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As I am reading this forum, there seems to be a general consensus in favor of giving meltas for... well, anything but Havocs. Now ,I love my meltas on CSMs, as plasmas are too dangerous and my vanilla CSMs might actually come close to a vehicle and really dont wanna pop a Rhino at melee only to recive a counter charge next turn. However PMs which tend to be used more defensively as goal holders, plasmas seem a much better option. After all, plague marines are almost immune to the Gets Hot! rule, so why go meltas? Wouldn't plasmas be not only better against MEQ, but also have a better chance to pop Rhinos at a distance. And besides, if it's close enough for melta range, it's close enough to powerfist, and plague marines care little for explosions, or counter charges.

Am I missing something?

Personally, I love using meltas on my plague marines, since it allows them to super reliably kill high armor vehicles. Power fisting vehicles to death is great, but decent players will move their vehicles, and often it is difficult to hit them.

Plasma however, is not bad at all. If you think you have enough anti vehicle, plasma is great on plague marines, since not only do they have a 3+ armor, but also the fnp to take against pesky gets hot wounds. Also, the overlooked option is the double flamer, but personally I like the other two better.

You aren't missing something, it's just how you like to play your PM's.

Personally I mix it up and take squads with Meltas and squads with Plasma.
Of course my army consist entirely of Plague Marine troops though.

At 1,850 I run 3x 5-man 2x melta squads, 1x 2x plasma squad. Just helps with the variety a bit.

Take meltas if you expect to be up close and personal with an opponent's armor, and plasma so you can rip apart MEQs and MCs with a bit more frequency before closing in to CC.

Plasma takes Plague Marines great, cooks 'em up real good ...Oh wait, you ment Plague marines carrying Plasma...Yeah they do that Pretty good too.

Not being a CSM player myself, but having faced them many times, I have seen them run both ways. If I were to do it, I would reach the same conclusion you have that Plasma seems to be better in the hands of PM.

I prefer plasma guns, I love their range and high str. But this is the age of melta weaponry. So depending on what I want them to do Assaulting/Tank Hunting I give them Meltaguns. Now for objective holding units I field them with Plasmaguns.