April 17, 2012 by lloyd
Darrell talks a bit about Shooting with Plasma Weapons and the Get Hot Rule. What's been your experience with using Plasma, is it a must take weapon in your army?
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I agree with Darrel I find the plasma cannon wondrous. I run 6 obliterators in my CSM list. I have never had to much trouble with the gets hot rule. With oblits having two wounds you have to be having a bad day if you roll gets hot twice. I find that I use the plasma cannon more often then any other weapon on the oblits with the multi melta coming in a close second.
Thanks for the tip Darrell, this will help me when I equip those long fangs in the future, to be honest I don’t see the problem with a plasma weapon, you have a 1in 6 chance of the plasma ‘getting hot’ and even then you get your normal armour save, its all about the dice when it comes down to it, just need to work out the overall risks vs the gains and i think strength 8 ap 2 is worth the risk
it’s actually strength 7, if it was any higher then odds are most things you would hit would be instant-killed due to the Instant Death rule.
oops sorry my mistake thanks for that.
Yeah I love plasma cannons. I run my venerable dreads with them, move 6″ and fire, never have to take a “gets hot” test and the BS 5 makes them ultra accurate. No better feeling then vapourising a squad of wolf guard with a well placed plasma cannon shot.
Plasma weapons in general work a lot better on vehicles- but the plasma cannon is just awesome now, especially if you’re facing a mass of nids or guardsmen, just pop it off into the middle of them and you’re bound to hit something.
The rapid fire of the plasma gun makes it actually a tiny bit better than a melta gun against lighter vehicles that are between 6 and 12″ away, as long as they have AV12 or less you have a 1 in 3 chance of a penetrating hit and pretty much 50/50(not exactly but if someone wants to do the mathhammer and correct me go nuts) of at least a glancing hit, if you can stun a vehicle with the first guy shooting at it you can use the other anti tank weapons on other vehicles/monstrous creatures this turn and come back for it next time since its not going anywhere (landraiders etc notwithstanding).
There’s another reason to take plasma though, they’re glowey so you have a great starting point if you want to do source lighting on a model and personally I think they look better than melta guns too. 🙂
I love running my Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannon sponsons, it has a big price tag but the ability to put out 5 plasma blasts can make it up quick.
I like plasma even though my guys usually burn themselves. Be they guardsmen or chaos space marines. Now this brought me upon an interesting question, I don’t know if the conditions are ever possible but I’ll ask it anyway: What if an infantry model(i.e. someone who has to test for the Get’s Hot rule) had a Twin-Linked Plasmacannon?
It can happen to imperial guard with the “bring it down” order.
If you take the re-roll for twin linked, bring it down or any thing similar only the second roll counts, even if its worse, say you roll a 2 first time but you’re BS3 so thats a miss you re-roll and score a 1 you take a save, but if you roll a 1 then re-roll it and score anything but a 1 you don’t need to take a save.
Same for the Techmarine’s Twin Linked Plasma Pistol in the video. (shame on you Darrell for not covering twin linked :P)
i.e. the tech marines TL Plasma pistol, i’d say take the wound, then re-roll, twin linked counts for nothing if you’re roasted
Another example of that are beyond HP 5 models that get to re-roll.
I love plasma cannons, when ever i play my space marines at least on squad has to have one or I have a unit of devastators with two. I will say this though, the first squad i put together I gave a plasma gun too and in their first game it overheated and killed the marine on the first shot
I must say I’m pretty fond of plasma-cannons too,as I use a 2 plasma-cannons/2 heavy bolters devastator squad,and I never lost marine to over-heating…What’s true too is that my luck is rather terrible most of the time….also master of the forge or “plain” techmarines with servo-harness can be quite effective when armed with another plasma pistol,and may get great conversions,too…
i love using plasma pistols in my assault squad. just jump behind an enemy rhino or something else with low armour. with 2 or 3 shots the chance to get the enemy on foot is quite large, then its just to run in and chop them up in the assault phase.
I find the plasmacannons to be great on a devestator squad with a lascannon or a missile launcher as well because str7 can hurt any non-av14 and if it is a raider i shoot it to try and scatter on to somethng nearby that it can hurt.
It would be last of 3rd/ early 4th edition, but I did manage to make my own devastator flee off the board because of heavy plasma casualties.
I find weapons that may potentially damage their user a bad rules mechanism and avoid them, since the (potential) bonus never really outweighs the risk involved.
like plasma cannons myself. Never had too much trouble with gets hot. I also use the pistol in assault squads occasionally for fun.
I mainly use meltaguns for my Grey Hunters because I know that my plasma gunners will kill themselves when I need them the most, leaving the pack with no special weapons. They are perfect on Dreads though.
Have I ever lost men to “gets hot”? Yes I have. On average one of my plasma weapons turns around and bites me in the azz, once every game or 2. And ones every 3 of 4 games, I fail my armour save.
As for blast templates. I have seen them do more harm than good.
In the last Apocalypse game I played, I lost 1 squad and my partner lost 1 squad to large blast templates. My opponent however also took out 4 of his partners squads in the same manner.
The range, 2 shots and ap2 make me equip all my tac-squads with plasma rather then melta. 🙂
As for tank hunting I use more specialized units for that so I don’t miss meltas in the least.
I usally take either Meltas or Flamethrowers, I don’t know why but I achieve it every time I take Plasmaweapons to roll a 1 and obviously fail my 3+ armour save.
But Plasmacannons on vehicles are fierce, my brother uses the Leman Russ with the Heavy 3 Plasmacannon (can’t remembeer the name of it ATM) and another two Plasmacannons on each side.
5 Plasma-templates are fierce, they wipe-out whole troops of vanilla terminators or SM squads, it’s expencisve but hey all he has to do is name one of my troops in range and I can take it of the table.
I have run Devs with 4 plasma cannons in the past. They can be quite nasty. Although I don’t really do that anymore. mainly because
A) they’re too much of a fire magnet…
B) they’re buried in the tac unit so are a little harder to kill
C) since I usually run 4+ tac squads anyway, point for point it’s better for me to put them in tac squads… at 5 point per versus 25 for the devs, the tac squads just make more sense.
However if I knew it was likely my opponent was going to field a Dread & Termie list I would go for the devs since my tac squads would be lascannon heavy.
But as my usual combo I field 4 tac squads, 2 with Plasma cannons and 2 with Lascannons and a dev squad with 4 missile launchers.
im a huge plasma fan i run a cannon and a gun in every tac unit and i have 10!
I think they’re a must have. The S7 AP2 shot is worth the risk and if you can put one or more in a unit with Feel No Pain… OMG… It’s a no brainer.
i don’t believe anyone pointed this out yet but the Tau plasma rifle does not have gets hot as “Tau favor a form of the technology that forgoes a degree of stopping power for increased safety of the operator.” pg 27 Tau Codex
He mentioned it in the beginning of the video. Well, said that they use an advanced sort that doesn;t get hot.
I have always enjoyed giving my marines plasma cannons. The model is super cool. I like to run 10 man squads with a Razorback and then combat squad so I have mini devistator sqauds. The Plasma cannon sits at home and blasts away.
Funny story:
1: I have killed 3 chaos termies just as they beamed in and
2: I have deviated at point blank range behind the back of the Cannoner and killed my HQ.
You have to have huge cajonnes to point blank with plasma cannon. 🙂
My cousin once destroyed my dark reapers with plasma cannons then later in the game one of his devastators killed all the other guys in the unit and ran away. A small amount of justice.
Question: If the SM firing a Plasma weapon dies due to “Get’s Hot” can I remove another model in the squad in his stead, and thereby keep the Plasma weapon?
Nope. It would be nice, but sadly it doesn’t work like that.
Nope. It’s where the weapon gets too hot and starts to explode and melt down. Assume that if a casualty is caused, the weapon exploded to kill the guy (or girl) and if it isn’t caused, then the weapon simply needs to cool down before it can gout again.
I am also a huge fan of plasma.
Most pople here use either melta or flamers because of mech dominance, so they can pop the transport and then burn whatever was inside and is now packed close together.
I think that plasma weapons are underrated, because you can quite easily pop a transport with S7, and from further away with 24 or 36 inch range. And if another squad is nearby a S7 template ignoring even terminator armor is much deadlier on packed unit.
I regulary play two tac squads with plasmagun/plasmacanon in my BA army. I remember playing a guy with DA army, who laughed when he saw BA army with Tac Squads. He wasnt laughing when I killed two termie squads in one turn after they deepstriked in.
Im totaly in love with plasma my normal opponents are chaos marines orks and guard i no the last to plasma cannons are abit of an over kill but i dont care xD i always field a devastator squad of 4 plasma cannons and every squad i have takes a plasma gun and a heavy bolter the sheer lack of enemy models by the time they reach bolter range is worth all the friendly losses you might take but so far from all the games ive never lost more than one plasma cannon a game 🙂 tbh it is quite a low chance for them to die from it
Yeah, plasma cannon ftw.
I had a great laugh at my EPIC FAIL! couple months ago. Group of eldar Dire Avengers killed my CSM squad exept for my plasma gun guy. I had get my revenge! I moved him forward 6″ and rapid fired my plasma gun at those Dire Avengers that killed his squad. He rolled double ones and I managed to throw snake eyes again for his saves… The lesson I learned, never seek for revenge you’ll only get killed. 😀
Personally, I’m not a fan of melt-guns. I prefer meltabombs and plasmaguns because meltaguns just don’t have the range necessary to be truly effective (and have to be in half range to be as effective as they are designed to be) and are limited in their applications (so are meltabombs, but they let you have a longer ranged weapon too 😀 ).
I’ve never been a fan of plasmacannon because they cost more and I don’t particularly like the design either. Plasmaguns are great as they have a useful range, excellent hitting power and can rapidfire, as well as being dirt cheap. With a 1 in 6 chance of hitting your guy and (for CSM and SM) a 1/3 chance of then wounding him (meaning a 1/18 chance of affecting you, unless you’re an Obliterator/similar, in which case it would have to happen twice, meaning a 1/36 chance of removing the model).
I personally love all plasma weapons, they’re great when you hit your opponent as it just eats through them, and on the off chance you do roll a one, it’s just amusing and gives everyone something to chuckle about. :p Then again, I play an army dedicated to Khorne, and he doesn’t really care where the blood flows from, just as long as it does. :p
Probable my most amazing achievement with a plasma weapon is when I was playing against on of my friends. We were playing annihilation and he managed to kill pretty much everything except my Chaos Terminator Lord. The dice gods were on side because my Lord had managed to eat through several of my friends squads, brushing off any hits that he got against him. Just to end up killing himself by his gun overloading. :p
Well I love plama when i was starting out in 40k i was a little put off by the “gets hot!” rule but now that i am a more experianced player i run most of my tactical squads with plasma cannons and my devestators with a mix of plasma and las cannons
i have only lost one guy to a plasma weapon from either side and it was in a battle dominated by plasma weapons i rolled a ones back to back but at least i was able to rapid fire and kill my opponents last obliterators… i prefer plasma guns and flamers in my tactical squads because those are really the niches i need filled… i use a predator or dev.s for everything else…
I do like plasma, but;
1. one of my friends had 5 plasma guns in his guard army. In one shooting phase, 4 of them killed themselves.
2. The special AP3 gets hot sternguard bolt round has killed more of the Sternguard I’ve seen than anything else.
I think plasma cannons are good, but they for me have never been my weapon of choice. Plasma guns were great in 4th edition but now that 5th edition is in, so are the meltas. A good player doesn’t usually have a hard time avoiding plasma cannons. Mech armies are more prevalent than ever and troops inside transports are virtually safe from plasma cannons. Deep striking obliterators with the ability to deep strike and than fire plasma cannons are good but they are super expensive. I much prefer lascannons, multi meltas and even heavy bolters over the plasma cannons. They still have their place but like I said a good player will avoid those templates by either staying in transports, cover or spacing their models 2 inches apart. Plasma cannons also cannot effectively take out vehicles unlike plasma guns which can take out light vehicles.
It changed my game play when I bring Sammael in my DA. I started to win! 🙂
His plasma cannon have done a lot of wound on the battle field. Yes, it is easy to space models, but at 2 inches apart, you still can kill two or three with a single shot.
And with the possibility to bring one Apothecary in my bike squads, I equipped one SM by squad with a plasma gun. That way, it is “much much much” more harder to die with the “Gets Hot!” and still get the rapid fire rules (Hurray for the narthecium/reductor). 12 inches moved and 12 inches to shoot means you get half a table covered to kill at least one Termis.
Used wisely, plasma gun are GREAT!
i use plasma all the time (literally) and i have never killed one of my own guys, some time use tau i know they don’t over heat but whenever i use space marines i all ways have a plasma weapon some wear in my army
Plasma cannons yes, plasma guns no. Most plasma guns would be going in to a tactical squad and I all ways find shooting and then assault to be a far more effective strategy than hanging at the back and just shooting, so flamers are best option but if you want something heavy hitting then meltaguns all the way. multi-purpose and an assault weapon.
if i use a space marine with plasma weapons of any kind then he will never roll a 1 to hit, however if i give a guardsmen a plasma gun then he will get 1 1/2 rounds of good shooting before he self destructs, 3 dead marines in exchange for 1 dead guardsmen, i think it’s worth it.
I gotta say that I have always loved Plasma weapons, the AP2 has never let me down! Sure gets hot once and a while no big deal, when you have a bunch of high toughness models bearing down on you, that Plasma Gun and Pistol in your Tactical Squad has saved my skin more times then I want to count. i recently made a list entirely of Plasma weapons for my Space Marines, it unfortunately was not entirely effective but it made an impression, with some tweaks it could be amazing!
I have a statistics defying penchant for rolling a lot of ones and twos, so plasma guns/pistols are suicide for me. I have played plasma cannons in Devastator squads despite this and against MEQ there is nothing better. However, once I discovered dreads are immune to ‘gets hot’, I ordered them for all my dreads from FW. They are fantastic on dreads.
I destroyed 2 squads with my plasma canons
I still one the battle no (=0w0=)