Burst Rail Rifle

With several improvements in reliability made to rail rifle technology by the reasearch teams of the Ar’sho, a suitable rapid-fire rail rifle has been developed which can be mounted on lighter suit platforms without loss of maneuverability.

Concept drawing modeled from three pathfinder rail rifles

Stats

Point Cost: 41

Wargear

Weapon	Range	Type	Shots	S	AP	D	Abilities
Burst Rail Rifle	30”	Rapid Fire	D3	7	-3	D3	On a wound roll of 6+ the target unit suffers one mortal wound in addition to the normal damage.

Modeling

Placeholder for future instructions on how to build one of these.

Discussion

Available on O’Kakaushi and XV88/0 Hammerfall only. There just doesn’t seem to be a good balance for a crisis weapon here that doesn’t pretty much obsolete the others without breaking the rail-weapon meta.

Average damage output - RF2, S6, AP-4, D3 (assuming BS4+)
at full range, double values for half

Toughness/Armor	none	6+	5+	4+	3+	2+
3	1.67	1.67	1.67	1.67	1.67	1.39
4	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.11
5	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.11
6	1	1	1	1	1	0.83
7	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.56
8	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.56
9	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.56
10	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.56

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Average damage output - RF D3, S7, AP-3, D3 (assuming BS4+)
at full range, double values for half

Toughness/Armor	none	6+	5+	4+	3+	2+
3	1.67	1.67	1.67	1.67	1.39	1.11
4	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.11	0.89
5	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.11	0.89
6	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.33	1.11	0.89
7	1	1	1	1	0.83	0.44
8	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.56	0.44
9	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.56	0.44
10	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.67	0.56	0.44

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Using the Railside HRR for comparison, we could expect:

Toughness/Armor	none	6+	5+	4+	3+	2+
3	2.92	2.92	2.92	2.92	2.92	2.43
4	2.92	2.92	2.92	2.92	2.92	2.43
5	2.33	2.33	2.33	2.33	2.33	1.94
6	2.33	2.33	2.33	2.33	2.33	1.94
7	2.33	2.33	2.33	2.33	2.33	1.94
8	1.75	1.75	1.75	1.75	1.75	1.46
9	1.17	1.17	1.17	1.17	1.17	0.97
10	1.17	1.17	1.17	1.17	1.17	0.97

The second BRR profile gains damage over the HRR only within half range, and even then only on lower armored units. It makes sense, as this weapon would be less effective against massive armor (heavy vehicles) but its “burst” would come in to play most strongly against lower toughness foes that are likely to be in larger numbers.

Ability

I have tossed around a lot of ideas on this one.

1. Current rule, “For each two wounds inflicted each time this weapon shoots, the target unit suffers a mortal wound in addition to the normal damage” / You have to roll each Burst Rail Rifle separately to know how many wounds were made / Unique, but more complex than I’d like in game
2. Buffed current rule “For each two wounds inflicted to the target unit by Burst Rail Rifles this turn, the target unit suffers a mortal wound in additiona to the normal damage” / Potentially stronger than #1 / Still have to track wounds made by that sort of weapon, which is annoying in-game / Can at least roll all of that weapon type at once
3. Standard “Wound roll of 6+ adds a mortal wound” / Boring, normal, typical / Simple and solid established and familiar rule / ups wound potential, but lower total wound average
4. “Each armor save roll of 1 against wounds from this weapon causes 1 additional mortal wound” / Very similar to the standard #3 / But a little different / plays towards the AP role
5. “Wound rolls of 5+ become mortal wounds” / With AP already being the high point, this would be not terribly useful / On the other hand, 1/3 of your wounds becoming mortals might be crazy overpowered in some situations / loses wound potential
6. “Wound rolls of 5+ become D3 damage” / No mortal wound bonus / Major potential for wounds (up to 18) basically becomes chance-based dual-CIB
7. “All shots have their AP increased by 1 for each wound made by this weapon / Major potential AP - could buff it all the way to 6 wounds at -9 if you’re super lucky / Not useless, but not sure this is a major advantage to the roll this fills.