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How do!

Calving off again, as whilst this absolutely needs rigorous discussion, it’s to the degree it may overwhelm the general 3rd Ed Weapons thread.

In short? Plasma, the once golden child of the underlying 3rd Ed 40K Rule Set and Marine Deleter Supreme is now…..a bit naff.

Like in 2nd Ed Heresy, it’s AP4 for the vast majority, and whilst we can soup up some S with Maximal Fire. But it’s Maximal Fire when we start risking our own dudes. But it’s Breaching, at least for Infantry Plasma is a piddling 6+ or 5+, depending on whether you went Maximal Fire.

But, Overload (X) should not be confused with Gets Hot!. They both fulfil a similar function, specifically hurting your own unit instead of the foe. But, and I think this is easily overlooked in these early days? It’s not as bad as Gets Hot!. Rather than simply inflicting a wound and bypassing saves? The unit is now counted as being hit by its own weapon. Which means, for the most part, it’s not going to kill its bearer as it still needs to wound, and provided the wound doesn’t Breach, your armour might see you through.

Other than that? At least the Infantry based Plasma weapon family might be the new Autocannon. Not quite one thing or the other stats wise, and so at Army Selection easily eclipsed by more specialised and even more flexible weapons.

As I’m starting to familiarise myself with the overall rules though, I do have a sneaking suspicion that Plasma (specifically Plasma Tactical Support) may have a sneaky new niche as Dreadnought Botherers, and Side Armour Status Inflictors. And yes I do mean niche. And getting my head round Overload (X) being less of a death sentence than Gets Hot! was is a serious part of my second thoughts here.

Being a standard FP2 (so two shots per model regardless) means they can still chuck a decent amount of pain down range.

But these are just my, Yet To Get A Game In thoughts. What are yours? And as ever in these early trying to figure it all out threads, extra Brownie Points if you’re attending with at least a single game of relevant weapon experience under your belt

It's an okay profile for pot-shots, for sure... but I fear the cost is a bit high (same as heavy flamer... I know which one I'd rather have) and the list building in HH isn't great for pot-shot weapons as you're using full units of the same. I'd take this plasma gun as a singleton special on a classic 40k Tactical Squad, not sure I want a squad of 10 guns that are just sort of okay against most things.

And the poor combi really doesn't deserve to be equally expensive for one shot per game.

Fair points.

But as with many things in these early days? I do worry if we’re assuming things somewhat unfairly.

I mean, against any non-Astartes (yes I know) heavy infantry? Plasma Guns are pretty decent. And even against Astartes, if you don’t whiff your to-hit roll, given a general scarcity of AP3? They may yet punch their weight due to S6.

It's been a while since I played 2.0, but I though gets hot was an auto wound with AP-?

So plasma would auto wound but there was always a save.

Now it rolls a wound roll and has a 1 in 3 chance to bypass armor.

For infantry I think that is worse. Strength 6+ wounds marines on 2's, while a third of the time ignoring armor.

It was an auto wound with the same ap as the gun. So for most people yeah it was effectively null, only guard and some Mech units had to be really scared when their gun overheated.

To my mind, yeah plasma is a bit weaker, kinda like buffed bolters. But then, most of the weapons have shifted around a fair bit in how they interact with things like tanks and elite infantry.

No instant death and much less artificer in a unit, combined with cover being potentially better, to say nothing about status affects. I'm still unsure what I look across the board and fear or scoff at.

I need to check specifics, but since it is resolved as a hit against your own unit, does the IH trait affect Overload?

It's resolved as a hit, but not as a shooting attack, so the Iron Hands trait doesn't come into play on their own overload hits.

I’m still not entirely what to make of it.

As a small arm, a Plasma Gun isn’t a bad weapon. Like a souped up Bolter with some chance to bypass infantry armour.

As I speculated earlier, that S6 isn’t terrible against many Side Armour ratings, and potent enough against Rear Armour. So maybe they’re a reasonable Jack of all Trades.

Yet….also 10 points a pop. Which is steep.