Bolter aggressors on top now?

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

With flamer weapons apparently going to flat attacks with blast, are the bolt aggressors going to be better, particularly against smaller units, but even likely against 10 man units with the D3 grenades.

[Karhedron]

I think that Bolter Aggressors have always been better in most Detachments. The only place where the flamer variant comes out ahead is the Firestorm Strikeforce where adding a Captain gives them cheap access to Devastating Wounds (on twin-linked weapons!).

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

1 hour ago, Karhedron said:

I think that Bolter Aggressors have always been better in most Detachments. The only place where the flamer variant comes out ahead is the Firestorm Strikeforce where adding a Captain gives them cheap access to Devastating Wounds (on twin-linked weapons!).

I think a lot of people preferred flame because they could a lot more attacks (despite potential to also get a lot less)

[Karhedron]

4 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

I think a lot of people preferred flame because they could a lot more attacks (despite potential to also get a lot less)

 

Most lists I have seen pair the Bolter Aggressors with an Apothecary Biologis for Lethal Hits. I quite enjoy Flamestorm Aggressors but I think I am in the minority.

[jaxom]

On 7/26/2026 at 12:58 PM, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

I think a lot of people preferred flame because they could a lot more attacks (despite potential to also get a lot less)

For me, the number of attacks can’t hold up to stratagem support (except in Firestorm). Sustained Hots, Lethal Hits, rerolls to hit, etc. Plus, as @Karhedron said, Apothecary Biologis support. Add in OoM if needed and it was never a contest for me.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

2 hours ago, jaxom said:

For me, the number of attacks can’t hold up to stratagem support (except in Firestorm). Sustained Hots, Lethal Hits, rerolls to hit, etc. Plus, as @Karhedron said, Apothecary Biologis support. Add in OoM if needed and it was never a contest for me.

Well also, more potential attacks, and all hit regardless of the number of base attacks 

[Karhedron]

Flamer Aggressors have an average of 4.5 hits at a range of 12".

 

Bolter Aggressors have an average of 4.2 hits at a range of 18".

 

So flamers only get slightly more hits than bolters on average while the bolters get a 50% range increase. Also the maximum number of hits a flamer can score is 7 while the bolters can score 9 (or more if BLAST kicks in on the Frag Launchers) so it is actually bolters that have the higher potential number of attacks.

[Indy Techwisp]

On 7/26/2026 at 2:56 PM, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

With flamer weapons apparently going to flat attacks with blast, are the bolt aggressors going to be better, particularly against smaller units, but even likely against 10 man units with the D3 grenades.

 

Something to consider with Flamers going to a flat value + Blast (assuming that is game wide and not just an Ork thing) is that while the spike potential has lowered, the floor has also been raised.

Even against a unit to small to get Blast, if you've got a 3 man unit you're putting a guaranteed 9 shots in there ignoring cover where as before you could have rolled only 3 shots out of the unit.

 

The change makes Flamers more consistent (which is appreciated as a TSons player who frequently gets only 13 Flamer shots out of a 10 man Flamer brick with 2 of those coming from a Pistol.)

 

For LSM this should somewhat raise the bar for the Infernus squad and for DW this is probably a buff to Fortis squads running Flamers.

Edited Thursday at 02:10 PM by Indy Techwisp

[Karhedron]

Flamers also benefit from the changes to cover as their hit-rate is unaffected by the -1 to Hit while units in cover no longer get better saves. I think Heavy flamers and above are definitely interesting now. I am not convinced that basic-strength flamers are going to be more appealing but we shall see. I think Flamer Aggressors will still be limited to the Firestorm detachment but I would be interested to be proved wrong.

[Malakithe]

Are bolter Aggressors even a thing with HB Eradicators being the same points with better rules?

[Karhedron]

1 hour ago, Malakithe said:

Are bolter Aggressors even a thing with HB Eradicators being the same points with better rules?

 

They have different roles. HB Eradicators stand back and shoot. Aggressors are like a more offensive version of Terminators. They can hose infantry with their shooting and tackle even tough targets in melee thanks to their twin-linked power fists.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

On 7/29/2026 at 3:36 AM, Karhedron said:

Flamer Aggressors have an average of 4.5 hits at a range of 12".

 

Bolter Aggressors have an average of 4.2 hits at a range of 18".

 

So flamers only get slightly more hits than bolters on average while the bolters get a 50% range increase. Also the maximum number of hits a flamer can score is 7 while the bolters can score 9 (or more if BLAST kicks in on the Frag Launchers) so it is actually bolters that have the higher potential number of attacks.

Might be higher number of possible attacks, but with 3+ BS what is the average number of hits with a max of 9 attacks?

something like 5.76 hits compared to an automatic 7 hits.

[Karhedron]

I already provided that. Flamer aggressors average 4.5 shots which automatically hit. Bolter aggressors average 6.5 shots at BS3+ which averages 4.2 hits.

[Tacitus]

On 7/31/2026 at 12:17 AM, Malakithe said:

Are bolter Aggressors even a thing with HB Eradicators being the same points with better rules?

HB Erads don't have power fists.  Sticking Calgar in HB Erads doesn't take advantage of his super doctrine ability to move, shoot, charge, and fight. 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

10 hours ago, Karhedron said:

I already provided that. Flamer aggressors average 4.5 shots which automatically hit. Bolter aggressors average 6.5 shots at BS3+ which averages 4.2 hits.

I said max hits, not average hits.