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So in a recent game, I pulled out my frag missiles. The look on my opponent's face was like, "What the... Who uses THOSE?!?!" Then I watched as several guardsmen ate dirt beneath the template. Personally, I thought it was pretty funny, as he seemed like no one had used frags on him since 2nd ed. or something. Anyone else use these with regularity? How about the grenades some of the troops come with? Or are you always firing your bolters/lasguns?

well, missile launchers are pretty decent all around weapons and i've always been reasonably happy with the devastator squad i arm with 4 of the things. i don't actually fire the frags very often though, the main advantage is in keeping horde armies spread out. if you have nothing to prevent your opponent from clumping they have a lot more tactical flexibility which is something you really want to deny your opponent if possible.

For the most part, frag missiles are bad. The fact that they have to be centered over a model and the lack of ap both really limit the amount of damage you can do with them. However, if you find that your opponent has clumped up a bunch of soft targets, then by all means, fire frag. In your case, it appears that you ran across just such a situation. For the most part, when shooting at things with 3+ saves in moderately dispersed formations, the krak missile is by far the better choice. Showing your opponent that you are not afraid to fire the frag on occasion can be useful in keeping them from clumping their units up though. The trick is for you to strike fear, you actually have to kill a few thing with them first.

In 5th Edition, I expect we'll see a sudden upsurge of Frag Missile usage, as all Blast weapons now automatically hit, then scatter, like Ordnance weapons.

The 5th edition work in progress rules had all models touched by the template being hit, and I'm pretty sure there was no need to center the template on a model. Add that to the mass of orks we might end up seeing and frag missiles (and plasma cannon devs) might make a comback.

With so many footslogger ork armies around frag missiles have a role, even in the metagame. 'Stock' dev squads have missile launchers, thats normally where you see them. As dev squads are good they often appear in all comers lists. Should such a list face ork infantry armies, which are themselves becoming popular frag missiles will be the warhead of choice.

Funny enough, in 5th edition (assuming the relevant rules don't change from the leaked PDF) the ones who will start making the most use of frag missiles will be the eldar. Ok, they have plasma, but it's the same thing. The reason for this will be not only the fact that with the new blast rules, the BS3 eldar won't miss quite so much, but also the fact that when shooting a frag (plasma) missile, the strength of the weapon is 4. This means that it's the only eldar heavy weapon that can count as a defensive weapon for vehicle movement and shooting purposes. So a falcon could move, fire the frag (plasma) and it's puls laser all in one go. A wave serpent might fire twin linked (not sure how that's going to work) plasma missiles and an underslung shuriken cannon.

I don't think that will quite work. I don't remember seeing if it was in the playtest rules, but right now you take the highest strength of the weapon when determining if it is offensive or defensive. Thus a zzap gun is an offensive weapon with a potential strength of 10.

Phoenix wrote:Funny enough, in 5th edition (assuming the relevant rules don't change from the leaked PDF) the ones who will start making the most use of frag missiles will be the eldar. Ok, they have plasma, but it's the same thing.

Its not the same. First eldar dont get lascannon or autocannon, and the bright lance offers no advantage against medium armour. This makes the EML a very viable weapon choice.
Now note that the anti horde warhead is much better than a frag missile, because it is Ap4 and can thus cut therough targetsd up to genestealers and Fire Warriors. This makes the EML a very versatile gun useful in both fire modes as a matter of standard course. The human missile launcher is essentially a krak launcher that shoots frag missiles only if no worthy krak missile targets present themselves

No, a weapon is defensve or offensive depending on the Str of the attack, not potential. Saddly I don't remember exactly where that is without my book at work, but I recall the example given is that a missile launcher is offensive on krak, but defensive on frag.

They're talking about the 5th ed rumours.

tegeus-Cromis wrote:They're talking about the 5th ed rumours.

Yes, we are. With the current rules for defensive weapons, the eldar have a lot of options (star cannon, shuriken cannon, scatter laser) however if the 5th edition rumors become true and defensive weapons are defined as "Any vehicle weapons of Strength 4 or less are classified as ‘defensive’ weapons." (p. 61 of leaked pdf) then those options go away. However the new option of the missile launcher shows itself. I think the ramifications of that are significant.

Whoops, I actually thought Dakkalad was claiming that in the rumours, defensive/offensive status would be determined by the max strength of the weapon. I didn't realise he was making a claim about the current state of things (he is wrong, of course). My bad for skimming.

Frags are a good example of an opportunity weapon. I think the flexibility is worth the price paid in a take-all-comers list, so long as your anti-tank capacity is already significant. in other words, take a lascannon over an ML, and a BL instead of an EML, unless you already have plenty of las/fire dragons/whatever- then go for the flexible weapon.

My EMLs have claimed more than their share of Genestealers, that's for sure. AP4 isn't bad at all against Orks, 'Nids or Eldar...