Cult Scout Sentinel?

[niiai]

So the scout sentinel only costs 35 points. It deploys 9" out with a scout move. From there it can move 9. It dies to a stiff breeze.

How do people like these to deny deep strike and to get onto the table and be a nusiance early? Seems like it coud have some use in lists with trucks to push up early?

- Sincerly, Vidar

[Hive Bahamut]

I have always wanted to try a 3 sentinel 9 ridgerunner list. Using the sents as scouts and bait for fire lanes.

As they are? I just gave my only one away. Ridgerunners are excellent. Scouts are.. meh.

[purestrain]

Only reason to bring them is if you can get in good with the flamers, other than that, bring them as brood brothers instead with las cannons and use the strat for 2+ to hit 1st turn and melt a tank or a primaris or two

[asvic]

If you like sentinels, consider armored ones.
They are really durable for their points, so it is possible to block objectives (pretty big bases and careful positioning) with squads of them (with flamers, maybe, to discourage charging them)

[niiai]

If you are running armored sentinels, do they not fade a bit compared to the chimera.

Flamer chimera is 85 T7, 3+. 10 wounds. Degrading profiles.

2 Flamer Armoured Sentinel is 90, T6, 3+. 12 wounds, 2 profiles.

They are very comparable. Perhaps I under estimated them. I like the flamer chimera.

[kazetanade]

3 scout sentinels with flamers is a bit more teeth than most people expect, and is not easy to charge for free movement on account of 3D6 Heavy Flamers.

I wouldn't call it top tier, but it can do work on objectives. Its definitely inferior to Eldar Warwalker strategies though.

Armored Sentinels have a really good strategem in PA TGG to make them hit well in early turns, so a plasma or lascannon trio could work well. They're also supported by defensive strategems, so it can be pretty good choice for close to deployment side sitting.

Its not comparable to a chimera though imo. But its definitely serviceable.

[supertriqui]

Reading this thread, I feel there is a disconnect between the discussion,and how Sentibeks can help to win the game. The game isn't won by killing people. It is won by scoring points. Sentinels aren't good at the former, but work decent at the later.

An Armored Sentinel at 35 points is the cheapest thing GSC can sit on a backline home objective. It is pretty durable for that role too, making them slightly hard to kill with indirect fire like SMI missiles, mortars, dark reaper Tempest missiles, Skorpious Desintegrator... and if the enemy wants to use something like a Manticore on a 35point model, more power to him.

That is the best role they can have in my opinion. 35 points for something will sit on your home objective whole game, never shooting at anything, is a bargain. If you plan a rush army, with the bulk of your detachment built as shock troops ready to jump into the enemy turn 1, the fewer points you leave behind doing backline coverage, the better. Sentinels work well in this sense.

A pair of Scout Sentinels help to get early Engage in all Fronts, if you don't want to expose your real troops. If you plan to play cagey, with most of your troops hiding in your half of the board, ready to spring in turn 2 or 3 when the opportunity arise, scoring Engage with cheap units, easy to hide, and relatively durable, is worth it.

I wouldn't go overboard with Sentinels of any kind, but 35 points is damn cheap, and they can do at least a couple things well in the scoring department. In both cases, a multilaser will do. And if I could reduce the cost by 10 points by removing the weapon, I would.

[No One]

supertriqui said:

Reading this thread, I feel there is a disconnect between the discussion,and how Sentibeks can help to win the game. The game isn't won by killing people. It is won by scoring points. Sentinels aren't good at the former, but work decent at the later.

...Basically the only mention of offence is kaz, who also mentioned objectives, and was discussing it in relation to IG strat support.
-Screen/nuisance
-Bait
-Objectives
-Objectives/offence (the latter not cult)

So, what do you get:

Armoured:
Pros:
- Durability
Literally it. Now, durability can do work, but what do you use durability for?
- Harassment: slow and low model count
- Screening: slow and low model count, also very vulnerable to hostages
- Objectives: not terrible for a backfield objective, but it's not durable enough to actually take firepower on it's lonesome. So you still need terrain to be favourable, or other durable elements to take firepower (which...Cult). And it's taller, so basically needs obscuring. And it's not Infantry, so can't help out with actions. And it's single model no obsec, so can't hold an objective against enemies moving onto it (admittedly GSC stuff won't survive a charge by basically anything, but a sent will be contested by e.g. a WS landspeeder). That said, especially if you've e.g. run out of troop slots for backfield, for 35 pts it's still pretty solid.

Scout sent is similar, but also gets a scout move. Which helps with mobility for harassment/screening and also engage, but...again, hostages/free charge distance.

Are these insurmountable? No, and 35 pts is cheap enough that it's not going to make or break a list either way, but I think it's generally worse than a squad of acos/rippers/terms.

[Gunnerside]

A single Scout Sentinel can easily help you score at least 2 pts on Engage On All Fronts in the first turn with its 9” pregame move. Worth the 35 pts imo.

[infornography]

I think for the points I would rather take a unit of basic infantry (Neos or BB) for backline objective holding.
If you already plan to take vehicles, then Scout Sentinels to grab engage on all fronts sounds like the way to go.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Sept 2, 2021 14:06:51 GMT Gunnerside said:

A single Scout Sentinel can easily help you score at least 2 pts on Engage On All Fronts in the first turn with its 9” pregame move. Worth the 35 pts imo.

It's a 50-50 gamble, IMO. If you go first, you're potentially gaining 3 points if you have two sentinels. If you go second, you'll probably lose the scout sentinels and will have to have a plan to makeup the other points.

[Gunnerside]

Sept 2, 2021 15:34:34 GMT hivefleetkerrigan said:

Sept 2, 2021 14:06:51 GMT Gunnerside said:

A single Scout Sentinel can easily help you score at least 2 pts on Engage On All Fronts in the first turn with its 9” pregame move. Worth the 35 pts imo.

It's a 50-50 gamble, IMO. If you go first, you're potentially gaining 3 points if you have two sentinels. If you go second, you'll probably lose the scout sentinels and will have to have a plan to makeup the other points.

Not necessarily the case if you use the Scout move to move in to obscuring cover. The scout move is conducted after you know who goes first, so it does not need to be a gamble at all.

[kazetanade]

I use Ridgerunners for that role and claiming objectives. My objective placements are *always* accessible to shooting, so if you're not playing hyper aggression, you'll definitely lose obj sitters since our codex is squishy.

Cult Scout Sentinels are great for scoring EoAF - that's really about it. Infiltrators that start 9" from your front door are still starting 9" from your front door. They give easy Grind Them Down points, BiD points. They provide easy launchpad for charges, and a free hostage target to stay safe from shooting. There are literally SO MANY reasons why taking them can be bad for your health, and they really only give you 2-3vp on turn 1 assuming you went first.