just what is lance

[Demoulius]

hello gents,

 

im wondering: what exactly is lance? in BFG is very powerfull and in fluff pieces you sometimes read about it. but what is it? exactly?

[Brother Nihm]

Lances are incredibly high-powered energy weapons that are capable of burning straight through an armoured hull or cutting an escort in two. On Imperial and Chaos ships lances are usually mounted in huge turrets with quad or triple energy projectors that focus into a concentrated beam of destruction.

Think Deathstar Super Laser meets gigantic Lascannon array.

[Iron Lord]

This article by Andy Chambers:

 

http://www.inisfail.com/bfg/bfg-lances.html

 

sums it up as basically a combination of laser and plasma technology. But the main beam seems to be plasma:

 

Visually this would be along the lines of the advanced races’ weapons in B5, like the Minbari and Shadow ships - a coruscating beam of pure energy which is swept across a minute arc.

 

A lance turret would need to work something like this;

 

Immense power conduits enter at the bottom of the turret, feeding into house-sized capacitors and storage cells which form most of its base (ie magazine/ammo hoist area). The power conduits tap into the ship’s main power core, which in turn is energised by huge, throbbing plasma reactors.

 

The lance weapons themselves would be enormous energy projectors - each one the size of a factory chimney. They work by combining focussed coherent light (ie lasers) and electromagnetic pulses as a propellant for highly energised particles (ie plasma). The closest naturally occurring equivalent would be a solar flare but foccussed into a narrow beam. This means that lances would consist of a central particle/plasma chamber surounded by a series of enormous electromagnetic coils forming the barrel and muzzle, behind this would be a cluster of laser rods in the place of the breech/shell.

[Demoulius]

so basicly a "giant laser"? :P

[Brother Nihm]

Yes Siree!

[Iron Lord]

so basicly a "giant laser"? :)

 

"Giant plasma torch" might be closer in terms of how its described.

 

But in practice- it's a "Beam of Death"-

 

even if it's not a laser in the strictest sense, it's more like a laser than "turbolasers" and "laser cannons" in Star Wars, which generally aren't even beam weapons, but fire slow moving "bolts".