Let me tell you first off that the weapon is VERY misunderstood and underestimated.
First rule of MMs: Buy lots of em. They are roughly on par with Heavy Bolters points wise so load up. While 1-2 MM dont get respect, start firing them in quads, and your opponent will take notice.
Second rule of MMs: Forget all that nonsense about getting within 12" for the extra d6 penetration. The MM is effectivley S:9 with the AP:1 rule (never forget about the AP:1 rule), and it's not wise to give up a turn of MM volley fire to get within the 0-12" rangeband.
Third rule of MMs: Fire at anything. Abandon any preconcieved notions about the MM being a anti-vehicular weapon. What wins games for me, is it's ability to be a squad eraser, when used in large numbers. Terminators? Dead on a 2+, Death Company? Crisis Suits? Dead on a 2+, etc... You get the idea. Feel free to use the MM fire against anything foolish enough to get within range. The beauty of this is the weapon's cheapness, which ensures your ability to field it in large numbers. Heck, my Deathguard devs come in at about @170pts with quad MM, with is ridiculously cheap by dev squad standards.
Fourth rule of MMs: Deploy aggressively. These are not "sit in the back" and blaze away weapons. Deploy them front and center, covering the "action". Boards are not as big as most players assume, and that 24" can reach out and touch someone easier than many players anticipate. Use your standard troops infantry to advance and hold the forward line to bolck assaults against your MMs.
Fifth Rule of MMs: Terrain placement. Always use the player alternating terrain placement rules for building tables when possible. You want large LoS blocking mid-field terrain, so fill up the center fast. There is no way to lose faster than to get into a fire exchange with a long-distance shooty army across an open center.
Conversely, there is little more frustrating for opponents, than to have to advance into mid-field terrain, with 8-12 MM waiting patiently on the other side. You will learn to love the "Take and Hold" mission, and loathe "Patrol".
Now go forth and Melta!
-bigred
16 comments:
Lovely tactica, nice use of a weapon that doesn't see enough (read: any) play.
- Salvage
Very interesting and inspiring. I would love to hear mkers opinion too, as the mm is also a Sister weapon.
-Gonka Koff
Certainly some interesting points about a weapon that mostly avoided like the plague, I've always had a softspot for it since it's a cool siegeweapon that I sadly couldn't use with chaos, with the new codex I will them in the form of obliterators and I'll definetly make use on your points for fielding them.
The ability then to move and fire with them will make em even better.
Brilliant tactica, I've gone and got me a quad multi-melta dev squad for my Blood Angels, backed up by 3 Multi Melta Land Speeders, just because of this tactica. I might comment on here again when I've use them, to report on any sucess!
MM Dev squads are great in big games. I seem to be the only one that has one. Nothing like seeing the look on someones face after they make it halfway across the table and find themselves under the sights of 4 MM's. If you want to get real nasty, stick a cheap techmarine with em for that one re-roll.
search and you shall recieve........ i now feel a plan for my army forming (",)
cheers, great tactica
Works even better when the Devestator squad infiltrates!
Now thats a tactic which the Blood Angels can excell at. Given that the Ba's Attack Bikes can field a Multi-Melta for 50pts each, and there's nothing in the fast attack section thats worth taking. I happily field three of them in seperate squads turbo-boosting in and out of line of sight and shooting there Meltas at prime targets. For 3 attack bikes for 150pts with the ability to move fast and hit hard, as well as able to shoot at different targets, there's nothing these bikes can't get to.
Ap:1 does not make a S:8 weapon equivalent to a S:9 weapon.
I mean, what? Have you never heard of glancing hits? Perhaps you need to play against more Eldar players--or Tau players--whose tanks will just laugh at your AP:1 rule.
They would know better than to think that a Multi-melta at 24" is the equivalent of a lascannon...
Also, I'm pretty sure I have a good idea regarding the size of the board, and 24" is basically short--especially on a unit which can't move and shoot.
I'm a fan of Multi-meltas--on the correct platforms. Attack Bikdes, for instance, put Multi-meltas to use excellently.
Tactical squads and Devs, however, just don't, and nothing you've suggested here really changes that.
In reference to Eldar tanks, Wave Serpents in particular, the laughing is at S9 proper. ;)
Anyway, this sort of tacticas I always like, if they open eyes for new possibilities and that's what this one certainly does. While AP1 doesn't make a multi-melta quite as good as a S9 weapon (too bad) as the last person commented but nevertheless I like the potential of this tactic, in damage as well as control and surprise.
~ Araith
Multi-meltas work wonders as the heavy weapon in a Celestian squad. You can easily field 3 of them, or 5 if you take Heroines with retinue. That kind of firepower embedded in a squad is very, very dangerous... and it can't be easily killed by assault, either.
I use them in tac squads and love them. If I had the models for a quad dev squad I would also have it in it, since I dont I have two and two plasma cannons. Most boards are 6x4 and the range is just fine. there may be times you wish you had something else, but the idea is just to good not to take at least on in an army for the fun of it. The tac squad has had enemy's rerout their forces to stay away from that and that in itself won me the game.
-Brother Nicolas-
The new rulebook has slightly reduced the effectivness of MMs, seeing as Ap:1 no longer makes it Str 9. Other than that, good tactica
Multi-meltas may function a bit differently in 5E, but that doesn't make them any less of a useful weapon. AP1 weaponry gets a +1 on the vehicle damage chart, which means even a glance from an AP1 weapon can destroy a vehicle.
This was a fun read that reinforced my love of heat weaponry, especially in my Sisters of Battle army, where every squad carries a melta. Playing in Apocalypse games using the asset Holy War makes a quad-MM squad a roaming nightmare to enemy armor and heavy infantry.
In Dev squads what I like is ML/Las or HB/Plas mixes. I only get to use Dev in Apoc as I am a BT player. I do run the two foot MM I have in a Castelian led infiltrating command squad. I am thinking seriously about adding the MM to all my LR once the new C:SM comes out. And as was mentioned earlier, Attack bikes and Speeders make excellant AT platforms for there cost.
Excellent tactica - shame as a Chaos player I can't use it :(
As for Meltas in 5th ed, I think they're just as good as ever. The whole +1 to Glancing can come when you least expect it :)
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