Amongst the Melee weapons in 40K the chainsword is unequivocally the most iconic. So it should probably be a quite good weapon. instead I would say I see almost no one using it. There is something decidedly lackluster about using them. Even if statistically they don’t seem that bad. I have done decent damage with them in games on damnation. But they feel something in the range from meh to disappointing to use. Herein i will try to interrogate why.
First I will reference a primary example from lore as to how chain weapons perform in combat. Second I will look at how they are represented on tabletop. Third I will compare them to gameplay in darktide. Fourth I will look at aesthetics and effects that might be impacting the weapons from a feel perspective.
1. Lore
I wasn’t able to find a primary source that I personally have access to. The rulebooks leave much to the imagination but I will try to describe my recollection of a duel from the first Gaunt’s Ghosts book. In it the chainswords used in the duel are both turned on for the whole fight. When the blade makes contact with flesh it instantly tears into it, cutting through clothing and bone. Even just the lightest touch serves to create nasty gashes. The weapons are described as having whirring monomolecular spinning blades. In a sense these descriptions evoke a weapon that doesn’t require the user’s muscle to cut, but rather cuts on the lightest touch and carves deeply when force is applied. Far from a realistic chainsaw, more like a fantasy one.
2. Tabletop crunch
Minis game
In tabletop the Chainsword and chain weapons in general have commonly been treated as close combat weapons with no special benefits (besides conferring an extra attack as per all closecombat weapons). This appears to remain true for one handed chain weapons in 4th, 5th and 9th (and from my memory that includes 6rh and 7th). I could not readily find chain axes not in the hands of an astartes, though such exists in lore. And eviscerators were 2x strength and AP-2 (capable of penetrating carapace).
Dark Heresy: provides a more nuanced look at chain weapons and standard weapons with the following stats tables:
Axe: 1d10+1 Armor Pen 0 (with mono edge upgrade adding +2 pen)
Sword: 1d10 Armor Pen 0 (with mono edge upgrade adding +2 pen)
Chainsword: 1d10+2 Armor Pen 2
ChainAxe: 1d10+4 Armor Pen 2
Eviscerator: 1d10+10 Armor Pen 5
Briefly, what is the take away: as a player I think everyone feels naturally that chain weapons should be on the higher, not lower, side of the damage pool. That just feels right. Maybe they’re clunky in other ways, but they should hit like trucks.
3. Gameplay
I’m going to summarize rather than list in detail. Everything does less damage than the Antax and Combat Axe. Yes everything has a bit better cleave but it doesn’t feel very impactful in game. The eviscerator does it best but honestly does not hit that hard or cleave that well either. Its strange but the giant two handed weapon feels less impactful despite being slower than a one handed axe. That just seems wrong, especially for chain weapons.
does this distribution feel right to you? It doesn’t to me.
4. Fourth
Feel
I can’t really quantify this. I spent some time trying to think of what the chain weapons feel like in darktide right now and the word “paddle” came up in conversation a lot, this is NOT GOOD. That’s when it struck me. There’s an aztec weapon called a Macuahuitl (don’t ask me to pronounce that). It looks EXACTLY like how it feels to swing a chain weapon a lot of the time. A wooden paddle with unmoving serrated blades. It also accurately describes the negative feeling you get swinging a chain weapon. In fact many of the chain weapon attacks feel exactly like this:
I will just describe the video. In the first swing the user hits the mannequin and does not cut it at all. It literally hits like a wooden paddel. In the next swing the user hits the mannequin and only manages to cut it a little. “that’s pretty brutal” says the narrator…as the second strike finally tears open a bit of flesh for the first time. Far from brutal it looks like getting hit with a serrated paddle. Which is what it is. And what chains weapons feel like, which they shouldn’t. Chain weapons have whirring blades that cut deep into flesh and tear open wounds. The fantasy of chain weapons is that the blades serve a similar (but more flashy and gorey) purpose to super sharp magic swords and light sabers. They cut into soft flesh as a hot knife through butter. Effortlessly. Rattling against bones and sinews as they slowdown deeper into the body. Chain weapons should resemble something like weaker power sword that grinds instead of getting totally stuck the way a chainsaw might. Not…well…a paddle. Paddle is bad.
Audio
One issue i have noticed with all the chain weapons is that you cannot really make out the fact that they are doing a light rev on swing. There’s too many outher sounds going on. Because of this the audio gives the impression of slapping the enemy with paddle more often than hitting them with razor sharp whirring blades of adamantine. This is especially bad on the heavy attacks for the chain axe. The feedback on these attacks is dull thwapping. The eviscerator does it best but still tends to thump more than rip and tear. This is a problem on several fronts.
- There is often little to no engine audio windup before the swing
- There is often little to no engine audio winddown after the swing
- Chain weapons should not be off when swung. They should always be on when swung.
The Eviscerator does this well specifically on heavy swings. If you chain heavy attacks there’s a persistent purring sound and persistent movement on the chain blades. All chain weapons should behave this way on all swings. Note how as soon as I start swinging lights the sound vanishes.
Revved attacks always sound great. Especially grinding against flak and carapace.
Visual
For the most part, the visuals are pretty strong. Except in a few key areas I want to try and highlight below.
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Hit decals are mostly good but sometimes it looks more like i bludgened them than hit them with a tearing cutting slicing weapon.
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Enemies are not dismembered or cut open enough. perhaps this is a tech limitation or even a settings one on my part. But it seems like enemies should be cut partially in half and from different angles more often. Right now I seem to only be able to remove arms, legs, bisect the torso and behead enemies. What about partially cutting them in half or cutting them in half on diagonals or horizontally? Its not required, probably bottom of my list actually, but it would help get the feel right. Partial dismemberment would improve the feel of chains weapons.
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Light attacks with the chainsword, if allowed to rest a split second between mashing LMB for swings, actually render an animation like they are latching but just do not and don’t make any sound at all so you get this dumb wiggle on the target with no feedback.
Proposal
This is just my idea, so I’m open to argument.
I think that chain weapons should be doing more damage than the axes, and be more single target oriented weapons with lower cleave and slower handling. If the axes are the Kantrael Lasgun then the Chain Swords should be Bolters. Right now they seem like they’re trying to be more cleave oriented than they should be and it ends up feeling weird to paddle multiple enemies. If they shared a spot with the axes in the “hits one or two people, with blessings, and kills them in one hit” category and just roared for a huge pile of damage…I think that would be more fun. The chain axe definitely needs to swing for more than a normal axe.
I also think some of the reason they feel bad has to do with animations and lackluster sound effects. So work on that too. Make them roar more. Make them run when they are swung until a little after they are done being swung. Don’t make me rev it to see the chainsword do chainsword things.
