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The rise of the SHV in my community leaves many of us struggling to find effective counters. So what options do the trusty SM/CSM variety have?

Laser rapier batteries?

Vindicare laser destroyers?

Or is the tried and true Melta Command pod still work?

Allies aren't out of discussion, but I would rather keep it to the SM/CSM faction.

From what I have experienced SM still use the melta drop pod.
As for CSM, if you want to stay in the codex then melta bikers aren't too bad at taking down SH. If you traverse outside the CSM codex: Chaos Knights, D-Thirsters, Bloodcrushers or soul grinders.
Personally an allied force of daemons with the Grimoire on a chaos knight (and cursed earth) can make a pretty effective SH fighter.

What are people's thoughts on the Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer or the Deimos Vindicator Tank Destroyer?

They are far better at insta-sploding regular tanks. Against SH it is far better to bring large amounts of fire in order to take down a lot of hp. The warpflame host using exalted flamers is pretty good at large amounts of high strength firepower: 9xd3 Str10 ap2 shots is good at taking on SH. But that is if you want to branch into Daemons.

So What About Vehicles With Armored Ceramite?

Sometimes melta isn't the best option...

Would Grav Cents be able to glance them?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just for clarity, the 3 SHV I see in use are Typhons, Fellblades, and Greater Brass Scorpions. And if they're buffed with Invisibility, it's game over.

For loyalist Space Marines, consider taking some form of Gladius Strike Force and give the Tactical and/or Centurion Devastator squads Grav Cannon. They can really strip off the hull points quickly, especially with the rerolls provided by the doctrines. Even if you have to snap fire against your target the rerolls combined with the Grav Cannon's high rate of fire gives you a decent chance at hitting - grav-armed Tactical squads are sneaky-good anti-flyer units, too!

If you play Imperial Fists then a lascannon-armed Devastator squad is decent at stripping a couple of hull points a turn. My favorite set up is to have a Devastator squad on one flank and a Predator Annihilator on the other, with grav-armed Tactical squads in the middle. It gives you opportunities for flank shots, and is especially good at getting around the ion shields of Knights.

On the subject of Predators, taking them in a squadron is not often a good idea but it's not entirely worthless. The bonus against hard targets can be quite useful if you can keep them alive long enough to benefit. What I like to do is take two Predators, both armed with three lascannon, to do my heavy lifting, while the third tank in the squadron has cheaper weapons like an autocannon and heavy bolters. The cheap tank's job is to hug cover and always be the closest target, so it draws all the fire and keeps the other tanks safe. That usually works for at least a turn, maybe longer if you have a techmarine around to make repairs.

Drop podded grav cents w TL/ML in pod w/divination libby, a squadron of dual mm land speeders and an attack bike squad with 2 MM bikes. That's always been enough AT for regular 1850 games against a bane blade or a knight. For extra security add in a unit of well positioned Las devestators and/or a couple of tac squads, combat squadded with a melta and combi melta in the 2 TLLC razorbacks and a Grav Cannon in the rhinos. If you have the points throw some hinter killers on your transports, however at this point it's probably overkill. All of this fits snugly with about 400 of spare room for cc stuff /AA/ sternguard in 1850 if using gladius.