De-nerfing Infantry Blazers

[Daryk]

Back in the day, Blazer Rifles were awesome because they did regular Laser Rifle damage twice for one to-hit roll.  Inexplicably, AToW increased the Armor Penetration by one, and left the Base Damage the same.  Doing the math, the old school way isn't terribly unbalancing (in my estimation) so here's my take (with TW scale conversions for both the Blazer Rifle and Blazer Pistol):

Blazer Rifle
TL: D
Availablility/Legality: C-C-D/E
AP/BD: 4E/8
Range: 60/205/465/1100 (Standard Laser Rifle range)
Shots: 10 PPS
Cost: 2,190 C-Bills
Weight: 7 kg
TW Damage: 0.56
TW Range: 2/4/6 (Standard Laser Rifle range)

Doing the same thing to the Blazer Pistol yields:
TL: D
Availablility/Legality: C-C-D/E
AP/BD: 4E/6
Range: 15/35/80/225 (Standard Laser Pistol range)
Shots: 4 PPS
Cost: 3,000 C-Bills
Weight:  2 kg
TW Damage: 0.42
TW Range: 1/2/3 (Standard Laser Pistol range)

[Daryk]

After going over the weapons in Shrapnel #9, these aren't even remotely unbalancing.  8)

[Grand_dm]

Looks good to me.

[Daryk]

Thanks for the feedback!  :thumbsup:

[Grand_dm]

Thanks for the feedback!  :thumbsup:

I'm a big blazer fan.  I think most Shrapnel issues including firearms have been a little eye opening.

[Daryk]

Quite!  I've been doing threads on them when they come out (to convert them to TW scale).

[pokefan548]

While blazers were nerfed in terms of raw damage, I do feel I ought to mention that the current blazer rifle stats allow it to get a +2 to Secondary Hit Location rolls on the Expanded Wounds table. In other words, while it's a hefty nerf with no hit locations or standard hit locations, if your GM is willing to run hard-ball wounds it can be a huge upgrade.

Your odds of blowing a limb/head off go from 0.46% (1/216) with a standard laser rifle (or old blazer), and no chance for those sorts of crits against armor with an energy BAR of 5+, to being able to cut clean through energy BAR 5 and have a 12.50% (1/8) chance to do the same with a blazer.

The moral of the story is: never, ever underestimate AP5 weapons.

[Daryk]

When converting to TW scale, AP and BD are more equal.  My goal remains to ease the transition between scales.  I think it should be as smooth as possible, while various decisions by TPTB have made that more difficult (intentionally or not... probably the latter).

My vision is a system that can smoothly scale from mano-a-mano to interstellar nation vs. peer competitor.  I think BattleTech (yes, that "beer and pretzels" game) can BE that!  It may sound crazy, but I'm here to tell you 40K is NOT that system, regardless of how much money it makes (for all the reasons people complain about).  BattleTech is the most durable rule set I'm aware of, and I truly believe it's scalable.  Does it have problems?  Yes.  Are they solvable?  YES!  We can get there!  :)