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After an early xmas present in the form of a Doomsday ark(now christened "The Subjugator of Ends") a friend (IG player) and I got into an argument over whether of not(and how much) its Large blast scatters. His point is that having it always hit dead-on at str9 Ap 1 is broken and that artillery must scatter. My point is ORDANENCE scatters, which the Doomsday cannon is not, its Heavy. who is correct?
P.S. do other blast weapons such as particle shredder or tremor staff scatter too? if so how much?

Blast weapons are described on page 30 of the Warhammer 40,000 5th edition rulebook.

Your IG friend was right; all blast weapons scatter. This was a fairly big change in 5th edition.

Standard scatter for blast weaponry. 2d6-BS.

Alright, seems I was wrong, it also didn't help that I didn't see that the DA had a BS 4! Thanks guys

There is also no such thing as a "blast template" in 5th edition.

'Template' is the teardrop shaped one, used by flamers, etc.
'Blast marker' are the round ones (both of them). These ALWAYS have a chance to scatter (scatter die+2d6 [-BS] - only hits on a 'hit').

In past editions, they were referred to as "blast templates".

Exalted Pariah wrote:After an early xmas present in the form of a Doomsday ark(now christened "The Subjugator of Ends") a friend (IG player) and I got into an argument over whether of not(and how much) its Large blast scatters. His point is that having it always hit dead-on at str9 Ap 1 is broken and that artillery must scatter. My point is ORDANENCE scatters, which the Doomsday cannon is not, its Heavy. who is correct?
P.S. do other blast weapons such as particle shredder or tremor staff scatter too? if so how much?

All weapons with a blast marker (not flamer template), scatter 2d6 unless it says otherwise. It dosent matter whether it large or small, ordinance or heavy.

It should be pointed out that its 2d6 minus your BS for most weapons. Only indirect barrage weapons are a flat 2d6 scatter.

chromedog wrote:There is also no such thing as a "blast template" in 5th edition.

'Template' is the teardrop shaped one, used by flamers, etc.
'Blast marker' are the round ones (both of them). These ALWAYS have a chance to scatter (scatter die+2d6 [-BS] - only hits on a 'hit').

In past editions, they were referred to as "blast templates".

People call them blast templates, therefore they are blast templates.
People aren't going to change language at the drop of a hat because GW changed the wording in a book. This isn't Oceania.

Joey wrote:People call them blast templates, therefore they are blast templates. People aren't going to change language at the drop of a hat because GW changed the wording in a book. This isn't Oceania.

GW's terminology has be consistent for the past twenty plus years. Just because people call the markers 'templates' does not make it the proper terminology. This may not be 'Oceania' or whatever but it is YMDC where exact terminology is often crucial in determining what the rules actually say.

Clearly it's essential in OP's case which had nothing whatsoever to do with semantics.

GW, at least in the 5th ed rules, is very consistent and clear about what they mean when they say Template, and what they mean when they say Blast Marker.

While in colloquial terms a blast marker may be a template, general-use English isn't as helpful in this specific context, where Template has a game-specific defined meaning.

This happens a lot in specialized fields, where a word which has multiple meanings in general use has a more specific meaning within a particular context.