Actually, now I think about it Hellguns and Hellpistols use the same powerpacks as other las-weapons, unless someone can show me otherwise, so the ammunition limiting tactics wouldn't really be valid but the idea is sound enough in itself and certainly applies to other exotic gear which requires fuel or ammunition.

Gaidheal said:

No, they don't. If you check the weapon descriptions on page 119, you will see that hellguns use a 10kg powerpack for their ammo-source, not the same packs as normal las-weapons. In DH, you could use normal las powerpacks on them, but they used up 3 shots worth of ammo per shot, because of the greater drain on energy due to the more powerful blast (meaning a hellgun would get 10 shots, and a hellpistol would get 13, with a normal powerpack).

Ah, I have not studied the rulebook (I don't actually have a copy yet) and was assuming they'd carried it over from the DH book. I'm glad it's gone back to incompatible ammunition. :¬)

Cynical Cat said:

The vehicles atmosphere isn't in danger but anyone near the actual rupture is. Being ripped by the rushing air and then sucked into hard vacuum will... weel, suck. Muchos.

Not so much... popular images of decompression don't bear up to scrutiny - the ships are huge, the hole relatively tiny and even with literally 'hard vacuum' on the other side, the force of airflow won't be nearly significant enough to suck people into space, throw them around, knock them off their feet (which are likely to be secured to the deckplates in some way, anyhow) and so on. The only immediate danger, really, is suffocation, which is why you wear your voidsuit, no? ;¬)

Melta weapons on board a ship can do more than just punch a hole in the hull, One of my party members use an inferno pistol to seal a rogue trader in a room by melting the adamentine bulkhead shut.

I just wanted to mention a pro with the melta weapons that have'nt come up. The melta weapons af a very short range 10 meter for the pistol, and as i see it as soon as a bording action i started it is gonna move into the ship, so this should reduce the chance of decompression with a high degree and if a ship is this easy to decompress i would equip all of my assault troops with void suits and something to pierce the hull with. More or less all ships are warships so decompression should'nt be that easy to get. I do agree on the fire hassard on the other hand

Qvintus said:

That doesn't mean that the beam only goes 10m though like all the weapons, it's extreme range is greater than 3x the optimal range, but with no maximum (within GM reasoning, obviously), and is a -30 to hit. So I'd actually say the 10m range is a bad thing, as it means more misses at longer ranges.

Darn, i should think things more through 30 meters is quite a lot

Qvintus said:

Well no, 30m is still within the Long range. Extreme range is anything over 3x the range given. There is no maximum, from what the book says.

MILLANDSON said:

Page 114,

"Weapons cannot be fired at targets more than four times their range distance away"

Ahh, cheers for that N0-1-H3R3. I thought it'd be somewhere, but the Extreme Range modifier just said "over 3 times", and never mentioned a maximum.

Still, that doesn't mean the beam just stops dead in it's tracks, or a bullet will out of the air, as they'll keep on going. It's just that you can't actively aim or shoot at a target further away than that without automatically missing.

MILLANDSON said:

I think that the main reason of a melta gun to have such a short range is that the beam loses coherency very soon making it ineffective at longer ranges. Otherwise you would expect it to have a longer range. Easily that of a lasgun.