Beam saber against a sword.

[Scorchijs]

First, let's get one thing clear. This is not a favorite weapon topic.

What I want to know is, how would a sword (carried by GINNs) fare against a beam saber? Will the sword be able to block the beam saber or will it be cut in half?
The same thing goes for anti-armor knives. How do they fare against close combat beam weapon?

P.S. One more thing. In CE a beam saber is a weapon that looks like a lightsaber, while a beam sword is a physical sword with beam edges (like the one carried by Gouf Ignited). Am I correct?

[Toxicity]

My CE tech is a little rusty, but a beam saber should rip right through anything it touches minus heat weapons and beam resistant armor.

[Dendrobium Stamen]

Yeah, unless the sword is covered in anti-beam coating (like a shield), any beam weapon would rip right through it with absolute ease. A hot knife through butter, you might say.

As for the difference between the beam sabre and beam sword, you've got it in one - a beam sword is a miniaturised anti-ship sword in essence, while a beam sabre is the standard blade-of-energy weapon we all know and love from almost thirty years of Gundam.

[ExhileVoid]

If I remember from episode 2 of Destiny, Sting was able to literally destroy one of Sword Impulse's anti-ship swords and it wasn't with a beam saber but rather the Chao's claws in MA mode. And I'm pretty sure just like with heat weapons, prolong contact with beam weapons will eventually wear off the anti-beam coating before it eventually gets destroyed.

[Recon 5]

Its simple. Beam swords can be destroyed by any heavy, fast- moving object if they hit a part of the beam sword that does not have a beam blade. For example, the Sword Impulse's AS Swords had only one beam edge, so they could be broken by attacking the opposite edge from the beam. They could also be destroyed when they're not activated, which Stellar did with the Gaia's own beam blades.

In fact, when a beam sword (one with a large emitter like an AS Sword, not a beam saber) is not activated, a skillful pilot could grab and break it with the hands of his MS.

As for beam sabers, well, There's a reason why they stopped using the Heavy Swords in combat, you know...

[teslashark]

Strike's long AS sword is relly 3in1,it has a blade tip, a beam blade and a beam saber at its rear end, wich can also be used ae a bean cannon.

[quasadra]

this is a bit off topic, but its never confirm that the Strike's AS sword can fire beam or "bean"

[teslashark]

this is a bit off topic, but its never confirm that the Strike's AS sword can fire beam or "bean"

sorry, wrong key. the sword clamity used the same type of swords,and it can be used as beam cannons.

[Maelstromm]

If you could pause to examine the Sword Calamity's "Schwert Gewehr" pic and the Sword Strike's "Schwert Gewehr" pic teslashark, you can easily see that the two are vastly different, even if they share the same name...

[supperrfreek]

really they don't say anything about the swords but one can infer that the swords wouldn't have stayed equipped on the GINN if they were ineffective against beam weapons used by the earth troops. ZAFT may have had some strange ideas but I doubt they were completely stupid.

[CHASER]

Abandoning the swords on the GINNs would leave them with no close-combat capabilities, and a sharp metal blade against a cheap and thin Mobile Suit would still cause plenty of damage. Did Zeon stop arming their Zakus with tomahawks when the GM came out? Regardless, the Earth Alliance's Daggers came out very late, where ZAFT was already starting to produce the GuAIZ.

But that's all a little off topic...

[Antares]

I also remember the GINN sword, but indeed it only became more or less obsolete after PS (as did a lot of physical weaponry to an extent). Certainly at the start of SEED, the sword could still cleave a Moebius with ease, given the mass behind it (could be more of a bludgeon but hey, it would get the job done). Then the GuAIZ already had the beam claws, ZAKU the beam tomahawk, and GOUF the beam-edged "Tempest" sword. It's fair to say that ZAFT has always been rather quick to move with the times. And we've debated the uses of saber and sword many times on this forum to revisit that topic. Both have their benefits, but it is true enough that several times its the saber that breaks the sword. Swords break the mobile suits holding the saber.

[Dark Duel]

But you have to consider that Phase-Shift Armor-equipped mobile suits are extremely rare, and NOBODY has mass-produced them.
Except for the Forbidden Vortex, but that's not even an issue because ZAFT's underwater assault MS are all equipped with phonon masers anyway.

In other words, far from being obsolete, the GINN's and CGUE's metal swords are still perfectly useful in close-combat against mass-produced models.
That fact is rendered moot because all later models are equipped with beam weapons, but it remains.

[Antares]

Well it is obsolete in the sense that it would go against beam sabered opponents most likely, and since it is a sharp shard of metal without anti-beam coating (except in rare cases), the beam saber would turn the regular sword into a stump quite quickly. At least the beam swords/A.S.S are more durable (one would assume).

[exxecutor000]

The construction of a solid sword (used by GINN, CGUE etc) must be dense and strong, to allow clashing with another solid sword. That density spec alone may give a possibility of fending a beam saber, but just for a short while only, as beam saber take some time to cut through dense material (a mobile suit is easier to get sliced though ).

Also, refer to this: in an episode in SEED (not sure, but for sure between 40-50), an Orb's M1 unit take a long time to cut the colony cables which entangle Orb's battleship. Thus showing density can resist beam saber too.

(in Star Wars namely episode 1: Phantom Menace, Qui Gon Jinn who wield a powerful lightsaber also take some time to cut the blast door in the Trade Federation ship due to the density of the door )

[Antares]

Point taken.

[GAT-X109 Truth]

a beam saber and a physical sword would clash like normal swords. the only difference is that the physical sword would slowly welt away, while power is drained from the beam saber. both weapons have a downside to them.

[Jak Crow]

Blue Frame's giant sword is apparently an exception, being shown not only matching anti-ship beam swords, but also able to cut thru phase shift armor.

[Arsarcana]

a beam saber and a physical sword would clash like normal swords. the only difference is that the physical sword would slowly welt away, while power is drained from the beam saber. both weapons have a downside to them.

Except that unless you're talking about a suit that's really low on power, the saber would finish melting the sword well before it ran out of juice. It's possible a physical sword could briefly stop a beam saber but I wouldn't bet my life on it. Watch how fast sabers are shown slicing through non AB-equipped armor. If one can cleave a MS in two vertically in less than a second, a sword won't stop it long enough to really matter.

[Kyranik]

Abandoning the swords on the GINNs would leave them with no close-combat capabilities, and a sharp metal blade against a cheap and thin Mobile Suit would still cause plenty of damage. Did Zeon stop arming their Zakus with tomahawks when the GM came out? Regardless, the Earth Alliance's Daggers came out very late, where ZAFT was already starting to produce the GuAIZ.

But that's all a little off topic...

The UC analogy doesn't really work here, as 0080 shows a UC beam saber and a Heat hawk colliding does not melt the Hawk, albeit Char in the MSG novels expresses concern that the beam saber would melt right through his own heat hawk (Possible misconception by Char, or simply 0080 disregarding the MSG novels?)