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I'm thinking missle launcher, flamer, and melta bombs. Any opinions?

It depends on how many squads you are running, what other anti-tank and anti-infantry units you have and so on.

For my 1500 point list, I have 2 squads I'm building.

One: 10 man, Melta, Melta, Combi-melta, Rhino.

Two: 10 man, Plasma, Plasma, Combi-plasma, Rhino.

For larger lists, I'm considering a 15-man squad with a Plasma, Autocannon, and Combi-Plasma.

But I have lots of other units supporting these guys, so the weapons I chose reflect that. There's no plug-and-play answer, I think.

Missile Launcher, MB and Flamer give you an all-around unit that isn't great at anything, but can at least try to do everything. I prefer my troops to specialize in one thing, but I'm by no means a great general.

I tend to agree. Double special weapons is almost always a better choice than a relatively immobile unit.

I agree that dual meltagun or dual plasma gun are your best bets.

I'm fond of the melta/flamer combo with my csm squads

On MoK marines, I use flamer / flamer / combi-flamer.
On other, same with meltas. Plasma are just too expansive.

I use a drop list and run 4 10man squads.

1 with Melta, ML, and Combi-Melta
3 with Plasma, ML, and Combi-Plasma

I split them into Combat Squads and sit the ML 5-man's in my deployment and drop the others.

Only two in my mind and both should have rhinos. They are 2 metlaguns or plasmaguns.

If you take the metlaguns give them the free CCW and exchange the bolters and use them aggressively with the rhinos. Pop out, shoot the meltas and assault the next turn. Don't discount krak grendaes on a vehicles rear armor by the way.

For the dual plasmaguns they are objective sitters and keep their bolters. They roll up int heir rhino, blast away with their plasmagun until their rhino gets smoked and then they camp an objective in the now flaming ruins of your pretty transport.

I've tried to run them as las/plas squads and they suck at it, I've tried mixed weapons and they suck at that to. Essentially without a drop pod CSMs are close range at either configuration and need a rhino to get up close to do their job.

I love dual special weapons. But then, if I'm doing that, I'm doing 5 Plague Marines instead of 10 sucky Chaos Marines.

I use a 12 man (sacred number of slaanesh) squad of marines with dual plasma,plasma pistol, and icon of excess. The unit is rock solid.

Melta, melta

Double melta or plasma, generally, if I'm not running Plague Marines. Usually the only reason not to run the Plague Marines instead is if you're running a Daemon Prince, and the PMs aren't Troops.

I think a Lascannon can be worth the investment in a back/midfield squad. If you can get them on a Skyfire objective it's a nice thing to have. You can also have another guy man a Quad Gun or Icarus.

I agree with the double weapons. Plasma most times, Melta if you're dealing with lots of vehicles.

I'm having an issue now dealing with 5+ chimeras so I'm just gonna ask in this thread since its CSM as well. I can't figure out a solid way of blasting a Chimera and then the occupants in 1 turn. My havocs with 4 autocannons are great, but them I'm stuck with 5-10 guardsmen in rapid fire range next turn (vets with plasmas or meltas). I'm trying to think of a synergy between 2-3 units to take out 2 whole chimera squads a turn. Was thinking hellbrute with multimelta and PF with flamer. Set them up in a crossfire and get close enough so the flamer template hits infantry as well as side / rear armor of a chimera as the multimelta pops it. Then do the same with a 2nd hellbrute to another chimera. Hope that makes sense and is legal.

I'm having an issue now dealing with 5+ chimeras so I'm just gonna ask in this thread since its CSM as well.

I've been having success with a Vindicator, Spawn & Maulerfiend. The Maulerfiend draws out the Chimera as it tries to get in melta range, the Vindicator pops it & the spawn mop up. If the Vindicator doesn't get it, I try to get the Maulerfiend in.

The Vindicator works really well against Chimera parking lots.

Helldrakes are also brutal against Chimeras. Vector Strike hits the side armor, and if they've put Chimeras right next to each other, you can place the flamer template to hit more than one of them. Also you can use your 1x/game Daemonforged to re-roll pens; S6 re-rolling against AV10 is pretty darn good.

Of course, getting back to the original topic of the thread, countering Chimeras is another reason to take Meltas or Flamers on CSMs or Plagues rather than Plasma. Because you can shoot and then charge to your your krak grenades if the meltas fail (or if you brought flamers).

The problem is you need 2 squads to entirely knock out the chimera + squad inside. A few plasma guns in rapid fire range next turn put a hurting on CSM fast. Pinning isn't reliable. And yea, I was avoiding Heldrakes last game, taking 3 the game before that was just asking to face proxied hydras.

If the Chimeras are bunched, multicharging Nurgle Spawn, optionally led by an IC with meltabombs, are a great option. That's just a great unit in general.

I've heard lots about them, may have to give it a try.

Waaaaghmaster wrote:
I'm fond of the melta/flamer combo with my csm squads

I've had success with mixed squads in small games, but typically after 1000 points, I find it better to double up.

Thanks for all the input.
When I started out I ended up with 21 CSMs plus a Sorc and they've sat in the closet while I've been working on my Nids. I figured it was time to put some arms on the dudes and wanted some blast/templates & something with some AP to it. After reading the responses I'll probably just melta them up or maybe have 1 melta squad and 1 flamer squad, but I'm not sure yet. I liked the missle launcher & it's two missle options, but I didn't take into account it being a heavy weapon.

Just be wary of pairing assault weapons with rapid fire. Do double plasma or melta / flamer combo. Missile launchers are meh... you'd be better off with havocs toting autocannons imo.

I like the idea of melta flamer combo because you can still attempt to shoot your flamer at side armor of a lot of things (maybe even front) as you put your melta in melta range. So try to set up a flamer shot that may glance or pen side armor of something as well as flame some guys.

Gotcha that's another thing I didn't think about, I've only really used nids so I'm still getting used to regular weapons.