I saw some questions on this earlier in the Chatbawks so thought I'd address them here. 15 point pistol which has the same profile as a DL but range 6". Six inches I hear people scream! It's the same as an infernous pistol but replaces melta with lance status and no AP1 (which sucks) and there seems to be an excessive amount of dislike for them. Don't really understand why... In comparison to the Infernous pistol it's pretty good if not as good. Lack of AP1 is a thing DE generally just deal with and get lance spam instead. In terms of points it's the same price (15) but has the added cost of needing to buy the Sarge (for now only Imperial Armies don't buy leader upgrades as they are included into the Squad's price). This is annoying but has the added benefit of increased Ld (generally to 9 or 10), more attacks in combat and access to other gear like Agonisers, PGL, etc. All in all it's pretty decent compared to the Infernous pistol, less useful with lack of AP1 and not as good at popping armor when you hit 3" but still a viable option for some squads. Note, some squads.
However, you cannot just hand these guys out willy nilly. This is the same for most upgrades. What blast pistols do is offer some redundancy to certain squads (i.e. Warriors with a Blaster) and duality to other squads (i.e. Wyches). Yes 15 points is expensive and you have to pay for the squad leader upgrade (which again has other benefits) so it's probably not the best bet to take them on every unit you have but the ability for an anti-infantry unit to whack an anti-tank shot into a tank is very valuable. Also being able to operate two anti-tank guns in a 5 man warrior squad (+ Venom) means you can have a bunch of cheap Troops (150) in effective anti-infantry transports much like Space Wolves and Blood Angels have with razorbacks (notice how they operate with two anti-tank weapons as well).
Yes it's expensive and no it's not an auto-include but they can be very useful. They are most useful when there is only a single anti-tank shot available (such as small Warrior squads) or to provide even the bare minimum of anti-tank to squads which don't have any (such as Wyches) and including a couple pistols in these units can really help out in tight situations.
