Dark Lances vs Disintegrators

Sorry if I've missed a thread on this. I'm sure there must have been discussion but there have been so many threads and discussions in so many places, I haven't seen it.

Are people dropping their lances for disses on ravagers? Crunching the numbers, dissies are clearly more flexible for elites etc and still handle vehicles pretty well. They actually pull ahead at T8 & 9. Lances do still have more damage potential though they could also whiff a damage roll.

So do you want the damage potential, or the steadier consistency of dissies. Do lances justify an extra 15pts per ravager in your lists?
I'm currently planning on two lance ravagers and two dissie RWJFs.

I've come to think the best loadouts are: Dissies on boats, Blasters on troops.
The problem with the math-hammering comparisons is that it cannot take into account all the variable saving throws. A DL can do 6 damage - but one save negates it. Putting 4 shots on a target might still get 2-4 points through.

The DL is still rock solid. Still fun. And I still sometimes build 2 Ravagers with 3 DL each. I just played that late last week and all 3 shots got through and all 3 saves were whiffed. I rolled damage and the look on his face when I said "14 damage" was pretty priceless.

I love disintegrator ravagers, so cheap for what they bring and man was I happy I built one before the codex so I had one to try out, but I don't think we should all be ignoring the dark lance and shifting every ravager over to dissie cannons. Triple dark lance ravager is still the good old reliable workhorse it's always been, taking out or crippling many vehicles in just one round of shooting. A single dissie ravager just isn't going to usually do that, so I will keep using my dark lance ravager. Ideally though I'd like to have a 2:1 ration of dissie ravagers to dark lance, but I do not yet own a 3rd ravager for that.

I have had 3 ravagers full of Dark lances for 6 years. I have not regretted them in any of the editions. -4 is a huge advantage especially when targeting units with a 2+ armour save and in cover like 6 wound broadsides, 18 wound land raiders, etc.

Lord Asvaldir wrote:

I love disintegrator ravagers, so cheap for what they bring and man was I happy I built one before the codex so I had one to try out, but I don't think we should all be ignoring the dark lance and shifting every ravager over to dissie cannons. Triple dark lance ravager is still the good old reliable workhorse it's always been, taking out or crippling many vehicles in just one round of shooting. A single dissie ravager just isn't going to usually do that, so I will keep using my dark lance ravager. Ideally though I'd like to have a 2:1 ration of dissie ravagers to dark lance, but I do not yet own a 3rd ravager for that.

There's no reason you couldn't run 3 Ravagers with two Disintegrator Cannons and a Dark Lance each (or vice versa), that way your opponent wouldn't be able to take out the Ravagers that were most threatening to them.

I'm inclined to put a disintegratior on raiders, since the models onboard are most likley to be threatening and killing light infantry. This keeps the total unit (vehicle + passengers) focused on the same task.

Dark Lances, as many important historians have said, go on Ravagers which are specifically loaded as Tank-killers.

I put Disintegrators on Raiders as I definitely can use some in my lists and I'll be able to avoid all those whiffed single DL shots they used to be prone to get otherwise.

Ravagers and Dark Lances simply go together, though. Still, I consider running one of the 3 with Disintegrators and see how it goes.

I'm pretty sure this was all math hammered before and the dissie came out on top.
There was a few exceptions in which the lance was better but overall due to how the dissie was better at anti elite, it was decided for the marginal difference that you should always take dissie.

If you play Living Muse, Lances are better.
Dissies are a better gun.
That being said, Dissies can really really bite you due to needing 5+ to wound on most vehicles. They can and WILL break your game.
Dissies on Flayed Skull vehicles somewhat mitigate the issue.
There is no clear choice, best is to mix.