Neither. Take a missile launcher. It's template and can be used to take out high toughness stuff too, as well as being dirt cheap. Heavy bolters are useless if you have the option for a ML, especially in devvies and taccies. Only use them on preds, speeders and attack bikes. The plasma cannon is excellent for anti-MEQ and TEQ, and are best used on dreads (no gets hot) or in devvies (4 shots a turn), but are overkill against light infantry and more expensive, with the added danger of gets hot.

What kind of infantry are we talking and in what points/context for a more specific answer would be good...

 

ii want them for a balanced 1500 pts list and i was thinking about giving the PC to my tact squads for 5 pts. Is there a difference in giving it to my devastators ?

 

Plasma Canon annihilates heavy infantry (Space Marines, Terminators and the likes) with relative ease. It can also blow up pretty much every tank.

Heavy Bolter slaughters a lot as well, but it is not as good against the likes of Terminators. It also does not have any of the Plasma Canons tank hunting models.

Plasma Canon is a bit of an overkill and heavy bolter is a meeh.

But as you are looking for anti-infantry, I would go with a mix of both, as dropping templates along with a whithering hail of fire is always fun, and you can also drop a Terminator squad there and here, and when that occasional Leman Russ rumbles in you can always blow away some at it as well.

But... Take rockets.

 

Plasma Canon annihilates heavy infantry (Space Marines, Terminators and the likes) with relative ease. It can also blow up pretty much every tank.

Just wanted to point out the fact that most tanks are av13, and a fair percentage are av 14. Hence the above comment isn't really truthful, and please define your interpretation of with ease, last time I checked needing 5+ to do something is not easy.

 

Generally in non-vehicle or bike units, plasma cannons are better, but MLs are the best. Especially for all rounder lists to deal with the inevitable 3+ and 2+ saves you'll face. Heavy bolters are only really any good against DE, orks and nids, and again the missiles do a better job.

 

I like plasma, and playing marines it is pretty powerful, with only the tiny little risk of gets hot! it is well worth it in a tac squad, because you are paying so little for it, its only 20 points. In Devs however, you get the volume of fire, which is a good bonus, but it is very expensive. I would go for one PC in the tac squad and 2 PC + 2 HB in the dev squad, giving you a nice mix.

 

i was thinking about sth like this. i didnt get the thing about volume of fire though

 

Plasma Cannon is the best choice against space marines (and equivalent) and even against terminators, i took it when im going against space marines (chaos marines, necrons)

but against swarms of enemies (orks, Ig, Nids) the plasma cannon is like killing a fly with a bazooka, you waste those points and the risk of using plasma.

Better choice against high number of low enemies are the heavy bolter, 3 almost certain shoots that dont scatter.

 

I would use heavy bolters for horde armies, and plasma if I knew I would be playing meq armies.
I would probably have heavy bolters in tactical squads as usually I would have them in a rhino, so its a waste having an expensive heavy weapon not firing. The plasma cannon would be for dev squads as these would be less likely to be moving around the table, and therefore get more shots off.

 

Point still stands that one shot str 7 weapons that cost over 30+pts should not be relied on for anti tank ability in any respect, except as a last ditch method, or when all other targets are eliminated.

Also very few tanks besides transports require you to ever expose your side armor to major threats unless your enemy is using a cross fire pattern, and most enemies with good sense will use fire base models like predators, vindicators in such a way that their side armor will still be protected.

In short it is always a bad general who designs his strategy on their enemy making a mistake, and a good general always plan for the worse.

Seriously why are you even debating the issue maidel "fixed" surly you see the absurdity or relying on single shot str7 as dedicated anti tank?

Note: that my comment was not direct at you maidel, as I accept that versatile multiple purpose weapons have their place in all comers lists, but where in fact direct at deolago who in a lapse of judgment stated that very few tanks can survive a volly of plasma cannon shots (which I think you will agree is absurd considering that even with side armor you will hit with 3 and maybe get one good result if the target is not in cover.

 

Seriously why are you even debating the issue mandel surly you see the absurdity or relying on single shot str7 as dedicated anti tank?

*ahem* Maidel *ahem*

Two things:

1) I disagree with the 'side armour' being a rare target, using both flanks for heavy weapons will enable you to take shots at the side armour of any tank thats not in cover from turn 2.

2) Who said anything about plasma cannons being 'dedicated' anti tank? Its a multi role weapon, hence the points cost.

 

On a similar Note I'm thinking of using a Mortis pattern Dreadnaught, are dual auto cannons a good idea?

 

Yes they are. For around half the cost of a dev squad you kick out a possible 4 AC shots a turn. Mind you dreadnoughts are easier to cripple or kill then dev's, but there is no better source of rapid firing light AT fire for loyalists.

 

I disagree for 25 points extra you can get 4 missile launcher shots from a devvie squad. And these also have better strength, one can benefit from BS5 and they have a better AP.

 

So dual Lascannon then? Got the option between Dual Auto Cannon, Dual Heavy Bolter or Dual Missile launchers.

 

There are no Mortis Dreads (Dark Angels only), just 2x Twin Autocannon Dreadnoughts. And they're Elites, but Heavy Support with the use of a Master of the Forge.

 

The simple deal is this. ML's in a dev squad have the versatility to be either at or anti horde. The 4 shots combined with the choice of frag or krak is very handy.
4 plasmacannons is overkill for anything apart for 20man squads of marines. Even with chaos plasmacannons(oblits)they are usually fielded either singly or in pairs and are used to eliminate heavy infantry (and guard heavy weapon teams) but rarely against armor(usually use the oblit lascannon for that.
Rifleman dreads are highly effective. 4 shots with rerolls to hit, high strength can be very effective against light armor and mc's. And because of the volume of fire it is not a waste to unload it on a marine squad if there are no other targets.
Personally in my last game i ran 2 squads of csm havocs. Each with 2 missile launchers and 2 autocannons. The results were quite good against marines but this is an all comers build. Performed admirably against defilers dreads and rhinos. I was quite happy.

 

The simple deal is this. ML's in a Dev squad have the versatility to be either anti-tank or anti-horde. The 4 shots combined with the choice of frag or krak is very handy.

4 plasmacannons is overkill for anything apart for 20-man squads of Marines. Even with Chaos plasma cannons (Oblits) they are usually fielded either singly or in pairs and are used to eliminate heavy infantry (and Guard heavy weapon teams) but rarely against armor (usually use the Oblit lascannon for that)...

This. I've had great results from plasma cannons on my Obliterators, for sure, but with Havocs I'd almost certainly go for missile launchers for the sheer versatility; heavy bolters can be fantastic against the right target (my friend SilverTabby's Retributor squad gets great results with them), but overall if I had to choose just one loadout for them I'd go for missle launchers.

That said, the true convertaholic knows the way forward is this: make a couple of bolter-wielding Havocs to be the ablative armour for the squad, then make 4 Havocs with heavy bolters (I got lucky on Ebay and have 4 of the old-school over-the-shoulder heavy bolters ready to use) and 4 more with missile launchers and then swap them out with each game as the opposing army dictates