Speeders vs. hordes: flamers or assault cannons?

[Mike X]

So tomorrow I'm participating in a 1,500-point Planetstrike battle against horde factions (Orks mostly).

I've decided to bring three Land Speeders (two Tornadoes, one Typhoon) as my fast attack choices.

My question is, should I arm the Tornado Speeders with assault cannons, or upgrade them (for free) to heavy flamers?

[LadasN]

Well, I don't know the rules for an assault cannon, but a heavy flamer is death to my orks, it covers mobs and just annihilates them so if you are fighting orks, a HF is never a bad thing.

[Mike X]

Well, I don't know the rules for an assault cannon, but a heavy flamer is death to my orks, it covers mobs and just annihilates them so if you are fighting orks, a HF is never a bad thing.

Assault Cannon:
24", S6, AP4, Heavy 4, Rending

Heavy Flamer:
Template, S5, AP4, Assault 1

[LadasN]

Assault Cannon:
24", S6, AP4, Heavy 4, Rending

Heavy Flamer:
Template, S5, AP4, Assault 1

Well,after seeing that, I think I'd still pull HFs. The only save that is lower than 4+ in an ork army is a 2+ mega nob/warboss and you won't see massive amounts of those. I think if you play it right, you could hit far more troops with the flamers than the cannon and they get no save. Unless the ork player uses cyborks, which is just a 5+ invulnerable anyway so yeah, all thumbs for heavy flamers.

EDIT: then points that were allocated to Assault Cannons could be moved into something else more useful! :D

[Hugz4Genestealers]

My friend runs a Vulkan list specifically tailored to killing my bugs. He has a squadron of land speeders each with TWO heavy flamers that can take out a full (30) squad of gaunts in one terrifying wash of flame.

[Mike X]

EDIT: then points that were allocated to Assault Cannons could be moved into something else more useful! :D

Whoa, you just made me realize my mistake! I thought the heavy flamer and assault cannon were interchangeably priced, but it's actually the heavy flamer and heavy bolter. I'd be saving 30 points per Speeder (60 points total) if I were to swap!

I know what I'm doing now: torching those Orks!

[fuzzbuket]

1 with twin flamers 1 eith twin cannons (cannons are good vs big bugs flamers are good vs smaller ones :P)

[Brother Sutek]

Just remember that you will most likely lose those speeders when the orks return fire. AV of 10 is easy for most things to get a pen hit against. I would suggest Typhoon missiles with hvy bolters for your speeders. They don't tend to let me down and I play a vanilla marine Ravenwing list. If you do use the double flamers you'll have to get very close so make sure you go for the biggest most annnoying mobs you can. Good hunting!

[DrLove42]

As others have said mix and match. Flmaers can kill up close, but if you don't kill everything armour 10 can die in combat really easy and the cannon gives you a bit of range if you don't get close enough

[LadasN]

[QUOTE=Brother Sutek;90786]Just remember that you will most likely lose those speeders when the orks return fire. QUOTE]

Assuming the orks can hit it at range :P BS 2 doesn't really help in taking down a speeder at range lol. Watch for gretchin cannon batteries though, BS 3 can be a pain and the guns are as good as guard teams. Mix and match is definitely recommended but heavy flamers on the speeders allow them to get close quickly and burn a squad or 2. I recommend putting the cannons on something less mobile.

[Mike X]

After building my list with tons of template and blast weapons, I ended up facing Necrons instead. But I still won!

[LadasN]

After building my list with tons of template and blast weapons, I ended up facing Necrons instead. But I still won!

lol, all that templatefor crons... grats on the win mate.

[blackarmchair]

Glad that worked out for you!

Don't discount the Assault Cannon though. For a horde-type army the flamers are king; but for an "all-comers" type list the Assault Cannon really is king. It can kill GEQ with impugnity and still shines against MEQ/TEQ with high strength and rending. It's also better at breaking armour then even a lascannon!

It's my favorite Imperial gun in 40k.