Where are you getting this info? I've never seen a measurement on armor thickness for them, and I've certainly never see anything remotely stating it's like our present-day armor in durability.
Well the easiest answer would be the
wiki, the same place I linked previously concerning the Leman Russ's speed which gives a nice break down on the Leman Russ's basic stats. They obtained that from Imperial Armor Volume 1 which I currently do not posses. I do own the original Imperial Armor, no volume number, which lists an armor value of 45-200 mm for each Leman Russ Variant starting with the Conquer on page 6.
AI books? What books are these?
My apologies, I meant to type IA for Imperial Armor. Specifically the relevant sections are from Imperial Armor Volume 2. Now I must confess being another book I have not yet purchased I could not find the quote which specificlly mentioned the Land Raider possessing Adamantium. I did however find this quote from the same volume concerning the Predator tank:
Imperial Armor Vol 2 said:
The inner layer provides the main protection. Its a bonded ceramite/adamantium alloy which provides protection equal to over five times the same width of conventional steel, while being lighter. The second layer is a reinforcing thermoplas with a sub-dermal energy dissipation fibre mesh, providing protection against extremes of heat and radioactivity. The outer layer is a non-magnetic acrylic identification sheath. All in all, this corresponds to over 200mm of conventional steel on the front of the vehicle.
And I did find the quote for armor effectiveness for the Land Raider.
Imperial Armor Vol 2 said:
The front armor is 98mm thick, but provides protection equivalent to approximately 300mm of conventional steel.
Adamantium is sci-fi metal of exceeding durability...so why is this not exceptional?
The material itself certainly is but I was not referring to the Adamantium but rather the total armor effectiveness. Specifically your claim the gap was so great that current tech did not have a "chance in hell of defeating it." In that context I don't find 200-300mm of steel that exceptional depending on the iteration and the weapon type in question an Abrams's effective RHA can go up to 1000.
Further, to my knowledge, Leman Russ tanks are not built with Adamantium but rather just Plasteel so there armor is going to be less effective than the above Imperial examples.
I've read lots of fluff kill off infantry near tanks when they get hit in 40K.
Begging your pardon but what you describe doesn't sound very different from what would happen with a modern tank or even one from WW2. Something we might broadly bracket in the megajoule range.
We typically don't see the sort of wide area of affect, over pressure ect of something into the gigajoule range for example outside of Titans we don't usually see anything like
this on the battlefield.
The power scale is hugely different. The Leman Russ can power multiple plasma cannon and Lascannons without having to modify their existing engine plant. How is this even remotely the same scale as present day?
Once again begging your pardon but I said nothing about a "power scale" but rather the "scale of 40K ground battle" primarily focusing the firepower of 40K Tank shell didn't appear miles more powerful than a real world equivalent.
While Imperium power generation no doubt is impressive that does not, in and of itself, translate into a more powerful scale of weapons.
