Quote Originally Posted by mughi3 View Post
Well I do agree that without templates the number of models possibly hit by blast weapons is now comparatively ridiculously small(d6 for a flamer template? before most times I could get nearly double that especially with torrent) but your idea kinda goes into the "too complicated for 8th" direction. like the ridiculously low wound count of hull points in 6th/7th. they just need to up the dice rolls for all blast weapons to a minimum of 2d6 for former flamer and large blasts and d6s for former small blast weapons.
Something people need to keep in mind is that the board is supposed to be representational. The actual little people running around are constantly doing stuff, even if their figure is frozen in position.

So the whole "open formation" thing was always a little odd. When a blast weapon (be it HE shell or flame-thrower) is inbound, the people on the receiving end won't sit there in a statuesque pose. They'll duck, or dive for cover, or spread out.

GW should have made that clear that these are abstractions and there's a good case that the nominal blast radius on a weapon does NOT mean it always hits the optimum. Maybe the shell digs into the dirt, or lodges in a stump.

My point is that we tend to overthink these things. Blast weapons offer some variation in terms of wide-area damage, but there's no guarantees in that respect.

If they don't seem to be worth their points, that's an easy fix.

Ironically, it's also the thing GW consistently gets wrong.