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Seen a few people recommend these for support squads, but I don't understand why? Salvo on power armour seems a waste. So you're paying 5pts more than plasma guns to get twin linked, but your range drops to 6". I doubt you will ever get to use the salvo aspect of the weapon to its full effect.
Now if they were available to terminators, different story.
Why are people so enamored with these weapons?

I'm also interested why anyone would defend such an objectively terrible option.

The only thing I can find a way of justifying them for is my friend who plays Sons of Horus, and habitually deepstrikes Horus and a squad of Justarian's. The mass firing of plasma in that case would be vital, but it's pretty situational.

I almost always bring a 5 man plasma squad. But a plasma gun squad, not plasma repeater.

Because outflanking vet squads with dual repeater is quite useful, also rolling on the strategic trait with a praetor and getting the 3 infiltrate (thus outflank) unit, with rhino and repeater is also very good, driving them up the field can be risky, but if you find a good camping spot on an objective, the enemy may have issues shifting you off it.

Plus, who doesn't like 20 twin linked str6 ap2 shots coming from outflank, and if you live till next turn, 30!

Everything you mentioned is not Relentless, so worse than Plasma Guns every time you move.

 bullyboy wrote:
Seen a few people recommend these for support squads, but I don't understand why? Salvo on power armour seems a waste. So you're paying 5pts more than plasma guns to get twin linked, but your range drops to 6". I doubt you will ever get to use the salvo aspect of the weapon to its full effect.
Now if they were available to terminators, different story.
Why are people so enamored with these weapons?

Drop pods would be my guess.

IDK, 'cause they are cool? Remember: A lot of reasoning in 30k is just as much fluff as it is crunch. Why take plasma repeaters? "Well, 'cause their fluff is pretty bad-ass."

Cool if they made sense. 20 plasma repeater shots is going to cost +200pts to that unit. Plasma guns do the exact same thing for +150pts with better range, minus the twin link obviously. Who is going to stay within 12" to let you use salvo?

With TL on a plasma weapon, do you get to reroll Gets Hot results? That could be a minor positive to these weapons. Just a thought.

 jasper76 wrote:
With TL on a plasma weapon, do you get to reroll Gets Hot results? That could be a minor positive to these weapons. Just a thought.

it definitely is a bonus, but getting the plasma repeaters into the required 6" range is not going to be easy. I'd rather they be Assault 2 or Rapid Fire, with twin link. Salvo is just a terrible mechanic for them.

Yeah, I don't have good feelings about the Salvo rule for anything that's not relentless.

 jasper76 wrote:
Yeah, I don't have good feelings about the Salvo rule for anything that's not relentless.

if it had a decent range, you could argue they they would work as an objective holding unit, but 12" max is not going to do it. I'd rather have acid firing HBs in any case

 jasper76 wrote:
With TL on a plasma weapon, do you get to reroll Gets Hot results? That could be a minor positive to these weapons. Just a thought.

not any more with the new faq.

Except the FAQ doesn't affect rerolls on any non-blast weapon, so you do reroll gets hot on the repeaters. If that was how the FAQ worked, twin-linked would be useless on 50% of the rolls it would normally be used on by a BS4 unit.

 Krellnus wrote:

 bullyboy wrote:
Seen a few people recommend these for support squads, but I don't understand why? Salvo on power armour seems a waste. So you're paying 5pts more than plasma guns to get twin linked, but your range drops to 6". I doubt you will ever get to use the salvo aspect of the weapon to its full effect.
Now if they were available to terminators, different story.
Why are people so enamored with these weapons?

Drop pods would be my guess.

A drop pod army would be pretty disgusting with these, that is a fair point.

MaxZ wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:
With TL on a plasma weapon, do you get to reroll Gets Hot results? That could be a minor positive to these weapons. Just a thought.

not any more with the new faq.

What are you...? Oh, I think you need to read that one again: It's talking about the case where you roll, like, a two to hit with the original shot, then re-roll for whatever reason, and the second roll is a one. It's a question that should never have been asked but whatever.

 djones520 wrote:

 Krellnus wrote:

 bullyboy wrote:
Seen a few people recommend these for support squads, but I don't understand why? Salvo on power armour seems a waste. So you're paying 5pts more than plasma guns to get twin linked, but your range drops to 6". I doubt you will ever get to use the salvo aspect of the weapon to its full effect.
Now if they were available to terminators, different story.
Why are people so enamored with these weapons?

Drop pods would be my guess.

A drop pod army would be pretty disgusting with these, that is a fair point.

Not especially. They already have plasma guns which go an extra 6" and have the same number of shots.

It's a more inherently defensive weapon. I think if you're planning on using fortifications or otherwise camp a piece of terrain or an objective the majority of the game they kinda make sense.

The problem isn't that these weapons are "salvo" it's that Salvo so often ends up on units that have relentless and the salvo weapon profile becomes moot, thus the view is that of a hinderance rather than an advantage. So to me it's largely a failure of implementation.

 DarknessEternal wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 Krellnus wrote:

 bullyboy wrote:
Seen a few people recommend these for support squads, but I don't understand why? Salvo on power armour seems a waste. So you're paying 5pts more than plasma guns to get twin linked, but your range drops to 6". I doubt you will ever get to use the salvo aspect of the weapon to its full effect.
Now if they were available to terminators, different story.
Why are people so enamored with these weapons?

Drop pods would be my guess.

A drop pod army would be pretty disgusting with these, that is a fair point.

Not especially. They already have plasma guns which go an extra 6" and have the same number of shots.

But they aren't twin linked.

 djones520 wrote:

 DarknessEternal wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 Krellnus wrote:

 bullyboy wrote:
Seen a few people recommend these for support squads, but I don't understand why? Salvo on power armour seems a waste. So you're paying 5pts more than plasma guns to get twin linked, but your range drops to 6". I doubt you will ever get to use the salvo aspect of the weapon to its full effect.
Now if they were available to terminators, different story.
Why are people so enamored with these weapons?

Drop pods would be my guess.

A drop pod army would be pretty disgusting with these, that is a fair point.

Not especially. They already have plasma guns which go an extra 6" and have the same number of shots.

But they aren't twin linked.

twin linked is fine, but you are sacrificing range which could be a serious problem if your pod scatters just a few inches further than you anticipate. 6" is not a lot to play with. You may end up sitting there, out of range, and at the mercy of your opponent.
You sacrifice range for twin linked, which IMHO would be enough to offset points, but the repeater is 5pts more per model.

Can't bikes get Repeaters? Also Terminators?

 bullyboy wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 DarknessEternal wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 Krellnus wrote:

 bullyboy wrote:
Seen a few people recommend these for support squads, but I don't understand why? Salvo on power armour seems a waste. So you're paying 5pts more than plasma guns to get twin linked, but your range drops to 6". I doubt you will ever get to use the salvo aspect of the weapon to its full effect.
Now if they were available to terminators, different story.
Why are people so enamored with these weapons?

Drop pods would be my guess.

A drop pod army would be pretty disgusting with these, that is a fair point.

Not especially. They already have plasma guns which go an extra 6" and have the same number of shots.

But they aren't twin linked.

twin linked is fine, but you are sacrificing range which could be a serious problem if your pod scatters just a few inches further than you anticipate. 6" is not a lot to play with. You may end up sitting there, out of range, and at the mercy of your opponent.
You sacrifice range for twin linked, which IMHO would be enough to offset points, but the repeater is 5pts more per model.

You target the pod 1" away from the unit. The only way you will end up out of range is with a 12" scatter. Odds of that happening, well pretty low.

 bullyboy wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 DarknessEternal wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 Krellnus wrote:

 bullyboy wrote:
Seen a few people recommend these for support squads, but I don't understand why? Salvo on power armour seems a waste. So you're paying 5pts more than plasma guns to get twin linked, but your range drops to 6". I doubt you will ever get to use the salvo aspect of the weapon to its full effect.
Now if they were available to terminators, different story.
Why are people so enamored with these weapons?

Drop pods would be my guess.

A drop pod army would be pretty disgusting with these, that is a fair point.

Not especially. They already have plasma guns which go an extra 6" and have the same number of shots.

But they aren't twin linked.

twin linked is fine, but you are sacrificing range which could be a serious problem if your pod scatters just a few inches further than you anticipate. 6" is not a lot to play with. You may end up sitting there, out of range, and at the mercy of your opponent.
You sacrifice range for twin linked, which IMHO would be enough to offset points, but the repeater is 5pts more per model.

6" isn't a lot of range that is true, but that didn't stop combi-melta sternguard being the space-marine best of the best for how long? Ultimately it is a risk that you decide to either take, or not. Personally in a pod I would use volkite chargers, cause muh rayguys.