Interceptors loadout

[Chaplain Adonael]

Hey guys. What do you run? Plasma or bolter?

[shandwen]

In nearly every instance the strength and ap of the plasma is easily worth the added cost, not to say the bolsters are bad, just that the plasma is great.

[breng77]

I assume you mean inceptors. It depends on what role you want then for. Killing chaff take the bolters, killing hard targets the plasma. In DA plasma might get the nod because WOTDA.

[dtse]

I find an alpha strike of even just 3 guys will take out one 10-12 wound thing. Plasma still suffers against T8 though so it won’t be so good against knightsor guard super heavies. 6 guys would do better.

 

And yea if you need chaff clearance then bolters. But then aggressors are probably better

[Helias_Tancred]

In our chapter given our plasma stratagem, IMO plasma on the inceptors is the best choice. In other space marine chapters its going to be a lot closer between using the assault bolters or the plasma?

[Kasper_Hawser]

Aye, plasma will be the best, even against T8 targets. However, don't write off the Assault Bolters as they are quite handy eve against Marines, having the sweet Strength 5.

[SnakeChisler]

Plasma gets my vote

 

If your running a squad of inceptors 6 is worth the outlay for plasma due to wftda strat you can always combat squad.

 

Assault Bolters are pretty decent at clearing 4+ and less against 3+ your struggling to make an impact on the drop, useful over aggressors due to deep strike

[march10k]

Plasma.  They aren't there to clear chaff, we have better options for that.  But the new age marines using the dark age plasma can at least neuter, if not kill, something critical on the drop, then force the enemy off of his plan because he has to turn around and prevent them from getting a second round of shots off.  So they get to do their damage and still act as a distraction unit.  I'm not sure how much fire they'd draw (even if they got their kill in on arrival) with their bolters, but with plasma, they FORCE the enemy to ENSURE that they die right away, often at the expense of a competing priority that ruins the enemy's gameplan. 

[breng77]

We actually don't have very many better options for clearing chaff, point for point inceptors do it better than most units I can think of.

[march10k]

We actually don't have very many better options for clearing chaff, point for point inceptors do it better than most units I can think of.

erm...dark talons...crusaders...DWA...ravenwing...we have options! Edited January 3, 2018 by march10k

[Helias_Tancred]

The advantage of the bolters are a set number of shots you will get and their effectiveness against lower armored units. Personally I have two 3 man squads, one with plasma and the other with the bolters.

[breng77]

 

We actually don't have very many better options for clearing chaff, point for point inceptors do it better than most units I can think of.

erm...dark talons...crusaders...DWA...ravenwing...we have options!

Implies those options better when point for point they are not. Which is what I said. We have other plasma options as well that doesn't make those options better. Point for point ever option you mention is worse than bolter inceptors. Against GEQ

Inceptors pay 20 points per wound

RW bikes pay 22.5 (a bit better with flamers but have much shorter range 12.6 points per wound with 2 flamers and a combi-flamer so at very close range they do better if they make it)

That is the only option you mentioned that is even competitive (darktalon is basically 2 bike squads with bolters so it is ok, DWA and landraiders are paying a ton of points (and cp)). If we go to T4 chaff (say ork boys) inceptors improve to 16.8 points per wound, bikes go to 24.4 (flamers 13.3). Inceptors are better if the chaff has cover bikes a bit better if it has invul saves. So bikes and scout are really the only other option in the discussion. My point being if you need a unit to clear chaff inceptors certainly merit a look. I run mine with plasma because far and away they are the best WOTDA target. Your argument is akin to some saying don't take plasma because we have Black knights, plasma devs, helblasters, bikers.

Edited January 3, 2018 by breng77

[Kasper_Hawser]

I don't think its fair to compare Inceptors to Ravenwing as they both have different roles although they do overlap as harrassers. the one thing Inceptors can do that Ravenwing can't, is deepstrike backstabbing. therefore we shouldn't compare Inceptors to Ravenwing, but rather to Assault Marines, Deathwing or other similar deepstrikers.

 

As a harasser, Ravenwing I think is better purely due to speed, but the assault bolters are definitely better than the twin bolters Ravenwing use. not to mention the jump over terrain bit. That's where they overlap.

[breng77]

It entirely depends on what you plan to use the unit for.  RW bikes are more flexible, which is their strength.  Inceptors should be compared to whatever other units you might take to fill the same role in your list.  So you might compare Plasma inceptors as a source of anti-elite/vehicle vs Helblasters.  The units function differently but have similar ideal targets.

[Endgame]

 

 

We actually don't have very many better options for clearing chaff, point for point inceptors do it better than most units I can think of.

erm...dark talons...crusaders...DWA...ravenwing...we have options!

Implies those options better when point for point they are not. Which is what I said. We have other plasma options as well that doesn't make those options better. Point for point ever option you mention is worse than bolter inceptors. Against GEQ

Inceptors pay 20 points per wound

RW bikes pay 22.5 (a bit better with flamers but have much shorter range 12.6 points per wound with 2 flamers and a combi-flamer so at very close range they do better if they make it)

That is the only option you mentioned that is even competitive (darktalon is basically 2 bike squads with bolters so it is ok, DWA and landraiders are paying a ton of points (and cp)). If we go to T4 chaff (say ork boys) inceptors improve to 16.8 points per wound, bikes go to 24.4 (flamers 13.3). Inceptors are better if the chaff has cover bikes a bit better if it has invul saves. So bikes and scout are really the only other option in the discussion. My point being if you need a unit to clear chaff inceptors certainly merit a look. I run mine with plasma because far and away they are the best WOTDA target. Your argument is akin to some saying don't take plasma because we have Black knights, plasma devs, helblasters, bikers.

 

When it comes to chaff cleaning (GEQ), my math tells me that 5x Cataphractii with grenade harness and lightning claw come in under 20 points per kill, if you fail the charge and roll a 3 for the grenade harness.  If you succeed with a charge and you use death wing assault, you're paying less than 8 points per kill.  Sounds way better than inceptors...

[breng77]

5 Cataphractii terminators with Grenade harness are 204 points.  If you roll a 3 on the harness you get 23 S4 shots (3 Ap -1).  So that is about 7 dead guardsman or 29 points per dead guardsman if you don't make the charge.  Sounds worse (especially because they take up a larger portion of my army).  Sure you can do DW assault to get to 14 points per dead guardsman.  So for 2 CP they are a bit better.  But they are slower, and have less range.  Not sure where your numbers come from.  Bolters hit 2/3rds of the time, wound 2/3rds of the time and guard fail a save 2/3rds of the time.  So each bolter shot kills 0.3 guardsman, so 20 shots kills about 6 guardsman.  The harness kills on average 1 more.  204/7 = 29.14 points per dead GEQ.    If you double that shooting, you kill 14 guardsman 204/14=14.57 points per dead GEQ.   Making the charge is rare (at best you have a 9" charge, which without a re-roll is a 28% chance, with a re-roll is about 50-50)  and has not been included in any other unit breakdown.

 

 You get to do that one time per game unless you take multiple squads and invest all your CP into killing said chaff.  Again my point was that the statement that we had much better options for clearing chaff is provably false.  We have a few units in certain circumstances that are slightly better at killing chaff.  So inceptors are a perfectly valid unit to consider as something to kill chaff.

 

If you want the best chaff clearing units available Aggressors that haven't moved and get a charge win at 7.7 points per wound if they don't then charge, if they also charge that goes to 6.5.

 

Scout bikers are 14.1 points per GEQ wound without a charge and 10 if they get the charge.

 

So some better options exist, but to pretend that somehow plasma is the obvious and only answer for them ignores that they are among out best anti-infantry units with little investment needed (Terminators are a lot of points and require CP to be great, Land Raider crusaders are expensive)