Hello guys.

Here are a few questions on the twin-linked weapons that a player has asked me, and to which I have my own view, but I wanted to see if there´s an official answer:

On the issue of twin-linked weapons: Is there any way to modify a weapon so that it gains this property? As far as I am concerned, if a weapon doesn't have a property, there's no way to add it (in the same way that you can't pay someone to make your thunder hammer balanced, you can't pay someone to make you a twin-linked inferno pistol). Also, for what I've seen, only vehicle weapons have the twin-linked property, so this adds to my belief that handheld weapons shouldn't gain this.

Also, what happens when you twin-link pistols? Do they remain pistols, being used in a single hand? (Again, gut feeling says no, otherwise everyone would be twin-linking them).

Assuming that you can twin-link a weapon, let´s say you TL a pistol. Now you have a character that can dual-wield twin-linked pistols, and who uses the dual shot talent. He hits for more than 2 degrees of success. How is this handled? Does the extra hit benefit from the talent, is added on top of it but toughness bonus is applied only once to all four hits, or what?

Rites of Battle has rules for requisitioning arcane weaponry (p219), essentially normal weapons with one extra weapon special ability, which one could conceivably use to twin link a weapon. As for just bolting a second gun onto your first one, no, as far as I am concerned this is not possible (and would probably offend the machine spirit of any weapons that you tried to do it to)

As for the question of combining dual shot and stuff with twin linking. I honestly had never thought about it. I think I would rule that the extra twin linked hits occur after and separately from dual shot, after all dual shot states the damage bonus occurs because both hits strike exactly the same place at the same time, but shots from twin linked can hit different locations as per the multiple hits table on page 239 of the core rules

Fluff wise it is possible the original storm bolters were just combi weapons were both were bolters giving the twin linked ability, until the link was perfected (the difference between twin linked and storm) so I wouldn’t allow it for a storm bolter.

However as twin linked specifically only ever gives one extra hit, and most instances just counts as one extra hit, in the case of dual shot, I’d let them have it, after all its not like they can be bursting so it’s one extra hit using the same rules as the first hit.

Besides for most things it’s only ever an extra hit, indeed it does give +20 to hit, but to hit bonuses cap at +60, and I’ve found in most games marines are getting that quite a lot so makes no difference.

It can be silly though, I wouldn’t allowed hand held twin-linked heavy weapons as even marines would have an issue, twin linked hand weapons and pistols no problem. Although watch out for twin linked barrage plasma guns fired on maximal, can cause a silly amount of damage to hordes, especially if the user is a master of arms.

In this case, the player is playing an Inquisitor leading a Deathwatch Kill-team. His idea is to use dual-shot with dual twin-linked inferno pistols, hoping for extra hits that would result in 8D10+20 damage, pen 12, and against which Armor is quadrupled (not to hard to do, even if I require extra DoS for the fourth shot to hit, given the +30 BS to a single shot psyker power), but TB applied only once. The idea feels rather in the munchkinism field, and a fairly liberal interpretation of the rules ("Both attacks hit with a single roll, and both have twin-linked, so two degrees of success grant me 2 extra hits, and since they all strike the same place, TB is applied only once against the full damage"). Needless to say, I didn't allow it, as I felt that twin-linked is a vehicle-only mod.

angelis1974 said:

The Combi-Bolters used by Chaos Space Marines (on vehicles and by Terminators, in place of the Storm Bolter) are essentially just twin-linked Bolters, being the precursor to the modern Storm Bolter. In Black Crusade, IIRC, they are literally just Bolters with the Twin-Linked quality.

What I've done in my game is make twin-linked and storm almost interchangable. I never liked how they handled it in TT because of how limiting twin linked was, and it frankly never made sense to me. What it does now in Deathwatch is if a Chaos Terminator engages the party with a Reaper Autocannon, he fires dozens of shells at them rapid fire, explosions everywhere, it's cinematic and impressive, and that second barrel, firing just as much ammunition as the main barrel, can land one single extra hit no matter how well he rolls.

To distinguish combi-bolters from storm-bolters, I use the basic rules for storm, but the off-barrel is one set of successes removed. If you roll to hit, instead of hitting twice like storm, you hit once, then 3 hits for the extra successes, then 5, up until all the rounds have been hit (the final one with be one extra hit from the extra barrel and none from the main until they're even).

In-universe mechanics wise, a friend asked if I could explain the difference. The descriptions for each are identical, so all I could answer is "storm is side to side, twin linked is up and down." So if you hold your combi-bolter sideways, Gangsta style, it should count as storm.

Honestly all the rules for storm and twin-linked etc. are messy since they seem party based on the constrained TT mechanics and entirely unbalanced. If I were you I would just ignore storm and double the rof of any weapon with the storm quality. Bam, balanced, simpler, and transferable to any other weapon without fuss. You want to be that witch-hunter with double barrelled pistols? Fine. Inferno weapons having a higher RoF could be problematic, but with the BC semi auto rules you are penalized quite a bit between the dual wielding and the limited value of semi-auto over called shots and the like on single fire. Besides, I am guessing the inquisitor needs all the help he can get to keep up with SMs when the shooting starts. Also, the range on inferno pistols suck, have fun fighting Tau battlesuits flying around 300m away.