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hey Dakka World, okay, it's a given that if the officer's purpose is Ld., he hides, armed with only the official CCW/laspistol. no frills. if it's a suicide command sqd., the officer get's a las/bolt pistol and CCW. in most cases it's the same with a Vet. sgt. would it be a "bad" idea to go with a bolter/stormbolter instead? you lose +1 attack, but so what? it's not likely it will help a guardsman anyway, they're bad at it! for example: vet. sgt. w/st.bolter 1-2 troops w/shotguns 3 meltaguns everybody moves and shoots. now they still have a duelrole thing going, which is bad. but i think it's better than having 1 guy for CC, 1-2 anti infantry and 3 anti tank. thanks.

That storm bolter costs 5 pts. That's half a plasma gun. I suppose, if you only take one, it's not that egregious.

and if you're going with a boltpistol anyway, it's only 4 more points .

Here's the issue for me re/arming the officer with a bolter/storm bolter: will you be tempted to try and take a shot with that gun? If the answer is 'no, his purpose is for leadership, I just want it in case I get a clear shot/drop-podders/whatever', then fine. If the answer is, 'no, I'd never do that...but if I just move slightly out of cover I can get a shot!', then don't take it.

The minute you become tempted to move that leader out of cover, he's a dead man. It's the same with putting a HW in that squad. Giving him something to shoot at means he can be shot, and you don't want that.

i'm talking about vet. sgt. in h.vet. sqauds, and officers in suicide command sqauds. either dropping, or running in
chimeras. not the officers providing Ld.

Ah.

For droppers, I think a BP is sufficient most of the time. The extra range won't help (you won't get it with the bolter, anyway, though you will get an extra shot), and the Str4 is nice to have.

I guess it depends on whether you feel like you need the extra shot.

For a plasma armed squad I'd definirtely go for the 1 pt bolter. Those 2 rapid fire str 4 shots just might be able to hurt what the plasmas are shooting at. You only need a storm bolter when you plan to assault along with grenade launchers or meltas.

I guess a Plasma Pistol on the Lt is right out? Sure, it's 10 points for a single plas shot, so it's perhaps not cost effective. But in a squad with 4 plasmaguns rapidfiring from a drop, a plasma pistol keeps the focus of the unit nice and tight.

It may be worth it, but the math on it is questionable. If you get to fire, you will be in rapid fire range with the rest of your squad most likely, and that will only happen once a game, from that you only have a 50% chance of hitting, and an 83% chance of killing. So, you have a 42% chance of killing anything in the game on any given turn if you can get in range.

A marine, will give you back the points for killing it, but if you play hoard armies mostly, probibally not. Chances are it wont kill its cost, and has a 11% chance of costing you 40 pts. however you were throwing it away already so...

You are probibally better investing the points elsewhere, but if you have it to put there, its not the worst idea. If its a suicide squad already, why not? But dont listen to me, use the math to decide.

I'm using my Col Schaeffer model to decide. PP + PW, there's really nowhere else to put him other than in a suicide drop squad.