Volkite weapons incoming

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Sorry, yes, 8. But, yeah, 'great' in theory, but I just don't rate them. Not at 20 points.

I think, and I haven't done the maths, that I would get more value out of the Volkite than a laser.

[Noserenda]

Urgh yeah Warhound lasers are bad, i find the sniper build wastes most of the warhounds strengths. Still, i have built one for Ibn Faruk only because as a Titan of Legend he has some other advantages so i guess ill see how that works out once i get him finished.

[Sherrypie]

Sorry, yes, 8. But, yeah, 'great' in theory, but I just don't rate them. Not at 20 points.

I think, and I haven't done the maths, that I would get more value out of the Volkite than a laser.

You wouldn't, because the Volkite is simply bad in every scenario. The laser's range allows for tactical trickery, like Coordinated strikes across the table with wide ranging squadrons and laser weapon upgrades. I've had interesting results with Power Transfer for reliable shield work from a safe-ish position, though it's better to let the forward ranging VMB do the shields in and then start punching in the armour. While plasma is better in raw armour penetration and VMB in stripping, the laser has its niche in the range versatility because your threat range is effectively the whole table when needed. Volkite in comparison can only work in situations where you'd rather have the VMB, but because it's rules are bad, it doesn't have a scenario in that area where you'd go "glad I've got this instead of other guns". The Str 5 over 4 is meaningless since neither can really do squat against armour without bonuses and there's no extra hits on unshielded targets. With lasers, you'd at least be starting from proper Str 8 that can then easily turn into reliable Devastating hits with a couple of Armour roll bonuses.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

But you haven't accounted for some key advantages of the Volkite. A) they don't tax the reactor on a chassis which hates heat. B) they throw more dice (even if only one more on armour) and C) they look cooler than lasers.

Even with the lower strength, I reckon I'll get more utility out of one than a laser. Because I don't like playing long bowls with Warhounds, it's doesn't suit their strengths, which is using their speed for flanking round, getting in close, picking up flank or rear bonuses, and as is likely in my style, Ferrox bonus. They will be consistently better at lowering shields.

 

And here's another advantage over lasers, and it's quite psychological.

I find that if my opponent has to take two 4+ saves, they won't push for shields. It's not worth it. Because the re-roll is less likely to pay off.

Whereas, if my opponent has to take 5 3+ saves, they're more likely to chance their reactor for the re-rolls. So not only am I taxing shields, I'm heating up their titans.

 

Of course, the Vulcan does all of those things better, for cheaper, but I only have a finite number of VMBs, and don't want to be That Guy purely running Vulcan Plasma.

[Mandragola]

The thing about the small volkites is that actually they do work. They do the same job as a VMB, only not as well. They will actually strip shields and finish off damaged titans, but not as well as a VMB would. Sticking one on a titan isn't as good as it could be but it's not useless.

[schoon]

Amusingly, the Mournival Events' homebrew FAQ straight up makes Volkites' Voidbreaker proc on every hit. Even then I'd be somewhat wary of using them beyond rule of cool purposes, especially with those price points. Sheesh.

Thank-you for this little gem, Sherrypie! Nice to have a bunch of common sense rulings accumulated in one place!

 

(For others interested in getting this, it's in the Files section of the Mournival FB page.)

[Mandragola]

There's a problem with this. It would be fine for a volkite weapon to cause three shield saves per hit but it absolutely would not be ok for an Atarus apoc launcher to do so.

 

If I had to come up with a fix for volkites it would be to make them always fire beam without draining. That would make them an interesting different option and make them be their own thing, rather than just a bad version of the existing VMB.

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

I still think extending their range to 32" to match their greater range compared to bolt weapons in 30k and giving them native Shieldbane would be an easy fix, giving them a nice niche as a shield stripper between the short ranged vulkans and long range apocs.

[LameBeard]

So I did some rough maths. Given 3+ BS at 18” say, assuming -1 on a volkite and no modifier on a mega bolter, attacking a Titan with void shields.

 

Volkite: average (mean) hits of 3.25 and median 3.5

 

Vulcan Mega Bolter: average (mean) hits of 4.77

 

Haven’t worked out median of VMB because of the complexities of rapid, but obviously the spread is greater, 0 - 12 technically possible, whereas Volkite can only be 0, 3, 4 or 5.

 

If we treat Voidbreaker as 2 extra hits against shields for each separate dice that hits, it increases the mean and median to 4.5. So immediately on a par with VMB as a shield stripper but maybe this goes too far because I still think S5 could be more useful than S4 elsewhere. Not done any maths on that yet though, just based on not seeing any 10s in Titan damage tables.

Edited June 21, 2021 by LameBeard

[Sherrypie]

There's a problem with this. It would be fine for a volkite weapon to cause three shield saves per hit but it absolutely would not be ok for an Atarus apoc launcher to do so.

 

If I had to come up with a fix for volkites it would be to make them always fire beam without draining. That would make them an interesting different option and make them be their own thing, rather than just a bad version of the existing VMB.

Like I said, their errata made Volkites proc on every hit, not Voidbreakers in general.