wing5wong

which do you prefer to use in an a fire support/infantry squad? im using autocannons atm.

Ramrod

i stick autocannons on sentinels (god knows guppy will kill me now, i get the feeling he likes multi-lasers). i like heavy bolters in my infantry squads. give them a heavier weapon and you're wasting 9 lasgun shots on a tank just to shoot it with one lascannon. and with the IG WS, the odds are that half the time that lascannon will miss.

as heavy support choices, i NEVER mix weapons. either three missile launchers, three lascannons, three autocannons, three heavy bolters OR three mortars.

even though you have the choice of mixing ACs with HBs, and MLs with LCs, NEVER do it. NEVER! you're wasting valuable points on weapons that, while they do similar jobs, excel at opposite ends of the spectrum of that job. i will include a hand-dandy scale of the IG heavy weapon roles as i see them (and as they are):


*VS TANKS*
lascannon (bye bye armor)
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missile launcher (bye bye armor, but also owns infantry)
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autocannon (bye bye land speeder/assault bike/any other light vehicle, plus all forms of infantry)
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heavy bolter (yum yum, light-to-medium infantry)
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mortar (this weapon would get the "biggest waste of points award" if only it didn't cause pinning. i love pinning)
*VS INFANTRY*

Sir Guppy

well i like to give either lascannons or multilasers to my sentinels. but i keep autocannons in guard sqauds usally (3), they i put heavy bolters in a fire support and lascannon. i also have a couple of other heavy weapon scattered around my force. but i would stick with heavy bolters i just find the extra means that a guardsmen has a chance of killing something.

and roddy u better watch urself. :smash:

rts king

I use snipers for distance, whirlwinds typhoon missilelauncher for killing evrything, then some assault squad for quick movement, pistols and swords for close combat, then morior the chosen and some death squad for a victory.

Ramrod

guppy, i knew it! don't ask me how, but i knew... and yeah, if i had to pick any other weapon other than my HBs to use in a guardsman squad, it'd be ACs.

king, wing5wong meant IG not SM, and he meant heavy weapon types not troop types.

SOFDC

I prefer autocannons on sentinels and on vehicles, heavy bolters in a select few infantry squads.

MobiusPrime

I prefer Hvy Bolters, as my infantry platoons are there as an anti infantry roll. Few infantry need the str 7 of an autocannon, and with str 7, you'll be tempted to target a land speeder or other light vehicle, wasting the 9 lasguns. Plus you get three shots with the heavy bolter.

Remember, rule number one is:
The strength of your army isn't 5 or 6 hvy bolters, it's 45 or 54 lasguns.

Bregor

As I've never seen a point at all in Autocannons, I use heavy bolters for my Fire Support squads My reasoning behind this is that AC really only has one role that is 'theirs', and that is light-vehicle killer. Las/MCs do better against big vehicles, Heavy Bolters do just about as well against infantry (1 extra shot vs. wounding on a 2+ instead of a 3+(assuming T4 infantry)... I'll take the first), and you're not cracking power armour with an AP4 gun (since most RTs and tournaments I've been to have had 3/4 being Chaos/SM, it's a big consideration). However, with Guard, it's easy to field such rediculous amounts of Lascannons and MLs that light vehicles won't stand a chance anyway, so autocannons are pretty much superfluous.

As far as the comment that lascannons are 'wasted' in infantry squads, I respectfully disagree. Most times, in 1850 or 2000 point games that I play these days (since everyone wants to test out tournament armies), I field between 13 and 15 lascannons (6 in AT sqds, 7 in infantry/command sqds, not counting any other heavy wps). Considering every guy who's manning one of those cannons is a Sharpshooter (best thing about the new Codex IMO), they're hitting a little better than half of the time (in testing it's been 8-9 on average). That's almost a full Marine squad right there, and that's JUST the LCs. Now, yes, I know, you won't be able to decimate the opposing force with your LCs, but you will be able to make sure that a) he's not using vehicles to get into you (transports/screening/etc.), b) his gun platforms are probably a smoking wreck, and C) he's that much more softened up for when he gets within 24" range, when the true light show begins As Mobius alluded to above, everything dies to 50-60+ lasguns

...but that's just me.