Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Getting back in the game after a break (last played end of 6th). One of my main armies was/is IG and I'm not sure what to do with my infantry squads now in 8th. I used to run auto-cannons back in 6th as they were a good all-rounder but I though I remember reading a few places that Heavy Bolters are now a go-to due to their 3 shots to AC's 2. Do people recommend running them with or without Heavy Weapons, and which ones should I use?

my mate runs las/plas.. its not conventional because its not cheap... but sure does give me problems.

Most people run infantry squads as basic, unequipped Guardsmen. The weapons are not worth the points cost, the real benefit of Guardsmen is having enough of them to protect your tanks and artillery behind the front line. Guardsmen can do some damage against light infantry, but only if you get them close to the enemy and use First Rank Fire Second Rank Fire so they can rapid fire lasguns. This tactic doesn't really work as well if you have squads with heavy weapons. You're better off with just more plain guardsmen.

Mortars are a good choice since they have similar targets to your lasguns and are cheap. Easier to keep them alive there than clustered in a heavy weapons team IMO as well.

Generally

Vanilla is a good option most players will have half or more like this

For backfield

Either mortar or lascannon as these options have the range to reach across the board

At my next tourney im running
3x vanilla(+1 grenade launcher as i had 3 pts left over)
4x lascannon

While my 3 HWT are 3x mortars

I think there's an argument to be made for either the Mortar or Autocannon as they're super cheap. Otherwise bare bones works.

Specials are not that bad especially grenade launchers sicne they are so cheap.

A lot of folks run them bare which is fine, but honestly there is nothing wrong with cheap heavies or specials.

Especially depending on where you plan to use the unit. a backfield deepstrike denial unit on an objective may as well take a cheap long ranged HW for example.

Heavy weapon teams are nice in infantry squads because it’s essentially +1 leadership for any morale tests, given that two wounds are going onto the HWT to kill one model instead of two. Either run them cheap or gimmick it up with lascannons and combining squads for huge stacks of meatshields.

Mortars for HW

Basic lasguns for screens. if you got the points GL.

Plasma can be fun if you go all out on it and put them in a stormhammer superheavy and use them as a plasmablade.