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Blast is an additional weapon type, used in conjunction with the other types, e.g. Heavy Blast 6, Assault Blast 3

Remove random shot amounts.

Blast: A Blast weapon can inflict at most 1 wound per model in the target unit.

So if you fire a Blast 6 weapon at a single model unit, you roll 6 attacks to hit. You hit with 4, you make 4 rolls to wound and pass 3 of them. Since it's only 1 model in the target unit, you cause only 1 wound that is allocated and saved.
Likewise, if you fire a Blast 6 weapon at a 10 model unit, you roll 6 attacks to hit. You hit with 4, you make 4 rolls to wound and pass 3 of them. As there are 10 models in the unit, you allocate 3 wounds.

So you fire at full effectiveness at large units, but are more likely to wound small model count units but won't do as much damage to them.

For weapons that are meant to have an anti-tank role (and thus more likely to be firing at single model vehicles), they can have a special ability stating "Increase the maximum number of wounds this weapon can inflict by 2 when targeting a VEHICLE or MONSTER unit."

Just re-read the post. Misread it when I scanned it at work. I like this idea.

 FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
Just re-read the post. Misread it when I scanned it at work. I like this idea.

I am curious now as to what your initial criticism was.

Does one still roll for damage on random damage weapons? I'm guessing by wounds you mean 'unsaved wounding hits'.

It certainly makes it a bit less swingy on things like vehicles, though it does mean that the maximum damage potential of many blast weapons is reduced against vehicles.

One thing that might make it a bit weird is against units of VEHICLEs (like bikers or sentinels): do I get 1 wound(ing hit) potential per model, and just add 2 - so max potential of 5 wounding hits on a unit of 3 bikers/sentinels for example?

Might need exceptions for some things, like the Deathstrike becomes terrible against vehicles under these conditions, and I'm sure there are others that fare similarly.

 Kcalehc wrote:
Does one still roll for damage on random damage weapons? I'm guessing by wounds you mean 'unsaved wounding hits'.

It certainly makes it a bit less swingy on things like vehicles, though it does mean that the maximum damage potential of many blast weapons is reduced against vehicles.

One thing that might make it a bit weird is against units of VEHICLEs (like bikers or sentinels): do I get 1 wound(ing hit) potential per model, and just add 2 - so max potential of 5 wounding hits on a unit of 3 bikers/sentinels for example?

Might need exceptions for some things, like the Deathstrike becomes terrible against vehicles under these conditions, and I'm sure there are others that fare similarly.

In an ideal world damage would also be fixed, but baby steps. And yes, it refers to unsaved wounds, not wounds inflicted due to damage (great job GW overloading that word, why can't it be a "to Injure" roll?).

Bikers aren't vehicles, so you'd get a unit size wound cap as normal. For things like a unit of 5 Sentinels, you'd get a max of 5 wounds as 3+2=5. I see this as a trade-off as you're more likely to get those 5 wounds, but you'll do a little less damage over-all, which I mean is that a bad thing to make normally unusable vehicles due to their fragility usable again?

Don't Deathstrike not even roll to wound normally and just cause aoe mortal wounds?

 BaconCatBug wrote:

 FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
Just re-read the post. Misread it when I scanned it at work. I like this idea.

I am curious now as to what your initial criticism was.

My initial problem was that I misread and thought the damage still adhered to how many models were in the targeted unit, which I think is very dumb. How can I do less damage firing a storm shard mortar at a group of 3 bulgryns than a group of 15 boys. The new blast rules defy logic to me. I know that real world/not vs table top, but take Allarus launchers. When would you ever shoot those at a group of weak chaff, instead of targeting a HW or character model, which does not exist in 6+ model units, except for Weirdvane Psykers? Makes zero sense to wast heavy blast weapons on chaff.

I like your thinking that underpins attacking larger model count units and think it's a nice way of representing blast on the table.

I don't quite get how you'd square the low shot count versus single targets, especially when you get to really big guns like the 3d6 hellhammer cannon.

Reading it (correct me if I'm wrong) that would be 1 wound plus 2 from the special rule assuming it's a VEHICLE or a MONSTER, so a max of 3 wounds going through. Seems a bit on the low side. Wouldn't it possibly be better to have a non-blast ammo profile, a bit like how the Macharius Vanquisher cannon has two ammo options?

Yeah, it's the difference between a Shadow sword and a Baneblade. a baneblade SHOULD be able to wipe a squad of infantry off the table in a single shot of it's main gun, but only damage a large tank or super heavy.

A Shadowsword should only kill a few of a squad of guard, but be able to one shot or at least severely cripple a super heavy/monstrous creature.

Steiner wrote:
I like your thinking that underpins attacking larger model count units and think it's a nice way of representing blast on the table.

I don't quite get how you'd square the low shot count versus single targets, especially when you get to really big guns like the 3d6 hellhammer cannon.

Reading it (correct me if I'm wrong) that would be 1 wound plus 2 from the special rule assuming it's a VEHICLE or a MONSTER, so a max of 3 wounds going through. Seems a bit on the low side. Wouldn't it possibly be better to have a non-blast ammo profile, a bit like how the Macharius Vanquisher cannon has two ammo options?

The point was also to tone down the maximum damage potential in exchange for more consistent wounding. Would instead doubling the damage dice on anti-vehicle weapons work? After all, they are going to be overkilling any non-VEHICLE or non-MONSTER model anyway.

I like the idea - it's a smooth way of reflecting that big blasts are likely to hurt a unit, but are unlikely to kill someone twice!

Implimenting this would also allow tank-killers to have higher damage profiles - vanquishers (IIRC, I think they're the leman russ anti-tank guns that currently suck) could have 5D3 damage with this, and not over-overkill if they get all their hits and wounds on a single model. However, if they shoot multi-wound infantry, they kill it - so fixed 3 shots.

if the damage profiles were increased, then I'd drop the +2 vs vehicles and monsters.

It would be nice to inflict big damage from a single hit, makes the big guns actually feel big.

Yeah, I think upping the damage would be a nice alternative. Some Bloke put my agreement better than I would have