WS, what is the point?

During my most recent 40K drumming I started wondering, what is the point of WS, weapon skill? When I watched my close combat beast whiff on attack rolls against a much lower weapon skill. Why is the weapon skill not comparable to ballistic skill? Why are the best close combat warriors not better than the above average? What is the point of having a high weapon skill?



Seriously a 3+?!?! That is the best roll to hit for this situation?



What is it? Let’s really look at what this rule says...

WEAPON SKILL (WS)

This characteristic defines how skilled and vicious a

warrior is with his weapons in close combat. The higher

the score, the more likely the warrior will land blows on

a close combat opponent. An average human soldier

has WS3, while a genetically-enhanced Space Marine

will have WS4 or even WS5.

So, the higher the weapon skill the better right? Well not really. When you look at the to-hit roll table, we see that a 3+ is the best roll possible to hit. Why? A WS 5 Marine is no different than a WS 10 Bloodthirster. Doesn’t that sound strange? They both require a 3+ to hit most targets, or the most common targets (WS 3 and WS 4). Now I know there is a difference when it comes to being hit, but that is not the issue at hand. I’m talking to-hit rolls here.  

The weapon skill chart is made even sillier when it is compared to the other combat stat, Ballistic Skill. With a higher ballistic skill come two bonuses, a 2+ and a re-roll. Now anything over BS 5 will hit on a roll of 2+. Not only that, but a BS 6+ will get a re-roll on any roll if there is a 1 rolled. Now, the re-roll isn’t automatic, but it is still a re-roll on a miss. On the only number that they can roll and still miss, a big fat 1. Now this re-roll also becomes an easier as the ballistic skill goes up.

Why does ballistic skill have a 2+ and not weapon skill? Why does weapon skill not have the same re-roll ability for those with values of 6+? These upper echelon fighters are supposed to be great, but they aren’t. Why doesn’t a WS 6+ give a 2+ to-hit? Is it that game changing? The highest weapon skills are usually HQ units and there can only be so many of them on the board. Look at the armies out there. How many WS 6+ are there per book? Yeah a 2+ to hit would make that WS 6+ mean something.

Well what about the defense of a higher weapon skill. Well this is a fantasy at best. There is also no real benefit from weapon skill until you are 2x+1 higher than your opponent. What? Yup so versus the gold standard of Marine you need a WS 9 just to make hitting you more difficult than 50/50. How often does than happen? Think for a minute……not very often. Having a high weapon skill is all well and good, until you realize a 4+ is almost always needed to hit you and you only hit back on a 3+. How does that work? Once again, an thing like the Avatar with his WS 10 will still get a punch to the mouth from a WS 5 Marine Librarian on a 4+.  That doesn’t seem like much of a defensive bonus. Why is there not a 6+ to-hit roll? There are 6+ armor and invulnerable saves for some reason. Heck you need a 6+ to hit a vehicle with a grenade, so the developers must think they are attainable (albeit desperate) rolls. This is just more proof that a higher weapon skill is fairly pointless.

Well how can this be corrected? Can it be corrected? Will it ever be changed? I’m certain it will not be. Since my foray into this game, 3^rd, edition I have seen the same weapon skill chart. I guess it is something that will never change. Maybe it was play tested and a 2+ to-hit was just too brutal. You know like how they describe close combat as being. Why not allow a re-roll on 1’s with a WS 6+? Just like the ballistic chart. This would at least give a higher weapon skill something to do with bad rolls and even make it seem like they are better fighters. You know like the description of the ability says.

They could also just change the whole weapon skill chart. Maybe something like this.

	TARGET WEAPON SKILL
ATTACKER  WEAPON SKILL	ws	3	4	5	6
	3	4+	5+	5+	6+
	4	3+	4+	5+	6+
	5	3+	3+	5+	5+
	6	2+	3+	3+	4+

I know it would be a broad sweeping change, but have the best weapon skill in the game a 6 and the worst a 3. It does simplify the close combat when you know there are only four weapon skills. There are real benefits for offense and defense for the higher weapon skill models. Sure it would melt the mind of most 40K gamers if all of a sudden their WS 10 Bloodthirster, or a WS 8 whatever model was now WS 6. Well, it would until they realize that WS 6 is the best. There are real benefits for offense and defense for the higher weapon skill models. Something like this will never happen, but what if it did? Something like this or a re-roll for WS 6+ just seems more logical. I know I’m applying logic to an illogical game, and that is usually just madness.

Will weapon skill ever be more than at best 3+ to-hit or a 5+ to be hit? Should it be better than that? Damn right it should! Will it be better in a future edition? Well I’ll go with history here and say that it will not be. Next edition will probably still see the same weapon skill chart as the last edition, and that is just pathetic.