Dark Angels: Price Comparisons with 5th Ed Marines

I'm apparently still on a Dark Angels kick... probably because I don't want to work on my Guard anymore but still need to sit down and do some painting soon in order to be ready for Adepticon. Not to mention a display board...

Anyway. One thing that has really grabbed hold of my mind is comparing the Dark Angels and 5th Edition Marine codices and seeing exactly what the Dark Angels do better. We all know the differences between Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Codex Marines, but what special things beyond the Deathwing do Dark Angels have?

Let's start with a unit by unit analysis and then move on into play styles that these model choices lead to. I'll only be going over Dark Angels units that are at least potentially better than the 5th ed equivalents, so if I don't cover something it's worse than the 5th ed equivalent.

HQ

Belial: the big bad himself. Sure his stats are worse than a standard Captain but he comes at a price that can't be beat. A Captain with TH/SS would cost 40 pts more and only get +1 WS and Combat Tactics out of the deal, while Belial also gets to take Termies as Troops. Clear win for the big B here.

Chaplains: much better than their C:SM equivalent thanks to +1 BS, +1 A, cheaper combi-weapons and a cheaper bike. They do lose the ability to take terminator armor unless upgraded to an Interrogator-Chaplain, but he gets a third wound out of the deal. Speaking of which the Interrogator-Chaplain beats up his Blood Angels counter part the Reclusiarch by being at least 5 pts cheaper.

Sammael:in my opinion not as good as a biker boss from C:SM. Sure his bike can fly and has an underslung plasma cannon but neither ability plays very well with Ravenwing bike squads, not to mention the fact that he doesn’t have Scout. The other bikes can’t fly and they are generally armed with melta weaponry, which the PC doesn’t help out with a ton and is much more suited to shooting at 36” than 12. Adamantine mantle will protect him on his own for a bit but taking out 3 3+/4++ wounds on a T5 body shouldn’t be a problem.

His landspeeder form is a bit more palatable as it can use its AV 14 to good effect but needing to be within 24” to shoot brings him dangerously close to melta range which will end his day. I guess take him if you want biker troops, but otherwise he can stay on the shelf.


Elite

Deathwing Terminators: no surprise here, are awesome. They have the ability to be assault and shooty at the same time, plus scoring ability and 10 pts cheaper Cyclones. Take the CML and they only cost 5 more than the SM squad, though can’t upgrade to more than 5 terminators.

Dreadnoughts: normal ones compare poorly (more expensive, no TLAC build) but Venerable dreads might have a shot. They are 20 pts cheaper than the C:SM equivalent, but I'm not sure if that makes them worth it, especially since DA ven dreads aren’t WS/BS 5, so it’s purely a survivability upgrade. It could make sense on a podding/walking MM dread just to try to make sure it survives longer, but other than that Dreads are probably done better in the newer codexes. Still, if anyone needs a mobile multimelta it's the Dark Angels, so they might still have a shot depending on the build.

Troops

Tactical Squad: 5 man squads actually come out ahead of Codex Marines thanks to their ability to take a special weapon. It doesn't get the same discount as Codex tacticals but the chance to take a genuine flamer or meltagun rather than a combi version is gold. Their razorbacks are also only 5 pts more expensive with the TL Lascannon turret. Blood Angels assault squads still probably do this size better, as the cheaper, faster transports and ability to double up with a pistol sized special probably put them on top, not to mention Grey Hunters, but for a respectable Razor squad the Dark Angels can pull it off.

Fast Attack

Ravenwing Bike Squads: They are in an interesting position as they differ so radically from C:SM. Scout plus teleport homer plus fearless really adds on the points though. They do offer one of the few melta outlets in the army, so taking them as suicide anti-tank is an option. I don't really like them as Troops as they are rather difficult to keep alive due to their small squad size, especially with their intended role as melta-jockeys.

Fearless is a huge boon for the bikes given their fragile nature. Losing your bullet shield bike (if you could afford to take them) would normally get you zooming off the field, but Ravenwing melta bikers are good to the last drop. If your game plan doesn't involve them surviving long they can bring some much needed melta to the list. I still like vanilla bikers better, but scouting meltas make for one sweet alpha strike!

Landspeeders: the Typhoon is incredibly much better than any 5th ed equivalent. It does suffer from not being able to double up in a slot but when do you ever see Marine players do that? The MM speeders take the back seat here but can be added on as ablative wounds for your Typhoonsand/or a way to up the melta count in your army. Multimelta/Typhoon is probably the way to go here just to cram mo' melta into the list but the tried and true HB/Typhoon can also work.

Heavy Support

Whirlwinds: surprisingly cost the same for Dark Angels. Still probably not worth it (which is a shame, as I love the aesthetic), but at least they are not worse.

Devastators: Cost the same as Codex Devastators except for missile launchers which cost 5 pts more. If you like the other options they are just as viable, but especially in comparison to Blood Angel devs these guys take back seat.

Predators: Lascannon predators cost the same as their Codex equivalents, so are still pretty good buys. Autocannon preds, however, suffer as they cost 10 pts more.

Land Raiders: The Crusader is cheaper than any other marine book thanks to the free multimelta upgrade. Phobos (i.e. Godhammer lasers) is on par with other marine books.

Dedicated Transports

Rhinos cost the same, TL lascannon Razorbacks cost only 5 pts more. Drop pods are overcosted by 15 pts but don't have Drop Pod Assault, which could be seen as an advantage by some.


So, some themes that I'm seeing:

• Awesome terminators. They don't even need to score to be worth the cost as thunder hammer wielding bubble wrap that can fire missiles is pretty frikkin' awesome in my opinion. Of course scoring is always nice and the fact that you can field 45 terminators in a maxed out list is silly. Redundancy and resiliancy are your watch words here.
• Razorspam. Sure Dark Angels don't get the Lascannon-TWL Plasma Gun razors that everyone is cruising with these days but they can crank them out almost as easily as anyone else with better Troops options than Codex Marines. The Thunderbubble from above is very nice in this kind of list...
• Fast Attack is for melta. Chain fists help somewhat but nothing replaces the good ol' meltagun. Whether Ravenwing or Land Speeder, it's either here, Crusaders, combi-meltas or Tac squads. I still can't get over how expensive Ravenwing are but it's a toss up as to whether they are more valuable/survivable than Land Speeders point for point. Since melta is almost a necessity expect your Fast Attack slots to be filled each and every game.
• Quality Chaplains. These guys can seriously amp up the effectiveness of any squad in combat and are very cost effective to boot.

Well, that's what I got. What do you think of my assessments, and also do you think I'm right to focus only on the cost effective choices? As always, thanks for reading!


*The above image used without permission (but much love!) from Games-Workshop

A Beginner's Guide to the Guard: Tactica Collection

Now that you have your army assembled and painted, how do you win? Hopefully the tactica below will help out.

First, two from my very own site:
Tactica: Armored Sentinel
The Emperor's Scalpel, Tactica Stormtrooper (part 1, part 2)

From Warseer:
Tactica Imperium

From From The Warp:
Imperial Guard, Sledgehammer of the Imperium

From His Pinkness, Kirby:
Hybrid Blast Spam Army List
Ride of the Valkyries, part 1, part 2, part 3
How to Run a Platoon

There's definitely more out there- I'll add to this page as I find them. Thanks for reading!

DEVOURING HUMANITY: Tactica Tyrannofex

Hello again! This is Russell back again to talk about what I think is an under appreciated model in the new Tyranid codex: the Tyrannofex. Please note, however, that I don't claim that it is a "good" model, just one that I run frequently, and that I think more people should run. Now that I've lost all credibility by admitting to running a model that isn't good, let's talk about the choices for unique weapons that the Tyrannofex can carry.

His name is Jake. Say "Hi Jake!"

Fleshborer Hive:
I think a lot of people are taken in by this very sub-par weapon. Assault 20 does sound rather intimidating, I'll admit. But let's look at it this way: what else has Assault 20? Twenty Gaunts. And those gaunts are less than half the cost, can hold objectives, could take a Mycetic Spore, and are debateably harder to kill due to their ability to get cover saves and the fact that they have 20 wounds (kind of). Honestly, I think 20 Gaunts is probably a better choice than the Fleshborer Hive Tyrannofex, and I don't think 20 Gaunts is a particularly good choice.

Acid Spray:
I don't have a lot of experience with this particular weapon choice, though it seems reasonable. It makes your Tyrannofex very good at pushing stubborn units off of an in-cover objective. Eldar Rangers or Imperial Guardsmen with Camo Cloaks can be frustrating for Tyranids to get off objectives, and Acid Spray, along with the Thorax Swarm the Tyrannofex comes with, can be very effective at killing them. But this does make your Tyrannofex into a very short range, very slow beast who will spend the first several turns just moving up the board doing nothing. I think that Acid Spray is worth considering, if you are having trouble with your opponents going to ground in cover on objectives, but I am not sure that it justifies the very high cost of the Tyrannofex.

Rupture Cannon:
This is the thing that really sells the Tyrannofex for me. Two shots at BS 3 is nothing impressive, and I do warn you that this weapon will miss at frustrating times. But a long range, high-strength weapon is something that the Tyranids are completely lacking outside of the Tyrannofex. When you really need a tank across the board to die, and can't get the Hiveguard or Zoanthropes there in time, the Tyrannofex is a great backup plan. I have had great success breaking open transport tanks with the Tyrannofex so that my Genestealers can assault the embarked troops. The Rupture Cannon is also a good answer to some high speed, long range weaponry, such as the Imperial Guard Valkyrie/Vendetta, which can outrun and outrange your other tankbreaking options fairly easily. All in all, I think that the Rupture Cannon is the best option for the Tyrannofex.

The Tyrannofex is a very expensive model, and I would not recommend trying to squeeze it into any list below 1500 points, and even then it is questionable. But it can be very effective as a long range gunner. I also usually move it slowly up the board, using its Cluster Spines and Thorax Swarm in the late turns once the tanks are all down. I have also found that the Tyrannofex rarely dies, because the amount of firepower that the opponent has to pump into it to bring it down is usually not worth the amount of damage that it does.

All in all, the Tyrannofex is not actually a good model. It is very expensive and does not do very much damage. But I feel justified in taking it on a regular basis simply because it fills a hole that the Tyranids are not able to fill with any other model. Tyranids are sorely lacking in long range, high-strength shooters, and the Tyrannofex is an overpriced option, but it does the job, and honestly that is good enough to justify its points in a lot of games.

Tactica: Stormtrooper (Part II)

From: http://robban-o.deviantart.com/art/Imperial-Guard-Stormtrooper-109242609

For part 1, go here.

Deployment

Before we get into builds, a word on deployment. As far as I'm concerned there are two optimal ways to deploy stormtroopers- as drop troops or as mechanized infantry. Drop troops allow you to get into any position very quickly and reliably thanks to the scatter die reroll, while mechanized troops grant more survivability and a ghetto Hellhound added into the mix. Infiltrating or outflanking on foot might work, but the chance of the team being slaughtered before they fulfill their mission is much too high, at least in my opinion.

I've recently come into favor of the mechanized option, as it opens up great degrees of flexibility. Thanks to the Reconnaisance special mission the STs can gain Scout, allowing them to drive the Chimera forward 12" before the game begins or outflanking it. If you get first turn set the squad up on the board inside the tank and drive it towards the enemy. You should hopefully be able to get into weapons range in the first turn or at least set up in a position where you can open fire later. Because opponents will probably deploy around this strategy I have found it useful to take two squads equipped in this manner to give the enemy fewer places to run.

If you get second turn, no big whoop- either deep strike and use the chimera to provide some extra transport/cover to the rest of your army or outflank with behind enemy lines or reconnaissance. You can even do this if you have first turn and don't feel right about the first turn rush.

I won't be talking much about using Valkyries with Stormtroopers for two reasons. First, I don't own any and would feel bad talking about a tactic that I haven't used. Second, I personally don't think that they are necessary. STs already have deep strike, so leave the Valkyrie antics to those wannabe-stormies the Veterans.

On to the killing!

Purchasing

When using Stormtroopers one can't be a generalist- the orphan sons and daughters of the Imperium are much to finicky to show up to any old dance. They must be purchased with a specific purpose in mind and then deployed in the best way to fulfill that purpose. With this in mind, here are some builds with various targets in mind:

Anti-Tank
Melta, melta, melta. If your primary concern is tanks and you have the ability to get close rapidly, melta is absolutely the way to go. Since stormtroopers can deep strike right next to vehicles with a very good chance of not scattering thanks to the reroll, two meltaguns allows the squad to take out its target on the turn it lands. I find that a min-sized squad with a plasma pistol given to the sergeant is a good build as it minimizes point expenditure, grants an additional high strength shot to hopefully penetrate the tank and minimizes the chance that one of your troopers won't be able to deploy.

Another option is to have the squad mounted in a chimera. This tactic is great as a general deployment strategy, but is taken to new heights in an anti-tank focused group.  Think of this- if you can get close enough and if you put a heavy flamer on the Chimera your meltagun team might be able to get 2 KPs on turn 1 by targeting transports!

Anti-Heavy Infantry
Plasma, plasma, plasma. While a squad could be made out of pure hotshots, plenty of high powered plasma shots are always welcome if the points are available. If marine players are a frequent site then a full squad with plasmaguns and pistols mounted in a Chimera will be hell on treads. We can still use the tactics mentioned earlier to great effect, but there is an additional caution about infiltrating here. Since hotshots have a maximum range of 18" you will not be able to get a shot off with your lasguns when infiltrating under most circumstances as you must deploy outside of 18". If you can sneak your squad closer, good, but otherwise beware.

Optimal build would either be 10 troopers deep striking or 5 in a chimera with two plasma and a plasma pistol (though feel free to add more troopers as points allow). The deep strikers allow you to have maximum impact on the turn they land as well as offering a very large headache that the enemy now has to deal with. The mechanized squad can take advantage of all of the scouting/outflanking trickiness and can use all of the squad members firing out of the fire points.

Anti-Infantry
While Stormtroopers do not excel in this area they can fill this role if need be. Flamers are naturally the way to go, and I would even hazard adding a power sword to your sgt. Why is this? It turns out that STs have pistols and close combat weapons in addition to their other armament, granting them all 3 attacks on the charge. While the rest of their stats are nothing to write home about, that plus 4+ armor can at least try and do some damage.

Deployment for this squad would almost certainly be in a Chimera equipped with a heavy flamer and outflanking. I see this squad as charging on to an objective during one of the latter turns of the game and at least contesting if not outright slaughtering whatever troops are there. With ten Stormtroopers, a power sword and two flamers the squad can do quite a bit of damage. Finally, since the squad will probably be charging into cover using the reconnaissance mission is recommended, unless you feel that the pinning granted by behind enemy lines is preferable in your situation.

Final Thoughts
 Stormtroopers are excellent tactical assets to any Guard commander's arsenal as they have the ability to be exactly where they need to be to destroy whatever threat they have been tasked with. They can strike before the rest of your army or wait to destroy their target with surgical precision. Especially for armies with little in the way of mech STs are great boons, delivering your special weapons into the heart of the enemy's forces and ripping it out.

Please leave any comments, criticisms, anything you feel that I left out, etc. Ave Imperator!

Tactica: Stormtrooper (Part I)

I'm a fan of some of the supposedly "inefficient" choices in the IGuard codex as you may be able to tell from my first tactica on Armored Sentinels. Stormtroopers are the "glory boys" of the Imperial Guard, entrusted with missions and equipment that are not given to lesser, less reliable soldiers. Years of punishing training have honed their minds and bodies to the peak of human perfection. They are ruthless, proficient killers whose skills within the Imperial Guard are second to none.

Of course most of that is just fluff. In the codex the Stormtroopers are having role identification problems with the formerly elite choice of veterans. Both can carry quite a few special weapons, both can wear heavy armor, and both shoot like space marines. And to top it all off the veterans are scoring, cost much less and can carry an additional special and heavy weapon over the "Big Toy Soldiers." So what's a poor stormtrooper to do?

Stormtrooper is sad because nobody understands him...

Fortunately for the humble ST he (or she, the Schola Progenium doesn't discriminate!) has three important advantages over the veteran: improved basic gear, better special-weapon to point ratio, and excellent deployment options.

The improved armament is probably the bulk of the reason that storm troopers cost so much. Carapace armor alone drives the cost of a vet squad up to 10 points a pop and the ap 3 lasguns are assumedly not cheap either. Plus STs have frag and krak grenades, hotshot laspistols AND close combat weapons.

The special weapon to point ratio is also very good and reflects the higher equipment standards that the Schola Progenium graduates get. Assuming that the vets have carapace armor a vet squad with 2 melta guns costs 120 points while a 5 man stormtrooper squad costs only 105 points. Even if we take the vets' armor away the comparison is still in the same ball park, 90 vs 105, and that's leaving out the awesomeness of the hotshots.

And then there's the deployment options... for those not in the know, Stormies come equipped with the Deep Strike USR and have a choice of three different special missions that they can undertake:

Airborne Assault grants the squad a re-roll on their scatter die when deep striking, Reconnaissance gives the squad Scout and Move Through Cover, while Behind Enemy Lines allows the squad to Infiltrate and allows the first shots that they fire to cause pinning.

But the great thing about these missions is that they don't cost any points, and you can choose them at deployment, allowing you to deploy your Troopers in the most effective way possible every game.

Well, this tactica is getting a bit long, so I'll end it here for now. Stay tuned for the second part where we learn all about Stormtroopers and strategy.

Single Unit Strategy: Punisher, Part II

For Part I, go here.

Now that we have determined our strengths and weaknesses, let's try and find ways to boost our strengths and eliminate our weaknesses. We will do this by discussing various "variants" of the Leman Russ Punisher, in essence different roles that we want it to play in our army. All of these will be anti-infantry given the nature of the tank, but there are many different loadouts that we can create within that designation.

The first Punisher variant we will discuss is the Punisher Pillbox. This tank is equipped with hvy bolter or plasma cannon sponsons, giving it three weapons that can reach out and touch something at 36". Hvy bolters contribute to rate of fire and cost less, while the plasma cannons enable the punisher to retain effectiveness vs. heavy infantry. This also adds to the overall durability of the vehicle as it now has 4 weapon systems to disable instead of just 2. To add even more to its viability we could throw on camo netting and park it in cover, but at this point we will rival a land raider in price. Still, it will make for an infantry killing machine like no other.

Another variant we can use is the Punisher Surprise. Here we have a pair of standard Punishers given the Scout ability by Creed. The Punishers outflank and proceed to wreak havoc behind enemy lines, chewing up any squishy infantry that the opponent has left to guard his objectives. This variant takes care of the short range and speed limitations by placing the Punishers in close contact with the enemy right from the get-go, and the firepower of two Punishers should easily be enough to slaughter or break most infantry squads.

The final variant that we can use is what I call the Bouncer, and is my personal favorite. Once again the Punisher is simply a standard model (though HB sponsons might be added to increase the firepower if wanted), but this time we pair our Punisher with a chimera-mounted Psyker Battle Squad. One of the strengths that we listed for the Punisher was that it could routinely force morale checks for almost any infantry squad that it fired at. Even heavy infantry like Marines are whittled down enough with good rolling to question their faith in their general's tactics. To make sure that the squad breaks we can lower their leadership using the psykers, almost guaranteeing that they will break and flee. Depending on the unit they may still rally the next turn, but since they can only move 3" after rallying the Punisher wall of fire can steadily drive them back until they can't rally, at which point they will flee the board. Used carefully, two Punishers with two Battle Squads should be able to hold any advancing enemy infantry at bay, keeping them out of standard weapons or assault range of our squishy infantry.

Next time in Part 3: Lists for each of the Punisher archetypes.

Single Unit Strategy: Punisher, part 1

Back when I was a hardcore Magic: The Gathering player I would always read the MTG.com articles that Wizards posted every day. I guess you could call me an obsessive gamer in that respect. One of the recurring articles that they posted was called Single Card Strategy, where they would take one really cool but oft maligned card and build decks whose sole purpose was to break the card twenty ways past Sunday. They also pointed out various general tactics and deck building strategies that you could use to help the card be worth its cost and make sure that other people saw that the card was really, really cool.

I am going to try to do something similar with this blog. Not quite a tactica, and not quite just an army list, I am going to start with a single unit and build out from there, trying to make the unit both be worth its points and be a unit that I would want to play with.

• make the unit be worth its points
• make the unit be the star of the list
• make the list one that I would use on a regular basis

I might not succeed with these three goals given that 40k's balancing issues are much worse than in Magic, but I will try and it should be a fun series of experiments.

Having said that, we're going to kick off this series with the loneliest Leman Russ variant out there: the Leman Russ Punisher.

The main drawing point of the Punisher, like all of the Leman Russ variants, is its main gun, which fires 20 Str 5 Ap - shots. Combined with a hull heavy bolter you have 23 Str 5 shots every turn, basically making the tank a heavily armored rapid firing firewarrior squad. There is also the fear factor- knowing that your opponent has a tank with a Heavy 20 main gun is terrifying to many people who don't trust their armor dice too well. This means that the tank will be a fire magnet, which is both good and bad given its Demolisher armor. Also, we don't have to worry about the large blast accidentally drifting off target completely or hitting our own units, which is a big plus for those of us who have terrible luck with scatter dice.

However we have to take a few things into account before we start drooling. First off, the range on the main gun is only 24", meaning that we need to get real close and personal in order to do a lot of damage. This can be a problem thanks to the Lumbering Behemoth rule which makes our tank move with the speed of infantry. Second, half of those shots will miss thanks to BS 3. Third, even orks in the open will be able to get an armor save thanks to AP -. Based on these latter points, we have the following mathhammerings. EQ means equivalent, M means Marine, T means Terminator and G stands for Guardsman. Now that we know XEQs, here we go:

vs TEQ: (1/2)(2/3)(1/6)=1/18 for 1.28 kills
vs MEQ: (1/2)(2/3)(1/3)=1/9 for 2.56 kills
vs MEQ on bikes (personal nemesis): (1/2)(1/2)(1/3)=1/12 for 1.92 kills
vs Carnifex: (1/2)(1/3)(1/3)=1/18 for 1.28 wounds
vs GEQ: (1/2)(5/6)(2/3)=5/18 for the main gun and 3 ap 4 from the bolter for 6.81 kills

So, we have a tank that is fairly effective against hordes but not terribly effective against M and TEQ and even less effective against MCs. However with a little help/luck it will be strong enough to force a morale check every round.

Our strengths and weaknesses now look like this:
Strengths
23 strength 5 shots per turn
Heavy Armor
Strong enough to provoke morale tests fairly regularly.

Weaknesses
Short range
Slow
Lacks effectiveness vs. heavy infantry

Stay tuned for part 2, where we begin to take advantage of the strengths and nullify the weaknesses.

Tactica: Armored Sentinel

I'm a newb to both 40k and to Guard especially so I didn't think that I would be knowledgeable enough to present a tactica. But then I remembered that no one is very familiar with 5th ed guard yet, and that goes doubly for what is possibly my favorite unit (and probably one that I love far more than I ought to): the armored sentinel.

Many players look at this unit and scoff, and I can see why. It costs 20 points more than the arguably already overcosted scout sentinel and loses the ability to outflank (and the ability to Move Through Cover, but I classify that as more of a wash). The loss of scout is generally the point at which other generals stop considering the AS, as if you can't point your inaccurate lascannons at rear armor then what good are they?

Armored sentinels do, however, have four very important advantages over their lighter cousin. The AS is a) closed topped, b) comes with extra armor standard, c) can carry plasma cannons, and d) has front AV 12. This can be grouped into two general categories: Offensive and Defensive improvements.

Defensive Improvements
Thanks to all of the extra armor that the sentinel is carrying it is now an extremely survivable unit. Glances no longer have a chance of killing (unless you squad them up) and any weapon under str 6 will have to flank the walker in order to even have a chance of taking it down. This makes the opponent face a tougher choice than with the scout sentinel, as s/he will either have to do some tricky maneuvering with their weaker squads to get off a good shot or will have to focus anti-tank fire power in order to get rid of your walker. Either way, the opponent is using large quantities of resources to deal with a relatively inexpensive unit, while all the while your infantry/tanks are facing less incoming fire and can concentrate on annihilating the opponent.

Offensive Improvements
This can be subdivided into two parts. On the one hand we have the addition of the plasma cannon to our armory. Very good for MC, MEQ, TEQ, heck, any EQ hunting and even usable against light vehicles if you don't have a better target. With the amount of cover saves available in today's game the low AP might be a little wasted, but we can use the AS's superior defensive capabilities to maneuver into place for the perfect shot. And really, who doesn't love plasma blasts that won't actually harm your model on a 1?

On the other hand, the AS has front AV 12 and Extra Armor. "But Max, isn't better armor a defensive improvement?" Yes, but it also makes for one heck of an offensive gem due to the fact that walkers in close combat use front AV. The extra armor enables the sentinel to get into combat much more regularly, and the AV 12 stops any assaulted unit with strength 5 or lower cold in its tracks. Even models with strength 6 or more (save monstrous creatures) will still have to get pretty lucky to down a sentinel. I have seen a single armored sentinel hold an entire squad of genestealers (who have rending and therefore a chance to harm the AS) in close combat for 3 turns (that's 5 rounds of combat), buying me precious time to gun down enough other stinking tyranids to win the game. In another case one assaulted on to an objective, also giving me the win. (Both the same model, BTW- say Hi Stompy Jr!)

From 2k Surprise

The sentinel will almost never actually win the assault, so don't expect to get it back. It will, however, buy you enough time for the rest of your army to get the job done. This is especially useful in my play group, as rampaging berzerkers and stealers just love to eat squishy, squishy guardsmen, and I imagine they'd do a fair number on orkses as well.

So, how can we abuse the armored sentinel? One way is to create a very tough "sniper" squad using the camo netting upgrade (adds one to vehicle's cover save). With a 3+ save and hopefully AV 12 facing the enemy a squad of AS's in cover will be able to either draw a lot of fire for little result or sit happily churning out kill after kill with their weapons. Even without the upgrade, a 4+ save will be enough to protect them from too much undue harm. And if it comes to assault... well, I believe we already have THAT covered.

Another tactic that we can use is to move our sentinels slowly up the flanks, taking potshots at enemy units when possible and in the endgame charging whatever troops are on rear field objectives. This will serve to either distract the enemy or successfully sneak a very dangerous unit into their rear lines. This can be especially dirty if the sentinel assault manages to pull the enemy troops far enough off of an objective that you can sneak in with your own troops and seize it.

Similarly, we can use them as mobile cover, stalling assaulting armies and giving your back field some much needed relief from everything from deep striking melta squads to outflanking genestealers (have I mentioned I run into a lot of genestealers?). Mostly useful with a gunline army (though slow rolling assault is not out of the question), the walkers will take potshots early game and perform their cover/counter charge duties when needed.

A third general principle that we can use is operating our sentinels independently. Granted, with the myriad lovely fast attack choices in the new codex you might not have enough slots to pull this off, but it is important that our AS's are actually more survivable on their own than in squads thanks to Extra Armor. This way you can distract the enemy's fire even more, as well as providing sturdy counter charge units along your line for minimum cost. You still might not want to do this in annihilation, but you'd be surprised how many opponents will ignore the moderately tough kill point in a single sentinel to focus on more hard hitting units.

Why yes, that chainsaw is superfluous. And yes, I am going to charge you with it.

These are of course only a few of the options that we can use with the Armored Sentinel. I generally see th AS' main strength vs the scout sentinel in its versatility. The SS is a one trick pony- outflank and shoot rear armor. A good trick, but one trick still. The AS has many more options available to it thanks to superior armor and firepower. The AS is not a game winner in and of itself, but it serves a valuable role in making sure that the rest of your army remains unmolested and it can throw out some impressive amounts of firepower on its own. No matter what situation it's in, whether it be assault or shooting, early or late game, the AS always has a purpose and, if you use it correctly, will always be worth its points.

Comments, criticisms, and calling me completely crazy are always welcome and appreciated (especially the latter- it means you understand me!)