Special weapons in Hunter packs

[Hfran Morkai]

I've been pondering lately on the special weapons from a tactical perspective.

 

In general is it best to mix Flamers and Meltaguns into a ten man Grey Hunter pack or dedicate them to one special weapon? With the first option you've got kit to deal with any emergent situation though won't be achieving the pack's full potential. The second idea makes each Pack more effective at the purpose of it's special weapons (though you've still got eight bodies with Bolters in a pack with two Meltaguns).

 

Obviously with the first option you are saving points as well (which can be handy).

 

I often take a Wolf Guard designed to contrast the packs special weapons as I currently run the second option. So in a pack with two Flamers I'd take a Wolf Guard with Power Fist and Comi-Melta for those armoured/high toughness encounters and with a Meltagun pack I'd take one with two Wolf Claws.

 

Do your thoughts vary with a footslogging list?

 

(I've left Plasma out because it seems to make sense to stick two of them in a pack and go high toughness hunting due to the different range and type)

[Sven Dragonfire]

I have found that during a game you put a unit in a specific place to achieve a specific objective each turn, for example in a game I played, a unit of grey hunters with a melta gun were tasked with stopping a Landraider that was steaming forward to seize an objective. The grey hunters were in a razorback , which moved forward, they disembarked and took the shot , now the bolters were obviously useless and so would a flamer have been. Now they did stop the landraider but with two Melta guns, under the new codex, they would have had double the chance to achieve their objective. This tends to be how I kit out my units since the new codex gave them a second free special weapon, which also means I use my razorbacks less as I have to use ten man squads. I know it could be said that in this particular case, had the unit been kitted out with say two flamers or two plasma guns(had this been a ten man squad in a rhino obviously) then they couldnt have stopped the landraider, but then I wouldnt have tasked the unit with the role and used something else instead. Two plasma guns is a little bit scary with the "gets hot" rule lol. A regular Chaos opponent of mine always kits his squads out this way, his 10 man iron warrior squads have two melta guns, and his Raptors have two flamers, the raptors always go troop hunting, though use of melta bombs where poss gives troop killing units the oppertunity to destroy vehicles.This always works a treat for him. Pain in the butt really. Obviously you need other units with differant strengths to complement each unit and therefore have a balanced army. Dont forget Grey Hunters are assault troops and can always deal death to infantry in CC if they are close enough. I give flamers to my Bloodclaws due to the fact they have a poor balsitic skill and tend to go infantry hunting. Wow I rambled on there a bit didnt I.

[Wolf Guard Nostromo]

My tuppence: Specialise I'd say - keeping the cost down is one thing, but its only 5 points maximum and double melta shots are really handy (as are double flamer for that matter) - I just can't see the advantage of being able to do two jobs badly (BS4 is not enough for one shots I'm afraid) compared to one job very effetively and relatively cheaply. The combi WG does lend some weight to the 'flexibilty' argument, but I still think a 'triple shot' is worth more to be honest.

 

I tend to go for 2 melta and 2 plasma packs per flamer pack, for interest.

[CainTheHunter]

I just can't see the advantage of being able to do two jobs badly (BS4 is not enough for one shots I'm afraid) compared to one job very effetively and relatively cheaply. T

 

Oh yeah. Imagine the frustration of Wolf Scouts coming in behind enemy lines in the exact spot and time they are needed, only to roll 2 for the meltagun scout? Kind of, "oh damn, now we are pretty screwed". A possibility for another melta shot coming from WG combi-melta IS mandatory.

[Fred Johnson the 3rd jr]

In Rhino Grey Hunter packs at least, I am always flabbergasted why folks ever choose the full 10 man GH squad, which means I am also puzzled why this question of the second 'free' weapon comes up so often. I always opt for 9 GHs and 1 WG. The extra leadership and extra powerfist attack a WG gives is very important IMHO.

 

Now in a footslogging list you can have both, albeit for more points. 2 meltas with a combi-flamer on the WG or vice versa would be fine to me. A 'triple shot' is unnecessary. I mean really, how many times are you planning on missing? The jump from one special weapon to two is huge, from two to three, not so much. Of course, I don't see why anyone would footslog with the way the game is currently so take my off the cuff answer with a grai nof salt.

[Stormshrug]

In Rhino Grey Hunter packs at least, I am always flabbergasted why folks ever choose the full 10 man GH squad, which means I am also puzzled why this question of the second 'free' weapon comes up so often. I always opt for 9 GHs and 1 WG. The extra leadership and extra powerfist attack a WG gives is very important IMHO.

 

Now in a footslogging list you can have both, albeit for more points. 2 meltas with a combi-flamer on the WG or vice versa would be fine to me. A 'triple shot' is unnecessary. I mean really, how many times are you planning on missing? The jump from one special weapon to two is huge, from two to three, not so much. Of course, I don't see why anyone would footslog with the way the game is currently so take my off the cuff answer with a grai nof salt.

 

I generally agree with this sentiment. I run my Hunters in Rhinos, and I always field a WG with a combi-weapon. The added close combat capability you get from an extra Power Fist/Wolf Claw is almost always worth the trade-off of only being able to fire the second Melta once. Having the second shot once when you need to pop a transport or something else dangerous is great, but unless you're fighting a REALLY vehicle-heavy enemy list (IG Vets in Chimeras backed by a Leman Russ Formation and some Griffons, six Dreadnought marine lists, or whatever nonsense), you shouldn't realistically need *that* much anti-tank fire on your troop squads, so the WG with Combi and special CCW gives you the best of both worlds.

 

-Stormshrug

[Ash Tekka]

Quick question about plasma since its been skipped for now. Would two hunters be better then the hunter +WG option?

 

I tend to do the one melta and one combi-melta WG but was thinking of making another squad that was plasmas.

 

I am thinking the two hunters with plasma would be better as they can fire them every shooting phase unlike the WG with combi-plasma.

[Fred Johnson the 3rd jr]

WG with a combi-plasma in a GH pack sounds like a bad idea to me. The WG is good for his leadership and extra powerfist attack (which costs 5 points less than the GH powerfist). A plasma and a powerfist together is not a good combo, since you don't want to lose the fist to bad rolling!

[Jonas Stromclaw]

Well, I run a foot slog list (yeah, I'm nuts. But I also win...) so its a pretty moot question for me. However, I'd prefer the two special weapons, particularly in plasma squads. One plasma gun might kill one badguy or maybe scratch the paint on that dreadnought. Two doubles your chances on both accounts for the cost of one extra grey hunter, rather than paying for a WG with pf and combiplasma. Also, we have such strong competition for the Elite slots that sometimes I'd just need something else more than LD9 for my GH squads.

[WG Vrox]

Unless you are talking about a WG in TDA with Combi-Plasma then yes it's a bad idea. But with TDA and the 2+ save, I have no problem running a combi-plasma WG.

 

Nothing wrong with running a Grey Hunter squad with 2 special weapons, I will run plasma with plasma almost every time, but putting a flamer with a melta gun makes good sense when ridding in a Land Raider. If I am just running the GH squad as 10 strong in a Rhino then again I match the special weapons, two melta guns in a Rhino being my favorite flavor.

[Heimer]

I have always found it most efficient to field 2 of the same special weapon in each squad.

 

When it comes to attaching WG in a foot slogging list, I almost never use combi-plasmas, but frequently use combi-flamers and combi-meltas. Usually my squad loadouts are one of those 3:

 

- GH squad w/ 2 meltas, WG w/ combi-flamer or combi-melta (depends on the rest of the list)

- GH squad w/ 2 flamers, WG w/ combi-flamer (no such thing as an ork player crying after half of his boy squad has been wiped even before the assault :P )

- GH squad w/ 2 plasmas, WG w/ combi-melta (can easily be used in the same role as plasmas below 12" range, and adding just that little extra bit of AT fire to the squad)

[Grimtooth]

I only run redundancy GH lists all the time, whether it is mg x2, flamer x2, or pgx2.

 

It reflects my playstyle of GH close support, in that I always send more then enough to cover my butt and finish the job as quickly as possible to get back to primary mission. I hate seeing a GH squad bogged down either in cllse combat or trying to shoot an enemy unit off an objective.

 

Just this last weekend, I had two GH packs in cover get multi-assaulted by an almost full Boyz mob. His intent was to tie my units up so as I could not claim a nearby objective. I decimated him completely and was able to fallback and claim the objective for the draw and to win by VP.

 

What one GH pack can do good, two GH packs can do great.