Ok, i'm about to gm my first DW game. I'm atm making pregens so my players won't need to loose time making characters (as they dunno what kind they want yet in most cases). However when making the devastator marine i've noticed a weird thing.

An astartes heavy bolter can never fire less then 10 rounds in one go. With a backpack ammo it has a clip size of 250. Meaning you can fire it 25 times and then you're out of shots. That'd be reasonable to me, if as the weapon description says it can "turn entire infantry platoons into a carpet of gore". However when looking at the damage that doesn't show. Sure it's a lot of bullets and each one does 2d10+10 damage. However, it has no blast meaning that you're pretty sure the guy you hit is dead (and then some) while all of his buddies are standing around being splattered by gore rather then being turned into it?

Am i missing something here? Or is this in fact a pretty crappy and oversized weapon when compared to a heavy flamer/melta/plasma/launcher/las?

Sorry. *cough*

No; it's not like that at all. Firstly, you can spread bursts of automatic fire around: You don't just empty the full burst into one guy. Secondly; the heavy bolter is the most horrendously broken weapon in the game, pre-errata. It eats hordes, it eats genestealers, it eats Rhinos, it eats Master-level foes... all in one combat round.

Have a look on the Deathwatch news on the main FFG site, and there is version 1.1 of the errata available. Amongst other things it reduces the HB damage and the rate of fire to 6, which makes it less of a no-brainer choice for every Dev.

Note that it chews through hordes. The main point of your argument is that it only "hits" one target. While technically, that is true, the horde mechanic of the game is based off of total hits placed on the horde. The HB can do this (either 10 or 6, both are pretty bad news).

For the love of all that is holy and right do not use a pre errata hvy bolter in your game. It will make your life as the Gm a living hell.

Cool, thx all for answering

Don't mistake the new HB stats for official errata, these are optional rules!

There are some clues these rules where developed as an alternative before the REAL 1.1 content was finished.

Even the heavily nerfed heavy bolter is terrifying, just less so. It can tear hordes to pieces for one.

There are two nerfs in the 1.1 errata. The unrelenting devastation ability "only" does a flat +1d5 magnitude damage per attack, not +1 per hit. And there are the optional weapon damage tables for "less dicerolling" (i.e. attempt at balance). In fairness, while the heavy bolter is pretty ferocious in background it was insanely good in pre-errata Deathwatch.

As for mowing down hordes, I went with numerous interpretations. Spraying rounds widely, having kraken rounds tear through multiple rebels before detonating, clouds of shrapnel from bolts/ammunition/people ripping to pieces. Bear in mind that magnitude is a combination of sheer numbers *and* morale. So when rebel Joe sees rebel Mike getting torn in two from the *shrapnel*, he's not likely to hang around to have the same happen to him.