Plasma Vs. Melta

[FrostReaver]

It really depends on the army for me. If I'm using the BA, I stay away from any rapid fire weaponry of any type, so plasma is out. However, I use plasma extensively in my IG army, usually with a plasma gun in every infantry squad I run.
The way I see it, it has a longer overall range than melta, so if I include a heavy weapon in the squad it allows it more turns of shooting before the enemy gets to me than a melta would. If I don't include a hvy wpn, then the melta still isn't a great choice, as the rest of the squad has rapid fire weapons as well, so if any of them shoot I don't get a charge anyway.

[Wildeyedjester]

With my guard I have enough fire power to bring down monstrous creatures. What gives me problems is the landraider spam lists... even worse if they have lysander and th termies in them....

I take melta any day of the week.

[crazyredpraetorian]

What did Crusher Joe call it last night.....oh yeah, the mista-gun. A Blood Angel with a meltagun missed twice at 3 inches.

[wash-away]

on my marines i use melta because i have tougher stuff to kill MC's and other baddy's. however with vets i might say plasma because you can depstrike and get a ton of st 7 ap2 shots off on an ususpecting unit in adition to your Hellguns (wich are why you cost so much)

with melta if you come down you have to hit something really big to get your points back and even then your most likely dead next turn.

if their holding an objective they've got range, and if they deepstrike you can double tap. plasma ftw.

[Oldgrue]

If you're running a Valkyrie Drop list, there's no reason to give the Vets Plasma. Their job should be to kill things in the opponent's back field rather than be a hit squad for marine equivalents. Everything without a Meltagun or Meltabomb is an ablative wound.Plasma is a cute concept but with 1/3 of your misses with that weapon having a fair chance to kill the wielder its pretty hard to justify having one - the only time its reliable is when a Commissar executes his own people!

[wash-away]

but your waisting your hellgun shots if you shoot 2 melta's at a tank. those ap3 flashlights are what make you 170 pts not 100. if you put 2 plasma guns in w/ heavy flamer in a valk your shooting a lot more firepower and you can bring all your guns to bear. guard have a ton of other ways to kill armour without the vets having to do it. not to mention the ordanance missles on the valk itself. it kills the tank and they kill whatever comes out.

[FireChild]

Melta is prime for the edition of rediculous amounts of mech, ive never missed my precious plasma from last edition, even though its much easier for plasma to live I find the benefits of melta far outwiegh plasma, heres why.

-Melta is far superior at punching armor in my opinion
-plasmas main advantage in my eyes vs troops is the ap2 but since the one thing i fear at that armor value is now invulnerable save 3+ i would rather just bolter the assault terminators to death.
- For me I run vulcan so obvious advantages there but even without him my first and second points stand.
-lastly to defend plasma abit I do like the mass shot str 7 against low armor transports but i find that even though I effect vehicles by glancing more often i find that if I reach the chart, and thats a big if, I only have a roughly 33% chance to kill the tank as opposed to 50%, thats huge in my opinion.

I stipulate that these are all from my play experience and any counter arguments will be well recieved as I love hearing from fellow players.

[Maxtermynd]

In my play group there are tons of hungry MCs wandering around, so a plasma death command squad is a must for my IG army. Nothing like taking out a 'Fex or Tyrant with one turn of one squad's shooting... though I have to say that I prefer the 4 guns as opposed to 3 and a medic. BID handles most of the 1s and carapace armor handles the rest without taking away any of my shots. And if one of my troopers dies while shooting... doesn't matter. They've done their damage already.

But for smaller groups of troops/those without ready access to BID, melta is definitely the way to go. Especially for highly mobile troops that you can quickly get into the midst of the enemy's lines. 5 stormtroopers with 2 melta and a plasma pistol is a very deadly combination, especially with the prevalence of mech these days.

I guess my feeling is that in smaller numbers, meltas>plasma as 1 hit is often all it takes to take down any vehicle. But when you have a large number of plasma guns concentrated in one unit their value increases dramatically as they are able to either wipe out or severely wound whatever they fire at.

[Oldgrue]

but your waisting your hellgun shots if you shoot 2 melta's at a tank. .

wasting my hellguns..The IG excel at forcing the enemy to take ridiculous numbers of armor saves, rather than crack open heavily armored troops with accurate AP weapons. The idea of wasting hellguns because 3 meltaguns are burning a nice neat hole in their tank of choice would be a genuine concern if I could shoot at two squads, or these were Space marines with their nice toughness and armor saves rather than veterans, or I didn't have a troops choice that outnumbers a squad of marines 2 to 1 for the points to force unholy numbers of saves. For 185 points I can deliver a few less lasguns, but go up to 6 S7 and 4 s6 hits as well - saving 45 points on those veterans' plasma and heavy flamer.

Guard have *lots* of ways to kill armor. Pop and Drop is one of the Best, as much as i Hate it. Sentinels are nice, and an artillery battery can do wonders, but neither can do all the things vet/valk can. The hellstrikes are to me an afterthought. One Shot BS3....its a big hunter killer missile and less reliable than the veterans.

[Aristus]

I would say plasma guns as you are bound to overheat at the worst moments possible.
I mean, there's nothing compared to the sight of melting guardsmen.