so what are our blow pipes considered? are they quick to fire? or are they the same as last edition only skinks can march and shoot.
Javelins are quick to fire so they don't suffer the penalty for moving and shooting and they can always stand and shoot. Hitting on 5's at long range, 4's at short, 5's stand and shoot. Gives them a bit of an edge and is supposed to make people try to decide between javs and BP's I suppose.
I still like the blowpipes though. As long as I can still take advantage of the poison rule (as soon as I need a 7 to hit, it's down to one shot) I will use the double tap.
While it is true blowpipes didn't get as big an upgrade as javelins, they have been upgraded indirectly now that skirmishers march and fire. They have an effective 18" range for double tap, and an effective 24" range for single shot. This has increased from 12" and 18" respectively. By "effective range", I include movement, and assume that you want to get off poisoned shots and not roll for 7+ to hit (trust me, the math says you never want to do that). The formation thing is weird, but that just means skirmishers are now "only" as flexible as fast cav.
With the three games I played, my skinks' blowpipes rocked! The march and shoot rule means it's almost always possible to go for double shots (especially since single characters don't suffer a -1 to hit either anymore) and they were so much more useful than they used to be!
Used 20 blowpipes recently double tapping at short range to wipe out 7 brettonia knights in one round of shooting.