May 10, 2012 by darrell
Darrell looks into Sternguard Special Ammo to see if like the AK47, it will kill every mother ###### in the room. Then has a little trip down to mickey d's for a Royal with Cheese.
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Even if you could use special ammunition on HB, it would not be the best choice. But the rules are clear this time.
But you can use special ammunition with combibolters. I actually see them arround played quite regulary, usually with Librarian, Gate of Infinity and combimeltas. They can jump arround, pop some vehicles with one-time melta shots and than annoy with their special ammuntion. Also even with bolters, they are veterans and have two attacks each, making them no worse in CC as standart assault marines.
Can you still use special Ammunition it you replace boltguns for a combi-Melta?
in the codex on page 136 it says any model can replace its bolter for a combi-Melta and other stuff.
Does this mean the combi-Melta still gets the Special ammo? becasue its still a bolter just with a melta that fires once per game?
or does it make it a regular bolter shots with melta?
Since the rules are pretty much clear on page 63 (astonishing for GW I know), Yes you may fire special ammunition on combi weapons when you fire the bolter part of the weapon.
Also sternguard have 4 special issue ammunition types the 4th one been hellfire.
Arrr good =) it does make sense that they can still use special ammo, I just wanted to make sure.
Cheers dude
you still have the special ammo since it tecnically still is a boltgun
I take Sternguard with my salamanders, take 8 in a rhino, all with a combi-melta or combi-flamer, it gets twin-linked from vulkan, then pedro makes them scoring, so i drive around popping tanks with a twin-linked melta and melting troops with a twin-linked flamer. they are so good because no matter what i face, orks, marines or nids i have ammunition and special weapons to take care of anyone.
Sorry you can’t do that. Vulkan’s abilities are Chapter Tactics as well as Pedro’s. The rules clearly state you can only ever have one set of Chapter Tactics going for you, so you can do one or the other but not both.
I love sternguard, I feel that they are the Swiss Army Knife of Space Marine shooting, and with Pedro Kantor making them scoring they get even better (and I have a way to make them even better). But on to why I wanted to make this comment.
Darrell, the Vengeance Rounds (the S4 AP3) you were going on about are not as good as you make them sound: 1) they only have an 18″ range and 2) they have the Gets Hot!! special rule. Yes, there is a time for the use of that round when you have an armor 3 opponent about to charge you, but other wise I would go with the guard tactic of forcing lots of saves, AKA using the Hellfire Rounds.
My two favorite rounds that they bring to the table are the Kraken Bolts and the Hellfire Rounds, Use Karken until they are within 12″ and then open up with Hellfire.
Now the bit of cheese I promised. 2 Drop Pods + Pedro Kantor + Sternguard Vets + Darnath Lysander = fun cheese. So here is how it works Perdro makes the vets scoring, the first drop pod is throwaway (Drop Pod Assault disadvantage) dropping in the first turn, now you put the vets and Lysander in the 2nd drop pod put it as close to an objective as you can, you common sence from here on out but remember that Lysander lets you re-roll misses with the bolters. You could just drop them in on first turn but the odds of them lasting that long are somewhat low.
Hiya! Just read your post. I have always been a lover of the Sternguard units, although it took me quite some time to really find a good role for them, and use them properly. Now, I’m loving it.
Question: How does you attach Lysander to a drop pod? Unless he Deep Strikes via locator beacon on the drop pod… Or has somebody found a loop for him I don’t know about.
People doubt the Vengeance Rounds because of range and “Gets Hot!” Frankly, if someone gets too close… I found Hellfire, as good as they are, even with Lysander’s re-roll ability, can knock you across if the opposing player saves them all. Besides, it depends on the situation and Lysander lets you re-roll the misses, even if it’s a “Gets Hot!” because it’s a miss 😉
It is a shame that once the Stern do their job, they MIGHT not survive another fight. But as long as they destory something to slow the enemy down… I’m happy! 🙂
i use sterngaurd vets almost exclusivly in my army. especially in dark angels. (there called company vets and dont get the special ammo). using belial and fielding termies as troops, you can then free up your elites slots for vets.
heres the magic land raider termie killer tactic right here-
-10 sterngaurd, 5 with combi meltas and 5 with combi plas
-drop pod
– drop pod lands and the unit combat squads
the meltas pop the land raider
and the plasmas will crunch whoever is still inside the vehicle
-not the best strategy in killpoints because your pretty much throwing away three so its not a perfect strategy.
Actually I’m pretty sure you need to combat squad before deployment, so you can’t drop a squad in THEN combat squad them, after they’ve dropped it’s too late to combat squad.
Old post but since the video is reposted I thought I’d say that drop pods are special in that the combat squad decision and split are done AFTER to drop pod is deployed onto the table. The good news is you don’t have to decide until the game is in play. The bad news is both 5-man squads are with/next to the one drop pod (i.e. you can’t deploy 5 elsewhere on the board).
I do this all the time, but I prefer combi-flamers to combi-plasma. I get way more hits, no overheat to worry about, and I play Vulkan so re-roll to wound. Potential to wipe out an entire infantry unit.
My favorite tactics for the sturnguard is to put them in a drop pod and split them in two squads (a 5 man combat squad with 3combi-melta and a vet sgt with a power fist and a 5 man combat squad with 3 combi-plasma). and drop them in front of the enemi nose.
The combi-melta’s will take care of the big land raider or other big vehicule, and then the combi-plasma guy’s will take care of any termi, Overpowered HQ. If they are still alive after the first turn, they will use all theire special amo to take care of the most dangerous units and since they are two combat squad( that are placed on opposite side of the drop pod)the enemy, most of the time, will only assault one of them. So far I got very successful with that tactic and for point lovers, they have always kill more point value that their’s
S4 AP3?
Marines: #!?@
Necrons: ?#@!
Orks: We was ded anywayz.
Chaos Daemons: BRING IT!
I must say i’m eager to try them out,sound pretty fun….
Of course it gets better with Pedrito and co….
“haha!watch out for 1’s!you have the “gets hot” rule!”
“I don’t care,never lost a man to gets hot”
“see!all 1′!!”
“Goes to hang self”
…
ThePetitBilly
Even if you could use the special ammo in the flamer, each ammo type has a specific profile, so it’d fire the same as the bolters anyway: i.e. no template! 🙂
There is a 4th special ammo that many people miss. Helfire (Think that’s the name) which means you always wound on a 2+ and it uses the normal range and AP of the bolter.
And what about the hurricane bolter? It’s 2 boltguns in one…why can’t it use the special amuniction when combi weapons can?
Because you cant give a hurricane bolter to them 😉
But seriously, special ammunitionrules say, that it can be used only in boltguns. Combiweapons rules say, thet it is a boltgun unless you fire its combi part.
So yes U can use special ammunition with combiweapon, as it is still a boltgun ruleswise.
Funny thing is, that you cant use it with stormbolter – which is technically the same weapon, but ruleswise it is a different weapon.
Yeah, that’s true. It’s a double bolter, isn’t it? 🙁 Shame. I guess it’d be a bit much… Imagine 2/4 shots of special ammo coming at ya!
Only the Sternguard get the special ammo, not their transports.
can a logan grimnar change his confered special ability at thte beginning of each turn the beginning of his turn or the beginning of each players turn?
Beginning of each players turn, it’s in the official SW FAQ
Hey guys, I was playing a game earlier this evening (Space Marines + Tau vs. Nids + Orks) and we came to a bit of a standstill when some Hive Guard fired at my Stealth team. We just weren’t sure how to treat the Night Fighting rules regarding non-LOS, non-marker weapons (in this case, an Impaler). If playing with the rules to a ‘t’, it would seem that even non-LOS, non-marker weapons need to roll the usual 2D6x3″. Is there any chance you could take a look at this, as I know we aren’t the only confused gamers out here regarding this rule.
Thanks BOW!
Thousand Sons have AP3 and they have 4 up invulnerable! For 23 pionts each.
But they cant have them with meltas attached and move realy slowly.
I love sternguard. Have a squad of 10 in my Crimson fist army. (of course I didnt buy the official models, I bought a tactical squad and dickied it up!) I usually put them in a drop pod, as they can shoot when they get out and you can put them anywhere nearly.
The only problem I have is that they always seem to die really really quickly. Cant get any to live past turn 3 because they always end up getting shot with something really cheesy from an eldar scum army or sumthing.
I coulda sworn their bolt pistols could use the ammo too…. I thought the rule applied to any bolter. Guess not.
Hey Darrell,
I have a few questions for you if you’re looking for questions to make new videos.
I am curious on your opinion on how to best defend yourself against drop pods as a Imperial Guard player when your opponent is intending to blast your tanks away with melta guns.
How good are dreadnoughts in a space marine list? Can they be more useful than terminators/sternguard for their elite slot? Do they work best when there are more of them?
Do you have an opinion on the different Imperial Guard Leman Russ battle tanks in the current game? are some useless and others overpowered?
Thanks a bunch keep on making great videos!
Hey Darrell, I was wondering what would happen if a swarm was hit with a blast or template weapon with a strength double the toughness of the swarm. Would the wound doubling because of the “vulnerable to blast/templates” special rule mean that twice the number of models wounded would be insta-killed? Or would each model receive two wounds that both cause instant death?
Sternguard are one of the best units, and likely most annoying and lethal for any player, in my opinion due to the 6th Edition. Pre-measuring for your drop pods, 6″ deployment, which helps a great deal if you scatter bit far away from the target. Combat Squad them after they have dropped.
Not so good in the BA Codex, though, as you can only have 10 models in a DP. The SM lets you have 12, which is good should you want to attach a Librarian or an IC.
Of course, to each his own. But I’ve found confidence with this unit. Pricey, but 9/10 times, they’ll get the job done for me in a drop pod. And sometimes, it’s handy they drop down and take out something to slow the enemy down or sway their attention from the rest of your army, no?
Not too certain about combi-flamers… Unless I KNEW I’d be playing against Orks or ‘Nids or IG. Wished they also had combi-grenade launchers, just for kicks. I know it’s a weak weapon, but just for a laugh. Like Dutch’s weapon on “Predator” 🙂 🙂 🙂
At the moment, I’m planning out a 2nd 10-man Sternguard team. 8 combi-meltas and 2 meltaguns… I know 2 Veterans lose the special ammo rule, but a meltagun is SAME points for a combi and a good back-up if your Sternguard live to find another target or your combi attack fails.
That said, nothing says you MUST fire ALL combi-weapons at once. For a Speeder or Rhino, I tend to fire one or two. Just need to make sure you and your opponent know which ones didn’t fire 😉