Ach Aye Laddie - A question on LR vs. LR Exterminators

[hootsmon]

Hail Emperor!

Relatively new recruit to the Guard here, have been putting together a force over the last two weeks or so. Haven't had any games yet as I'm still waiting on third party kilts and tam-o-shanter heads to come through the post so I can put my Highlander infantry together.

So... my real nagging question is as follows...

LR vs. Exterminator

LR + HB sponsons + recovery gear 175
Pros: St8 AP3 large blast
Cons: Heavy Bolters are snapshooting

LREx + las hull upgrade + HB sponsons + recovery gear 165
Pros: HBs for clearing infantry, Ext Autocannon for heavy infantry and light tanks, and lascannon for armour, all rounder.
Cons: Lascannon is the only real dedicated anti armour and you only get the one shot.

So... thoughts?

To put it in context, it will be x2 in a squad, supported by x2 Banewolves (Multimelta hullmount) and x3 Armoured ML Sentinals. I also have 6 autocannons (2x3 spread across two platoons).

My thinking is that with my 6 autocannons I've already got a lot of midrange firepower.

The Banewolves are ruthless when it comes to infantry, and the multimelta synergises well with the template range. So they both have some anti tank and anti infantry.

The sentinals scout around and mainly hassle the opponent, who either ignores them, in which case they pepper him with 9 S6 shots a turn, or he doesn't ignore them in which case he has to dedicate some anti tank to taking them out, in which case he's not using that firepower on my other tanks or men.

So do I really need the Exterminators? Or am I better of with the standard LRs?

I'll be putting up my 1500 army list shortly over in the lists section.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Cheers

[nutty]

I usually run my LR's without any upgrades, the battlecannon does most of the things I need it to do and the snapshooting bolter sometimes hits stuff. There's usually one or two in my list, supported by the autocannons and/or lascannons that my infantrymen carry around.

The other variants I don't have any experience with, since I've been slacking in building/magnetizing my other tanks. The exterminator variant is looking like an interesting addition to my force: the rate of fire will help deal with light vehicles and infantry.. softening them up before they hit my lines. And it can shoot at enemy units that are close to my own units without friendly fire incidents. Like any self respecting Imperial Guard commander I will still fire a battlecannon at an enemy unit if it is only an inch away from my infantry squads... After all: if they get hit it simply means they weren't believing in the Emperor hard enough. But weaponry that doesn't use a template does have its merits in situations like that.

I'm looking forward to pictures of the highland guardsmen, it sounds like a cool project.

[hootsmon]

Cheers, I had been playing around with the idea of dropping the HB sponsons on the LRs, that would mean space for quite a few more flamers.