for the most bloody fate of any squad in your army, the less points you invest in achieving your strategy the better. it is along those lines, that the 'bare bones' approach seems like the logical correct choice.

in vietnam, new soldiers were issued a full set of gear, and as soon as a platoon formed up to go out on patrol, the veterans would tend to the recently arrived soldiers and strip them of the gear that wasn't neccessary. the reasons for this are similar to the philosophy of the 'drop and pop' squad yet more complex. It demonstrates, however, that it is wise to take only what you need.


I can see a deep striking hardened vet squad working in a few ways, which I'll touch on so that I can understand what you're wanting to do with the squad more and thus be able to attempt to be of more help than posing a generic response

a. 5 man hardened vets w/ 3 plasma guns; 2 shotguns.
this has already been discussed.

b. 5 man hardened vets w/ 3 meltaguns, perhaps a plasma pistol.
anti tank.

c. 10 man hardened vets w/ 3 plasma guns; 7 shotguns and a powerfist/pistol OR 8 shotguns
anti infantry. this is an attempt to drop in a way that will leave the hardened veterans alive for further action in future rounds. by far the most difficult, however with nearby infantry placed well to establish a relatively safe drop zone and ability to pre-emptively assault the nearby incoming enemy this can be a great way to bring to bear a focus of special weapons which would otherwise be gunned down outright and never make it close.

In the drop, the nearby guard infantry will assault after the hardened vets and any other available infantry takes it's go at shooting, the assault attempting to achieve the objective of stalling the enemy advance and holding on to be defeated in your opponent's turn, thus allowing the hardened vets the ability to shoot again and then either assault or let another infantry squad pre-emptively assault so that the vets may continue to make use of their special weapon concentration. it must be said that a tendency toward the powerfist can be an advantage as melee is an inevitability for the squad and the plasma guns will begin to fail as 3 rapid firing weapons with no medic will make for a relatively shortlived 'full power' period, leaving your hardened veterans throwing less and less power dice and the withheld power dice of the powerfist will begin to weigh on tactical considerations regarding the most useful employment of the unit.

[Deleted]

Ok ... darkly real example Turtleboy. I always like the addage that a society never supplies a soldier with more than he needs, just the absolute minimum required to operate on the battlefield...

Got to agree with your drop and pop synopsis... the boys are unlikely to survive long, except wouldn't it make more sense to use storm troopers in a drop and pop roll. They have a bit more durability and the Heavy weapon slots wasted in vets because they can't fire until the turn after they dropped...

Rules Check - am I reading this right - you take shotguns because you can fire at different targets than rapid fire plasma guns...thereby maximising your shots? Or am I being far too creative?

[Deleted]

I would take shotguns to keep the squad equiped with all 'assault' weapons, and because they wouldnt be lasting very long at all the assault2 shotguns would come in handy, plus they look cool.

I like the idea with the power fist, but i probably wouldnt opt for that unless it was a 10 man squad, because my mates tau would shoot them to bits.

Im also going for vets rather than stormies because there is roon for conversions and i would want to pack as many assault weapons in the squads as i possible could.

Im going with plasma guns as they are better at tackling infantary than meltas (overkill) and they could possibly knock out some tau vehicles with some lucky rolls!

I thought the vets would be able to drop and shoot in one turn with the droptroops doctrine am i correct?

[Rolling Thunder]

Sunekon, the problem is that the 4+ armour save is not uch of a help, so the extra three points per model are slightly wasted....

[Ymmot (M.I.A)]

do any of the plastic gw spurs come with shotguns or do you always have to make your own
or buy them on FW?

[Deleted]

Im using Space Marine scout shotguns, they actually look cool on a guardsmen!

So can vets drop and shoot in the same turn when using the drop troopers doctrine??

[acolyte]

everybody can but count as moving.

[Woz]

Here's one I did earlier

[Ymmot (M.I.A)]

that is pretty smart right there.

I'd keep the shoulder stock on there personally
but cutting it off looks pretty cool too.

[Deleted]

Awesome!! Yeah i like the shoulder stock as well.

Ive never used deep strike, so what happens when you drop on obsticles or enemy or friendly squads??

[Deleted]

That is a great conversion.

I think I'd like it even better if you cut off the stuff on the top of the lasgun. (I don't know what the stuff is supposed to be. I paint mine to be a silver rod with a red lens at the end like a laser sight, but I dunno if that's right or not.) Anyway, if that stuff was gone too, it'd look even more original and interesting.

[Woz]

I tend to fill thae rod bit in with green stuff. I did just this becasue I was trying to explain to someone how to make a shotgun using a lasgun and bolter and it was easier to show in pictures.

[Deleted]

That someone would be me, and thankyou very much

They look great, thanks for taking the time to make that 'tutorial.' Ive made two platoons so far, just ordering two boxes of foot sloggers tonight so i can build some vets and snipers, im itching to get my fingers on them haha.

[fatuous]

that is a nice conversion !!!!

I used scout shot guns for most and made a double barrel one out of 2 spare missiles.

I tend to keep my squads either all rapid fire or all assault to maximise the potential of the squad. So with plasma I'd take lasrifles. any other special I'd consider shot guns.

I have power fist on my vet sarg too, and it can be useful, but tbh, they are usually mauled from turn 1 onwards and don't survive long enough to do any real damage in CC. Really hoing to change that, but it has been my XP so far.

[Deleted]

Yeah i could just see that happening to me everytime.. They will get killed quick smart once they deepstrink, so no real point in spending an extra 20 on a powerfist in my opinion, too much of a gamble as to if they will survive.

Ill probably give the vet srg melta bombs, they might come in handy! How do melta bombs work.. wow i just realised there is a lot i have to learn (rules wise).

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

Apr 21, 2008 1:51:33 GMT -5 @suneokun said:

Rules Check - am I reading this right - you take shotguns because you can fire at different targets than rapid fire plasma guns...thereby maximising your shots? Or am I being far too creative?

you'll need to check the main rulebook about the shooting phase on this one, however I'll tell you that what I've quoted is incorrect in that 1 unit may only fire at 1 target.

Apr 23, 2008 5:30:06 GMT -5 @tridman said:

Ive never used deep strike, so what happens when you drop on obsticles or enemy or friendly squads??

you'll need to check the main rulebook about deepstriking, but I'll warn you in saying "you won't like what you'll find."

[Deleted]

Thanks for the field TB... I'll check it out.

[Rolling Thunder]

The potential for four plasma rounds per squad is the main reason for the abuse of hardened veteran squads.