Bastonne

Bastonne is based on one of my favorite men of all time, the USMC's very own, John Basilone. Now that enough is reason for me to take him, however, he ends up being a pretty good unit, if used correctly.

As with most independent characters, the biggest question is, "is he worth his points?" ultimately, that answer is a resounding no. But here's the reason I take him. When the time comes to check all the points I've got, ten more guardsmen, are not going to be the difference between victory and defeat. Neither is Bastonne, but wouldn't you rather lose like a badass, than lose as a coward?

So if you decide to take our honorable and downright decent fellow, how would one use him?

Versatility: for a long time, I ran him as my swiss army knife. aka, my S.A.K. (all testicle reference intended). His unit had a no expense spared loadout, complete with rocketlauncher, sniper rifle, plasma gun, and heavy flamer, carapace armor, cameleoline, and Bastonne. These guys rarely did any better than my other men, for being 3 times the price. But the key here wasn't Bastonne, it was my loadout options. A better way, if you want the more versatile S.A.K. approach, is to stick with cameleoline, and drop the heavy flamer as well as the carapace armor. Keep sniper if you wish, but everyone else plasma guns all around. The unit will be more streamlined, and perform even better. If you want a heavy, the choice is yours, I'm feelin lascannon, and puttin these guys on anti terminator duty.

Holdout: If you take Creed, you can outflank him, and even if you don't, there are other ways to get him there, but in essence, get some of your men, and put them somewhere else, and have them stay there. Not even necessarily an objective, just somewhere on the map where they can batten down the hatches, and hang on for dear life. Bastonne and his men should ideally, be bare bones, with just two or three meltaguns, nothing too much. Relying on Bastonnes high leadership to hold out. If you have the points and you know you're going to take a lot of firepower, then consider the forward sentries doctrine for it's cameleoline, aka stealth rule. The cheaper version of this, is to have bastonne give the order for incoming! and they can get a 2+ save regardless. The reason I like to keep it cheap, is so I don't mind when they die, and am not afraid to lose them. Their whole job at this point is to just harass the enemy, and provide a distraction from my main gunlines.

Assault: perhaps one of the less effective, but really badass ways to use him, is to take him with a unit of vets with grenadiers doctrine, and to go out and charge. Not the most effective unit, but against the right units, could work. A better way to use this, but doesn't require Bastonne, is to have them with straken as a counter push, or bodyguard unit.

Minute Men: Lastly, and cheapestly, just slap him onto a blank (just 9 men with lasguns) vet squad, and give them a ride in a chimera or if a vendetta survives have them give them a lift, and they can score, or contest with minimal fear of retreat. That and they certainly wont look all that imposing.

Overall, like I said, he's not worth his points, and these are by no means the best routes to victory, but, they are some ideas to toy with, and thoroughly respect the ideology of his character.