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Anyone still having success with the paired meltagun squads that were all the rage?

I find myself using plasma and flamers instead but I do still like S8 AP1.

what army are you talking about?

I WISH I could run dual meltaguns! I assume you're a Space Wolves player. Most of the Wolves I see run dual plasma guns, or a plasma and a melta.

As a guard player, at least, I always put as many meltaguns as I can possibly put in everywhere in my list. Having lots of meltaguns is a great defensive weapon. They're sort of like the pikes of 40k, short ranged, but they form "no" zones on the table against an awful lot of scary stuff.

But even if your opponent doesn't charge straight into your melta hedge, they're still useful otherwise. It's still possible to get your melta weapons into range by the end of the game (assuming we're talking about squads that started on the table), and to do that same kind of zone denial further upfield. In that respect, they're sort of like the pawns of 40k - zone controllers that don't immediately seem the best thing, but you couldn't possibly think to want to play a chess game without them.

Furthermore, I've also found them as a great tool on anti-flier duty. Generally, the meltaguns either won't have immediate targets, or will have already killed them off (thanks to the short range of the gun), and rather than twiddling their thumbs, they can race forward in transports 12" and look for 6's. You generally only NEED one or two meltagun hits to knock a flier out of the air or in some other way permanently cripple it (doomscythe without a death ray is rather pointless, for example). Given that it's not that hard to get a lot of meltaguns on the table (especially for imperial guard), you also get that neat little ability with them as well.

Plus, in the end, there sort of just isn't a good substitute for meltaguns. Anything that you'd want to shoot plasma guns at you can also hurt with bolters and krak grenades. A meltagun, on the other hand, is the only serious option for saying "you must die now" to anything in the game.

 Somedude593 wrote:
what army are you talking about?

I'm Chaos but it was more an open ended question.
Many armies had equivalents to the melta troop squads like IG Chimera Vets or drop pod Grey Hunters.

Flamers got more useful in 6E for sure. Wall of Death and more things providing Cover Saves mainly. And Plasma too of course is more popular now, though I was always a proponent of Plasma even in 5E (hey, I never seemed to have problems popping vehicles with double Plasma Guns in 5E). But Meltaguns are still useful if you face armor at all and have a unit that can get up close to it. It's less useful for IG now since Vendetta have to be in Reserve (or at least less popular), and I find it less necessary with my Space Wolves since people are leaving their tanks at home more often than not.

But its hard to beat Melta and AP 1 when it comes to taking out a tank or building.

For CSM, I wouldn't take it at all. Obliterators and (maybe?) TDA are the only options for getting it in close enough due to Deep Strike, and the Obliterators can have it Twin-Linked. Mind you, there are better uses for your Obliterator's time...

Maybe on CSM Bikers? They move fast enough they could make use of it. Though again I tend to see people just bringing Plasma.

Raptors and CSM in a Rhino (No matter how reviled they are) have worked quite well for me with 2 x Meltaguns. It requires a bit more maneuvering with your little metal box, but they can generally get where they're going and slag something when they get there. If your CSM are not moving forward then you'd probably be wise to the idea that it'd be better to have a Plasma gun.

They're still damn handy for BA...but that's largely due to being able to reliably drop them straight into 2d6 penetration range on turn 2...

I think they are still good for power armored units that are more built for melee than shooting since they are assault weapons. Plasma I think is the better overall choice now though since it has more shots and double range. There are some lists with more than one AV14 tank so it's a good idea in general to have some redundancy for units designed to pop them such as those armed with meltaguns.

I still like meltas in most cases over plasma. They're more damaging at their effective range (and take out all types of armor saves/can ID T4) and they threaten tanks. They do so many nice things, for so little (with no chance of getting hot) that I just really, really enjoy them.

I still stick to my flamers and meltas. Flamers handle most infantry nicely, and meltas have so many nice perks...

cowmonaut wrote:

For CSM, I wouldn't take it at all. Obliterators and (maybe?) TDA are the only options for getting it in close enough due to Deep Strike, and the Obliterators can have it Twin-Linked. Mind you, there are better uses for your Obliterator's time...

Maybe on CSM Bikers? They move fast enough they could make use of it. Though again I tend to see people just bringing Plasma.

Focusing on Chaos, I'd agree. Termicide or MSU biker squads are still the best ways to utilize melta. Obliterators are not melta specific but it's a nice option to have them for, especially if they can follow it up with an assault.

I think the key element to using meltaguns is the ability to move quickly or deploy in close range that doesn't rely on a transport. Transports can work but I feel like hoping out of a rhino and either rapid firing plasma or laying down some flamer templates makes better use of the squad in most situations.

Also, a big factor in my mind is that flamers and plasma share characteristics with the basic bolter (or equivalent). Either the weapon is rapid fire and has the same range or it utilizes the same damage profile. Melta doesn't match up that well with bolters but it pairs fairly well with improved CCW.

 Ailaros wrote:
As a guard player, at least, I always put as many meltaguns as I can possibly put in everywhere in my list. Having lots of meltaguns is a great defensive weapon. They're sort of like the pikes of 40k, short ranged, but they form "no" zones on the table against an awful lot of scary stuff.

But even if your opponent doesn't charge straight into your melta hedge, they're still useful otherwise. It's still possible to get your melta weapons into range by the end of the game (assuming we're talking about squads that started on the table), and to do that same kind of zone denial further upfield. In that respect, they're sort of like the pawns of 40k - zone controllers that don't immediately seem the best thing, but you couldn't possibly think to want to play a chess game without them.

Furthermore, I've also found them as a great tool on anti-flier duty. Generally, the meltaguns either won't have immediate targets, or will have already killed them off (thanks to the short range of the gun), and rather than twiddling their thumbs, they can race forward in transports 12" and look for 6's. You generally only NEED one or two meltagun hits to knock a flier out of the air or in some other way permanently cripple it (doomscythe without a death ray is rather pointless, for example). Given that it's not that hard to get a lot of meltaguns on the table (especially for imperial guard), you also get that neat little ability with them as well.

Plus, in the end, there sort of just isn't a good substitute for meltaguns. Anything that you'd want to shoot plasma guns at you can also hurt with bolters and krak grenades. A meltagun, on the other hand, is the only serious option for saying "you must die now" to anything in the game.

This, this, a thousand times this.

I can see the increased value of meltaguns in an IG force.

You don't have the ability to fallback on your assault abilities or giant MCs to handle tough armored units. You're typically swimming in anti-infantry firepower so the flamer has less value and IG can utilize a lot of lascannons to replace the plasma gun at range.

Yes, but to be fair, any army is swimming in anti-infantry firepower. If you don't understand what a bolter salvo can do to infantry, you've probably never played with an army of Sv5+ or worse...

Also, I'd note that while guard don't have monstrous creatures, they DO have things like the medusa or the vanquisher to handle vehicles and tough targets at range. Even in this case, the meltagun is still usually the best buy.