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Hello! I'm just now stepping into the Warhammer hobby. After painting some Primaris Marines I got off Ebay for cheap to test my painting ability I think I want to make the dive to making the army I really want. I want to make an IG army but and I have a good idea of what I want but I'm not sure what heavy weapons I want. I'm not sure so I decided to ask, are autocannons a good choice? What would be the best choice of heavy weapon? I was planning on having lascannons but I was wondering what some people who've actually played before would think the "best" option would be for heavy weapons.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Some of that depends on how you want your army to go. Are you infantry just a screen or your heavy firepower? Are these going in infantry squads or heavy weapons squads?

The actual autocannon is a jack of all trades kind of weapon that I would generally avoid starting out unless all your opponents are Primaris heavy.

In addition to asking yourself that I would also look at a guide to using the actual kit. You should be able to make lots of weapons out of each kit using other Guard parts and some creativity (ie a mortar a missile launcher and a Lascannon instead of a single Lascannon).

This edition at least, mortars are great. Cheap as chips, no line of sight required and do decent damage.

Alpharius Walks wrote:
Some of that depends on how you want your army to go. Are you infantry just a screen or your heavy firepower? Are these going in infantry squads or heavy weapons squads?

The actual autocannon is a jack of all trades kind of weapon that I would generally avoid starting out unless all your opponents are Primaris heavy.

In addition to asking yourself that I would also look at a guide to using the actual kit. You should be able to make lots of weapons out of each kit using other Guard parts and some creativity (ie a mortar a missile launcher and a Lascannon instead of a single Lascannon).

Thanks for the advice! Honestly right now I only plan on playing against a buddy who runs chaos marines but I'm sure I'll play others once I'm more sure of myself in the game. Also I was wondering if autocannons are a bad option because I think they just look really cool.

Thrak_Gorshun wrote:
Hello! I'm just now stepping into the Warhammer hobby. After painting some Primaris Marines I got off Ebay for cheap to test my painting ability I think I want to make the dive to making the army I really want. I want to make an IG army but and I have a good idea of what I want but I'm not sure what heavy weapons I want. I'm not sure so I decided to ask, are autocannons a good choice? What would be the best choice of heavy weapon? I was planning on having lascannons but I was wondering what some people who've actually played before would think the "best" option would be for heavy weapons.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

There is no best choice. Just best choices for the job you want the heavy weapon to do. If you are mostly going infantry, you'll want a lot more Lascannons to give you the capability to remove enemy armor. If you bring more tanks, you'll be wanting mortars, HB's, and sometimes Autocannons to work on infantry while the tanks deal with the big stuff.

Mortars are the most all-around useful choice IMO. They're cheap, don't need LOS, and provide solid anti infantry when you bring a lot of them. Works well in squads and HWS.

Heavy Bolters are solid anti infantry at a shorter range and slightly higher price point. Works well in squads and HWS.

Autocannons are okay now that they got a points drop, but I think they're a half measure and you're usually better off taking either the mortar/heavy Bolter for infantry or the Lascannon for armor. Too expensive to put in HWS unless you do 2x mortar or HB, 1X AC. If you're bringing a lot of infantry, it probably couldn't hurt to toss a couple in.

Lascannons are your best dedicated anti tank heavy. Just embed them in infantry squads instead of HWS.

Missile launchers are kind of trash. They cost as much as a Lascannon but have lower strength and AP in exchange for an anti infantry option that's not great.

To get the most of your heavy weapons kit, you can pick up extra crew members, bipods, and bases on eBay. If you Google you can find some creative ways to avoid even needing the bipods on the extra weapons in the kit.

Mortars, lascannons(in infantry squad, never as 3 weapon team), heavy bolters. That's basically weapons you should be using. Avoid autocannon and missile launcher.

I agree with mortars and lascannons, they are great, but I disagree with the consensus that heavy bolsters are good on IG infantry. Don’t get me wrong, heavy bolsters ARE good, but when almost every vehicle you can add may take 1-3 heavy bolsters for cheap, I don’t put a lot of value in them on foot infantry.

I am also in the minority when I say I think heavy weapon squads are good. I keep my infantry cheap and mobile.

IandI wrote:
I agree with mortars and lascannons, they are great, but I disagree with the consensus that heavy bolsters are good on IG infantry. Don’t get me wrong, heavy bolsters ARE good, but when almost every vehicle you can add may take 1-3 heavy bolsters for cheap, I don’t put a lot of value in them on foot infantry.

I am also in the minority when I say I think heavy weapon squads are good. I keep my infantry cheap and mobile.

HB is worst of the 3 but way ahead other 2. If you don't want to go for mortar HWS then HB is the 2nd option. Lascannons on HWT are way too vulnerable. You basically get 1 round with them if you get first turn, 0 if you don't. Unless opponent is like greentide who shrugs off 20 lascannons without much of a worry.

For infantry it's harder but since you are less likely interested in hiding out of LOS with infantry squad(losing on lasguns and ability to screen other stuff) it's basically 3 pts and 0.5 shots less for extra S and AP which is VERY useful. That AP alone is sweet and that S5 helps against any marines. Extra half a shot in average isn't much of a worry so it's then question of can you afford the 3 pts or not. If yes take HB for your infantry squads, if not take mortar. Of course you'll need some lascannons but if you have like 10-12 squads all lascannons is very expensive and not optimal either as you want some cheap squads to front to take first charge(these could even be naked squads but maybe you want some shooting especially now as T1 charges are less likely to happen).

Don't know are you minority really. HWT's are good. Assuming they use cheap weapon. Mortar is excelent, HB is passable, lascannon is horrible, other 2 are bad weapons to begin with. Missile launcher is by far worst for HWT as not only they hit into issue of price vs survivability lascannon has it's also lousy weapon to boot! Autocannons aren't that good either but at least the weapon is nearly half the price. 24 pts less down the drain when enemy says "boo" at them.

Mortars meanwhile are very cheap and if terrain is friendly you can even hide them from LOS making taking them out bit harder. That's why they are so bloody good option for HWT's.

Mortars in infantry squads are a must in ITC format because it drops the squad size down to 9 and denies reaper points. If you're not playing tournament format you don't need a heavy weapon in an infantry squad. Even if you do I still run 2 squads if 10 without heavy weapons if they want to score 2 easy reaper points and be capped at 2 be my guest.

In HWS go mortars. Anything else needs LOS and any good opponent will shoot your HWS before the regular infantry. They are very fragile and compared to 4 points per would of guardsmen mortars are at 5.5, HB 7, AC9, LC 12. Staying out of LOS is the only way that they survive.

In an infantry squad mortars, LC, or nothing are all good options. Some of your squad will advance to take objectives. Go with bodies or mortars there. The mortars can help with morale as they only count for 1 death as a single multi wound model which makes the squad more durable. The job of a mortar in an advancing infantry squad is to soak up single wound bullets and save the squad from a morale test.