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 Ordana wrote:

 koooaei wrote:
But why would you want to deepstrike melta if you can deepstrike plazma? It's only around 5% less effective at killing tanks with 3+ armor but is cheaper and much better at killing other stuff.
Besides, as it has more shots with predefined damage, it's more reliable. You're not getting within 6' for the re-rolled damage anywayz.

I'm not saying you should.
Someone said Guard had no way to get melta in range. I say they have Scions.

They have no effective way of getting melta in range. Scions cannot drop in half range, and their mobility is contrary to the rest of a guard force, leave my them isolated. And any opponent with half a brain can screen deep strikers

Melta scions are basically only good if you can somehow disembark them from a transport and have them nuke a superheavy that same turn.

It does shock your opponent to see them disembark 3", advance another 8-12", then double tap melta at half range on them with only the -1 to hit penalty though. Noone expects to get hit with 10 melta shots from 20-26" away.

 Skinnereal wrote:

 vipoid wrote:
People always talk about melta vs plasma, however, I think a better comparison would be melta vs lascannon.
....
Basically, it performs the same function as a meltagun, but can do so from a much greater distance.

But, Lascannon is a heavy weapon requiring a change to a HWT, and Melta can be taken by a single model.
It's not a big problem, but some squads cannot take HWT.

IG can be given orders. They can make a difference, if the right orders are given.

Well yeah, if your only choice is melta, then melta wins. But most IG armies have at least some way to spam lascannons, even Elysians. For such a minor points increase, the lascannon wins almost every time thanks to it's flexibility. A lascannon will fire turn 1 and usually continue having targets until either it dies or the opponent is tabled. A melta gun will get 1-2 turns of shooting on average, either because it's useless most of the game sitting out of range, or it's in close range and becomes a massive target.

Meltaguns were powerful in previous editions because they could oneshot tanks very reliably, and had several ways to enter close range. We had some of the most accurate deepstrikers in the game, good transports with firing ports to get within range, and had Valkyries to do airdrops. Nowadays Stormtroopers have to drop outside prime melta range, transports don't have firing ports, and Valkyries are more expensive. Meanwhile lascannons are more versatile than ever with split fire, meaning infantry squads can contribute from across the board, leman russe's can split their hull shots, etc.

It's just not a fair contest, and that's before we even get into the massive price raise meltas got while their competition either got cheaper or stayed the same price. And it's not even like you necessarily lose two models worth of shooting to get a lascannon, since the loader can fire his lasgun now and even split fire. The only instances where infantry can't get them (krieg and Elysia) they get other options that spam lascannons to fill the gap, like the elysian twin lascannon buggies or Krieg Leman Russ Annihilators.

 Eihnlazer wrote:
Melta scions are basically only good if you can somehow disembark them from a transport and have them nuke a superheavy that same turn.
.

That's why I run Valkyries.

The more I play 8th, the more I think melta rule weapons should get the ability at all ranges, not just half or under. And since the 2D6 only applies to vehicles, it would still be a choice rather than an auto take.

But hopefully this might give melta a purpose. You have the flamer for anti infantry, meltas for anti tank, plasma for general work, Grenade launchers for a weaker flamer/plasma combination and a sniper rifle for the mortal wound chance.

Well, right now the 2d6 applies to everything. Tanks, monsters, commanders, that poor, poor, conscript, everything.