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so whats dakkas opinion? 5 man plague marine squads with meltas (two in each squad) or, ten man pm squad with 2 meltas?
I only ask because im putting together a plague marine army, and I'm kinda thinking as many melta guns as possible, which would mean less marines. unless dakka could give me better reason not to. Im also thinking of giving every squad a rhino, but that's still up in the air.

Ten is a bit too much, especially if you are going to have more than one unit.

If you have the Chaos Lord or Typhus to make them troops, get 7-8 plagues in each unit. It's nicely survivable, leaves room for a sorcerer or PA lord to ride along in the rhino, and lets you have more units for capturing objectives.

Double melta is fun, but double plasma is also not bad at all, especially now that we are seeing more terminators and DA bikes around.

I'm going to run 2 squads of 7, with 2 plasma guns in each + a power sword and meltabombs on the champ.

My melta goes on my 2 raptor squads instead.

I run fluffy Death Guard most of the time, so in turn, I use 7-man squads.
If I am being hyper-competative, I use 5-man squads with dual special weapons. At 150 pts, 5 dudes with 2 plasmaguns is tough to beat, especially when those 5 dudes are T5, 3+ and have FNP.

I've been doing 10 man in rhinos to good effect. While 5 mans are great, your limited to 30 total. Your also paying a surcharge on rhinos if you bring less. 10 lads in a rhino means a surcharge of 3.5 points per model to ride.

Try a few different ways out and see what works for you

im gonna try overkilling it with 2 plasmas and a plasma pistol on the champ in units of 5.

Plasma pistols are really bad. Crap range and low rate of fire for the cost! If you want more bang, get a combi weapon on the champion. Combi-flamers will help you against hordes, and combi-meltas help in cracking armor or insta-killing T4 models.

5 for Rhino Melta Squad.
7 for walking Plasma Squad.

For me that tested pretty well although I'm no longer using them.

labmouse42 runs a good list which brings PL's in abundance along with Epi which should do well.

Otherwise they are just too expensive in an already expensive codex.

Here is the thing though about PMs. They are expensive, but point for point they are more durable than other marines. This means when you need them to stick on an objective, they will - and it takes a lot of effort to dislodge them.

The only drawback with PMs is the increased cost is an opportunity cost for guns elsewhere.

 Sephyr wrote:
Plasma pistols are really bad. Crap range and low rate of fire for the cost! If you want more bang, get a combi weapon on the champion. Combi-flamers will help you against hordes, and combi-meltas help in cracking armor or insta-killing T4 models.

I agree that a combi-flamer may be better Vs hordes and for an overwatch hit but if you intend to charge anything robust with the plague marines a combi-plasma gun is pointless, and a combi-melta gun only gets the one shot per game. If you intend to win a few combats against small tough units its the p.pistol (+ 2 meltaguns) all the way.

plasma and as many as you can fit in there. 8 man squad 4 plasma (think you may have to have 10 for that)

keep melta to fast stuff like raptors and CSM bikes. plasma has more range, rapid fire, and a respectable S and AP. Hell you can even glance AV13 to death with it

Exalbaru wrote:
plasma and as many as you can fit in there. 8 man squad 4 plasma (think you may have to have 10 for that)
keep melta to fast stuff like raptors and CSM bikes. plasma has more range, rapid fire, and a respectable S and AP. Hell you can even glance AV13 to death with it

you have an equal chance of killing yourself as your do glancing a AV13 with plasma...
and the max you can have is 2 flamer/meta/plasma and one champ upgrade.

Am I the only one that puts 10 in rhino with 2x plasma, 1 combi-flamer or combi-melta (1 shot but when i it works it works), Power Axe (Already striking at init 3 anyway so unless MC it doesn't make a difference, would do fist but then would lose an attack and if i want to strike at init 3 i use plague knife) a dirge caster and havoc launcher?
I usually disembark the first turn and if i get the infiltrating warlord trait i infiltrate them with the rhino.
I use it to take and hold forward objectives or grab the relic first turn...