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Blasts use to be good in the past but its common knowledge that in 7ed blasts are weak. They don't do any enough damage to single model units like vehicles (who now want to get chipped out by multi shot weapons to deal with hull points) or MCs (who are inherently strong and have plenty of wounds). And while large blasts are pretty effective against infantry still, small blasts just don't get enough hits and is part of the reason why weapons like Plasma Cannons are now considered poor weapon choices. I have a simple fix though. Keep the current blasts rules the same but I want to add one rule

Direct Hit: .When determining the number of hits a blasts gets against a unit, if the center of the blast template is over a model you get +1 additional hit against that unit.

This should help compensate for all the problems blasts have. Against single model units you can now get 2 hits for a blast allowing you to actually deal significant hull point damage to vehicles and wounds to MCs. And this compensates for the lack of hits small blasts get which is normally only ~2 and makes it ~3 hits a 50% increase in hits. But when blasts already were doing good damage such as large blasts against infantry and you were already getting 4-5 hits getting plus 1 hit isn't a significant bonus going only to 5-6 hits which is only a 20% increase in hits.

What do you guys think?

Seems good to me. The only blasts I bother using are high strength low AP ones, as any mid strength mid AP blasts can be outdone by most standard shooting. The only slight problem I can see is that standard vehicles are already pretty flimsy, and this doesn't help that. Though I guess that would be an issue with the vehicle rules, not the blast rules.

Or, make it so that unit takes a -1 to their cover save per blast shot that hits it to represent the cover being blown apart until the majority of the models in that unit move. This won't work with some blasts, like shadow weavers for Eldar, so could probably make it a special rule.

I think they should restrict coherency to 1" or less instead of 2" apart, cuz that's the main reason blast sucks.

The blast templates were imported over from Fantasy, where models would stand base to base. once you spread them apart, it ends up making ass of things, especially when the distance between two regular models is bigger than the blast template itself.

Another thing is that it shouldn't have to be centered on a model. You should just be able to choose a spot within range and place it there. It's much easier to clip three models by centering over empty space rather than centering over a single model, and in the latter case you actually wish you got an arrow.

Anything that makes blasts better makes the IA better.

i think a better one would be that if you score a direct hit with a blast weapon you suffer a staggering blow and cant move during your movement phase if your unit takes any wounds or hull damage. if target unit is a transport they can still disembark

Blasts are problematic in general.

They're a weapon that works far better when you have multiple blasts in the same unit, and your enemy is kind enough to cluster multiple models together. However, there are three main occurrences where you'll see models super-clustered up.

1) After emergency-disembarking from a transport, or being placed in the crater of an exploded vehicle.
2) After being tank-shocked.
3) After assaulting a vehicle (you cannot consolidate against those).

However, only the first reason truly matters in most cases (and mass-meched armies are nowhere as popular as they were during the height of 5th ed), because other than the Gladius Strike Force, there aren't too many armies out there that bring a critical mass of tanks that would make Tank Shock a relevant factor, and Assault is generally the domain of "small fast elite" units, like Canoptek Harvest Wraiths, Thundercav, or so.

In the meantime, the rules for scattering blasts mean that all you're really doing by bringing massed blast weapons is slowing your own turn down.

Honestly, I would just make it so that Blast weapons are a flat to-hit roll, and if you "miss", you flip the marker over based on the scatter die (using the 'arrow' in case of a hit). Only do the "2d6 scatter" for barrages or so.

 ionusx wrote:
i think a better one would be that if you score a direct hit with a blast weapon you suffer a staggering blow and cant move during your movement phase if your unit takes any wounds or hull damage. if target unit is a transport they can still disembark

Could just add Strikedown, it's an existing special rule that afaik is only on melee weapons, where it's utterly useless.

How about allowing blasts to fire snap shots?
The rule preventing them is arbitrary and unnecessary; as there is already a mechanism for reducing the accuracy of blasts (the BS1 penalty) it seems silly to just drop a wall there saying no-one ever threw a frag grenade at a charging enemy, or whatever. Maybe also say that "hit" faces don't count (use the little arrow)?

Similarly, blasts should be able to hit Flyers. If you must have a rule about how flyers and blasts interact, how about this: flyers can't be hit by blasts unless they are specifically targeted at flyers, in which case only flyers can be hit by such blasts.

I think that there should be a special rule, or an upgrade for vehicles called "Target Lock". When using a blast weapon (missile, bomb, etc) only scatter d6. Shows a bit more accuracy from the vehicle.

Maybe make it so small blasts only need to roll to hit (no direction dice) flyers and do 1 hit. Large blast can do d3 hits. Give flyers the option of jinking those shots, to show maneuverability.

I'm thinking of the Razorwing Infantry Fighter... I mean Jetfighter, in particular. Dark Eldar have plenty of anti-infantry. Why not make the Jetfighter more anti-air capable?

 MagicJuggler wrote:


Honestly, I would just make it so that Blast weapons are a flat to-hit roll, and if you "miss", you flip the marker over based on the scatter die (using the 'arrow' in case of a hit). Only do the "2d6 scatter" for barrages or so.

I like this, while my Kustom Mega Kannon shot going Mork knows where makes some sense (it is artillery after all) a Plasma Cannon shot going 9 inches the complete opposite direction does not. Grenade Launchers and Rocket Launchers are actually fairly accurate.

Im mean, for Gorks sake, the saying is "Horseshoes and Hand Grenades"

There's a very simple fix; allow blasts to be centred over any spot so long as it's at least partially over a model in the target unit.

Then you're hitting way more models, all the time. It's the whole reason why Barrage blasts are far more effective - even with 2" spread, if you can hit the point inbetween models you're often hitting 3 or more!