Rules in the Age of Darkness: Investigating the new weapon stats

There are some seriously dangerous weapons on the battlefields of the Age of Darkness. Lethal wonders of mankind's golden age have been unearthed, and as the Imperium has only just begun its slow slide into inexorable entropy, some of them still work properly!

The new edition of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy has given every weapon in the game a new profile, incorporating new stats and abilities. Many of these will look very familiar,* but there is more granularity and utility on the more exotic weapons, while ranged weapons and melee weapons have slightly different stats. Let's take a look.

Bolt weapons are the perfect example of how the new weapon profiles function on a familiar ranged weapon. As you can see, weapons now have five stats:

• Range (R): Measured in inches as always

• Firepower (FP): How many shots a gun gets per activation

• Ranged Strength (RS): This stat used to be called Strength (S). This is a subtle change that allows special rules to apply modifiers according to source

• Armour Penetration (AP): This works as it did before. For those who are unfamiliar, any unit whose armour save is equal to or worse than a weapon’s AP won’t get a save. A bolter, for instance, will tear through Tech-thralls, but Space Marines retain their 3+ save.

• Damage (D): This is a new stat for Age of Darkness which should be familiar to players of other Warhammer systems. It shows how many Wounds or Hull Points it strips from its target.

Bolters now always have two shots, rather than only when within half range. This makes Tactical Squads a much more useful mid-ranged threat, especially as the Fury of the Legion rule still exists – a squad of 20 Astartes can fire 60 shots across the battlefield.

Heavy Bolters meanwhile benefit from a new rule: Heavy (FP). The Heavy rule grants a weapon a bonus to another stat if the bearer hasn’t moved – in this instance, it’s Firepower. So a Space Marine who stands and shoots with a Heavy Bolter gets four shots, or three when he’s moved.

Other Heavy weapons can receive bonuses to other stats. A lascannon fires no faster, but a stationary operator is able to be more precise, so it has Heavy (D). A stationary Legionary armed with a Lascannon can potentially kill a Terminator with each shot – but not a Saturnine Terminator, who has three wounds.

Meltaguns are as devastating as ever, and worse at close range. Melta (6) grants Armourbane within 6” and doubles damage to a mighty six – enough to pop a Deredeo Dreadnought or a Predator Tank in a single hit.

Not every target will die so easily. Most tanks have more Hull Points than they did in the last edition, to compensate for the fact that some guns are better at causing damage, while some units – Primarchs in particular – have Eternal Warrior (X), reducing the number of wounds they take for each hit.

We of course need to look at disintegrator weapons, as you’re about to see far more of these in battles, thanks to the Saturnine boxed set.

These are high-risk, high-reward weapons. Overload (1) means that any rolls of one to hit target your own squad! But in return you get a gun that punches right through enemy power armour with enough force to stop a Veteran Legionary in his tracks.

Melee weapons also have new stats.  Like ranged weapons, they also have Armour Penetration (AP) and damage (D), but they also have three stats that modify the wielders’ base stats:

• Initiative Modifier (IM): Shows how quick to strike a weapon is. The heavier a weapon, the slower it makes you in combat

• Attacks Modifier (AM): Some especially quick or paired weapons grant additional strikes

• Strength Modifier (SM): Shows how much this weapon bolsters the strength of the wielder, and how hard it hits

Here’s a look at how that works on the classic power weapon lineup:

There are some tough choices in terms of the best way to kit out your squads and characters – are you aiming to strike first and fastest? Or risk going second, hitting with more force?

Not every model has a fancy sword, of course, but everyone brings a basic weapon, so no one has to miss out on the “fun” of combat.

There are hundreds of weapons in the Age of Darkness. Full stats for each army can be found in their Liber book, most of which will be released alongside the Saturnine boxed set.

That’s it from the Horus Heresy this week, but check back on Monday for one of the most fun rules revisions of the new edition – the Challenge step. You’ve never seen a more narratively satisfying addition to combat in Warhammer…

* For instance, a Tactical Space Marine firing a basic bolter is pretty much the same as it has ever been: roll a 3, roll a 4, and hope they roll a 2…