Necromunda Weapons Review: Heavy Weapons

Continuing the series of reviews of the weapons in Necromunda here are my thoughts on Heavy weapons.

Heavy stubber

The "standard" heavy weapon from which all others are compared. Its the cheapest traditional HW and you get what you pay for in some regard. It has the lowest strength (S4) which makes sense given its cost. Pumping out between 2 and 6 shots a turn with an average ammo roll, it should keep going for a while during a firefight. Remember that though you can fire full auto with two sustained fire dice, you don't have to. You could choose to fire one sustained fire dice, or only fire a single shot. This could be useful if you only have one target and don't want to risk running out of ammo.

I would recommend this weapon to anyone new to the game, its very forgiving to new players. If you lose your heavy early not too many credits are lost, this lessens the sting somewhat. Later in a campaign it will become less useful at downing gangers that have toughened up. It becomes more of an area denial piece used for pinning more than killing.

Heavy flamer

A new addition to community edition and a good one. Its a S5 flamer that does D3 damage, It also has one better ammo roll and chance to set a target on fire than a standard flamer. It is worth noting that although it is a HW you can more and still fire unlike the rest. It still encumbers the heavy with a -1 penalty in combat however. The fact that it does more damage and has a higher chance to set on fire makes it much more deadly than its special weapon counterpart. 

Missile Launcher

The grenade launchers big brother.although with less options. It has two ammo types which are sold seperatly (Reminds me of toy adverts form the 90's) Frag and krak missiles are both good and if you are investing in this weapon get both. Just do it. The frag missiles having S4 makes it comperable to the heavy stubber (Trading sustained fire for a large blast template). Krak missiles however is the same a an autocannon shot. It will only hit one model but if you do and don't roll a one to wound... that model is most likely going to go OOA. It might be fun to come up with extra ammo types but thats for another day...

Heavy Bolter

Take the heavy stubber increase its cost by 60 its strength by 1 and give it D3 damage. That is awesome, but your ammo roll goes down to a 6... That sucks. If you can get weaponsmith on you heavy though it becomes a monster. It is worth bringing two heavies from the start one with the H bolter and the other with a basic or special weapon until one of them gets weaponsmith then give him the weapon. Other things that make it more viable are the Workshop territory, an auto-repairer or a weapon reload. These all increase its life span during a game. The auto-repairer is better as it helps your whole gang, the weapon reload costs a lot for what it does really. I wouldn't really go for it myself.

Heavy Plasmagun

One of the more expensive HW's. Like the other plasma weapons it has the two fire modes. Low power is S7 D3 damage small blast, high is S8 D6 damage large blast but a roll on the gets hot chart. Its a premium weapon with a premium price, well worth it though. 

If you manage to get a wound or toughness increase on your heavy firing on high power becomes less risky.
Even if you don't fire it on high power its a formidable weapon, but if you get that chance to catch a few gang fighters in one shot and they all go down, well thats worth it even if you do go down to the gets hot roll.

Autocannon

High strength and one sustained fire dice make this weapon deadly, but the high cost for what it does. The effect is basically the same as a missile launcher but with D3 shots, you can only rely on firing once but when you get three its great. It does have a much better ammo roll than the missile launcher though, so chances are you will carry on shooting after the launcher would have run out of ammo.

Lascannon

The most expensive weapon in the game, and the most powerful. At strength 9 and 2D6 damage unless you are unlucky enough to roll a one to wound what ever you hit will go down. And with an ammo roll of a 2+ you should keep firing for the whole game. It also has a special rule which means that nerve tests trigger at 6" rather than just 2". Remember that it is high impact too so they will all suffer -1 to their LD rolls. This means even though you will only ever down one ganger at a time with this weapon, it has a great board presence. I can't see it used very often as anyone good at the game will try their best not to give you line of sight to any of their gangers  

 What are your thoughts on these most powerful of weapons?? Drop a comment below at least saying your favorite one!