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How important are meltabombs?

Obviously if you bringing a PF leave them at home.

However if the squad is something like plasma cannon, flamer, combiflamer, powersword and intended to push infantry off objectives, thats a lot of points already.

Do Meltabombs add signifantly to their ability to handle themselves vs armoured reinforcements?

How about that 90 point minimal tac squad sitting on the objective in a TL LC Razor on your own table edge? Use of meltabombs there?

Appreciate all your thoughts in advance.

I would bring them.

They're useful, and about 20 points less than a PF for a usually better result (except against Walkers)

I mean, a 95 point minimal tac can blow up a 250 points Land Raider.

I don't know that I would expect to see most tac squads assaulting a lR- usually by then whatever was in the LR is eating the squad. However, they do greatly increase effectiveness v. walkers so dreads have to think twice about charging in.

@jmurph:

Um.. you mean Immobilized Dreads.
Meltabombs are kinda meh when trying to hit mobile Dreads.

My 7 Cents.

Want to reinvigorate this thread

How do you use meltabombs effectively?

Lots of lists dont use them - why not?

I've used them before, but a lot of the armies in my area aren't mech. So now I just have powerfists on everything that might be near a tank.

melta bombs are great against any enemy, but especially marines/guard.

if you play against a drop pod marine army, the pods are immobilized when they land, so melta bombs auto hit. they also get a +1 to the damage roll because they are open topped... much easier to remove them this way than by wasting fire from anything else.

also, when fighting against marines, if you can immobilize a land raider, or even stun it so it can't move one turn (most people don't buy extra armor) you can get in close and clamp a melta bomb on it. even if you charge a raider that moved, and your sergeant is cheap enough, you can always choose to death or glory with your sarge and try to stop it again with a guaranteed hit.

I would give melta bombs to any sergeant if I had points... unfortunately I normally do not.

I personally dont bother with them on my tac squads. I put them on my assault and vanguard squads but I usually dont find one meltabomb too effective against vehicles.

I like Meltabombs especially as I like to use a Chaplin with a JP in conjunction with an Assault Squad (sgt also with MBs) this gives me redundancy if I have a crap dice roll. Also the Jump packs give you the maoeuverability (I really can't spell that wors) to take out heavy armour quickly. Powerfists IMHO are just not good enough at dearling with Land Raiders and other very high armour as you get one dice roll in a tac or assault squad that will invaribly be a 1,2,3. For the points they are worth it combined with a powerweapon means your sgt hits at his own innitiative aloows no oarmour saves and can blow up big things...ideal.

For their points cost they're a great way to add some anti armour to a squad. Might not be used every game from every squad but adds that flexability and for assault squads they're even more useful, pity it's no longer the whole squad that can have them :(

MB are nice if you have the points remaining when making a list.

If you are relying on a powerfist for AV 14 duty, there is something wrong with either the list or the plannning of how one uses that army.

My 7 Cents.

Good feedback thanks all

I found it the hard was it is better to take MB even on the squads you don't really think are going to bei n a melee fight with a vehicle. There's so many tactics out there and for a mere 5 points you have a bigger chacne of survival. I take them on all my squads.

They also provide a pretty powerful resistance to Tank Shock, as they auto hit on a Death or Glory attack.

For 5 points (and the added ability to scare people out of Tank Shocks) per squad, I think these are a good investment for a tactical squad. I don't use them to attack tanks, but if they just happen to find themselves within 11" of a tank that didn't move the previous turn, they can charge over and get that auto-hit with the Bomb and have a good chance of scrapping it. This is super efficient if the tank in question is under smoke or your long-range shooting gets shut down.

It's something that you won't use every game, but for 5 points, even if it's once in a while, it takes it's points. That one time you are sitting next to an immobile tank or get Tank Shocked and don't have one, you'll wish you did.

Also about the Tank Shock, it's always just a single hit. A Powerfist will auto-hit for 8+d6, and a meltabomb for 8 + 2d6. If you only get one hit anyway, make it count.

Remember that Death or glory will hit the side tank shocking you not the rear.

All good pointers - thanks will keep all these comments in mind

Taking MB with PF is tough - your going to want to use the fist and thats 30pts for CC. But like mentioned goes well with powersword / LC.

So here is what im thinking

Tac squad with MM, Meltagun, Sarge wth combimelta and PF

2nd Tac squad with Plasma cannon, flamer, combiflamer, powersword and MB.

Second squads job is to dig troopies out of their cover, first squad's job is to hit armour in the open driving at the enemy' main mass

Thoughts?

Again appreciate thoughts from all.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry that 2nd sarge taking LC not PS so he keeps his bolter for the combiflamer - pistol goes so no point taking the sword over LC.

lightning claws are not an option for tac sergeants.

kinda lame... i'd like to take thunder hammers in tac squads myself.

overall, i'd say your sergeants are overly expensive. 30+ points of upgrades on a 1 wound model, and the combi-weapons are one shot. i'd keep to just close combat weapons, or just combi-weapons.

thanks Horst - forgot about that

BUT - GO AURORA!!

AURORA FOR THE WIN!!!!

just went 2-1 today in a tournament with them. WOOT!! GO AURORA!

Personally, I'd only use MB in a AS when it is very mobile. Had a particular during which I assaulted a Chimera, then proceeded to blow it to smithereens. Problem was though, that the thing exploded and killed the very guy who'd blown it up!

MC

I don't have my rulebook on me, but a friend and I were discussing meltabombs and we were confused about something.. Neither of us can recall meltabombs being listed as having "AP1" anywhere. Can anyone confirm a page for it?

they aren't. probably should be, but what are you gonna do.

They're also not melta weapons. Again, should be but...

Five points is five points, but it is an OK upgrade. You can use them when being Tank Shocked.

I say take them if you are worried about Tank Shock. And they are a pretty reliable anti-vehicle weapon anyway, so long as the vehicle is stationary.

Ya my friend, who plays Dark Angels, and I recently had a very vigorous campaign.
We have played together a lot so we knew each other pretty well, I knew his strat would be to get a ton of bikes w/ tac squads as objective support, but he surprised me with lots of tac marines, and hardly any armor. To combat that, I had lots of armor, 2 land raiders and a couple of rhinos. He had all of his sargeants equipped with melta bombs which really threw me for a hurtin. I think that they add to the already great versatitlity of the tactical space marine, and they are not too expensive.

He won btw, destroyed my land raiders before they could contest his objective, and had a very brave interrogator chaplain. Chaplain w/ 3 wounds? just epic

Personally I have always liked melta-bombs, They are called tactical squads are they not? With melta bombs they can have a decent chance against vehicles and walkers, not to mention buildings if need be. Though if possible I would take a meltagun as well.

I don't know... I wouldn't call 'needing 6's to hit a mobile walker' decent vs. a walker with melta bombs.

My 7 Cents.

It's been said, but for me, the key point is this: 5 points.

They're cheap enough that they're almost a no brainer for assault type units and HQs, and then worth taking to fill out the last few points on Tacticals.

Using them isn't really an issue, you just play the game, don't forget you have them (this is often the biggest problem), and then if a situation presents, you blow up a tank.

Don't forget they're not AP1, which sorta diminishes the fun, but whatever, still pretty much an auto-Pen on a hit.

As many have said before, I keep melta bombs limited to stuff like assault squads, vanguard squads as 50 poitns gives you 10, characters joining either of those 2 units, and the odd time I dont give my sternguard sgts PF them too.