Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Magic of the Multi-Melta


A commonly fielded unit in my marine army is a multi-melta Devastator unit. I have considered them a fairly effective unit and they have usually performed admirably. They have usually acted in the deterrent role because of their ability punch through armor, so my opponents would typically give them wide berth or present lower armor targets.
This new edition has vindicated my faith in the multi-melta, but it has made this unit a bit of a fire magnet. In my first 5th edition game Bulwark, of Bell of Lost Souls fame, made a b-line towards this unit and allowed my Devastators a single turn of firing. By turn two he had managed to tie them up in close combat and dispatched them in subsequent rounds.
The lesson learned from this game is that Devastator multi-meltas are a liability because they tend to draw unnecessary attention and in one turn a large portion of anti tank firepower can be removed. This event caused me to wonder what role, if any, would the multi-melta play in future game of 5th edition. Then it occurred to me that my error was in fielding them as Devastators. I decided that more wasn’t better with these because one usually accomplished the job.
My new paradigm is multi-meltas are best in tactical squads, and since I play Dark Angels, they will come into their own with combat squads. They will excel in Combat Squads because they will be able to use the run rule behind the cover of my armored fighting vehicles (AFVs.) Once they have moved up they will have a decent command of the field and will be able to deliver effective anti tank firepower. The new run rule also increases their flexibility by allowing them a chance to take up a decent field position.
What excites me most about multi-meltas is their armor penetration of 1, and what that does in this new edition. Admittedly, they are a poor man’s lascannon, but there aren’t many AV 14 targets in the game. This is what will make these weapons feared and will cause many players to re-examine their tactics. I am fairly confident that here in the near future this weapon will become as common as the lascannon.

7 comments:

CrusherJoe said...

The main problem with the multi-melta is its range. You can park a lascannon guy (or 4) in the "back 12" and still hit tanks across the board (not like you don't know this). Having to run your MM across the field and THEN have to sit still for a turn before you can fire seems like a LOT of wasted opportunities to fire that you could have taken with a lascannon.

OTOH, though, if you DO manage to run that MM over close enough to get the "melta bonus", chances are you've also removed the likelihood of a cover save...so with that in mind, that's a very nice advantage that the MM has over the LC.

Psyberwolfe said...

I guess where I wasn't clear in this article is I am not worried about the extra dice of penetration so much as the AP1. This is the real advantage of the gun. Also on turn 1 I typically am not presented with an abundance of targets so many times my 20 point tactical lascannon shots are being wasted on mooks. With Meltas I am forcing myself to concentrate on field position and on the development of the game. Meltas have a distinct role of discouraging movement and forcing my opponent to reconsider their movement lest they get punished.

Gamers World said...

The melta is a great gun but only if it's used right, all you have to do is hide it in a rhino or even better a landraider so you can whizzzzzzzzz it across the board.

Democratus said...

I so seldom see Multimeltas on anything other than vehicles that I have no feel for their use by infantry.

Perhaps the experience you described in the article wasn't a bad one after all. If you field a Devastator squad with Multi Meltas and this causes your opponent to go all out to kill them - couldn't you use that? If they aren't unsupported you could even make it harder to get to grips with them.

Knowing exactly what your enemy is going to try and kill is pretty good information to have early on in a game. The trick, I suppose, is using such information wisely.

I guess what I'm saying is that perhaps you should try the Dev meltas for a few more games before giving them up as a bad idea.

Anonymous said...

Likely there will be more AV 14 vehicles in , as (mostly Marine)players begin to field Land Raider-spam lists... the attraction of putting a huge machine that is immune to standard infantry weapons on top of an objective marker will be too much for some people to resist.

I very much want to field multi-meltas in my tactical squads, but at the moment I'm still waiting to try out plasma cannon-spam. I'm worried about waves of orks overwhelming my Blood Angels, so I'm hoping to kill as many as possible with templates. I figure that plasma cannons hurt tanks as much as infantry, so it seems a good option.

In any case, it probably will take a lot of good lists full of multi-meltas in tactical squads, deepstriking land speeders, and attack bikes to shift people from LR-spam lists.

Capt Tyranus said...

I agree with docrailgun, the Land Raider (in all of its increasing number of varieties) is becoming THE vehicle for 5th Ed.

So while there may not be that many different vehicles with AV14, you will probably see a disproportionate number of them on the gaming table accross from you.

So I do think that multi-meltas are now viable.

I still think the melta is a superior option in the Tactical squad since the shorter range is more than offset by the mobility it offers (let's not forget "drive-by melta-ing."), the fact that it doesn't stick out as much, and that you can move, shoot, and assault with it.

Infiltrating Veterans coming up the flank with a meltagun ROCK!


Oh, wait, DA Veterans don't have access to Veteran Skills....

Space Hulk Enthusiast said...

I just came across your post here... seems I'm a bit late or the discussion but I know fielding a Deathwing and seeing multimeltas across the table or knowing they are out there moving around is enough for me to be concerned.

I think you make a good point about the concept of concentrating on field position too.