The muted sound for a heavier gun DOES have an in-universe reason. Space Marine helmets have what is called "auto-senses" to make sure the marine doesn't go blind or deaf even in the brightest or loudest situation. So essentially it darkens the eyes if the environment is too bright and it blocks out sound if the environment is too loud. So active noise-cancelling, but over explained in the lore because active noise-cancelling wasn't a big thing back when that lore was typed xD
Also, during some of that footage, they had the infinite ammo powerup active, which muffles some of the sounds in the game. You can see the icon for that in the upper right of the screen. So that might be what he was noticing.
"This is probably a rabbit-hole I can ill-afford to go down..." This is basically what every grown adult who discovers 40k says, right before the Call of the Warp starts to invade their sleeping mind... Next week, we find out which 40k army Jonathan has started collecting, are introduced to his already impressive and ever-growing Pile of Shame, and get a detailed breakdown of his Army list, Unit composition, and weapon specs. 🤣
A bit of elaboration on the Plasma Gun mechanic: On the tabletop game, Plasma weapons have a mechanic where if you roll a 1 on a dice when trying to shoot one, it explodes in the user's hand and kills the wielder, the idea being that the plasma is so volatile and dangerous that any mishandling has catastrophic consequences The overheat mechanic seems to be a compromise for the sake of gameplay; I can't imagine that shooting the Plasma Gun with a 1/6 chance of dying instantly would be very fun to play with
As of 9th & 10th Edition the rule now only applies to supercharged Plasma weapons, increases the strength of the weapon but gives it the hazardous rule which on the roll of a 1 causes it to explode, otherwise you can shoot plasma guns with no fear now.
Darktide has a similar overheating mechanic on its plasma gun. You can vent it manually but take damage to do it. Normally you just lose a little of your regenerating temp HP, but if you're in combat or not watching your health then it might do some more permanent damage.
Darktide has a similar overheating mechanic on its plasma gun. You can vent it manually but take damage to do it. Normally you just lose a little of your regenerating temp HP, but if you're in combat or not watching your health then it might do some more permanent damage.
"How the bolter rounds really work, I don't know" The closest equivalent would be 155mm M549 HERA shells. Base bleed rocket-assisted shells, so essentially bolts are .750 caliber (11 gauge) APHERA shotgun slugs. Gyrojet's greatest weakness was that it has a minimum lethal distance. You can disable the weapon essentially by holding your finger to the muzzle. Having a case that hot launches the projectile at already lethal velocity ensures that there's no minimum lethal distance.
@@Daktangle that would also make sense because Bolter are made for every battlefield use be it Low Grav or even Under water where Initial ignitipn could prove difficult without an encased projectile
The heavy Bolter is actually electronically fired! :p Also it’s okay. Nobody actually knows how Meltaguns work. Sometimes they’re beams, sometimes they fire individual shots, sometimes they’re shotgun effects..
And, given the state of military standardization across the Imperium of Man, it's entirely possible that all of those descriptions are equally correct and the term "meltagun" is used to refer to multiple technologies that function differently, but achieve more or less the same result.
Meltas are described as a 'short range beam weapon' almost universally but it doesn't get really any deeper then that. Since all of the effects that you describe could still fall under that description (a continuous beam, and short burst of beam, or multiple short bursts of beams), it's a tossup.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Imperium has multiple kinds of meltas, with different operating methods. All called meltas because they melt holes in tanks. Though Jonathan might have something to say about them being short ranged weapons.
Porque no los tres? Haha, Microwave gun go fffffffwoosh. It's basically a cutting torch that doesn't need gas, so it certainly got a small-ish cone of effect. But lore-wise it's focussed microwaves, superheating air for a few milliseconds until it gets very violent (as superheated stuff tends to get) and then releasing that out the front/towards the heretic of your choice. No clue why it needs ammo and not just power.
Fun fact, heavy bolter is normally electrically fired, but it have primers for firing it if the batter runs out, electric cable is damaged, or entire system is fried by EMP. Which happens in 40k often enough to have a back up built in. It have lower rate of fire when not electrically powered, but still works.
I like how the writers thought. While not employed in a commercial or military firearm (to my knowledge): 'Traditional' primers are sensitive to (a sufficiently strong) ESD. With modern miniaturized high-power components, the tough part would be making the 'electric-override ignition' reliable and durable. (Oh, and potentially the micro-EMP/EMI/RFI emitted from the weapon. Notice: most DIY 'gauss guns' mess with the camera; that's what I'm talking about)
I put into a tabletop game I was working on a plasma launcher that essentially caused explosions, since that was near-enough the most realistic effect as far as I could tell. But the most interesting idea, to me, was that the weapon was completely capable of destroying itself with an overcharged shot, and you could disable the safety to create a massively powerful blast which would destroy the weapon.
My shield is disgust My armor is contempt My sword is hatred In the Emperor's name,the heretic the xeno the traitor shall be purged Or something like that IDK
Meltaguns have an interesting story behind them. In 40K there is a "super-metal" called Adamantium, a rare element that is super strong and can be used to make monomolecular blades and incredibly strong armour. So in order to beat this armour, they took the cutting tool used to make it and turned it into a weapon. That weapon is the Meltagun, and the Multi-Melta.
In truth Adamantium exists in real life, I don't know how great of armor it would be, but real Adamntium is more commonly referred to as Diamond. So essentially a Space Marine has either Diamond, Diamond Plated, or Diamond Alloy Armor.
@@kbassassin8308 I believe you are confusing this Sci-Fi metal with the Classical Mythological substance called Adamant or Adamantine, which is seen as a form of Diamond. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamant Adamantium is a very different substance, as it is a metallic element within 40K. Space Marine power armour does not use Adamantium, only Tactical Dreadnought Armour, Tanks, Dreadnoughts and larger fighting machines do. SM power armour uses Ceramite.
@KbAssassin Marine Power Armor is made of a material called Ceramite, which by name implies it's some kind of ceramic material, Terminator Armor is made of Adanantine though.
@@RipOffProductionsLLC Ceramite is a composite material that is basically Ceramic. Tactical Dreadnought Armour, also known as Terminator armour, uses Adamantium which is a unique metallic element in 40K that is also used tank armour, Titans and Spaceships
I really respect how much Johnathan is willing to go down the proverbial rabbit hole to explain these obviously absurd weapons. It really is probably the best content Gamspot has put out in a long time imo.
@@ramonandrajo6348 How so? In my opinion it captures the feeling pretty well with the presentation and especially with the powerups, though the arena style "purge" battles are a more modern (but not bad) concept to center the levels around.
"Hi, Ian from forgotten weapons here on Mars at the armory museum of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Today we are going to have a closer look at the standard template Bolter"
the way a bolter functions is that there is a normal primary charge to propel the "bolt" out of the barrel already at fatal velocity, after that the rocket propellant within the "bolt" to propel it even further. also lore wise the heavy bolter uses electricity because of the required high fire rate
@@tonarsilverwolf6485 about the dimension , i’m not sure, there are many discussion about that, but i believed the consensus is ‘50, ‘75 is for heavy boltgun i believe.
@@phucletran2860 I've understood that the heavy bolter bolts are 1 cal aka 1 inch in diameter. the '50 cal version was mentioned being in use by the techno barbarians of terra during the unification wars. at least if I remember correctly. Also that would make my point even more accurate since the round looks way too big for the canonical diameter
@@tonarsilverwolf6485 oh, i dont know about the techno barbarians, thanks alot. Yeah, i think you’re right. I like the idea mr. Jonathan mention in the vid, it is a 40mm round, more fitting for a space marine.
AFAIK they have targeting and are also just so good they don’t even have to look down sights for typical use, like aiming at center of mass. They can aim intuitively. I’m not sure if that is canon or not, since it is hard to remember if I heard something from any official source or not… It certainly rings true.
@@StressmanFIN TBH there's bolters that are designed for humans not in power armor that are stockless, but I chalk that up to keeping the weapon easily identifiable instead of practical reasons.
The difference is the bolter round's case ignites and shoots the rocket as if it was a normal bullet THEN the rocket starts flying and lodges itself within the targets flesh exploding right after negating any momentum loss
As for the Plasmagun overcharging and hurting the player is actually based on the Tabletop version where it then can even result in fatal malfunction and well these are also called ,,Sun-Weapons" as they fire miniature suns and a space marine armor provides "just" little protection against that
The Deathwatch shotgun uses mainly three different types of ammo: wyrmbreath, cryptclearer, and xenopurge, being essentially dragon's breath, exploding buckshot, and I can't find specifics on what the xenopurge ammo is since it's less often talked about than the other two. In essence it's, yeah, a scaled-up shotgun. Probably talking what is essentially the equivalent of a 2 or 4 gauge compared to our 10s and 12s. The ammo is not entirely like the Bolter ammunition though, since the Bolter is essentially firing a bullet that then activates the rocket on the rear to launch the bullet at higher speeds, since the recoil from launching a projectile that large by itself would make even a space marine unable to handle the gun well.
Boltgun actually plays on the same planet as Space Marine and is set some time after the first Space Marine game. The Ultramarine player character even mentions Captain Titus at least at one point.
Jonathan should definitely read at least the first of the Ciaphas Cain novels. It's a very fun warstory (With some perspective shifting to capture some of the strategic/tactical deployment of the Imperial Guard, the regular human soldiers of the setting) and really likable characters.
Before I read it, I figured it'd be a bit overhyped. But no. Ciaphas Cain books are THAT good and funny. A lazy, cowardly master swordsman, with a desk job he hates, working along one of the grumpiest regiments, facing the horrors of the universe. Blundering into success 9/10 times like an old james bond movie.
I haven't read Ciaphas Cain, yet it always seemed to me that they were the 40K equivalent of the Flashman Papers (with a bit of added Blackadder). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flashman_Papers en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Flashman
The Bolter has no shoulder stock of course because the Space Marine holding it is wearing a powered exoskeleton capable of controlling what recoil there is, when you see models of normal humans using them (not common, but there are a couple) they tend to be fired from the shoulder rather than the hip like a Space Marine would.
"To a Space Marine, the boltgun is far more than a weapon; it is an instrument of Mankind's divinity, the bringer of death to his foes. Its howling blast is a prayer to the gods of battle."
The armour of contempt thing is more about being immune to corruption. Its pretty hard to be swayed by someone or something you have nothing but contempt for.
My idea for how boltgun bullets work: Rocket-propelled bullet with a kickstart, basically. The case is loaded like any other cased round, but then the bullet itself has extra fuel within it. When the bullet is fired, it's blasted out like any other bullet, but that blast also ignites the bullet's fuel, allowing it to keep velocity and possibly increasing said velocity until the fuel runs out.
The Melta... Gunner Ferik Jurgen's favourite weapon, popular with those around him too because not only does it put large holes in enemies but the small of ozone and burning things temporarily drowns out Jurgen's own skunk-felling bouquet. Jonathan might be more familiar with Ciaphas Cain as a 40K combination of Blackadder and George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman and Gnr Jurgen as a combination of Baldrick and G M-F's notoriously filthy Pte MacAuslan.
2:00 - There's something brilliant about seeing Jonathan basically dual-wielding these two large gyro jet pistols, especially knowing he's of smaller stature. Definitely the most intimidating museum curator out there! DO NOT touch the guns!
Has anyone explained to Jonathan that Imperial tech is incredibly varied? From stone age spears and bows all the way up to weapons that tear holes in the fabric of reality?
The Heavy Bolter actually does fire its bolts electronically. Bolt guns also eject casings because the cartridge is two stages, a conventiaonal primer is set off and then the rocket propulsion ignites as it leaves the barrel of the Bolter.
The reason bolter rounds (and any bolt weapon, including heavy bolters and some even larger weapons) are cased despite using a system like the gyrojet pistols is that the case holds only a 'kick-charge' that's meant to accelerate the projectile out of the barrel and ignite the primary charge. Once out of the barrel, the round continues to accelerate under it's own propulsion. This solves a problem with previous gyrojet weapons, in that the projectile has much lower muzzle velocity compared to a standard bullet, and require a minimum distance to reach max speed. Using the kick-charge, a bolter has a higher muzzle velocity and requires far less distance to get up to full speed.
I appreciate the cut-ins of the host providing more information, very nice as both a bit of extra lore and knowing what the guest is basing their thoughts around. More Warhammer! I've love Jonathan to see Tau and Eldar weapons.
The boltgun ammo is cased as it's a two-staged ammo system with a conventional powder charge to launch the bullet from the gun then the rocket booster on the bullet ignites, pushing the projectile to the target, effectively either giving it more acceleration or to remove the decelleration of the bullet
The heavy bolter is far and away my favourite weapon in the game. It might take up half the screen with its muzzle flash and with the massive cartridges flying out of it, but I don't care. It's perfect for killing absolutely every heretic in the room in seconds. Well, that and the meltagun, which is absolutely devastating.
ARE WE not going to talk about how CASUAL Jonathan just holds the gyrojet bullet inside that piece of wood?!?! That's a VERY famous gyrojet round to me!! Wait, did Jono just suggest a shotgun with mini bolter rounds as shot???
My interpretation of the cased boltgun cartridge is that it's a two-stage rocket: a traditional powder charge kicks the warhead down the barrel to give it a boost before the rocket engine engages, which explains why the gun ejects a case despite firing a projectile that doesn't need one.
I now want to see Johnathan try to hold up a Bolter replica of an adequate size and weight. I just want to see a regular man hold what a Space Marine does. Like one of the infantryman holding Captain Titus’s weapon for a sec while he adjusts his helmet. Lol
The scale of Space Marines is really frankly absurd. There's a line in Receiver 2 about the Desert Eagle, how the weapon was chosen for Arnold in Terminator because other guns would *look like toys*, and the Bolters are very similar. Space Marines are like eight feet tall OUT OF ARMOR, built like fridges, and can handle recoil and heft that would render a normal operator useless after two shots. A bolter is like, half a man's torso.
Fun fact: Lore states that the Heavy bolter has electronic Ignition. There isnt primers on the cases because it indeeds fire through electric means. Its fire rate is substanially higher in lore compared to its smaller cousins. (Though not depicted in game, probably due to balancing the gun for gameplay)
The fire rate is kind of represented in the game. Currently, bolters get 1 shot, or two if you can rapid fire. Heavy bolters get 3 shots all the time and do twice as much damage. Edit: I just realized you probably meant in Boltgun, not actual 40k. Oops.
Call me a nerd, but if i remember correct , the volkite laser is the predecessor of the bolte. It was preceded by bolter because it was difficult too mass produce for marine legions pre-horus heresy.
Yeah, the guy got the broad details right but the timeline off, bolters replaced volkite weapons during the great crusade because they couldn't make enough volkites to outfit the millions of space marines, not because of technical decline post heresy.
volkite weapons were initially planned as standard armaments for the imperial guard together with land's raider (yes this is it's real preheresy name) and predator tanks. bolters were a stopgap measure of the emperor as his thunder warriors needed a cheap yet powerful weapon that could be produced and supplied by the millions on Terra itself with a pityfull industrial base as it was still a post-apocalyptic hellhole at the time. space marines were planned to be equipped with plasma and gravitic weapons for the most part with different legions specializing in different weapon technologies. when things started to get sideways long before the heresy big E opened his stockpiles to the fire legion who to this day have most of the guns the emperor planned to use for the entire adeptus astartes which is why they are using so many "rare" plasma weapons as well as "other" (*coughs*enslaved men of iron *coughsininquisition*) special toys.
After having looked at the individual bolts of the Bolter, watching them spit out the side alongside the fact it's still gyrojet. I have to say it could be a two-stage projectile. It would also explain the blast from the muzzle and the sound of it firing. First stage is a standard bullet, gunpowder reaction shoots the warhead out the front and the jets kick in for stability and extra velocity. Fun Fact: The Boltgun/Bolter is a .75 Caliber. The Heavy Bolter is a .998 Caliber
I can only imagine the number of people that have tried, but: I need a "12 Gauge" in 2-stage gyrojet. Fun Fact: "Twelve-Gauge" shotguns come in bore diameters varying from a tight 'nearly 13 gauge' (.7165) on some European shotguns to 10 gauge (.775) on the Mossberg 935. (SAAMI/US 12ga bore is 'normally' 0.731)
4:55 "I think the Rule-of-Cool is sufficently powerful in this context that even I am obliged to not care about that" Man, he's just wonderful, this moment was hilarious 17:53 I love how Jonathan makes this Star Trek comparsion in such good faith
honestly he's probably not far off.. Volkite weapons in the fluff don't really go into the mechanics of how they work, other than their beams cause the targets to catch on fire. so "phaser" is probably the best description of what apparently is some sort of heat ray.
I enjoyed the back and forth between Dave and Jonathan this episode, I've been watching since this series started and had seen Jonathan on other channels before. Love the content keep it up :)
That's actually why Their cased rounds some of the earlier rogue trader material before 40k proper had bolters do caseless exploding ammo but it got changed back later persumedly cause cased rounds look more iconic. Even later it's great for video games and cinematic seeing shells fly
Would love to see this series tackle the weapons in Starship Troopers Extermination. I think those would be well within Jonathan's wheelhouse, especially given the real-life inspiration/models from the films being actual firearms covered in greeblies. If you're lacking in a weapon count or just a glutton for punishment I guess you could also reach back to Strangelite's effort at a ST fps to make up the numbers. Fantastic video once again guys.
2:44 bolters are cased because they are two stage launched. The first stage is conventional reactants while the second stage is the rocket motor. Like a mini Sturmtiger cannon round.
Jonathan is so wholesome, I love watching him gush about guns and love the fact that he covers fictional stuffs and looks genuinely interested in learning about them.
A potential reason for having cases on bolter bolts is to allow for a "soft launch" like what we see with the javelin (and I think the stinger but I'm not 100% on that) where it has two charges. A lower pressure one to get the shot out of the tube, and the full power one to propel to the target.
Normally when a plasma gun overheats it explodes killing everyone in a 5m radius, so they decided to tone it down for the game and just make it hurt you instead.
For the plasma rifle, yeah they’re not used oftentimes because they tend to explode on their user. They’re effective and deal heavy damage but even in the game, if you roll a 1 with a plasma gun it blows up. They’re reliably unreliable.
Actually, artifact plasma weapons are very reliable. Aka the original, well made plasma weapons. The modern ones are a shadow of their former selves. One of the primarchs has a original plasma weapon, never overheats or explodes. I think that was the primarch of the salamanders.
Btw, I love the fact that Jonathan goes into a lengthy explanation of the history of electrically primed ammunition in order to _not_ have to nitpick the lack of dimples on cases ejected from the Heavy Bolter. This man is the perfect person for this job.
I love about the 40k universe is that while a lot of these are futuristic in terms, the Non-Unique, un-reproducible Ancient weapons were replaced overtime with mass-produced kinetic based downgrades so they can be easily repaired and maintained in combat while a more advanced energy type weapon might not be able to so without the proper Tech Priest.
@Dave -IrregularDave- Jewitt I am literally listening to that one now, well Wil be again in a moment as I get back o the road for work. Lol (Just finished The Traitor's Hand)
Fun fact about plasma guns. On the tabletop for Imperial armies, since its a D6 tabletop game, when you tell a model to fire a plasma gun and supercharge it but roll a 1, your model's plasma gun explodes and usually either instantly kills your model or maims them (if they are a character/hero unit usually)
It might have already been said but, the reason the bolter ejects cases is that the projectile is initialy launched conventionaly then after leaving the barrel its rockets ignite. Why do they do this? who knows - it looks cool though👍
I am kind of curious whether you could get the rights for him to react to the Astrates series to break down the weapons in that and show them in their full gritty glory. From what I remember you have a bolter, plasma gun, laser cannon, anti infantry LMG's (Maybe some others I'm forgetting). Okay it isn't a game but it is tied to a game franchise.
6:23 The contempt thing is in reference to the quote "My armor is contempt. My shield is disgust. My sword is hatred. In the name of the Emperor let none survive." In gameplay terms your armor is actually contempt which is pretty funny. Oh they say this in the video, I paused to leave the comment.
This based on the assumption that not everyone in the comments is a 40k aficionado (which they probably are already) but: Melta gun induces a fusion reaction within the ammunition canister and projects the heat directly out of the barrel at close range turning everything in front of it including the air into plasma, whereas the Volkite weapon directs a concentrated beam of thermal energy along a path turning anything at the end into ash and usually-if it hits an organic being-instantly vaporizing them and often promoting an oxidising fire explosion setting fire to the air and anything nearby.
My theory for why bolts are cased is because they realized the problem of the Gyrojet was almost no power up close as it has acceleration time, by adding some normal bullety stuff to it they get an initial kick and the benefits of the gyrojet system for such a heavy round.
The Plasma Gun getting hot and hurting you is another Easter egg to the good old fashion "Get Hot" rule that all Imperial Plasma weapons had at one time (not sure if its still a thing as not played since 5th Ed)
The heavy bolter is muted because the helmet on a space reigns armor automatically does so while input from a heavy weapon is active. It's actually mentioned in some of the novels how older models of power armor do not have this feature, which of course will render veteran devastators (heavy weapon specialists) hard of hearing or even deaf.
2:30 The reason the Bolter rounds are still cased is that the rockets are still fired like a bullet, with propellant inside the casing being ignited by a primer. The reason for this is that the round already starts at a high velocity when fired, meaning it doesn't need to use time and fuel to do it with the jets. That's what I've heard, at least.
I love that Johnathan understands and respects the "rule of cool" and the concept of video game balance. While he's a gun guy, he's also a video game guy and gets into the lore of the universe.
It's cool having Dave explaining some of the fictional background of things when it helps Jonathan to contextualize them better for explanations or finding real-world parallels. I have zero knowledge of or interest in Warhammer, but hearing someone who's a nerd about something explain it to someone else is always fun.
Hello former Swedish army dude here. The way a shaped charge in for example the Carl Gustaf grg works is like how you said there is a pin made of copper in the conical charge that turns into a welding rod almost and melta through the armor and thereby turning the pressure in the armored vehicle into non survivable levels along with massive heat.
The silliness of the Bolter firing caseless rocket ammunition that for some reason still ejects a casing is actually the result of a conflict between the creators and the artists, back in the 80s. Specifically, the creators at GW *did* make the Bolters caseless on purpose, and early Bolter sculpts didn't have ejection ports. But the artists who drew the covers, Codex illustrations etc were all heavy metal inspired and so couldn't resist the urge to add flying brass and hundreds of spent shell casings laying at the feet of the badass supersoldiers they were drawing. Rather than telling them to stop, GW eventually retconned the Bolter to fire two-stage ammunition, with a brass case containing the starter charge and a rocket motor in the bullet once it leaves the barrel.
To add something on the Volkite, other than being an older gun that was mostly replaced due to the general loss of technology stuff is that it is essentially a radiation gun rather than just a laser (as laser based weaponary are what the regular guardsmen use. Lasgun, the space AK-47).
I'd love to see a video on Planetside 2 with Jonathan, particularly with how that game uses the term "Gauss Rifle" to mean "conventional bullet with coilgun assist".
2:40 as I recall, lore-wise they're hybrid rounds, using both gyrojet style rockets and more traditional powder for an initial kick. Gets around the gyrojet problem of low initial velocity.
The Bolter launches a two stage ammunition, it uses gun powder as the kick off to get the "bullet" moving, then a secondary ignition happens as the round leave the barrel. The Bolt round is effectively a rocket propelled grenade with armor piercing capabilities. It typically will either explode on contact of burrow in about 1 to 2 inches before detonating.
Please give us more bits of Dave (or whomever it may be at the time) and Jonathan speaking to each other! That was a great inclusion and it really made the reactions feel that much more engaging!
Johnathan reluctantly explains the Boltgun for the 12th time as a commissar watches on just off-screen.
While said Commisar's hand drifts dangerously close to his bolt pistol...
Watches off screen.... with a Lasrifle
😂
Too bad this game is a disappointment as a boomer shooter.
@@ramonandrajo6348 welcome to the first troll in this thread! No one cares about your clearly poor review.
The muted sound for a heavier gun DOES have an in-universe reason. Space Marine helmets have what is called "auto-senses" to make sure the marine doesn't go blind or deaf even in the brightest or loudest situation. So essentially it darkens the eyes if the environment is too bright and it blocks out sound if the environment is too loud.
So active noise-cancelling, but over explained in the lore because active noise-cancelling wasn't a big thing back when that lore was typed xD
Imagine explaining someone in the 80s from the alternative scenes what "noise cancelling" is. They only knew "louder".
@@DamienDarkside exactly xDD
Also, during some of that footage, they had the infinite ammo powerup active, which muffles some of the sounds in the game. You can see the icon for that in the upper right of the screen. So that might be what he was noticing.
Some Run around without helmet.
Emperor protects
@@DamienDarksideNoise Marines man
"This is probably a rabbit-hole I can ill-afford to go down..."
This is basically what every grown adult who discovers 40k says, right before the Call of the Warp starts to invade their sleeping mind...
Next week, we find out which 40k army Jonathan has started collecting, are introduced to his already impressive and ever-growing Pile of Shame, and get a detailed breakdown of his Army list, Unit composition, and weapon specs. 🤣
Joanthan would 100% collect Imperial Guard.
@@EverianKalimspecifically the Praetorians I’d imagine
literally tho. I started with the Darktide beta and now I’m considering why I want to go with a Necron army. How did this happen so fast lol
@@r.lum.r that escalated quickly lol
@@r.lum.r cool trick for Necrons, Citadel shade paints look AMAZING on metallics, you're going to be able to get some cool effects early as a painter.
A bit of elaboration on the Plasma Gun mechanic:
On the tabletop game, Plasma weapons have a mechanic where if you roll a 1 on a dice when trying to shoot one, it explodes in the user's hand and kills the wielder, the idea being that the plasma is so volatile and dangerous that any mishandling has catastrophic consequences
The overheat mechanic seems to be a compromise for the sake of gameplay; I can't imagine that shooting the Plasma Gun with a 1/6 chance of dying instantly would be very fun to play with
As of 9th & 10th Edition the rule now only applies to supercharged Plasma weapons, increases the strength of the weapon but gives it the hazardous rule which on the roll of a 1 causes it to explode, otherwise you can shoot plasma guns with no fear now.
@@kbassassin8308 Right, sorry forget to mention that
But let's be real, who actually uses the standard fire mode?
@@Tajealos I do got tired of blowing up in 6th since my dudes only came with Plasma weapons as upgrades, lost plenty of battles blowing up.
Darktide has a similar overheating mechanic on its plasma gun. You can vent it manually but take damage to do it. Normally you just lose a little of your regenerating temp HP, but if you're in combat or not watching your health then it might do some more permanent damage.
Darktide has a similar overheating mechanic on its plasma gun. You can vent it manually but take damage to do it. Normally you just lose a little of your regenerating temp HP, but if you're in combat or not watching your health then it might do some more permanent damage.
" I have high hopes for Mr.Cavil and friends though". My man spitting facts. So do we all Mr. J.
YES
Honestly i'm almost scared he's gonna try too hard and overwork himself
@@blockwithaglock96 he's probably going to need to if he wants to protect the show from being ruined by locusts, unfortunately 🙁
@@Khorne_of_the_Hill i am more worried about ambitions getting too high and money running low, just look at high guardian spice or no man sky
That aged like milk XD
"How the bolter rounds really work, I don't know"
The closest equivalent would be 155mm M549 HERA shells. Base bleed rocket-assisted shells, so essentially bolts are .750 caliber (11 gauge) APHERA shotgun slugs.
Gyrojet's greatest weakness was that it has a minimum lethal distance. You can disable the weapon essentially by holding your finger to the muzzle. Having a case that hot launches the projectile at already lethal velocity ensures that there's no minimum lethal distance.
Oh, never thought about it like that. That's quite clever.
the lower lethality of a low initial velocity would also be mitigated by the explosive payload.
Botl rounds get round that issue by being 2 stage: initial cartridge like a regular bullet, and then the rocket kicks in after it exists the muzzle.
@@Daktangle that would also make sense because Bolter are made for every battlefield use be it Low Grav or even Under water where Initial ignitipn could prove difficult without an encased projectile
actually the space marine bolter rounds are 500 magnum , the 750. are the primaris marine bolters and i think the heavy bolter is in 950.
The heavy Bolter is actually electronically fired! :p
Also it’s okay. Nobody actually knows how Meltaguns work. Sometimes they’re beams, sometimes they fire individual shots, sometimes they’re shotgun effects..
And, given the state of military standardization across the Imperium of Man, it's entirely possible that all of those descriptions are equally correct and the term "meltagun" is used to refer to multiple technologies that function differently, but achieve more or less the same result.
Meltas are described as a 'short range beam weapon' almost universally but it doesn't get really any deeper then that. Since all of the effects that you describe could still fall under that description (a continuous beam, and short burst of beam, or multiple short bursts of beams), it's a tossup.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Imperium has multiple kinds of meltas, with different operating methods. All called meltas because they melt holes in tanks.
Though Jonathan might have something to say about them being short ranged weapons.
@@bilateralrope8643 That definitely sound like the Imperium
Porque no los tres? Haha, Microwave gun go fffffffwoosh. It's basically a cutting torch that doesn't need gas, so it certainly got a small-ish cone of effect.
But lore-wise it's focussed microwaves, superheating air for a few milliseconds until it gets very violent (as superheated stuff tends to get) and then releasing that out the front/towards the heretic of your choice.
No clue why it needs ammo and not just power.
6:54 the line you're looking for goes
"My armor is contempt, my sword is hatred, my shield is disgust, in the Emperor's name, let none survive."
Shield is faith. Not disgust 😉
and most of all contempt in this game is the equivalent of armor in dewm - the blue shield pickups, the twist is that they do drop out of enemies
@@ombrepourpre7562
*"MY FAITH IS MY SHIELD"*
"Dude, my face is my shield."
@@yocapo32 Channeling 'Therussianbadger' I see. xD
@@yocapo32 My hair is my sword!
Fun fact, heavy bolter is normally electrically fired, but it have primers for firing it if the batter runs out, electric cable is damaged, or entire system is fried by EMP. Which happens in 40k often enough to have a back up built in. It have lower rate of fire when not electrically powered, but still works.
I like how the writers thought.
While not employed in a commercial or military firearm (to my knowledge): 'Traditional' primers are sensitive to (a sufficiently strong) ESD. With modern miniaturized high-power components, the tough part would be making the 'electric-override ignition' reliable and durable. (Oh, and potentially the micro-EMP/EMI/RFI emitted from the weapon. Notice: most DIY 'gauss guns' mess with the camera; that's what I'm talking about)
I think "plasma - hot, splashy" is a perfectly fine and physics accurate description of what's happening.
I put into a tabletop game I was working on a plasma launcher that essentially caused explosions, since that was near-enough the most realistic effect as far as I could tell. But the most interesting idea, to me, was that the weapon was completely capable of destroying itself with an overcharged shot, and you could disable the safety to create a massively powerful blast which would destroy the weapon.
Plasma hot splashy- needs more dakka!
Plasma is the hyperactive, ADHD-ridden love child of liquid and plasma that will ruin your life if you get near it.
@@rayanderson5797 Sounds like Blast templates
Kinda missing out on the EM effects that constitute the bulk of the complexity in plasma physics, I would think but hey
My armor is contempt
My faith is my shield
My hate is my sword
In the Emperor's name, let none survive!
My faith is my shield !
My face is my shield.
@@foreng3095 My hair is my sword
My shield is disgust
My armor is contempt
My sword is hatred
In the Emperor's name,the heretic the xeno the traitor shall be purged
Or something like that
IDK
KNOW ONLY WAR!
Meltaguns have an interesting story behind them.
In 40K there is a "super-metal" called Adamantium, a rare element that is super strong and can be used to make monomolecular blades and incredibly strong armour.
So in order to beat this armour, they took the cutting tool used to make it and turned it into a weapon. That weapon is the Meltagun, and the Multi-Melta.
In truth Adamantium exists in real life, I don't know how great of armor it would be, but real Adamntium is more commonly referred to as Diamond. So essentially a Space Marine has either Diamond, Diamond Plated, or Diamond Alloy Armor.
@@kbassassin8308 I believe you are confusing this Sci-Fi metal with the Classical Mythological substance called Adamant or Adamantine, which is seen as a form of Diamond.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamant
Adamantium is a very different substance, as it is a metallic element within 40K.
Space Marine power armour does not use Adamantium, only Tactical Dreadnought Armour, Tanks, Dreadnoughts and larger fighting machines do.
SM power armour uses Ceramite.
@KbAssassin Marine Power Armor is made of a material called Ceramite, which by name implies it's some kind of ceramic material, Terminator Armor is made of Adanantine though.
@@RipOffProductionsLLC Ceramite is a composite material that is basically Ceramic.
Tactical Dreadnought Armour, also known as Terminator armour, uses Adamantium which is a unique metallic element in 40K that is also used tank armour, Titans and Spaceships
@@kbassassin8308 Uh no that doesn't work like that
I really respect how much Johnathan is willing to go down the proverbial rabbit hole to explain these obviously absurd weapons. It really is probably the best content Gamspot has put out in a long time imo.
Honestly appreciate the inclusion of Dave providing context on some things
Wholeheartedly agree. The conversation style interludes really add to it.
Dave is a proper 40K fan 😊
"Big hot thing punch hot hole through other thing" is the best description of a Meltagun's function I've ever heard.
Too bad this game is a disappointment as a boomer shooter.
@@ramonandrajo6348 How so? In my opinion it captures the feeling pretty well with the presentation and especially with the powerups, though the arena style "purge" battles are a more modern (but not bad) concept to center the levels around.
“Now here’s our Guardian Spear from the collection….”
Considering that spears with a built in gun have been a real thing historically, don't be shocked if he actually does say that some day
"Hi, Ian from forgotten weapons here on Mars at the armory museum of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Today we are going to have a closer look at the standard template Bolter"
the way a bolter functions is that there is a normal primary charge to propel the "bolt" out of the barrel already at fatal velocity, after that the rocket propellant within the "bolt" to propel it even further. also lore wise the heavy bolter uses electricity because of the required high fire rate
Yes,exactly. The misconception about the bolt gun is that the bolt round is a two-stage gyrojet ammunition
@@phucletran2860 also the fact that the round shown is far too big to be '75 caliber
@@tonarsilverwolf6485 about the dimension , i’m not sure, there are many discussion about that, but i believed the consensus is ‘50, ‘75 is for heavy boltgun i believe.
@@phucletran2860 I've understood that the heavy bolter bolts are 1 cal aka 1 inch in diameter. the '50 cal version was mentioned being in use by the techno barbarians of terra during the unification wars. at least if I remember correctly. Also that would make my point even more accurate since the round looks way too big for the canonical diameter
@@tonarsilverwolf6485 oh, i dont know about the techno barbarians, thanks alot. Yeah, i think you’re right. I like the idea mr. Jonathan mention in the vid, it is a 40mm round, more fitting for a space marine.
The reason the bolters never have stocks is because the gun itself is so heavy that the recoil is surprisingly low.
Its like a stockless version of the AA12
And most likely because of an armored Space Marine's sheer weight and arm strength, that there's no need for stocks.
Also Space Marines have auto targeting systems.
AFAIK they have targeting and are also just so good they don’t even have to look down sights for typical use, like aiming at center of mass. They can aim intuitively. I’m not sure if that is canon or not, since it is hard to remember if I heard something from any official source or not… It certainly rings true.
@@StressmanFIN TBH there's bolters that are designed for humans not in power armor that are stockless, but I chalk that up to keeping the weapon easily identifiable instead of practical reasons.
The difference is the bolter round's case ignites and shoots the rocket as if it was a normal bullet THEN the rocket starts flying and lodges itself within the targets flesh exploding right after negating any momentum loss
The pump action on the Deathwatch shotgun allows manual loading of specialized shells against different types of aliens.
The moment Jonathan drew a brace of Gyrojet Pistols I expected him to be drawn into Boltgun and start purging the enemies of Mankind.
As for the Plasmagun overcharging and hurting the player is actually based on the Tabletop version where it then can even result in fatal malfunction and well these are also called ,,Sun-Weapons" as they fire miniature suns and a space marine armor provides "just" little protection against that
The Deathwatch shotgun uses mainly three different types of ammo: wyrmbreath, cryptclearer, and xenopurge, being essentially dragon's breath, exploding buckshot, and I can't find specifics on what the xenopurge ammo is since it's less often talked about than the other two. In essence it's, yeah, a scaled-up shotgun. Probably talking what is essentially the equivalent of a 2 or 4 gauge compared to our 10s and 12s. The ammo is not entirely like the Bolter ammunition though, since the Bolter is essentially firing a bullet that then activates the rocket on the rear to launch the bullet at higher speeds, since the recoil from launching a projectile that large by itself would make even a space marine unable to handle the gun well.
It is also pump action to swap ammo types on the fly without a full reload
I really want to see Jonathan break down the guns from The Order 1886
I almost forgot about this game. It was dead in the water when it came out.
i second this
Yes please, on the royal armouries channel he also seems most excited to talk about weird, victorian era guns so this would be cool to see
@@zXPeterz14 Things were moving so fast during that time, it's wild the variety
I appreciate your persistence, posting this request every week.
I really appreciate that the vengeance launcher uses the reticle from Spacemarine. I love those kinds of little details.
Im so keen to see what they give us for SM 2
Boltgun actually plays on the same planet as Space Marine and is set some time after the first Space Marine game. The Ultramarine player character even mentions Captain Titus at least at one point.
@@theshinken this is absolutely incredible. I will be playing this.
This game is just space Maine FPS
Jonathan should definitely read at least the first of the Ciaphas Cain novels. It's a very fun warstory (With some perspective shifting to capture some of the strategic/tactical deployment of the Imperial Guard, the regular human soldiers of the setting) and really likable characters.
Before I read it, I figured it'd be a bit overhyped. But no. Ciaphas Cain books are THAT good and funny.
A lazy, cowardly master swordsman, with a desk job he hates, working along one of the grumpiest regiments, facing the horrors of the universe.
Blundering into success 9/10 times like an old james bond movie.
@@SamuraiHonor yeah, my only real complaints are that by the final omnibus Sandy started running out of ideas.
The first two are amazing though
I haven't read Ciaphas Cain, yet it always seemed to me that they were the 40K equivalent of the Flashman Papers (with a bit of added Blackadder).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flashman_Papers
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Flashman
What about Gaunt's Ghosts?
@@garygcrook TvTropes, at least, makes this direct comparison. Cain's less skeevy than Flashman or Blackadder as far as I'm aware, but it's still apt.
The Bolter has no shoulder stock of course because the Space Marine holding it is wearing a powered exoskeleton capable of controlling what recoil there is, when you see models of normal humans using them (not common, but there are a couple) they tend to be fired from the shoulder rather than the hip like a Space Marine would.
"To a Space Marine, the boltgun is far more than a weapon; it is an instrument of Mankind's divinity, the bringer of death to his foes. Its howling blast is a prayer to the gods of battle."
The armour of contempt thing is more about being immune to corruption. Its pretty hard to be swayed by someone or something you have nothing but contempt for.
My idea for how boltgun bullets work:
Rocket-propelled bullet with a kickstart, basically. The case is loaded like any other cased round, but then the bullet itself has extra fuel within it. When the bullet is fired, it's blasted out like any other bullet, but that blast also ignites the bullet's fuel, allowing it to keep velocity and possibly increasing said velocity until the fuel runs out.
The Melta... Gunner Ferik Jurgen's favourite weapon, popular with those around him too because not only does it put large holes in enemies but the small of ozone and burning things temporarily drowns out Jurgen's own skunk-felling bouquet.
Jonathan might be more familiar with Ciaphas Cain as a 40K combination of Blackadder and George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman and Gnr Jurgen as a combination of Baldrick and G M-F's notoriously filthy Pte MacAuslan.
Keeping the clips in the video of Dave explaining the Warhammer concepts is a good call. I'd like to see this style continue.
2:00 - There's something brilliant about seeing Jonathan basically dual-wielding these two large gyro jet pistols, especially knowing he's of smaller stature. Definitely the most intimidating museum curator out there!
DO NOT touch the guns!
From memory, the reason space marine weapons don't have stocks is because the powered armour exoskeleton does all the recoil compensation.
Has anyone explained to Jonathan that Imperial tech is incredibly varied? From stone age spears and bows all the way up to weapons that tear holes in the fabric of reality?
Isn't there a tank/cannon round that utilises the dying scream of a planet to cause earthquakes?
@@RaccKing21quake cannon
The Heavy Bolter actually does fire its bolts electronically. Bolt guns also eject casings because the cartridge is two stages, a conventiaonal primer is set off and then the rocket propulsion ignites as it leaves the barrel of the Bolter.
I loved the description of the Bolt Gun round I heard once: a 75mm brick attached to a firecracker
.75 cal
75mm would be just under 300 caliber...ouch.
Pushing as always for you guys to have Johnathan cover Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and to cover the M8 and MRI Caseless specifically as well.
The reason bolter rounds (and any bolt weapon, including heavy bolters and some even larger weapons) are cased despite using a system like the gyrojet pistols is that the case holds only a 'kick-charge' that's meant to accelerate the projectile out of the barrel and ignite the primary charge. Once out of the barrel, the round continues to accelerate under it's own propulsion. This solves a problem with previous gyrojet weapons, in that the projectile has much lower muzzle velocity compared to a standard bullet, and require a minimum distance to reach max speed. Using the kick-charge, a bolter has a higher muzzle velocity and requires far less distance to get up to full speed.
I appreciate the cut-ins of the host providing more information, very nice as both a bit of extra lore and knowing what the guest is basing their thoughts around. More Warhammer! I've love Jonathan to see Tau and Eldar weapons.
Then Ork weapons. Just to mess with him.
The boltgun ammo is cased as it's a two-staged ammo system with a conventional powder charge to launch the bullet from the gun then the rocket booster on the bullet ignites, pushing the projectile to the target, effectively either giving it more acceleration or to remove the decelleration of the bullet
The heavy bolter is far and away my favourite weapon in the game. It might take up half the screen with its muzzle flash and with the massive cartridges flying out of it, but I don't care. It's perfect for killing absolutely every heretic in the room in seconds. Well, that and the meltagun, which is absolutely devastating.
"My armor is contempt, my sword is hatred, my shield is disgust, in the Emperor's name, let none survive."
The full quote
ARE WE not going to talk about how CASUAL Jonathan just holds the gyrojet bullet inside that piece of wood?!?! That's a VERY famous gyrojet round to me!!
Wait, did Jono just suggest a shotgun with mini bolter rounds as shot???
Yea, he did, which doesn't make much sense.
But nothing in 40k really makes sense.
My interpretation of the cased boltgun cartridge is that it's a two-stage rocket: a traditional powder charge kicks the warhead down the barrel to give it a boost before the rocket engine engages, which explains why the gun ejects a case despite firing a projectile that doesn't need one.
I now want to see Johnathan try to hold up a Bolter replica of an adequate size and weight. I just want to see a regular man hold what a Space Marine does. Like one of the infantryman holding Captain Titus’s weapon for a sec while he adjusts his helmet. Lol
The scale of Space Marines is really frankly absurd. There's a line in Receiver 2 about the Desert Eagle, how the weapon was chosen for Arnold in Terminator because other guns would *look like toys*, and the Bolters are very similar. Space Marines are like eight feet tall OUT OF ARMOR, built like fridges, and can handle recoil and heft that would render a normal operator useless after two shots. A bolter is like, half a man's torso.
@@HolyDeviant1 When did arnold used desert eagle in terminator?
@HolyDeviant1 Arnold didn't use a desert eagle in the terminator he used a .45,t2 he used a lever action shotgun
@w4rpf1nnlad76 he uses one in Last Action Hero and Raw Deal
@@jacobfarley2332 Well they are not terminator movies right?
Johnathan explaining these type of guns is always a joy to watch
Fun fact: Lore states that the Heavy bolter has electronic Ignition. There isnt primers on the cases because it indeeds fire through electric means. Its fire rate is substanially higher in lore compared to its smaller cousins. (Though not depicted in game, probably due to balancing the gun for gameplay)
The fire rate is kind of represented in the game. Currently, bolters get 1 shot, or two if you can rapid fire. Heavy bolters get 3 shots all the time and do twice as much damage.
Edit: I just realized you probably meant in Boltgun, not actual 40k. Oops.
I enjoy having this little back and forth with Jonathan being given little bits of in-game context
The more I look at it, the more I realise that the Shotgun here is like a really elaborate KS-23, but cut down to a super-shorty...
These are always delightful. I need to put the Royal Armouries on my list for whenever I make it back to the UK.
Call me a nerd, but if i remember correct , the volkite laser is the predecessor of the bolte. It was preceded by bolter because it was difficult too mass produce for marine legions pre-horus heresy.
Yeah, the guy got the broad details right but the timeline off, bolters replaced volkite weapons during the great crusade because they couldn't make enough volkites to outfit the millions of space marines, not because of technical decline post heresy.
So is the caliver more powerful?
Yes, it is more powerful than a bolter
@@spacetaz3382 Thanks.
volkite weapons were initially planned as standard armaments for the imperial guard together with land's raider (yes this is it's real preheresy name) and predator tanks. bolters were a stopgap measure of the emperor as his thunder warriors needed a cheap yet powerful weapon that could be produced and supplied by the millions on Terra itself with a pityfull industrial base as it was still a post-apocalyptic hellhole at the time. space marines were planned to be equipped with plasma and gravitic weapons for the most part with different legions specializing in different weapon technologies. when things started to get sideways long before the heresy big E opened his stockpiles to the fire legion who to this day have most of the guns the emperor planned to use for the entire adeptus astartes which is why they are using so many "rare" plasma weapons as well as "other" (*coughs*enslaved men of iron *coughsininquisition*) special toys.
After having looked at the individual bolts of the Bolter, watching them spit out the side alongside the fact it's still gyrojet. I have to say it could be a two-stage projectile. It would also explain the blast from the muzzle and the sound of it firing. First stage is a standard bullet, gunpowder reaction shoots the warhead out the front and the jets kick in for stability and extra velocity.
Fun Fact: The Boltgun/Bolter is a .75 Caliber. The Heavy Bolter is a .998 Caliber
I can only imagine the number of people that have tried, but: I need a "12 Gauge" in 2-stage gyrojet.
Fun Fact: "Twelve-Gauge" shotguns come in bore diameters varying from a tight 'nearly 13 gauge' (.7165) on some European shotguns to 10 gauge (.775) on the Mossberg 935. (SAAMI/US 12ga bore is 'normally' 0.731)
Can you please do either one of these: The exotic weapons of the division 1&2 or necrovision (WW1 "horror" shooter)
Necrivision was such a great game. On the best 1st person melee executions.
4:55 "I think the Rule-of-Cool is sufficently powerful in this context that even I am obliged to not care about that"
Man, he's just wonderful, this moment was hilarious
17:53 I love how Jonathan makes this Star Trek comparsion in such good faith
honestly he's probably not far off.. Volkite weapons in the fluff don't really go into the mechanics of how they work, other than their beams cause the targets to catch on fire. so "phaser" is probably the best description of what apparently is some sort of heat ray.
Can we all agree that Jonathan is one of the most wholesome people on UA-cam? 😊
Hard to argue.
I enjoyed the back and forth between Dave and Jonathan this episode, I've been watching since this series started and had seen Jonathan on other channels before. Love the content keep it up :)
Thank you!
I would like to see Jonathan reacting to the weapons of Warframe
Haha, that would be multiple videos worth, or specific weapons you got mind?
@@buntamara5491 maybe the weapons of each faction: grineer, corpus, tenno, infested, sentient
That's actually why Their cased rounds some of the earlier rogue trader material before 40k proper had bolters do caseless exploding ammo but it got changed back later persumedly cause cased rounds look more iconic. Even later it's great for video games and cinematic seeing shells fly
Would love to see this series tackle the weapons in Starship Troopers Extermination. I think those would be well within Jonathan's wheelhouse, especially given the real-life inspiration/models from the films being actual firearms covered in greeblies. If you're lacking in a weapon count or just a glutton for punishment I guess you could also reach back to Strangelite's effort at a ST fps to make up the numbers.
Fantastic video once again guys.
2:44 bolters are cased because they are two stage launched. The first stage is conventional reactants while the second stage is the rocket motor. Like a mini Sturmtiger cannon round.
Jonathan is so wholesome, I love watching him gush about guns and love the fact that he covers fictional stuffs and looks genuinely interested in learning about them.
If i recall my 40k lore correctly the gyrojets are first fired like a normal bullet and then accellerate
I mean...that isn't 40K lore. That's a gun fact.
@@batteredwarrior actually the gyro jet guns just accelerate like tiny rockets, no initial blast
A potential reason for having cases on bolter bolts is to allow for a "soft launch" like what we see with the javelin (and I think the stinger but I'm not 100% on that) where it has two charges. A lower pressure one to get the shot out of the tube, and the full power one to propel to the target.
Normally when a plasma gun overheats it explodes killing everyone in a 5m radius, so they decided to tone it down for the game and just make it hurt you instead.
I really appreciate seeing the conversations between Dave and Jonathan.
I'll take any excuse to chat about Warhammer haha
For the plasma rifle, yeah they’re not used oftentimes because they tend to explode on their user. They’re effective and deal heavy damage but even in the game, if you roll a 1 with a plasma gun it blows up. They’re reliably unreliable.
Actually, artifact plasma weapons are very reliable. Aka the original, well made plasma weapons. The modern ones are a shadow of their former selves. One of the primarchs has a original plasma weapon, never overheats or explodes. I think that was the primarch of the salamanders.
Btw, I love the fact that Jonathan goes into a lengthy explanation of the history of electrically primed ammunition in order to _not_ have to nitpick the lack of dimples on cases ejected from the Heavy Bolter.
This man is the perfect person for this job.
I love about the 40k universe is that while a lot of these are futuristic in terms, the Non-Unique, un-reproducible Ancient weapons were replaced overtime with mass-produced kinetic based downgrades so they can be easily repaired and maintained in combat while a more advanced energy type weapon might not be able to so without the proper Tech Priest.
Am I the only one that got SUPER happy with the Ciaphas Cain and Jurgen shoutout during this episode??? Absolutely LOVE that book series!
Death or Glory is one of my personal favourites. I really loved the Mad Max X Ork vibe
@Dave -IrregularDave- Jewitt I am literally listening to that one now, well Wil be again in a moment as I get back o the road for work. Lol (Just finished The Traitor's Hand)
Fun fact about plasma guns. On the tabletop for Imperial armies, since its a D6 tabletop game, when you tell a model to fire a plasma gun and supercharge it but roll a 1, your model's plasma gun explodes and usually either instantly kills your model or maims them (if they are a character/hero unit usually)
Love his cheerfulness and open-mindedness towards every subject matter.
It might have already been said but, the reason the bolter ejects cases is that the projectile is initialy launched conventionaly then after leaving the barrel its rockets ignite. Why do they do this? who knows - it looks cool though👍
I wonder if anyone has actually tried putting a rocket into a casing with a charge?
Sounds mildly dangerous, but could be an interesting experiment.
"A vengeace launcher?"
"that sounds promising"
I am kind of curious whether you could get the rights for him to react to the Astrates series to break down the weapons in that and show them in their full gritty glory. From what I remember you have a bolter, plasma gun, laser cannon, anti infantry LMG's (Maybe some others I'm forgetting). Okay it isn't a game but it is tied to a game franchise.
6:23 The contempt thing is in reference to the quote "My armor is contempt. My shield is disgust. My sword is hatred. In the name of the Emperor let none survive." In gameplay terms your armor is actually contempt which is pretty funny. Oh they say this in the video, I paused to leave the comment.
The Emperor protects!
The Emperor Provides!
The Mon’keigh god-king?
A bolter certainly helps
It would be great to see Jonathan react to the firearms of Receiver 2, the attention to detail in that game is insane
I can't wait to play this game. It looks mad fun. Great breakdown from Jonathan. Sure hope Dead Space is on the list.
This based on the assumption that not everyone in the comments is a 40k aficionado (which they probably are already) but:
Melta gun induces a fusion reaction within the ammunition canister and projects the heat directly out of the barrel at close range turning everything in front of it including the air into plasma, whereas the Volkite weapon directs a concentrated beam of thermal energy along a path turning anything at the end into ash and usually-if it hits an organic being-instantly vaporizing them and often promoting an oxidising fire explosion setting fire to the air and anything nearby.
"firearms expert reacts to the most unrealistic and over the top weaponry in history of fiction"
My theory for why bolts are cased is because they realized the problem of the Gyrojet was almost no power up close as it has acceleration time, by adding some normal bullety stuff to it they get an initial kick and the benefits of the gyrojet system for such a heavy round.
Wh40k got fun guns, but Titanfall 2 part 2 when, please?
The Plasma Gun getting hot and hurting you is another Easter egg to the good old fashion "Get Hot" rule that all Imperial Plasma weapons had at one time (not sure if its still a thing as not played since 5th Ed)
Do SAO Fatal Bullet and COD Advanced Warfare
The heavy bolter is muted because the helmet on a space reigns armor automatically does so while input from a heavy weapon is active. It's actually mentioned in some of the novels how older models of power armor do not have this feature, which of course will render veteran devastators (heavy weapon specialists) hard of hearing or even deaf.
7th or something idk
2:30 The reason the Bolter rounds are still cased is that the rockets are still fired like a bullet, with propellant inside the casing being ignited by a primer. The reason for this is that the round already starts at a high velocity when fired, meaning it doesn't need to use time and fuel to do it with the jets.
That's what I've heard, at least.
"A Vengeance Launcher..."
"That sounds promising"
I love that Johnathan understands and respects the "rule of cool" and the concept of video game balance. While he's a gun guy, he's also a video game guy and gets into the lore of the universe.
It's cool having Dave explaining some of the fictional background of things when it helps Jonathan to contextualize them better for explanations or finding real-world parallels. I have zero knowledge of or interest in Warhammer, but hearing someone who's a nerd about something explain it to someone else is always fun.
A great analysis as always. What I enjoy most about these videos is that Jonathan has knowledge about games as well
I would love to see a top 10 over the top absurd guns that John loves that he wishes were real.
Hello former Swedish army dude here. The way a shaped charge in for example the Carl Gustaf grg works is like how you said there is a pin made of copper in the conical charge that turns into a welding rod almost and melta through the armor and thereby turning the pressure in the armored vehicle into non survivable levels along with massive heat.
The silliness of the Bolter firing caseless rocket ammunition that for some reason still ejects a casing is actually the result of a conflict between the creators and the artists, back in the 80s.
Specifically, the creators at GW *did* make the Bolters caseless on purpose, and early Bolter sculpts didn't have ejection ports. But the artists who drew the covers, Codex illustrations etc were all heavy metal inspired and so couldn't resist the urge to add flying brass and hundreds of spent shell casings laying at the feet of the badass supersoldiers they were drawing.
Rather than telling them to stop, GW eventually retconned the Bolter to fire two-stage ammunition, with a brass case containing the starter charge and a rocket motor in the bullet once it leaves the barrel.
To add something on the Volkite, other than being an older gun that was mostly replaced due to the general loss of technology stuff is that it is essentially a radiation gun rather than just a laser (as laser based weaponary are what the regular guardsmen use. Lasgun, the space AK-47).
I'd love to see a video on Planetside 2 with Jonathan, particularly with how that game uses the term "Gauss Rifle" to mean "conventional bullet with coilgun assist".
2:40 as I recall, lore-wise they're hybrid rounds, using both gyrojet style rockets and more traditional powder for an initial kick. Gets around the gyrojet problem of low initial velocity.
The Bolter launches a two stage ammunition, it uses gun powder as the kick off to get the "bullet" moving, then a secondary ignition happens as the round leave the barrel. The Bolt round is effectively a rocket propelled grenade with armor piercing capabilities. It typically will either explode on contact of burrow in about 1 to 2 inches before detonating.
Please give us more bits of Dave (or whomever it may be at the time) and Jonathan speaking to each other! That was a great inclusion and it really made the reactions feel that much more engaging!