People have been complaining about these forever, but I have't really seen some math hammer in any of the proposed solutions. So, here's the mathhammering on accuracy:

Monte Carlo, 10,000 trials each

What does this mean? rather than work out the damage exactly, I just had the computer roll the dice 10,000 time for each to hit number and called it close enough.

Rem:
By RAW, the result on one damage die may be replaced by your Degree of Success.

This provides slightly more benefit to weapons that roll several d10 for damage, as they are more likely to have a roll low enough to be replaceable. That's adding even more damage to accurate weapons, as the both roll more dice and are more likely to have higher DoS...

A 1d10 Weapon

The weapon used is just a 1d10 damage weapon. You wanted to look at a lasgun, you'd just add the fixed damage in. A multi d10 damage weapon would require more rolling, but you can probably pretty safely add just add 5.5 to 6.0 damage per extra d10.

RAW                                
to    Aimed                 Accurate              Advantage    
hit   Per Attack  Per hit   Per Attack  Per hit   Per Attack  Per hit
20    1.13        5.57       2.88        9.46      1.75       3.89
25    1.36        5.49       3.71       10.72      2.35       5.23
30    1.66        5.63       4.66       11.68      3.00       6.05
35    2.01        5.69       5.56       12.40      3.55       6.71
40    2.32        5.78       6.60       13.12      4.28       7.34
45    2.62        5.78       7.37       13.49      4.76       7.72
50    2.93        5.90       8.54       14.13      5.61       8.23
55    3.29        5.99       9.55       14.60      6.26       8.61
60    3.64        6.05      10.56       15.04      6.93       8.99
65    3.98        6.20      11.51       15.49      7.53       9.29
70    4.40        6.26      12.47       15.72      8.07       9.46
75    4.82        6.42      13.74       16.17      8.93       9.75
80    5.22        6.51      14.89       16.52      9.67      10.01
85    5.73        6.70      16.11       16.98     10.38      10.27
90    6.13        6.81      17.33       17.33     11.21      10.52

How to read this table:

To hit: this is the base to hit of the sample (non accurate) aimed attack

So, for example, if you chance to hit with a (non accurate) aimed attack was 40, if you were using a 1d10 damage weapon, you'd exped to do roughly 2.32 damage with every attack action, or 5.78 damage per hit.

The 'accurate' part of the table lists includes the +10 to hit bonus in the same row as the base to hit. So, for example, if your base to hit with an aimed shot was 40, and your weapon because accurate, you'd compare it to the 'accurate' entry on the 40 to hit row, not the 50.

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For example, if you were firing aimed single shots from your lasgun on overcharge mode (1d10+4 damage) and your to hit in with an aimed single shot was 50, then you'd expect to do around 9.90 damage per hit. Against an ork boy (Armor 2, TB 6) you'd expect to do around 1.90 damage per hit, and it would take you around 12/(1.9*.50)=~12.6 shooting actions to bring him down to zero wounds. And you'd have a very hard time finishing him due to his true grit. Something like another 16 shooting actions.

Now, imagine if the hand of the emperor came down and made your lasgun accurate. You'd look on the table and see your average damage per hit is 14.13 +4 = 18.13 damage. Against the same ork boy, you'd expect to need around 12/(10.13*.6) =~1.97 shotting actions to bring the ork down to zero wounds. Your next hit would kill the ork, so you'd need roughly another two shooting actions to get it done.

So what if you set your lasgun on overload instead? (1d10+5, penetration 2)

=5.90+5 +2 -8 = 4.90 damage per hit, 12/(4.9*/50) = 4.08. around 4 shooting actions to get the ork to 0 wounds. On the order of 6 shooting actions to kill him.

---------------------

So if you are just joining us, I hope you see why everyone wants an accurate weapon. It adds around 7 to 8 damage per hit to your shots. Which turns into wounds even more effectivly because you have to penetrate toughness much less.

----------------------

So, here's the idea I been doing the mathhammering on:

1.

Remove the ability to replace one of your damage die with your Degree of Success

2.

Attacks that hit the head now do +1d10 damage

3.

Attacks that hit the torso now do +1d5 damage

4.

When you hit a target, you may modify your result on the hit location table by up to 5 tiems your degree of success. For attacks that hit multiples times, this only applies to the first attack, the following attacks still follow table Table 8–2: Multiple Hits on page 246.

Example:

You need a 50 to hit the target.

You roll a 23, this gives you a hit with a DoS of 3. Your normal hit location would be a 32, but you could modify by up to 15 points, so you can hit the torso (leave the roll as it is), left arm (subract 3 from the roll), or right arm (subtract 12 from the roll) if you so choose.

Proposed                                
to    Aimed                 Accurate                Advantage    
hit   Per Attack  Per hit   Per Attack   Per hit    Per Attack   Per hit
20    1.63        8.38      2.57         8.43       0.95          0.05
25    2.14        8.50      3.04         8.71       0.91          0.21
30    2.57        8.43      3.45         8.73       0.88          0.29
35    3.04        8.71      3.93         8.78       0.89          0.07
40    3.45        8.73      4.35         8.80       0.90          0.08
45    3.93        8.78      4.93         9.03       1.00          0.25
50    4.35        8.80      5.38         8.99       1.03          0.18
55    4.93        9.03      5.90         8.98       0.97         -0.05
60    5.38        8.99      6.28         8.96       0.90         -0.03
65    5.90        8.98      6.76         9.03       0.86          0.05
70    6.28        8.96      7.26         9.12       0.99          0.17
75    6.76        9.03      7.78         9.14       1.02          0.12
80    7.26        9.12      8.18         9.07       0.92         -0.06
85    7.78        9.14      8.68         9.14       0.90          0.00
90    8.18        9.07      9.10         9.10       0.92          0.04

How does this compare to RAW?

Difference                         
to    Aimed                   Accurate     
hit   Per Attack   Per hit    Per Attack    Per hit
20    0.50         2.81       -0.30         -1.02
25    0.77         3.01       -0.67         -2.01
30    0.91         2.81       -1.21         -2.95
35    1.03         3.02       -1.62         -3.62
40    1.13         2.94       -2.25         -4.32
45    1.32         3.00       -2.44         -4.47
50    1.42         2.90       -3.16         -5.14
55    1.64         3.04       -3.66         -5.62
60    1.74         2.94       -4.29         -6.08
65    1.92         2.78       -4.75         -6.46
70    1.87         2.69       -5.20         -6.60
75    1.94         2.61       -5.96         -7.03
80    2.05         2.61       -6.70         -7.45
85    2.06         2.44       -7.43         -7.84
90    2.06         2.26       -8.23         -8.23

Results of the proposed change?

The damage per hit from all (non accurate attacks) increases by around 3 points. The accurate quality does not significatly effect the the damage per hit of the attack, but it does give a 1 point damage per attack advantage (i.e. all accurate now does it let you hit more).

Under the new system, 50% base hit with aimed shot, overcharged lasgun (1d0+4), vs. ork boy:

expected damage per hit, 12.8 (12.8-8 = 4.8 vs ork); 5 shooting actions to bring to 0 wounds. Around 6 more shooting actions to kill him.

With accurate lasgun: (12.99 - 8 = 4.99 vs ork); 4 shooting actions to bring down. Around 5 more shooting actions to kill him.

But what if you set your lasgun on overload?

=8.8+5+2-8 = 7.8 | 12/(7.8*.5) = 2.5 shooting actions to bring the ork to 0 wounds. Around 4 more shooting actions to kill him.

----------------

Now, the effect you want for moar damage is a called shot to the head, becuase that guarantees you +1d10 damage. And the +10 to hit from accurate weapons does make this slightly easier, but an accurate weapon is a slight, rather than vast improvement over a weapon that otherwise has the same stats.

I don't think Accurate giving out damage is a problem.

Snipers are supposed to be scary.

Frankly, I usually remove the cap on Accurate bonus damage dice.

I don't think Accurate giving out damage is a problem.

Snipers are supposed to be scary.

Then the name of this trait is a bit misleading, though - frankly, I think I'd prefer if Accurate just made the weapon more accurate , meaning bonuses to BS or the removal of range penalties, a bit like the scope. Perhaps it could make Called Shots easier; this way, snipers could compensate the missing magical damage bonus by aiming for unprotected bodyparts such as the head? That also sounds very fitting, at least for the movie cliché version of snipers.

Besides, if a sharpshooter's weapon is doing loads of damage, it should be an integral trait of the firearm that applies regardless of how much or how little time you spend aiming. Imho, what makes snipers scary should be their ability to hit what they're aiming for, with massive damage being a potential direct result from it, rather than a guaranteed indirect effect handwaved on top of the normal damage.

Only problem with that is you basically remove a Sniper's ability to do a "stealth takedown" on so much as a Severan Dominate guardsman.

That's a problem with the d

Only problem with that is you basically remove a Sniper's ability to do a "stealth takedown" on so much as a Severan Dominate guardsman.

That's a problem with the damage model, you can't stealth takedown someone with a melee weapon or a non accurate weapon either.

In the current system, you can shoot an unaware guardman in the head with your lasrifle and just irritate him (8.5 damage, around 1.5 wounds). Or, if you were using one of the magically accurate weapons, you'd have a pretty good chance of killing him. Even a bolter round to the head would only do around 9 wounds.

--------------------------

In my proposed system, a sniper rifle to the head would be 2d10+4 pen 3, so 11 wounds to the avearge guardsman. And a flashlight to the head would be 2d10+3 or 7 wounds to the guardman. And a bolter to the head would do aroud 15 wounds (haven't looked at the damage to 2d10 tearing weapons, assuming the average result is 13).

--------------------------

My non-mathhammered response to that is to reduce the wounds of most thing that are not named characters by 3 to 5 and see how that improves things.

Yeah, no one-hit-kills on mook level enemies is a thematic deficiency... but as crusher bob said, it should be possible with other weapons, too.

And I agree that it's a problem with the damage model - DH and its sister games are far less "deadly" than people commonly claim, at least when it comes to the common weapons. Once again I'll lend voice to my disdain for the Toughness soak, and point to GW's own d100 game, Inquisitor, where any damage after reduction for armour went straight into Critical Injuries (divided by Toughness bonus). A shot to an unprotected head could easily incapacitate someone even with the "puny" lasgun.

Though ... most troops wear a helmet. Perhaps a sniper who aims for the head of an unaware enemy could bypass the helmet's AP (unless it is a fully enclosing one)? Not really useful for the discussion about Accurate weapons, but it could be an interesting Talent for such characters.

I don't think Accurate giving out damage is a problem.

Snipers are supposed to be scary.

Then the name of this trait is a bit misleading, though - frankly, I think I'd prefer if Accurate just made the weapon more accurate , meaning bonuses to BS or the removal of range penalties, a bit like the scope. Perhaps it could make Called Shots easier; this way, snipers could compensate the missing magical damage bonus by aiming for unprotected bodyparts such as the head? That also sounds very fitting, at least for the movie cliché version of snipers.

Besides, if a sharpshooter's weapon is doing loads of damage, it should be an integral trait of the firearm that applies regardless of how much or how little time you spend aiming. Imho, what makes snipers scary should be their ability to hit what they're aiming for, with massive damage being a potential direct result from it, rather than a guaranteed indirect effect handwaved on top of the normal damage.

The original DH version of Accurate was just an extra bonus to BS when aiming. This leaves sniping drastically underpowered, especially when compared to the potential of melee (easily boosted damage) or using a high-fire rate weapon. It also means that you're better off using a lascannon to snipe somebody than an actual sniper rifle. It meant that if you wanted to snipe someone you were actually better off hosing them down with full auto.

They errata'd that quickly.

Maybe extra damage should be a side effect of aiming and called shots, having the bonus damage dice based on DoS, and Accurate instead having an increased bonus when aiming, or possibly a bonus at all times.

Why wouldn't you be better off, all other things being equal, shooting someone with a bigger gun?

The advantages of the sniper rifle (compared to a lascannon to the head):

The sniper rifle is much easier to come by (scarce vs very rare)

The sniper rifle is much easier to carry and bring into position (5 kg vs 40 kg)

The sniper rifle requires less operator training ((Solid projectile) vs (Las & heavy)

The sniper rifle doesn't need to be braced before firing.

The sniper rifle is silent

So, as long as the sniper rifle is generally good enough, everyone will use it instead of the lascannon.

-----------

So, what needs to be addressed:

The lasgun is nowhere near close to 'good enough'

Accurate weapons are head, shoulders, and a giant beanstalk over lasguns.

Any firing mode other than aimed (accurate) shot is probably a waste of your time and ammunition.

----------

So what's the objective look like?

Lasguns must move into the 'good enough' or 'almost good enough' category

All fire modes should be attractive in one way or the other

In theory:

Aimed standard attacks are best for turning ammunition into dead enemies but takes time

Semi-auto is the compromise between the two.

Full auto fire is best for turning time but it is very ammunition inefficient

----------

Some quick calculations say the following:

at a base 40% to hit

Accurate standard attack (so 60% to hit) with lasgun vs guardman: around 3 damage per attack action

Standard attack (so 50% to hit) is around 2.4 damage per action.

Semi (3) (40% to hit) is around 3.7 damage per action.

So, very roughly to kill the 'new' 7 wound mook guardsman,

it takes around 3 accurate attacks, taking 3 charges

It takes around 3 standard attacks, taking 3 charges

It takes around 2 semi (3) attacks, taking 6 charges.

So the time and ammunition trade offs seem to be there.

But.

If the party able to sustain combat long enough for ammunition to matter?

Does this hold true over several base to hit ranges?

Will have to do some modifications on the dice roller and see if I can get it to account for all this.

As for melee, a chain sword would be 1d10 +5 pen 3, tearing. so better that your lasgun. But you had to pay more points for that chainsword and are probably giving up being in cover. But guess I should be looking at melee damage too, not just lasgun damage...

My problem with the accurate quality is how using it generally gives the shooter a guaranteed hit, no matter what. 35 BS + 20 for full action, + 10 for single shot, +20 for short range (at the very least) is going to make the shot under a 85. That is just for 35 BS, which no self respecting sniper is going to have. Chances are, every Accurate shot a sniper makes is going to have at least 2 dice, if not the three. That's a one hit kill on quite a bit of enemies.

Here's what the number crunching under the proposed system look like.

Though I've made changes to the hit location table, to make it easier to compute:

(1-15) right leg
(16-30) left leg
(31-40) right arm
(41-50) left arm
(51-90) body
(91-100) head

This makes it harder to hit the head, but means you'd be adding the numbers all the time (example: location 32 + DoS (3) * 5 = 47) as opposed to sometimes having to add and sometimes having to subtract.

   -----------Accurate---------------  -------------Standard--------------  -------------Semi (3)--------------  -----------Auto(6)-----------------
   to Hit Dmg/attack Dmg/hit #of Hits  to Hit Dmg/attack Dmg/hit  #of Hits  to Hit Dmg/attack Dmg/hit  #of Hits  to Hit Dmg/attack Dmg/hit  #of Hits
20  40    3.07       7.56    0.41       30     2.27       7.66     0.30      20     1.42       7.20     0.20      10     0.73       7.25    0.10
25  45    3.43       7.64    0.45       35     2.56       7.33     0.35      25     2.10       7.20     0.29      15     1.38       6.81    0.20
30  50    3.98       7.86    0.51       40     3.07       7.56     0.41      30     3.02       7.61     0.40      20     2.12       7.25    0.29
35  55    4.31       7.94    0.54       45     3.43       7.64     0.45      35     3.75       7.42     0.51      25     3.32       7.30    0.46
40  60    4.86       8.01    0.61       50     3.98       7.86     0.51      40     4.68       7.68     0.61      30     4.53       7.50    0.60
45  65    5.25       8.10    0.65       55     4.31       7.94     0.54      45     5.79       7.69     0.75      35     6.12       7.53    0.81
50  70    5.84       8.31    0.70       60     4.86       8.01     0.61      50     7.10       7.81     0.91      40     7.67       7.70    1.00
55  75    6.19       8.23    0.75       65     5.25       8.10     0.65      55     8.25       7.69     1.07      45     9.57       7.79    1.23
60  80    6.73       8.42    0.80       70     5.84       8.31     0.70      60     9.36       7.75     1.21      50    11.57       7.78    1.49
65  85    7.32       8.61    0.85       75     6.19       8.23     0.75      65    10.55       7.75     1.36      55    14.11       7.83    1.80
70  90    7.79       8.61    0.90       80     6.73       8.42     0.80      70    11.84       7.97     1.49      60    16.65       7.86    2.12
75  95    8.17       8.64    0.95       85     7.32       8.61     0.85      75    12.93       7.83     1.65      65    18.87       7.88    2.39

Semi becomes better than standard at around 35 base to hit
Semi becomes better than accurate at around 45 base to hit

Auto becomes better than both accurate and standard at around 45 base to hit

So, for the average guardsman, fire on Semi if you are at short range.

Running the numbers on called shot to the head, assuming it's reduced to a half action, like the other attacks, it's never better than standard attack. So it's reserved for either ambushes or shots where you can't beat the toughness/armor otherwise.

My problem with the accurate quality is how using it generally gives the shooter a guaranteed hit, no matter what. 35 BS + 20 for full action, + 10 for single shot, +20 for short range (at the very least) is going to make the shot under a 85. That is just for 35 BS, which no self respecting sniper is going to have. Chances are, every Accurate shot a sniper makes is going to have at least 2 dice, if not the three. That's a one hit kill on quite a bit of enemies.

To be fair, one-shot one kill is sort of the point of anti-personnel snipers/marksmen.

Any self-respecting sniper should be able to oneshot most conventional infantry opponents.

Remember, the sniping paradigm cuts both ways. The PC sniper(s) can one shot enemies, but hostile snipers can pretty much return the favor, though the PCs have Fate Points to save them.

The system is imperfect, sure ... but making changes to it while still allowing snipers to function, and not turning everyone and everything into snipe-happy shooters ... I'm not sure how much you really gain for the amount of effort you'd need to be putting into it.

Sure, the current rules to make sniping work don't match up with our mental ideals of how sniping should work, or with how sniping works in the real world ... but they mostly work.

You could say the same about all the other guns. If a lasgun's damage is "softened" because the designers of the game felt it would be too lethal otherwise, why should the sniper be the only one who gets spared the nerfbat?

I absolutely agree that one-shotting should be possible, from a thematic perspective alone. But not if this would set the sniper apart and above the rest of the player group. Apart from me being against applying realism in varying degrees depending on the class you pick (which is why I also scoff against the two-tiered Horde rules in BC), I also consider balancing an important gameplay element that does not only apply to PCs and NPCs fighting against one another, but also how the PCs compare to each other.

Players starting to feel bad because snipers are so much more effective should be avoided at all cost.

Besides, if there are hostile snipers, they ought to target the other player characters as well. "Reserving" specific enemies for specific PCs may sound like a clever solution to balancing an encounter by providing a mirror for any possible problem, but in reality I would expect it to turn into either a completely railroaded piece of combat as enemies coincidentally attack only a single PC and do not act otherwise, or a bloodbath as overpowered hostiles turn their guns on characters they were not originally intended to fight.

Here's the writeup:

Objectives:
1. Make the basic lasgun more useful as a weapon.

2. Reduce the extreme effectiveness of accurate weapons, as compared to every other sort of non-heavy weapon.

3. Maintain the ability (formerly solely possessed by accurate weapons) of some weapons to have a reasonable chance of one hit killing 'sentries' and other average opponents with one hit.

--------------------------------

Rules Changes:

1.
Remove the ability to replace one of your damage die with your Degree of Success

2.
Weapons with the accurate tag no longer get bonus damage based on their Degree of Success. They still get the +10 to hit when using the aim action

3.
Attacks that hit the head now do +1d10 bonus damage

4.
Attacks that hit the body now do +1d5 bonus damage

5.
When you hit a target, you may modify your result on the hit location table by up to five (5) times your degree of success. For attacks that hit multiples times, this only applies to the first attack, the following attacks still follow table Table 8-2: Multiple Hits on page 246.

6.
Reduce the number of wounds on all non-named NPCs by 3-5. Would suggest -3 wound for minions, -4 wounds for troops, and -5 wounds for elites.

7.
Calling a shot now becomes a non-action that applies a -20 to your attack test.

7a.
If you wish to make called shots even more effective, consider the following alternate rule:

Calling a shot now becomes an action that takes your 'reaction' and applies a -10 to your attack test.

Under this rule change, calling a shot becomes an action that trades damage for the inability to dodge.


8. (Optional)
For quicker hit location resolution, change the hit table to:

(1-15) right leg
(16-30) left leg
(31-40) right arm
(41-50) left arm
(51-90) body
(91-100) head

This way, you will generally always want to add your DoS based modifier to your hit location. Using the default hit location table, sometimes you want to add and sometimes you want to subtract.

Note that this change has the effect of making the head slightly harder to hit 'naturally' and the left leg slightly easier to hit.

---------------------------

Results:
1.
The average damage per attack for all weapons increases by roughly 3 (if using the old hit table) or 2.5 (if using the new one). This gives lasguns the ability to do damage to a larger selection of targets.

2.
Accurate weapons are now better that non-accurate weapons. However, Assuming there are no semi automatic or automatic accurate weapons, firing your lasgun on semi-automatic does better average damage than a theoretical accurate lasgun when your to base to hit is around 45.

3.
A successful called shot to the head always gives +1d10 damage. This makes the lasgun to the head do an average of 14 points of damage. With the average guardsman and ork now having only 8 wounds, some luck or using a higher charge setting on your lasgun is generally enough to reduce them to 0 wounds.

So, almost any weapon becomes able to threaten an ordinary sentry.

4.
In addition, the ability to call shots to the head of otherwise 'impossible' targets, like an ork nob. Means that your lasgun can still be effective against them.

4a.
Against this sort of target, heavy weapons are generally better off using normal attacks, as the decreased hit chance of called shots means that normal attacks do more average damage.

How effective is the called shot to the head vs. the average attack?

In general, called shots to the head are inferior vs all targets that your weapon has no trouble wounding.
With the deadeye shot talent, calling a shot to the head all the time becomes slightly superior to the standard attack, but a normal semi-auto burst is probably still a better option if your base to hit chance is good.

It's only where the target is very tough, compared to your weapon, or you have to take the target out with one shot.

---------------------

Directions for guardsmen:

If the target is far away, or you are suffering penalties to hit, fire aimed single shots for best effect.

If you have an advantage to hit the target, like them being at close range, fire aimed semi-auto bursts for best effect.

If you are engaging a nob or other very tough target, set your lasgun to overload and fire aimed single shots at it's head.

I know this doesn't help any of the technical aspects of the problems brought up here, but could you not as a GM simply allow good enough hits on mooks to kill them outright rather than **** around with a 9 damage expert shot to the head by the group sniper?

I realize that we are then getting into an abstract feeling of GM final say, but it is a lot easier than re-inventing the wheel.

I had a "thematic mode" in a Deathwatch game I used to run that allowed troop level enemies, caught unaware, to be essentially one-shotted by good enough rolls from the attackers. This only worked on troop level enemies - mooks - and the attackers had to catch them unaware, but it was much better and way less anticlimactic than having a great attack and subsequent **** damage roll.

Yeah. Personally, I'd rather re-work the damage model entirely, but as this is a much larger piece of work I certainly agree that "GM fiat" is a nice and easy fix for when you just want to preserve a certain sense of cinematic drama - for example when the squad attempts to sneak into something and the sniper has to take out a lone guard, and just saying they drop dead if the shot hits and the target was surprised. Stuff like that.

Exactly. In fact, I created the good ol' "thematic mode" AKA slow-mo badassery mode when the Kill Team needed to infiltrate an Ork encampment.

After popping the tower guard with an Astartes sniper rifle round while two others charged some gate guards with combat blades (rolling excellently on the to-hit while the Ork failed miserably their awareness) all three were silenced in brutal, efficient detail.

Granted, then the Space Wolf Assault Marine grabbed the Devastator, rolled incredibly well on his pilot test, dropped the dev in the Ork guard tower and let him do what a dev does best from an elevated position with a heavy bolter. It was one of the more metal things to happen during that campaign.

Edit: And derailed.

But since there seem to be people reading:

Are the rules clearly written and easy to understand, both in what rules they add and what RAW rules they replace?

Do they seem to be easy enough to use during play?

Do they seem to accomplish the stated goals?

If they do not, do they do too much or not enough?

Can you think of anything particularly exploitable that is possible under them?

Oh yeah, I'd say they seem easy enough to implement and are well explained. Whether they achieve the objective would require some playtesting, but they certainly push the game into that direction.

The hitpoint change sounds a bit of a hassle, but I really like the modified hit location table, which could also easily be adapted "standalone".

One thing that may require some tweaking in particular might be the Called Shot penalty, as the 1d10 bonus damage are very tempting for anyone , so perhaps the -20 should be increased to -30 to account for the increased usefulness. This would have the double-effect of further setting the sniper apart, as their talents, equipment and fighting style promote going for specific body locations by default, whereas in most situations, other soldiers should just try to hit the enemy anywhere, and Called Shot just be an option rather than the default combat style.

As a side effect, you also have an increase in realism, as the -30 means that even with Deadeye and Sharpshooter, it is still harder for a sniper to aim for the head rather than the body (which is more than twice as large), making "standard" attacks remain a circumstantially useful option (when hitting anywhere is more important than hitting the head) even in later game stages.

I didn't post the results of the called shots tables already?

Standard Attack: +10 for standard attack, - 20 For called shot, so -10 total

For deadeye or accurate, net penalty of a called shot is zero.

For deadeye + accurate, net bonus is +10

base    -----Standard-----  -Deadeye or Accurate-  -Deadeye + accurate-    
to hit  to hit  dmg/attack  to hit  dmg/attack     to hit  dmg/attack
20       10      1.1         20      2.2            30      3.3
25       15      1.65        25      2.75           35      3.85
30       20      2.2         30      3.3            40      4.4
35       25      2.75        35      3.85           45      4.95
40       30      3.3         40      4.4            50      5.5
45       35      3.85        45      4.95           55      6.05
50       40      4.4         50      5.5            60      6.6
55       45      4.95        55      6.05           65      7.15
60       50      5.5         60      6.6            70      7.7
65       55      6.05        65      7.15           75      8.25
70       60      6.6         70      7.7            80      8.8
75       65      7.15        75      8.25           85      9.35
 

So, for example, at base to hit of 50, you could expect 4.86 damage / attack from regular standard attack and 4.4 from called standard attack. At least against most 'troop' type targets. Against tough targets, a begger gun on semi or a called shot to the head are the way to go. But figuring out the exact break points for that appears difficult, given the many weapon and target types.

A quick check says that at a base to hit of 50, semi(3) and (deadeye or accurate) single shot to the head of an ork boy are almost the same in damage per attack.

for standard lasgun, semi appears better than deadeye or or accurate vs a guardsman at base to hit of 50
vs deadeye + accurate, semi seems the same at base to hit 60 and better at base to hit 65.

It looks like semi called shot the the head is generally worse than an uncalled semi attack. But there's probably some utility in there if you can drive you base to hit very high against tough targets.

Ah, hadn't noticed the sharpshooter talent. But can just drop it from the game without any real repercussions.

My fix? Just require a full-round aim to get the bonus damage on Accurate weapons. This simply rule made my guardsmen drop their long las and pull out their trusty M36 once the firefight was underway (after the surprise round). A good guardsman can one-shot an enemy with a semi-auto burst - although you should probably have a BS of 40+, +2 dam from talent, and possibly the lasgun drill talent to pull it off (1d10+7 pen 2). An average enemy guardsman with 10 wounds, 4 armor and 3 TB will often go down in just 2 hits, and will be auto-killed on a Fury.

The problem with full aim is that the guy you're aiming for may move out of your LOS or be shot by someone else, so just shooting every other round is not always conventient. Lasguns are also good for suppressive fire.

Sharpshooter class is pretty good at negating that particular problem. Either you didn't allow it / have it to hand, or your players don't know how to play a sniper particularly well by the sounds of it. o_o

Sharpshooter class is pretty good at negating that particular problem. Either you didn't allow it / have it to hand, or your players don't know how to play a sniper particularly well by the sounds of it. o_o

I was referring to most guardsmen. Dedicated snipers can, and will snipe effectively. We have a Ratling now and even with my house rule he can snipe an enemy per turn. However, bad rolling and the fact only one damage die counts for fury makes him a lot less powerful than anticipated. The main thing that might be broken is setup shot against high dodge targets.

My Ratling player with a BS 51 an accurate weapon and the Spotter comrade ability (as well as Mighty Shot, Deadeye shot and Sharpshooter) is a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.

This dude always cranks his longlas up to overload and tyrannosaurus REKS the enemy's s.hit almost every turn.

Granted, our rules are brutal and dodge rolls are always opposed and need to match or beat the opponent's DoS since it makes no since for a 7 or 8 DoS attack to be negated by a 1 DoS dodge. But that, of course, is a different story all together.