Sentinal Tactic

[Rolling Thunder]

I picked this one up from my Eldar army, however, only now has it occured to me how easily it could be applied to the IG.

It's simple. You get a relatively large piece of terrain- ideally a wood, but anything that blocks LOS is ideal. The you place your sentinal behind it.

If you do not get first turn, your enemy can't touch your sent's. If you do get first turn, you simply move your sentinals into the woods, and open fire on the enemy unit of choice. This prevents your precious, fragile sents from becoming mincemeat and cannon fodder, and they also get hull down from the terrain.

Plus, they can now help stabilise a flank and prevent your enemies from overrunning through them.

This also works for larger vehicles too, but with a russ or chimera there will always be the danger of being immobilised...

Clever, no?

[telecustom]

I have used that tactic several times. It rocks.

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

I especially like it when my enemy has an important model on the end of a squad on the other side of the woods over on his side of the board. instead of moving into the woods, I move around the woods so I can only draw line of sight to his one important model on the end of a squad and light him up. this way I get obscured cuz I'm mostly behind the forest and I can only target 1 model in my opponent's squad so therefore he must be removed as a casualty this is called pruning by the way ^_^

[Rolling Thunder]

That's just dirty.... though if your opponent is smart he'll take the precaution of putting his charecter in the direct middle of the formation..... time to break out the ordanance.

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

vulture said:

That's just dirty.... though if your opponent is smart he'll take the precaution of putting his charecter in the direct middle of the formation.....

dirty like a grizzled imperial guard soldier, sitting in a mud puddle in the bottom of a trench with a flak jacket made of compressed toilet paper standing between him and a galaxy of death.

if my opponents don't know how to protect against pruning, they're gonna learn

[Woz]

I'm new to sentinels so I'm looking for some good tactics from all you sentinel vets. I was thinking of using them for tank hunting.

Now I'm thinking of using three sentinels as three separate units (instead of one unit of three). This reason is that this'll mean that my opponent has three separate units to shoot at.

For example- my sentinels come up against a Land Raider. The Land Raider has to fire all it's weapons at the same unit. A LR's armament will make mincemeat out of a sentinel and could easily wipe out a unit of three sentinels. But if I have three separate units then my opponent can only shoot at one sentinel.

Also I'm using drop troops and was thinking of arming my sentinels with autocannons (more shots) and dropping them behind my opponents lines. This'll allow me to shoot at the rear armour of any vehicles (my AT teams can take out any heavy armour).

Any thoughts or tips??

For example- my sentinels come up against a Land Raider. The Land Raider has to fire all it's weapons at the same unit. A LR's armament will make mincemeat out of a sentinel and could

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

fast attack slots are extremely valuable - far too valuable to use up on single sentinels. hellhounds and rough riders are both far more valuable then single walker squadroned sents in my humble opinion.

definately 1 to the command platoon - that's a good way to go.

[Deleted]

Their is the HQ support sentinal slot TB.

[Woz]

I don't use hellhounds and I've not started my Rough rider conversions.

[Deleted]

I use a similar tactic at times Woz, deepstriking and taking out the back armour of vehicles is very nice. My current army is geared up with Heavy Flamer Sentinels. Well, basically my entire army is about flamers.

Deepstriking Heavy Flamer Sentinels take out all Orks, Tau, and Eldar with impunity, and they're the cheapest of the bunch. And if you never scatter like I do...you get people surrendering on second or third turn

The main difficulty in dropping Autocannon Sentinels will be placing them. You might not get them behind enemy Basilisks, as they'll have their arses to the table edge (not that you need to hit them in the back anyway), so there are some limitations. The other benefit to deepstriking behind enemy lines is that you can tie up random enemy units. They'll be forced to shoot at cheap sentinels (and I do suggest keeping them really cheap) or be stuck in CC forever (or a turn or turn if they're Marines).

Against some armies, like Orks, who only have a few big squads, this means redirecting large percentages of firepower from vital targets such as your Russes or Bassies. Deepstriking Sentinels...I never leave home without'em.

[mardaddy]

"was thinking of arming my sentinels with autocannons (more shots) and dropping them behind my opponents lines."

Is it only the Elysians(sp?) that have the Multimelta Drop Sentinel? If you could somehow work THAT out with your opponent... some killer tank hunting there...

[Rolling Thunder]

But then your opponent knows he's about to be meltagunned. Far better to take 3 lascannon sentinals with the fast attack squad and drop them behind his lines to prang his armour. While this makes then hideously vulenerable, it also means your sent's will arrive at the same time and place, making concentrated fire a lot easier.

Plus deploying three seperate sentinals is a pointless waste of time. YES they'll absorb more fire if the enmey has say, one centralised firebase like retarded fourteen year-old space marine players whose 1500 point list consisted of THREE MOTHERfornicateING LAND RAIDERS and whom immediately regretted doing this as during the two minutes I pleaded for to 'just tweak my list a little' I immediately added three Leman Russ demolishers and enough antitank firepower to inconveniece God, thus proving that never mind how cheesy the other bastard is, three demolishers is still more cheesy.

Plus if you deploy your sentinals seperately they risk being dehbilitatingly isolated if you're enemy has a lot of decentralised firepower (multiple infantry squads with heavy weapons, etc)

[Woz]

The reason I was thinking of Autocannons is that they have more shots then a lascannon (so more chance of hitting) and the high strength makes them good against rear armour. Also once the armour has been destroyed then they can take out troops.

I play mainly against marines so I'll be shooting up Rhinos, Whirlwinds etc (I'll leave the Land Raiders to my AT teams)

[Rolling Thunder]

Good thinking Woz. Nice and flexible tactic.

[Deleted]

Good point. Can't help but think that a squad of 5 deepstriking vets (if you're taking drop troops anyhow) could land some kick ass 9 plasma or 3 melta hits and tote an autocannon or heavy bolter for under 100 pts. Remember that against Smurfs a HB is more effective than an AC as they get their saving throw regardless.

I use my cadian sentinels in dual roles at the back of covering fire lanes, working in coordination with my mortars/snipers and dettering close combat jump troops with their 9 S6 attack - grrrr! See Chaaaarrrgggeee for more details.

If you're thinking autocannons as an anti tank option, then Hunter Killer missiles are a must - gives you two shots and extra AT punch!

[Deleted]

I'm a sentinel nut, but find sentinels a little fragile: they're good to run as single sentinel squadrons, with either autocanon or lascanon. If you give them a lascanon I advise giving them a HK missile, just because you might only have one round of shooting.

However, I also run a 12 sentinel army - yup - that is 12 sentinels!

Link: www.fragilearmytransportbag.justinhillauthor.com/crinan%20ivth.htm

This I find suprisingly effective, as the sentinels act as heavy weapon squads and can throw out a huge amount of firepower combined with the rest of the platoons. I take lascanons, multi lasers and auto canons: heavy flamers I find almost useless. I give my lascanon sentinels all HK missiles, because these guys are only bs 3, and i also give them smoke launchers. Not only does it work great, but it looks awesome too - and the heavy weapon squads (ie sentinels) have the advantage of being able to move - making the whole guard army much more mobile than is normally the case. Not necesserily a good thing, but it makes guard a more fun army to play. (I arm my platoons with a few hvy bolters, but give alot of squads plasma and melta and flamers, so they can move and fire.

[Woz]

suneokun said:

Good point. Can't help but think that a squad of 5 deepstriking vets (if you're taking drop troops anyhow) could land some kick ass 9 plasma or 3 melta hits and tote an autocannon or heavy bolter for under 100 pts. .............

I've always used DS Stormies for tank killing. I never like the look of sentinels so I never bothered with them but I like the idea of drop tanks (using sentinel rules).

I like the idea of dropping a couple of mobile heavy weapon platforms behind my opponents lines (maybe in a far corner well out of bolter range) and shooting him up from a distance. Just the look on my opponents face when he realises he's in a crossfire will be priceless

[Deleted]

Hmmmm drop trooping Heavy weapon platoons? That's a thought ... Could be useful on a 4/6' board where you can exploit an underpopulated wing with some real long range lunacy. That way your opponent is forced into fewer and fewer cover pockets to shelter from your autocannon/ML/LC death ... that's got me thinking.

[Woz]

suneokun said:

Hmmmm drop trooping Heavy weapon platoons?

I thought about using HW squads but the problem is that they can't fire when they deepstrike so you lose the element of suprise. Your opponent can shoot up your HW teams before you get to use them or he can move into cover.

Sentinels can DS and fire in the same turn.

[Deleted]

I use the DS Sent strat all the time, but in pairs.. drop 2 as one shot with autocannons can make mincemeat of most rear tanks or to make units split their fire from front to back againest this new threat.. usually gives me another turn to get my demolisher and leman russ's up further to do more damage.. combine with DS vets and stormies and you can take out even emplacement marines with heavy weapons easily

Cheers and welcome to the DS setn club
Gris

[knight (M.I.A)]

Sentinals with heavy flamers are like scalpels. Most opponents willignore them for too long until it is too late and then you can cut lines in the middles your opponents squads...

And yes, I'm one of those players who uses flame weapons not for causing much damage but for gaining tactical advantage...

[Deleted]

Apr 3, 2008 5:28:29 GMT -5 @suneokun said:

Good point. Can't help but think that a squad of 5 deepstriking vets (if you're taking drop troops anyhow) could land some kick ass 9 plasma or 3 melta hits and tote an autocannon or heavy bolter for under 100 pts. Remember that against Smurfs a HB is more effective than an AC as they get their saving throw regardless.

I didnt think vets could take heavy weapons? Just a sugar-load of specials?

But regarding sentinels i'm keen on maybe some multilaser 3x s6 action cutting up infantry and leaving anti-tank to heavy weapons squads

[Rolling Thunder]

No, vets can take three special weapons and one heavy one. It makes them far more dangerous and flexible than stormtroopers.