Plasma pistols

[AekoldHelbrass]

Are you using plasma pistols? I do not, for me it looks too much to buy a plasma pistol for the price of power weapon, then if you're lucky you'll get 2 shots per game for those points.

 

But, noise champions can only get PP, and new raptors box contains 3 of them and they are cool! Does it mean that Kelly seriously thinks it's a good deal and we should use it?

[loku]

I like the combination of the plasma pistol + the murder sword y a chaos lord with jump pack and a guard of raptors!

[Iron Sage]

Raptors is actually the ONE unit where they could potentially be useful.

 

In general, they are not worth it though, and certainly not on regular assault troops like zerkers.

 

Raptors do have that edge that they can better choose their targets though, but 15 points for a pistol is a lot.....

[Biaz]

For 15 pts, never. However, they can be useful on champions, due to precision shots. Roll that 6 and you can choose to snipe their sergeant, special/heavy weapon, whatever. But its far too expensive for such a slim chance.

[Caffeineated Chaos]

Khârn, b/c he comes with it, and b/c I hope one day to post "today Khârn killed: x, x, and x enemy units, y number of z units of mine, and finally died to a gets hot roll form his own plasma pistol" Khârn KILLS ALL! KARN EVEN KILLS Khârn!!!

 

Other than that I use plasma pistols to convert Combi-bolters on my termies into combiplasmas, and I might one day make up combiplasmas for some aspiring champs(probably on Plague Marines and Champs I plan to take in squads w/ an icon of excess.)

[Chimerical]

Until they're reduced to 5 points or you get to take a shot in close combat... no.

 

GWs long-running insistence on costing plasma pistols at 15 points and then sculpting them onto every one-in-four character models is just mind-boggling.

[Lepaca]

They are the only way to get the Noise Champion 3 attacks. :cuss

 

.....but still: seriously NEVER EVER take plasma pistols.

[Haunter!]

They are the only way to get the Noise Champion 3 attacks. :cuss

 

.....but still: seriously NEVER EVER take plasma pistols.

Does the champion not come with the stock wargear? He should have a bolt pistol so there's NO reason to take a plasma pistol on any model that doesn't come with one.

 

...unless you like them.

[A D-B]

The Awesome:

 

1. They look great. They're also distinctive (to set a model apart) and offer the chance to add a new colour for the model (with the gun's spinal magnetic coils).

2. Lore-wise, they're immensely valuable and have the weight of rarity, antiquity, and authority.

3. They're cool to describe in your army's fiction.

4. They make Marines on the other team die.

 

 

The UnAwesome:

 

1. They're 15 freaking points.

2. I mean, that's as much as a Chaos Marine. Actually, that's as much as a Chaos Marine with a close combat weapon, or Veterans of the Long War.

3. If I kitted out my Berserker Champion and two Berserkers with plasma pistols, that's like 45 points right there. I could get four (count 'em, four) Gifts of Mutation on other champions/commanders for that price.

4. Or two more Berserkers with Veterans of the Long War.

5. Or maybe the Black Mace on my Lord.

6. Whatever, my point is that they're dead expensive.

[Urauloth]

I really, really want to like them. They look gorgeous, and I'm always on the look out for more S7 AP2. For 15pts a model, though, they're staying on the sprue. No way to justify that for half a plasma gun.

[Clewz]

only really going to use them with dv lord and a raptors champ

[Killax]

Good for nothing pistol, sometimes it's allready on the char (like Khârn/Mephiston) and then it's okay that he has one.

 

In short, unless for some reason you find yourself having 15 spare points and cannot add any other usefull item (Melta Bombs, Flamers, etc, etc.) you can add one.

[Urauloth]

only really going to use them with dv lord and a raptors champ

 

I'm going to swap out the DV lord's plasma for one of the bolt pistols in the new raptor kit and I advise others to do the same really

[RapatoR]

Well I might be lucky or something, but I love them.

I also never understood why people think they are not suitable for zerks. They make them way more effective against heavy infantry and provide them means of blowing up transport and charge infantry inside without any support.

 

Also previously mentioned precision shots and chaos boon table are darn good reasons too.

[Sception]

Plasma Pistols

 

Q: When & Why

A: Never & Too Expensive

 

Plasma Pistols are a 5 point upgrade that costs 15 points. It's simply unacceptable.

[Iron Sage]

IMO 8 points would be the balanced and "perfect" cost for them. That would be very balanced compared to the 3 points combi bolter (which is quite good, except you can only take it on a champ which makes me "sigh" a bit).

 

But yes, 15 points is never really worth it. Situational on a raptor I guess, as they don`t have bolters, which makes the raptors able to take on small units of terminators, but its not especially cost efficient at all

[HJL]

I use them on hqs with bs5. One hit against a meq and they make their points back. Other than that i dont use them except on one plasma death squad in my dark angels army.

[Tamwulf]

It's the age old question. I'm not an expert on the C:CSM (yet!), but from a C:SM perspective, if you have no other options to give a squad some kind of AP3+ Str7+ weapon, then a Plasma Pistol becomes somewhat viable.

 

You can do a lot with a Plasma Pistol:

 

- Strip hull points off a vehicle all the way up to AV 13.

- Kill MEQ on a 2+ wound roll

- Gain +1 attack when combined with a CC weapon

- Roll a 1 to hit, thus making you take an armor save for overheat

 

For the points... something you'll have to decide. At 15 points... wow. That's pretty expensive. In a Space Marine army, I'd be looking at power weapons/power fists first, then meltabombs for a bunch of guys. Probably be looking at other squads to see if they all have special weapons or heavy weapons. In other words, have I exhausted all other points spending avenues?

 

Never, ever underestimate the power of a Plasma Pistol.

[Lepaca]

They are the only way to get the Noise Champion 3 attacks. ;)

 

.....but still: seriously NEVER EVER take plasma pistols.

Does the champion not come with the stock wargear? He should have a bolt pistol so there's NO reason to take a plasma pistol on any model that doesn't come with one.

 

...unless you like them.

 

See this thread. Sadly they don't. [/off-topic]

 

I actually do use a lot of plasma pistols when building models because they look cool and have awesome fluff. Luckily WYSIWYG is not as strictly enforced around here.

[AekoldHelbrass]

1. They look great. They're also distinctive (to set a model apart) and offer the chance to add a new colour for the model (with the gun's spinal magnetic coils).

2. Lore-wise, they're immensely valuable and have the weight of rarity, antiquity, and authority.

3. They're cool to describe in your army's fiction.

 

100% agree, I really like idea of champion to shot tracers to show squad where to fire. But not for 15 points!

 

4. They make Marines on the other team die.

 

Which is far from good for CC units. With current rules you will kill 1-2 nearest models and fail charge distance because of those 1.5-3 inches you've just killed.

[Noctus Cornix]

They are really expensive but, I keep a couple in my army anyone just because I love them. Plasma pistols are such cool weapons and it just feels wrong to leave them out.

 

Just my two cents.

[Sception]

1. They look great. They're also distinctive (to set a model apart) and offer the chance to add a new colour for the model (with the gun's spinal magnetic coils).

2. Lore-wise, they're immensely valuable and have the weight of rarity, antiquity, and authority.

3. They're cool to describe in your army's fiction.

 

These are all fine reasons, and if you know they're bad and understand that, and still want to use a couple for aesthetic purposes, I can understand that. But even in casual games, you can still only take aesthetically cool but painfully points inefficient choices so many times before the army stops working and the game stops being fun. I typically budget about 10% of my army for 'fluff' choices that don't have to be efficient, so long as they're not completely awful. In the new books, this might be things like possessed or warp talons or the like. But there are several such 'cool but not exactly worth it' options in this book, and plasma pistols are probably not what I'd opt to spend my 'rule of cool' budget on.

[cypherthefallenangel]

They are expensive but they do have their uses. I use them on champions. What I do is keep the bolt pistol and swap out the ccw. Now they have the gunslinger rule which lets them fire both pistols in the shooting phase and because they are both melee weapons you still get the +1 attack in close combat. You can do it to lords and sorcerers but you cant make them gunslingers with out trading out their ccw/force weapon. I find if your using small squads of 5 or so of csm's or chosen they they can give some extra bite.

If your playing competitively then don't bother with them. those points would be better spent elsewhere. as previously stated, thats another marine or a mutation and dirg casters for a vehicle.

[Muskie]

They are expensive but they do have their uses. I use them on champions. What I do is keep the bolt pistol and swap out the ccw. Now they have the gunslinger rule which lets them fire both pistols in the shooting phase and because they are both melee weapons you still get the +1 attack in close combat. You can do it to lords and sorcerers but you cant make them gunslingers with out trading out their ccw/force weapon. I find if your using small squads of 5 or so of csm's or chosen they they can give some extra bite.

If your playing competitively then don't bother with them. those points would be better spent elsewhere. as previously stated, thats another marine or a mutation and dirg casters for a vehicle.

 

Just because a model has two pistols are they automatically a "Gunslinger" where is that stated? In the olden days you could buy 2 pistols for rank and file dudes but that just became and aesthetic choice after a while. That sounds like something out of Necromunda.

 

I've modeled up some Plasma Pistol guys for Plaguemarines just for variety and they had that metal model that came with one. I always try to make every model unique and distinctive, same with squads. That said when I build my Bezerker squad it got ZERO plasma pistols as I just don't think the risk of killing your one wound champ is worth 15 points. And as for Lords I'd rather have a combi-weapon or no gun than a plasma pistol.

 

I'm going to do Raptors but I'm going to stick with my long established doctrine of maxing out on special weapons then give the champ a power weapon. I don't even like to give Powerfists to every champ, but for champs that should be close enough to charge the 15 point or whatever power weapon seems like a good investment.

 

I always hear of a plasma pistol killing a dreadnought or carnifax but in my experience if you have to get that close to one of those things you're doing something wrong. I'd rather have an Autocannon aren't they 15 points or about that?

[Noctus Cornix]

Page 52. of the rulebook, right under the pistol weapons entry

 

Gunslinger

All models with two pistols can fire both in the Shooting phase.

This follows the normal rules for shooting.