Hello!

In order to gain a better understanding of the scope of 40K weaponry, I thought it might be fun to simulate a detailed weapons testing on different every-day objects we're familiar with. Maybe those from around the forums who are talented writers and also more familiar with the 40k mythology could contribute? If you all wouldn't mind, what if we stuck to the following:

Weapon

Test Object

Range

Impact Effect/Damage Report:

I'll start with the Tau Pulse Rifle. Feel free to write your own versions too!

Weapon: Tau Pulse Rifle

Test Object: 2006 Hummer H2

Range: 50 meters

Impact Effect/ Damage Report: A single blue plasma pulse round impacts on the driver's side door with a bright blue flash and a loud thud followed by the hiss of melting steel and clattering debris. Residual plasma dissipation takes .25 seconds causing secondary scorching within a diameter of 12 inches of the impact site. All the vehicle's windows are shattered. The driver's side door smolders while the vehicle interior catches fire. Primary damage is focused on the driver's side door which bears a glowing three-inch hole, structural heat warping and thermal shock fracture. Moments later the door dislodges entirely. Secondary thermal damage is located on the interior of the passenger side door demonstrating minor penetration capabilities..

Weapon: Vulkan Pattern Meltagun

Test Object: M2 Bradley IFV(s)

Range: 30m, 10m

Effect: At all ranges, weapon emits a blue 'jet' of heat not dissimilar to the afterburner effect of 21st century high-performance jet engines. At thirty meters, surface of glacis armor melted and seared through, major damage to chassis of vehicle, crew compartments left intact. Affected armor glows cherry red for several seconds after impact. Firings at similar range on sides and rear of vehicle- as well as turret- produce more pronounced effects. Beam penetrates armor and destroys any key systems encountered. At ten meters, using a new IFV, weapon displays more prominent anti-armor properties. Glacis hit results in clean 'coring' effect of armor plating. Crew compartment compromised by hit. Internal temperature spike reaches 1000 degrees Celsius, resulting in crew death. 25mm ammunition of M242 "Bushmaster" chain gun begins cooking off within seconds of impact, resulting in high fragmentation and spalling inside the vehicle, as well as the complete destruction of any remaining control surfaces. No notable residual radioactive material, but vehicle remains uninhabitable due to heat for upwards of thirty minutes. Again, side and rear testings produce more devastating results. A shot to the turret reduces it and the mounted weapons to molten slag, while side and rear armor plating proves completely ineffective at even slowing the weapon. An interesting side note: the rear door for troop entry proves an exceptional weak point; a shot from the "melta" into a third decommissioned vehicle into this hatch speared through the interior of the vehicle and heated the glacis to the melting point. At all ranges, impacts on the treads of the vehicle result in mobility kill; links of tracks are insufficiently insulated against high temperature attack.

If you're going to describe weapon effects don't waste space repeating obvious or supurlative information.

If a beam of super heated air melts through armour like a hot knife through butter then its fairly safe to assume armour plating of smaller thicknesses would provide even less protection. Better to indicate how fast the beam penetrates standard RHA in inches or milimeters per second (Rolled Homogenous Armour: the standard of measure for Armoured vehicle plating and anti-armour weapons). Readers will be able to figure out thinner armour wouldn't last as long as thicker armour.

Additionally, as far back as I have 40k background material (pre-3rd edition) meltas have always been depicted as a colorless stream of heat. Recent video games have blue beams for the same reason it takes 6 or more bolter rounds to kill an ork, because the game companies think you want to see your melta shots and they don't want to try to actually design an appropriate effect (or an appropriate orkish encounter with a 1-shot-stop bolter). In other words, they cheat, truth is stranger than fiction (read: cooler).
Pulse weapons have always been described as exploding on hit, so you got that spot on, but I doubt theres any slow-burning effects. Both from a descriptive standpoint and a practicality standpoint. An army with an infantry rifle that will start a fire whenever it hits something flamable can never fight in a forested or vegatative area.

Be careful with your descriptions as well. A focused, directed, beam lasting 1-4s is not guaranteed to flash-boil air inside a vehicle. Especially when a majority of the energy is being absorbed by the tank body (the wall on the way in and the wall on the way out). The beam's own power, which gives it penatrative power, isn't slow enough to heat a much less dense medium like air. Weapon damage is never guaranteed either, you may hit the turret but miss any vital equipment inside resulting in no damage to the weapons.

Since you are dealing with 40k weaponry it may be more appropriate to compare their effects against 40k targets. Just to keep everything in setting. And, brutal honesty here, it will sound a lot less 11-year old fanboyish. (no insult intended)

(As a side note bradleys only have 2 inches or armour. Enough to stop most small arms or LMGs but patheticly useless against anti-tank weaponry. Using it as a comparison for an anti-tank gun is like saying a formula one race car can beat a model T in a race.)

For inquisitorial review only: The following tests have been carried out under the auspice of Inquisitor Mara Xetochek as ordered under the Light of his Grace, 067.588M40. The following materiel and personnel selected for these tests have been gathered from a non-imperial human society that has actively resisted joining with the Imperium and have attacked Ecclesiarchal missionaries who have attempted to bring them to task. They have been marked for destruction due to their blasphemy of attacking the priests of Him on Earth and their technologial progress towards obtaining Abominable Intelligences. This series of tests has been performed in order to determine the effectiveness of Astartes weaponry on the miltary foces they can bring to bear.

Weapon: Boltgun

Test Object: Human male, approx. 180cm tall. 100 kilograms.

Range: 20m

Pict Transcript:

[00.0000] - Boltgun is fired by Deathwatch Veteran Maroc Veritas at a fleeing captive (designated Target ).

[00.0012] - Bolt rounds emerges from the barrel of the boltgun. First stage cartridge ejected from port.

[00.0050] - Internal Mass-detonator arms. Detonator notes current external density and prepares to ignite payload once this density changes. Errors in this initial calculation and improper blessings before firing are the primary causes for bolt malfunctions.

[00.0099] - Bolt rounds clears two metres from weapon. Primary engine ignites. Primary ignition and launch ignition sounds indistinguishable as anything but a single firing sound.

[00.1043] - Bolt round reaches target . Entry wound located on right hand side of targets body between the third and fourth rib. As shell enters the body, significant trauma is inflicted as the shell forces the two ribs apart to accomodate its size.

[00.1088] - A combination of impact and the still firing primary rocket lifts target off feet and begins to carry him along the path of the round. The size of the shell, the relatively low firing velocity and the bulk of the shell combine to ensure the shell does not exit target .

[00.1822] - Internal Mass-detonator inside the tip of the bolt shell detects the change of density and ignites payload. A secondary fire impulse is sent to the remaining stocks of fuel in the rocket portion of the shell.

[00.1828] - The bolt explodes with approximately 291 fK of force (using standard Mechanicus measurements - 2000 fK being the standard weighting for an Astartes frag grenade). The force of this explosion inflicts mass trauma on the target. Target 's ribcage is immediately blown out on the right hand side, with all ribs immediately broken. Hydraulic shock draws out several organs through the right hand exit wound, even as concussive pressure liquifies the remaining organs within the targets frame. Target 's abdomen splits open under the force of the concussively compressed viscera. The shoulder arrangement, upper, and lower arm are removed and imparted with enough motive force to send it through the air 3.8 metres with a significant radial spin. Concussive force dislocated seven vertibrae, but does not remove them from the spinal column. Damage done to the spinal column is significant, however, with the spinal cord severed in fourteen locations by shrapnel - both steel and bone. Target 's skull is pushed free of the upper vertibrae and most connective tendons are seperated from the bone, although the connective flesh stops the head from detatching from the trunk. Target 's left arm and both legs are untouched other than minor shrapnel damage. Death is assumed to be instanteneous pending autopy and declaration of assigned Mortrex. Sound of detonating bolt shell clearly distinct from initial laumch/primary ignition, the double crack sound highly distinctive.

[01.9923] - Primary mass of target comes to stop on ground.

Physiological effect of boltgun on target : Kill confirmed inside of 0.2 seconds.

Psychological effect on target [ii]: Target [ii] response indictates the standard levels of mortal fear and disbelief of the uninitiated upon viewing the effects of astartes weapons on non-transhuman targets. Target [ii] immediately expresses a desire to join the Imperium and expresses strong faith in Him On Earth. Target [ii] transported to physiological test for Astartes Frag Grenade.