Flaming RAS?

[Riggs]

I was brain storming today, because I miss my RAS. I no longer use meltas on these guys. My eyes have been opened to the all-mighty attack bikes. Same movement, cheaper, T5, 4 less wounds, Double the melta range(also 1 more melta), and TL bolters to top it off.

 

Anyways back on topic, I feel like a part of me dies every game that I place tacs on the table.  So I typed in Assault squads in the search and to my surprise no recent RAS topics showed up, and I quickly browsed the ones that did show up and I didn't see RAS with flamers addressed.

 

So what about it guys? Has anyone play tested it? I was even entertaining the though of having the sgt with double hand flamers. I mean thats a 20 pt investment, which prob isn't worth it.

 

But yeah the way I see it, their 5 more pts than bolt pistols, 5 inch less range but can hit more than one if positioned correctly(with 12inch move that might be easy to do), one less attack in CC but it might make that up with hitting one more person in the shooting phase prior to that assault, has AP5.

 

It'd be more of a support unit against non-swarm opponents, quickly get to an objective and set up camp. It gets 2 for sure over watch hits against some one who actually gets the jump on you.

 

Then against bugs it can be your handy dandy mobile bug spray unit. And I don't know about other peoples lists, but the only other multi hit things i have in my army is the vindicator and Fragioso. 

 

Thoughts? Links? 

 

Thanks,

Riggs

[JamesI]

MY normal jumpy army uses 1 RAS with meltas (Dante is usually here) and 1 with flamers.  I face a lot of Orks/Eldar and really like those flamers.

[Riggs]

Good! ^_^ I feel more confident playing them now :D.  

[I am Legion]

Hmm, I remember using flamers on RAS back in the day, but I always found that they were lacking.  In the new edition it helps with overwatch, but other than that, I feel that by the time you're deep in the enemy lines, their "people" units are not going to be damaged so easily by flamers.  At that point, you're usually facing characters, tanks, and or MCs.  Thus the Melta gun is still my weapon of choice.  When I played against an ork army some time ago, I used the Flamer squad but it got one shot off killing 3 models out of the 10 I hit.  I recall that I rather have had meltas to deal with the nob bikers that came screaming into assault the following turn.  Even one of those buggers dead would have been an improvement as it was a small unit.

 

I say try it out VS a couple armies, but youll find that you are directing your assault units towards inferior targets....

 

On the other hand.  When I play an all assault army, I definetly recommend it, in fact I have one unit with 2 flamers, one unit with flamer, and plasma gun, and 2-3 units of Melta gun toting Assault marines.  This works.....well.....not lately...... :P

[SevenExxes]

They are great for clearing IG out from behind an ADL.

[LordCommanderSamirus]

My preferred load out on a RAS is 10 Strong, Power Sword and Infernus Pistol (SGT), and 2 Flamers 230pts.  I use 2 like this in any game where I intend on Deep Striking.  It gives you a good Infantry killer unit (with DOA you're likely to wind up with decent coverage on the flamers and 2 of them at that, then 7 Bolt Pistol and an Infernus Pistol to potentially snipe out either a specific weapon or maybe even a character or as a last ditch shot on a vehicle if you really need it dead quickly.)

 

-Samirus

[tomjoad]

With the strength of IG and the prevalence of 2+ cover these days, it would be silly not to include a few template weapons at least. Aside from Helldrakes, I think Blood Angels have the best options for templates, too. Razorbacks or jump packs let us put them exactly where they need to be. Furiosos and Baals offer even more if you want them.

 

My current list has a Fragioso, two TLHF Razors, and flamers inside those two tanks. That might be overkill, I guess, but overkill does two things I like. Both of those things are "more consistency." I want to make sure my heavy flamers get where they need to be, so two is better than one. Also, I prefer the autohits, as I am a deeply unlucky person.

[The Yncarne]

Flamers don't do much for me. The only non 2+, 3+ saves I ever see are cultists. It just doesn't happen enough to take most of the time. Additionally, they're more or less a one shot weapon whereas with the meltas I may get to shoot them more than once a game.

 

I prefer to focus on the assault aspects of the assault marines. They'll spend more time there than in flamer range in my games.

[Taranis]

I have begun using fragiosos with great results. That lead me to honour guard with pod 4 flamer and a couple of melta bombs.

 

Volume of fire saves my day many times.

 

1 out of 3 of my RAS carry flamers.

[Rik Lightstar]

Flamers are ALL about your positioning, but if you can get it right then you should be able to get 4-5 hits from each one on a normal unit (obviously more on "blobs" of guard, orks, gaunts), even terminators need to worry about volume of saves, with your 8 bolt pistols as well you can get quite a substantial number of hits.

 

Rik

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

Chaplain Admetus used a 10-man RAS with 2x flamers in a few of his battle reports and they seemed to be fairly effective. I recommend you check out his batrep thread: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/257928-chaplain-admetus-battle-report-thread-game-28-added/

[Riggs]

Thank you guys so much on your insight :D. Chaplain Admetus' Battle report was a good read too, nice to see how they actually played

[DutchSage]

I actually use the dual hand flamer sergeant Aside from loving the gunslinger way to model the sergeant he actually is quite decent too.

Current load-out is a small 5 man squad with sergeant with 2 hand flamers and 1 flamer. Combined with a locator beacon on a droppod with a Furioso that drops on turn 1 makes it easy to place them with optimal template coverage.

[j-smuv]

I use a dual hand flamer sergeant too.  But I put him in a 10 man unit with 2 flamers.   They are excellent at getting to and holding objectives in the vanguard.  They can not only clear squishy units off of objectives in cover, but hold those objectives too.   4d3 auto overwatch hits can be brutal.  I'm not sure how "competitive" it is, because those aren't the types of games I play.  But it's a fun unit and when leveraged against the correct opposition, it can be effective.  And DutchSage is right. . .  The Sargeant with the dual flamers is a great looking model.