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I just started a salamander space marine army and I'm trying to legally give my army as many thunder hammers/flamers/meltas as i can. howeveri read in the space marine codex that the sergant of a tactical squad is allowed a power weapon, after much grueling research, all sources i found online and and in the rulebook say that a thunder hammer is a power weapon of the imperium, what is to stop my sergeant from legally using one? does the thunder hammer count as a power weapon in game as it does in the lore?
thanks in advance, as I'm completely baffled.

A thunder hammer is a power weapon, true. However, it also has it's own rules, it functions more like a power fist only it can stun targets. If you wanted to use it like an axe/sword you might get some complaints, but as long as you let people know that it's just a regular power weapon you should be fine.

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as far as rules go though, if it says power weapon it typically means a power sword/axe. If they can take power fist or thunder hammer, then it will tell you. Also, they typically cost more then power weapons.

Helmholtz wrote:what is to stop my sergeant from legally using one?

The fact that he can't.

The codex tells you that he can take a power weapon. Page 99 of the Codex tells you what a power weapon is, and a thunder-hammer is not it. You'll note that thunder-hammers have their own entry further down the page.

While a Thunder Hammer is a power weapon, it is not a Power Weapon.

Power weapon is both the name of a specific piece of wargear, and the name of a special close combat effect.

It is rather important to learn to tell them apart.



Another example includes GWs use of "troops" and "Troops".

Perhaps if you want to have as many hammers as possible, maybe the sergeants could have smaller hammers (which wounts as power weapons) than the ones who actually have Thunder Hammers? I mean, the Iron Hands box includes a hammer for the sergeant...

Technically, a Thunderhammer is a Power Fist with additional abilities. and Power Fists are Power Weapons with additional abilities.


In your case, your sergeant can't purchase a Thunderhammer because his rules don't allow it. you can either give him a power weapon or a power fist.

for modeling purposes, you could probably give him a smaller hammer that counts as either a power weapon or a powerfist.


it will simply be an astetic feature and won't have effect in the game. just be clear that the Hammers your Tac squads are counting as something else(make sure you don't have 2 squads with hammers and say one is a power weapon and the other is the fist)

Awesome, I'll just make some miniature hammers out of putty and give them to my sergeants and count them as power fists...even though they look nothing like them at all.
thanks for the help