The Weapons Choice.... or lack there of.

[The Rose Princes]

So I'm running with Trust Your Battle Brothers, so I want as many things to have bolters as possible to take advantage of that, so I'm just running 17 squads of troops. But three questions have come up:

 

1) Assault Marines can purchase the skills, but the marines themselves do not have the option of having bolter instead of bolt pistols? Do they automatically just upgrade the gun, or does the 3 points only give them the Counterattack skill then?

 

2) I want to simplify things and keep the so the only special weapons choices I'm gonna take are Missile Launchers and Power Fists, therefore I can be ready for any kind of army reguardless of horde of Orcs or Death Wing. With STR 8 weapons, I can still glance armor 14, and the assault marines as well as anyone with access to the armory will have Melta Bombs; but am I asking for trouble by not having the bigger stuff or can I still hang?

 

3) If I have my 4 devestators with missile launchers, they cannot take the skill, but the rest of the squad can. Now, the * is next to Counterattack on the Universal Skills. Now while I know that there are no IC in this squad, but now not everyone in the squad has the Counterattack skill; can it still be used by the squad if everyone in the squad does not have the skill?

[Ferrata]

1 - No, Assault Marine's can not have a bolter (their Veteran Sergeant can). The trait only gives them a CCW, so they will not benefit from True Grit

 

2 - I think you are asking for trouble, you will struggle to take down anything too big. Consider taking Suffer...Heretics to make your anti-tank squads that little bit better (plus it makes bolters able to glance AV 11)

 

3 - Entire squads must buy a skill, you can not mix and match. If one member of the squad has the skill, all members of the squad must have the skill, you can not select individual marines. So your Missile armed marines will have True Grit, but be unable to use it.

[ironloki]

2) I want to simplify things and keep the so the only special weapons choices I'm gonna take are Missile Launchers and Power Fists, therefore I can be ready for any kind of army reguardless of horde of Orcs or Death Wing. With STR 8 weapons, I can still glance armor 14, and the assault marines as well as anyone with access to the armory will have Melta Bombs; but am I asking for trouble by not having the bigger stuff or can I still hang?

 

In my opinion thats more than enough. Missiles and powerfists can take down anything.

 

Your other options are

- Metaguns (Short range)

- Lascannons (Perhaps sprinkle one into list)

- Assault cannons (The new uber king but I still prefer my reliable missiles)

- Tank hunters (Only really good in Dev squads but its negated by things such as monoloths IIRC. Also a waste for bolters for its points if your putting it onto a tactical squad)

 

I run my lists with simple missile launcher/plasma gun combo's and powerfist veterans. Of course I have a couple of assault cannons (Speeder and dread) but I have yet to see my missiles fail in their job. If your scared take a lascannon somewhere but im sure the missile launcher comes out top and you have the nasty powerfists :blush: . The only way is to give it a try ;)

 

Also ask a friendly Liber mod to perhaps move this as its not really fluff related ;)

[Darrell]

1) They would have True Grit and Counter Attack, but would be unable to use True Grit due to not having bolters. They would have Counter Attack.

 

2) Missile Launchers are not as versatile as they once were, but they can still get the job done reasonably. You'll be able to tackle hard stuff, but you'll have to be rolling high, which depending on your luck may or may not be something to worry about. Alternatives would be to find room for assault cannons, which also rely on rolling high but with more weapons needing to roll high at least ONE of them will come through. You can also sprinkle some lascannons in, or heavy bolters, depending on whether you'll need more AA or AI.

 

3) The entire squad will have the skill, but the four ML marines won't be able to use True Grit. They should still be able to Counter-Attack fine (Unless there is some rule against it that I don't know about). If they can't use it, then that's just 12 points you'll have to throw in the grinder and forget about. All the squad has to buy it, or nobody buys it.

 

* Coincidentally, and though I may not agree, there is a school of thinking that says that a Marine upgraded with a special weapon keeps his boltgun. The argument is the vague wording which doesn't say the Marine trades his Boltgun for X weapon, and thus is armed with both. Though this flies in the face of common sense (And the rule that a model can only have one 2H weapon and one 1H weapon), people do argue it. If you use that logic, your entire squad would have True Grit, since your ML marines could swing their chainsword and boltgun off their waist and put their ML in whatever mysterious bag of holding they have and go charging. Still, I wouldn't suggest arguing this point since this kind of rules lawyering does not make friends; however, it is an option that I feel I should point out.

[the_raptor]

And the rule that a model can only have one 2H weapon and one 1H weapon

 

That rule applies only to models with access to the armoury. And even if it did apply to normal models, no where does it say if a plasmagun/lascannon is one or two handed.

[The Rose Princes]

Okay, trying not to get into THAT conversation again....

 

 

1) & 3) Okay, so no matter what you are weilding, you would then get the counterattack.... I can live with that.

 

2) I'll stick with the Missile Launchers then. The strory bit I'm using is that the chapter does not use energy weapons or land vehicles.... so only Bolt Pistols, Bolters, Heavy Bolters and Missile Launchers in the whole army. And since I'm just using regular marine choices, I have no access to the Assault Cannon.... maybe I'll make 1 Termi squad.... maybe not.

 

 

I'm cool with all that... thanks alot for all your help.