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Maybe if it gave the enemy a -2 Initiative modifier in Assault if charging would be more effective. IMHO, it represents the enemy being stunned/shocked by the sudden force brought to bear from the wall of pellets flying at them.

My thoughts behind the Frag Grenades would be that it keeps the Guardsmen swinging at Initiative 3, not Initiative 1 as would normally be the case when charging into cover without Frags.

CK

The problem with giving it close combat bonuses is that it's already better in close combat; you can charge with it.

Rapid fire weapons can't do that, that's the whole reason you equip anyone with shotguns in the first place. Assault 2 is the reason for shotguns being a close quarters weapon.

dude just let shotguns use flame templates to represent the spread of pellets and hit the first row of models under the template or something

How's about this for an IG shotgun:
Shotgun
Special Rule: "hail of buckshot"
Cover saves taken against shotguns are reduced by 1.
A Shotgun may fire with one of the following profiles:
Range 18" Strength 2 AP-Assault d3
Range 12" Strength 3 AP- Assault d3
Range 6" Strength 4 AP- Assault d3

A Space Marine shotgun would be identical just +1 strength across the board to represent the more powerful ammunition they would likely use.

I direct your attention back to the 'that's to complicted' discussion.
Orkasorus has a point, a shotgun really is balanced as an assault option replacment for the Lasgun.

Mars.Techpriest wrote:I direct your attention back to the 'that's to complicted' discussion.
Orkasorus has a point, a shotgun really is balanced as an assault option replacment for the Lasgun.

How's that more complicated than Sternguard or Deathwatch special ammunition rules? Or Space Marine Whirlwind alternative fire modes? Or the Imperial Guard's new Orders? Or the Tyranid's weapon profiles that are totally dependent on the creature's profile, which is can be modified by upgrading them with bio-morphs? Or Necron's We'll Be Back rule? Or Ork Mob Rule allowing them to replace their leadership with the number of models within their unit up to 10 and 11+ making them fearless? Or Lootas' random number of shots? Some things in the game need to made a whee bit more complicated to be realistic and/or flavorful

With what I suggested, you could easily resolve a large unit of shotgun-armed models. Say you have 10 Imperial Guard Veterans with shotguns dismount a Chimera in front of an Ork Mob in 4+ cover. In the shooting phase, measure range from the rear most Veteran and select the most powerful profile within range. We'll say the farthest model is 11" away, so the midranged shot is selected. Then, like Ork Lootas a d3 is rolled and applied to all 10 Veterans. Then, we'll say a 3 is rolled, so 30 shots are resolved against the Orks. Roughly 20 shots hit, then approx. 6-7 wound. Wounds are allocated by the Ork player and due to the "Hail of Buckshot" is reduced to a 5+ save, which is still better than the Orks' 6+ armor save so maybe 4 Orks are killed.

It is more complicated and its also unnecessary. Lootas and sternguard need to have variable ammo and rate of fire because that is what makes them unique. They are specialist units that can do something remarkable. Notice how both sternguard and lootas only do a single thing that is different to the norm,rather than the two things you are suggesting. Having to check the range, chose firing mode and then roll for random shots (which doesnt make much sense) for many units in an army would quickyl become tedious and slow the game down significantly.

Your example of how to do it also doesn't follow the actual rules for the game. You'd have to mesure from each model to the closest model in the unit your targeting, determine it's range, seperate the different ranges, roll all the variable number of shots with one die for each model in that bracket, then roll to hit and wound with each bracket, re-combine and apply the wounds.

It's also not realistic or particularly flavorful, and makes the shotguns far more powerful then Lasguns, which they really shouldn't be.