Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Returning play to the game and i have a question -

Do Heavy Weapons like the Heavy Bolter, Rotor Cannon, Heavy Stubber, and similar weapons have a role in the current edition?

I have several old kits with Heavy bolters i just want to know if i should use them or find alternitives.

Yes and no.

I assume you mean marine heavy bolters in devestators. Or on chaos havocs. As opposed to heavy bolters on razorback, landspeeders, attack bikes etc

Devestators see some competetive play, but often with multimelta in a drop pod.

The heavy bolter profile is good at killing marines. Because it deal 2 wounds, and marines have 2 wounds. But it is less good at killing 1 wound models and damage - 1 models.

It's biggest competition comes from bolter inceptors, devestators with grav cannons and contemptor dreadnoughts with volkites. The last one used to be a mainstay in marine lists until nephilim messed with the CP.

I hope this helped. You certainly can build good lists with the heavy bolter, but no cutting edge tier 1 army list is currently doing it. But the sky is the limit.

Low AP, middling strength heavy weapons that aren't high volume fire don't typically see much play outside of situations where they are mandatory or free of charge. Many armies have armor of contempt that reduces AP by 1 and makes them pretty toothless after you filter through the hit/wound/save rolls.

In the current competitive meta, none of those weapons is helping you. Rotor cannons at least have the weight of fire backing them so a case could be made for those on Chaos Legionaries, but the others aren't considered worth their points.

Stubbers can be an exception on some vehicles as they'll hopefully be around long enough to clear out more chaff than their points cost.