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Tempted to stick with missile launcher because it's cheap and can strip hull points off light armour, and hurt meq at a pinch. Is it worth the extra points for a lascannon?

Which army do you use?

If you're playing regular SMs then I'd say specialize: meltagun and MM or plasmagun and plasma cannon etc... The regular tactical squads have the cheapest access to the heavy weapons, you can then use a devastator squad with 4 MLs which is their cheapest weapon.

Depends on what you want to do.

MLs are free and flexible. Hard to go wrong there.

HBs, also free, are good at shooting troops. 3 shots make it nice when you are on the move, where weight of fire offsets the 6s to hit of snap-shots.

MMs are still free. It's melta, it does one thing, and does it well. Better in Vulcan lists due to TLing. If you are moving up aggressively anyway, the range doesn't matter.

Now if you have a few extra points, you get the shiny guns.

PC. It's plasma. Kills anything you get under the blast. Can't be snap fired, sometimes kills you. Nice for a sit back and shoot squad.

LC. Kills tanks at range. Turns the rest of the marines with you into glorified bullet sponges. Good if you are combat squadding in half and camping an objective.

If you plan on splitting, invest in the good guns. Combat squads marginalize your bolter fire to maximize your special/heavy fire. If you plan on being on the move, I'd stick with the free options. Like most things in the marine army, you need to look at your list as a whole. Tactical heavy weapons are a good selection of tools, you need to pick the right one for the job you need done.

Well we are going to have to know what kind of army you are running ( Mech , Infantry , Air Cav , Armor Cav ect.) and that will be a big basis for which one you will pick , personally i would say if you are running a mech list i would take plasma due to good range , strength and it can be fired while on the move , foot list i would take Missile launchers , Aircav , Melta guns and Armor cav lascannon just my 2 cents on it

One of my core units in my Marine army is a 10 man tactical squad with lascannon and plasma rifle. It provides long range anti-tank, is effective anti-TEQ (3 AP2 shots in close range), and can still efficiently chew up infantry when needed. A very solid investment in a TAC list for 190 points.

 BryllCream wrote:
Tempted to stick with missile launcher because it's cheap and can strip hull points off light armour, and hurt meq at a pinch. Is it worth the extra points for a lascannon?

Mine is Plasma gun and multi melta.

Back in 5th I used to run Meltagun and Lascannon. I combat squad them so, 5 (MG) in a rhino/razorback and 5 (LC) would guard an objective at the back hiding behind cover.