Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Weapons (section)

==Overview==

===Unit Archetypes===
*'''Cannon Fodder For Cannon Fodder''': Wet tissue paper. Useful to occupy space and be cheap enough to let you spend enough points elsewhere. Usually it's not good to spam them, since they are so weak that even throwing waves of them at the enemy is not worth it. Examples of this are Grots, Nurglings, Spore Mines... (T1 and T2)
*'''GEQ:''' Guardsmen EQuivalent. A lightly armoured infantry unit with weak attacks and little staying power on the board, but that can be spammed very easily. Examples of these are imperial guardsmen, admech skitarii, chaos cultists, Eldar rangers, tau fire warriors, Tyranid termagants... (S3 T3, W1, Sv between 6+ and 4+).
*'''MEQ:''' Marine EQuivalent. A moderately armoured unit that has a decent amount of defense and power, and usually multiple wounds. It can't be spammed as easily as GEUs, but its improved staying power makes up for that. Examples of these are space marines, chaos space marines, ork nobs, tyranid genestealers... (S4 T4 1 or 2 wounds, Sv4+ to 3+)
*'''TEQ:''' Terminator EQuivalent. A heavily armoured unit with increased defense and power, usually with either FNP or invulnerable saves. Considerably expensive, but much more difficult to take down. They are also slower due to all the armour. Examples of these are space marine terminators, chaos space marine terminators, or Crisis suits... (S4 T4 or 5, 2 or 3 wounds, Sv3+ to 2+).
*'''Character:''' Important individuals, usually an improved single model version of another Unit Archetype with increased stats, multiple attacks, and aura abilities. Usually make the backbone of the armies due to their abilities to buff or improve other units. Their greatest feat of durability comes from the "Lookout Sir!" rule that makes them un-targetable to most shooting weapons when near most other non-character units.  A frequent target of deepstrikes or snipers. 
*'''Bikes:''' Motorized infantry that can move fast and are slightly tougher than their regular infantry equivalents. Good for taking ground from the beginning, but usually will need fire support to deal with most enemies. It's important to take into account that, even though these units are riding bikes, they don't count as vehicles, thus they can't be healed by units that can repair vehicles, but can be healed by medics.
*'''Light Vehicle:''' A lightly armoured vehicle, usually to accomplish a scouting or skirmish role. Its main strength will be speed and maybe a single big weapon, but otherwise will fall against anything that can deal with above average toughness and 3/4+ saves. If they can transport stuff, expect them to be quite limited in unit amount and transportable class. Examples of these are land speeders, imperial guard sentinels, admech walkers...
*'''Vehicle:''' Sturdier vehicles, much tougher and stronger than their lighter counterparts. Vehicles are very varied in their use and function, though we can probably distinguish between tanks, artillery, transports, and a mix between the three. 
**'''Tanks:''' Combines a good mix of speed, firepower and toughness to deal with most units. Usually focused on either maximizing damage per shot or anti-spam. Usually around T7 and slightly above 10 wounds. Examples of these are the space marine predator, the Leman Russ Tank...
**'''Artillery:''' Sacrifices mobility and toughness for range and sheer firepower. Usually they are slow (or even static) vehicles that can shoot practically anything on the map, but they'll be fucked if something gets into melee range, especially deepstriking units. 
**'''Transport:''' Sacrifice firepower in order to bring units to the frontlines. Mostly used to take slow or vulnerable units to close combat, since they would otherwise be wiped out before coming in contact with the enemy. Because of this, transports can only offer fire support and nothing else, baring some examples like the [[Tunneling_Transport_Vehicles#Termite|fucking drill]]. Examples of transports are the Rhino, the Chimera...
**'''Hybrids:''' A mix between the previous three. 
*'''Superheavies:''' Massive vehicles of war, incredibly tough and resilient, that can wreak havoc on anything they attack, but require a big point investment. They will usually be the vehicle that spearheads their army, so they will attract a lot of the enemy's firepower.
*'''Titanic:''' The ultimate step in war vehicles. More weapon platforms than proper vehicles, these things are ridiculously tough and powerful. Takes the concept of the superheavies to its ultimate conclusion, but there are more moderate versions of titanic units so as to not spend 2000p on a single model. 
*'''Aircraft:''' Flyers with supersonic speed. It's important to take into account all units with the {{WH40Kkeyword|FLY}} keyword aren't aircraft, just like {{WH40Kkeyword|Bike}} units aren't {{WH40Kkeyword|Vehicles}}. Usually they'll need to move every turn following certain move restrictions, but in return regular units have a -1 to their BS against them.

===Shooting Weapon Archetypes===
*'''Lasgun/Autogun:''' S3 AP-0 D1. Cheapest and weakest Archetype. Their effectiveness only comes from being wielded by cheap spamable models, assuming it's not a support unit given one for the sake of having a weapon. Even then they're only ok against other GEQ, and anything better only comes from buckets of dice rolling. 

*'''Bolter:''' Steps up to S4 AP-0 D1. Better than a Lasgun but only sightly. A pure bolter gun rarely in the front of a player with many weapons being an improved variant with higher AP, firerate, or other special rules. Often a middle of the road weapon the wielders are usually not spammable bodies but are more likely to wound most infantry types and light vehicles.  

*'''Heavy Bolter:'''Much better than a bolter, but it usually is a heavy weapon type, with all the drawbacks it has in comparison to rapid fire or assault, better at killing MEQ and TEQ then normal Bolters. S5 AP-1 D2

*'''Frag Grenade:''' d6 S3 AP-0 D1 Blast. Common Grenade and also is a longer range launcher variant. Takes out a bigger number of enemies.

*'''Krak Grenade:'''S6 AP-2 D1. Anti-tank and anti-heavy infantry grenade. Takes tough single enemies.

*'''Flamer:''' It has a very short range of 12" and relatively low strength, but it compensates it by automatically hitting the enemy. S4 AP0 D1. When in range, will deal a reliable number of wound rolls even if the unit had advanced, Overwatched, or is a vehicle in combat. Can dissuade GEQ, and less resilient MEQ from being near the given unit.

*'''Heavy Flamer:''' An improved flamer, a bit more range, strength and AP at the cost of making it heavy. S5 AP-1 D1

*'''Plasmagun:''' The classic plasma gun, great against armoured units, with two shooting modes. A safe mode and an overcharged mode that increases strength and damage but kills the user if it gets a roll of 1. Regular S7 AP-3 D1 can reliably take down 1 wound infantry if not more often overkill for the price. Overcharged S8 AP-3 D2 reliably kills MEQ and TEQ and inflicts moderate damage to vehicles.

*'''Plasma Cannon:''' Usually plasma mounted on vehicles or fixed platforms. Pretty much identical to the plasmaguns, but with more strength, base damage of 2 or more, and with the fails on overcharge making mortal wounds instead of automatic kills (imagine losing a full dreadnought because of a single roll of 1...). They often have blast and are multi shots, letting them take down a number of TEQ and below while dealing a significant chunk of damage to a vehicle on overcharge. 

*'''Melta:''' The cheapest way to deal with heavy armour fast. Very low fire rates, but if it hits it can do D6 damage. For the most part it requires to get close enough to the enemy in question, so it's a very "high risk, high reward proposition", but at least it has some nifty abilities when close enough. Meltas are one of the more efficient ways of killing single models, preferably vehicles and monters but often more of a waste against most units as their excess killing damage doesn't transfer to other models.

*'''Autocannon:''' Big guns that have a lot of strength and damage output, but not that much AP.

*'''Lascannon:''' The big brother of the lasgun. A lot of AP and higher strength than the melta, but without the nifty abilities of the melta when up close. Preferably used to snipe vehicles over long distances.

Also, take into account that most of these archetypes have a pistol equivalent (laspistol, bolt pistol, hand flamer, erradicator pistol, plasma pistol...) and a version with a greater rate of fire(Multilasers, Storm Bolters, Hurricane Bolters, Multi-melta).

===Melee Weapon Archetypes===
*'''Generic CCW:''' When you have no melee weapon, but still you need to go to melee. No AP and no special bonus, you better have MEQ strength or else you won't do anything anyway.

*'''Chainsword:''' The bare bones, but it gives you an extra attack. Good to deal with hordes but will falter against heavier objectives. Similar to chain axes, combat knives...
**The Astartes chainsword also gives you -1 AP, so that's a plus.
**Lightning Claws are similar, as they add +1 attack for each claw equiped, plus some wound re-rolls.

*'''Power Weapon:''' Special weaponry with increased stats. Usually great against most things due to the increased stats, but depending on what's buffed, it will best suited to different targets.
**''Power Sword.'' +1S AP-3. Better against infantry, from TEQs and below, but it will faulter against units with more toughness.
**''Power Axe.'' +2S AP-2. The best equilibrium. Good against tougher enemies and enemies with high toughness.
**''Power Maul.'' +3S AP-1. You will wound great against tougher enemies, but then you may lack ap to get the wound in.

*'''Hammers and fists:''' Weapons that have a lot of stopping power, but they are so heavy that they will decrease your WS (-1 to hit rolls). 
**''Power Fist:'' x2S Ap-3 D2. Fuses the strengths of Power Sword and Maul into something that can reliably wound infantry(if not overkill) and reliably damage vehicles.
**''Thunder Hammer:'' x2S Ap-2 D3. 

*'''Stomp Weapons:''' When a model is big enough, sometimes its sheer size is enough to be a weapon in and of itself.

*'''Shields:''' Technically a weapon (a defensive weapon, but a weapon nonetheless), it offers no offensive capabilities, but it usually increases the unit's save and adds invulnerable saves. Great when you need to throw your unit against things that can hit back hard.

===Wounding Chart===
The rules of wounding will depend on the attacker's strength and the defender's toughness:

*'''Attacker's strength is half or less of the defender's toughness:''' Like trying to take down a tank with a wooden stick. You will rarely wound with this, as you need a 6+ to succeed. Only really feasible with massive spam.
*'''Attacker's strength is below the defender's toughness:''' A little bit better, but the chances are still against the attacker. You need a 5+ to succeed, which can still be done, just don't rely on it much.
*'''Attacker's strength is equal to the defender's toughness:''' A perfectly balanced match, the attacker needs a 4+ chance to wound, which is exacly 50%. The dice gods will decide your fate here. Frequent between marine fights, as the S4 bolters match T4 marines.
*'''Attacker's strength is above the defender's toughness:''' The attacker has the advantage here. The attacker needs a 3+ chance to wound, meaning you will reliably wound here. 
*'''Attacker's strength is twice or more than the defender's toughness:''' When the difference in power is overwhelming, the attacker needs a 2+ chance to wound. Pretty much guaranteed to wound, but you always know there's the chance for 1s...

This doesn't take into account wound modifiers, like Special Issue Ammunition, Transhuman Physiology or other stuff that can add or substract to the wound roll.

===AP Chart===
*'''AP 0''': No armour penetration abilities to speak of. Present in the most basic weapons of the game or in weaponless melee. It will allow pretty much any unit a good chance to survive unless they are 6/7+ save. Will only wound MEQ and higher with a lot of spam. 
*'''AP -1''': The most basic AP possible. Will dent the enemy's save enough to slightly increase your killing potential but still won't guarantee anything against MEQ or higher, and a bunch of special rules blocks it specifically to boot. 
*'''AP -2''': Now we're going somewhere. AP-2 will make a dent on MEQs, TEQs, and Vehicles, giving you a good chance of wounding them. Will probably go through the save of most GEQs and definitively will blow up anything weaker than that.
*'''AP -3''': Great armour penetration. This level of penetration, most frequent in plasma or power weapons, is usually enough to deal with most things since even 3+ saves will barely survive most attacks with this ap. This is ''generally'' the starting point for invulnerable saves to start blunting your penetration, so this is enough to kill most units. 
*'''AP -4''': Melta and lascannon tier. This will go through 3+ saves with no problem. Most weapons with this kind of AP have a lot of damage output but will have very few attacks to compensate.
*'''AP -5''': "Fuck my shit up" levels of damage. Extraordinarily rare levels of armour penetration, nothing without invulnerable saves or a ''very'' good armor save (e.g. 2+ in light/heavy cover) can stop this level of raw power. Expect it on rare, heavily buffed, and/or titan-grade weapons.
*'''AP -6''': The maximum level of AP logically allowed by the rules, straight-up denying the enemy any armor save, even in cover, forcing them to rely on invulnerable saves or forcing them to hope that the attacker flubs the wound rolls.  It's still possible for an armor save to be so good this doesn't evaporate it, because some armies can take a Sv2+ model, put it in light/heavy cover, and then apply 1 or more additional additive modifiers, but that's super rare.

====Non-numeric Penetration====
*Some weapons/models/other special rules ignore Light Cover or ignore Cover period (which covers Light, Heavy, and Dense, the first 2 of which modify armor saves); when present, a rule like this is not as good as decreasing your AP by 1, but better than not having the rule, in terms of penetration only (ignoring Dense Cover is also helpful but not relevant to penetrating armor).
*Some weapons ignore all armor saves, which is incredibly rare and when present will be a special rule on the weapon or model, rather than represented in the AP column of the weapon profile.  This will, of course, bypass even the saves an AP-6 weapon can't completely ignore.
*Some weapons ignore all ''invulnerable'' saves.  This is not nearly as rare as it should be, but like ignoring all armor saves, will always be present as a special rule rather than listed in the AP column of a weapon profile.

===Damage Chart===
The damage a weapon can deal is usually tied to its fire rate. If a gun can only shoot a couple of times, expect bigger damage outputs, and viceversa. This doesn't apply to melee weapons, since their rate of attacks comes from the model's rules, and not the weapon's rules. You can have a captain with 4-5 attacks with no melee weapon, or you can have it with a heavy thunder hammer or a relic blade. The damage output of the latter will obviously be superior to the former. But in general we can find these kinds of damage:

*'''Plain damage:''' The attack does a fixed amount of damage. The most common and most reliable kind of damage. 
**''Damage 1.'' The most frequent kind of damage by far. Will kill light units well enough but it will need a lot of attacks to deal with multiple wound models.
**''Damage 2.'' In general the most reasonable damage output for most occasions, able to kill MEQ models in one shot and it will hurt bikes, characters and light vehicles, but it will still take a long time to put down heavier vehicles. Still, it's possible to spam weapons with damage 2 easy enough through plasmas or heavy melee weapons.
**''Damage 3.'' It will go through TEQs like butter, and will take down characters and light vehicles in a couple of hits. Even heavier vehicles will struggle to stop many of this. Rare outside of heavy or relic weapons. It will start to show diminishing returns on lighter units, since most of that damage output will be lost.
**''Damage 4 and above.'' Designed to put down vehicles and heavy units fast. Against anything else it will be overkill.
*'''Dice based:''' The attack does a variable amount of damage. Their damage output will depend on the results of the dice. 
**''D3.'' The damage output will be between 1 and 3 depending on the result. Good to deal with stuff like MEQs and TEQs, but not reliable enough against vehicles that will shrug off the lower results.
**''D6.'' The damage output will be between 1 and 6 depending on the result. Present in weapons like meltas, which can be cheap ways to deal with armour, but there's always the risk you get only 1 or 2 damage from the shot.
*'''Dice based with minimum damage:''' Some weapons will allow you to thow a dice for the damage output, but with a minimum damage established. For example the Neutron Laser does D6 damage, but it will always do at least 3 wounds. This means results from 1 to 3 will do 3 damage anyway, and higher results will do their appropriate damage.
*'''Dice based + plain damage:''' A plain damage plus the result of a dice. Remember that d3+3 is better than d6 (avg. 5 vs 3.5).
*'''Mortal Wounds:''' Mortal wounds are special wounds which ignore saving throws altogether. Unless you have some special ability (like FNP) that allows you to stop mortal wounds, it will damage the unit.
*'''Other:'''