Accurate range representation of 3.35km and 61m in 40k

[Zoa]

I was stoned and decided that 40k was so grimdark that I needed to come up with stats for the USA-G10 Glitter Boy Power Armour for an apocalypse scenario. Keep in mind 'power armour' in Rifts is more the size of Tau Battlesuits. Keep in mind we will be playing on the floor in an area in excess of 12' by 10'.

It was fairly straight forward to give it its profile stats but I am clueless as how to represent its weapons range and its aura effect in 40k terms.

It weapon is a Railgun with a range of 3.35km.

However the real issue is how I'm suppose to implement the collateral damage caused by firing it, its a large part of the weapon's power given that in its own setting it was the weapon that made the kind of infantry tactics you see in 40k stop working in warfare. When fired it creates a shock wave powerful enough to deafen anyone not inside a heavy military vehicle for 2-8 minutes and knock them to the ground causing them to lose all of their actions and suffer -8 to initiative at up to 61m away from the gun. Being in any other type of power armour only half the duration of the associated penalties. To put it simply you cant approach it with infantry, let alone engage.

I've already decided to do what its supposed to the aura needs to be 36", the reason I feel this rule should be an aura rather than part of the guns rule is because the gun fires once every 2.5 seconds anyway, these shock waves happen constantly during the battle. Keep in mind the guy firing it is also running around at 96.5km/hr an can just run through a massed group of infantry firing at their support vehicles and knock the dudes in 6 different directions in the span of 15 seconds.

How the hell an I supposed to represent this? Is it just to powerful for 40k? (lol I know how silly that idea is).

PS: I guess its also worth mentioning all laser based weapon deal only 50% damage vs. it anyway to guard would be hopeless anyway.

[Nabterayl]

I was stoned and decided that 40k was so grimdark that I needed to come up with stats for the USA-G10 Glitter Boy Power Armour for an apocalypse scenario. Keep in mind 'power armour' in Rifts is more the size of Tau Battlesuits. Keep in mind we will be playing on the floor in an area in excess of 12' by 10'.

It was fairly straight forward to give it its profile stats but I am clueless as how to represent its weapons range and its aura effect in 40k terms.

It weapon is a Railgun with a range of 3.35km.
An Earthshaker cannon has a maximum range of 15km, which is represented as 240". Taking a straight-line conversion represents 3.35km as 53.6", so you might want to "round up" to 60". Using the same scale, that makes 61m represented by 0.976", which rounds up to 1".

96.5 kph is trickier. A Leman Russ can pull a maximum off-road velocity of 21 kph, which is represented as an average of 9.5" per turn. A Chimera or a Rhino can pull 55 kph off-road, which is represented as 12". A Salamander can pull 68 kph off-road (though 100 kph on-road), which is represented as 18". A Piranha can pull 160 kph, which is represented as 24" - but a Tetra can pull 350 kph, which is also represented as 24". Defilers can run up to 40 kph off-road, which is represented as 6" plus Fleet. Broadsides can run up to 15 kph, which is represented as 6". In short, there is no consistent ground speed scale in 40K. On the whole, however, I'd say that 96.5 kph is worthy of 18" of movement. 12" is clearly too little, and 24" seems reserved for things that are much faster than 96.5 kph.


However the real issue is how I'm suppose to implement the collateral damage caused by firing it, its a large part of the weapon's power given that in its own setting it was the weapon that made the kind of infantry tactics you see in 40k stop working in warfare. When fired it creates a shock wave powerful enough to deafen anyone not inside a heavy military vehicle for 2-8 minutes and knock them to the ground causing them to lose all of their actions and suffer -8 to initiative at up to 61m away from the gun. Being in any other type of power armour only half the duration of the associated penalties. To put it simply you cant approach it with infantry, let alone engage.
It's not entirely clear what "kind of infantry tactics you see in 40K." If we keep the Earthshaker range scale, bolters have an effective range of 1.5 km, and a single tactical squad might be spread out over as much as 2.125 km of terrain. This may not be what is typically depicted visually, but it's actually not as unreasonable as it might seem at first blush. It's certainly not an unreasonable maximum effective range for a bolter, and if you remember that space marines are supposed to be somewhere between Mobile Infantry and the USCM, it fits as well, since 40 Marauders can cover 680 square miles (though MI, to be fair, doesn't fight with ballistic weaponry). To be fair, most firefights in 40K would probably take place at smaller scales than that, but that's the nature of all firefights conducted with ballistic weaponry. As the 20th century has amply attested, the range-limiting factor in most firefights is not the effective range of the weapons involved (c.f. the demise of the battle rifle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_rifle)).


I've already decided to do what its supposed to the aura needs to be 36", the reason I feel this rule should be an aura rather than part of the guns rule is because the gun fires once every 2.5 seconds anyway, these shock waves happen constantly during the battle. Keep in mind the guy firing it is also running around at 96.5km/hr an can just run through a massed group of infantry firing at their support vehicles and knock the dudes in 6 different directions in the span of 15 seconds.
Assuming you use the Earthshaker as the basis of your range scale, and assuming you decide that your range scale should be linear, a 61m aura is not impressive at all - that's so short-ranged that it would only work in assault, and moreover only affect models in base-to-base contact. Here's what I would propose for the aura: every model in base to base contact with the Glitter Boy must take a Strength check at the start of combat. Those that pass may attack normally at Initiative 1. Those that fail the Strength check may not attack at all during that Assault phase. Give the model Hit and Run and a suitably high Initiative, or else a bonus to the Initiative check for Hit and Run purposes only, and you've got the run-through-infantry-with-relative-impunity aspect.

As for firing once every 2.5 seconds, that's a cyclic rate of fire of 24 rounds per minute, which I'd say warrants a heavy 1 (plus Relentless, presumably) or an assault 1 designation. Bolters may have low cyclic rates of fire, but surely they can reach more than 24 RPM, and they qualify as rapid fire (as do autoguns, which we know can reach at least 400 RPM).


PS: I guess its also worth mentioning all laser based weapon deal only 50% damage vs. it anyway to guard would be hopeless anyway.
Easy enough to declare that all laser-based weaponry shoots at half Strength, rounded up.

So ... no, I wouldn't say this is too powerful for 40K, as long as you're willing to take 40K seriously. I think you could accurately represent something like this in Apocalypse without it making the game not-fun.

[Zoa]

Thanks for the input, having the shock wave affect assault is a much better idea :)