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The funny thing about power weapons is that even though they cut through personal armor like a hot knife to butter, they can't cut vehicle armor any better than a chainsword. I don't know if PWs wil be changed at all in this regard in 6th ed, but I've come up with a few different way to make Power Weapons (the weapons that are sheathed with material displacing energy) actually have some sort of armor displacing ability against vehicles.

To get an idea of what Im think of in terms of armor pen, think of the opening scene in Star Wars: Episode I, right before Qui-Gon and Obiwan are attacked by those rolling droids. The first set of doors shut, and so Qui-Gon just shoves his lightsaber through it and starts cutting an exit with relative ease. Then a second, larger set of doors close, and so instead of carving his way through, he lets the lightsaber sit there and uses the intense heat to melt the doors away. I'm thinking somewhere between the two is how a power weapon should work against vehicles: you can put a blade through it, but actually carving a hole/slicing would be time-consuming. Also, if you have never seen SW: Ep. 1, don't. It isn't good.

So here we go:

1) Power Weapons auto-Rending against vehicles. It would then (usually) be S3 or 4 + d9 for armor pen. for S3 they would have to roll an 8 or higher to Penetrate most rear armor, S4 would need a 7+, etc. This would not affect Monstrous Creatures. This would be if the model hit a vital... something when they shoved their sword/axe/whatever through the hull of the vehicle.

2) I got nothin'

3) Power Weapons as +2 S when rolling to penetrate vehicles. An S4 model would then be able to penetrate A10 with a 5+ and glance on a 4.

4) Power Weapons roll 2d6 and choose the highest result. This wouldn't really change much, as the most an S4 model would be able to do would be glance a A10 vehicle.

5) Power Weapons roll ALL of the d6's you have available and (after adding them all together) have S10 against vehicles and everything else.

So what do you all think? I think the only overpowered one might be number five, but I'll have to playtest it and see.

Hmmmm...uuhh, McNinja, drugs 'er bad, m'kay?

Lol, but seriously... #5 is out the window ridiculosity

Number 4 would be feasible, because mechanically PW attacks effectively equivalate to MC attacks with this option. Though, powerfists would then be on same level of power, whereas they are supposed to be more powerful.

Third one would make more sense, but you've already got weapons that do that +2 soo...up those as well??

Second one, well considering that all assaults resolve against rear armor anyways in 5th, this is already in effect.

While number one is mildly complex, I see this one and option three as perhaps the more feasible choices going in-line with the descriptions of power weapons.


Well, those are my opinions on the five options you listed. Hopefully they're logically sound, but whatever...

Attacks in CC automatically hit the rear armour in any case. Autorend isn't D9 because D6+D3 has a range of 2-9, not 1-9, and an average of 5-6, not 4-5.

Power weapons rolling an extra D3 against vehicles seems best to me, and would make Tyranid Warriors useful.

Gorandius wrote:Hmmmm...uuhh, McNinja, drugs 'er bad, m'kay?

Lol, but seriously... #5 is out the window ridiculosity I'm glad you like it

Number 4 would be feasible, because mechanically PW attacks effectively equivalate to MC attacks with this option. Though, powerfists would then be on same level of power, whereas they are supposed to be more powerful. Well, I meant that they pick the one d6 with the highest result. Power Fists also double your Str, so they are automatically more powerful. This would also make PFs more powerful.

Third one would make more sense, but you've already got weapons that do that +2 soo...up those as well?? Yup.

Second one, well considering that all assaults resolve against rear armor anyways in 5th, this is already in effect. Great! that mean my time machine worked...

While number one is mildly complex, I see this one and option three as perhaps the more feasible choices going in-line with the descriptions of power weapons.


Well, those are my opinions on the five options you listed. Hopefully they're logically sound, but whatever...

Well, with the exception of number two, which I mooked up on, thanks!