Units 101 Spot - Sentinals

And so we come to the second of our Units 101 Spot articles - this time on a lesser loved unit of the Imperial Guard - Sentinels

Sentinels stand wierdly situated as the only fast scouting unit in the entire Imperial armory - the next most lightly armored unit is the Chimera/Hellhound chassis, starting at twice the points cost. The unit can be armed with a variety of weapons includind the standard issue multi-laser, an autocannon, or a lascannon. The Sentinel otherwise has the stats of a regular guardsmen... well, a S5 AV10 guardsmen worth 35 points....



So why take Sentinels?

Sentinals are actually a great unit to take as an Imperial Guard player.

Firstly, it is a rather mobile heavy weapon able to strike most areas of the board - and mobile firepower is something often lacking in a static IG lineup.

Combine this mobility with the Scouts special rule, and the Sentinel is often able to be close touching the opponents deployment zone on the first turn if you want it to. The Scouts special rule is also good in escalation missions, for obvious reasons.

The other reason is the ability to customise squads - do you want one Sentinel in a unit all on its own to take a death or glory shot on a falcon or land raider? Perhaps 3 armed with gribbly killing multi-lasers, or tank hunting lascannon? You can even take close combat oriented Sentinels armed with S5 power weapons if you get the Forgeworld version.

How to use Sentinels -

Well, firstly lets look at the options. The Sentinel comes in squadrons of 1-3, and the units have to retain coherency (useful to remember, trust me). They can come with one of three standard weapons - a multilaser, autocannon or lascannon. A squadron of sentinals can have a mixed array of weapons, though I would suggest that you would think mighty hard before mixing and matching different types of weapons. In terms of the vehicle armory - Extra Armor is sometimes useful to get against those glancing stunned results, and an Armored Canopy can also help in increasing the units durability - though at 20 points, you have to be certain as to what the unit will be doing and that the extra cost is really worth it. Also a spotlight is often useful for those nightfight games as the squadron can get close and highlight several units quickly. And finally, smoke launchers may come in handy if you are planning to have them receive a fair bit of firepower in their mission. But enough about options, we should look at the tactics -

Tactic 1 - Kill Team

Set the squadron, or multiple squadrons as needed to killing one particular target as quickly as possible. It may be a gunboat, or a heavy weapons squad, or a transport full of combat troops. Make sure the unit has the weapons for the job - multilasers for anything T4 or less or AV10, autocannon for AV 10-12 or anything with a 4+ save (excellent against Eldar/Tau), and lascannon for AV 13-14, IC's, Monsterous Creatures. The mobility of the unit will allow it to usually get into range and LOS for a round of shooting, and the Sentinels are easy to ignore, possibly enabling them to survive even if they are the closest targets. Just make sure that you pick a target you are able to kill, and remember that the best units to attack are those that are hard/impossible for the rest of your army to get. Any IG army has lots of firepower - it is being able to use mobility to get that firepower where it needs to be which makes Sentinel's useful.

Tactic 2 - Operation Human Shield

Sentinals can often be in combat quickly, due to the fact that they get a free scout move. Now an AV10 walker doesn't sound like much, and against a Dreadnought or a unit with a powerfist, it isn't. However, against a typical las/plas marine squad, or indeed anything at all S3 or below, Sentinals are nigh invulnerable - a regular S-4 unit at WS 4 has a 1-72 chance of destroying a single Sentinel. This means that Sentinels can often hold up shooting units for an entire game - a great way of reducing the amount of firepower coming in against you from the enemy's fire base or getting rid of those pesky mobile firepower units such as Stealth Suits or Storm Troopers etc. And remember, combat blocks line of sight! However, stay away from power fist units and the like, as your Sentinels will die very, very quickly.

Tactic 3 - Hammer the Weak

Sentinels are great for dealing with that flanking unit that your enemy always takes that is never quite worth spending the time killing or deploying to counter, but still causes chaos in your lines. This could be fast IC's, Assassins, a small unit of jetbikes or something similar. Basically, you use your Sentinels to pummel that IC/small squad into the ground. Again, multilaser against T3 models with invulnerable saves (Assassins, Eldar, Tau), Autocannon against anything with a 4+ or worse save (most jetbikes, some Eldar Aspect Warriors, Tau Firewarriors, etc), Lascannons against tough MC's/IC's. It is a great way of dealing with issues without having to change your game strategy.

Tactic 4 - Damn the Torpedoes!

Imperial Guard often have a few tanks that receive a lot of firepower. If you want to survive that first turn, you may consider surging a squadron or two of Sentinels into general line of sight, though obscured enough to count as hull down. This will either force the enemy to turn some of the firepower he would normally spend upon your lavishly upgraded tanks onto the Sentinels, or leave your Sentinels in prime position to run amock the following turn. Works best against sides with limited or inaccurate anti tank weaponry (Tau, Necrons, some styles of Eldar/Marine/Nid lists, etc).


So how do I counter Sentinels?

Basically, the easiest way is to just shoot them and be done with it, no more thinking. If, however, you have more important targets, just don't forget about the Sentinels. But just remember, they are only a maximum of three heavy weapons at BS 3. So be wary, especially if they seem to be lining up a shot at something you don't want shot or if they are going to be within charge range of your firing line, but in any case make sure that your targeting priorities are on track.

Hope this was helpful, more Units 101 Spot soon.