The increase in high strength

I kept trying to come up with a comment for Mick's post about weapon strength. However, it kept getting quite rambling and there seemed to be three different points I was trying to make so I thought a post would be a better way to reply...

The Increase in High Strength

At what point does medium strength become high strength? Personally, I consider S8 to be high strength. You're "doubling out" Space Marines, the most common troop in the game, wounding almost everything in the game on a 2 (except Wraithlords) and you can penetrate everything apart from AV14 which you can still glance.

Now, since the Space Wolf codex came out, we've definitely seen an increase in S8+. Wolves have cheap Missile Launchers, IG have their long range, high strength artillary, Tyranids have S8 Hive Guard and S10 Tyrannofex, Blood Angels have cheaper Missile Launchers, Dark Eldar have Dark Lances and Grey Knights have their "psyfleman" Dreadnoughts. S, in the last 18 months we've seen more missile launchers and their equivalents and that's on top of the 5th edition penchent for Melta.

Lascannons

Space Marines only have one option for long range >S8 shooting - the Lascannon (oh, okay, there's the Conversion Beamer too) Now, when I first started playing 40K way back in the '90s, the Lascannon was the premier anti-tank weapon in the game. These days? Not so much. I have been running a Lascannon in my Long Fang packs but I'm not convinced by the cost/reward calculation. However, on Razorbacks they are still golden. Yes, you're Still very unlikely to destroy a Monlith or Land Raider with a Lascannon but with mobility you can go for side shots on other tanks that are AV14 on the front. Plus long range AP2 is always handy for taking out Terminators and Oblitorators from afar. Which brings us onto...

The right tool for the job

Is it overwhelming to use a crane to crush a fly? A balanced list needs a way to deal with any threat. Personally, I take Krak Missiles to take out AV10-12, Melta to take out AV13-14 and mobile Multimeltas in the shape of Land Speeders to help with AV14, to get side shots and to cock-block enemy movement. In the list I'm currently working on, I'm going for 10 Missile Launchers and a pair of Las/Plas Razorbacks.

Rifleman Dreadnoughts

So, what of the rifleman dread and saturation fire? I love the rifleman and ran 2 at the last Open War tournament. But, for me, that's the problem - you really need to run two as one is too much of a target. That means a choice between Wolf Scouts and Wolf Guard. Personally, being able to fire 10 S8 missiles is saturation enough for now. Plus, with regard to stun-locking, the Grey Knights really present a problem with their ability to ignore stunned and shaken results. I think it's still a good tactic for the Eldar where you can get a huge number of S6 shots backed up with Runes of Warding but for Space Wolves, we'd be better off trying to destroy their vehicles at range with our lovely S8.

Well, they're my thoughts. 20 points to anyone who gets the Flaming Lips reference...