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Ok so for 5 points more per gun I get 12 inches of range to play with. The S7 does make it weaker and harder to Insta-kill but I can keep running back 6" and keep shooting so that's about 2-3 more shots per gun before the squad is dead or wins.

Second I am going to be getting shot back at anyway. Even if I am moving back then firing that's about 4 to 6 dead unless I have a cover save or if I am in a transport.

If I am in a transports I would rather be within 12". With 6 shots from full plasma squad I can do major damage to a 2+ save unit.

Personally I think a mix would be better. 2 to 1 or 1 to 2. That is so I still have the option of taking out their transports / armor more easily if I can close in.

If I am footing it with them Plasma would be much better but if I cram them into a transport I would rather have a mix.

Now here is the thing. If we have all three shooting there is a 50% chance one is going to die out right when firing and it wont even fire. More so if we are withing 12" for a rapid fire. Also there is the 1 in 216 chance that all the plasma units bite it on one roll.

Melta gets one shot but needs to be close to shoot. Pre-measuring helps but then boom dead in most every CC or get shot back at and get whipped out .

What do you guys think of Plasma vs Melta? I am mostly focusing on the negatives.

To be honest I take melta on my veterans and dont bother with plasma, either in vets, command or inf squads. at 15 points it costs the same as 3 guardsmen (or 9 lasgun shots) has a 50% chance to miss, and a 1/6 chance to explode and probably kill the dude carrying it, Melta is there for killing tanks, for killing 2+ stuff I just tend to shoot a fakload of lasguns at it with FRFSRF, when theres 30 guardsmen moving up and rapid firing you with an extra tap on those lasguns, you gun' die son

Well, I ain't an IG player, but if I were you, I'd go mainly plas, with some melta on certain units (stormtroopers, vets, specialist weapons...basically anything that can get close).

The reason why is because you only really need melta to deal with AV14 (and AV13, if you are too impatient to glance it to death with autocannons and plas), and those vehicles aren't common.
Also, due to the changes to power weapons, chances are you'll be seeing a few more 2+ saves now, making an abundance of long range (relatively, anyway) AP2 weapons valuable.

Though really, plasma is 15 points and melta is 10? That's odd. Should be the other way around, imo.

Ya I mean If you are near a 2+ save unit vs a 5+ save standard troop choice with a few upgrades even at 24" away you are going to get wrecked. Might as well run in with those meltas and try to lock them up for a round. Make them shoot / charge at your squad on their turn so you can move better guns there to deal with that.

I am cruel and love to sacrifice squads. They are like low hanging fruit and people never disappoint me wasting a turn attacking them with an elite squad rather than ignoring them.

Plasma certainly got better, but it was already pretty good. If anything we'll probably see a pop in the melta bubble we've been living in for awhile.

That said, I'm still going to bias towards melta. Plasma just got a lot better against most vehicles, certainly, but melta still has that kill-it-dead-ness to it that I'm reluctant to part with.

I'll start putting some more plasma in, but for now I'm still going to stick with meltas in my PISs.

I love Melta but thats realy becouse my luck with Plasma is " oh look 6 melta guys just kill themselfs....again......" it just horrid roles but I just dont want to lose guys to myself when the guy across the bord is trying to get them too.

Ailaros wrote:Plasma certainly got better, but it was already pretty good. If anything we'll probably see a pop in the melta bubble we've been living in for awhile.

That said, I'm still going to bias towards melta. Plasma just got a lot better against most vehicles, certainly, but melta still has that kill-it-dead-ness to it that I'm reluctant to part with.

I'll start putting some more plasma in, but for now I'm still going to stick with meltas in my PISs.

"kill-it-dead-ness"

Oh Melta guns. For those times when a guardsman looks up sees a Wraithlord craps his pants then kills it with fire.

I exclusively use plasma. Plasma guns and pistols in both veteran squads infantry squads and command squads. And plasma cannons on most vehicles. I love plasma.

Yeah, it can (and often does) kill its user but I feel that killing a terminator gets it's points back and then some and it's worth it. The look on your opponents face when you reveal that you have 15+ plasma guns shooting in a single turn in priceless

I think you really need a decent mix of the two (although not in the same squads) as they really have different targets, although a certain amount of overlap exists.

Melta is the go-to for killing heavy vehicles. Also useful vs T4 characters, heavy infantry and MC's.
Plasma is better at killing heavy infantry and most MC's (and lighter vehicles with increased RoF), but the trade-offs are higher points cost and the chance to kill yourself.

The dilemma for Guard is that killing heavy infantry can be done in numerous ways at range with other options in our codex whereas heavy tanks are much harder to kill at range and our non-melta solutions are less reliable (except the Vendetta - but that is now at the mercy of reserve rolls every game).

I guess the situation applies to. I have a platoon outflanking with Al'rahem and I use plasmaguns and plasmapistols in those units, just because of the longer range.
With Meltaguns I have 'just' 18 inch threat range, (6 move, 12 range) while with the plasmaguns I have 30 inch. Sure, I lose some of the heavier antitank power, but now I gain versality and more shots. The str 7 shots mean that I can engage most rear/side armour of vehicles, while if necessary , I can also go for heavy infantry (because of the AP2.)
the volume of fire with 3 shots makes up for the lack of killing power.

Still, by no means perfect, but just because plasma allows me more options, so I take them.

This is more like Coke vs Pepsi than I thought.

=)

I much prefer plasma for walking, since the change to both rapid fire and fire points.

Melta guns still have their place, to be sure, but usually I like using things like tanks and heavy weapon teams against enemy armor. And now that the Devil Dog is the anti-tank weapon it was meant to be, I don't think I'll ever make a melta vet squad in chimera.

Commissar_Tiberius wrote:This is more like Coke vs Pepsi than I thought.

=)

That's a good analogy, but I think it's more dr pepper vs mountain dew. Both a good, but they are different and used in different ways. Monday wing night? Dr Pepper. Applebee's Cowboy burger? Mountain dew.

Heavy armor spam? Melta. Terminators? Plasma.

I tend to mix them up in my vet squads, used to run 2 plasmas and a melta, with the new rule ive been swaping it around so that squads are 1 flamer and 2 meltas so you can get in close and you get the flamer hits when they charge

goundry wrote:I tend to mix them up in my vet squads, used to run 2 plasmas and a melta, with the new rule ive been swaping it around so that squads are 1 flamer and 2 meltas so you can get in close and you get the flamer hits when they charge

I like the flamer idea.