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Going to make a 10 man strong Sternguard squad with combi-meltas and have them in a drop pod. I was wondering if it was a good idea to have a couple of melta guns in the squad as well so that after my melta shots from the combi-meltas are used up I still have some weapons to take out armor or characters? Just seemed like a good idea, thoughts?

Hmmmm combis are your best bet for that specail ammo, which is always handy. I may nudge towards 5 combi meltas and 5 combi plasma for some extra flavour, but it depends.

Taking a plasma cannon can be great fun ...

...but out of a pod combi- flamers and meltas are you're best friends

Running 10 in a pod is a wonderful thing. Rock on. I run a 10 man stern with 5 combi-meltas and 2 melta guns in a pod. I call it my "melta-cide."

As for your question, Yes. Yes you should run 2 meltas in your 10 man squad. A meltagun costs as much as a combi-melta, And ensures that your squad can continue to threaten heavy armor.

I haven't done the mathhammer, but I would think a single Melta shot would get more kills then rapid'ing hellfire rounds/Vengence rounds.

Sentai_Sage wrote:Running 10 in a pod is a wonderful thing. Rock on. I run a 10 man stern with 5 combi-meltas and 2 melta guns in a pod. I call it my "melta-cide."

As for your question, Yes. Yes you should run 2 meltas in your 10 man squad. A meltagun costs as much as a combi-melta, And ensures that your squad can continue to threaten heavy armor.

I haven't done the mathhammer, but I would think a single Melta shot would get more kills then rapid'ing hellfire rounds/Vengence rounds.

thanks. that was what I was thinking as well.

I would pick a squad with: 2 heavy flamers and 8 combi-melta's. you can devide them anyway you want (combatsquads):

two groups with 4 combi-melta for killing two vehicles
two groups with a heavy flamer and sternguard bolters for small infantry squads.
one group with 5 combi-melta's to kill a transport and another group with two heavy flamers to kill the passengers.

I really like this setup.

It is one of the few places that marines can take a heavy flamer, but I still lean towards meltaguns. More range and better against more armies. And if facing horde armies in cover you should be using special ammo and not the combi-shots from the rest of the squad.

Just out of curiosity, where do you guys get all these combi meltas from? Do you go to a bitz site or make them yourself?

Constantly check bitz sites and eBay for deals. They are out there if you are patient and persistent.

Praxiss wrote:Just out of curiosity, where do you guys get all these combi meltas from? Do you go to a bitz site or make them yourself?

I am making my own. Check them out here.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/344426.page

Wildstorm wrote:It is one of the few places that marines can take a heavy flamer, but I still lean towards meltaguns. More range and better against more armies. And if facing horde armies in cover you should be using special ammo and not the combi-shots from the rest of the squad.

True, but with 16 sternguard shots you can only get a few kills (rapid fire). You can kill about 6 orks and then your in close combat. Its nice to have the option to kill a lot of horde. Most times you can use the meltagun's once (overkill) and then your locked. Meltaguns got a little more range but not in relation with the 6 inch melta-effect.

Heavy flamers are also better against: stormshield terminators, Nob bikers, Hiveguard, normal spacemarines etc.. Its massive hord control against two extra melta shots..

If your going to go with 10 sternguard, I recommend adding Lysander with them.

1)He twin-links their bolters, making special ammuntion much better.

2)He is cc beast, will make some opponents scared to attack the sternguard in assault.

3)EW with 4 wounds and a 3++ save. Every unit that shoots at the sternguard lets you assign a wound onto him - keeping your expensive dudes alive.

Well sure, if your opponent gives you an ideal template placement then the heavy flamer is great. My opponents aren't that nice.

The question is what do you want the turn afterwards when all the combi-shots are gone? If you are suiciding, fine get the biggest bang you can. That's how I go sometimes. But if you want some firepower later, in this mech heavy world, I'd still go meltagun.

Wildstorm wrote:Well sure, if your opponent gives you an ideal template placement then the heavy flamer is great. My opponents aren't that nice.

The question is what do you want the turn afterwards when all the combi-shots are gone? If you are suiciding, fine get the biggest bang you can. That's how I go sometimes. But if you want some firepower later, in this mech heavy world, I'd still go meltagun.

Yep, thats the price you pay but it all depends on the rest of your army anti-tank. My opponents aren't nice either and the make sure I cannot drop the sternguard within 6 inch of a (big)vehicle OR make sure the get assaulted and killed the turn after. You can use the heavy flamers and the other anti-horde sternguardbolter shots at the same time to do massive damage. I once shot/flamed down a Orkmob of 20 and got assaulted by another mob. The killed about 4 sterngaurdmarines and I used my combattactics to run away. I then regrouped and flamed down the other unit. When the unit loses a lot of bodies its always nice to have two marines with heavy flamers left.

When you drop you can kill a vehicle (overkill) or combatsquad and kill/slow down two vehicles. After that you still need to get within 6 inch to use the melta-effect. If your facing razorbacks you can also assault with krak grenades instead.

I prefer the heavy flamers but thats also because I play a sterngaurd list with LOTS of (combi)meltaguns so i can afford to lose a few..

Generally speaking you don't want to remove the sternguards bolters. 5 or 6 combi meltas, or even maxing it out in terms of what you spent on the melta guns is far better and makes the unit more versatile.

Praxiss wrote:Just out of curiosity, where do you guys get all these combi meltas from? Do you go to a bitz site or make them yourself?

Molds and resin are cheap. I would buy them from gw if they had blister packs similar to melta and plasma packs.

But they don't so I don't.