The Energistic Conversion Matrix lets you power down systems to increase speed. My question is, if you have the ECM, why couldnt you draw power from say the warp engine, to power the weapons? My point is, if the ECM lets you shunt power to the drives, why wouldnt it let you shunt power to weapons? I am sure there is a game reason for this, but it would seem to me that if the ECM could be used to do this, a ship with one could mount weapons he does not have the power to operate at the same time he is operating his warp engine. But why would you keep the warp engine powered up? Why not be able to use that power better? I can understand if you need to keep the warp engine humming to escape, but if you do not plan to escape into the warp, why waste the power? Can you fight in the warp? If you can't fight in the warp, then the weapons are probably unpowered. Just curious about this.

This was actually similar to the problem with the Apocalypse class battleship. If you fired the lances at max range, you took a critical hit to the thrusters.

I've always liked the idea of power management in ANY space-based game. I know it addds complexity to the rules and some people would rather keep things simple, but some optional rules to "shunt power to shields" or what have you would have been cool.

Would anyone know if there are any fan-made rules for this?

How would extra power help the guns ?

For example, if the gun is firing any sort of projectile then the extra power isn't likely to do much.

Can they handle any more power before overheating ?

The more power you put through something, the more waste heat you have to deal with. And since the vacuum of space is a very good insulator, getting rid of that heat is going to be a problem.

Its not to overpower the weapons. It is to install weapons for which you lack power, and shunt power to them. I thought I made that clear.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

Sort of being able to fire some of the guns but only if you stop moving?

Shame that there isnt a overcharge 'but must wait for drives to charge up - wave motion gun" type component

Ok its very 'Starblazers' but it is a well practised sci-fi trope that seems to be missing in a 40k setting where nealy all the tropes are available,

Or is the nova cannon going to fill that slot?

The official response to my question about this is that it only works to provide speed to the engines.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

Ok I'll Bite

The paragraph states that it 'allows raw power to be diverted directly into the ships drive tube. I think that they are refering here to the plasma drive. It's the Plasma drive that powers the weapons.However in rogue trader it says

"On freighters and merchant vessels, the rest of the ship is
taken up by holds containing the ship’s precious cargo. On
warships this space is filled by the colossal power generators
that drive their weapon systems. These towering structures
hum and crackle with the monstrous energies bound inside.
The generators are housed within deep shafts which disappear
from view into darkness, broken only by the crackling blue arcs
of lightning that leap from the generators. When a laser battery
is fired with a titanic unleashing of energy, its power well is
filled with a thunderous roar. In battle, a warship echoes with
the thunder of its weapons, its decks shuddering with the recoil
of the furious discharges."

This means (I am assuming though) that somehow before the power is fed to whatever macrobattery/lance wepon system it is first 'converted and stored' in the generators which power the weapons. The ECM makes it possible its to bleed off the power from these weapon generators to the engines to make the ship go faster but turning the engines off to power the generators wont work. If theres a limited amount of generators that power the weapons systems, and they can only power x amount at a time. (Assumption)

Warp engines? No idea why they need to be kept powered. It may be that as the Ship is decribed as being 'hurled' into the immaterium and that keeping it stocked allows it the collossal push needed to enter the warp. Or something

You can fight in the warp but at pointblank range. If you can find the novel 'execution hour' theres a exchange between an imperial ship and a chaos one:

"The Dictator class cruiser had used its torpedo ordnance before in the previous few days' engagements against the Contagion, but every shot fired
had lost itself in the currents of the maelstrom before it could reach its intended target.These could not be lost. Not at this range"

I really see no reason to keep the Warp Engine powered. What if your vessel is moored above a planet, and plans to be there for months reprovisioning or repairing? You would have no need to run the Warp Engine. Why waste the plasma? Maybe its a contained system and the warp engine does something else, like power conversion or something. Who knows? Official ruling is that the ECM only shunts power to the drives, so I am cool with that.

Perhaps they keep the warp drive powered up because of this:

"All warp-drives incorporate navigational mechanisms.
When the ship is in real space, these monitor the ever-shifting
movements of that part of the warp corresponding to the
ship’s current position. It is a ‘window’ into warp space. By
means of observing these movements in the warp it is possible
to calculate a course, corrective manoeuvres, and approximate
journey time to a proposed destination." RT p311

Perhaps they find it convenient to keep an eye on the warp for some reason.

It may also be because the Warp Engine contains something (perhaps a large concentration of accumulated psychic energy, unleashed when the ship translates into the Warp to open the temporary gateway through which the ship travels), which requires constant power in order to keep secure.

We don't really know how a Warp Drive works, so there's room for endless speculation as to why it might require a constant and considerable source of power.

re warp engines, I suggest the "Ritual of Awakening the Engine of the Empyrean" takes several strategic rounds and tech use repair tests.
Ships in a hurry to warp are advised to warm up their engines well before hand.

Thats all and good, but the rules for the ECM state you are shunting power from other systems, which would then be unpowered, and this does not state that taking power from the warp engine is going to cause a problem. Now if it takes a long time for the "warp coils" to warm up to jump, I can see a problem in certain cases.

So my new house rule is to allow a player with an ECM to shunt power around to power weapons he might have installed without the proper power he needed. This can cause some problems, especially if he needs to go to warp after being chased off, and finds that his "warp coils" are cold and he has to give them an hour to recharge. So the house rule that is going to go with this shunting of power requires 1d10 turns for the warp engine to go online prior to jumping. It will be a Navigation Test +0, with each degree of success removing 1 turn.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

I also suggest a negative modifier for the transition to represent the fact they haven't been keeping an eye on the warp and are essentially jumping into it blind/semi blind (-30).

I considered that; however, I would imagine that the Navigators keep escape routes plotted out once they arrive in a system, so that if they have to get out fast, they do not have to worry about jumping blind. I could be wrong, but if I were a RT Captain, I would have my escape routes preplotted.