Hey folks, I've got a few questions about terminator armor.

1) In the bullet point describing weapon restrictions, it says that they may use combi bolters, including other variants. Additionally, variant combi bolters (such as a combi melta) are included in some of the artwork. However, I cannot actually find any rules for combi meltas, plasmas, and flamers. Can someone point me to the proper page?

2) When a terminator uses a combibolter, are they still using it two handed the way a normal power-armored marine would? In tabletop and lore, terminators one hand such weapons, and wield a melee weapon in their other hand. It stands to reason they should be able to use such weapons one handed without the usual -20 BS penalty.

3) Since normally a combiweapon is to a terminator as a pistol is to a normal marine (and a heavy weapon as a rifle) it stands that they should be able to use combiweapon+melee weapon the same way a power armored marine uses pistol+melee weapon, or even pistol+pistol. However, all the dual-wielding rules are written specifically with the term 'pistol' in them. Can terminators only benefit from dual wielding close combat weapons then?

1) As far as I know, there are no rules for combi weapons apart from the bolter. You'd simply have to make your own for that. Personally, I'd just slap together the profiles for two different pistol weapons, perhaps tweak them a tiny bit, and call it a day.

2) Considering all Terminator armor allows you to fire Heavy weapons one handed, I'd say basic weapons fall in there too, without the usual penalty. Failing that, well, why settle for anything less than maximum DAKKA!!!! ?

3) pg 243 "The character may use any melee weapons or ranged weapons that can be reasonably used in one hand. This is generally pistol-class ranged weapons (though some Basic-class weapons may have modifications that allow them to be used with one hand)," so yes, you can dual-wield non-pistol weapons if you can wield them in one hand. You can do this with ALL basic class weapons, at a penalty, so yes, you can dual wield bolter rifles. At a massive penalty, but still. In Terminator armor, you can dual wield autocannons. **** yes you can!

However, of note: you're not wielding pistols. Which means you can't fire them in melee. Whether you want to read this as "Can't fire while in melee" or "can't fire at targets in melee WITH YOU" is, by the rules the first, by your and your gm... whichever you choose. That said, a terminator can still wield a power first in one hand and a reaper autocannon in the other, and benefit from having... both a power fist and a reaper autocannon readied for combat. The benefits of dual wielding is not limited purely to use of the two-weapon fighter talent.

You could be a bit sneaky and slap a melee upgrade on the reaper autocannon. You can now dual wield it with your fist... in close combat. Possibly silly, but doable.

Deathwatch has the 'combi-weapon' option. It is a bolter with a one shot version of the other gun.

Yes, with Termie armour and two weapon weilder you could dual wield autocannons... but you'd get screwed in melee so don't do it (unless you've grown other limbs to fight with in melee.)

(Melee attachment is only for basic weapons btw)

Nathiel said:

Also note that melee-attachments end up treating the weapon as a spear, iirc, which means it's a two handed melee weapon. Terminators generally wield two-handed weapons (thunder hammers etc) in one hand, so you could dual wield combi-bolters with chainblades both as dual-ranged weapons and dual-melee weapons (though not able to shoot in melee).

Personally i've always seen combi-weapons as more of a 'main-weapon-with-an-under-slung-single-shot-other-weapon' and as the bolter is always the primary weapon this means that you could take the combi-bolter stats, remove the twin-linked rules and give it a single shot of one of the other weapon types (melta gun, plasma gun, flamer, grenade launcher/, las-gun, shotgun, autogun... those last few would be pointless however).

Both power armor and terminator armor benefit from a special rule known as recoil compensation. This rule allows all basic class weapons to be wielded exactly the same as pistols. You can find the special rule in the armor section under power armor subsystems, on the page immediately preceeding the terminator armor section.

Kasatka said:

I don't know about BC, but in RT even normal humans can wield thunder hammers in one hand.

Randall Benedict Joad said:

Actually it says that BASIC weapons may be fired one handed, it does NOT allow you to use them in hand to hand unless they specifically have the PISTOL trait. (or have an attached stabby bit of course, but then you are stabbing, not shooting.)

It's a slight but important difference.

HappyDaze said:

Those would be civilian thunder hammers however. Also check the erata for them, they may have corrected it to be 2 handed.

Kasatka said:

There is no profile for the Thunder Hammer in BC, but Legion weapons=Astartes weapons, so you can use the profile from DW. DW Thunder Hammers are indeed one handed weapons.