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So we have a mechanised veteran squad with 3 plasma guns in a chimera. A couple of questions to any whom have experience/suggestions...

Hull heavy flamer/Heavy bolter? I see that the unit can sit still and fire from up to 24" away, with that in mind the heavy bolter may be more helpful. Any reason to change the multi-laser turret?

Autocannon heavy weapon team, useful? Again, allows you to make full use of the sit-there-and-shoot method if it applies and if you dont at the time, its only a 10pt expenditure.. but is there anything I'm not considering or a better weapon?

Lastly; are there any other wargear options that work really well with this kind of squad?

Thanks.

I prefer heavy flamers on any IG transport that is getting up close and personal, and I think you will want to do that with your plasma wagon there. I am always leery of letting plasma squads like that sit and shoot since rolling 1's costs you a good model that could have shot twice that turn.
However, if you do want them to sit and shoot at >12" I agree that a heavy bolter is an ok choice, along with an autocannon team. I might still be tempted to use the heavy flamer, if just for close support, however.

Razerous wrote:So we have a mechanised veteran squad with 3 plasma guns in a chimera. A couple of questions to any whom have experience/suggestions...

Hull heavy flamer/Heavy bolter? I see that the unit can sit still and fire from up to 24" away, with that in mind the heavy bolter may be more helpful. Any reason to change the multi-laser turret?

Autocannon heavy weapon team, useful? Again, allows you to make full use of the sit-there-and-shoot method if it applies and if you dont at the time, its only a 10pt expenditure.. but is there anything I'm not considering or a better weapon?

Lastly; are there any other wargear options that work really well with this kind of squad?

Thanks.

the doctrine that gives you carapace armour helps alot Since you still have to roll for Gets Hot! when you are out of range, you can't be as discriminate in your guessing as, say, someone in power armour could.

I play CSM, and one thing i fear from IG is plasmavets rapid firing from their chimera when my plague marines are in the open (ie their rhino just went pop). My friend runs 1 2 meltas, a plasmagun and plasmapistol against me, it misses out on 3 shots at 12" but the flexability works very well for him, ID Oblits with meltas, ignore FNP with ap2/1, pop transports etc. YMMV though.

I would use that as a firebase and add the AC, with hull HB. The whole idea is to use the chimera to get to a good firing position, and when you do open up you've got 4 S7, 3 S6, and 3 S5 shots (thats 10 shots of heavy dakka!). Having the AC means you can be sending 8 shots downfield from the start, getting more in as the enemy draws near. I plan on adding this very squad to my list, and may even add the Grenadiers doctrine in larger games just to help with Gets Hot!, and to encourage me to get out and bring the flashlights to bear as well.

I have been successfully playing a mechanized army that features both regular platoons and veterans mounted in chimeras and valks/vends.

The list features one unit of plasma vets in a chimera, a unit that has proven consistently usefully, but rarely survives a game. In the 1850 version I started with the squad also had a lascannon as well. Their role was simple. Offer up a BS4 lascannon (my only other lascannons aside from a vendetta) and possibly some 24" plasmagusn, and if the enemy got close a nice double tap of plasma fun. It proved effective overall. Their Chimera was a multilaser/heavy bolter because of the static nature of the unit.

When I had to trim to 1750 for a fixed list league, the lascannon went away in favor of a commissar elsewhere in the army, and I greatly missed the lascannon. If I had to do it again I would shuffle points to get that lascannon back in. While they (lascannons) aren't the best thing out there any more, having one to keep the opponent "honest" was nice, seeing as the vendetta often started in reserve. Plus, I felt the unit wasted as just a plasma boat and would often us it to take objectives while my two infantry platoons (autocannons) would sit on my own objectives)

in this case I would have used a hull heavy flamer, but didn't have the model. But overall I think the unit would have been better served as just a melta unit, or somethhing else all together.

about wargear, the unit is expensive with just the plasma that any add ons would make it more so. The only one I might consider would be carapace, but with a 55 point chimera to move them around and proect them, the carapace would be mostly wasted, IMO>

I might concider carapace armour as I like the idea for the tactic of; Move 12" > Disembark 1-2" > Rapid fire 12", allowing me to reach out and touch relatively far-away squads that may have just bailed out of a transport, for example.. so that 4+ may be even more useful.

I been running 2 squads of Vets with 3 Plasma Gun and Las cannon in Chimera and they been very good. The ability to camp on an objective and shoot a las cannon or a las cannon and 3 plasma guns if within 24 at a transport or monesterous creature is very nice. They can also move in and rapid fire to clean up marines or terminators. The las cannon is expensive but it adds anti transport and monsterous creature that isn't a vendetta which might be hold in reserve if I don't get first turn and vendettas seem to get shot.

I run Heavy Flamer on all my Chimeras. You really need the templates vs hordes and if infantry get close. The usefulness of the Heavy Flamer outweights the few bs3 shots you might get from a heavy bolter when not moving.

Razerous wrote:Hull heavy flamer/Heavy bolter? I see that the unit can sit still and fire from up to 24" away, with that in mind the heavy bolter may be more helpful. Any reason to change the multi-laser turret?

I used 3x3 plasma mechvets in my last GT. I ran them without heavy weapons and I was happy to have had the heavy flamer on each chimera. I was completely mechanized and so once the games got going I was getting pretty spread out and many of my units were sort of going it on their own.

Razerous wrote:Autocannon heavy weapon team, useful? Again, allows you to make full use of the sit-there-and-shoot method if it applies and if you dont at the time, its only a 10pt expenditure.. but is there anything I'm not considering or a better weapon?

A good friend of mine runs the auto. When his vets are configured that way, he runs hull heavy bolter. i think that is an intelligent move. But when I usually see him with that configuration, he is running hybrid mech. This gives him that 60 point unit to screen vehicles and absorb charges, letting his chimera remain stationary for that vital turn 2.

I don't think I could envision investing in the autocannon and trading in the heavy bolter without platoon support. If you go second against an opponent with fast assaulting capabilities, then that vital turn 2 robs you of a move 6"/souffle, and if you choose to dig in and shoot, your scoring chimera is dead meat.

Razerous wrote:Lastly; are there any other wargear options that work really well with this kind of squad?

Carapace was mentioned, but I haven't tried that yet. It would be fun for my vostroyan army to go all 4+ (and fluff supported) but i don't think that its as useful... or rather, i didn't feel like i wanted it.

The real 'option' that you want nearby this unit is a CCS. I went from one to two CCS before this last tourney because my stuff just kept getting pinned, the whole 'trick' to mech is that the enemy gets to you, pops your vehicle, and then has to eat the fire from the squad inside. With a paltry leadership 8, I was getting pinned constantly, so completely disregarding the obviously devastating combo of fire on my target and plasma, and bring it down and plasma when you are firing on light vehicles and MCs, get back in the fight was crucial to my success.

Hope that was useful

I think that it really depends on what type of army you are running.

Meltagun Vets in a chimera run 155 points
Plasmagun Vets in a chimera run 170 points
Autocannon Vets in a chimera run 130 points, 140, if you put on a heavy stubber (11 shots at 36 inches).

Having both plasma and a heavy flamer in a unit/transport means that both elite armies as well as hordes will be crying.

I tend to start my plasmas with the CCS.

3 plas/medipak/carapace
Chimera HB/ML/pintle H Stubber if I have the points.

Shotgun wrote:I tend to start my plasmas with the CCS.

3 plas/medipak/carapace
Chimera HB/ML/pintle H Stubber if I have the points.

I was so close to doing this. I love the immune to overheat combo..

But what stopped me was this...

When using meltaguns to stop armored assaults, I tended to have to maneuver right into the heart of the enemy assault and fire off a shot. A lot of times I had to stretch really far to get to within 6" even (gasp) debarking to do so. i found out that I lost a LOT of scoring units doing this dangerous duty. Once I gave the troops the anti-infantry shots, and gave my valuable but ultimately expendable CCS the melta, then i was much more comfortable going suicidal with them. debarking, BiD and then just eating the consequences.

Keep in mind that I run a lean 3 mech vets. I'm really pushing it on troops, so I need to pursue every safety measure I can. If i was running 4 vets, I would probably move all melta onto them and run the power fist/carapace/medic/plasma set up on my CCS.

How's the plasma CCS with medic and carapace in a Chimera? That just sounds really expensive for 1750-1850?

Kirika wrote:How's the plasma CCS with medic and carapace in a Chimera? That just sounds really expensive for 1750-1850?

I run the following:

CCS commander w/PP
4 Veterans with PG
Chimera ML/HF
(Carapace)

Mission - Drive around within 12 inches of a group of big armoured nasties and unleash 9 plasma shots at BS4. They're somewhat of a suicide unit but they can scare even the hardiest of MEQ players and that means dedicated fire to remove them. It's also fairly easy to earn back the 175 points (ouch) you spent on the unit + transport if you've got Termies running around.

Firing order - Shoot the Chimera's HF first if you're within range and/or the target is bunched up. Blaze with your plasma second. If you think you won't get at least 3 hits with the HF then use the multilaser to shot the survivors of the plasma.

Carapace - has helped save a few Gets hot! wounds but also somewhat helpful for the inevitable Explodes! wounds when every heavy weapon in his army shoots that Chimera.

Medic - I never use him because a) you now have one less plasma vet and b) I may be unlucky, but I haven't seen him really earn his 30 points worth in any game I've played. Typically I'll roll a 1 and then a 2

Overall a nice glass cannon that I have found useful in almost every game I've played. YMMV but I love it. Plus it's rather suspenseful rolling 4 sets of two dice one after another and hoping for no 1s! (remember to roll that way because a single model can suffer two Gets Hot! rolls with which you could mistakenly wound two different models)

DoW

Good point about rolling each PG seperate...