I understood you perfectly.
That is not the thunder hammer’s role in Warhammer 40k. It is to penetrate the thickest of armor.
It should not be optimal against unyielding they are THE LIGHTEST ARMORED. that is the realm of tearing weapons like chainsword, chain axe and eviscerator.
The thunder hammer should be optimal against the Crushers, ravagers (carapace)
Because they should have lower health and depend more on thier armor reduction to keep them alive.
To the point about us not getting space marine wepaons … we arent … space marine weapons dont stall all the time, most of them would one shot everything we are fighting all the time due to inhuman strength trait, and just bigger damage dice.
Its not acurate for any powerfield weapon to “Thunk” while the power field is on … its a hammer sized plasmacutter/lightsaber.
Power swords are not lightsabers in the least they have apower field but it is weaker. theres a reason they are pen 1 and thunder hammers are pen 2 because they penetrate twice as much armor.
Using an inquisitors Archeotech weapon as the power sword standard is not legitimate. By and large powerswords are the good defensive well rounded choice in the 40k milenia. they occupy the middle ground and operate well against all target types … they are not “Lightsabers”. thats a matt ward pipe dream. the closest thing to a “Light saber” in the imperium are archeotech weapons (our characters would never get a chance to touch or even look at or think about). or the thunder hammer and power fist which are antitank and heavy infantry weapons.
Even in non main sources like the tabletop rpg. which would make a far better adaption starting point than the TTwargame.
Pg. 185 only war
chain weapons Pen - 2 (Tearing)
Power sword Pen - 5(Balanced)
Omnisian Axe Pen - 6 (Should be less than a thunder hammer)
Thunder hammer was added later
https://www.40krpgtools.com/armoury/weapon/into-the-storm/thunder-hammer/
and has pen 10.
The current portrayal of the thunder hammer is not the thunder hammer. its a chain hammer.
The current representation of the chain axe is not a chain axe its a thunder axe … it should be slightly higher pen than a sword and slightly poor block efficiency.
Thunder hammer should be the king of penetration it should read 100% full damage on its whole profile when charged up. it should not rip into unyealding foes for bonus damage … it should ignore thier shield and armor rating but deal the same damage it does to everything else. Out of the ogryn tier enemies Bulwark should be the hardest to kill for the hammer because thier bonus is extra toughness and health … something the thunder hammer has no effect on, while it should cut straight through the armor of the carapace ogry who (presumadly) should have less maximum health than the bulwark since MOST weapons will do reduced damage to him.
It isnt just a thematic difference.
Warhammer 40k is based around the pivotal balance that lighter weapons kill lighter enemies better, and heavier weapons kill heavily armored foes but generally drop off in effectiveness vs hordes of smaller enemies.
40k is literally perfectly designed for a game like this where you weapon choice will impact what targets you seek and what targets you leave to your teamates…
Because the Chain Axe is operating the way it does there really isnt a reason to use the thunder hammer other than flavor.
It should be a tactical choice … choosing the thunder hammer says “Im going to target the enemy tin cans”
If you think its current state as a “Unyielding buster” is ok try it out against the beast of nurgle and the plague ogryn and you will see that it excels way more than it should … it even has a strong damage profile against the daemon host.
Enemies that the chain axe should shine against but kinda doesn’t.
It also allows the thunder hammer to one shot the running ogryn on most difficulties and one shot it with zealot charge on all but difficulty 5.
Its present state makes it a very strong horde clearer even when stalled, and when energized it takes out everything but carapace enemies. but becomes less efficient as a weapon … no weapon with its powerfield on should be less efficient than with it off.
The hammer should thunk … for sure when its power field is off… it should hit a bulwarks shield or a carapace enemy and rebound if its stalled. but it shouldnt rebound off a pox walker when the power field is on when it could theoretically cut straight through a tank and slice the driver in half on a lucky shot.
they are crossing over into each others category making a non-smooth transition from lightest weapon with highest speed to most combersome weapon for killing tin cans.
it goes:
light->horde - Thunder hammer->medium enemies but is heavier and slower - Chain-> heavy carapace but is faster.
Thats why the weapons are imbalanced the chain axe has the advantage of being faster and better at horde clearing AS WELL AS killing heavily armored and flak elites. every other weapon generally follows warhammer 40k’s balancing system. so its harder to fill that hole of unyielding enemies because every other characters options are on a sensible slider from
fast → horde - Medium → well balanced - Heavy-> Carapace.
To put it another way
lets assume player 1 is a thunder hammer user they select thunder hammer.
Players 2-4 are not preachers and they want to compliment the thunder hammer users weapons.
The thunder hammer presently covers hordes through CC which is ok i guess … but it does always kill the first poxwalker struck even on diff5 and does about 30-50% of the others health depending on bar rolls.
The thunder hammer also excells against unyielding, but is poor against carapace and flak …
Those two weapon groups are not optimized on anyone elses loadout, because they have a balanced correct progression from light to heavy so another player in the team would have to base 2 selections or two separate team members would have to each pick a hole filling weapon to counteract the hammers weak points. a balanced one for flak enemies, and a high penetration one for Carapace.
A lore correct thunder hammer takes care of carapace and threatens flak with average efficiency, a single team member taking a horde clearing weapon covers the weakness by both threatening average damage to flak. and the correct thunder hammer would ACTUALLY NEED another teamate to fill in that light fast weapon category to help them against unyielding enemies.
In contrast because the chain axe covers heavy carapace but also indirectly unyielding … it operates on the bbottom part of the spectrum being fairly fast swinging(ide put it at average, but its base non revved damage kills a poxwalker in one swipe a revved hit covers all elite types and carapace leaving only unyielding which can be overcome by fast swipes or 1-2 revved flank hits. Leaving no situation that the chain Axe NEEDS anyone else to handle despite it not necessarily being optimal for unyielding enemies. it threatens average performance against all groups and superior performance against carapace.
Single target breakdown if lore accurate would be
Chain axe → unyielding
Power sword → Flak
Thunder hammer/eviscerator → Carapace (since they are class pinacle weapons i would advise the eviscerator be slightly better at hordes/flak and slightly less effective against carapace it should be power sword pen but with tearing in the tabletop iterations, but it is supposed to be slow and unwieldy. think of it as a well rounded +1 weapon because the preacher (Theoretically) specializes in melee.