The gravity of the situation...

[Mr Mystery]

Word!

So gone through my new Marine Codex, and I feel the shiny new Grav Weapons could do with discussing.

For my money, they aren't quite the wonder weapon the rumours alluded to, but still manage to be a decent weapon, and a welcome addition to anyone's arsenal.

So the upside. If your opponent has lots of MEQ or better, they're nothing short of deadly, despite their restrictive ranges. Who wouldn't want to flatten heavily armed opponents on a 2 or 3+? If anyone put their hand up on that one, go and get your bumps felt :p. Concussive is also a nice little addition, as you can concuss something big a gribbly (like, I dunno, a Hive Tyrant) then get stuck into HTH and pull it's legs off.

The downside? They're just so incredibly situational! Against Horde armies, they are rather limited. And big honking units like Meganobz? The lack of an actual strength means squad based multiwound models aren't as worried as you might think, as you can't instant death them.

So overall, yeah. I think there relative lack of tactical flexibility will keep numbers of them down overall in pick up games, as for every army that will deploy with a sigh of resignation, will be a horde army pointing and laughing at your silly, running around, knees bent gravity distorting business! Particularly if you've invested hefty points on Devastator Centurions....

What's your take on them?

[Popsical]

I have to agree with your assessment. They are a nice edition to the armoury but not game busting.
In small gaming groups where smurfs are the only armies used they will become the norm.
The short range limits their power as does the cents slow and pondlife.
Nothing busted or must have in this dex so far. Not like the hellduck was early in the angrysmurf dex.

[Mr Mystery]

I reckon we'll see quite a few Sergeants with Grav Pistols on the whole. The short range generally matters less, and combined with Precision Shots, they will prove pretty damned useful! Imagine Kharn, or any other infantry mincing unit reduced to I1 before their charge! Again it's highly situational, but for my money it's overall a better side arm than a plasma pistol, not least because you can't kill yourself with it, but it packs much the same punch!

[DWest]

Personally, I like the grav guns for their Strikedown ability almost more than the actual armor-kill property. As I recondition my long-neglected Space Marines, I'm planning on putting a combi-grav or grav pistol in my command squad to hopefully slow up enemy units before assaulting. That being said, I don't see grav weapons as being the be-all end-all of specials; the only other place I plan on putting them is on a bike squadron, as said squadron is being fitted out as my "swiss army knife" unit -- an answer for everything.

I also think the value of grav guns will depend greatly on the platform:
-Tactical Squad? probably not useful, as flamer will be better on defense and plasma/melta better on offense.
-Sternguard Squad? complements the Hellfire rounds for killing MCs, but combi-gravs, with their salvo rule, are going to feel like a waste since you'd have to be stationary to get the full benefit.
-Bike Squad? yes please! Relentless lets you use the salvo rule, and bikes have the speed to chase down scary things before they can eat your scoring units.
-Centurion Squad? I'm going to go with "not amazing"; 24" range won't come into play straight off, unless you load them in a Land Raider, and then that's ~25% of your army in one unit. A tyranid-heavy local meta would change this considerably.
-Assault/Vanguard Squad? This I think is going to be the sleeper hit; being able to force pretty much everybody to strike after you've had your fun will help these units earn their points I believe.

[DarkLink]

Both Bikes and Centurions have a 30" threat range with them, more if you Scout/use a Land Raider. That's not slow. Take Khan, and suddenly you've got Scout if they're in a Land Raider. That means a 12" Scout, 6" move, 6" deploy, and 24" shooting for a 48" threat range T1. It murders Riptides and Broadsides, Serpent spam just bounces off of it, and if you can Ground FMCs then they die too. If only Centurions weren't so expensive irl...