Just to be clear I think certain weapons like Chain Rifles/Colts etc are completely fine because the units that carry those often don't have any long range options, they also don't have the choice to pick between a face to face or auto hits. However what I really see as an issue is that every shotgun is pretty much a better DTW than the DT only weapons (exception might be the Flamethrowers) because shotguns are always burst two in active turn. When lowering the shotgun DT damage the player who uses them would have to choose : face to face rolls with +6 on a high priority target or auto hit (possibly more troopers) with lower damage.
Changing the damage in weapons is one of those design levers that CB have frustratingly just avoided for most of the games history.
I'd rather make the unit perform the action that denies cover. Most template weapons are 1 point, and box so far above that price point that they can afford to be less efficient at it. A similar argument exists for cheap warbands in general - make their position matter more and its harder to 'cash them in' which is fine when they are so effective for their cost. Regarding the latter, this is true on models like warbands who often have no great alternative attack. But many template users are just using the template for fork ARO where the dodge tradeoff is much reduced. Reducing the damage in these cases is one way to reduce the effectiveness of this type of template user.
My experience has been that it is more a function of the unit's total cost than the cost of the weapon. A cost free Nanopulser is seldom the best choice on an expensive HI with a Multi Rifle because that is not a unit that you want to trade with.
I think it also bears mentioning that DTWs are one of those weapons that scale harder with fireteam bonuses, particularly in ARO. It makes attack fireteams much harder because of how much more likely you are to straight up lose an attacker (who for vanilla players is almost always unsupported) while there's a damn good chance the fireteam guy may have a medic/doctor/engineer in his link that can pick him straight back up. In some of my IA links the only person without a DTW is the Paramedic.
Yes, but the flip side is that fireteams are also the primary victims of DTWs (double whammy if it is a fireteam of single wound units relying on mimetism to win FTF). I think this is a primary reason many people like DTWs as a concept, that they allow them to use very cheap units to "punch up" against not only one expensive brawler, but several. So even if there is a paramedic to (hopefully) pick up the pieces, you still wreck their fireteam and grind them to a halt for a short while. That's a good trade for a 5-point monk or a 4-point Auxbot. Maybe less good if you used Kusanagi to make this trade.
I mean yeah naturally any shitty warband doesn't care they're still going hell for leather, it's those elite 1W guys, or things like Jayth that get cucked harder by this.
Am I hallucinating when I recall that in some past editions only flame weapons automatically ignored cover? And every other template weapon checked cover from the blast focus? I feel that going back to this approach would help reward DTWs for properly maneuvering to set up a no-cover shot and help limit their ability to bully 1W medium infantry in partial cover. In my mind, this is both what makes 1W elite medium infantry useless and also dramatically increases the value of cheap warbands since they can attack head on instead of needing to spend orders to setup.
This is the best suggestion and just have it apply to everyone under the template. And then the AP version on BSGs only targets one person and applies mods. I think regular DTWs shouldnt be auto hits but should turn the shots into normal rolls like Berserk for both players adding a plus 6 to BS on the roll against everyone under the template and ignoring mods. So BS 10 is rolling on 16s while a BS14 pays so much for their high BS they actually do get the autohit. This will limit the overuse of cheap DTWs and it will make F2F rolls out of Dodge against DTWs...
If we treat templates like berserk, they can no longer be dodged. That would push the trading power of warbands way up, especially with a +6 MOD.
I made a slight mistake. I believe Dodging them should be allowed but shooting at them should be normal rolls. It would have to be written as an exception. I also believe it doesnt make sense that someone cannot Dodge a wild haymaker so officially I would like CB to make Dodging a F2F roll against Berserk.
