Armoured Sentinels

Hi all,

I'll likely update this in the future, but I wanted to post some thoughts I've had about using Armoured Sentinels in particular. The scout variant certainly have their uses - but because they are so different, I think they deserve different articles. I also have some things I want to try out still, so this tactica primarily has things that I've already done.

Firstly, a look at the purpose behind the Sentinels (which is a good place to start before choosing any unit). They are generally fill a number of uses in my army, depending on the outfit.

1) Mobile armour defense. That is, defense of your own artillery, transport, and tank units. Because quite a number of vehicles have lower side armour values, it can be a great asset to put two armoured sentinels on the flank of the exposed vehicle I want to protect. The Sentinel armoured frame provides excellent line of sight restriction, particularly from enemy units that are firing from a higher position than the exposed vehicle (namely devastator squads, longfangs, pathfinders, lascannons, etc etc etc). If I need total protection, a small guardsmen squad can stand between the sentinels and the vehicle obscuring the vehicle from everything. Due to the range of the guns on the Sentinel they serve as a strong fire base - whislt at the same (if equipped correctly) understanding that the Sentinels aren't worth your opponents time taking out, my Manticore/Basilisk/Demolisher gets a 4+ cover, or 3+ with Camo netting, in the open. More on this later.

2) Anti transport defense. A number of weapon choices on the Armoured Sentinel are supurb at popping enemy transports as they close in. Lascannons, Autocannons, even multilasers all can achieve this. Because the Sentinel can move and fire, it isn't difficult to get into the side armour of that Chimera closing fast, or to negate the cover save of that Rhino trying to get through your lines. Again, the significant range of these weapons allows for a number of attempts to penetrate the vehicles. The Sentinels can also be upgraded with relatively cheap hunter killers, though I haven't taken these as of yet, and thus wouldn't go out of my way to recommend them (50/50 hit, one shot, I'd rather take a 10 point missile launcher in my chimera with my veterans that fires the same shot but regularly and accurately).

3) Anti infantry defense. A similar concept to the Anti transport, the Sentinels equipped with the Plasma Cannon can wreak havoc to approaching troops. Guard excel at laying down an impressive amount of blasts (which is the main reason I maintain Guard will always outshoot Tau). So make the most of this! I tend to favour the anti transport role, but fortunately, lascannons/multilasers/autocannons are also quite effective versing infantry, whether they get an armour save or not. (And obviously monstrous creatures often find themselves targets for these guns as well).

These first three roles work very well for Armoured Sentinels - at 60 points or so per vehicle, they are very cheap - they aren't open topped, and armour 12 is hard to beat. Due to the other vehicles in your army, most players will not attempt to shoot down the sentinels, provided they don't see them as a big enough threat. Number 4) is quite different though.

4) Assault capacity. Sentinels can move quite quickly - they can run if need be, they walk through terrain without risking being immobilsed, and they can shoot at the same time. Equipping Sentinels with flamers or plasma cannons, and walking them straight towards your opponents troops can do significant damage (depending on opponent). But their true value in the assault role is pinning enemy units in place. Without grenades or strength modification, your opponent isn't going anywhere. You need to be at least strength 6 to even glance these vehicles (hitting the front armour, as required when fighting mobile walkers), which means that orc charge just isn't going to cut it (let alone if you flame, then charge them yourself)!

Powerfists can cause you an issue, but if you think about it, two sentinels hitting a 30 man orc unit (thats 110 points versing 225 points), presuming you don't flame the opponent first, he can only swing that power claw at you. He hits on a 4+, so two hits being optimistic (with three attacks), say both penetrate, and he rolls a 2 and a 5. One is destroyed, the other one is sitting still. In his turn, he gets his three swings, and lets say he destroys you. He consolidates his unit 3 inches forward (rather than the 9 inch movement towards you) and you shoot him with the rest of your army. Or just assault another two sentinels in. (By the way, it generally can take them a lot longer to kill the sentinels!)

Grenades. Grenades are terrible at taking down Sentinels, unless your opponent has melta bombs (and then they are only bad, not terrible). Two Sentinels with multilasers charge a Space Marine squad. 6 shots, 3 hits, 3 wounds, 1 dead marine. You take a swing at him and achieve nothing. He swings at you - with 8 grenades and a power fist. He is using krak grenades - that's right, 6's to hit, and 6's to glance! Thats 1/36 chance * the number of grenades, or 8/36 (22%) chance of getting 1 glancing hit. Assuming he does hit and glance, he then has a 1/6 chance of scoring the 6 result, which immobilises, which destroys the first vehicle. Thats a 3.6% chance, and he has one vehicle remaining! Weapon destroyed results, stunned, or shaken achieve nothing for him (unless they eventually strip it down). You aren't going to be leaving the combat, so who needs a weapon? This is where the 10 point missile can come in handy - it negates a weapon destroyed result.

He then hits you with his Sergeants power fist - two attacks, say one hits, and he needs a 5+ to penetrate (even at str 8). He then needs a 4+ to destroy the vehicle (and you still have the other one). Thats what - another 22% chance of destroying the vehicle? And if he does kill one, it drops to about a 14% chance of killing the other. I have reliably held up Space Marine 10 man squads for 4-5 turns before he eventually rolls the lucky dice (and my opponent's army is in tatters at this stage).

5) Objective grabbers. Because a) your opponent doesn't tend to shoot down hard to kill vehicles that seemingly don't have the right weapon to hurt him, b) tend to leave their weakest and most vulnerable troops that don't have the powerfists etc behind their lines to hold their own base, and c) because your sentinels really are extremely hard to kill, should you manage to walk towards your opponent and one of his troop choices in combat towards the end game, that objective becomes contested - meanwhile, you've shot down everything coming towards your own objective, and you win the game! Sentinels just simply excel in this role.



Weapon options.

Multilaser - standard, cheap, 55 points. Multiple shot, best weapon verse marines etc where you don't ever intend to negate armour. Great for assault roles verse marines (or armies you can't shoot the troops down anyway) because it might kill a couple with 2's to wound. Also hurts monsters etc from range. Can punch holes in transports. Weight of fire second to none in the guard army with 3 shots per gun. B+

Autocannon - my favourite choice. Cheap, 60 points. FIres two rounds, achieves everything the multilaser achieves, slightly less likely to kill marines (hey, you really aren't going to kill that many anyway), great for pot shots on 4+ armour characters/meanies (orc nobs, fire dragons, etc). Also significantly more likely to hunt down those enemy transports, and far longer range than the multilaser! Wounds Monsters on 3's, not 4's, which kind of makes up for the lost shot anyway. To boot - because you are emptying less rounds (visually) into marines, as you move to charge and hold them up, your opponent really thinks you aren't achieving anything and will leave you alone (where as nine shots from three multilasers might achieve nothing, but attract attention!) I give this weapon an A++

Missile Launcher - a decent choice. One shot, which is good and bad, depending. The blast helps verse hordes (and even marines - more likely to kill), and you get an Ap 3 shot if you really need it. Slightly more points, more likely to penetrate a rhino, but less shots? I think the autocannon does it better. Same verse monsters - you'll probably wound on a 3+ anyway, so the two shots is better than the one. However, AP3? Can help. Missile Launchers are more attractive targets, but are more efficient in the anti infantry shooting role, without sacrificing too much over the multilaser and autocannon for versatility. A- weapon

Lascannon - I only field lascannons on Armoured Sentinels when I want Lascannon spam. Yes, they will hurt transports when they hit. Again, the autocannons with multiple shots can achieve the same thing. They probably won't hurt the armour 13/14 vehicles (they can hurt - but I'd use other more effective weapons). Lascannons are also targets - your opponent knows what you are doing when you field these. Lascannon spamming though can be effective - but I'd put lascannons in troops that can be twinlinked before putting them on my Sentinels. A bit more pricey than the other weapon options as well. There are a couple of redeeming factors - I've killed more than one character with this instant death cannon after blowing away his squad. No armour and 2's to wound really hurts! And a 4+ cover save isn't great - particularly when you get a chance to move so that he doesn't get the cover save at all. And these guns can be turned into marine killers - you'd think this is overkill, but when I really need to take out one more marine to cause fall back, due to already having dropped their leadership - it isn't so bad a choice. On the whole though, a solid B weapon.

Heavy Flamer - This weapon is good for the Scout, but terrible for the Armoured Sentinel. You kind of have the right idea when you are taking this option, because you obviously intend to assault (or counter assault), which is definitely my favourite use for Armoured Sentinels. But the heavy flamer actually becomes completely the wrong choice. Firstly, the flamer obviously has no real range - you are about to assault them when you get the chance to use this weapon. Your opponent knows this. Thus by equipping the heavy flamer, you have announced your intentions boldly and in bright neon colours even before the game begins. Secondly, when you flame, you likely will not kill very many of the unit you are attempting to take out (who cares really if you kill the one or two marines? Or even the 8 orcs?). Realistically, you are going to assault them anyway, and hopefully stop them moving - you don't need to kill them, because they aren't going to be able to kill you anyway.

What about troops on the objectives, I hear you protest? Wrong - again, the flamer announces your intention, and you draw fire to the sentinel before you even reach your target. The flamer may indeed kill the squad - but this isn't any good if you can't reach them. Secondly, do you really achieve anything by killing the squad, rather than locking it in combat? Think about Eldar rangers - with the flamer, you kill the squad, and contest the objective. Without the flamer, you don't kill the squad, and you contest the objective. Or you kill them anyway, because they lose combat sooner or later. You can be moving up troops yourself to take the objective - but in this case, your infantry's rate of fire will hurt them anyway, and most things you need a flamer for, you can mow down in combat.

For consistancy's sake, if you do bring a heavy flamer, I'll remind you you can only flame one level above you - so snipers sitting on the second level won't get touched. You can obviously move up the levels, but you basically need to be on top of your opponent in the first place to achieve this (in which you already should have assaulted them). Lastly, with the heavy flamer, you obviously lose the anti transport role, for little value in return. If you don't want to pay for weapons, take the multilaser instead. I give the heavy flamer a D.

Plasma Cannon - now we are talking. This is a great weapon - slaughters infantry (don't bother shooting tanks, it really isn't worth it!!), mobility to deny cover, running forward through the field to get better angles, long range. Great infantry defense when defending your vehicles. Awesome gun. What does this mean though? Awesome targets, as well. Your opponent will attempt to sink these babies with their heavier guns - particularly when you have a squadron of them. They are pricy, and when they are putting out the fire power of some of your other armour 14 tanks, you easily become a priority. You also aren't as effective in the holding up infantry role - because you want to shoot them! You won't opt to run, and (though I haven't been put in this situation yet myself), I imagine I wouldn't opt to assault when I could shoot instead. So you kill a few marines, they get past your lines, and you've missed your chance to hold them up. Great weapon, great defense, loses out on the more awesome role of stopping your opponent in his tracks though - and also isn't worth killing enemy transports with (which conveniantly also stops the enemy reaching you!) If I field a Plasma cannon, it is a distraction for my opponent, I sit back and shoot, and I probably have other Sentinels moving in to hold my opponent down for a thrashing. I give this weapon a B+ on the basis that I believe the assault role is the better choice for the Armoured Sentinel.




A note on squad size - I often field one or two sentinels in a squad, and rarely three. One for units that will attract attention (plasma cannons), as I don't want my opponent killing all of them in one round. Two for assault roles - if one gets taken down, the other becomes more effective. Two for giving cover saves, as you need to cover the majority. Two for giving myself maximum armour protection - if a sentinel is facing one way, and the other is facing the other, with a 90 degree angle between the facings, your opponent always determines armour facing from the closest model, and thus you maintain armour 12 on both flanks. I'd need a good reason to field three - I think they would quickly become targets.


I love Armoured Sentinels. I laughed for joy when I found out they were being released - I already used regular sentinels to pin my opponent, and these just make it ridiculously easy for a very cheap price. I've won many games simply with the tactics above, whilst the rest of my army pounds my enemy to dust. They are great for changing roles as well - a moving defense for your chimera, holding your troops, providing a cover save to another troop squad covering the bottom half of the chimera, walking towards an objective, shooting up enemy transports on the way, moving in to engage any assault troops that get in the way, or pinning your opponents troops in combat when your convoy reaches the opponents objective? These units are gold. However, know what they can and can't do - melta bombs will kill, melta guns will kill. Multiple multimeltas, will kill! And keep in mind your side armour is still 10 - you can get destroyed if you are careless and expose yourself to strength 6 side shots. Know what you can do with these vehicles, and they can change your Guard experience.

Some last thoughts as well - I haven't done this yet, but it is on my mind. A guard army tooled up with psykers, blasts, pinning, snipers, griffons etc, with Armoured Sentinels, should be very effective. Shoot and pin the non-fearless units. Charge the other units that get close. Stop your opponent from moving in.

A similar strategy, that I again have yet to try, is fielding a vindicare assassin that shoots down anything that can hurt your sentinels in combat, with you fielding 3 armoured sentinel squads of 3. Imagine that space marine sergent with power fist getting hit by a 2+ to hit, 2+ to wound, ap 2 round, that at most, gives him a 5+ cover save. Or hitting the orc power claw, 2+ to hit, 4+ to wound, AP 2, and causing 2 wounds. The biggest problem with the vindicare is that with only 5-7 rounds, you can only fire 5-7 times; but this tactic may make it worthwhile, if half of those shots effectively removes an entire unit from play! I'm working on a number of ideas that I'll incorporate into a Vindicare strategy, and post later this year with its effectiveness - but something to think about. (By the way - this could really, really be awesome in planet strike - as defender, you can have a bastion that allows a unit inside to reroll hits and wounds, and your opponent needs to get to your objectives at all costs - 2+ to hit, 4+ to wound with rerolls? Easy as pie).

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment! Scout Sentinel strategy coming soon.