Today we look at the Warhound Titan's Plasma Blastgun in its overload fire mode. The rapid fire mode of this weapon was covered in a previous article. This is one of the most popular options for the Warhounds as well as a classic often shown off in the books.
Range 96" - S10 - AP2 - Primary Weapon 1, Apocalyptic Blast
Range: At 96 inches the Plasma Blastgun in overload mode can hit anything on a standard sized table. Range won't be an issue in this firing mode and the only thing that will threaten your Titan that far out is another super-heavy, even in Apocalypse.
General Effectiveness: The Plasma Blastgun is easily one of the most effective and versatile loadouts of any of the Titan weapons out there. However, this review will focus on just the overload fire mode, and even then it is quite a versatile weapon. Firing in the overload mode for the Plasma Blastgun retains the same effectiveness against infantry than in its rapid fire state. That means using overload mode is actually a waste of the gun's effectiveness against infantry (due to the reduced number of shots in spite of the larger blast radius) unless you're targeting very hard enemies such as Wraithlords or above. This fire mode, however, has some serious armor cracking ability and takes on the likes of even the Land Raider with an ease eclipsed only by Destroyer Weapons. With Primary Weapon and S10, a Plasma Blastgun will make very short work of vehicles of all stripes. It will kill just about any infantry that it can hit (causing Instant Death to enemies T5 or less) and is a highly dreaded vehicle killer for anything that isn't a super-heavy class.
Effectiveness Against Titans: The Plasma Blastgun is a weapon that is designed to be able to tackle any battlefield threat due to its two firing modes. The overload mode of the Plasma Blastgun allows it to fight other Titans; even the powerful Warlord Titans. Once a Titan's void shields are stripped out, preferably by the Vulcan Mega Bolter, an overload shot has a good chance of making damage stick to an enemy God-Engine. It won't have much issue harming other Warhounds and even manages to damage Reaver Titans with relative ease.
Recommended Deployments: In its overload fire mode this weapon is best used against enemy elite infantry, Monstrous Creatures, and all types of enemy armor in particular. The weapon can kill hordes, but at a reduced capacity compared to its rapid fire mode. It really shines against vehicles where it can crack armor easily. As mentioned in an earlier article, this is one of the few weapons that Warhounds can safely take in pairs and still maintain battlefield versatility. Once more, like most of the Warhound's weapons, it would do better paired with a weapon of a different type. Pairing the Plasma Blastgun with a Turbo Laser raises the sheer destructive force of the Titan and allows it to tackle anything in the game. Pairing it with the classic Vulcan Mega-Bolter makes the Warhound able to deal with infantry at any range with comparative safety and means that it will also be able to shred Monstrous Creatures and light to medium armor even more effectively.
Summary: The Plasma Blastgun is a deadly addition to any Warhound Titan's arsenal. Second only to the Turbo Laser in its versatility (and only due to the fact it is not a Destroyer weapon), this gun is fearsome in either of its firing modes. In the overload fire mode reviewed here, it is extremely capable of tackling vehicles and Monstrous Creatures in particular, and can threaten other Titans with its high strength value. The large size of the template at ten inches also means it will be extremely accurate (not likely to miss at all, in truth) and can cover multiple units per shot. It's capable of hurting any unit in the game and is a particularly good vehicle killer. It is a powerful weapon that also gives the Titan range and the security of knowing it can handle anything facing it.
Please comment below to discuss the Plasma Blastgun in overload fire mode.
It's good, but at no extra price I can mount two Turbo Lasers... If the price increased I would perhaps consider this as the go-to weapon, like the Warlord Carapace weapons have a price tag, but since it is a set price for the Warhound, my go-to weapon is Turbo Lasers. Of course Canis Bellum has Vulcan Mega Bolter and Plasma Loadout, because once you've bought it, it's expensive to change!
ReplyDeleteNot having actually used either the turbo or plasma in game, it's hard for me to say, but I know when i was selecting weapons, it looked like this guy paired with the turbo gave me a lot of options. The 10 inch template isn't just two five inch templates - it's significantly bigger than that. A 5 inch blast covers a hair under 20 square inches. A 7 inch nearly doubles that (5 inch is 19.63, 7 is 38.48) and a 10 inch is a whopping 78.54 square inches! So the plasma was attractive to me for the ground it could cover and the laser was attractive cause of the D. But with all that said, you are right about it being expensive to change! I magnetized, and am thankful I have done so - right now I can choose between one each of bolter, laser, and plasma, but to be honest the only weapon I've considered dual wielding is the laser :)
DeletePlasma, because sometimes you just want to watch the bodies burn!
ReplyDelete