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Ok so 8E being very horde-centric is giving lot of elite low model count armies a fair bit of bother, none more so than deathwatch the lowest of low model count armies, even spamming basic vets were no more effective at killing hordes off then regular space marines but cost significantly more. I figure small alterations are usually better than sweeping fixes so how about this one.

Swap out Dragonfire rounds for the old Metal Storm Rounds

As I see it Dragonfire is by far the most situational ammunition type for deathwatch, only really having a use against models with specific rules that grant them additional -1 to hit as well as +1 armour save for cover, lictors and rangers for example but there still gaining the +1 armour save so you may have just as well used Kraken's for extra range and to punch through the cover bonus.

For those who don;t know Metal Storm ammunition used to be an option to deathwatch and from a fluff perspective represented the bolt round exploding with shrapnel on impact, from a game play perspective it simply gave each shot a small blast template at a lower strength. Since small blasts don't exist anymore I suggest the following.

Metal Storm Ammunition 24" Rapid Fire 1 Str 3 AP - Dd3*

*Damage generated by a successful wound from Metal Storm Ammunition may be distributed against multiple models of the same toughness

Now as far as I am aware this gives your standard Vet a potential d3 Kills at 13"+ and a potential d6 within 12" it doesn't invalidate the shotguns wyrmsbreath as it does not auto hit making a the shotgun still superior on overwatch or against targets with hit modifiers. Its not superior to any other bolt round in anything but its job at low toughness horde busting.

Thoughts?

A few threads down I implemented Metal Storm as double normal shots (Rapid Fire 2 on bolters, Rapid Fire 4 on twin bolters, Pistol 2 on pistols). D3 damage with spillover feels like a strange way of implementing it.

Sorry didn't notice you had a thread further down discussing it, while i'll admit your solution is certainly more elegant, checking out the thread I noticed you also proposed dropping the metal storm ammo range by 12", dropping the strength and reducing the ap, presumably the last 2 parts is used with bolt weapons outside standard such as heavy bolters or carbines.

I would be worried at that point that with so low a range the rapid fire rule itself on bolters becomes redundant, if your within 6" and generating 4 shots which still have to hit, your probably wishing you brought a shotgun with Wyrmsbreath shells.

In fact I noticed all of your SIA options involved dropping the range, while I understand its an issue for the longer ranged bolt weapons you made able to take SIA, it leaves the humble bolter kind of out in the lurch, guiding players to take more special weapons, making our expensive guys more expensive.

Again I realise the spillover is clunky in an edition that tried to get away from special rules but i think its a more practical implementation while not altering any other rules.

Given how much of a rework the Deathwatch needs right now, I can't say any single change matters too much unfortunately.

Hit rolls of 6+ generate 3 hits instead of 1.

Just the simple tests rule. If it's blowing up and shrapnel is going everywhere then wouldn't it make more since to have more hits than do damage?

danp164 wrote:
Sorry didn't notice you had a thread further down discussing it, while i'll admit your solution is certainly more elegant, checking out the thread I noticed you also proposed dropping the metal storm ammo range by 12", dropping the strength and reducing the ap, presumably the last 2 parts is used with bolt weapons outside standard such as heavy bolters or carbines.

I would be worried at that point that with so low a range the rapid fire rule itself on bolters becomes redundant, if your within 6" and generating 4 shots which still have to hit, your probably wishing you brought a shotgun with Wyrmsbreath shells.

In fact I noticed all of your SIA options involved dropping the range, while I understand its an issue for the longer ranged bolt weapons you made able to take SIA, it leaves the humble bolter kind of out in the lurch, guiding players to take more special weapons, making our expensive guys more expensive.

Again I realise the spillover is clunky in an edition that tried to get away from special rules but i think its a more practical implementation while not altering any other rules.

I wrote Kraken ammo into the base profiles of all the bolt weapons in that post. The shotgun also got a rework.