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So I have a few thoughts about these enormous electrical fists that take up a genetically engineered soldiers forearm-

They deliver a double strength hit with one punch (Slap, backhand, superflick, whatever..)- Does this mean they effectively work like gravity hammers in Halo? Slow hit, but sends the fools flying? I can't see it any other way..

Thing 2 is,
Do they just look like a big metal arm bucket, or would they have some small electricity zapping around them? Like an energy field.

It says in the rules that they have a disruptive energy field, so I am guessing electricity...

1: yes they are very akin to the Halo gravity hammer

2: page 42 rulebook: "POWER WEAPONS: A power weapon is sheathed in the lethal haze of a disruptive energy field, which eats through armour, flesh and bone with ease." Sounds like electricity to me.

dunno about 1 but for 2: I always imagined it like the Kaioken from DBZ or something to that effect, a glowing aura.

I always imagined them like the grav hammers...

Think of what a huge metal gauntlet would look like. Now imagine it covered in a blue hue of energy akin to a force field.

Something like this:

I always had the image of electricity crackling around the fist.

TBH I think they are a little bit of a corny idea. A giant hand ablaze with energy just looks kind of awkward in relation to the rest of a "normal" sized body.

It fits a bit more on terminators imo, where the size matches better.

Electricity crackling around the fist is how I always picture it, and how they're often portrayed in writing. I also remember reading that they're usually used for crushing things in their palms.

juraigamer wrote:Think of what a huge metal gauntlet would look like. Now imagine it covered in a blue hue of energy akin to a force field.

Something like this:

Hey, where is that pic from?

From the cover of the HH Novel Flight of the Eisenstein.

I make no spelling promises.

I can echo what Brother SRM said. In the chaos codex a terminator crushes the head of a human by putting his fingers around his head and it implodes.

Thanks

sub-zero wrote:

juraigamer wrote:Think of what a huge metal gauntlet would look like. Now imagine it covered in a blue hue of energy akin to a force field.

Something like this:

Hey, where is that pic from?

You can find it on the Lexicanum article for Energy fist (where I put it).

When I worked at the Corus Aerospace centre, we had a tool called a manipulator.

Essentially, it was a powered armature. You grasped the handle and the armature followed your movements. You could pick up a 2 tonne steel piece and move it like it was nothing.

It was awesome.

That, I imagine is very much like the fist concept. It's weighty enough as it is to cause a hell of a lot of damage just through its own mass.

I don't imagine it's slow and cumbersome by any means, seeing as the power armour is stated to be motived by fibre bundles, in the same way my armature tool was.

It's that trade of between style and practicality that causes confusion though - with its Initiative of 1. Given the real life ability of armatures, it'd be anything but, but for the sake of balance, it would have to be I1 - no one wants a double strength no save attack slapping stuff down right from the off.

It's definitely stylised in DoW, it looks real slow! But that's artistic license in order to impart a sense of force.

As far as fields go, there's very few that are visible, unless a reaction occurs. Electrons through plasma being one. Pretty too, so once again, it'd be artistic licence.

So for the sake of art, you'd probably overemphasise a lot of characteristics. For the sake of practicality you wouldn't, but then it wouldn't be half as neat to look at.

If you think they look stupidly oversized on a marine, look at some of the old guard models! the fists are bigger than they are!

papathrax wrote:If you think they look stupidly oversized on a marine, look at some of the old guard models! the fists are bigger than they are!

+1. You know it's mis-scaled when you need a counterbalance in the base.

You know what they say, big hands, big feet, pig powerfield.

There's no need for an exeskeleton, so the energy would cause the main damage.
The reason for I1 might be the need to power it up before the hit.

DrownedRat117 wrote:Does this mean they effectively work like gravity hammers in Halo?

No, they work like a Power fist in the Warhammer 40K universe.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Power_fist

Charges of electricity dancing between the joins and flickering along the large armor plates, spasmodically igniting the darkness with faint illumination....Ahhh beautiful imagery

Me and my friends have been toying with the idea of making a working thunder-hammer. Basically I would cut down a rail-road tie to about 12", that would be the "head, and as for the electricity, we were thinking of using about 20 or so electrodes from the front of a taser.

I just dont know if we can get the same "arcing" effect as you do when you hit the button on a taser, Thoughts and opinions?

Skinnereal wrote:There's no need for an exeskeleton, so the energy would cause the main damage.
The reason for I1 might be the need to power it up before the hit.

Powerfists are always powered. Thunderhammer conserve power and are only powerd shortly before impact, thats why they pack even more punch.

Dark Scipio wrote:

Skinnereal wrote:There's no need for an exeskeleton, so the energy would cause the main damage.
The reason for I1 might be the need to power it up before the hit.

Powerfists are always powered. Thunderhammer conserve power and are only powerd shortly before impact, thats why they pack even more punch.

Many space marines have fallen in battle due to the urgent need to scratch their nose.

sub-zero wrote:Me and my friends have been toying with the idea of making a working thunder-hammer. Basically I would cut down a rail-road tie to about 12", that would be the "head, and as for the electricity, we were thinking of using about 20 or so electrodes from the front of a taser.

I just dont know if we can get the same "arcing" effect as you do when you hit the button on a taser, Thoughts and opinions?

How do taser's work? I did a quick google, but didn't see anything absolutely concrete. It's battery based, and it depends on physical contact (and penetration of skin) so I'm guessing it's DC, though I suppose it could have an inverter in it as part of the amp, though I'd think you'd lose a lot in the conversion.

At any rate, if it's DC, you're not going to get much arc for your effort. "Edison Coils" are possible, though not the spectacular effect you're looking for. You're better off building a small Tesla coil and embedding it inside your hammer. There are a few downsides to this though: It's not going to be self contained, as it will require AC power and a ground, and it's kinda dangerous.

Directions for building one for cheap out of scaved junk

Don't blame me if you blow yourself up, but I'd love to see pics if you pull it off.

Here you go:

http://tesladownunder.com/tesla_coil_sparks.htm

Just get a portable power supply and you're set.

Skinnereal wrote:

Just get a portable power supply and you're set.

That's really the trick. Tesla coils require AC power. Unless you know of some place that sells jarred lightning, you can't really just go buy an AC battery. You could get a portable inverter, like what you would get for your car to plug stuff in like you would a standard wall socket, but that still requires a battery. So in addition to being bulky (car battery and inverter would add pounds and mass to the hammer), the inverter would be quite lossy, not to mention that I'd be concerned that the coil would burn out the inverter. You'd have to look for one that had a decent peak wattage.

On the bright side though, you could probably fit all of this into a self-fashioned space marine backpack.

DrownedRat117 wrote:So I have a few thoughts about these enormous electrical fists that take up a genetically engineered soldiers forearm-

They deliver a double strength hit with one punch (Slap, backhand, superflick, whatever..)- Does this mean they effectively work like gravity hammers in Halo? Slow hit, but sends the fools flying? I can't see it any other way..

Thing 2 is,
Do they just look like a big metal arm bucket, or would they have some small electricity zapping around them? Like an energy field.

The disruption field surrounding power swords and power fists are much more advanced then just plain electricity. The disruption field surrounding these weapons actually breaks down matter, thus allowing these weapons to penetrate any form of armor.

If you hit a Terminator with just an electrified sword, its just gonna shock the terminator, but the armor will be pretty much untouched. Its the disruption field that actually breaks down the Terminator armor at a molecular level, letting the weapon penetrate.

The powerfist has the same field surrounding it, but is a powered gauntlet that improves the wielders strength. The fist could basically let the wielder rip through a tanks armor like it was paper thanks to the disruption field.

Thunderhammers work a bit different, instead of having a passive disruption field like a fist or a sword, it unleashes a massive burst of energy on impact that devestates the target. This is much similar to the Halo Gravity hammer, but the force is probably much more devestating to heavy armor.

I think hitting anything with "just an electrified sword" would be a bit silly. for a start there's a 50% chance it'd go to ground through you instead of mr mctarget, and because the blade is live it'd short out on anything and everything wet or metal... not to mention (from a mechanics point of view) that the cables and power source would likely break as inconveniently as possible, turning your electrified sword into a sharpish metal stick.

but seriously, why are we applying real-world physics to this?

scubasteve04 wrote:The disruption field surrounding power swords and power fists are much more advanced then just plain electricity.

Yeah, I'm really surprised this opinion hasn't been stated more. Power weapons are NOT swords that shoot lightning. Neither are power fists.

I mean, really think about it for a moment, if you have lightning arcing all over the place all the time, firstly, that is a HUGE drain on your power supply. If the AIR is causing your circuitry to short, then your electronic system is not long for this world. Secondly, were power fist arcing everywhere all the time, then why wouldn't they instantly kill the user when they get turned on?

Disruptor fields are much more like force fields than they are like Jacob's ladder. I think the only reason people don't make power fists glow like they make power weapons glow is because it would make the model look silly.

Necromunda says a power weapon is enveloped by a disruption field that "tears" apart any surface it touches. I'm assuming that it means that it disrupts at a molecular level and that the atoms are "torn" apart. The power field may be turned off so that it may manipulate objects like normal (for a servo enhances manipulator).
Let me go get 2nd edition and see what the wargear book says.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
2nd edition also states that it's a disruption field, but goes into slightly more detail. The field can be turned off and other objects can be held like normal.