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Yaho

I've gotten hold of enough John Woo pattern combi-plasma to outfit two full drop pods of sternguard, and 20 plasma cannons from back when folks were charging £5 for single grav cannons and had a surplus from the dev kit with £1~ a heavy weapon.

The points-per-wound on average rolls factoring in the signum and rapid fire is close enough for it not to be a clear cut option, and that's before adding in the conscript kill (for whatever good that does now) of going full John Woo and opening up on non overcharged plasma with bolters at the same time (1 unit, 20/20 plasma/bolters).

10 Combi Plasma Sternguard in a DPod totals 395 in chapter approved, with 10 plasma cannons spread out between 3 dev squads hitting 405 before further upgrades.

Obviously there's no functional reason not to use both and I probably will at some point, but conceptually, which one is better in general - and thus should be done first?

For the Sternguard:
Move & shoot, bonus combi weapon damage, reliability, drop advantage, deep strike protection

For the Devs
Range, Potentially higher maximum damage, overkill protection

Any thoughts?

Plasma Cannons are bad because of the random number of shots. If you wanted something similar to that, you can use Hellblasters. So I'd say Sternguard would be a better use.

Consider inceptors