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Unlikely to come up in regular play, but I thought i'd ask.

I picked up an Eldar Warp Hunter from forge world. It's armed with a special D-Cannon and a shuriken catapult.

The D-Cannon is Strength X. Is this a defensive weapon?

I can't find anything in the BRB to point one way or another.

A defensive weapon is classed as anything equal or below a str of 4 (used to be 5 in the previous rulebook IIRC) So I'd take an educated guess that it would be classed as defensive as it has no strength per-say. Thats how I would rule it in a personal game as being the most logical course of action. Even though technically the stat of X is not actually 4 or less because X is not a valid number.


Not knowing what a D-Cannon is, is there a special rule used to determine a strength? like str = 2xD6? In which case I'd rule it as a main weapon because its able to go above 4 on a dice role, the fact it could go below 4 would be a mute point in my opinion. You can't have a weapon that suddenly stops working if your rolled a str of 5, but amazingly still fires if it were a 3

Hence the confusion!

Like I said, its a forge world only unit, but my FLGS are all ok for me to use it, so I suspect this issue will arise sooner or later.

From memory the S:X weapons in the DE codex are all defensive, so I would use it as defensive.

Ahh of course, you'd get splinter cannons and the like on raiders wouldn't you?

Any DE players happy to verify this for us?

Strength X generally wound on a fixed number regardless of toughness.

Sniper weapons are Str X, generally wounding on 4+ (from grots to Wraithlords) for example.
The normal Eldar D cannon always wounds models on a 2+.

It would, going by the 'defensive' weapons rule, be a defensive weapon. It does not use S to determine wounds OR armour penetration.

Yes, Splinter weapons on DE vehicles are counted as defensive weapons. NOT weapons carried by passengers, ONLY the weapons mounted on the vehicle.

"Any vehicle weapons with strength 4 or less (or with no strength value) are classified as 'defensive' weapons." (BRB pg. 58).

So, to my surprise, it is a defensive weapon.

HellsGuardian316 wrote:A defensive weapon is classed as anything equal or below a str of 4 (used to be 5 in the previous rulebook IIRC) So I'd take an educated guess that it would be classed as defensive as it has no strength per-say. Thats how I would rule it in a personal game as being the most logical course of action. Even though technically the stat of X is not actually 4 or less because X is not a valid number.


Not knowing what a D-Cannon is, is there a special rule used to determine a strength? like str = 2xD6? In which case I'd rule it as a main weapon because its able to go above 4 on a dice role, the fact it could go below 4 would be a mute point in my opinion. You can't have a weapon that suddenly stops working if your rolled a str of 5, but amazingly still fires if it were a 3

A D-Cannon just always wounds on a 2+ and glances on a 3/4, pens on a 5/6.

yup
DE weapons that are strength X are defensive. I can't see how a D-Cannon wouldnt be, even if it is a lot more powerful than a splinter cannon.

Another voice in the chorus. Just like the DE splinter weapons, it has no Str value as such, and thus counts as Defensive.

Historical note: in 4th edition Defensive was S6 and below. Which was awesome for Eldar. Scoot and shoot was the fashion.

Further historical note: in 3rd edition, there were no Defensive weapons, AND you also had to be stationary to fire Ordnance. Shooty vehicles were STATIC.