AbusePuppy

If you are freezing models, make sure to let them warm back up to room temperature before you try to break them apart- otherwise the plastic will be just as fragile as the superglue. The Ion Accelerator is the heavily preferred weapon for the Riptide- the Heavy Burst Cannon really isn't much competition for it at all. You are at least lucky there.

Meltaguns would give you a slightly more flexible unit, but Plasma would be doing their main job better- Plasma on the bikes is nice, certainly, but there's not really such a thing as too many shots on a target. If you wanted to keep them cheap, I suppose you could just drop special weapons entirely; I'd definitely have to think over what kind of list I would be putting them into and what else it has/needs.

Yeah, Scout Sentinels are one of the few places I think they would be workable- not only are they guaranteed to get to use them when they appear from reserve, they can move and still fire all their guns and they stand a good chance of coming in from the enemy's side or rear armor, which improves their usefulness.

That's actually not too shabby an idea- the biggest problem with Stormtroopers is that S3 is just really weak. With Doom, Rad, Enfeeble, or some other effect that lets you wound more often, they could do some real damage. The fact that the Stormtroopers can bring a pair of Plasmaguns to the party themselves doesn't hurt any, either.

I think there are two important differences between combiweapons and Hunter-Killer Missiles that basically define why one sees extensive use and the other does not. First of all, Combi-weapons are protected on a squad leader- usually he will be kept alive at the expense of other models, an option that HKM don't have, insuring that he gets to use his weapon at a prime moment. Second, the profiles for Combi-weapons are generally superior to that of a HKM- the Combi-Melta, with double penetration and AP1 is much more effective against heavy tanks and the Combi-Plasma/Grav get multiple AP2 shots that wound on 2s/3s. Compared to this, the Missile gets only a single shot that gets no bonus on the vehicle damage table, doesn't penetrate all types of armor, and has a 50% chance of not even getting to roll on the table even against the lowly Rhino. Moreover, the HKM relies heavily on a strategy of alpha striking with vehicles, which is distinctly 5th Edition in flavor. Most armies don't want to run large numbers of vehicles that are needed to enable HKMs, and the presence of Night Fight (even with Searchlights) significantly cuts down on the ability to fire them efficiently. I don't see the Hunter-Killer Missile as being unusable, but it's certainly not something I would generally consider. If it were available on different platforms, such as infantry or Land Speeders, it might see more use.

I don't see enemies advancing into Multimelta range often, so I consider them a pretty middling choice more because of tactics than numbers. I'm fine with SM not getting Autocannons... but then why do they get Autocannons on Dreads and Preds and why do IG get them? I feel like they need to make some actual decisions there. HF and AC options would be cool- it really weirds me out that for some reason Heavy Flamers are an incredibly precious resource that can only be given to Sternguard. HBs should be 5pts. This should've been the way of things for a long time now- they're not worth more than a token cost, as you're giving up the ability to hurt tanks for increased damage to infantry. That is almost never a good plan. Missiles lost out a lot this edition- we don't see as many light tanks anymore, and AP3 means they aren't getting a bonus on the damage table. Those are both strikes against them, but not crippling ones. But MCs are also trending towards 2+ armor now, which also makes a difference, and fortifications mean that the difference between S8 and S9 is pretty big. If Missiles came with Frag, Krak and Flakk for 15pts... yeah, that would be pretty good. For 20pts? Mmm, maybe. But 25pts? Absolutely not. Similarly, if Flakk Missiles were S8 AP3 Skyfire, I'd be solid on them, but as it stands their strength and AP are just too low to be relevant. (Mind you, I appreciate that they didn't just make them a "FMCs die instantly" weapon, but that is a problem of its own.)

I feel like the Lascannon and Plasma Cannon costs are about right these days- Missiles are definitely overpriced, though (10pts is just about perfect this edition; 15 would've been more appropriate last edition), Heavy Bolters just aren't a very attractive weapon, and Multimeltas don't mesh well with how you have to deploy them. And for some reason Games Workshop still hates Autocannons.

I'll second both the Aegis Defense Line and Firestorm Redoubt (with the latter caveated by assuming you are using the Stronghold Assault rules.) The Aegis is just wonderful for most armies- 4+ cover that improves to 2+ when you duck, and as Orks there is very little penalty for ducking. The Quad Gun, when manned by Grots, can give you pretty reliable defense against airplanes and a Comms Relay can help insure your own air force arrives on schedule. It's even big enough to fully-hid Grots behind if the need arises and even Battlewagons can often benefit from the 4+. The Firestorm Redoubt is a bit more niche, but does its job well. A unit of up to six Lootas can all fire out the front from perfect safety and with the Magos Machine Spirit upgrade, you have a pair of twin-linked BS3 Lascannons with two shots each- if that doesn't put the fear of god into an air force's heart, nothing will. While a lot more expensive than the Aegis, it gives you a tool Orks otherwise don't have any real access to (high-strength, low-AP shooting) and can nicely protect a scoring unit behind its bulk. If you're looking to spend a bit less, dollars- and points-wise, the Wall of Martyrs offers some options with its bunker as well- it actually lets more models fire out the front (eight vs. six) and can still mount the gun on top for a surcharge, upgradable to BS3 if you're willing to go for it. It's definitely not as good in its role as the Firestorm, but at ~100pts cheaper, that's no surprise.

Nope. Although the FAQ does not specifically address the Abyssal Staff, it talks about similar weapons that use some other value in place of Toughness when wounding, and Instant Death is also calculated off of that value.

Imperial Fists can make good use of them with Lascannons, which will murder just about any tank. Missiles are... okay, I guess, but I don't like paying 25pts for Flakk; a Quad Gun costs about the same as giving it to the whole squad and with BS5 Tank Hunter (the Gun benefits from it as well), you have a pretty good shot at taking down airplanes. If the Ultramarine doctrine didn't have the silly limitation on it I'd find theirs a lot more useful, but as it stands I don't think I'd bother. I would always buy at least two extra bodies, sometimes even more than that, if going for Devs. Cheap ablative wounds will keep your heavy weapons shooting longer, and that's exactly what you want.

It's actually much better than that- the effects of the Grenades last until the end of the turn, so the whole rest of your army is wounding on the reduced toughness. I thought Hydras were side AV12? Guess not. That does make it more likely, I suppose, though really he should've been using the squadron rules to make sure he had front armor facing all directions.

You may also find the old fluff on Diggas- humans that imitate Orks- useful if you are working on allies. The Lexicanum website is a gold mine for fluff ideas.

Let's be fair here: even Pax admits that his dice averages (and the opponents) were pretty off the charts there. Killing three AV10 tanks with three Plasmaguns? That's rather unlikely (nevermind the fact that his opponent let him get rear armor for some reason.) And then the Russ, and the Wolves, and everything else? Yeah. That's pretty immensely unlikely. Three T5/3+ guys just shouldn't be alive all that long against most armies. The problem with Black Knights/Ravenwing Command is not their offensive output- they have great guns and pretty okay melee weapons with good stats to back them up. Their problem is survivability- a unit of three or five bikes are gonna die pretty easily to a lot of things, even with 4+ cover. The first time someone shoots a Wave Serpent, or some Fire Warriors, or some Grav Centurions at you, the unit is gonna come to pieces pretty quickly, and even a minimum-sized squad is far from cheap. They're hardly an awful unit- if, for whatever reason, they get left alone to do their thing, they can inflict a fair amount of damage and the grenade launcher is actually quite excellent, since it pushes things down to that critical WS/I3 or T3 threshold that makes them a lot easier to kill. But it keeps coming back around to survivability, and if you aren't alive it doesn't matter how awesome you are.

Vendettas, Stormravens, and Night Scythes all carry troops that score objectives. :P How do good SM lists deal with Heldrakes, Night Scythes, and Vendettas, then? Not to mention FMCs. All of those are very real threats, and while you can ally in a little bit of stuff from Tau, you can damn well bet those are going to be #1 on the target list, and speaking from experience it's not that hard to kill a single unit of Broadsides.

Although a strict RAW of the Fields leans towards the "generates multiple hits" interpretation, that seems rather counterintuitive to me. Generating a single hit seems to cleave more closely to how it "should" work. Similarly, since the hit is resolve on the Void Shield- NOT on the unit in question- the Shield should not benefit from any saves or special rules that the unit possesses, and as a fictional entity the Shield can't get 25% coverage to claim a cover save in any case.

Well, a Thunderfire doesn't shoot down airplanes, for one. Running 1-2 Thunderfires and 1-2 Stalkers (especially if you're allying into yourself) is a fairly solid plan. Lack of Interceptor certainly hurts, but AV12 and 4+ or 5+ cover should keep them reasonably safe. Stormtalons have the disadvantage of being very fragile and reliant on reserve rolls themselves- if your 'Talons come in before the other guy's stuff does, they are pretty much guaranteed to die; ditto if they have AA defenses of their own, like many armies will. And I don't see the Stalker as competing with a fortification but rather complementing it- the enemy can be reasonably expected to kill one AA platform before the second turn, but two or three is a lot less likely. It's exactly the same reason that a single Quad Gun alone isn't enough to realistically stop someone's airplanes- you need backups for everything.

4chan is a temporary thing by its nature. Linking directly to stuff there will NEVER last more than a day at best, and usually a lot less than that.

Given that Preferred Enemy, Zealot, Tank Hunter, Monster Hunter, Stealth, Shrouded, and a number of other rules all pass to the unit, I don't think it's particularly strange that Infiltrate would.

On the other hand, those armies were poorly built and not all that well-played. Just because a unit is really good doesn't mean it automagically wins the game for you- you still have to actually try. Holofields explicitly work against Str D weapons, that's why they get the exception when nothing else does. It's not really unclear at all- Allies and Fortifications specifically get a second "slot" available when you open up a second Primary detachment, but Lords of War have no such text. While it does say that LoW are "an optional detachment just like Fortifications and Allied detachments," I think it's a bit of a stretch to turn that into also getting a second LoW choice in large games.

I wouldn't. The Rifleman is still sorta okay, but for most other configurations in most other codices, there's just no point when a Predator can do the same job but be tougher and quite possibly cheaper.