Taking a look at poison, snipers, and gargantuan MCs.

[Fueldrop]

Trouble is, without those limits, GC become a bit poop, and all too easily taken out.

You say that: Snipers are fairly meh, with between 25% and around 45% chance of even wounding with a shot. Against most targets, said shot is going to be less effective than a bolter round, unless it rends... which currently works on GMCs anyway. All you're doing is adding the ability to get extra wounds that have a chance of being stopped by their Armour+FNP, making snipers at best marginally more threatening to the likes of a WK. Remember, if the enemy doesn't bring a GMC the the odds are good that those snipers won't make their points back in kills.

Poison is interesting. To the best of my knowledge the only army that has access to massive amounts of cheap ranged poison is the Dark Eldar, who are considered one of the lowest tier armies at the moment (I do hear a lot of talk about swiping their rides, though...)
Outside of that poisoned attacks are most prevalent in melee (and entering melee with a GMC has it's own problems), and with Sternguard Veterans who are issued with specialist rounds designed... to kill 'Nid MCs and GMCs.

Now I know that the idea of having a weapon be effective at the job it's designed for is crazy talk in 40K, but the fact of the matter is that between good armour, massive numbers of wounds and FNP GMCs are again unlikely to be killed by poison in a single round (barring Dark Eldar, who can level the stuff en mass). Considering that a wraithknight can make its points back VERY quickly with a couple of well placed strength D shots, can be deep striked to prevent drop pod shenanigans and guarantee at least one round of good shooting... I'm just saying that adding some counters that everyone can get access to, stuff that is generally considered underwhelming outside of this (see sniper discussion above)...

I'm not seeing how making a 300 point unit killable is really that big a problem. My last encounter with a Wraithknight only ended because I doomed it, put guide on my tank squadron, and opened up with literally my entire 1750 point army. I was lucky, as my last shot killed it. It was a pistol with e-rend. Most non-eldar armies can't go "I'm rerolling failed wounds against you, and all my small arms are rending. Die as I unload everything into your ***!"

My opponent and I agreed that if that warlock hadn't been lucky with his pistol (though I'm beginning to doubt luck is the explanation as he's since repeated the feat on a particularly durable carnifex, and then a second one in the same game. I'm beginning to suspect that warlock just likes capping big stuff) the one-wound-remaining wraithknight would have rampaged through my lines next turn and killed half my army. Having a counter available to everyone doesn't seem to be a bad option in my view.

[CoffeeGrunt]

One could argue that it's a good thing that Superheavies are tough to bring down in a round of shooting. They're expensive, their durability should reflect that.

[Venomlust]

One could argue that it's a good thing that Superheavies are tough to bring down in a round of shooting. They're expensive, their durability should reflect that.

In theory I agree with you. The flipside of the coin is that with a lucky volley they can erase just about any unit, including other superheavies, which is pretty frustrating. Most of them are costed appropriately, some aren't. No need to open that can of worms but that's the way it is.

A single turn of shooting shouldn't take one down, unless the enemy pours literally everything they've got into it. But then some lists are perhaps never going to kill it with any amount of shooting or even close combat attacks. That's the problem scenario that would be addressed by certain weapons being more effective against them. I guess lascannons/plasma can always get the job done, unless they get wiped out before they can do anything.

[Charon]

A single turn of shooting shouldn't take one down, unless the enemy pours literally everything they've got into it.

And there is another Problem. If you have to pour everything into it, your opponent still has most of his army intact but out of position (as you had to move your whole **** to get into range to focus) ready to get shredded next round. If you happen to get second he could be smart enought to try and eliminate any real threat to his superheavy and make it basically invincible for the rest of the game.

[Venomlust]

And there is another Problem. If you have to pour everything into it, your opponent still has most of his army intact but out of position (as you had to move your whole **** to get into range to focus) ready to get shredded next round. If you happen to get second he could be smart enought to try and eliminate any real threat to his superheavy and make it basically invincible for the rest of the game.

Yeah, absolutely. Which is why they should always be "fairly" priced, so in mid-sized games there aren't still a ton of other threats on the table that will probably outdamage the giant to begin with. I don't face them often, so it's not a huge deal, but I suppose things could always be better.

[Arkhan Land]

I think in general you all are looking at these units the wrong way, As useful as they are I am usually more into the fact that my scouts/snipers/rattlings have infiltrate. Deploying these units on objectives before turn one garuntees some need for your opposing player to try and gun them off/move them off turn 1 in order to score/contest/etc. not to mention that if you ignore one of these sqauds and let them pop off rounds at full strength twice they might cause a wound, worse a pinning test.

heres a thought, rangers that dont shoot their sniper rifles can move, shoot their shr. pistols and move back. try and bladestorm you a mofo and hop out. tap dance dat objective.

[Sly]

Most of them are costed appropriately, some aren't. No need to open that can of worms but that's the way it is.

Actually, I'd much rather open up that can of worms than complain about Sniper/Poison weapons, because frankly, most GMCs are fine. Yes, it takes a whole lot of shooting to kill a Tyranic GMC. But it's also a whole lot of points. When you look at the point efficiency per shot, most GMCs are not all that unreasonable. Frankly, it's just the 300-pt Wraithknight, that can't be considered a "defensive unit" since it has a lot of firepower per point, where the point efficiency of such weapons is so bad.

So it does come down to "some are not priced appropriately", not to "sniper weapons are too weak against GMCs".

[LCS]

Kind of think it's both.

- - - Updated - - -

I think in general you all are looking at these units the wrong way, As useful as they are I am usually more into the fact that my scouts/snipers/rattlings have infiltrate. Deploying these units on objectives before turn one garuntees some need for your opposing player to try and gun them off/move them off turn 1 in order to score/contest/etc. not to mention that if you ignore one of these sqauds and let them pop off rounds at full strength twice they might cause a wound, worse a pinning test.

heres a thought, rangers that dont shoot their sniper rifles can move, shoot their shr. pistols and move back. try and bladestorm you a mofo and hop out. tap dance dat objective.

I.... I just... wow. OK. No words.

[Denzark]

Remember fluff wise, imperial sniper weapons used to use a lower powered laser to inject a sliver of metal with a toxin tailored to specific races. If I remember correctly it was in the 40K compendium and in said 40k book even mentioned a toxin to be used against Skaven!

So we're not talking about a shot relying on mass a la modern day sniper weapons - but a complete poisoning of the body.

I know things change in the ensuing period, but even so on the poison basis it would be possible for anything with any organic structure at all to be rendered down.

I think the problem is not poison or sniper weapons lacking against GCs - it is the increasing proliferation of GCs. High Toughness (by which I mean 6+) high wound creatures are harder to kill than the heaviest non SH vehicles - which for me is total BS. There shouldn't be much not on tracks or wheels in the galaxy more frightening than a SM dreadnought but I laugh everytime I see an AV 12 3hp use of 100pts in front of me.

[Path Walker]

Sniper weapons hit vulnerable parts, heads, eyes, hearts, thats what the Rending-Lite represents, the sniper landing a perfect shot on a vulernable part of the target. GMCs are so massive that even their vulnerable areas aren't hurt by weapons as comparitivly small as Sniper weapons.