Blast rules

[Greyspell]

Hi everyone,

 

I posted a bit of a rant on reddit about the new blast rules for 9th edition which turned into my own thoughts on how the rule could have been better but it hasn't gained much attention and I wanted some feedback on it. As this is about the new official rule but also my own I didn't know whether is should be in official or homegrown?

 

Am I the only one who thinks the rule is poorly thought out and written? Please correct me if I'm reading it all wrong.

 

The wording is "If a blast weapon targets a unit... ...it always makes a minimum of 3 attacks".

 

So a Wyvern has 4d6 shots on it's gun. Against a squad of 10 enemies it doesn't even benefit from the blast rule as it has a minimum amount of shots of 4. However, against 11+ enemies it makes 24 attacks automatically? That's a weird balance if you ask me.

 

A mortar team carries 3 individual mortar weapons so it's 3d6 but each one benefits from the rule. So, against 6-10 enemies it does a minimum of 9 shots - making the Wyvern look like a fool.

 

Funnily enough, vehicles like the LRBT won't suffer like the Wyvern as it fires 1d6 twice, so benefits from the rule on both shots.

 

Basically Xd6 weapons are punished by the new rule and a 2d6 weapon has around a 1% improvement against 6-10 targets but 71% against 11+ targets - that doesn't sit right with me.

 

I feel like a simpler solution would have been this:

 

Whenever rolling any d3 or d6 on a blast weapon, if the target is 6-10 models then increase the value of each die by 1.

 

Whenever rolling any d3 or d6 on a blast weapon, if the target is 11+ models then increase the value of each die by 2.

 

See the below table for average number of shots:

 

https://imgur.com/wcYmCPD

 

If this turns out slightly too powerful on high rolls then just state increase by 1 or 2 but to a maximum of 6.

However, I don't believe it will be too powerful as the highest shown (4d6) has a potential number of shots of 12-30 with an average of 22.

 

Even on something as powerful as the Wyvern which rerolls all failed wounds you would only average 6.875 dead orks.

Even if you rolled 4 6's for shots +8 for my version of the blast rule would only bag you 10 dead orks.

 

Other options are reroll the amount of shots, or double the amount of shots rounding up or down - though I do think the above idea is better.

Edited June 11, 2020 by Dam13n

[Phubar]

As always, you have to read the rule with its pourpose in mind.

I know that the wording could be interpreted in both ways (each die score a minimum of 3 or each attack scores a minimum of 3) but clearly the right one is the first.

So wiwerns score a minimum of 12.

 

Beware when you shoot the LR blast weapons with grinding advance ad the first attack could bring the total number of foes down and the second attack may have a different situation, so roll them subsequentially, not simultaniously.