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So, I am playing my SM friend tomorrow in a 1300 point match, and I’m debating whether to take my lovely new 5-man WG squad with cannons or scythes. The main thing that’s stopping me going scythe is the fact that he could bring his AV14-toting raider and the only thing I will have left to deal with it is my Prism, or distort penetrations from the scythes. I could theoretically use my Swooping Hawks’ haywire, but it’s not something I want to rely on them for. I’m packing enough S6 spam (War Walkers, Serpent, Spiders, and Shuri Cannons) to feel pretty confident with his inevitable Dreads and the tasty side/rear armour of everything else he could conceivably bring.
The WG will be mounted in my Serpent, accompanied by a Dooming, Guiding, Singing Spear-chucking Farseer. He will most likely be spamming tac squads, assisted by the LR, a squad of termies, one or two dreads, possibly a predator/razorback and definitely his stormtalon (the little one).

My heart says scythe but my head says cannon. Thoughts?

What are the stats on the cannons?

If you have a WS = scythes. You'll be able to drop your guards exactly where you need to maximize damage.

If you don't = cannons.

Both weapons have merit, so it depends on what you want. The scythes will drop more terminators and marines through number of wounds, but the cannons eek out the scythes for damaging armor. The cannons are also slightly cheaper, so consider saving the points.

I don't think it is a good idea to take the farseer in a serpent. In a transport, the farseer is limited in the ability to buff units, but outside(foot or bike) you can throw powers around as needed. Instead of the farseer, consider a spiritseer. With the ability to spirit mark, you get re rolls of 1, making the cannons more accurate. You can access runes of battle hoping for 2+ armor, but a 5+ cover is nice as well. Telepathy has the potential for invisibility or hallucination, but psychic shriek is an amazing default power great for killing marines.

Either way, your unit is somewhat unreliable to 1 shot the raider. If the hawks make the charge(and throw a grenade first) your virtually assured the raider will wreck. Since hawks are not that great against marines, try dropping them in to pick off a wounded tac squad, then set up for a next turn raider charge.

The points saved by taking a spiritseer and cannons over scythes could buy another walker, or something. Again, both are good and neither are wrong, it really just depends if you want the AT power, or infantry killing.

I prefer the scythes in a serpent. Ap 2 ignore cover instant death on a 6 template is awesome esp 5 of em. Overwatch nobody wants to charge that. They kill marines good. Anti armor we have lances lots of lances.