Havoc Champion

[bonefish]

Hi guys

 

If I was to run a squad of 5 Havocs, should I upgrade the champion? Is he best left plain? Should I arm him to the teeth or always use a fairly rounded loadout?

Are there any upgrades that should be taken always, or any always avoided?

Ill prob mostly be using the squad behind an aegis, but also sometimes out and about.

 

Thanks guys

Bones

 

 

[the jeske]

no.

yes.

naked is best.

no such upgrades exist.

[Sception]

I give my havoc champ a quad gun, and leave it at that.

[Warsmith Aznable]

I generally leave my Havoc sergeants stock. Sometimes I might give him a combibolter or MAYBE a power sword if I have some points floating around, but generally the idea is that once the enemy is getting your Havocs into hand-to-hand then things are going wrong all over the place anyway.

 

The reasoning is this: your Havocs exist as a cheap alternative to the larger and more costly weapons platforms. Their job is to shoot at things until they get killed, and that's it. Once an enemy has commited himself to the idea of assaulting your Havocs, they're more than likely going to be far outclassed by any assault unit tasked to do this, so putting points into withstanding an assault is the same thing as throwing those points away. The important part of the Havoc unit is the guys with the heavy/special weapons, so keeping the sergeant alive isn't going to help them, and since he HAS to challenge, he's probably not going to be keeping the weapons guys alive anyway.

 

The other use of Havocs (spam special weapons to harass the enemy and hope you get Big Guns Never Tire) I am more likely to give the sergeant wargear, and then I would go with the Power Sword/Melta Bomb combination.

[Tenebris]

Naked, though this comes form one that keeps even the Aspiring Champions with only the Melta Bombs upgrade... In the end it depends on your meta, if you happen to have trouble with Drop Pod Dreadnoughts that assault you on turn two than a Melta Bomb is needed, otherwise the best upgrade for Havoc Champion is no upgrade at all. Still this can and should change if you use your Havoc squad with Plasma Guns and thus require a different setup. 

[Iron Father Ferrum]

The only thing I ever considered putting on him was combi.  Usually a plasma, for the range (if the autocannons are shooting at something closer) or the rate of fire (if shooting at something that's trying to get close enough to assault them), although I had considered a flamer for use in Overwatch.  Overall though, that's usually a "points left over" scenario.

[Trevak Dal]

A combiflamer is a last "Frack you" when/if the squad get's charged.

[Scribe]

A combiflamer is a last "Frack you" when/if the squad get's charged.

I like that, a lot.

[bonefish]

I see.  Thats what I was thinking, but wasnt sure if people upgraded him, or if there was any advice or better ideas for other situations.

Cheers.

[bonefish]

Ace, thanks guys. I'll take all that on board.

[Excessus]

The only upgrade my havoc champ usually gets is the VOTLW like everybody else in the squad, to keep them from running away at the sound of gunfire...

[Redtoof]

It's a running joke amongst my friends that the role of havoc champion is the kind of 'promotion' a chaos lord gives to the marines he doesn't really like, due to their tendacy to be killed first to save the autocannons. With this in mind keeping him basic is the best option (I'd consider a combi weapon if you are running a special weapon havoc squad in a rhino though, but this isn't their normal role). If I have 3 points left I give him a combi-bolter, but it rarely gets any use.

[Jiron]

Actually, I have always considered them as guys with 4 plasmaguns and Combi-Plasma but whatever :-) I have never been much a heavy weapon guy.

[Brother Eleysium]

The only time I have every upgraded my Havoc Champion(and this is extremely rare at that)has been when I ran a Having squad with 4 specials, and put them in a Rhino. It's not very viable. But it is definitely fun to roll a Rhino across the table, have a full squad jump out, obliterate the enemy squad with 4 plasma guns, and then watch them die horribly the next round. But I usually give the Champion some form of a power weapon in that instance. But I would only do this in casual games, definitely not a tournament setting.

[Sception]

I prefer chosen to havocs for special weapon squads. Pricier, but more specials, don't eat a heavy slots. And scoring, since I play black legion. Still not something I'd take to a serious tournament.

[Wazir]

I run my havoc squads with a plain aspiring champion, as previously mentioned, anyone who is gonna charge them ain't going to be stopped by a tooled up champion so why spend the points.  I do tend throw in a few extra bolter marines for meatshields though and maybe VoTLW, especially on the more expensive ML/Laser squads.  I hate the thought of a single ranged hit or two killing a hvy weapon and possibly breaking the squad.

 

For plasma squads I use chosen.  Just the route I chose to go an edition or two ago and thats the way they are modeled/painted now.  They're not effective enough/not used enough to bother changing now.

[Feuermann]

It depends, if the squad got heavy weapons, naked, but if squad god assault weapons in a rhino, maybe (powerswors, combis, etc.)