Bolt Rifle vs Stalker Bolt Rifle vs Auto Bolt Rifle

[Inquisitor Red]

Boltrifle vs Stalker Boltrife vs Auto Bolt Rifle? Which do you prefer on your Primaris Intercessors and why?

[Lysere]

I've yet to use Primaris with my Deathwatch since they're not all built but Bolt rifles and auto bolt rifles both have a place in my plans. Stalker Boltrifles waste part of the Kraken and Vengeance rounds while having less shots than Stalker Bolters so I have no plans to use them except maybe on a Primaris captain.

[Marshal van Trapp]

Auto bolt rifles with assault plasma and inceptors/aggressors to get the super mobile fire base, regulars on anything else, it's just not worth using stalkers

[Xisor]

I wish they'd just simplified the damn thing and had a couple of options:

- Deathwatch Bolt Pistol

- Deathwatch Bolt Gun

- Deathwatch Bolt Rifle (all Stalker patterns are this, ultimately - Carl or whoever he nicked the idea off isn't that "clever")

- Heavy Bolters etc.

 

Cost them accordingly.

 

Every other variant could just be the above plus 'special ammo' in one of the above; with Stalker (Heavy 2, +6") & Metal Storm (Assault 3, -6") rounds being additions to the list to cover out the details.

 

If we cut down on some options: HOORAY.

 

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I don't know why it annoys me so much.

 

There's almost a billion, give or take, permutations of bolt weapons.

 

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Heavy 2 is the more interesting of the ones given.

[Ammonius]

I have not run any Games with them yet, but my plan is to use Auto Bolt Rifles for all of my intercessors, at least to start. Using Kraken rounds results in a weapon profile that matches the baseline Bolt Rifle, but with 2 shots at 30". This coupled with the Aggressors' advance and shoot without penalty buff will let me apply shots to targets as soon as possible. Since my planned teams only include an intercessor sergeant and 4 other intercessors, this is the same number of shots as a regular tactical squad.

[Vel'Cona]

I feel that the bog-standard Bolt Rifle covers all the bases nicely, as it gives you a base AP -1 to stack with Hellfire Rounds for high Toughness targets, and can spike to AP -3 with Vengeance Rounds when dealing with 3+ or better Saves (and still at a decent 24" Range).  The Auto Bolt Rifle is nice but it increases the cost a bit and reduces the range, essentially nullifying much of the benefit of Advance+Shoot (especially given -1 to hit or when using Vengeance Rounds).  The Stalker Bolt Rifle is trash and should be ignored since the extra AP is largely unnecessary and being saddled with 1 shot is pants for the increased cost.

 

One item to keep in mind is that Intercessors (and any attached specialists) can utilize Teleportarium to get close to the opponent, circumventing Rapid Fire limitations for the Bolt Rifle if necessary.

[Sea Reaper]

For teleporting or jumping out of a Repulsor it seems like bolt rifles are better. For footsloggers sprinting up the field auto-bolt rifles feel like the way to go with an Aggressor....although do I really want them doing that? Backfield I have no idea since the consensus seems to be the Stalker is terrible. Those are just my newbie observations, I'm interested to hear how accurate or off the mark my burgeoning tactical assessment is :p

[Lemondish]

For teleporting or jumping out of a Repulsor it seems like bolt rifles are better. For footsloggers sprinting up the field auto-bolt rifles feel like the way to go with an Aggressor....although do I really want them doing that? Backfield I have no idea since the consensus seems to be the Stalker is terrible. Those are just my newbie observations, I'm interested to hear how accurate or off the mark my burgeoning tactical assessment is

 

Well, foot slogging Primaris are still 2 wound, 2+ cover save units with a solid set of weapons who (if you have other units screening) mostly aren't going to be taking mortal wounds on the face from psykers and will be mobile enough to stay way outside the range of most of their biggest threats - like rapid fire plasma. That means they kind of stick around on the field for awhile harassing and clearing out the enemy's screen while you get heavy hitters into position. 

 

I've run one unit of 5 with auto boltrifles, 4 Aggressors, and 1 Inceptor as a T5 unit with 10 wounds, 2+ save in cover, and a lot of mobility that lets them hold a point on the board until my heavy hitters arrive from deep strike or transport delivery.  

[Sea Reaper]

That's an interesting unit, Lemondish. How do you equip the Aggressors and Inceptor in that format?

[Lemondish]

That's an interesting unit, Lemondish. How do you equip the Aggressors and Inceptor in that format?

Boltstorm and auto bolters. They're focused on clearing chaff, so the more shots the better. It also means that auto bolt rifles with Vengeance match the range of everything else, which gives them decent punch on armoured targets thank to re-rolling 1s to wound and +1 to wound if you need it, making them pretty deadly due to that weight of fire. Most of the forces I've faced so far have needed the weight of fire to punch holes into the screen. Though I had to split fire a bit last time against a bunch of MSU FW squads. Still punched a decent enough hole to drop the vets and hit the Broadsides.

 

Still also have another bolt rifle squad with 4 Hellblasters and 1 plasma Inceptor for reaching out at great range.