Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: T’au Railgun Thoughts
While the Railgun’s new rules seems pretty spicy, I don’t think it’s as “broken” as everyone wants it to be.
The Railgun is designed to wreck smallish vehicles and be a big shot threat – but 40k is full of these type of guns. They might not scatter up to as much damage as this one – but there is a still a lot of damage potential floating around.
Hello Splash Damage
I do like it and while the gun is full of “non interaction” rules it still does some interesting things that could flow into other weapons if they wanted too. The biggest rule that seems interesting is the ability for the gun to kill up to 4 basic 1 wound troop options without burning a CP. When was the last time we had a big laser beam that hit, murdered one of your models and then the splash damage wrecked their friends. This is extremely interesting to me as it is something that could make say a Lascannon a special thing if it did something like 3+d3 and then 2 Mortal wounds on top. This is an example of splash damage without having to give something blast and an interesting way to make something extremely deadly.
Necron & Marine Envy
How much would this rock for some Necron guns? That whole Doomsday Ark could now have some kind of crazy lazer blast that hit really well and wrecked your guys? How about just some Marine Primaris Laser Cannons. Now what I don’t like about this gun is the whole – ignoring anything you have to stop it for the most part and I hit most of the time. This is where I get sad as you are forcing the player to basically reroll into a 1 to create a “miss”. I remember a game where a Vindicare missed his shot. Nothing is more disheartening to know someone burned some CP, wasted some points, and then didn’t even get to a damage step.
Hammerheads?
Now as the Hammerhead seems powerful the scary thing to think about is if the Broadsides get something similar. I doubt they will as it will be some kind of smaller damage option – maybe it does do the Mortal wound thing but it can’t be nearly as powerful. Or it can be as GW wants to see non missile daddy Broadsides on the table top. Part of me thinks why not as it is powerful but the game has moved away from big center pieces and instead tries to go as MSU as you can. Nothing like wasting a giant super rail gun to kill a few Orks.
Where Are the T’au Empire Headed?
Is this lazy rules writing? Are we getting to the stage of guns getting crazier and crazier to try and bring some of the meaner elements in line? Is this thing going to be crazy expensive or will 4 actually be worth it? Do all the Tau players need to dust those models off and get ready to cackle as they bring out their custom Tau dice? Will Siegler play 4 of them?
It’s an interesting thought as we just look at Tau in a very small space and not seeing all the other rules. We can expect the army to shift how they play, clean up their style, and most likely have something that forces your play style to change during the game. I am pretty sure they will try to hit the Drone thing hard again as its something they don’t want to nearly see as much and would rather have a ton of suits – especially the new ones they made last time. I am hoping to see a more Fish and Fury type of thing instead of the wave of Roombas rolling across the battlefield.
Big Game Hunter
Anyway – the T’au Railgun is good but I don’t think it is going to warp the meta. It does kill big things so those big Knights that are roaming around might be scared to come back out again. I don’t think it shifts the current “max” War Dog meta for them. I am sure the Dreadknights are scared a bit as getting hit by a Rail bullet in the chest has got to be a not so nice experience.
For the Greater Good!
