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Whats your opinions on Valkyrie/Vendetta heavy bolters? Since they can actually fire forward with the rest of the weapons they might be worth taking to add some anti horde fire power.

Valkyries typically are armed with a multi laser and missle pods, if you add heavy bolters you can only move 6 if you want to fire them while you can move 12 and fire the multi laser and missle pods.

Vendettas you can only move 6 if you want to fire the Las cannons anyway so it does not restrict mobility but if your shooting at vehicles or monsterous creatures with a 3+ save most of the time you aren't getting the best use out of those heavy bolters. They are nice to have versus hordes like orks however.

I like to add them to Vendettas, but not my Valkyries (multilaser/missile pods)

A great investment for the points...2 heavy bolters for 10 points is a bargain you'll rarely find. Limits the mobility of the valk, though, and doesn't mesh well with the vendetta armament, which is probably the reason for the discount. I don't usually buy them, but don't think it's necessarily a poor option.

It adds diversity to the Vendetta when it's out of lascannon targets.
It adds more weight of fire to the Valk when you don't need to move real fast.

If you are hurting for points, these are the things you drop.
If you have extra...and you are maxed out on special weapons...

Why not?

I like them for ML/Pod Valks. Gives them the option of more weapons when moving slower(and keeping up their rate of fire with weapon destroyed results).

Not so much for Vendies, which should be tank hunting.

I don't mind them on MP-ML Valks if you've got the 10 extra points at the end of list creation, but that's about it. I wouldn't add them to the Vendetta since it's only going to tempt you to shoot at sub-optimal targets. That said, if you do have 10 points left over even on the Vendetta it's still not a bad way to spend 'em.

Someone said those 10pts are the first they'd cut to make space, which I agree with 100%.

It just seems like the MP/MP/HB valks would be devastating to hordes and packed infantry in general. I wouldn't be thinking too much about getting full (or any) use of it's transport capability if I had them on - dakka gunship all the way.

Doesn't mesh enough with the LC vends imo.

If I wasn't planning on using the transport capacity in most games then the HBs become a better option. You won't likely get a lot of use out of them until midgame, but it is a whole lot of horde killing. I dontt normally look to hard at the Valk unless I'm going to transport though, since it really just duplicates things the IG are already quite good at (vs the Vendetta anyway). Hence my categorizing the HBs as a 'nice but not necessary' sort of option.

Thanks for the replies. Not enough points seems to be the story of IG especially at the 1750-1850 level. Trying to decide if I should spend the time to paint my door gunners.

Vendettas-- certainly
Valkyries-- probably not, though it's not a waste if you have spare points

I think it's a good investment, it's only 10 points.

On the vendettas it will be a god dakka ship for hordes with 9 shots.

And the valkyrie is brutal against infantry, and you don't always have to move 12".

Go on forge world and look at the weapon upgrade. You get a few lascannons, autocannons (i think) and misslepods.


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Go on forge world and look at the weapon upgrade. You get a few lascannons, autocannons (i think) and misslepods.

I use them on my Vendetta whenever I have the points for them (ie 1500 and up). While yes, generally speaking, a vendetta should be tank hunting, it's not always possible or ideal.

The main reason though, is monstrous creatures. Particularly toughness 6 ones. Often I find, that my 3 twin linked lascannons will probably not kill off a beastie (IE Demon prince), probably cause 2/3 wounds or whatever (3/4, you get the idea). The extra heavy bolters then add a weight of fire to it that can finish it off.
I also had a good experience last week against an Ork Kan army, heavy bolters did pretty well in stunning them and causing all sorts of havock while the lascannons did the killing.

Pfc-assassin wrote:Go on forge world and look at the weapon upgrade. You get a few lascannons, autocannons (i think) and misslepods.

It's actually really easy to convert vendettas. You just need some lascannons, almost any source is fine.

Here's a good guide:

http://forums.tauonline.org/index.php?topic=83767.0

For mine, I had an extra 2 forward mounted lascannons from the valkyries I built that didn't need them, so I just gave each vendetta 2 of those - 1 where the lascannon would normally go, and 1 trimmed down slightly to fit where the sensor array would go. You can buy the lascannons you need here:

http://www.thewarstore.com/product26940.html

The thing is, the heavy bolters change Vendettas from having 3 strong anti-infantry shots to 9 strong anti-infantry shots. That's very significant, because it fills a hole in the way you use the vehicle. Valkyries benefit less from the heavy bolters because you typically want to move 12" with them, though there are certainly times where they can come in handy.

Fetterkey wrote:The thing is, the heavy bolters change Vendettas from having 3 strong anti-infantry shots to 9 strong anti-infantry shots. That's very significant, because it fills a hole in the way you use the vehicle. Valkyries benefit less from the heavy bolters because you typically want to move 12" with them, though there are certainly times where they can come in handy.

That's certainly true, but in a lot of games you won't need it and those HBs are just going to tempt people to go after sub-optimal targets. More often than not there will be plenty of LC worthy targets for a Vendetta all game.

I like them far more on the Valk because there they take what the vehicle already does well and makes it do that better. You don't have to change target types, you're just sometimes more effective. Guard is a list that already excels at killing squads anyway, so the 10 points spent on the Vendetta HBs can probably be better spent elsewhere. It's not a waste of points per se, but I think those points would have to be all the way left over, if you know what I mean, before I'd spend them on Vendetta HBs.

Fenris-77 wrote:I like them far more on the Valk because there they take what the vehicle already does well and makes it do that better.

I disagree; what a Valk does well is move 12" and shoot.

Fetterkey wrote:

Fenris-77 wrote:I like them far more on the Valk because there they take what the vehicle already does well and makes it do that better.

I disagree; what a Valk does well is move 12" and shoot.

Shoot at infantry you mean. Which the HBs make them better at should they decide to nix the movement an up the firepower. The Vendetta should be shooting at targets that the HBs are redundant agianst (mostly). Every now and then they might come in handy, but not often, even though they mostly have move less than 6" to maximize firepower. 40K is all about specialization - you want squads and vehicles that are the best they can be an killing one kind of target. Adding HBs to a Vendetta doesn't fit the bill. Like I said, it will be occasionally useful, but mostly you shouldn't need the HBs - the Vendetta should either be shooting at an armoured or high T target, or manouvering to do so, and in neither case are the HBs helpful.

Don't the wings limit the line of fire for the heavy bolters

No. they have about a 90 degree arc of fire, straight out, or straight forward.