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I don't think in terms of how much damage a weapon's going to do relative to its cost, I think about its tactical usefulness in relation to the rest of the army. I can certainly say as a Nid player that facing medium ranged blast weapons forces me to space out my swarms more than I'd prefer to, and by all means will make use of GL's in my Genestealer Cult. And I can certainly say that my regular Deathwing opponent was always afraid of my own 4E Deathspitters forcing her to fail armour saves on tightly grouped deepstrikers.

I think it's useful to have medium ranged weak & cheap blasts, not because of the damage they do but because of how they can put pressure on your opponent in ways that a torrent of single shots cannot. And if that weak & cheap blast can be put to occasional use ID'ing swarms and FNP DE, or can throw your opponent into a deep depression after it gets lucky against a carelessly-placed A10 vehicle, even better.

lindsay40k wrote:I don't think in terms of how much damage a weapon's going to do relative to its cost, I think about its tactical usefulness in relation to the rest of the army. I can certainly say as a Nid player that facing medium ranged blast weapons forces me to space out my swarms more than I'd prefer to, and by all means will make use of GL's in my Genestealer Cult. And I can certainly say that my regular Deathwing opponent was always afraid of my own 4E Deathspitters forcing her to fail armour saves on tightly grouped deepstrikers.

I think it's useful to have medium ranged weak & cheap blasts, not because of the damage they do but because of how they can put pressure on your opponent in ways that a torrent of single shots cannot. And if that weak & cheap blast can be put to occasional use ID'ing swarms and FNP DE, or can throw your opponent into a deep depression after it gets lucky against a carelessly-placed A10 vehicle, even better.

This is it!!!!

People on tend to look at the obvious oftentimes.....like I said the GL's potential to cause several wounds on tightly packed infantry (marine or no) is what I am looking at, as well that it can hurt a rhino chassis (or better yet ork trukks/dark eldar raiders and ravagers) with it's krak round. It is a cheap 5 point threat...maybe not as deadly as a melta or plasma gun, but a threat nevertheless.

And the best thing is that I have been successful with the GL as a support weapon....which is still why I field it as a staple to my line units..

Indeed, I'm sure BS3 Melta/Plasma has its uses as a scarecrow and may even get the odd actual kill, but it strikes me that Guard have much better options for anti tank and anti MC. Every turn your blob of Guard shoots at a tank or MC, you're wasting every one of your lasguns that could be forcing MEQs to fail saves or thinning out rival blobs.

Plasma is far better suited to BS4 FNP units, Melta is better suited to BS4 Mech units, and flamers are better suited to Mech units; all of them yield rewards for concentration. The odd one scattered here and there might supplement a firing line and provide Plan B should a dirty trick eliminate a specialist unit as the Deathwing approach, but as a general line weapon for a unit that would rather keep a moderate distance between itself and a galaxy-ful of spiky psychopaths, GL is pretty sound.

lindsay40k wrote:Indeed, I'm sure BS3 Melta/Plasma has its uses as a scarecrow and may even get the odd actual kill, but it strikes me that Guard have much better options for anti tank and anti MC. Every turn your blob of Guard shoots at a tank or MC, you're wasting every one of your lasguns that could be forcing MEQs to fail saves or thinning out rival blobs.

Plasma is far better suited to BS4 FNP units, Melta is better suited to BS4 Mech units, and flamers are better suited to Mech units; all of them yield rewards for concentration. The odd one scattered here and there might supplement a firing line and provide Plan B should a dirty trick eliminate a specialist unit as the Deathwing approach, but as a general line weapon for a unit that would rather keep a moderate distance between itself and a galaxy-ful of spiky psychopaths, GL is pretty sound.

The thing is that orders force you to shoot with your infantry first, especially if you are using "bring it down"....early on you use the AC's to pop the light transports, then I use my large blast ordnance weapons to pulverize the passengers.....except the manticore, which I use to pop open the really hard stuff (like land raiders)...

As the enemy infantry trundles towards my lines, then I switch to FRFSRF and slowly whittle down the enemy....again my large weapons tend to fire last, depending on the targets of opportunity...

The GL is flexible enough for these 2 roles for my firebase squads, and I almost always field it since I find the SW slot too valuable to be just left open (the plasmagun is another option, labeit less used). I have other units which carry the meltas and flamers anyway for up close and personal action.

Every unit in an army should have a purpose. Arming a unit with GLs only makes sense if the purpose of the unit is not primarily doing damage.

I run two AC/GL squads in my mostly mech IG because I like having the scoring units, and the ACs provide a bit of firepower against light vehicles. Since neither role really is boosted by another special, I take GLs simply because it's cheap.

After playing dozens of games, I'm still shocked anytime the GL does anything. That should tell you something.