Heavy Weapons on Mobile Infantry

[TheShredder]

Are people still getting good mileage out of mortars this deep into 8th edition? I’m still of the mindset that they are hot garbage but I haven’t used them this edition to be honest. I’m not sure I’d put them on a mobile squad either. I like the heavy bolter for that.

 

I like them as a sort of 'filler'.

 

For example, I've used HWSs with 1 Lascannon and 2 Mortars. They have the same range (unlike, say, Heavy Bolters) and don't need LoS - so while the Lascannon shoots at a vehicle or such, they can put out 2d6 at any infantry within 48". However, they're also cheap enough to be entirely expendable if my opponent feels inclined to shoot them. 

 

Also, a unit of 3 Mortars is the cheapest way to fill out HS slots in a Brigade. I prefer Heavy Bolters for this though. 

[Tirak]

What about missile launchers? I’ve always been tempted to take some simply for the “rule of cool.” Does anyone have good experience fielding them? I’ll be playing with the Cadian doctrine, which would give them some more accuracy on backfield squads.

Missile Launchers are bad. D6 Bolter shots that you probably won't ever use is not worth -1 Strength and -1 AP compared to a Lascannon. Guard are well equipped with masses of antiinfantry weapons, no need to take missiles over lascannons.

[Altasmurf]

Mortars for their cost are awsome. 3d6 bolter shots that can be out of sight, and have a good anti deep strike foot print for dirt cheap. Yes please.

[TheShredder]

What about missile launchers? I’ve always been tempted to take some simply for the “rule of cool.” Does anyone have good experience fielding them? I’ll be playing with the Cadian doctrine, which would give them some more accuracy on backfield squads.

 

I used to take them, but every time I did I just ended up wishing I'd brought Lascannons instead.

 

I think I fired the Frag mode once. It did sod-all.

[WarriorFish]

Agreed, missile rocket launchers are sadly still underperforming as a versatility weapon. The lascannon will deliver your anti-tank needs ably, not cheap but you get what you pay for (unlike the poor ML, comically overpriced at the same cost...). If you want anti-infantry take a dedicated unit - mortars for example are cheap and good at adding some board coverage both defensively and offensively

[Withershadow]

Mortar teams are hilariously inexpensive, and do a great job of plugging holes in your backfield to prevent deep strikes and other deployment shenanigans.  Since they don't care about line of sight, you can put them anywhere.  LOVE mortars.

 

Shame about missile launchers, though, as the frag missiles simply aren't impressive enough.  If the game has come to the point that you have nothing worth shooting a missile at, and are just pumping out D6 bolter shots, you've probably already won or your weapon is WAY out of position.  It's a real shame because I have three Krieg Engineer Mole Mortars that I want to run as a heavy weapon team with missile launchers, plus I wanted to replicate a neat conversion I saw online of scout sentinels with Valkyrie pods serving as missile launchers.  Still, at the end of the day it's not too different from lascannons, so if you have the models and want to use them, you aren't going to automatically lose the game over it.

[Major_Gilbear]

[...] LOVE mortars.

 

Shame about missile launchers [...] I have three Krieg Engineer Mole Mortars that I want to run as a heavy weapon team with missile launchers [...]

 

So... Why not run the Mole Mortars as, er, mortars? ;)

[mertbl]

It doesn't really look like a mortar.

[Withershadow]

Yeah, and the profile of a mortar is unsatisfactory for them.  I really wish I could take them as a team of Mole Mortars, that would be awesome.

[Vel'Cona]

One thing I like about Mortars (beyond the obvious) is they're easy to craft out of the HWT kits, since their bits are completely independent of the others.  I've been able to double-up Mortar teams with AC/LC teams by doing a bit of clever bitswapping and mixing some standing/kneeling Guardsmen onto the HWT bases :)

 

(OFC, you do have to have extra bases around but that's the cheap part IMO :D)

[TheShredder]

One thing I like about Mortars (beyond the obvious) is they're easy to craft out of the HWT kits, since their bits are completely independent of the others.  I've been able to double-up Mortar teams with AC/LC teams by doing a bit of clever bitswapping and mixing some standing/kneeling Guardsmen onto the HWT bases

 

(OFC, you do have to have extra bases around but that's the cheap part IMO )

 

Any chance you could post some pictures of this?

 

I'm a little confused as to what you mean.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Provided you have spare Guardsmen and bases, each HWS box can build multiple units. Personally I've managed to get Missile Launchers, Mortars and Lascannons out of one box plus spare guardsman bitz.

[WarriorFish]

HWT kits can go very far, as Coffee says you can have from one set:

 

1 Mortar (uses stand)

1 Missile launcher (not using above stand)

1 of the other heavy weapons (using tripod and kneeling legs)

 

Both the mortar and missile launcher don't need a kneeling set of legs either, all you need is the extra bases and Guardsman bits :) Though the reality is that the ML has been poor for so long it's a moot addition, but options are always good to have.

[Halfpint100]

HWT kits can go very far, as Coffee says you can have from one set:

 

1 Mortar (uses stand)

1 Missile launcher (not using above stand)

1 of the other heavy weapons (using tripod and kneeling legs)

 

Both the mortar and missile launcher don't need a kneeling set of legs either, all you need is the extra bases and Guardsman bits Though the reality is that the ML has been poor for so long it's a moot addition, but options are always good to have.

 

Also you dont have to glue the tripod gun in. I have a few that are just slot in for whatever i need 

[CoffeeGrunt]

Aren't they different sizes though?

[WarriorFish]

The various tripod weapons are different lengths yes, so you'd need to have the gunner moveable (can't imagine that working well!) or not manning the weapon to swap them. It's possible, as I've done it but there'd be little variety in pose:

Hidden Content

Unless you have the gunner glued to the weapon to swap, but that feels like defeating the point somewhat!

[OnboardG1]

I'd love to do that, but sadly as a catachan player I don't get any nice cheapie boxes to pad the HWT out (not unless I want to touch the ancient catachan infantry squad anyway...).

[Vel'Cona]

Aren't they different sizes though?

 

Basically, what WF said.  But I think it's realistic to model the mortar teams with extra standing legs (basically from the "normal" Guardsman kits) instead of kneeling legs with a bit of repositioning.  Alternatively, you could have the team carrying the mortar around or something instead of in a firing pose, and it would work just as well IMO :)

[lash144]

What do you think about adding heavy Weapons for mobile (i.e. mechanised) Veteran Squads?

[TheShredder]

What do you think about adding heavy Weapons for mobile (i.e. mechanised) Veteran Squads?

 

To be honest, I'm not a fan of Mech-vets at all in this edition. 

 

If I was using them anyway, I definitely wouldn't take anything more expensive than a Heavy Bolter on them. I mean, they're already going to be pretty expensive, so spending 20pts on a lascannon or such *and* leaving yourself with two fewer expendable guys seems like a bad idea to me. 

[lash144]

 

What do you think about adding heavy Weapons for mobile (i.e. mechanised) Veteran Squads?

 

To be honest, I'm not a fan of Mech-vets at all in this edition. 

 

If I was using them anyway, I definitely wouldn't take anything more expensive than a Heavy Bolter on them. I mean, they're already going to be pretty expensive, so spending 20pts on a lascannon or such *and* leaving yourself with two fewer expendable guys seems like a bad idea to me. 

 

 

It´s 99 pts for some Vets with Plasma. If you are running Steel Legion it´s not bad I think. But maybe I might switch them out for some Special Weapon Squads.

[TheShredder]

 

 

What do you think about adding heavy Weapons for mobile (i.e. mechanised) Veteran Squads?

 

To be honest, I'm not a fan of Mech-vets at all in this edition. 

 

If I was using them anyway, I definitely wouldn't take anything more expensive than a Heavy Bolter on them. I mean, they're already going to be pretty expensive, so spending 20pts on a lascannon or such *and* leaving yourself with two fewer expendable guys seems like a bad idea to me. 

 

 

It´s 99 pts for some Vets with Plasma. If you are running Steel Legion it´s not bad I think. But maybe I might switch them out for some Special Weapon Squads.

 

 

Well, 99pts gets you 10 Vets with 3 plasmaguns (BS3+, so 4 hits in rapid-fire range), 90pts gets you 2 SWSs with 6 plasmaguns between them (BS4+, so 6 hits in rapid-fire range).

 

The only issue is that the SWSs don't leave any room for characters in their Chimeras. 

[lash144]

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think about adding heavy Weapons for mobile (i.e. mechanised) Veteran Squads?

To be honest, I'm not a fan of Mech-vets at all in this edition.

 

If I was using them anyway, I definitely wouldn't take anything more expensive than a Heavy Bolter on them. I mean, they're already going to be pretty expensive, so spending 20pts on a lascannon or such *and* leaving yourself with two fewer expendable guys seems like a bad idea to me.

It´s 99 pts for some Vets with Plasma. If you are running Steel Legion it´s not bad I think. But maybe I might switch them out for some Special Weapon Squads.

Well, 99pts gets you 10 Vets with 3 plasmaguns (BS3+, so 4 hits in rapid-fire range), 90pts gets you 2 SWSs with 6 plasmaguns between them (BS4+, so 6 hits in rapid-fire range).

 

The only issue is that the SWSs don't leave any room for characters in their Chimeras.

Yeah that's right. I could run 3 SWS + an officer and would even have more hits then with 2 Vet squads.

 

So yeah SWS all the way, thx :)

[TheShredder]

 

 

 

 

What do you think about adding heavy Weapons for mobile (i.e. mechanised) Veteran Squads?

To be honest, I'm not a fan of Mech-vets at all in this edition.

 

If I was using them anyway, I definitely wouldn't take anything more expensive than a Heavy Bolter on them. I mean, they're already going to be pretty expensive, so spending 20pts on a lascannon or such *and* leaving yourself with two fewer expendable guys seems like a bad idea to me.

It´s 99 pts for some Vets with Plasma. If you are running Steel Legion it´s not bad I think. But maybe I might switch them out for some Special Weapon Squads.

Well, 99pts gets you 10 Vets with 3 plasmaguns (BS3+, so 4 hits in rapid-fire range), 90pts gets you 2 SWSs with 6 plasmaguns between them (BS4+, so 6 hits in rapid-fire range).

 

The only issue is that the SWSs don't leave any room for characters in their Chimeras.

Yeah that's right. I could run 3 SWS + an officer and would even have more hits then with 2 Vet squads.

 

So yeah SWS all the way, thx

 

 

Yeah, I really don't rate Veterans anymore. Moving them to Elites already makes them seem like lacklustre Scions to me, and they pay so much for plasmaguns that I don't see the point of running them over SWSs and such. 

[Tyr13]

Its a shame really. If vets were troops, I could maybe see a point to them. But as elites... might as well just take a command squad. :/