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Can their basic weapons do this kind of damage? ( notice the marine on left ):

The damage here seems to be slightly exaggerated. If it were guardsmen or orks I would say most definitely. However, I think that shurikens would have a harder time penetrating marine armour and if it did, I don't think it would have the power to cleave through a marine's shoulder.

Iranna.

Yeah tend to agree - great pic though

of course if the central character of the story is the Eldar then it makes sense having more powerful "plot based" ammo

Those seem to be shurikens on drugs! No way the can be that powerful. I've seen some marine vs eldar pictures with that kind of battle damage, but only from an starcannon!

Ps. Id love to have my shurikens do that much damage in the game though

Multilaser or Starcannon? Probably. Run-of-the-mill Shuriken catapult? Doubt so.

We can't actually see what's tearing that astartes apart, by the way. That shuriken catapult is not in the right angle, unless the author got the perspective wrong.

Also, aren't the eldar guys in the pic Striking Scorpions? That could explain the damage.

Cutting off the arm at a joint should be most certainly possible ( shuriken weapons are about as strong as bolters but have, at least according to dark heresy, a much higher rate of fire) but cutting like this trough a shoulderplate is unlikely.

If that was a Shuriken Cannon I'd say yes.

If the guy getting ripped up was a Guardsman I'd say the picture was accurate.

Otherwise no.

Ya I'm going with a shuriken Cannon doing that not a regular catapult.

Yeah, maybe an AP3 shiriken weapon, but not a basic weapon or pistol. I picture it more embedding into the body if it penetrated the armor.

Yes, Mon-keigh armour can't stand before advanced Eldar technology!
Mael Dannan!

They slice pretty good, but not through power armour, not unless it's a really good shot.

That is what I was thinking to.
Standard Eldar shirukens fire diamond stong pointy sticks. There is no way one of those can rip off Guardsman arm not to mention Astartes one ( to me they are a lot like those things from Halo that those little guys carry ).

And those are striking Scorpions.

Ahhh no, they fire monomolecular shurican.

Brother Coa wrote:That is what I was thinking to.
Standard Eldar shirukens fire diamond stong pointy sticks. There is no way one of those can rip off Guardsman arm not to mention Astartes one ( to me they are a lot like those things from Halo that those little guys carry ).

And those are striking Scorpions.

That is more like what DE have (coated with poison of course.)
Shurican Catapults fire Shuricans.

Agent_Tremolo wrote:Multilaser or Starcannon? Probably. Run-of-the-mill Shuriken catapult? Doubt so.

We can't actually see what's tearing that astartes apart, by the way. That shuriken catapult is not in the right angle, unless the author got the perspective wrong.

No, it's the central character's gun. He's fired a total of three shots in a slight spread. The first two cut the arm into pieces, and the third shot is about to hit the marine in his mid-section.

But yeah, the damage doesn't really match up with what a light Shurikan weapon ought to be capable of doing. A Banshee's Power Sword, sure. But not a light gun like the one he's almost certainly using.

That looks way too devastating for a Shuriken Catapault.

Though, IIRC Striking Scorpions have better than Shuriken Catapaults by quite a bit, I forget the exact statline though.

Brother Coa wrote:That is what I was thinking to.
Standard Eldar shirukens fire diamond stong pointy sticks. There is no way one of those can rip off Guardsman arm not to mention Astartes one ( to me they are a lot like those things from Halo that those little guys carry ).

And those are striking Scorpions.

They can rip off a guardsman's arm. Actually most weapons can rip off a guardsman's arm that's kind of the level of violence that 40k is. Even the lasgun can tear off arms. (Last I checked anyway.)

nomotog wrote:
They can rip off a guardsman's arm. Actually most weapons can rip off a guardsman's arm that's kind of the level of violence that 40k is. Even the lasgun can tear off arms. (Last I checked anyway.)

True, but that is Lasgun on "High" setting. And Guardsman rarely use those.

Brother Coa wrote:

nomotog wrote:
They can rip off a guardsman's arm. Actually most weapons can rip off a guardsman's arm that's kind of the level of violence that 40k is. Even the lasgun can tear off arms. (Last I checked anyway.)

True, but that is Lasgun on "High" setting. And Guardsman rarely use those.

Well the point was that almost everything can rip off arms. I say almost just to be safe, but the level of tech is so high that even the weak wepaons treat people like tissue paper.

If you get hit by something on your elbow or knee it will probably rip your arm/leg off(at least in the practical sense) because the only stuff thats there is Tendons and a bone joint. Its a little tougher then other flesh, but that hardly makes up for having less mass.

Brother Coa wrote:

nomotog wrote:
They can rip off a guardsman's arm. Actually most weapons can rip off a guardsman's arm that's kind of the level of violence that 40k is. Even the lasgun can tear off arms. (Last I checked anyway.)

True, but that is Lasgun on "High" setting. And Guardsman rarely use those.

Lasguns gonna flash boil the water in the flesh. Thats probably gonna tear an arm off, whatever setting.

May I ask any of you about how does Shuriken 'gun' works?

its barrel is very flat rectangular just like typical Sci Fi railguns. AFAIK it shoots disk blade thing (shuriken itself!!). But what drives that projectiles? If eldar did not use any kind of gunpowder anymore.

is it electricity like Tau pulseguns?

@Lone Cat Shuriken technology is based on Gravitic acceleration (sort of like a magnetic accelerator, much like Tau and even prototype railgun technology today, but way more advanced), which fires a monomolecular thin disc of wraithbone at nearly impossible velocities.

According to Lexicanum (and my eldar codex, which i havent read in a while so i should cross reference between it and lexicanum) Shuriken weapons use the same technology as Imperial Landspeeders to fire (Gravitic acceleration but used for propulsion in that case).

Hope this helps

2NS ed shuriken weapons, easily, they made marines take cover with how they lowered their saves. Now adays they always get a 3+ in game terms against the shuriken weaponry.
Fluff and background wise yes. Pity they don't have a system in the actual game to reflect the weapons strengths better.

Like Vermillion noted, depends on what edition of rules and/or fluff you subscribe to whether it pierces Space Marine armour, however, as in the original post - no. If that had been death by Shuriken Weapons, the Space Marine would look like a cheese a cat had taken offense at. (Cause of death - blood loss due to hundreds of lacerations all over the body)

Should shuriken weapons be depicted better in game, Eldar Guardians would have to be armed with laser weapons (again) and Dire Avengers would have to be made more expensive.

Lone Cat wrote:May I ask any of you about how does Shuriken 'gun' works?

its barrel is very flat rectangular just like typical Sci Fi railguns. AFAIK it shoots disk blade thing (shuriken itself!!). But what drives that projectiles? If eldar did not use any kind of gunpowder anymore.

is it electricity like Tau pulseguns?

What dakkawolf is talking about is this: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Shuriken

What's not explicitly stated in the article is that Shuriken weapons are burst weapons by nature, sort of like a stuttering flame thrower. Additionally, the Shrieker Cannon in the modern codex are toxic, but the victims don't explode as such - they used to do that in Gav Thorpe's experimental Harlequin's codex, however.

Lone Cat wrote:May I ask any of you about how does Shuriken 'gun' works?

its barrel is very flat rectangular just like typical Sci Fi railguns. AFAIK it shoots disk blade thing (shuriken itself!!). But what drives that projectiles? If eldar did not use any kind of gunpowder anymore.

is it electricity like Tau pulseguns?

"Shuriken weapons fire a flesh-tearing hail of razor-sharp discs by means of a gravitic accelerator similar to the gravitic motors which power Imperial Land Speeders. The accelerator creates a peristaltic shift from the front to the rear of the firing chamber, hurling the shuriken missiles forward at a tremendous velocity. A burst of several missiles can be fired in a fraction of a second in this way."

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

The guns themselves are psychically activated as well and thus onyl work in Eldar hands. If a human picked it up it'd just seem like a well-crafted by useless plastic toy.

Well, a psyker could use Eldar weaponry if he spent a little time playing around with it. He might have trouble operating a firepike, but a Shurican weapon wouldn't be a problem.

Not necessarily true. Having opposable thumbs isn't sufficient to use human equipment, for example. Imagine a race whose hand, quite simply, had the thumb and index finger trade places. This alien would be able to operate a Glock, but "wouldn't be a problem" is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration.
The Eldar weapons are triggered by an Eldar mind's thought pattern, after all, and if it's a human mind he needs to consciously bend his mind to the task where there would be no effort involved for an Eldar.

Wow, not only are those shuriken really big, but big and powerful enough to slice off a marines arm!

I imagine the weapon in question is the Eldar MkIV Plotiken pistol, as others have noted here.

Mahtamori wrote:Not necessarily true. Having opposable thumbs isn't sufficient to use human equipment, for example. Imagine a race whose hand, quite simply, had the thumb and index finger trade places. This alien would be able to operate a Glock, but "wouldn't be a problem" is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration.
The Eldar weapons are triggered by an Eldar mind's thought pattern, after all, and if it's a human mind he needs to consciously bend his mind to the task where there would be no effort involved for an Eldar.

And yet it has been done in the fluff by Inquisitors who had occasion to use Xeno equipment on multiple occasions.