Blackie wrote: I_am_a_Spoon wrote: Blackie wrote:There's no reason of course. It's just that
SM players would soon start complaining that their boltgun weapons are too inefficient against armies that benefit from AoC, which are a lot considering how popular the power/termy armour dudes are. So instead of making their weapons even more ridiculosly powerful against all the other factions they could "fix" it by letting ignore AoC bonuses.
But of course the best scenario would be to make all bolters S4 AP0 with no exceptions, and no mechanics to improve them for free.
How is S4 AP0 D1 Rapid Fire 1 "ridiculously powerful"?
SM bolters are already
AP-1 or
AP-2 thanks to doctrines (which buffs bolt weapons for the turns that matter) and/or primaris boltguns native
AP. Which would become
AP-2 and
AP-3 against non power armour armies if they get buffed even further to counter AoC. I was specifically referring to
SM bolters.
I kinda see where you're coming from now, and I agree bolters shouldn't get to AP2 (without special ammunition anyway).
I personally think it's a bit stupid for doctrines to affect
AP at all...
IMO, when thinking about the core weapon stats, external factors like doctrines should work around them and not vice versa. And to me, given the lore around bolters (and other weapon statlines), AP1 seems more than appropriate (for Firstborn and Primaris bolters).