Weapons in 8th Edition

All right, as promised, here is the scoop on Warhammer 40,000 weapons for 8th Edition. You can read the original Warhammer Community post here.

One thing that stands out. Destroyer Weapons no longer exist. Strength D no longer exists. Hooray. No more losing my Stormsword or Shadowsword to a stupid roll of 6 from that damned Eldar Wraithknight's Strength D cannon. Instead, we have weapons that are more powerful than Strength 10 and can deal multiple wounds per hit, so they will scale accordingly instead of just losing 6+D6 wounds with no saves allowed.



An addition to the weapons' profile is damage. Apparently high strength weapons such as lascannons now deal multiple wounds to a single model. The lascannon, for example, can dish out D6 wounds, potentially ripping off a chunk of wounds from that vehicle. Obviously it'll be overkill against an infantry model, and no, the multiple wounds is for a single model, so they will not spill over in a 10-men squad or something.

Templates no longer exist. So my flamers automatically hits, which mean it deals D6 hits. Unlike the lascannon, it deals one wound oer hit. So yeah. It's only Strength 4, though, so it's best used against Guardsmen, Orks and blobs. Boltguns have the same strength and AP, and does only 1 wound per hit, but don't forget you still have rapid fire for it. I don't know if flamers still ignore cover, because with templates gone and no indication that it ignores cover, well...I just don't know. However, flamers are still more powerful against blobs than lasguns. Yay.



Another huge change is the AP value. Now, it's no longer a binary system, where, hey I have AP3 and therefore I can punch through your 3+ armor save or you ge 3+ armor save because my weapon is AP4 and above. Rather, AP seems to be a modifier. For example, bolter and flamer both have 0 AP while lascannon has -3 AP. What does that mean? Okay. Say your typical Space Marine has an armor save of 3+. What happens is that you modify that armor save with the AP. My flamer or boltgun has 0 AP, so you stick to rolling 3+ for your armor save. However, if I used a lascannon, your armor save will be modified to 6+ because of the lascannon's AP of -3.

With me so far?



Anyway, my Company Command Squad are all equipped with flamers, so I'll be dishing out 4 D6 assault hits that hit automatically. Hell yeah. As Warhammer Community says, the flamer will be the go-to weapon for infantry squads. Let the galaxy burn!

Now let me give you an example of how the weapons work. Say there's a Dreadnought with Toughness 7 and 3+ armor save charging my Leman Russ tank. I fire a lascannon at him. With Strength 9, I can probably wound him on a 2+. I roll a 2, and hey presto! He gets wounded! However, he has an armor save, so he rolls 3+. With the AP 3- modifier of the lascannon, his armor save turns to 6+, so if he fails that armor save. I don't know how cover saves are going to work, so we're assuming he's in the open here. Anyway, after we confirm that he's hit and wounded, I roll D6 to see how many wounds that hit causes. I roll a 6, so I actually deal 6 wounds to him straight. However, with the new system, the Dreadnought now has 8 wounds, so he won't die from that. He also won't lose a weapon or becomes stunned because the vehicle damage table is removed.

According to Hudson (thank you!), there is a new damage table for Monstrous Creatures and Walkers, so the more wounds they have taken, their movement or ballistic skill will be affected. Something to keep in mind!

Makes sense?



On the other hand, not only would I need to roll a 4+ to wound a Terminator with a flamer, he still has his 2+ armor save that is not modified by the flamer's AP 0. And he has 2 wounds, so even if he fails that one, well...yeah.

I suspect invulnerable and cover saves will be modifiers rather than saves taken by themselves, but we shall see. I don't know. We'll find out...soon. And I don't know how Instant Death will factor into this as well. Will a lascannon Instant Death a terminator with Toughness 4 because of his Strength 9, even if I roll a one? How will Instant Death work for this new mechanic? Do vehicles get Instant Death-ed, for example a Toughness 7 Dreadnought gets wrecked by a Strength 14 weapon? Hmm...



I guess we'll find out.

Tomorrow is movement, so I'll let you guys know when I see any movement.