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I was just wondering what happens when 2 power weapons meet. do they just bounce off each other or can a power sword cut the other in half. I was reading a story about 40k and it said a IG major used his power fist to grab a chaos marine's power sword in mid swing and shatter it. So what do you think, can this happen?

I seem to recall from somewhere that you can have differing strength/quality of power weapon, so a better made one can cut an inferior one.

Two similar weapons? I'm thinking lightsabers.

azreal13 wrote:I seem to recall from somewhere that you can have differing strength/quality of power weapon, so a better made one can cut an inferior one.

Two similar weapons? I'm thinking lightsabers.

But I don't think in any starwars books/games read/played a lightsaber destroyed a lightsaber by striking it. unless the hilt was hit.

As far as I know, two power weapons against each other are just like normal swords. A power fistis a different weapons even thoguh it uses a similar energy field around it to a power weapon, so how it would work against a power weapon would be different to how a normal power weapon works against another power weapon.
In general, it is as azreal13 said, thereare different qualities/strength of power weapons.

I started a thread on this when I started on Dakka.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/386287.page

Here.

kinratha wrote:

azreal13 wrote:I seem to recall from somewhere that you can have differing strength/quality of power weapon, so a better made one can cut an inferior one.

Two similar weapons? I'm thinking lightsabers.

But I don't think in any starwars books/games read/played a lightsaber destroyed a lightsaber by striking it. unless the hilt was hit.

I think he was meaning the way the lighsabers crackle and bounce off each other. Clearly on equal measure power wise. This is how I can imagine two power swords to act, colliding together in a spark of excess energy.

Power fist Vs Power Sword however I'm not sure, I can imagine a fist would exert enough pressure to bend/shatter the sword, But on the flip I could imagine the sword to cut the fist if on the strick. So it depends on the situation of the fight.

Power weapon vs weapon depends on the weapon

Power sword vs power sword ends up in a dueling match because neither can cut each other

Power sword vs axe ends a bit differently, as the axe has a better chance of piercing through and doing more damage.

Back in 2nd edition alot of different power weapons had far different stats, and could parry against one another.

Force = mass * velocity.
So yeah you could shatter it if you hit it hard enough. Unlikely to be possible by a normal human but there you go.

I think a lightsaber-style sparking clash is most likely.

In a sword vs fist, i'm going to say sword. Mainly because the sword swinger has the benefit of using his wrist

On the Thunderhammer issue, I might be wrong, but years ago I remember a story (cannot remember a where). Where a Marine overloaded a Titan with an overloading Thunderhammer.

I think this was the original inspiration for the Lysander Vortex Grenade- Titan Hammer squads.

I cannot remember if it used to be a rule in an earlier edition or not that a Thunderhammer could overload and explode. It's seems to be ringing a bell but I cannot for the life of me remember.

On topic: What I never understood was how two disrupter fields meeting would work, would it just disrupt the opposing sword form e.g Both sword edges would become a diffuse cloud of atoms. They wouldn't repel.

From Lexicanum

Power weapons are a type of advanced hand-to-hand combat weapon taking several forms but utilising the same basic technological principles. When activated the blade of the weapon becomes sheathed in a field of energy which disrupts solid matter, allowing the weapon to easily tear through armour, including even Terminator Armour.

So I think the stronger constructed blade would win, because the field affects the edge making it easier to cut?

Fist would have strenght to break sword because the fields cancel out or whatever but that leaves a normal sword and a mechanical fist which doubles your strength...

@ Joey - sorry mate F=ma (Force is equal to the mass of an object multiplied by its acceleration)
- acceleration = (final velocity - initial velocity) / time

But how does one disintegration (or whatever) field cancel another.... Does it generate more power or something?? How??

I cannot remember if it used to be a rule in an earlier edition or not that a Thunderhammer could overload and explode. It's seems to be ringing a bell but I cannot for the life of me remember.

Nope, but they used to be the most powerful power weapon in the game in 2nd edition, they were a true terror to face in melee combat if you couldn't kill the one holding it, not to mention bashed the crap out of vehicles. And no they were not equal to powerfists but a "bit" better, they were the GODHAMMER!

Pfist: S8: Damage 1, -5 Save modifier/ Armour Pen D6 + D20 + 8

Thunder Hammer: Strength: (If it hits you it will automatically cause damage, don't roll against toughness as it's not required), Damage: D6 (wounds), Save modifier: -5, Armour penetration: Auto

ZebioLizard2 wrote:

Thunder Hammer: Strength: (If it hits you it will automatically cause damage, don't roll against toughness as it's not required), Damage: D6 (wounds), Save modifier: -5, Armour penetration: Auto

Nice, D6 wounds..(thinks of Mephiston getting squashed smiles)..The modern one always shakes a vehicle, no where near as good as it used to be.

that 'godhammer' makes DCCWs look sweet and innocent

There was a Space Hulk fluff story about a terminator being cornered by stealers and overloading his hammer to take them, and him, out.

It could be that fluff that people are remembering.

And yes, T-Hammers were obscenely awesomesauce back when

To put it simply, the old power swords could be used to parry, and were able to parry against standard power weapons

Power Axe's were able to be wielded two handed, and do +1 Strength more.

Power mauls were the same as power swords, but couldn't parry

The Chaplain weapon prevented things from parrying him, while hitting like a two handed power axe.

The fluff on Thunderhammers in the GK codex does mention the self-destruct feature, although it says that this option has either been removed or lost from current thunderhammer designs. or simply isn't done anymore.

kinratha wrote:

azreal13 wrote:I seem to recall from somewhere that you can have differing strength/quality of power weapon, so a better made one can cut an inferior one.

Two similar weapons? I'm thinking lightsabers.

But I don't think in any starwars books/games read/played a lightsaber destroyed a lightsaber by striking it. unless the hilt was hit.

In the Young Jedi Knights series, One Character broke through the other's lightsaber and cut her arm off, this due to the fact that her lightsaber was poorly constructed and his wasn't.

Da Kommizzar wrote:

kinratha wrote:

azreal13 wrote:I seem to recall from somewhere that you can have differing strength/quality of power weapon, so a better made one can cut an inferior one.

Two similar weapons? I'm thinking lightsabers.

But I don't think in any starwars books/games read/played a lightsaber destroyed a lightsaber by striking it. unless the hilt was hit.

In the Young Jedi Knights series, One Character broke through the other's lightsaber and cut her arm off, this due to the fact that her lightsaber was poorly constructed and his wasn't.

So her lightsaber blade deactivated?

Never heard of a lightsaber deactivating before unless the hilt was damaged

Da Kommizzar wrote:

kinratha wrote:

azreal13 wrote:I seem to recall from somewhere that you can have differing strength/quality of power weapon, so a better made one can cut an inferior one.

Two similar weapons? I'm thinking lightsabers.

But I don't think in any starwars books/games read/played a lightsaber destroyed a lightsaber by striking it. unless the hilt was hit.

In the Young Jedi Knights series, One Character broke through the other's lightsaber and cut her arm off, this due to the fact that her lightsaber was poorly constructed and his wasn't.

Is this the author of the books, thinly veiled contempt for female engineers? :( My wife would take issue with this

So yeah, there seems the a bit of Legacy thing with Thunderhammers as they used to be able to explode. The Space Hulk thing, did ring a bell, I think it was the Original Space Hulk, Deathwing Expansion when they added Captains Assault Cannons and other assault bits like Lightning claws and Thunderhammers.

Power Weapon and Force Weapons can block eachother-- yes, even if the force weapon itself isn't a power weapon. Even a low quality power weapon can usually block a high quality one, unless it overloads its field or somesuch (which could happen over the course of normal usage anyway).

It probably would look like normal parrying and blocking except the fields clash instead of the metal of the weapons.

For that matter, a power weapon wouldn't necessarily even destroy a well constructed normal weapon in one hit. And there's some weapon construction methods which make them resistant to power weapons

Lightsabers seems right to me.

Power weapons themselves aren't lightsabers, however, so it really would look and sound quite a bit different.

For one, he weapons actually have weight behind them.

IHateNids wrote:

Da Kommizzar wrote:

kinratha wrote:

azreal13 wrote:I seem to recall from somewhere that you can have differing strength/quality of power weapon, so a better made one can cut an inferior one.

Two similar weapons? I'm thinking lightsabers.

But I don't think in any starwars books/games read/played a lightsaber destroyed a lightsaber by striking it. unless the hilt was hit.

In the Young Jedi Knights series, One Character broke through the other's lightsaber and cut her arm off, this due to the fact that her lightsaber was poorly constructed and his wasn't.

So her lightsaber blade deactivated?

Never heard of a lightsaber deactivating before unless the hilt was damaged

A lightsaber hit by a cortosis blade would short out for a few seconds.

Or that hits cortosis armor.

The way I understand it, a power weapon is a physical weapon surrounded by an energy 'field'. A Light Saber is a nearly inviolable energy field formed into a defined beam. It has no real weight other than the hilt.

You could, with a Light Saber, put the hilt up against an object and the 'blade' would bore through most objects without much fuss when turned on.

A power weapon benefits by the fact that it has weight to it much like other weapons of its particular type. The field assists the weapons cutting or bashing power. The Light Saber relies on the fact that almost nothing physical can resist the nature of its beam or 'blade'.

I guess they could sound similar when striking each other, when the power weapons field is active, but I doubt whether a power weapon could stop a Light Saber based on what I've read in the fluff.

Oh yeah, and remember OP, if it's written down and endorsed by GW or the Black Library it happened or can happen no matter what our notions have been in the past. You'll have to adjust your idea of the physical universe to suit 40k by chalking it up to our 21st century ignorance of what is possible in the 41st millenium.

Certain patterns of powerswords are basically lightsabers without the copyright infringements.

ETA: The lightsaber-shorting properties of cortosis-weave materials is dubiously canon, as cortosis shows up in several Star Wars sources, but does the shorting trick in only a relative few. In others, it's simply able to resist being cut in half by the lightsaber.

Only a single pattern is, but even those are unreliable to begin with.

Of course power weapons are not lightsabers, I think everyone here thinking sabers are more referring to the effect of two such blades clashing: I would imagine sparks, energy spikes and a low humming sound plus the sound of the metal clanging against each other.

Actually just wondered what would happen if some made a lightsaber-hammer