So I was tinkering with a home-brew list, and I was wondering what rules I should use for a weapon that uses a flame template. I don't want to go against the grain, so is there a general consensus on the rules for flame templates?

I'll plan on using the rules from the tyranid list unless someone has a problem with those rules being generic for all army lists.

So everyone knows what I'm talking about, I lifted this text from the Tyranid list:

Flame Template: Some Tyranid weapons can spray gouts of bioplasma, pyro-acid, or other biological nastiness. Such weapons have a range of "Flame" and use the following rule to resolve their attacks.

Position the teardrop-shaped template so that its narrow end is touching the firing model and the entire template is within the firing arc of the weapon, placed to cover as many enemy units from the target formation as possible. Roll to hit all units (friend or foe) under the template with the appropriate to hit values for the weapon, removing casualties from those closest to the firing unit first. A unit is affected by the template(s) if any part of the model, or at least one model on a stand, falls under the template(s). Each formation hit by a flame template receives a Blast marker for coming under fire as normal.

War Engines (WE): If a WE lies directly under the centre-line of the template it is subjected to a number of attacks equal to half its starting damage capacity, rounding up; due to the war engine's large size, a flame template weapon that can meet this criteria is blocked by the WE and any units beyond are not affected by the attack. Other flame templates used in the same attack are not blocked by the WE, but cannot score additional hits on the WE. If a war engine is hit, but not under the centreline of any template, it only suffers one attack.

I'd rather skip the flame template altogether and replace it with short-range BP weapons.

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Neal

The use of the "teardrop" template was extensively discussed in this SG forum thread. While it is possibly viable under particular circumstances, the template also causes some particular problems, and quite frankly, it is both simpler and less contentious to use the usual template(s) as Neal suggests.

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Sir Hemry Newbolt

I agree with Neal... short-ranged BP weapons can duplicate the effects of a "spray" well enough.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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Just so everyone is on the same page, the weapons I had in mind to use the template were various types of Eldar vibro-cannons.

In 40k:Apocalypse, the Revenant sonic lance uses a large flame template. I have no problem going either way with it in E:A, I just wanted to see if there was some standard.

I'm with Neal on this one ; I've tested the teardrop template rules more than most, and have ultimately come to the conclusion that it simply can't be made to work in a way that is acceptable to the majority of the Epic-playing community.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

After reading the thread you refer to, it looks like it could be summarized as: "Multiple flame templates don't work and here's why." "Yes they do and here's why!" "Nuh-uh!" "Uh-huh!" By the way, regular barrages with multiple templates aren't really too fun to work out either, if you only have access to one template.

So, as long as you only put one of them in there, I don't think there's any problem with it. Hena's rules in said thread work just fine and I think it'd be a horrible shame to drop such a cool and tactically different (but ruleswise pretty similar and simple) mechanic because a few vocal people don't like it. Move warengine, point flamey template, kill stuff. Fun!  

It does make sense.

First you say that your only one that has tested it

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

E&C, it's a 1200 word limit, not 1500... and it's being worked on...  

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Wow, people are getting kinda testy. Ok, so I think I'll go ahead and stick with using the BP rules. Thanks for the input everyone.

I would be ok with shortrange BP weapon. Just to keep it simple.

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