Some 40k firepower estimates

[His Divine Shadow]

This is for ships and ship firepower only and I want clear detailed info, no "boo-yeah this so kicked ass this and that and waagh" or whatever posts that usually turn up, it's what prevented me from getting a good grip on 40k so far... I'm giving it another try though.

Incident #1:
A IoM torpedoe is stated to be 610Gigatons, we do not know, yet, how this torpedoe is considered in comparison to lances or other weapons.

Incident #2:
Now I have actually done one calc, for a Retribution class battleship, involving the pounding of a moon to dust, over the course of 13 hours.
Well, I used MW's asteroid destruction calculator and plugged in the stats for Iaeptus, it would take 60GT/second for 13 hours to fragment the moon into 10metre fragments, the moon was apparently "pounded to dust"

Now a retribution class battleship has strenght three Lance batteries, and 4 turrets, all of which can apparently point forward.
So assuming a firing rate of 30 second firing and 30 second cooling we have 450GT per shot, this adds up to a Lance volley of 1800gigatons every other minute.

A retribution class ship also has 6 torpedoe launchers so thats another 3660GT per volley.
This means the ship can put out a total of nearly 5460GT per each volley, lances and torpedoes combined.

The lenght of a Retribution class might be 5-8km

[His Divine Shadow]

Note, an actual quote and source for the 610GT torpedoe would be veyy much appreciated thank you

[2000AD]

Is it safe to say that they "kill" ST Fed ships in one lance shot?

[A Big Flying Fish]

Note, an actual quote and source for the 610GT torpedoe would be veyy much appreciated thank you

I believe it was from the old space hulk rulebook
I think the quote went something like "Torpedoes would be launched, each with 122 warheads, with 5GT of power each".

not sure if thats the exact quote but its that kind of thing

[2000AD]

I can also safely ay that the firepower may be dumbed down a bit in my fanfic. Nobody wants another "Stardestroyers Rampant" *shudder*

[NecronLord]

This is for ships and ship firepower only and I want clear detailed info, no "boo-yeah this so kicked ass this and that and waagh" or whatever posts that usually turn up, it's what prevented me from getting a good grip on 40k so far... I'm giving it another try though.

Incident #1:
A IoM torpedoe is stated to be 610Gigatons, we do not know, yet, how this torpedoe is considered in comparison to lances or other weapons.

Incident #2:
Now I have actually done one calc, for a Retribution class battleship, involving the pounding of a moon to dust, over the course of 13 hours.
Well, I used MW's asteroid destruction calculator and plugged in the stats for Iaeptus, it would take 60GT/second for 13 hours to fragment the moon into 10metre fragments, the moon was apparently "pounded to dust"

Now a retribution class battleship has strenght three Lance batteries, and 4 turrets, all of which can apparently point forward.
So assuming a firing rate of 30 second firing and 30 second cooling we have 450GT per shot, this adds up to a Lance volley of 1800gigatons every other minute.

A retribution class ship also has 6 torpedoe launchers so thats another 3660GT per volley.
This means the ship can put out a total of nearly 5460GT per each volley, lances and torpedoes combined.

The lenght of a Retribution class might be 5-8km

IIRC one torpedo marker in BFG reperesents at least ~ low wnd about ten torps, and has a firepower of 1 (arbitrary unit)

So thats

1= 6,100 gigatons {low-end}

which gives good scaling data. I'll get back in a minute

[NecronLord]

http://www.games-workshop.com/40kuniver ... _flash.htm

work up

Lunar class torpedo volley =

6 * 6,100 GT

36.6 TT per volley

Lunar class broadside

Main Batteries

Value 6

6 * 6,100 GT = 36,600 GT

Lances

Value 2

2 * 6,100 GT = 12,200 GT

Total broadside under normal conditions low-end

48,800 GT per volley

There may be some form of overcharge mode used in destroying planets.


For high end I could sclae down from Night Lords/Planet Killer incidents.

[NecronLord]

A note on reload times.

IIRC Andy Chambers said somewhere that the time each turn represents is proportional to the distances between fleets, the time per turn increasing with distance. We can assume that this is due to the time taken to target enemy vessels. Using that quote, and the ranges as per warp storm and others we can produce a guesstimate table of reload times

600,000KM = 5~10 minutes
300,000KM = 3~5 minutes
200,000KM = 1~3 minutes
100,000KM = 30sec~1 minute
x<100,000KM = 30 seconds or less

this is of couse not very reliable.

[willburns84]

::reads stuff from Necronlord::



Uhhh, hmmm... This will come in handy. Good thing I haven't gotten far in the outline of my story. ::crumples up paper and tosses it out:: The ground combat I think I can handle - then again, I thought I could handle the space combat too...

Firepower figures on the ground?

Battlecannon, Lascannon, etc? People in other threads have arbitrarily said that a lascannon will "take out" an AT-AT, but I need firepower ranges. I play 40K, and I'm gonna read some novels to get into the flavor of the fluff, but it's the game mechanics of 40K which leave me with certain biases, etc... Any help would be appreciated.

[NecronLord]

::reads stuff from Necronlord::



Uhhh, hmmm... This will come in handy. Good thing I haven't gotten far in the outline of my story. ::crumples up paper and tosses it out:: The ground combat I think I can handle - then again, I thought I could handle the space combat too...

Firepower figures on the ground?

Battlecannon, Lascannon, etc? People in other threads have arbitrarily said that a lascannon will "take out" an AT-AT, but I need firepower ranges. I play 40K, and I'm gonna read some novels to get into the flavor of the fluff, but it's the game mechanics of 40K which leave me with certain biases, etc... Any help would be appreciated.

Throw out any data for ranges from the game mechanics. the reason the ranges are so poor is so you don't need acres to play using tanks.

A lascannon probably won't take out an AT-AT first hit, as IIRC they seem to have sheilds in SE. Twin Linked Lascannon, maybe, but probably about three shots. However the best thing about an AT-AT is that it is slow moving (compared to say, eldar) Probably a predator annhialator or two would be needed.

[consequences]

So you automatically are assuming that the lascannon has more firepower than fixed defense artillery pieces and vehicle blasters in Star Wars?

[NecronLord]

Aww is'nt that sweet a hijack!

no, I'm assuming that
A) the predator annihalator is a Tank not a fixed defense
B) You have never seen a proper army engage an AT-AT
C) A las-pistol can slice through 30 feet (at least) of concrete (dura/ferrocrete actually) and scaling on the power you end up with lascannons slicing through half a KM of Concrete with ease on full power.

[Patrick Ogaard]

::reads stuff from Necronlord::



Uhhh, hmmm... This will come in handy. Good thing I haven't gotten far in the outline of my story. ::crumples up paper and tosses it out:: The ground combat I think I can handle - then again, I thought I could handle the space combat too...

Firepower figures on the ground?

Battlecannon, Lascannon, etc? People in other threads have arbitrarily said that a lascannon will "take out" an AT-AT, but I need firepower ranges. I play 40K, and I'm gonna read some novels to get into the flavor of the fluff, but it's the game mechanics of 40K which leave me with certain biases, etc... Any help would be appreciated.

How about this quote from the short story collection Into the Maelstrom, the quote being from the story Acceptable Losses by Gav Thorpe. "Berhandt swivelled in his seat to grasp the forked control stick that guided and fired the Marauder's nose-mounted las-cannons. One shot from those could punch through a cubit or more of reinforced armor, and smash apart rock with equal ease."

The Marauder is, of course, the big air/space bomber used by the IoM, and the lascannon are standard twin-linked models. Historically, the cubit averaged around 18 inches, but could be 21 inches or more. An Imperium of Man cubit is probably somewhere in that range, and probably would not exceed roughly 60 centimeters (or 24 inches). Now you'd just have to figure out how resilient that reinforced armor is.

[NecronLord]

And what rock it is

Cubit is probably a local measurement.

[2000AD]

isn't a cubit a length of measurement equal to a persons forearm? IIRC it was used in Ancient Egyptian times. It was used for such things as cloth, so if you were buying you sent the member of the family that had the longest arms.

[His Divine Shadow]

There may be some form of overcharge mode used in destroying planets.

But they can't destroy planets, eh?
I mean thats why they need the special exterminatus ships for right?

For high end I could sclae down from Night Lords/Planet Killer incidents.

Possibly but that was in the 31st millenium using ships more advanced than what now exist, you know Imperium tech beng lost as noone really understands it(even though rabbit has been claiming the opposite, there is too much proof to be ignored), I've found some quotes on it:

Page 118, describing the Desolator class Battleships:
"The Desolator class Battleship dates back to the very founding of the Imperium and utilises technology long since lost to the Adeptus Mechanicus. None now remain in Imperial service, but it is known that at least five Desolators defected from the Emperor's light between the 31st and the 34th millenium"

Repulsive Grand Cruiser, page 119:
"The grand cruiser was a precursor to the battlecruisers which are now more prevalent in most Imperial fleets. Almost rivalling battleships in it's ability to withstand damage and lay down a barrage of fire, the grand cruiser fell out of favor when means for constructing suffeciently powerful engines was lost (more recently built engines were incapable of attaining a useful combat speed)."

Ramilies class Star Fort:
"The hyper-plasmatic energy conduction system used by the Ramilies is barely understood in current times, but thanks to the STC system is still reproducable and has a guaranteed endurance of over 3,000 years."

I also found a quote on the Abbadon planet killer wich was by far the most powerfull ship ever on any scale for the 40k imperium:
"The Death of Savaven
Even as Abaddon pushed home his attack at Rebo, more disaster was to befall the loyal defenders of the Gothic Sector. At Savaven, a Cardinal world of the Ecclesiarchy, the few system defence ships could do little to protect their planet against a new and awesomely powerful vessel.
Simply dubbed the /Planet Killer/, this monolithic ship bristled with gun decks, lance batteries and torpedo launch systems. As the defence moniters withdrew from its implacable advance, the /Planet Killer/ achieved orbit over Savaven. Jeremiah Soldagen, commander of the orbital defence forces, was later to record the dreadful events to follow:

'Within [/the Planet Killer's/] central cavity, we could detect a massive power surge, Energy crackled from a number of ports on the hull. Then, with a blast that blotted the sun from our scanners, it opened fire. The energy beam lasted for about a half hour. Emperor knows how they could generate that much energy.
We linked in to the planetary surveyors to see what was happening on the surface. That bolt bored its way through miles of the planet's crust, and seared through the mantle beneath. As the attack finished, the magma surged forth through this continent-sized wound, breaking apart Savaven from within.
The seas boiled into the skies, the ice caps melted and whole continents sunk beneath the tidal wave. With such an unimaginable release of energy Savaven was blown out of her natural orbit and flipped over on her axis. I guess nobody was alive by then, but if they were they didn't last long. Like a rations pack crushed in your fist, Savaven just crumpled in on herself, then broke up into thousands of fragments. There's just an asteroid field there now, really dense, impossible to navigate. There were forteen billion people living on Savaven. Fourteen billion dead in an hour'

Pages 95-96, describing Abaddon's "Planet Killer" ship:
"Soldagen and the other survivors were to suffer traumatic mental breakdowns from what they witnessed and three months later they all took their own lives in a mass suicide. The effect on Imperial morale was devastating. All had heard of Exterminatus with fusion torpedoes, virus bombs, mass drivers, but to know the enemy had the ability to destroy an entire planet, not just all life on it, must have been the most chilling thorught that any naval crewman had ever faced."

[Patrick Ogaard]

isn't a cubit a length of measurement equal to a persons forearm? IIRC it was used in Ancient Egyptian times. It was used for such things as cloth, so if you were buying you sent the member of the family that had the longest arms.

Basically, that's it. Thus the line of dialogue from Bill Cosby's routine as Noah tasked with making an ark x number of cubits long, high and wide, asking God: "Riiiiight. What's a cubit?"

The most common definition is the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, so that it averaged about 18 inches, but it could vary locally up to 21 inches and sometimes even more. A 60 cm or 2 foot length for a cubit is probably a decent upper limit, though a length of up to a meter is at least possible.

[NecronLord]

There may be some form of overcharge mode used in destroying planets.

But they can't destroy planets, eh?
I mean thats why they need the special exterminatus ships for right?

Quite, the exterminatus refit saves gathering hundreds of ships in one place to do the job, They can do a BDZ as well, but the exterminatus can be done as a hit and run

For high end I could sclae down from Night Lords/Planet Killer incidents.

Possibly but that was in the 31st millenium using ships more advanced than what now exist, you know Imperium tech beng lost as noone really understands it(even though rabbit has been claiming the opposite, there is too much proof to be ignored), I've found some quotes on it:

Rabbit is talking out of his arse. It's more than likely that the guns are the same, but the Techprisets don't know how to do it (highly likely) or that they simply are not that savage (unlikely)

Page 118, describing the Desolator class Battleships:
"The Desolator class Battleship dates back to the very founding of the Imperium and utilises technology long since lost to the Adeptus Mechanicus. None now remain in Imperial service, but it is known that at least five Desolators defected from the Emperor's light between the 31st and the 34th millenium"

Repulsive Grand Cruiser, page 119:
"The grand cruiser was a precursor to the battlecruisers which are now more prevalent in most Imperial fleets. Almost rivalling battleships in it's ability to withstand damage and lay down a barrage of fire, the grand cruiser fell out of favor when means for constructing suffeciently powerful engines was lost (more recently built engines were incapable of attaining a useful combat speed)."

Ramilies class Star Fort:
"The hyper-plasmatic energy conduction system used by the Ramilies is barely understood in current times, but thanks to the STC system is still reproducable and has a guaranteed endurance of over 3,000 years."

I also found a quote on the Abbadon planet killer wich was by far the most powerfull ship ever on any scale for the 40k imperium:
"The Death of Savaven
Even as Abaddon pushed home his attack at Rebo, more disaster was to befall the loyal defenders of the Gothic Sector. At Savaven, a Cardinal world of the Ecclesiarchy, the few system defence ships could do little to protect their planet against a new and awesomely powerful vessel.
Simply dubbed the /Planet Killer/, this monolithic ship bristled with gun decks, lance batteries and torpedo launch systems. As the defence moniters withdrew from its implacable advance, the /Planet Killer/ achieved orbit over Savaven. Jeremiah Soldagen, commander of the orbital defence forces, was later to record the dreadful events to follow:

'Within [/the Planet Killer's/] central cavity, we could detect a massive power surge, Energy crackled from a number of ports on the hull. Then, with a blast that blotted the sun from our scanners, it opened fire. The energy beam lasted for about a half hour. Emperor knows how they could generate that much energy.
We linked in to the planetary surveyors to see what was happening on the surface. That bolt bored its way through miles of the planet's crust, and seared through the mantle beneath. As the attack finished, the magma surged forth through this continent-sized wound, breaking apart Savaven from within.
The seas boiled into the skies, the ice caps melted and whole continents sunk beneath the tidal wave. With such an unimaginable release of energy Savaven was blown out of her natural orbit and flipped over on her axis. I guess nobody was alive by then, but if they were they didn't last long. Like a rations pack crushed in your fist, Savaven just crumpled in on herself, then broke up into thousands of fragments. There's just an asteroid field there now, really dense, impossible to navigate. There were forteen billion people living on Savaven. Fourteen billion dead in an hour'

Pages 95-96, describing Abaddon's "Planet Killer" ship:
"Soldagen and the other survivors were to suffer traumatic mental breakdowns from what they witnessed and three months later they all took their own lives in a mass suicide. The effect on Imperial morale was devastating. All had heard of Exterminatus with fusion torpedoes, virus bombs, mass drivers, but to know the enemy had the ability to destroy an entire planet, not just all life on it, must have been the most chilling thorught that any naval crewman had ever faced."

Indeed the device powering the Planet Killer is either Necron or Slann in origin. That last line, of course there are no 10,000 year old naval crewers Also it is unlikely that any of them know about the Great Heresy incidents, with the nature of the imperium, everything is need to know. It is the most powerful weapon utilised by the imperium, and even then t=it was not their tech that built it. Check the thread at SB I also reckoned the ISD would win. The mass incompetance of the IoM techpriests is staggering. Necrons however...

[2000AD]

THE SLANN!!!!!!!!!! you have got to be sh*tting me. Since when did those jumped up psychic frogs have anything to do with 40K????

[NecronLord]

Since they were the Old ones the who kick the crap out of the Necrontyr in the Necron back story, before being almost Annihalated by the Necrontyr+C'tan.

[NecronLord]

The jumped up Warhammer frogs are a degenerate mutates pitiful remnant of the old ones.

"Thus is the fate of all those who defy the Necrontyr"

Just wait till we find that planet

[2000AD]

They were? And heres me thinking they were just in WH. Do they still use skinks to kick their arse?

[NecronLord]

WH is a planet in the 40K galaxy

in one of the Inferno stories some wizard is shown an eldar craftworld.

There are various magical items that are IoM equipment. E.g. theres one that is a power-glove/fist.

[2000AD]

WH is a planet in WH40K!!!!! Does that mean i could have my Tau go rat hunting? Even better, it means that once the dwarfs get their act together we'll have Squats again! yay!

[NecronLord]

Nahh they'll never join them rules wise. Though at the back of the Necron codex it is suggested that you could have some fun and fight a lizardman army."You could even have some fun by using a lizardman army in Warhammer 40,000, although this would require a bit of preperation to deal with any oddities." Codex Necrons Page 61