Part two – Guns and swords

Two things to look at today, one is how melee weapons work and the other is worked out ranged combat.

We have developed some basic statlines for models from our previous post, and here they are.


Speed
MAT
RAT
ST
Def
Arm
LD
Hits
Special
Guard
5
5
5
5
13
15
7
1

Marine
5
6
6
6
13
18
8
1
Tough, Armoured
Terminator
5
7
6
7
13
20
9
5
Tough, Armoured, Reflector field

Let’s keep these stats in mind when calculating relevant weapon strengths and special abilities as we want survivability to be comparable, and we want the weapons to “feel right”. Now they won’t translate over perfectly, but that’s ok, as long as they “feel right” it works for me.

Close Combat Weapons – Guns for show, knives for a pro

Most close combat weapons in WM range from strength 2 for a small knife, through to strength 8 for a giant two handed magical axe of doom.  Strength 5-6 seems normal for a standard dedicated melee weapon.  It’s also worth noting that every nearly figure has a close combat weapon of some type, even if it’s a boot knife for a guardsman.

There are also a lot of “special abilities” we can use, like grievous wounds (ignores tough), Weapon master (additional damage), Armour piercing (halves armour), Critical brutal (extra damage on critical hits) and many others.

So, let’s throw together a table of sample melee weapons, we will ignore pistols for now and do them later.

Weapon
Strength
Special abilities
Boot knife/bayonet (Guard)
3
None
Combat Knife (Marine)
4
None
Chainsword
5
Reach
Power Sword
4
Weapon Master, Reach
Power Fist
6
Armour Piercing, Cumbersome (can only attack with this weapon)
Thunder Hammer
6
Armour Piercing, Critical Knockdown, Cumbersome
Lightning Claws
4
Weapon Master, Grievous wounds
Rending claw
5
Critical Brutal
Choppa
4

Big Choppa
6


Ok, some basic ideas there. A guard with a knife has a very small change of killing a marine without a charge, and no chance against a terminator. I’m fine with that. Weapon master for power weapons is probably a better way of representing how good they are, overgiving them pure “armour cracking”. It means they are great weapons, and very good at chopping up power armour infantry. But not quite as brutal against very heavily armoured targets.

Power fists and Thunder hammers need something to represent the “go last” rule in 40k. 
Cumbersome works, it takes away their pistol attack after the charge round, reducing overall attack power. But when they do hit, things go smoosh.  A regular marine has zero chance of surviving a direct power fist hit, but as most marine models already have 2 attacks in 40k, and have given one up in this system, so that sounds fair to me.


Ranged weapons – Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight

First of all, the big elephant in the room is range. Very few weapons in WM have a range of over 15”, most basic infantry weapons in 40k have 24” range.

My solution is to keep the 40k weapons at their current maximum ranges. A lascannon should be able to hit something across the table. The change will be in introducing range bands.

We will break most ranged weapons ranges into 3 bands, short, medium and long. At short range, there is no RAT penalty, at medium it becomes -2 and at long range it is -4. Standard guns like lasguns and Bolters will only have short and medium ranges, we will reserve long range for heavy support type weapons.

Now with higher defences and cover out there, you will be unlikely to snipe out a guardsman in cover at max range with your lascannon. But you will probably still hit a tank out in the open. Standing still and aiming will still give you the normal +2 to hit which will mitigate some of this.

Assuming a tank will be Def 10, a guardsmen aiming at long range with a lascannon will hit on 7+ on 2d6. About as often as they hit anything now. The same shot against a guardsman in the open would be 10+ and against a guard in cover, a natural 12.

The basic weapon strength will be 7+40k weapon strength. This will make the weapons slightly more deadly than 40k, but you are hitting less often so it should work out.

Weapon categories

Pistol – Can be used in close combat and with other melee weapons, does not get charging bonus on damage.
Rapid fire – Can be fired twice in one activation, at -2 Rat for both shots. It becomes a tactical decision to fire twice rapidly, or once for accuracy. I quite like this idea.
Heavy – Cannot move and fire weapon, but can rotate on the spot (I dislike that rule in WM and I think a man portable lascannon should be able to turn and still be accurate)
Assault – Can use the “assault” rule and fire at its charge target before melee.
Standard –Functions like a normal gun in WM, some “assault” weapons in 40k would be broken in WM rules if you could charge with them. Flamers to be precise.

Weapon
Class
Short
Medium
Long
Strength
Specials
Lasgun
Rapid
12
24
-
10

Bolter
Rapid
12
24
-
11

Bolt Pistol
Pistol
6
12
-
11

Heavy Bolter
Heavy
12
24
36
12
Autofire (3)
Flamer
Standard
Sp8
-
-
11

Heavy Flamer
Standard
Sp10
-
-
12

Plasma Pistol
Pistol
6
12
-
14
Critical “Get’s hot”, Grievous Wounds
Plasma Gun
Rapid
12
24
-
14
Critical “Get’s hot”, Grievous Wounds
Heavy Plasma
Heavy
12
24
36
14
Critical “Get’s hot”, Grievous Wounds
Lascannon
Heavy
12
24
48
15
Anti-tank
Autocannon
Heavy
12
24
48
14
Autofire (2)
Assault Cannon
Heavy
12
24
-
13
Autofire (4), Critical Brutal
Melta Gun
Assault
6
12
-
11
Armour Piercing, Critical damage at short range
Multi Melta
Heavy
12
24
-
11
Armour Piercing, Critical damage at short range
Missile (frag)
Heavy
12
24
48
12
Blast 4”
Missile (Krak)
Heavy
12
24
48
10
Armour Piercing

  • Get’s hot works as a critical effect, when you roll a double on your to hit roll, roll damage at strength 11 instead of the weapons strength against yourself. 
  • Autofire means how many shots you get from one activation. All ranged weapons, unless mentioned otherwise can be activated only once.
  • Anti-tank is a new special rule that gives the weapon +2 to hit and +2 damage against vehicles.





Conclusion


A handful of special rules added in, but not much.  Next up I’ll be looking at building hero characters and then doing a “bare bones” space marine list, without vehicles to start playtesting.