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Okay, so power armour users rely on the armours own electronic mechanisms to actually move its weight, correct? So the question I have is whether or not EMP or haywire type weaponry have any effect, which could immobilise or impede its wearer, or whether the armour has some form of material or countermeasure built in that negates this. Are there any fluff occurrances pertaining to this?

There is a 2nd edition rules thing for Haywire grenades vs. Terminator armor. Basically they ignored the 2d6 Terminator armor save.

Interesting, so there is precedent for emps affecting astartes armour.

There is precedent, but it was a bit unlikely. It's heavily shielded in the conventional sense.

What's the conventional sense?

It is possible to shield electronics from EMP by surrounding it in a faraday cage. I would expect that this is probably standard practice on power armour since it is so widespread. You would not want you elite infantry being disabled by something as simple as an EMP.

Iracundus is right about Haywire grenade in 2nd ed but I imagined haywire as being more than just an EMP.

Orks in Helsreach shoot some sort of electro harpoon that disables the PA and messes up the Marine inside

 Bobthehero wrote:
Orks in Helsreach shoot some sort of electro harpoon that disables the PA and messes up the Marine inside

You sure that wasn't due to a harpoon being shot through his chest?

Bit of both

Meh, the harpoon was just a flesh wound.


I'll just clarify and say I've never read Helsreach...

Deathwatch and inquisitor had emp effects, turns the armour off until they are out of the emp field, not sure how it can be a field lol

Well it would technically be an EM field not an EM pulse, but it's the same phenomenon. A large reactor or generator could generate such a field naturally.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Well it would technically be an EM field not an EM pulse, but it's the same phenomenon. A large reactor or generator could generate such a field naturally.

That's the bunny, so the grease must generate a field, that's pretty advanced now I think of it.

Hopefully this won't be too boring, but I work in the aviation industry and have some experience with this type of thing

For defence products, broadly speaking you have to do two types of test to determine a products resistance to EMI (electromagnetic interferance).

'Conducted Susceptibility' testing is when energy is introduced directly to electronics by coupling onto a products wires or contacts.
'Radiated Susceptibility' testing is when you project an electrical or magnetic field at a product.

Therefore, it could be that Space Marine power armour is more vulnerable to contact weapons (like the Ork harpoon mentioned above) than the high intensity radiated fields you would normally associate with 'EMP'.
There are also different pass criteria. Some things only need to survive and be operational after the EMI is gone, others must be 100% operational whilst exposed to EMI and others must operate in some reduced capacity whilst being exposed.

Indeed one might imagine that the overloading of a space ship reactor would cause a massive ammount of radiated electromagnetic emissions, but I've never read about power armour being destroyed during fleet battles. However, there is plenty of material suggesting that sensors are scrambled or other functionality impaired whilst the armour is exposed to radiated EMI.

Terminator armour SHOULD have some kind of emp-proofing since the suits were adapted from reactor tech suits (who wore them INSIDE the plasma reactors) and apart from the high-temperatures involved, there's probably a crap-ton of em effects as well.

In RT, marine armour was susceptible to haywire grenades (plus then you could hit them with tanglefoot as well. The first slowed them down, the second made them trip over their feet).

 chromedog wrote:
Terminator armour SHOULD have some kind of emp-proofing since the suits were adapted from reactor tech suits (who wore them INSIDE the plasma reactors) and apart from the high-temperatures involved, there's probably a crap-ton of em effects as well.

Oh there would definitely be lots of EM interference inside a plasma reactor.

I read a BL book where the Iron Warriors used an emp pulse to cripple Iron Hands, or the other way round. It was some time ago. If I remember rightly only their augmentations siezed up, not the power armour - which suggests power armour is hardened to emp pulses.

Mind you, BL bastardise the fluff to the nth degree.

I just finished Priests of Mars, and in it a Black Templar is hit by an improvised weapon that unleashes big arcs of electricity. His power armour gets overcharged and shortcircuits (the Marine is seriously wounded and taken out of the fight, but survives). I am not very knowledgeable about EMPs, but I guess that would mean that power armour could still be vulnerable.

Cyrixiinus wrote:
Okay, so power armour users rely on the armours own electronic mechanisms to actually move its weight, correct? So the question I have is whether or not EMP or haywire type weaponry have any effect, which could immobilise or impede its wearer, or whether the armour has some form of material or countermeasure built in that negates this. Are there any fluff occurrances pertaining to this?

Farsight ended the imperial invasion of Dal'yth using an EMP to short out imperial tech including space marine power armour.

It ended with the 8th company ultramarines literally with knives at their throat and and Farsight telling them to get the feth out or else.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Well it would technically be an EM field not an EM pulse, but it's the same phenomenon. A large reactor or generator could generate such a field naturally.

It's not a field with a sharply defined boundary is the point he was making.

(In game - X feet away, armour is useless. Get dragged to X+1 feet away, no effects - we're outside the field now. Not how fields work...)

godking wrote:

Cyrixiinus wrote:
Okay, so power armour users rely on the armours own electronic mechanisms to actually move its weight, correct? So the question I have is whether or not EMP or haywire type weaponry have any effect, which could immobilise or impede its wearer, or whether the armour has some form of material or countermeasure built in that negates this. Are there any fluff occurrances pertaining to this?

Farsight ended the imperial invasion of Dal'yth using an EMP to short out imperial tech including space marine power armour.

It ended with the 8th company ultramarines literally with knives at their throat and and Farsight telling them to get the feth out or else.

Any source please ?

In the Ultramarines vs Tau story by Phil Kelly (the recent novel) were space marines getting their armour completley disabled by Farsight. It looks like someone already said it though

123ply wrote:
In the Ultramarines vs Tau story by Phil Kelly (the recent novel) were space marines getting their armour completley disabled by Farsight. It looks like someone already said it though

it works but im guessing you need a powerful EMP to mess with marine armour,
ie one grenade might be a minor annoyence, it take a big EMP to disable it as its hardened to some degree against it.

Terminaitor shoud be more imune but that armour is designed to work in enviroments power armour cannot. ., extreme radition, leaking power cores etc.

 jhe90 wrote:
it works but im guessing you need a powerful EMP to mess with marine armour, ie one grenade might be a minor annoyence, it take a big EMP to disable it as its hardened to some degree against it.

Sure, it's hardened. But Farsight might have had a weapon specifically built for the purpose, providing the Tau had enough time to check out a few captured marine power armors.

 godardc wrote:

godking wrote:

Cyrixiinus wrote:
Okay, so power armour users rely on the armours own electronic mechanisms to actually move its weight, correct? So the question I have is whether or not EMP or haywire type weaponry have any effect, which could immobilise or impede its wearer, or whether the armour has some form of material or countermeasure built in that negates this. Are there any fluff occurrances pertaining to this?

Farsight ended the imperial invasion of Dal'yth using an EMP to short out imperial tech including space marine power armour.

It ended with the 8th company ultramarines literally with knives at their throat and and Farsight telling them to get the feth out or else.

Any source please ?

Blades of Damocles by phil kelly

The Night Lords had devices they attached to Ultramarines that shorted out and shut down Ultramarine's power/terminator armour in 'Pharos'.

Okay, new question, simillar subject. Do the same type of weapons affect void shields?

Void Shields apparently work by dumping incoming energy into the warp. They get overloaded by roo much energy, so if you fire enough electromagnetic energy at a void shield it will eventually overload and shut down.

Cyrixiinus wrote:
Okay, new question, simillar subject. Do the same type of weapons affect void shields?

Since the shield is light permeable it is almost certainly permeable to other forms of EMR. However it's not permeable to laser weapons even though 40K las weapons fire in the visible light range so it's effects are inconsistent.

We have no idea how the mechanism of void shields works (in practical terms) so no way to say, really, unless there is an in-universe example.

Will it affect the void shield generator itself? Possibly. The power generation mechanism for the generator? Also possible. Can it affect them through a raised shield? No idea (see above).

 Scott-S6 wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Well it would technically be an EM field not an EM pulse, but it's the same phenomenon. A large reactor or generator could generate such a field naturally.

It's not a field with a sharply defined boundary is the point he was making.

(In game - X feet away, armour is useless. Get dragged to X+1 feet away, no effects - we're outside the field now. Not how fields work...)

Yes and no.

There will be a point where the field tapers away to the point it no longer effect's operation. It's also possible for there to be containment in place such that if you're on either side a shielded bulkhead that one side is normal operation and the other is total immobilization. Given the areas you'd normally find such devices I would expect containment shielding to be standard procedure. You'd have fairly delineated areas where you have radiation and not.

Realistically, the rules for the fields should be "Within X feet, all operation is impossible. Between X and Y feet you have limited operations of these systems. Between Y and Z just your comms are disrupted. And beyond Z there is no effect."