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The background:

I'm interested in having a squad of 6 Chaos Space Marine Bikers with the Mark of Nurgle (T6) to fill both an anti-infantry role and anti-tank role. I already have specialist units elsewhere for these and the bikes are there to cover for them should one go splat.


I'm stuck between having x2 Meltaguns and Meltabombs on the champion to allow them to be shot prior to assaulting a unit (either infantry or mechanised)

OR

x2 Plasma Guns for light/medium vehicles, rapid fire against heavy infantry and Meltabombs for heavier targets


Finally, melta bombs on the champion seem sensible - Do you reckon a pistol and CCW combination would be best? If so, Lightning claw / Powerfist / Power Weapon? I'm not so keen on Powerfists on this squad due to the I1 though and am leaning more towards a Power Weapon like a sword


Ideas?

IMHO meltaguns are the best call. They can eat termis and bust open AV14 reliably. I love plasma guns on infantry all day, but for this mobile platform melta gets a better delivery system, especially at t6. Which to me is another reason to not risk a gets hot and losing one of your expensive t6 bikers. My personal opinion would be just naked champ with meltabomb, for AT powerfist may be alright but I never buy them on anyone myself. If you are going to go antiinfantry sometimes though that I1 could kill you so I would say strike at initiative and always if you are going to get a sword get a claw instead.

Second that. Plasma is good, but meltas are superior. The moment you run into something tougher than infantry (say a dreadnought) the only thing standard bikers have to kill them is crack grenades. You don't want to be relying on a roll of a 6, you want to move past them and go after whatever's next.

Meltas give you the best change. With regards to range, they are bikers, they are going to get close to anything they need to kill.

Plasma also doesn't care if you are T6 when it gets hot.

Thanks for the advice guys,

I settled for the following:

x1 Champion, powersword, meltabombs
x3 bikes
x2 bikes with melta replacing TW Boltguns

Total of 6 bikes in squad all with boltpistol and CCW.
All bikes have Mark of Nurgle for T6

All are built and awaiting a lick of paint. I ended up modelling the meltas on the bikes by using the multi-melta bits from the Stormraven kit - looks like they were made the bike!

FYI - If you've got 2 attacks base, and are comparing Power Sword (+1 attack) vs. Lightning claw (shred):
Vs lower toughness: Power Sword's
vs same toughness: Same
vs. higher toughness: Lightning Claw's better

If you've got the choice, I'd go Claw, though they're close enough that I'd go "what looks better" over the tiny number change.

For chaos, single lightning claws on champions are almost always superior to a powersword. For bikes, one could probably make a good argument for axes because they have hammer of wrath and T5/6.

IMO you should give the champion the fist claw combo. +1 attack and you get to decide how he fights. str4 ap3 i4 or str8 ap2 i1. Granted Meltabombs are 5 points but you can only use them on certain targets, a powerfist you can use on anything.

Another thought is to do what many do and just magnetize them. Then your two special weapons guys have your choice of any 3. Just my opionion