Squad Leaders with Special Weapons

So my new Reavers arrived today and as I was happily assembling them I noticed something that reminded me of that debate that kept cropping up when people mentioned the idea of giving special weapons to squad leaders to make use of their 6's to hit snipe shots.

I was reminded because in the assembly guide, the section for the Arena Champion's jet-bike is the only one to be equipped with a HeatLance. Now I know this isn't anything to go by and maybe it's because the Reavers came out in 5th edition but I felt like I was being urged towards this tactic. Has this debate been settled yet in FAQ or elsewhere? Can you equip your special weapons to your squad leader on a jetbike and have those allocatable Heatlance shots?

i dont see why not. It'd also be nice to do so because you can Look Out Sir! your heatlance.

only thing against i can readily see is Army Builder not letting you do so, but you can give a Hekatrix wyche weapons if you wanted to.

There was a long debate here and an even longer one here.

In short the answer is technically you can do it? (not really sure what the consensus was in the end)

The reality is a lot of gaming clubs, and tournaments will tell you otherwise as it is clearly not what GW intended. Personally I would recommend you do not model your champion with a heat lance for this reason.

Hope that helps.

As Mush says, you can technically do it but it may not be considered "the done thing" in your group or at tournaments. Personally I think there are enough pros and cons to make it a reasonable choice and wouldn't have a problem with anyone doing it in a game against me.

Okay cool. I'm glad the little guys aren't glued to their bikes yet then as I probably won't. Tactically it would be amazing but I'd be annoyed if it was finally FAQd out or something. I'd be stuck with illegal models.
It would be annoying to lose a 49pt model in that unit anyway.

Just don't glue the models on the bikes, Mine are not glues in and snap to, pretty well... or magnitize the guns

Blind_Baku wrote:

Just don't glue the models on the bikes, Mine are not glues in and snap to, pretty well... or magnitize the guns

Oh right, do you advise not gluing the riders ever? So painting them separately? Also how does this magnetising thing work? I'm not sure how to get magnets that small or do you get small bits of metal and magnetise those. If so, where should I get the metal from and how do I magnetise it? If I recall correctly you just touch a magnet to it right but I'm not sure. :/ Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi....I'm a noob.

I tried not gluing them and I found it a big hassle during transport. I would open my carry case and find the riders dismounted and the bikes empty - just a hassle to couple them up, all 12 of them.

As for the magnets, you would have to have access to some specific magnet sizes - it can be done but for the price and the amount of work to magnatize I am not sure it is worth it, would you really use anything else other than a heat lance?

I would simply glue the heat lance on (trust me, the only other person who knows the difference between what a heat lance and a blaster looks like would be another DE player).

I would also recommend if you want the option of letting the champion ride the heat lance then how about gluing all the riders down but keep 1 plain rider the champion unglued and regular jetbike and 1 with a heatlance empty so you can just switch the two of them.

Maybe I am missing all the alternative strategies of jetbikes but I do not run champions and as you guessed, spared all my magnets for other models.

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

I would also recommend if you want the option of letting the champion ride the heat lance then how about gluing all the riders down but keep 1 plain rider the champion unglued and regular jetbike and 1 with a heatlance empty so you can just switch the two of them.

Maybe I am missing all the alternative strategies of jetbikes but I do not run champions and as you guessed, spared all my magnets for other models.

This is a very good idea. I think I'll leave two unglued. The magnetising idea would be more useful for me on 1 Ravager, my Raiders and Razorwing so I can decide between DLs and Disintegrators.

The Champion with a venom blade adds some nice buff for if they assault and a boost to their LD. Can be worth the points I think.

mug7703 wrote:

Also how does this magnetising thing work? Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi....I'm a noob.

My local hobby shop carries magnets from Primal Horizon, they make sizes ranging from 1/16" x 1/32 up to 3/8" x 1/16.

Without being to lengthy, drill holes in both pieces as for pinning, superglue a magnet in each piece in said hole (make sure to get the orientation right, a little dob of paint or pen on the to-be-glued side helps me out, its a bugger to fix later ) I then use liquid greenstuff to cover the magnet over make the surface smooth and you're done. I swap blasters,PGLS on Hekatrixes, heatlances/caltrops. missiles on razorwings, you name it.

A quick search will probably yield a supplier near you. Cheers!