Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all,

I have a question about plasma weapons. Do they require some kind of natural resource to make the "ammo" for them or is it just electronics and wizardry? I'm coming up with some background for my Guard regiment which uses a lot of plasma weapons and I thought, if they use some kind of natural resource, their planet could have a plasma mine or something.

Anyone know?

Thanks,
Ed

For Ork version I'll call it electronics and wizardry. For humans it would shoot super heated ionized gas would be my best bet. Most likely a polarized element that has magnetic properties or is susceptible to magnetic forces as the means by which it's kept together and shot out in a desired direction. Maybe the fluff mentions it. I don't have IG fluff and Ork fluff doesn't give much other then that mek boys instinctively know how to make them at their genetic level.

Imperial Plasma weapons in several books are mentioned as having batteries which you can deplete and need to reload.

Plasma is just another state of matter, sorta like a super heated/ energized gas. Therefore, it has to have an energy source to heat or energize the plasma, and probably a fuel source too (something to be turned to plasma). So yes, im sure you could have a planet that mines some sort of material that is easily ionized and therefore plasma(?)'d.

Chaos plasma is better. Its powered by the warp enegies. The most potent is Ectoplasma!

 edbradders wrote:
Hi all,

I have a question about plasma weapons. Do they require some kind of natural resource to make the "ammo" for them or is it just electronics and wizardry? I'm coming up with some background for my Guard regiment which uses a lot of plasma weapons and I thought, if they use some kind of natural resource, their planet could have a plasma mine or something.

Anyone know?

Thanks,
Ed

They use unstable hydrogen isotopes as the "fuel" for the plasma. There's a power-pack/battery of some sort that triggers the reaction, but the actual material that is turned into a plasmatic state and projected down-range is a ball of hydrogen isotope.

 Psienesis wrote:

 edbradders wrote:
Hi all,

I have a question about plasma weapons. Do they require some kind of natural resource to make the "ammo" for them or is it just electronics and wizardry? I'm coming up with some background for my Guard regiment which uses a lot of plasma weapons and I thought, if they use some kind of natural resource, their planet could have a plasma mine or something.

Anyone know?

Thanks,
Ed

They use unstable hydrogen isotopes as the "fuel" for the plasma. There's a power-pack/battery of some sort that triggers the reaction, but the actual material that is turned into a plasmatic state and projected down-range is a ball of hydrogen isotope.

Ah, ok. I guess you can't really mine hydrogen. I'll have to go with my regiment's planet having a plasma weapon production facility of some kind so they get first dibs and therefore have loads.

Thanks for the help, guys

You may want to look into how we get hydrogen for industrial use. I work for a gas production company; hydrogen(and more specifically helium) is found and pumped out of some mines, it is also processed out of the air via a huge tower that gets colder and colder as the air is pumped through it with condensation collectors along the way: as the air gets colder the various gases become liquid at different levels and that liquid state is drawn off. We get oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, co2, and argon primarily but there are also trace amounts of other gases in the air also pulled out.

You can also "crack" water, which takes quite a bit of energy put into the process which is what makes it expensive for the yield of both oxygen and hydrogen.

So, yeah hydrogen miners can be a good fluff; you can think of a facility similar to bespin.

Awesome, that's massively helpful, thank you

I think my planet will have a hydrogen production facility of some kind and a plasma weapon factory. They can be a highly trained PDF tasked with the defence of factories and the surrounding system.

I'll have to write some stuff down and get a good back story on the go.

Ed

Just remember that hydrogen is incredibly unstable. Not the sort of element you want to go throwing las around at.

It doesn't need to be an element that is a gas at our room temp. I too would think Hydrogen is too unstable to be mass stored and shipped around just to be used as ammo. But then again this is the Imperium. Helps explain why they feel they need to pray to their guns before battle XD.

just about anything could be used for plasma. I imagine thus that most plasma guns use as ammo substances that are common, no sense using anything highly exotic.

 edbradders wrote:
Hi all,

I have a question about plasma weapons. Do they require some kind of natural resource to make the "ammo" for them or is it just electronics and wizardry? I'm coming up with some background for my Guard regiment which uses a lot of plasma weapons and I thought, if they use some kind of natural resource, their planet could have a plasma mine or something.

Anyone know?

Thanks,
Ed

The new mechanicus plasma weaponry have clips with some sort of ammo. Perhaps energy perhaps projective, perhaps both

You could go with the notion that your home planet is a moon of a gas giant. They "mine" the gas giant for the hydrogen plasma fuel. Maybe it's the primary supplier to Ryza, who in FW fluff is the major manufaturer of plasma tech. You give them the fuel and they give you lots of tech. Pretty common trade deal in the 40K universe.

 Salted Diamond wrote:
Maybe it's the primary supplier to Ryza, who in FW fluff is the major manufaturer of plasma tech. You give them the fuel and they give you lost of tech.

Not a bad idea at all. Supply the AdMech with different common and rare gas products and get some nice plasma weapons in return. It's also a reason to add an AdMech ally force later if you happen to get some models cheap or just feel like it. They support their supplier of rare gaseous elements.

That is exactly how the Imperium works, too.

You might be a Bespin gas-miner, like 500 generations of your ancestors before you, all working to supply the nearest Forge World with various chemicals, gases and other bits of industrialized science so they can make tanks, guns, armor, weapons, skulls, flying skulls, exploding skulls, angel-babies and those decorative wax seals they put on everything.

BrianDavion wrote:
just about anything could be used for plasma. I imagine thus that most plasma guns use as ammo substances that are common, no sense using anything highly exotic.

Except that an exotic element might take less energy to turn into plasma, and therefore be more practical than a more common one, in some situations. I'd imagine that the element used would vary, but it would have to be something with an extremely low melting point, like oxygen or hydrogen.

 Salted Diamond wrote:
You could go with the notion that your home planet is a moon of a gas giant. They "mine" the gas giant for the hydrogen plasma fuel. Maybe it's the primary supplier to Ryza, who in FW fluff is the major manufaturer of plasma tech. You give them the fuel and they give you lots of tech. Pretty common trade deal in the 40K universe.

I like this idea. I think I shall steal it and use it in the background for my army

Thank you

You know, if your PDF is tasked with protecting floating gas mines, paratroopers would be a fitting theme. Elysians-ish?