Assault Squads: What Do You Use?

Lets see for Assaulting objectives:

-Demolitions Veterans w/ Flamers, H Flamer, shotguns, toss in power weapon if possible. Not much that survives that with a little support fire. Transport by Valk or Vendetta. Great vs Fortifications too btw.

-Penal Legion: I still like these guys, even with the outflank nerf. Esp Hammer and Anvil (Long) deployment, they reach things that Chimeras wont.

-Not a squad, but Marbo is still pretty good.

We maybe need to have a talk about the difference between dedicated assault units and dedicated counter-attack units.

Hang on, back up here... what's a Power Maul? Don't see that on the list...

A Power Maul is one of the generic Power Weapons (power sword, Power Axe, Power Maul, Power Lance) where the only thing that determines which you have is which is by looking at the model.

A Power Maul is Strength +2 AP4 and concussive (so if you score a hit your opponent has to go at I1 in the next round).

A Power Maul is basically a Mace or other bludgeoning weapon.

The argument goes that unless everything you fight is MEQ then the +2 strength will be better than the AP3 of Power Swords and the weapon isn't unwieldy like fists and axes so in challenges you have a chance to kill a fist wielding Sarge before they get to swing.

I switched to the Power fist after a round of games in which my sgts hit loads of attacks... and failed to cause wounds due to low strenght

Since they usually attack last, I figured it wouldn't make a diference; I might as well make them hit hard!

Well here is the argument against power fists on IG Sarges:

Power Fists are Specialist so you lose an attack unless you have two of them.
They are Unweildy meaning you swing after Tau, Orks and Necrons, IG, Sisters and anything else I3 or less as well as swinging at the same time as anybody with an Unwieldy weapon.
AP 2 is only useful against terminators that don't have storm shields.

Power fists are arguably much better on a S4 character as they end up with a hand held krak missile to beat up vehicles with. Marines will also have their Power Armour and toughness 4 to keep them alive long enough to use it.

Power Axes are Unwieldy so suffer the same problems as fists above regarding striking last and they only raise your strength to 4 while giving you an AP that can hurt Terminators that don't have Storm Shields. It's cheaper than a fist but if you're determined to swing last get a fist.

Power Swords negate MEQ saves. That's all they do. If you only ever fight MEQ then go with the sword no questions.

Power Mauls give you S5 so you wound MEQ on a 3+ and anything T3 on a 2+. AP4 is just enough and you get to strike at your initiative which in a challenge vs a Power Fist wielding Marine gives you a better chance of killing him before he gets to strike and can neutralize a Power Klaw Nob before he's finished his battle cry (Slight exaggeration but the odds are better than if you have a fist because he WILL kill you and you'll do one wound while if you go first with 3 attacks you have better odds of causing 2 wounds - a fist on IG will never instant Death an Ork after all)

On an IG Sarge a Maul is only 1S less than a fist, gets an extra attack and gets to swing first vs any fist or axe users and still gives you a chance to penetrate most vehicles unlike a Sword or Axe.

Like I said: If all you play against are MEQ then go with a sword but if not a Maul will probably do a better job.

Oh and converting to a Maul is easy and just takes chopping off the sword and replacing it with a thick bit of wire or tubing with a slightly thicker bit for the head making a handy Shock Maul (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/File:Mauls.jpg#.UDui7tZlRzg )

This post has been edited by Lt. Yorke on Aug 27 2012, 04:58 PM

Dammit... I went to such trouble to creat Steel Legion with power fists...

Wait, power mauls, axes?! Is this in the new rule book?!

Might need to convert some sergeants...


Oh, also, hi guys, i'm back

Yep new Rulebook has 4 types of Power Weapon (5 if you include "special") and you get to pick based on what you model them with. So if you really wanted to you could give them a Power Lance by giving them a spear.

Power Lance?!

+1 str/AP3 on charge.