In effort to bring the plasma and melta weapons more in line of what they should do (especially compared to bolter), I am planning to change them in following ways:

Astartes Infernus pistol add Felling (2) quality

Astartes Meltagun add Felling (2) quality

Astartes Multi-melta add Felling (2) quality

Astartes Plasma Pistol add Felling (1) quality

Astartes Plasmagun add Felling (1) quality

Astartes Plasma Cannon add Felling (1) quality

When combined with Volatile, Maximum Setting (plasma) and Short range damage bonus (melta) this alone should be enough to make meltas and plasmas actually better bolters... as they should be.

Polaria said:

Unless you are firing at a vehicle.

Face Eater said:

I don't use vehicles that much but wouldn't Pen 13 (melta) or Pen 10 (plasma max) own Pen 6 (bolter) every time?

Not a heavy bolter, and Kraken rounds somewhat make up the difference.

My opinion is that plasmaguns and meltaguns (and their pistol versions) should simply adapted to make slightly less damage (2 points on average?) than their heavy counter-parts. The simplest way to do that is just add 1D10 damage to each. No need to mess with felling, etc.

Now the Assault Cannon - that needs a few more specials like Devastating, perhaps Storm or a 'Razor Sharp'-like mechanic. But for the non-heavy meltas and plasmas an additional D10 seems work just fine.

Anyway why not make up different patterns with different mechanics and different requisition costs?

Astartes Meltagun (Evaporator Pattern) Basic 20m S/-/- 3D10+8E Pen13 Clip6 Reload2Full Wt17 Req27 RenRespected

Alex

As nice and simple as it sound adding extra dice is not a controllable way to add damage. The problem is that each extra dice added also adds another 10% chance of righteous fury, which in turn adds ALL the new dice.

Example:

Current plasmagun (max setting) does 2d10+9E. This, along with Volatile, means you get 19% chance of Righteous Fury, which adds another 2d10+9E. The average damage of plasmagun is 23,8 points and the maximum is 58. If you move this to 3d10+9E the chance of RF goes up to 27%, increasing the average damage by almost 9 points to 32,4 points and the maximum damage by 20 points to 78 points.

Giving the same plasmagun Felling (1) will only increase the average damage by points equal to the enemys TB (4 or 5 mostly).

Maybe am I wrong but with righteous fury and a 3d10 +9 plasma or melta weapon you will need to roll something like:

10+10+10 on the first roll +9 = 39

Then confirm three times righteous fury ( one for each 10) and re-roll

10+10+10 = 30 (30+39=69)

then re-roll once more and make every kind of rollthat gives you 9 points like

3+3+3 = 9 (39+30+9=78)

Then only you could do 78 damage points.

It can happens from time to time but can't see it as an usual roll.

as we're on the topic of weapons,

Anyone have an idea of the Tau Rail Rifle? Its not listed in the Tau weapons (unless I completely missed it) and as its a pretty common occurance in the Tau armory, scout teams, sniper drones, Hammerhead tank, I thought it should be included somewhere.

Polaria said:

Compare with Multi-Melta and with Krak Missiles. Then compare the stats for those in 40K. Even at maximum setting it's still worse off and it doesn't even have a hiigher penetration than Krak Missiles. Krak Missiles and Multi-Melta roll 4D10. And I'm not going to even mention the gap to the Lascannon.

Alex

PS bigjul - DW uses new rules for RF... you are supposed to get a full new damage roll with RF, not just a D10 as before. Which gets absurd with lascannons.

double post, sorry.

Ty for rule point Ak-73, i'm waiting for my book today or tomorrow...

Thebigjul said:

Just forget that I ever mentioned. This rule is totally nuts. I will either use the DH's Righteous Fury or I'll rule that every rolled 10 is eligible for re-roll. But not the entire damage. That's just silly.

Alex

ak-73 said:

Absolutely agree, combined with SM's always roll 3 dice and auto-confirm RF it's not only silly damage but pretty frequent.

Thebigjul said:

Deathwatch training means they don't have to confirm no?

SinisterCheshire said:

The one on the Hammerhead is a full-blown Railgun.

The Rail Rifle is a relatively new addition to the Tau armoury; its introduction to the wargame was accompanied by text that explained that it was still experimental technology that hadn't fully been refined yet. It's possible that, in the time period represented by the 40kRPGs, the Rail Rifle hasn't been invented yet, or is still only a prototype.

Of course, if you'd like to include them, it's not to hard to put together a basic statline. Be warned: these are terrifying, and exactly the kind of weapon that a Kill Team will learn to be wary of; a lone Pathfinder with a Rail Rifle can do some immense damage...

Tau Rail Rifle

A development of the railgun technology used on Tau vehicles and starships, rail rifles are the smallest and most portable weapons of their type. Used as a long-range anti-materiel rifle by specially-configured drones or Pathfinder teams, the impact of a rail rifle can pluck an armoured soldier from his feet and hurl him several metres backwards under the hypersonic impact of the tiny metallic dart the weapon propels, the whip-crack report echoing for moments after the shot lands.

Class: Basic

Range: 200m

Rate of Fire: S/-/-

Damage: 3d10+5 I

Pen: 8

Clip: 8

Reload : 2 Full

Special: Accurate, Concussive, Felling (1), Gyro-Stabilised

Weight: 10kg

Special: Rail Rifles are fitted with an advanced target lock system which allows difficult shots and complicated firing solutions to be more easily performed, granting the user a +10 bonus to hit when attempting a Called Shot Attack. However, early versions of this system had to be hard-wired into the operator's brain, leading to deadly feedback - early versions of the Rail Rifle have the Overheats quality as well, but should the weapon overheat, it will deal its damage directly to the operator's head, with no reductions for armour.

You're absolutely right NO_1,

I didn't even consider the time period. But, nicely done with the rules there. I may just have to use them anyway!

There's going to be an obvious answer to this, but why not increase the damage rather than the Penetration? After all, it might ignore the armour but it is always going to run into the problem of the already "buff" Marine?

Feel free to respond via PM (using this site or another, depending).

Kage