Hello Everyone:

I recently started playing Deathwatch and after our first session, it became apparent that it seems that wounding hordes is particularly difficult with standard bolt weapons (without specialized ammo). I am just trying to figure out if my group and I are doing the mathematics incorrectly because it seems that even the vaunted heavy bolter is not particularly impressive when it comes to wounding hordes. As of the rules in pg 359 of the Deathwatch rulebook, you have to do 15 points of damage to a horde after their armor and toughness.

Hormogaunt Horde (Magnitude 30, toughness 3, Armor 3)

Bolt Pistol: 1d10+9X, Pen 4, Tearing (I need to roll a 9 on two dice to wound)

Boltgun: 1d10+9x, Pen 4,Tearing (I need to roll a 9 on two dice to wound)

Heavy Bolter: 1d10+12, Pen 5 (I need to roll a 6 on two dice to wound)

Is this working as intended?

You've misunderstood it: the 15 damage is an example.

The rule is "Each hit that causes any amout of damage reduces a Horde's Magnitude by one".

So, bolters always hurt a hormagaunt horde's magnitude

Yep. The majority of Hordes will consist of weaker enemies like Hormagaunts that will rarely be tough enough to avoid taking Magnitude damage. About the only regular Horde-killing weapons my group uses that even need to be rolled are the Frag Grenades; with everything else, it's just a waste of time to even roll damage. Flamers, Bolters...they all will blow right past your typical Horde enemy's armor and Toughness.

Stormast said:

Oh! Thank you so much for the clarification. I suppose the bolter weapons are indeed worthy tools for the angels of death.

Bolters got weaker against Hordes in the Errata indeed, but not due to damage (in this respect, they're mostly better off now, as vastly greater constant damage makes it easier to wound most Horde-grade enemies) but rather due to decreased Rate of Fire.

Which is a good thing overall, because Bolters are standard issue weapons, widely applicable and overall decent, but more specialized equipment is supposed to surpass them.