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Also, putting two BCs on an aircraft is insane
No one's talking about putting two "Battle Cannons" on an aircraft, though. Hell, the Lightning already has two Lascannons on it, which are each
more powerful than an individual Hellstrike missile, much less a Battlecannon shot. Additionally, the Strike variant of the Lightning has the ability to carry from between 2-6 missiles, while the Thunderbolt carries 0-4. While the Thunderbolt was given optional equipment (one of the very few examples where non-standard equipment is included on an Epic statline) it's somewhat unreasonable to assume that it is automatically carrying the maximum possible capability, to the point that it equals an aircraft whose
entire purpose for existing is to carry those missiles, "in a dedicated ground attack role, with the primary mission of targeting enemy armor." Compare this to the Thunderbolt, whose "main role is as an air-superiority fighter." While it's lauded as versatile, it's still a generalist craft. The Lightning Strike variant should be a significant threat to armored formations, otherwise they are pointless.
But seriously, why do people keep going back to the current 40k rules as being a perfect golden interpretation of weapons systems? Quoting the "Strength" of a 40k weapon has little to do with its theoretical effect. 40k has an internal balance that sometimes has little to do with the Warhammer universe as a whole. This is especially relevant as 40k has streamlined itself significantly as editions go forward. Blindly copying the numbers from the latest codex, such as "A S8 shot is usually AT6+" (sorry for picking on you Dave, but you're the most recent
) is wildly inaccurate when looking at Epic incarnations. Sure, missile launchers might be AT6+, but Autocannons (S7) are also at AT6+. Battlecannons, a S8 weapon, are at AT4+, which is better than a Lascannon at S9. This is because the internal balance of Warhammer 40k is based on an entirely different game system, one in which Armor Values grant certain vehicles outright immunity to lower-powered weapons. Epic doesn't have that constraint, and thus has an entirely different system of balancing weapon statistics.
Our purpose here is to facilitate play within the Warhammer 40k Universe, not to simply transfer 40k stats into Epic stats. Adherence should be to the game first, the fluff descriptions second, and stats from another game a long-distant third. Doing otherwise is like using poor quality translation software to interpret a Chinese novel, via 16 other languages.
