7th Ed. Rumors RE: Pistols in Assault

Rumors about a 7th or 6.5 edition have been circulating since last December (maybe earlier). Among these rumors is the notion that pistols can be used in assault.

I’ve not seen any explanation of what this means soooooooo for the purpose of discussion please assume that (1) pistols no longer count as a cc for the purpose of determining number of attacks, and (2) in initiative order (and after pile in moves), models carrying pistols may shoot their pistols at a unit they are currently engaged with. Pistols use their applicable profile for resolving shots.

Three Questions; in response to this rule:

(1) On ICs and Chr. that you are already taking, would you take the blast pistol?

(2) On units that you don’t typically take a Chr., would you take a Chr. for the purpose of getting the unit a blast pistol?

(3) Would your take more DE assault than you typically been taking in 6th Ed.?

My thought is Yes, No and No. Back in the days of 5th, I had no problem dumping the points for the agonizer upgrade- today it would be the same points for the venom and blast pistol. Additionally, the blast pistol is a insta kill ap 2 weapon against most T4 units mean while the venom blade still dishes out the several wounds with the poison. Further, the blast pistol would allow cheaper Archon builds because I would not be held to the expense of the huskblade and soul trap to get ap 2 attacks, (also blast pistol would also fill the role of the haywire grenade).

Characters are all assault oriented, on units which I’m not taking a character are the type of units that I don’t want in assault in any circumstances. The amount of assault would not change because snap shooting and over watch makes shooting too valuable/important. (Albeit, I never truly ditched DE assault in response to 6th- the focus did change from wyches to wracks. I generally see assault as a necessary component to a successful list as DE are just expensive enough and fragile enough that they will not win gun line against gun line– particular due to the lack of an easily accessible/effective area effect (blast/large blast) at long ranges).

Other people’s thoughts?

IF this rule were actually true......

(1) Yes I;d take it, if only for a free Lance shot at a vehicle in combat. It'd certainly make me happier when I think about the number of times my Archon has been tied up in combat with a Dreadnought for turn after turn.....

(2) No, I don't think the extreme cost would be worth it for the upgrade PLUS Blast Pistol.

(3) No. I don't think using the pistol would make up for anything, and on any assault units the assault abilities are better than the pistols anyway.


My overall thoughts are that I'm against the idea. I think I prefer pistol rules to stay as they are.
If something of this nature were forced in, I'd rather replace the extra attack for charging and make it act as a counter-Overwatch as it were. You declare charge, opponent overwatchs, then your pistols get a similar snap shot in return, then combat happens (like a snap-fired Hammer of Wrath).
But replacing the extra attack for CC weapons with firing a pistol, in my opinion, is a really stupid idea.


EDIT: I'd also like to briefly say that a LOT of the rules I've heard about being from 7thn edition so far sound REALLY stupid, and are frankly too far if this is supposed to be a "minor" update. I've heard about this pistols things, a possible change to a percentage based force building thing, a complete change to combat resolution and consolidations, all of which sounds to me too major for a rules set everyone so far agrees will just be a 6.5 rather than a 7th.

I would note, this exact same rule was part of the rumors for 6th edition also. I'm pretty sure it's simply smoke and mirrors.

1. No.
2. No.
3. No.

I'll take haywire to deal with vehciles, and a s.pistol is perfectly fine as a shooting option. Sarges are not worth the cost of the pistol unless you already want a Sarge for other reasons. This would not particularly help assault DE besides maybe being a minor boost to Wyches...who need a big boost to be actually viable in any case, and most of our other prime assault units (Beasts, Grots, Wracks, Incubi) don't have pistols anyway.