Sergeant Lukas Bastonne

Sergeant Bastonne, like his colleague Gunnery Sergeant Harker, is another unique character upgrade for Imperial Guard Veteran squads. Bastonne is kind of pricey, weighing in at 60 pts - so for the same points you get get another Chimera and for a bit more Marbo or a Hydra - but he brings some unique benefits with him. In addition to the standard veteran wargear Bastonne is equipped with carapace armor, a hot-shot laspistol, and a power sword (would have been better if he could have held out for a power fist -but whaddayagonnado?) Handy gear to have in some circumstances - but not jaw-dropping by any means. More importantly, Bastonne gets a leadership bump up to Ld 10.

"It's Up to Us Lads!"
What makes Bastonne so potentially useful is his ability to give one order to his unit after all other orders are given. Even better, Bastonne has access to all of the Company Command Squad and Platoon Command Squad orders. This ability is potentially huge, as most Guard players acquainted with the new codex will know. And did I mention that his leadership is higher than your typical company commander?
(Though in my test game with him I still brought along a vox-caster. Good thing too since on two occasions I rolled box-cars when attempting to order the squad. One of those times was when using "First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire!" on a group of Fire Dragons in rapid fire range, and the last thing you want your vets to do in a situation like that is to stop what they're doing and stare into space like confused Ogryn.)


"Never Give Up, Never Surrender!"
Bastonne's other special ability is "Never Give Up, Never Surrender!" This rule essentially turns Bastonne and his squad into Space Marines!
.....Well, Strength 3 Toughness 3 Space Marines, with crappy armor and flashlights instead of bolters....
What I mean by that is as long as Bastonne is alive the squad will always be able to regroup, regardless of squad strength and other restrictions.
This is potentially handy, but here I really have to agree with Stalek's analysis. The unit is really too fragile for this ability to make much difference, and unfortunately the unit can't regroup when they're dead.

Potential Uses:
The only way that I've used Bastonne thus far is with three meltas and deployed in a Vendetta. This is especially useful assuming you can get first turn - scout the Vendetta up 24", move up to 12" more, pop out the veterans with meltas and "Bring it Down!" for some extra killy first turn vehicular homicide. Then you just have to hope that they survive the ensuing explosion (There's a potential use for "Never Give up Never Surrender!")

Carapace Armor could be useful in cases such as the one outlined above - but I think that doctrines in conjunction with upgrade characters are cost-prohibitive. (ie: 195 pts for a vet squad with Bastonne, 3 Meltas, Vox, and Carapace Armor - for the same points you could two vet squads with two meltas and some change left over)

I must admit that I am tempted to give Bastonne's unit "Demolitions" for the ability to have a twin linked Demo Charge (although for the order to work it would have to be targeting a vehicle or MC,) but I think that's more of a case of "Holy crap that would be awesome!" rather than an effective (and cost-effective) option.

Overall, I like Bastonne. He's an especially effective tank-hunter("Bring it Down!") and last minute objective grabber ("Move, Move, Move!") but his utility varies substantially depending upon the composition of the rest of the army. Playing a static gun-line? Leave Bastonne at home. In a Chimera or Valk though he can make an excellent forward assault element.