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I am trying to fit some anti infantry in an IG list that largely employs melta vets, I have 3 troop allocations remaining and am considering the following to get the most anti light infantry possible out of 1 troop choice (without the point and $ investment of making a platoon do a similar job)

Veteran Squad-
Harker Upgrade
Heavy Bolter
3 sniper rifles
-Chimera
Heavy BolterX2 (I could take the multilaser, but damn if 4 heavy bolters isn't too damn cool of a mental image)
Pintle Mounted Stubber.

This gives me the most possible shots at 36" range and as it would be a 1off vet squad I wouldn't worry about the 215 pt cost as much as I would for a bloated melta vet squad of which I would have several. If I cannot find a good spot to snipe from in deployment harker allows me to outflank (for this I would pay 1 turn of not shooting all my guns and a minimum of 1 turn not shooting at all)

Now, if they start the game in position, this gives them 23 shots per turn at 36 inches, with varying ap/str and chance to hit, I can split 2 of the heavy bolters to other targets, and my opponent would need to focus quite a bit of firepower my way to completely silence all the guns this squad brings. If the chimera moves I still get to fire 11 shots at 36". If I go up against MEQ I can switch this out with an executioner for around the same cost (making it an easy fit rather than having to mess around with my list).

The effectiveness of this unit assumes several things.
- I am not facing space marines.
- I can place the tank to make the most of it's range (If I end up sitting 4 inches away from what I want to shoot at I might aswell have taken lasguns in place of the snipers and the value of the hull/turret heavy bolters come into question).
- I can sit still for atleast 3/5 turns (IE if I spend even a single turn more in reserve than I planned to I will at most get 2 turns of full shooting in a standard game)
- I am not facing Hordes of light infantry, in which case my entire list falls apart thus making the use of this unit to compensate for lack of AI moot, that is to say I would rather have several AI choices rather than a band aid unit to deal with infantry.

So, if I am facing off against a Tau or Eldar army I feel that I could make this work wonders, though in that I could be mistaken, and I don't have much to go on with respect to facing other armies with this as my answer to light infantry, I feel like it may be the case that it either doesn't hurt them, or it doesn't put enough shots out to make up for a lack of AI in my list.

I would appreceate some thoughts on this, I sincerely doubt that I am the first person to look at harker and ask the question, how many bolters are too many. The inspiration for this unit is purely down to the cool factor, but I feel like I have finally found a way to make it effective, and by that I mean the context of my list makes it effective (or does it!).

Anyway I am mulling over a few options atm to bring my list up to around 1200-1500, I feel.... icky... about dropping a platoon in there at this time, I worry about having short range immobile squads in my list, but I also don't know if throwing more melta vets in there is a good idea.

edit> My alternative choice for AI support would be 2 vet squads with 3xGL and Mlaser+bolter on the chimeras, this is far more versatile and at at the expense of 65pts, gives my list 10 more wounds, 1 more chimera and more target saturation. However this leaves me with a single troop choice left over. I had considered a platoon with 2 special weapon squads in a chimera (jumping in on turn 1, if they could start in the chimera this setup would beg for alrahim ^^) as another alternative, with flamers or GLs, this gives me the most possible special weapons in a single chimera (though only 5 could fire from the chimera and begs the question if a PCS wouldn't be better in there) but forces me to incorporate a platoon into my list also (The teams and the chimera themselves cost 155 points). Any further thoughts on these options would be appreceated.

I like the idea of Harker with vets in a chimera, but my build usually is:

Harker, 3x GL, 1 AC, ML/HB/HS

That way, if I stay still, everything shoots. But, if the chimera needs to move a bit to get LOS or avoid cover for the enemy, the only shots lost are the AC and the HB. In your build, any movement loses the 3 sniper shots, and besides, snipers are not that great in this edition. Also, if the chimera gets stunned/shaken, the squad must disembark or it cannot shoot. The disembarking is part of movement, so your build will still lose most shots. Finally, the GL is more versatile than the sniper rifle, albeit with shorter range.

Another idea for the build is to give the chimera camo netting and deploy it in area cover. That will give it a 3+ cover save that on top of Av12 is most welcome. Now that is a bunker!

phw4 wrote:
The effectiveness of this unit assumes several things.
- I am not facing space marines.
- I can place the tank to make the most of it's range (If I end up sitting 4 inches away from what I want to shoot at I might aswell have taken lasguns in place of the snipers and the value of the hull/turret heavy bolters come into question).
- I can sit still for atleast 3/5 turns (IE if I spend even a single turn more in reserve than I planned to I will at most get 2 turns of full shooting in a standard game)
- I am not facing Hordes of light infantry, in which case my entire list falls apart thus making the use of this unit to compensate for lack of AI moot, that is to say I would rather have several AI choices rather than a band aid unit to deal with infantry.

So let me get this straight; you want to extol the virtues of an anti-infantry unit that is only ever good when it isn't playing Space Marines (the most popular race in 40k) or light infantry (which is kind of the whole point in putting lots of med-S, med-AP guns in a unit). It is only good if it faces off against (foot) Eldar or Tau, neither of which you see much of anywhere at the moment.

Why not just change a few melta Vets for plasma in a ML/HF Chimera and be done with it? Meshes with the rest of your army and is infinitely better at what it does.

L. Wrex

Snipers is a transport are a bad idea. If it moves, they can't shoot. If it is stunned, they can't shoot. If they disembark, they can't shoot. If it pops smoke, they can't shoot. You are better off with assault/rapid fire weapons, so they can move and shoot, or at least disembark and shoot.

As L.Wrex said, Plasma is better than this.

The other option, if you want a mobile bunker to spam S5-6 shots, and use Harker, is to go with 3x GL.
On the move you can still fire the Multilaser, Harker's HB, and all 3 GLs. You can even grab an AC, for cheap points, in case you want to sit still.
While this is not my favorite use of Harker, at least you end up with a unit that can take advantage of Harker's relentless HB.