mechanised over footslogger

(Nice paint)

But I'll have to throw a vote onto the "anti-Stormtrooper" heap.
I just don't see any value from ISTs, except to be a cheap scoring unit.

The concept of Meat Shield has realy gone away when Screening was removed. And the idea of using a troop to absorb shot is an asymetrical loss. As an "assault shield", you'll pull in charges, effectively promoting your enemy's mobility and strength. THese are losing scenarios.

Treat each of your troops as prescious as your own children. THe emperor loves each one.

However, the concept of the "Sacrificial Front Line" is still a living concept.
I have been experimenting with stringing a thin, stretched line of Celestians in front of my troops. They are just a bit more durable in CC, and if you consider the free faith, (no vet required), 10 Celestians really cost only 6 points more than 10 SOBs with Vet. Their better statline does have a postive effect on CC outcome, without buring up faith.

Celestians make a great speedbump (more like a wall, really) to block charges coming at you, and can hold charges probably twice a long as ISTs. The 5 point Heavy Bolter is also an excellent option if you expect them to play a defensive role.

I had one Celestian squad of 9 Charged (with no vet) by a squad of Tyrnid warriors. The C's held for 3 turns, and chewed the Warriors down to below 50%. IST's could never do that.

Heiromyo said:

not as good as sisters but they are still great.

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I would disagree with "great".
They are sometimes useful, but far more often, they are exceeded by the sisters.

As to 40 chances to deal damage, you won't get the full 40. They're only Init3, so several of them are going to get cut down before they get a chance to hurt anyone. Most armies have something that's AP4, so for the time it takes you to get the ISTs into charge range, your opponent has the time to point his AP4 at you.

- Also consider you can give two storm troopers and the Veteran Grenade Launchers. Not only are these range 24" for constant hail of fire but it's also an assualt type weapon. Going back to the shotgun and assualt method you can add up to 3 blast markers on top of 14 other shots, then assualt.

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Not a bad idea, but Grenade launchers are not much to write home about either, because your average frag "direct hit" will hit 2.5 bodies, but it will drift 2/3 of the time, which brings the average back down pretty close to the shotgun. Better to take 1 GL per squad, enough to confuse the oppnent's target priority. When he sees you targeting a template on him, he will probably try to kill off your squad, and he will remporarily forget about your other stuff.

- Also consider the transports, chimeras have two heavy weapons in addition to whatever upgrades they can take. These are really good cheap fire support vehicals as well with a superior sheild to the rhino due to higher front armour.

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BS3.
So you lose 17% of your shots. The Assault hatch is at the rear, so the tank becomes AV 10 if you use it for Assault. So it's either an AV10 assault vehicle, or it's a platform for a BS3 MultiLaser and a BS3 HB. In either role, it's overpriced. However, I just realized that the 6 Chimera Lasguns could still be used by ISTs took shotguns. That's kinda nice if you can take advantage of it.

In general do not only take into consideration their low armour save and weapon strength, take careful thought in shear volume of attacks and general support roles they can take up.

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Fair enough. The shotgun+assault can create a problem for your enemy, without costing you very much. Good, but not great.