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How do!

Wasn’t entirely sure if this belonged in General or Background. If I’ve placed it wrong, I’ll know where to find it

Anyways. 40K is rushing headlong into being 40 years old. In fact that’s next year, 2027.

And over the years, not all weapons have continued to be a thing on the tabletop. I felt that might make an entertaining thread. I’ll kick us off with some.

Harpoon Missile

A Titan Grade support weapon, intended for use against opposing Titans. Whilst it would of course cause some damage to the superstructure, its real trick was allowing control of the target Titan to be overridden until the Titan was destroyed, or the warhead was dislodged.

Warp Missiles

At least, I don’t think they come up much. Again, a Titan Grade support weapon, with a miniaturised warp engine onboard. This allowed the missile to skip in and out of reality, bypassing any kind of shielding, and ideally appearing inside the target for its grand finale. Not terribly accurate of course, but an absolute menace. Not to be confused with the Vortex Missile.

Eldar Psychic Lance

Gosh, there’s a theme occurring, because it’s yet another Titan Grade weapon, a unique to the Warlock PSI-Titan. Essentially a scaled up, souped up Neurodisruptor Pistol. Used against a vehicle crew? It would wipe their minds, leaving them as drooling mindless shells. Against an enemy Titan that makes use of Mind Impulse Units it could be catastrophic, burning their brains out entirely. And oddly, I don’t think we’ve seen that technology replicated in any size other than Pistol and Titan Grade. That feels like a very real oversight, and a niche for a terrifying Aspect Temple.

Right, that’s some low hanging fruit out there way, anyone else got any to add?

So there is a bunch of Epic titan weapon stuff.

Then there is a load of Rogue Trader odd weaponry (as well as the primitive weaponry - bow, crossbow, handbow, musket, likewise the CC weapons), my favourite being the neuro disruptor for shooting jetbikes. All the odd grenades.

Does the heavy plasma gun still exist?

Heavy plasma gun was renamed to plasma cannon afaik.

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Plasma_cannon

I was reminiscing about the Squig Catapult and Pulsa Rokkit recently...

In all my years of playing 2nd Ed 40k, I’m ashamed to say I’ve never thrown a tanglefoot grenade.

I miss the big gun on the front of the old IA ork flier - the Deff Arsenal. The weapon was, essentially, every other gun all strapped together into a random shot, random strength, random AP piece of magnificence!

One that I liked a lot in 2nd ed was the Mole Mortar. Antiplant munitions and Blind Grenades also come to mind. And the Melta Missile, I think?

If we're talking classic Orky weapons, we can't miss the opportunity to call out the Hop Splat Field Gun, can we? Or the Bubble Chukka?

Bubble Chukka does and doesn’t exist. There is a Bubble Chukka these days, but it doesn’t do the same job as the original.

Originally? It cast a fully invisible force field around the target, causing any shots taken by that target to ricochet around wildly, only harming the squad or tank or what have you trapped with. With no way for the target to know the field is even there.

Not exactly easy to do rules for, that’s true. But what an Orky weapon.

No mention of the lifta-droppa yet?

My favorite weapon right after the classic SAG. Pick up a tank, throw it at another unit. I still haven an ugly scratch built one to slot into battlewagons, but it's no fun playing it without the rules.

Harpoon Missile still seems to exist, just renamed to the Ursus Claw. Comes in [Warhound] titan grade and naval capital ship grade sizes

Ah, but those don’t seize control!

Mole Mortar I’m torn on, due to Leagues of Votann. They’ve the shoulder carried one, and the woefully misnamed Earthshaker.

Mk1 Plasma Weapons.

In 2nd edition Imperial plasma weapons were slower firing but safer, but Chaos had ones that didn't need a turn to recharge but overheated.

There was even a fluff piece in the Chaos Codex about how the Mechanicus banned the use of Mk1 weapons due to the unacceptable risk (it seems quaint now but Space Marines are valuable!)

When 3rd edition came along everyone was standardised and all plasma became able to be used every turn but all of them had a chance to overheat

The mark I plasma and different combi bolters and autocannons used to really help sell the chaos marines warbands as being from a different time.

I can't remember which weapons I've forgotten.... but I do wish I'd used a vortex grenade...

Vortex grenades are great fun, I always give my Kommando Kaptain one so he can sneak about and take out some juicy targets… though last time I rolled a 1 to hit and then the dreaded ‘Hit’ and ‘Misfire’ combo and he dropped it on his own head, the berk.

The old SAG was amazing. Hated how they boringificated it.

Had a game once where I managed to land a template, turn 1, on a tervigon and the swarmlord, then rolled double 6, and wiped them from the table! Turn 2, I targeted a carnifex, and woop - the mek was in combat, from about 4 feet away!

Lifta Droppa was a beast. Loved that weapon.

I also had a real knack for guess-range weapons. Lobbas were beastly under my command!

Drukhari have a ton of them!

* Bloodstones for incubi: basically psychci agony flamers made from a collection of tortured craftworlder spirit stones. This sorta kinda got fused with the gunhats (tormentor helms) to create the current tormentor rule, but this is a weird one because the gunhats *technically* didn't have rulse in 5th edition, but the Attacks stat of incubi (the only models that could have them) were consistent with the idea that you were getting +1 attack from having a pistol. Which is what tormentor helms and mandiblasters used to do.

* Flesh Gauntlet - Gloves that gave you super cancer.

* Mindphase Gauntlet -Gloves that made the enemy disassociate (kept an enemy from attacking iirc.)

* The Giant Tentacle Portal - One-use attack for haemonculi.

* The Mirror Shard - Science-magic mirror shards. If you reflect an enemy in them and then break the glass, the person being reflect gets cracked/shattered in the same fashion.

* Electrocorrosive Whips - The one weapon I kind of don't mind being gone. Basically just an agonizer that leaks acid.

* Shardnet + Impaler - Gladiator net/spear combo. The nets let you prevent enemies from escaping.

* Hydra Gauntlets and Razorflails - The rules for these weren't super unusual, but the weapons were just aesthetically cool! Magic alien crystals that could grow instantly to give you crystal "claws". Sword whips!

* Soul Seeker Ammo - Splinter weapons made out of tortured wraithbone that homed in on targets like a needler from Halo.

* The Animus Vitae - Sort of a barbed wire grenade that fed the suffering of those it hurt back to the thrower.

* Kruellagh's Hand Tubes - Sort of like harlequin's kiss tubes that emerged from her wrists. Punch them into the target, then drain their life energy out like a mosquito to power Kruellagh up!

* Haywire Grenades - Theoretically these are just rolled in with the Grenades strat these days, but ugh. It's just not the same.

* Tormentor/Phantasm Grenade Launchers - Fear Gas Grenades.

Craftworlders
* Web of Skulls
* Sun Rifles for my hawkxarchs.
* Haywire grenades again.
* Ghostlight attacks for shadow spectres. The guns exist, but references to wombo-combo super laser don't.

Vortex grenades
Anti-Plant grenades
Rad grenades
and
HOVER BOARDS

5th Edition necron mindshackle scarabs singlehandedly broke the entire Codex, but they have to suffer for that ever since.
IIRC you had to make a leadership test with 3D6 and if you didn't pass, you punched yourself in the face. So, the more awesome the character was you threw at that Nec Lord, the better it was at clobbing itself to death.
So, they were quite terrible and they're still there, but their rules were never as close to their fluff anymore.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
5th Edition necron mindshackle scarabs singlehandedly broke the entire Codex, but they have to suffer for that ever since.
IIRC you had to make a leadership test with 3D6 and if you didn't pass, you punched yourself in the face. So, the more awesome the character was you threw at that Nec Lord, the better it was at clobbing itself to death.
So, they were quite terrible and they're still there, but their rules were never as close to their fluff anymore.

Worse/Better than that: I don't think you punched your*self* in the face, you punched your *friends* in the face. You basically turned traitor for a turn and made melee attacks against your own squad.

Not lost in a strict sense, but I miss Guard characters being able to take more exotic weapons like stormbolters and combi-weapons.