Melta Gun Co. Vets

[Zubbiefish]

I have a 5 man squad of Company Veterans with 4 Melta Guns & Combi-Melta on the Sergeant.

My thinking was that they can ride in a transport, and do their thing without the support of character, but am I just handicapping myself when they could be riding around with a Captain and be armed with Plasma instead?

 

My other thought was that if I want plasma guys, I have Hellblasters...

 

Thoughts?

[Alcyon]

With 5 Meltagun shots hitting on 3+ you're going to do 2.22 unsaved wounds doing 4.47 dmg each (within melta range) = 9.9234 wounds on average or one dead Rhino. Re-rolling ones to hit only raises your # of unsaved wounds to 2.59x4.47 = 11.5773 wounds on average. On the flip side, adding one more marine with a meltagun raises your unsaved wounds to 2.67 which is higher than the Captain's effect, and cheaper.

 

It's hard to compare Plasma to Melta directly because they're a fair bit different. If you ran 5 Plasma Guns and a Captain, you wouldn't kill a Rhino on average even overcharged as it's only 4.32 unsaved wounds @ 2 dmg each = 8.64. But you'd kill 5 marines overcharging vs. 2 with the melta as the extra damage is wasted.

 

In general I'm not a fan of "suicide squads" that have to get into close range and have a small number of models. For the price of the unit plus their transport, you're likely to only get a single round of shooting out of them, and it's likely going to be turn 2 at the earliest given they can't disembark after the transport moves. Your meltacide squad may kill a Rhino but you're spending extra points for models with a boosted Ld and attack that you won't use.

 

I'd rather take a 5-man Devastator squad with 4 Lascannons. With a Captain nearby they will at least cripple a Predator if not kill it outright, you can boost multiple squads, they can shoot ideally starting on turn 1 (if there's not too much LoS-blocking terrain) and you don't pay extra points per model.

[Zubbiefish]

Hm, thanks for running the #'s.

I honestly hadn't considered that because they would probably only ever get to do their thing once, the cost is very high.

Food for thought for sure.

[DerekLee688]

@Alcyon:

 

That's some Iron Hands lvl of cold hard logic that I can't argue against. What do you feel about Melta or PG bikers or assault hellblasters on foot to go along the LC devs? Would they be competitive vs another dev squad next to the 4x LC's and captain? 

[Alcyon]

Thank you! I think bikers are a better choice, less wasted points (no need for extra attacks and Ld) but you get value back in higher toughness and wounds. I kind of prefer jump pack troops because they can fall back and shoot but I think bikes are good this edition. 

 

I also like Hellblasters but I have yet to play with either IRL to be honest. I think you want both Plasma and LC/Melta, and I think Hellblasters are likely the best Plasma delivery in the codex, so I'd run both.