Librarium online debates the IG Heavy Weapons Squad; stupidity ensues

Praetor, a recent IG convert, wants to know what the best load out is for his newly recruited Heavy Weapons Squads (HWS).
He asks this question in this thread on Librarium online. Getting news through his police scanner that somebody just asked a valid question and is about to get some shit advice, Chumbalaya is first on the scene and posts what should have effectively closed this topic down:

Autocannons ftw ~every time I see this I think "fuck the world" Is there something wrong with me? . They're cheap, versatile, and don't require orders to be effective.


I would also accept lascannons if you can get them orders reliably (Kell, Com Lord).


MLs are too pricey and saddled with 1 shot at BS3 (LCs and ACs are better), HBs are inferior to ACs in every way that matters, and Mortars can be easily replaced by ordnance of any type.

Sadly, there is still a debate about this. Most of the posters actually have decent advice and tend to agree with the autocannon status quo. Not that anybody else adds any additional value, though.

...and then there's this reply from Intrepid:

Heavy bolters are a good choice. ~for me to poop on They're effective against light vehicles ~that happen to be AV10 and open topped and all infantry ~except the ones with T4 and power armor while still having a fairly low threat threat profile. ~off the charts bad unit=off the charts low threat rating Missile launchers work well too ~if you are a space marine, as IG MLs only fool you into thinking they will be versatile. Those tricky bastards... , particularly when firing three frag templates at a bunched-up enemy squad. Lascannons ~well I'm done listening to you now and mortars are the only bad choices. Lascans are too serious a threat to be wielded by such a weak unit and mortars are generally ineffective.

For infantry squads, I only use lascannons. ~but you just told me that lascannons are the suck, all of my illusions about the world have just been shattered My philosophy ~is wrong. Keep reading, you'll see for yourselves is that there isn't much I can do about my squad's accuracy, so I compensate by issuing guns that are big enough to kill whatever they eventually do hit. ~wait, so you're compensating for a squad's inaccuraccy by giving them a low rate of fire? There's a head scratcher for you.

In a world where mech is/should be the norm, why the fuck would you bring a gun that can't deal with any transports? Well you could deal with those shitty Ork trukks, but guess what... so can a bolter. As pointed out here and elsewhere, nothing can hold a candle to the versatility of the autocannon. It's effective against transports, it mitigates the low IG BS by having a decent rate of fire, and it wounds every infantry unit I can think of on a 2+. Why pay the same points for a piece of shit that does less?

Also, on the topic of mortars, there are lots of fun things you can do with them like get cheap scoring units, pin dudes (with some Psyker Battle Squad action), and hold game winning objectives without ever being shot at. Few opponents will even register mortar squads as a threat. They may pin something or kill somebody now and again, but that's not frightening. As such they'll be left alone while the guy/gal on the other side of the table deals with your units that are actually threats. Next thing you know it's turn 5 or 6 and that mortar is still sitting on a game winning objective. Jwolf talks about that here, in a very well thought out BoLS article from earlier today. Shit, I think a pig just went flying by my window....