So a while back we looked at the issues in the differences between the cheap mech of Rhinos and the expensive mech of Land Raiders and it generated quite a response. The premise of this discussion topic was for a 5-10pt meltagun, both are basically overpriced paperweights which is particularly true with the Land Raider, especially given its function of driving towards the enemy. One of the ideas which was shouted down was introducing structure points as this significantly effects certain armies (i.e. Tyranids and Orks) without an errata. One of the more popular ideas was nerfing meltaguns/lances which I personally don't think are needed but one of the ideas which I think merited some support from a lot of parties was 'burnable' armor. In this case, Extra Armor or Spirit Stones are used in their default functioning of reducing stunned results to shakens. However, they have the bonus ability to be used up to reduce the damage of one roll (probably by 2). This is quite a good upgrade for expensive tanks like Raiders who can stop that lucky early shot ruining their day but is a huge waste of points on multiple Rhinos.
This function would also work well for tanks which suffer from one-gun syndrome. The issue with these tanks is they are also expensive paperweights anytime they get penned and almost hope for an immoblised result. The burnable armor upgrade would help here in being able to protect the big gun from being blown off but are there perhaps more ways to do this? One idea is having weapons destroyed at random. A Leman Russ which has a Battlecannon and lascannon therefore loses the battlecannon a 4+ and the lascannon on a 1-3 if it suffers a weapon destroyed. I like the concept of this as it stops expensive tanks becoming quite useless after their main weapon is destroyed and silly upgrades like heavy stubbers, stormbolters, etc. become somewhat viable. However, I don't see it being implemented by GW as some tanks have four guns which is a pain to randomly assign to on a D6.
I still think the burnable armor is one of the best ways not only to fix single gun syndrome but some of the issues expensive tanks also come across. Any further thoughts on this or relating to single gun syndrome?
