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Hi guys, I'm working on putting together my first ever 40k army, and pretty unsure about how to kit out my SM Scouts. At first, I got really excited about the idea of Shotgun scouts until I looked closer at the codex and realized the shotgun is half the range of the boltgun, with only a 12" range. The problem is, I already glued one of the scouts together with the shotgun.

Would it gimp the unit to build the other 3 guys with boltguns? Should I just suck it up and go 4 Astartes Shotgun + 1 Heavy Bolter for this squad? Are there any cases where mixing weapons like shotguns and bolters together in the same unit is actually advantageous? Or is it always a disadvantage?

I mostly operate under "rule of cool" but I'd also like to understand what kind of gear choices needlessly gimp you when it comes time to play the game. I'm a complete noob as far as tabletop wargaming goes, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Build for specialization. If you want snipers (never buy the cloaks), you can get away with a Heavy weapon. Otherwise, you're basically throwing them in front as a screen. At that time, you want either Shotguns (you can advance and fire. How neat. Sometimes you get the S5 bonus but you mostly want the Assault profile) or the CCW (as you might want to do any damage to what you catch in melee). Don't expect any of the latter to live though.

Bolters are garbage though. On a unit like scouts it's a waste of their abilities.

Mixing weapons can be useful but is not always the right idea. The main benefit is that the owning player chooses which models get removed as casualties, so you can protect models with more valuable weapons (special/heavy weapons) or remove models based on which guns are more useful for the situation.

The main negative is that it gets hard to keep track of everything and it creates a "cognitive cost". 40k is a complex game sometimes so making it simpler can help you as a player.

In your case there isn't really a reason to mix weapons, but at the same time it won't hurt much if at all. As mentioned the biggest cost is just remembering and rolling dice separately. You should also be able to cut off the shotgun and replace it with a bolter if you wanted.

So, if I'm understanding you right then it seems like I didn't screw up by using a shotgun after all. I'll go with all shotguns on this unit, then.

What makes boltguns garbage? I get that I shouldn't put them on scouts, but what about tactical marines?

Thanks for the help!

Edit for clarity: Was replying to Slayer-Fan before saint_red responded


Automatically Appended Next Post:

saint_red wrote:
Mixing weapons can be useful but is not always the right idea. The main benefit is that the owning player chooses which models get removed as casualties, so you can protect models with more valuable weapons (special/heavy weapons) or remove models based on which guns are more useful for the situation.

Interesting, that makes sense. I suppose you could be very frugal with your points spending this way, by prioritizing one expensive model and "letting the other models die" in the unit first.

Units always fire at the same target, right? So I can't have half the scouts in the squad fire at one thing, and half the scouts fire at something else, right?

 Salamandrake wrote:
So, if I'm understanding you right then it seems like I didn't screw up by using a shotgun after all. I'll go with all shotguns on this unit, then.

What makes boltguns garbage? I get that I shouldn't put them on scouts, but what about tactical marines?

Thanks for the help!

Edit for clarity: Was replying to Slayer-Fan before saint_red responded

The Bolters are a waste of their abilities, but yeah the basic Bolter is the worst off weapon this edition after the 7th-8th jump.

Frankly, boltgun vs shotgun is not that large of a difference. Shotguns are better, but we're talking like half an unsaved wound against MEQ at 6" here so it's not anything worth losing sleep over. Basically you just get more flexibility from advancing your scouts if you want to. Not that scouts really kill anything.

 meleti wrote:
Frankly, boltgun vs shotgun is not that large of a difference. Shotguns are better, but we're talking like half an unsaved wound against MEQ at 6" here so it's not anything worth losing sleep over. Basically you just get more flexibility from advancing your scouts if you want to. Not that scouts really kill anything.

You might as well get the most of being that close to the enemy.

 Salamandrake wrote:
Units always fire at the same target, right? So I can't have half the scouts in the squad fire at one thing, and half the scouts fire at something else, right?

No, you can split fire and choose models in your unit to fire at different targets units, as long as those targets can be selected to be fired upon by your unit in the first place.

In theory each model in your unit could fire at totally different units, as long as they are in range and visible. Characters have special rules for being targeted, they must be the nearest model to your firing unit.

Don't forget that the Heavy Bolter has a Strategem that gives it the ability to deal mortal wounds from 36" away.

The real answer is there's hardly a difference between the free weapons point for point.

Yes, the Shotguns can Advance and fire if needed. Just like the CCW hits harder in combat if needed and the Bolters can take shots out to 24" if needed.

Personally I'd rank them Shotgun>Bolter>CCW, but the difference is so small it rarely matters, just because the extra damage you get out of any of the niche bonuses is so minuscule. With deepstrike becoming less common, their roll as screens is diminished which in turn shrinks the gap between the different weapons even more.

I do mix weapons in scouts when it is useful to do so. Snipers are always all snipers. If I am taking a Heavy weapon I will use bolters with them for the range. Otherwise, I run all Shotguns or all CCW.

A lot of people use Tacticals with a single Heavy Weapon. If that weapon was going to be a missile launcher or a heavy bolter (because of the stratagems) then just take bolter scouts instead. Otherwise I like a mix of Shotguns and CCW squads. Shotguns are my objective grabbers (if they survive which they usually don't) or the CCW to soften up a target.

In the end? It doesn't matter though. The only part that matters is don't take sniper rifles unless you are taking at least 10, and keep the rest cheap. They usually die turn 1 anyway because you are taking them to keep people away from you.

Note that you can give the Seargent a Stormbolter, which is a pretty decent gun this edition, or a Thunder Hammer.