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I am building up a Deathwatch army. One of the units I an toying with is a Veteran unit with tons of melta goodness, mounted in a drop pod, and dropped next to something that needs to die ASAP. I view this as a relatively expensive suicide squad. What is a good number for the unit size and composition of the squad? I was thinking 7 guys total; 5 with Meltaguns and bolters, 2 with bolters/shotguns.

Depending on buffs and targets, I generally use 4 as my go-to number when thinking about how many melta shots it takes to kill a tank. Obviously there is a random factor in there. And if you broaden your list of targets to include things like IKs with ion shields, more is better.

(not DW specific advice, they might have something odd going on that tweaks the numbers)

Depends on what your target is. If a superheavy/gmc/mc 5+, add squadron of russes also. If light vehicles 2-3 should work.

As a Salamander player with Vulcan, I usually rocked 4 Combi-Meltas every 10 Sternguard I ran. It was a lot of points but usually killed what it had to.

4 Meltas, even with Vulcan's TL, doesn't kill a 6 HP SH. On averages (without a 4++ ion shield) it only does 5 HPs. D:

4 Meltas, 4 Hits, 3 Pens, 1 Pen rolls a 5+ (for d3 further HPs, avg = 2). Total of 5 HPs. That's obviously quick table math. If you want to assume they all (4) hit and pen, AND you get at least one 5+ for the addition HPs and you roll at least a 3+ (2-3 on d3) then it barely kills it. Once again, this is without a 4++ which he surely is going to pick on a 4man melta squad.

Short hand, 4 Melta is good, but it's better to have two source of 4 Meltas if you want to "guarantee" a SH kill.

I thought of something. The new FAQ stated that units that combat squad may still ride in the same transport....

So, if I wanted to go hog-wild, I could buy 10 guys, all with meltaguns, in a Drop pod, and when it lands they break off into two units that could toast two separate, but somewhat close together targets. Somehow, that just seems evil.

You’ve been able to CS out of the same transport for a while now.

Doing a split melta/plasma sternguard squad is a classic way of cracking open a LR and then vaporizing it’s contents.

Or just special ammo and HFs and bake some nearby infantry.

Remember: your opponent car buble-wrap your target.
Especially if you only have one pod.
Don't take only 1 expensive pod.

 Nevelon wrote:
Depending on buffs and targets, I generally use 4 as my go-to number when thinking about how many melta shots it takes to kill a tank. Obviously there is a random factor in there. And if you broaden your list of targets to include things like IKs with ion shields, more is better.

(not DW specific advice, they might have something odd going on that tweaks the numbers)

DW do indeed have a few rules that tweak the numbers slightly. All DW units have the option of rerolls of 1 on to-hit rolls. You just have to choose the right ForceOrg slot on your Mission Tactics. Also, if you take the right kill-team (Aquila seems to be the go-to TAC formation so far), you can also reroll wounds and armor pen rolls.

Unfortunately, there is no superheavy-specific Kill Team or Mission Tactic.

Summing up, Saythings seems to think 4 is sometimes not quite enough. On the other end, I would think that 10 would be too many.

I am a Sisters player. What is the "too much" thing? Never heard of it. You can always have more melta. It helps Emperor notice you.

All kidding aside it's gonna depend on your meta I assume.

For Fire Dragons more than about six is overkill if you aren't dealing with squadrons, but they've got the extra +1 to the damage charts you don't.

exliontamer wrote:
I am a Sisters player. What is the "too much" thing? Never heard of it. You can always have more melta. It helps Emperor notice you.

All kidding aside it's gonna depend on your meta I assume.

Emperor-senpai*

I play Adepta Sororitas a lot. there is no such thing as too many Meltaguns!

I say fill every slot available with melta.

Why not?

My six squads of melta doms do not understand your question.....

My Mech guard Veterans are 2 squads of plasma 2 squads of Melta. The CCs gets 4 plasma guns.
My stormtroopers are 1 squad Volleyguns/1 Melta /1 Plasma
My sisters have two dominion squads of 4 meltas each.

I play against MC necrons and eldar alot