Do you use? Storm Guardians

[Mr Mystery]

How do!

Another slightly odd tactics thread, and again possibly the first in a loose series.

As the title - do you use Storm Guardians? Nice simple open question :)

If you do, tell us about them. If you don't, tell us about why.

Thread is intended to generate discussion, rather than suddenly declare a lesser used unit the new best thing since sliced fried gold served with a pint.

Right, off you go :)

[Tyrendian]

only used them once, when we tried out the Zone Mortalis rules and I wanted a couple of flamers... other than that I basically see no reason to take them in my armies...

[Dave Mcturk]

love the 20 eldar guardian blobs. not so fond of 10 - they disappear very quickly. but with a spearlock and two 'half-dragons' they can be useful in a serpent instead of avengers. under the new codex am seeing much better use from jetbikers as they can benefit from a 'free' 4+ jink or hopefully get a 4+ IV or a 2+ armour from a bit of buffing.

I think the best loadout is farseer on bike with shard and then a 20 eldar blob with spearlock and two lances. its got some utility in various roles and has 4 anti - tank shots if its lucky.

i have played six spearlock/'half-dragon'/9 stormies in 6 serpents - its quite fun - but our group has made the 'silly shield' a ONCE per game use only.

[Hal]

Never used them. I believe that defenders are always the better option... It's just way too difficult to initiate assault at the moment..
Besides that, as a commander I'd rather have my "last resort civilians" shoot high tech, point and click shuriken weapons from a distance instead of sending them into close combat with puny little swords against all the nasty stuff they might face.. That would be too cruel.
If something really needs to be assaulted though, let the aspect warriors do it.. :P

[Da Gargoyle]

I run at least one unit of them in any force I game. I am in the middle of a 1K tourny at the moment and they have been reasonably good. I have paired them with a unit of 7 Banshees which distract the assault targets. The current unit is kitted out with two fusion guns and has an Autarch with a 3rd. Funnily enough they have not made it into CC because the target is usually shot up before hand. Though I lost the Autarch, SG and Banshee to Grey Knight psykers and a curse that anihilated all.

I seem to game against Marines at the moment, in the tourny the 1st 3 games were SM GK and CSM. These guys actually avoid CC with them like the plague, if you'll pardon the pun. SG can run with a couple of power weapons at AP3 which is a nasty surprise, they have fleet and plasma grenades that negate the disadvantage of charging a unit in cover or on difficult ground. Blade storm with 8 shots usually produces 2 kills ignoring armour and forces more saves.

Their best kill to date was a unit of Grey Wolf standard tactical marines. They shot them to death and then ran back into cover. I have used them against Orks with flamers which evens up the odds a fair bit. The other advantage of the Autarch is he is equipped with a Banshee mask that hits the target with a -5 intiative modifier in the first assault phase.

By the way to produce the unit I melded DE wyches with Guardians. The original SG set I bought from GW act as the boys with the power swords, because their blades are quite distinctive.

Disadvantages are, short ranged shooting weapons and low armour save. Plus the other guy sees the swords and does all he can to avoid combat.