Loss of heavy weapons in squads

[OverchargeThis!]

Does anyone know the rationale behind the decision to remove heavy weapons from basic line infantry squads? We've had them going to at least 3rd edition. These squad have never had much capability, but now that the heavy weapon option has been removed, they don't seem to be capable of much at all. At least with 3 squads when they had heavy weapons, you had some mass going down range. I usually took lascannons in my squads, with autocannons going into my heavy weapons teams. Now they're just useful for holding objectives and move blocking.

 

I suppose it can be said they're forcing a move to elite infantry (kasrkin and scions) to get some capability on the table.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

10 hours ago, OverchargeThis! said:

Does anyone know the rationale behind the decision to remove heavy weapons from basic line infantry squads? We've had them going to at least 3rd edition. These squad have never had much capability, but now that the heavy weapon option has been removed, they don't seem to be capable of much at all. At least with 3 squads when they had heavy weapons, you had some mass going down range. I usually took lascannons in my squads, with autocannons going into my heavy weapons teams. Now they're just useful for holding objectives and move blocking.

 

I suppose it can be said they're forcing a move to elite infantry (kasrkin and scions) to get some capability on the table.

99% likely because they weren’t sold in the infantry squad box, and to help make way for the new kits.

 

however it’s arguable that a second special weapon is better than a HWT, since some get rapid fire.

a melta maybe lower S but it’s comparable AP and better damage as well, but doesn’t take a bit to accuracy when you move.

 

your infantry squads must have been real swingy in their effective shooting since their single shot lascannons would be hitting on 5s, or the whole squad was just constantly stationary. Honestly HB or missile launchers would be best for mobile ISes due to multiple shots allowing them to move and still have a chance of actually hitting.

 

heck, depending on the edition the HWT couldn’t shoot at all if the squad moved.

Edited Monday at 04:01 AM by Inquisitor_Lensoven

[DemonGSides]

8 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

99% likely because they weren’t sold in the infantry squad box,

 

I don't even think it's 99%, it's 100% this.  They've been moving away from multiple boxes to make a single unit in 40k for the past decade so the writing was one the wall.

I find infantry to be useful, just not as damage dealers.  TBF, they weren't really damage dealers even when HWT could go in them; they were just slow chip damage as opposed to normal speed objective players they are now.