Crimson Fists, Plasma, and Lascannons

This is musing about a bolter/plasma wave army, from before the Space Marine Codex 2.0 previews. However much of it is still valid.

First, lets talk about Lascannons. When you see that they do d6 Damage, initially you're thinking of those 5s and 6s you might roll. But on average, it's a 3.5, with plenty of ones and twos. You only have so many Command Point Rerolls, so you can't reroll all of them.

I went and checked the DA codex and was surprised to learn that Weapons from the Dark Age does not make DA immune to get's hot; they do have an inbuilt path to reroll ones to hit though.

So between Inceptors, Hell Blasters, Company Veterans with Combi-plasmas + Storm Shields, I think there may be a CF build with spammed plasma that is really strong. You won't always have the +1 to hit, but you will often enough.

And in competitive circles Plasma is generally already regarded as really strong.

So, check it out compared to a lascannon; Str9 d6Damage weapon. On average it does 3.5 damage and costs 25 points. Plasma can cost as little as 11 points and can get 2 Damage each time. There is a loss of range but the points per damage is better. The loss of strength is mitigated by the higher volume of shots.

Due to the pervasive +1 to hit in CF, if both DA and CF have 5 units with Plasma, and if you still believe the most buffed DA unit can out perform the most buffed CF unit, the other 4 CF units will in aggregate out perform the other 4 DA units.

In sum, I think there is a path to a formidable Crimson Fists force here. An army that spams Plasma and Bolters; and then when you face an army like Tau that can outshoot you, Supressors allow you to charge them.

I'd use Aggressors to be able to move ahead of my Plasma units, and use Sternguard to be able to sit in the back and shoot rapid fire. The goal is to get the plama in Rapid Fire range while my Rapid Fire bolters stay at max range.