Combi-Flamers?

Generally thay aren't worth their points, they are good but in my experience they don't earn their points, just stick with the boltgun.

The bolter-plasma gun is very good IMO as its shot is nice for softening up a crucial targets (large tough squads, independant characters etc).

It can be fun and useful if used at the right time. A combi-flamer, for example, might come in handy just before a charge. One thing to consider is you only get one shot per game with the non-bolter part of the weapon. If you read Chaosbrynn's tactica articles you will read that the cheapest and best option is to just pay one point and give him a bolt pistol as a second weapon. It is usable every round, even when you assault, as long as there are targets within 12 inches.

You "may" want to consider a Combi-Melta as an alternate choice. Flamers, although great at wiping out horde creatures, don't seem as efficient on a character model. They look cool though. However, the Combi-Melta definately provides a heavy punch...either to knick off wounds from a huge monsterous beast before an assault or to pop a vehicle/drednought if your squad/retinue doesn't quite have the punch to do the job.

Fox

It is really a gamble at the right moment it can be gold for example fire the flamer into a bunker or low toughness troops with poor armour saves and it is likely it will be more than worth your points but I'd perfer to just take the weapon instead of a combi but never arm your commander with a flamer I'll be a waste.

Some of my Vet Serg's have combi flamers/meltas(i'm a fluffy guy who likes unique models). And I will say both have their uses, but when it comes to HQ chars i'd stick with two one hand weapons for the +1 Attack.

I'm a fan of combi-weapons. The advantage of the combi-flamer is that you don't have to roll to hit, which makes that one shot effective (you don't have to worry about missing, and may get a bunch of models in one shot). The problem is that it is a mid-strength weapon and won't affect some of the tougher stuff out there.

Combi-meltas are nice too. I put one on my Chapter Master. He'll only miss 1 out of every 6 games with the meltagun, and it can knock out some pretty tough models on even average rolls.

I guess my question is...how often would you use Flamers over other combi weapon choices? I've found that unless you have multiple templates (like the damned Noise Marines of Slaneesh) one flamer more often than naught doesn't quite produce the results that I would like to see. And sometimes when it does....it kills enough models just outside of assault range (which really sucks).

Just my thoughts...but the miniature looks cool...hehe.

Fox