While I like the idea of these shells, they seem rather useless, considering most targets worthwhile, would need to be hit and damaged by 15+ Shells, to be incapacitated by these weapons?!

I do not know if they are part of any lore/fluff, as I have not been able to find it anywhere, but if any knows of them, please tell, as it might help to figure out what their purpose is.

Fow now I am thinking of changing the Ag damage to 1d10 instead, as they will then perhaps be a bit useful - unless I get a bunch of great ideas by you all!

The agility damage makes targets easier to hit as their dodge and movement fall off. But yes, they do seem a bit weak for their requisition cost.

The thing is most target will be killed by the bullet's damage before the Agility lost becomes relevant...

I think the Implosion Shells are a bit overpriced. I get that doing characteristic damage is huge, but they aren't THAT deadly.

I think their best use is in very long range weaponry. Is there a big bad Carnifex way down the street? Put a few shots into him. He won't go down, but you can probably knock his Agility down a good 10-15 points. With any luck, that's a pretty solid drop in Movement. You'll probably finish him off before he even gets to you.

The other thing that helps is when you face an opponent multiple times. If you manage a few shots at the Tau Commander you've been sent to kill, you can knock his Agility down a good 10 points or so. It'll be 10 hours before he's back to 100%, so if you track him down before then you'll benefit from his being wounded and slowed.

They are trash compared to most other ammunition types, as anything that you hit with enough of them to seriously incapacitate, you could easily have killed with an equal number of kraken or hellfire rounds They certainly need a fix.

Increase agility damage to 1d10?

To be honest, I still wouldn't bother with them myself, but someone might!

I think they definitely need rewriting. The agility damage isn't enough to matter before the target is dead from the real damage anyway. Perhaps if the Ag damage was more you could use them to immobilize some hulking Tyranid monstrosity... I'm more inclined to rewrite them completely and give them Felling (1).

Polaria said:

There are already bolts with the Felling Trait IIRC, and that would just make them more heavy-hitting on large targets, than give a penalty. I do like the Ag penalty, but it is just way to low. Perhaps lower the damage on the bolt a bit (like Stalker shells), and up the Ag dmg, as they are then less inclined to kill even with more shots.

Or just convert all damage that goes through, as Agility Dmg instead? That would definately make them very nasty in the Agility loss, but fairly balanced I think, as you would have been able to do the same damage to HP had you used normal rounds.

I still wonder where they stem from, Fluff-wise..

With bolter damage being what it is, the only enemies these are useful against are agile elites or masters who can somehow shrug off that sort of punishment. Eldar warlocks with their funky armour from an RT adventure that negates penetration, that sort of thing. Revamping the Agility damage is sounding like a better and better idea. The rounds might be a new invention for the Deathwatch RPG. There are a bunch of mentions that inhabitants of Watch Fortress Erioch are prone to customising and creating specialist weaponry.

The only use I can really see for them is large melee hordes you don't getting close to you. I do agree that as written and prices they are kind of pointless.

There is no way that the shell's effect should disable an entire horde, though!

Siranui said:

Depends on your GM, I might be willing to allow it since hordes are generally treated as a single. If you are going by a strict reading of the rules, then no the implosion shell wouldn't effect a Horde. That would reinforce its complete uselessness.

A horde isn't a single creature though, it is merely treated as one for some purposes. Common sense dictates that shooting Joe in the face with a round of implosion ammunition isn't going to cripple the entire platoon. Yes; they're a poor choice of ammunition at present, but even with some of the suggested boosts offered, they should still not do anything to a horde.